Visa, a global leader in digital payments, has partnered with the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), one of the country’s leading financial institutions, to launch Visa Direct, a real-time, push-payment service that enables fast, transparent, and reliable money movement. The partnership will enable BPI customers to make outbound cross‑border transfers to bank accounts, cards, and wallets worldwide, modernizing how retail customers and small businesses send money and payments overseas. The initiative will build on BPI’s strong digital and mobile banking capabilities and supports the bank’s broader digital transformation objectives.
Filipinos rank among Asia Pacific’s top adopters of digital remittances, according to Visa’s Money Travels: 2025 Digital Remittances Adoption Report, which covers 44,000 remittance senders and receivers in 20 key countries and territories. Some 74% of Filipinos have opted to send money digitally, while 66% prefer to receive digital remittances. Over two-thirds, or 76% of Filipino survey respondents report sending remittances at least once a year, and 45% cite digital remittances as a safe and secure way to send and receive funds internationally.
“Filipino customers already know how simple and reliable real-time payments can be through InstaPay in a domestic setting. BPI’s aspiration is to bring that same trusted experience to the global stage. Through our partnership with Visa, clients will soon be empowered to send money abroad directly through the BPI app, enabling real-time transactions that are faster, more transparent, and more secure. This partnership removes the traditional complexity of cross-border transfers, giving consumers greater confidence that their funds will reach loved ones overseas with the same ease and certainty they experience locally.” said Joel De Vera, Head of Strategy, Products, and Support of BPI Institutional Banking.
“Digital payments are transformative, and Visa Direct underscores our commitment to help Filipino retail and business customers, particularly micro to small and medium enterprises or MSMEs and SMEs, to connect to more opportunities globally through the power of secure and seamless money movement. We see this collaboration with BPI bridging gaps in cross-border transfers while helping expand financial inclusion, enabling more Filipinos to participate in the global digital economy,” said Jeffrey Navarro, Country Manager for Visa Philippines.
Visa Direct is a real-time push payment platform that facilitates the delivery of funds directly to eligible cards, bank accounts, and wallets worldwide. Launched over a decade ago, Visa Direct revolutionized fund disbursements and peer-to-peer (P2P) payments with its fast, secure, and convenient platform, reaching over 12 billion endpoints in more than 195 countries and territories as well as 150 currencies.
