Strategic Partnerships
We recognize that to address the global need for financial inclusion and financial literacy will require a collective effort from many different organizations in the private and public sectors. To that end, we have collaborated with leading organizations that have expertise, experience and the ability to help individuals in vulnerable communities by funding their programs and co-developing others that integrate our products, services, payments expertise and financial literacy resources.
ACCION International’s Financial Literacy/Innovation Labs
Visa has partnered with ACCION International, a microfinance organization that provides micro-loans, business training and other financial services to low-income clients around the world. Our current partnership with ACCION supports financial literacy programs and funds Innovation Labs that look for ways to remove barriers to microfinance, improve access to financial services and help others lift themselves out of poverty. The geographic focus of these efforts includes Mexico, Brazil, East Africa and India.
FINCA International’s Village Banking Campaign
FINCA International brings financial services to the world's lowest-income entrepreneurs so they can create jobs, accumulate assets and lift themselves out of poverty. Visa has worked with FINCA over the past seven years on a variety of microfinance programs, including pilot projects in Uganda, Mexico and Nicaragua that were designed to find the best way to deliver financial services to micro-entrepreneurs through electronic payment solutions. Visa also provided several hundred thousand dollars in in-kind technical assistance to develop these pilot projects and helped FINCA secure $1.3 million in grants and contracts from government agencies.
Our current support focuses on FINCA International’s “Village Banking Campaign.” Visa is sponsoring the group’s effort to establish Village Banks — a community-run and community-focused credit and saving associations in low-income areas that serve a mostly female clientele. FINCA works with its clients to build businesses that can earn more, become part of the larger marketplace and enter the global economy.
Oxfam America’s Saving for Change
Visa is a strategic partner of Oxfam America, an international relief and development organization that creates lasting solutions to poverty, hunger and injustice in more than 26 countries by helping poor people use their knowledge and power to transform their lives. Oxfam America is part of Oxfam International, a confederation of 13 Oxfam organizations, which expands the collective reach to more than 120 countries. In 2008, Visa made an initial three-year commitment to fund Oxfam programs that focus on humanitarian crises and poverty alleviation.
In the area of poverty alleviation, Visa has collaborated with Oxfam America on “Saving for Change,” a microfinance program that makes it easier for millions of households at the bottom of the economic pyramid to borrow and save money. Saving for Change supports village groups that act as their own community banks. Savings group members save, lend, borrow and pay each other interest, a system that fills a need when formal banking and lending institutions are not available. The program currently serves 166,000 members in five countries. The funding is targeted in: Mali, Cambodia, El Salvador, Burkina Faso and Senegal.
The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation
The International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank, creates opportunities for people in countries that have developing and transitional economies by promoting private sector investment, mobilizing capital in the international financial markets and providing technical assistance and advice to governments and businesses. Since 2005, Visa has worked with IFC to establish private credit bureaus in more than 10 countries. We sponsor research, feasibility studies and public awareness projects and provide long-term guidance and support. This partnership allows the IFC to take advantage of our global reach and local expertise as the organization works to develop strong, market-based economies.
Clinton Global Initiative
The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), created by former U.S. President Bill Clinton as a nonpartisan catalyst for action, brings together a community of global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges. As a member of CGI, Visa has access to a broad network of charitable and private sector companies, providing the means to build meaningful partnerships and work together on programs with common ideals and goals. In 2008, Visa made a commitment through CGI to reach 10 million people with financial education by 2013, a goal that Visa increased in 2009 to 20 million people.
