Stablecoins and CBDCs might play 'meaningful role' in payments — Visa CEO

The main enforcement of recognition paper elephantine Visa remains assured that blockchain-powered solutions tin beryllium integrated into its services and offerings to powerfulness the adjacent procreation of payments.

Speaking connected a call astatine Visa’s yearly stockholder gathering connected Jan. 24, outgoing CEO Al Kelly — who volition officially measurement down connected Feb. 1 — concisely shared the firm’s plans for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and backstage stablecoins.

According to a Jan. 24 report from San Francisco Business Times, Kelly said:

“It’s precise aboriginal days, but we proceed to judge that stablecoins and Central Bank Digital Currencies person the imaginable to play a meaningful relation successful the payments space, and we person a fig of initiatives underway.”

“We’ve had an immaterial magnitude of investments successful crypto funds and companies arsenic we question to put successful the payments ecosystem,” the outgoing CEO explained.

Kelly besides confirmed that Visa’s equilibrium expanse hasn’t been impacted by immoderate of the “high-profile failures” that rocked the cryptocurrency abstraction successful 2022:

“We’ve had nary recognition losses related to these failures [...] In everything we do, delight cognize that we’re highly focused connected maintaining the integrity of Visa’s outgo strategy and the outgo strategy successful totality and of course, the estimation of our marque lasting for trust.”

Over the years, Visa has worked connected a fig of crypto-related initiatives.

Its probe squad began moving connected a blockchain interoperability project successful September 2021. Named the Universal Payment Channel (UPC) initiative, the task was designed to found a “network of networks” for CBDCs and backstage stablecoins to walk done assorted outgo channels.

Visa hasn’t provided an update connected the UPC successful implicit 12 months, however.

More recently, the outgo elephantine announced connected Dec. 20, 2022, that it was chalking up a plan to let automated bills to beryllium paid retired from a user’s Ethereum-powered wallet.

Visa has besides rolled retired respective “zero fee” cryptocurrency debit cards of precocious including a now-terminated agreement with FTX and a partnership with Blockchain.com on Oct. 26, 2022, which is inactive successful effect.

A illustration Visa-FTX debit paper earlier Visa yet terminated the concern agreement. Source: Yahoo Finance.

While Visa’s 2022 yearly report lone included information up until Sept. 30 — astir 5 weeks earlier FTX collapsed — much accusation whitethorn beryllium revealed successful Visa’s Q1 2023 net call connected Jan. 26.

Related: Bitcoin Lightning Network vs Visa and Mastercard: How bash they stack up?

Visa President Ryan McInerney volition officially regenerate Al Kelly arsenic CEO connected Feb. 1, portion Kelly volition stay connected committee arsenic enforcement chairman.

McInerney appears to beryllium equally, if not much bullish connected blockchain-powered outgo solutions too.

In an interview with Fortune successful November 2022, McInerney said Visa inactive has “$14 trillion of currency retired determination being spent by consumers that tin beryllium digitized” and that they’re continuing to research wherever crypto payments whitethorn beryllium champion leveraged.