Visa backs A2A payments platform Form3

Visa has invested in account-to-account (A2A) payments platform Form3 to “grow confidence” in real-time A2A payments.

The new commercial partnership will see Form3 provide Visa’s clients with access to its payments platform to enable them to modernise their payments offering and infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Form3 will use the investment to develop new products and services, and expand into new territories.

The investment amount has not been disclosed.

Jack Forestell, Visa’s chief product and strategy officer, said that as A2A payments continue to grow in key segments and markets, Visa and Form3’s partnership will look to offer “modern cloud-native access to real-time payment infrastructures”.

He added: “Together we can grow confidence in real-time A2A payments, as we seek to combine Form3’s ‘FinCrime Orchestration’ service with Visa’s deep learning AI and real-time risk scoring to help financial institution clients better manage the risk of sending and receiving real-time A2A payments.”

Earlier this month, Form3 appointed Matt Tuck from NatWest as its new chief commercial officer, effective 11 September.

At NatWest, he was head of product, service and operations, and has previously held roles at Barclays and Deutsche Bank.

Michael Mueller, Form3’s chief executive officer, said: “Today’s Visa funding and partnership announcement demonstrates the confidence that they have in Form3’s ability to deliver for their customers.

“We are delighted with this unique partnership we have built in collaboration with Visa which enables us together to continue to offer best-in-class services for the world’s most established banks and financial institutions.”

Visa has made a number of significant investments in the payments space so far this year, including its $1 billion acquisition of core banking platform Pismo in Brazil.

The deal allows Visa to provide support and connectivity for emerging payment rails, like Brazil’s Pix.

Visa also participated in a $72 million Series C funding round in Thunes, a B2B payment infrastructure platform, alongside two other investors.