Nium utilises Visa partnership to launch instant money transfers in Southeast Asia

Digital cross-border payments platform Nium has released a new real-time money transfer solution for Visa debit cardholders across Southeast Asia.

Powered by Visa Direct, the product is now live in Singapore and is designed for  both peer-to-peer and business-to-business transfers.

Prajit Nanu, co-founder and CEO of Nium commented: “At Nium, we understand that individuals’ and businesses’ need to receive money quickly, especially in markets where there are no instant payment solutions like FAST or IMPS. 

“The partnership using Visa’s push payment solution and secure network will allow our consumers to transfer money in a faster, convenient and more secure way.”

Nium, formerly known as InstaReM, claims to be the first fintech-based money transfer service provider in Southeast Asia to support instant money transfers into recipients’ bank accounts through their 16-digit Visa debit card numbers.

According to a Visa survey, more than one in three respondents in Singapore make international money transfers at least once a year and 49% expect their funds to be successfully transferred in less than a day.

The partnership is part of Visa’s ‘Fintech Fast Track’ programme and in the first phase remittances can be made to a range of Southeast Asia countries including: Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Kunal Chatterjee, Visa Country Manager for Singapore and Brunei added: “Nium is the first Fintech partner from Visa’s Fintech Fast Track programme to deliver real-time remittance using our push payment solution Visa Direct. 

“From our survey findings, more than half of respondents usually send international money transfers to either their personal or loved ones’ bank accounts and one of the most important factors they look at is for money to be transferred in real-time. 

“Given that our domestic transfer solutions are already real-time using the FAST infrastructure, it is important to provide consumers the same speed and efficiency for cross border international transfers. 

“We are pleased to work with Nium to leverage Visa’s global payments network to bring this seamless and secure payment experience to consumers in this region.”