etisalat money, the fintech arm of etisalat, has entered a partnership with Visa to broaden the international money transfer options available to consumers and businesses in the UAE. The collaboration will see etisalat money integrate Visa Direct, Visa’s global money movement platform, into its app to support additional cross-border payment use cases, including P2P remittances and international payments made by small businesses.
In addition, the agreement is expected to combine etisalat money’s digital financial services offering with Visa Direct’s network, enabling funds to be sent across borders to bank accounts, digital wallets and eligible cards.
Four new transfer capabilities
Through the partnership, etisalat money plans to introduce four additional international transfer options. Visa Direct to Card will allow customers to send funds directly to eligible recipients’ cards using card numbers. Visa+, a service designed to move money between different P2P digital payment apps, will allow customers to complete eligible transfers using a recipient’s phone number rather than traditional banking credentials.
The partnership will also support P2B transfers, enabling eligible customers to send money internationally from their personal etisalat money accounts to business accounts. SWIFT transfers will be added as a further option within the app.
The new features will sit alongside etisalat money’s current international transfer services, which reach more than 150 countries. Customers can already send money to bank accounts and digital wallets, or for cash pickup. At the same time, the app displays live exchange rates, estimated transfer times and transaction tracking.
At launch, the Visa Direct integration will support transfers to several remittance corridors, including India, Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines, the UK, and China, as well as digital wallet destinations across multiple markets.
Strategic relevance for the UAE market
The partnership targets the UAE’s internationally connected population, for whom cross-border transfers to home markets are a routine financial need. Through the process of consolidating multiple payout methods within a single app, etisalat money aims to let customers choose a transfer method based on their own preferences and the recipient’s requirements, reducing the need to rely on separate services for different payment types.
Melike Kara Tanrikulu, Chief Executive Officer of etisalat money, described the agreement as a step in broadening its international payment capabilities and strengthening its position in the digital financial services market, noting that customer expectations around choice and flexibility in money movement are evolving. Fadi Moukaddem, Senior Vice President and Group Country Manager for the UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar at Visa, pointed to the role of trust in money movement and said that combining the two companies’ capabilities would give consumers and businesses more choice in how funds are sent and received internationally.
For etisalat money, connecting accounts, digital wallets, and cards through Visa Direct is intended to support its wider cross-border growth plans. For Visa, the deal extends the reach of Visa Direct and Visa+ through a telecom-backed fintech in the UAE. Both companies have indicated that they intend to develop digital money movement services in the UAE and in other markets.
