Visa and IFC Launch $200 Million Risk-Sharing Facility for Digital Payments

Visa and the International Finance Corporation have launched a risk-sharing facility designed to help lower-rated financial institutions in emerging markets expand access to digital payments. The facility is expected to support approximately $200 million of risk sharing over five years, with an initial focus on 14 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and roughly 50 financial institutions whose ratings are below investment grade.

The structure is aimed at a specific obstacle inside payment networks rather than at consumer lending. IFC, the World Bank Group’s private-sector arm, will share credit settlement risk tied to Visa payment activity from enrolled institutions. Visa and IFC say that reducing this exposure should make it easier for participating banks and other providers to connect underbanked consumers and small businesses to digital payment services. Neither organization named the first participating institutions or countries, and no pricing, risk-sharing percentage or rollout schedule was disclosed.

How the Visa-IFC risk-sharing structure is meant to work

Visa’s announcement of the partnership says IFC will share credit settlement risk associated with enrolled financial institutions. That risk is different from the credit risk on a consumer’s card balance. It concerns whether a participant in the payment system can meet the financial obligations that arise when payment activity is settled across the network.

Visa’s own licensing materials show why that distinction matters. The company reviews the ability of prospective clients to meet settlement obligations as part of its credit and settlement risk assessment. Visa guidance also describes settlement risk as exposure that can arise when payment obligations must still be honored even if a participant or another party does not have the funds needed to meet them. Depending on the institution and structure, risk controls can include collateral and other financial requirements.

The new facility is intended to absorb a portion of that risk through IFC rather than provide $200 million directly to consumers, merchants or participating banks. That distinction is important because the announced amount represents expected risk-sharing capacity over five years, not a pool of loans or grants that will be distributed dollar for dollar. By reducing the settlement-risk constraint around enrolled institutions, the partners expect more of them to participate in Visa’s payment ecosystem and serve customers who still rely heavily on cash.

Visa said the first phase is expected to reach about 50 financial institutions with below-investment-grade ratings. That focus does not mean every institution in the program will have the same risk profile or receive the same amount of support. The companies have not disclosed institution-level limits, eligibility criteria beyond the broad target group, or how losses would be allocated between Visa and IFC if a covered participant failed to meet its obligations.

IFC is building a broader guarantee program around digital payments

In a parallel World Bank Group announcement, IFC described a broader emerging-markets program that will initially provide up to $700 million in guarantees covering a portion of credit settlement risk. The wider initiative is aimed at banks, fintechs and other financial institutions that may face financial requirements limiting their ability to participate in global payment systems.

The World Bank Group attached much larger payment-volume and user forecasts to that broader program. IFC estimates that participating institutions could see digital payments increase by about $280 billion, issue 360 million more cards and add 90 million active users, including 39 million women. Those figures are IFC projections for the wider initiative, not specific forecasts for the $200 million Visa facility, and they should not be read as guaranteed outcomes or as revenue expectations for Visa.

The gap between the $700 million guarantee capacity and the projected $280 billion increase in payments reflects the way risk-sharing structures are intended to work. A guarantee does not need to equal the full value of the payment activity it supports. Instead, it covers a defined portion of exposure so participating institutions and payment networks can take on activity that might otherwise be constrained by credit requirements. The actual scale reached will depend on how many institutions enroll, the risk terms applied to them and how much additional payment activity follows.

For Visa, the arrangement adds a development-finance institution to the risk framework around expansion in emerging markets. For IFC, it applies a familiar guarantee tool to payment-network access rather than to a conventional loan portfolio or infrastructure project. The two organizations have not disclosed whether the Visa facility accounts for a fixed portion of the broader $700 million program or whether additional payment-network partners will be announced under separate structures.

Latin America is the first test for a model aimed at financial access

The initial emphasis on Latin America and the Caribbean comes as digital financial use in the region has expanded but remains uneven. World Bank Global Findex 2025 data show that about 70% of adults in the region have a financial account, while more than half use an account digitally through a card or phone. That leaves a meaningful share of adults outside formal account ownership or without regular digital use even as mobile and card payments become more common.

Visa and IFC have not identified which 14 countries will be included in the first phase. The decision to target below-investment-grade institutions suggests the facility is designed for markets where local providers may have the customer relationships and distribution needed to expand digital payments but face tighter financial constraints when connecting to an international network. The World Bank Group said such requirements can leave consumers and local merchants more dependent on cash when institutions cannot participate fully in global payment ecosystems.

The program also puts small businesses near the center of the development case. Digital payments can give merchants another way to accept customer spending and can create electronic records of sales activity that may support access to other financial services. Still, the announced facility does not itself promise credit to any merchant or consumer, and the partners have not published targets for small-business enrollment under the Visa-specific portion.

The next useful evidence will come from implementation rather than the headline capacity figure. Investors and financial-sector participants will need the names of enrolled institutions, the 14-country list, the amount of risk actually shared, and data showing whether access and payment use rise after institutions join. Until those details are available, the clearest reading of the announcement is narrow: Visa and IFC have created a five-year risk-sharing facility expected to support about $200 million of settlement exposure, beginning with roughly 50 lower-rated financial institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean.