Visa works on crypto advisory board

NFTs, CBDC and crypto cards – Visa leaves nothing to be desired in the crypto space. But now others should also benefit from the knowledge of the payment giant.

After a Cryptopunk-NFT and numerous partnerships for crypto cards in its luggage, the world’s leading payment service provider is now going one step further. Visa is not only expanding its crypto offer, but now also wants to advise customers in this area. Organizationally, the advisory team is under the Visa Consulting & Analytics Sitting unit.

From a Press release As of December 8th, it appears that Visa has now set up a crypto advisory unit. This should help other organizations to find ways into the crypto business. The credit card giant explains in the press release that this is the first important step for a deep understanding of the ecosystem.

Carl Rutstein, Global Head of Visa Consulting & Analytics, explains that the mindset of their customers has changed “from wanting to research and experiment with cryptocurrencies to building a strategy and a product roadmap”.

Visa is currently working with the company in the USA UMB Financial Corporation together. “We reached out to Visa to learn more about digital currencies and their use cases across different business areas,” said Uma Wilson, executive vice president, CIO and product officer at UMB Bank.

Welcome to the crypto mainstream

The timing of setting up a special advisory body is well timed by Visa. Because at the same time, the credit card giant also published a new one Whitepaper about consumer and usage behavior in the crypto area. Visa interviewed more than 6,000 financial decision-makers in eight markets (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Hong Kong, South Africa, Great Britain and the USA).

In the report, the payment service provider speaks of an “almost universal awareness” about crypto, with 94 percent of those surveyed who have control over their finances.

According to the report, crypto-curious and skeptics were in balance in Germany. 16 percent of adults (over 18 years old) living in Germany have tried to find out more about crypto space, but see it in a rather negative light. Meanwhile, 16 percent are rather positive towards the sector – but have not yet acquired any cryptocurrency.