MoneyGram International Inc., (MoneyGram), a company that offers cross-border P2P (peer to peer) payments and money transfers, partnered with PayMaya Philippines to launch a new digital capability that allows customers to send money from the United States to the Philippines through Visa Direct, Visa’s real-time push-payment solution.

Consumers in the United States can use the leading MoneyGram mobile app or website to send money that arrives almost instantly to any PayMaya Visa cardholder located in the Philippines.

Based on the data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, overseas Filipino workers made a total of $11 billion for US-based remittances in 2019 and money transfers from the US contributed close to 40% of total remittances in the Philippines.

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“Our digital business is delivering phenomenal growth driven by strong demand for our customer-centric capabilities as well as our leading global network that enables consumers to quickly and conveniently receive money directly into their bank accounts,” said Kamila Chytil, CEO, and leader of Digital Business, MoneyGram. “Our strong partnership with Visa Direct has been an important part of our strategy to accelerate digital growth over the last few years, and I’m excited about how this latest integration with PayMaya will further improve the customer experience and drive digital growth.”

Visa Direct

The approximately two million Filipinos living and working in the US will now be able to use MoneyGram to send money seamlessly and conveniently via Visa Direct either on MoneyGram’s website or mobile app, to any PayMaya account holder in the Philippines using their 16-digit Visa physical or virtual card number.

Once they have received the funds in their PayMaya accounts, they can easily use the funds to shop online or in-store using the same Visa card, or buy load, pay their bills, settle their government dues, and send money to other PayMaya users or Smart Padala centers nationwide, all within the PayMaya app.

MoneyGram leverages its modern, mobile, and API-driven platform and collaborates with the world’s leading brands to serve millions of people each year through both its walk-in business and its direct-to-consumer digital business.

“In the Philippines today, the majority of Visa debit and prepaid cards are enabled to receive real-time payments via Visa’s real-time push payment solution, Visa Direct,” said Dan Wolbert, Visa Country Manager for the Philippines and Guam. “In this digital age, we believe it is important to introduce solutions that can benefit our cardholders’ lives, including making cross-border remittances hassle-free and efficient.”

Visa’s advanced global processing network, VisaNet, provides secure and reliable payments around the world and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second.