New Visa Accept and Visa Direct capabilities aim to help small businesses in emerging markets accept payments and send funds using only a smartphone.
June 30, 2026: Visa Accept has introduced new capabilities designed to transform smartphones into payment terminals, enabling small businesses and micro-merchants in emerging markets to accept digital payments and manage financial transactions without additional hardware.
The global payments company also announced new enhancements to Visa Direct, allowing business owners to use the same smartphone to send payments, issue refunds and transfer funds through a single digital platform.
Visa said the new services are intended to simplify payment acceptance and money movement for small businesses, including street vendors, freelancers and online merchants, by integrating payment tools into devices they already use.
Shahebaz Khan, Senior Vice President and Head of Commercial and Money Movement Solutions for Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Visa, said smartphones are becoming the centre of modern commerce.
He said the company envisions a future in which a single smartphone enables merchants to accept multiple payment methods, gain business insights and manage customer interactions, allowing them to focus more on growth and customer experience.
According to Visa’s Global SMB Macro Trends Report, 99% of surveyed small and medium-sized businesses use at least one digital financial tool, while 85% said digital solutions have positively impacted their businesses. The report also noted that around 530 million of the world’s 1.3 billion unbanked adults already own smartphones, highlighting significant potential for expanding financial inclusion.
Visa Accept expands payment acceptance
Visa Accept enables merchants to convert their smartphones into card payment terminals through their Visa debit or prepaid accounts. Customers can pay by tapping their cards or using payment links, while merchants receive funds in near real time without requiring additional payment hardware.
The company said the solution also provides buyers with Visa’s existing payment security and consumer protection features regardless of whether they are purchasing from a street vendor or a major retailer.
Visa Accept is currently available in more than 25 countries and has been launched with banking partners including HNB in Sri Lanka, Banco Agromercantil de Guatemala, SACOMBANK and VPBank in Vietnam. Additional rollouts are planned with Co-op Bank in Kenya and Access Bank, Omni Bank and Universal Merchant Bank in Ghana. Visa expects the service to reach millions of merchants worldwide by 2027.
Visa Direct strengthens digital payouts
Visa also expanded the capabilities of Visa Direct, its real-time money movement platform, allowing businesses to send payments directly from their smartphones.
The platform enables business owners to pay employees, contractors and delivery drivers, issue customer refunds and incentives, and transfer funds internationally to eligible bank accounts, payment cards and digital wallets through integrated banking and fintech applications.
Visa said the combined enhancements to Visa Accept and Visa Direct are part of its broader strategy to improve digital commerce, strengthen financial inclusion and support the growth of small businesses across emerging markets.
