Visa's Platform Expands Reach Via Powering Authvia's Text-Based Payouts

Visa Inc.’s V real-time money movement platform, Visa Direct, has been recently integrated into its TXT2PAY platform of Authvia. Authvia remains a pioneer in conversational commerce and text-based payment solutions. 

Combining Authvia’s technology with Visa Direct enables instant transfers directly to eligible Visa debit cards and empowers businesses across sectors such as healthcare, automotive services, insurance, and gig economy platforms to deliver real-time payments—all initiated through a simple text message.

As a result of this advancement, the TXT2PAY platform is equipped to support real-time outbound payments to eligible Visa cards in select markets. Businesses can seamlessly deliver refunds, insurance claims, payouts, incentives and reimbursements to customers—eliminating the need for paper checks, dedicated apps or online portals. With the use of Authvia’s patented messaging commerce technology, recipients can authenticate their identity, review payout details, and, for qualifying Visa card transactions, receive funds almost instantly. 

The recent move is expected to lead to increased usage of the Visa Direct platform, which, in turn, may boost the customer base and cross-border volumes of Visa. Cross-border volumes of V advanced 12% year over year in the third quarter of fiscal 2025. 

Visa has developed cross-border platforms to enable fast, secure and efficient global money movement. Apart from Visa Direct, there is Visa B2B Connect, another cross-border platform tailored for business-to-business cross-border transactions. V also integrates multi-currency and FX services for transparency and flexibility, while continually advancing cybersecurity measures. In April 2025, Geoswift integrated Visa Direct into its platform, enabling payouts in 32 countries and 13 currencies.

How are Competitors Faring?

Some of Visa’s competitors with a strong cross-border business include Mastercard Incorporated MA and PayPal Holdings, Inc. PYPL. 

Mastercard’s cross-border payments platform, Mastercard Move, enables banks, non-bank financial institutions and their clients—including direct disbursers—to send money quickly and securely, both domestically and internationally. The platform spans more than 200 countries and supports more than 150 currencies, offering near-instant transfer solutions. In the second quarter of 2025, cross-border volumes rose 15% on a local currency basis.

PayPal leverages its global presence, backed by regulatory licenses in key markets and subsidiaries in Luxembourg, the UK and Singapore, to provide seamless international payment services. Cross-border transactions typically deliver stronger revenues and profit margins compared with domestic ones. In the second quarter, PayPal’s cross-border total payment volume increased 10% year over year.

Visa’s Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates

Shares of Visa have gained 28.7% in the past year compared with the industry’s 19.8% growth. 

From a valuation standpoint, V trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 27.46, above the industry average of 22.2.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Visa’s fiscal 2025 earnings implies a 13.7% rise from the year-ago period. The consensus mark for revenues indicates 10.9% year-over-year growth. 

V currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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