Dive Brief:

• Visa is aggregating its global settlement data and blockchain lending data to support lenders in assessing fintech firms’ onchain financial histories, the card giant said in a press release on Tuesday.
• Lenders seeking information on stablecoin-connected card programs and fintech firms will be able to use the combined data source to make financing decisions and provide working capital, the company said. Visa has about 160 stablecoin-connected card programs operating on its card network, the release said.
• “Lending via stablecoins on blockchains allows credit to be accessed globally – but to start, this use case is limited to a North America-based pilot,” a spokesperson for Visa said by email.

Dive Insight:

Visa is offering up its blockchain data to lenders as its stablecoin business swells. The company’s stablecoin settlement volume currently exceeds a $20 billion annualized run rate, a sharp increase from a year earlier, according to the release. 

The San Francisco-based card giant is pitching this service to court up-and-coming fintech firms seeking capital during their high-growth periods. Though traditional financial institutions typically want to finance companies at a certain scale, view their operating history over time and use manual underwriting processes, Visa wants to integrate blockchain-based lending data with its payment data to make financing more accessible, the company said.   

“We're seeing how trusted payment data and onchain technologies can work together to unlock new forms of liquidity, helping businesses access capital in ways that are more transparent, programmable and aligned to the speed of modern commerce,” Rubail Birwadker, Visa’s global head of growth products and partnerships, said in the release. 

Visa is harnessing blockchain data amid its broader efforts to strengthen its presence in international digital commerce through stablecoins. In June, the card network joined Mastercard, Stripe, Coinbase and other notable payments players in a group that aims to support a stablecoin called Open USD. 

The consortium is expected to benefit from “shared economics and neutral governance,” Visa CEO Ryan McInerney said in a presentation at an investor conference this month. 

Meanwhile, other companies are making their move on the stablecoin market. 

Card network rival Mastercard subsidiary BVNK and Marqeta said this week that they are partnering to provide stablecoin-backed card services to crypto-centric and non-crypto companies. As part of the collaboration, Marqeta’s customers can embed stablecoin offerings into wallets, cards and other products using BVNK’s infrastructure, according to their separate release on Wednesday.

“Developers shouldn't need deep blockchain expertise to use them any more than they understand card networks today,” Chris Harmse, BVNK’s co-founder and chief business officer, said in the release. “Our role is to make that infrastructure invisible, and doing that from inside Mastercard’s network, alongside a partner like Marqeta who's been building on it for years, is exactly the kind of connection we exist to make.”