Visa Advances Support for Small and Micro Businesses Across APEC and Globally

Visa announced it has exceeded its three-year goal of digitally enabling 50 million SMBs globally by June 2023 and has now helped nearly 67 million SMBs. To deepen its support for global SMBs, Visa launched a new initiative to further accelerate digital enablement of underserved SMBs in the United States and developing economies with an initial focus on APEC economies including Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, and Vietnam.

Published 11 months ago | About a 1 minute read

Visa and Visa Foundation made these announcements as part of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum Economic Leaders and CEO Summit hosted by the United States in the City of San Francisco.

Small businesses are the heartbeat of the global economy and of their local communities, representing about 90% of businesses and more than 50% of employment worldwide. To accelerate access for underserved and women-led SMBs in APEC economies, Visa Foundation has pledged $100 million over five years to advance digital financial inclusion, stimulate job creation, and increase access to capital to drive economic mobility. Through this pledge, the Foundation will collaborate with and complement the work of local partners to drive access for underserved communities.

In parallel, Visa’s multi-year goal helped SMBs meet their evolving payment needs in an increasingly dynamic commerce ecosystem, focusing on digitizing more ways to be paid by customers, ways to pay for supplies, goods and services, and providing access to financial skills through training and education. Of the nearly 67 million SMBs reached by Visa, an estimated 29.6 million are from economies in the APEC region, including 10.9 million women-led SMBs.

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