Visa partners with BPI to enable real-time cross-border transfers

VISA has partnered with Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) to launch Visa Direct, its real-time push payment platform.

Under the partnership, BPI customers can make outbound cross-border transfers to eligible bank accounts, cards, and wallets worldwide.

The initiative will build on BPI’s strong digital and mobile banking capabilities and support its broader digital transformation objectives.

“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,” Jeffrey V. Navarro, Country Manager for Visa Philippines, said in a press release. “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.”

“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,” BPI Head of Strategy, Products & Support Group for Institutional Banking Joel A. De Vera said. “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.”

Since its launch over a decade ago, Visa Direct has reached over 12 billion endpoints in more than 195 countries and territories as well as 150 currencies.

Citing an internal study covering 44,000 remittance senders and receivers in 20 key countries and territories, Visa said Filipinos rank among Asia Pacific’s top adopters of digital remittances.

Visa’s Money Travels: 2025 Digital Remittances Adoption Report showed 74% of Filipino respondents have opted to send money digitally, while 66% prefer to receive digital remittances.

Meanwhile, 76% reported sending remittances at least once a year, and 45% cite digital remittances as a safe and secure way to send and receive funds internationally.

Central bank data showed cash remittances from overseas Filipino workers coursed through banks rose by 2.6% to $2.79 billion in February from $2.72 billion in the same month last year, but fell 7.7% from $3.02 billion in January.

This was the lowest monthly level since the $2.66 billion in May 2025.

The annual remittance growth in February eased from 3.5% growth in January, and was the slowest since 2.5% in June 2024.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas expects cash remittances to climb by 3% to $36.7 billion this year, slower than the 3.3% growth in 2025. — A.M.C. Sy