Visa and CIBC announced a new collaboration that will enable the bank’s clients to send funds to family and friends across borders more conveniently.

Thanks to the innovative money movement capabilities of Visa Direct, CIBC and Simplii clients will soon be able to send money to a new range of digital wallets in key remittance destinations including the Philippines, China, Bangladesh, and Kenya, where they are the primary method for people to pay and get paid. The new capability will be made available early this year.

Driven by rapidly changing consumer demands, digital wallets are among the fastest growing financial instruments in the world, with global numbers expected to cross 5.2 billion by 2026. Particularly for unbanked individuals in emerging markets, digital wallets serve as a valuable gateway to the financial system.

This announcement builds on the companies’ earlier collaboration that enables CIBC and Simplii clients to use Visa Direct-enabled cross-border person-to-person (P2P) and business-to-consumer (B2C) payouts through CIBC’s and Simplii’s Global Money Transfer service.

“Visa Direct enables consumers and businesses to send money cross-border with ease, and we are thrilled to work with industry leaders like CIBC and Simplii to provide even more remittance options for their customers,” said Sam Fuda, Vice President and Head of Commercial and Money Movement Solutions, Visa Canada. “Together, we are working to break down the barriers of cross-border money movement to improve speed, transparency, and accessibility for both the sender and receiver.”

“Sending foreign currency has become an increasingly important part of many Canadians’ daily banking needs—a trend that we expect will continue for years to come,” said Jimmy Dinh, Managing Director, Direct Financial Services, CIBC Capital Markets. “Listening to our clients and working closely with Visa will help us to further build our unique no-transfer-fee cross-border payments platform that’s available with the rest of their banking services.”