PARIS, France, July 6. On the sidelines of the Visa Payments Forum Media Day in Paris, Shahebaz Khan, Visa Senior Vice President, Head of Commercial and Money Movement Solutions for Central Europe, Middle East, and Africa (CEMEA), gave an exclusive interview to Trend, detailing how Visa is helping small businesses accept and make payments more easily.
"Our goal is to make business payments as easy to use as consumer payments. In Azerbaijan, people are already used to mobile banking and sending money from their smartphones. We want to bring that same simple experience to B2B payments. One way we are doing this is through Tap to Phone, which allows merchants to accept contactless payments on their smartphones, without needing a point-of-sale device," he said.
Visa Senior Vice President pointed out that Tap to Phone grew around 200% globally.
"Some markets are growing even faster because they launched earlier, while others adopted the solution later and have been a bit slower to gain traction. Our focus now is on educating and onboarding as many acquirers as possible so they can offer this solution to their clients and merchants. We provide Software Development Kits (SDKs) and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow them to integrate Tap to Phone as quickly as possible," added Shahebaz Khan.
He also mentioned another solution, Visa Accept, which gives micro-sellers a simple route into digital commerce by enabling them to accept card payments using a smartphone and a Visa debit or prepaid account, without extra hardware.
"Additionally, we offer commercial payment capabilities that help businesses better separate personal and business payments,” continued Khan. “They provide detailed payment data, allowing businesses to track receivables and payables and better manage their cash flow. We also have Visa Direct, which connects more than 12 billion eligible endpoints across cards, bank accounts, and digital wallets, and supports money movement in more than 150 currencies across more than 195 countries and territories. Through this platform, businesses can make payments directly to staff, employees, suppliers, contractors, or content creators. This way, we are addressing both sides of the equation."
He went on to describe examples of Visa Direct adoption in the CIS region.
"In Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan, we've introduced faster refunds, allowing customers who make a payment through Visa Direct rails to receive an instant refund directly to their card. This creates a unique and seamless customer experience.”
Visa Senior Vice President believes digital payments are becoming increasingly important as AI lowers barriers to entrepreneurship.
"Today, you can start a business with just a laptop from anywhere in the world, and it should be as easy to adopt digital payments and receive access to a much broader customer base. This is where the solutions I mentioned earlier—such as Tap to Phone and Visa Accept—come in handy, particularly in CEMEA markets, where around 90 million small businesses and merchants still do not accept digital payments," said Shahebaz Khan.
When it comes to business payments in Azerbaijan specifically, he believes these capabilities will see wider adoption.
"Whether it's accepting payments through Tap to Phone or Visa Accept or making payments via Visa Direct, our goal is to understand the nuances of each local market, adapt our products accordingly, and work hand in hand with our partners. As market needs evolve, we'll continue collaborating across the ecosystem to ensure our products remain relevant and effective," emphasized Khan.
Finally, he emphasized Visa’s focus on security and reliability across its network.
“We have leading-edge cybersecurity practices in place. As AI becomes more widespread, we're using AI ourselves to strengthen our defenses against potential cyber threats. It's extremely important for us to ensure our network remains secure and reliable for every user everywhere.”
