Visa Settlement Risk Sharing Facility (IFC-52116)

Regions
  • Latin America and Caribbean
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • International Finance Corporation (IFC)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Proposed
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
C
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Apr 10, 2026
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
IDB borrowing countries
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Finance
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Loan
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 200.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Loan Amount (USD)
$ 200.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ IFC website

Updated in EWS Oct 20, 2026

Disclosed by Bank Apr 10, 2026

Contribute Information
Can you contribute information about this project?
Contact the EWS Team

Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

According to the IFC, the proposed investment is for an unfunded risk participation facility on a portfolio of settlement risk exposures to be established between Visa International Service Association (“Visa” or the “Company”) and IFC. The facility size will be up to US$200 million. Through the investment IFC will cover settlement risk of a pool of eligible Visa licensee financial institutions (primarily banks but also non-bank financial institutions, and fintechs) based and operating in the Latin America and the Caribbean (“LAC”) region (the “Facility”).

In some of these markets, financial institutions are constrained by financial requirements that can limit their ability to participate in global payment ecosystems, leaving millions of people and local merchants reliant on cash and cut off from the convenience, safety, and efficiency digital payments can provide.

The new IFC initiative addresses this gap directly by assuming a portion of the credit settlement risk, thus enabling more institutions to offer innovative and reliable digital payment services to more customers, including small business owners, women entrepreneurs, and people historically shut out of the formal financial system (the “Project”).

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.
Private Actors Description
A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

According to the IFC, Visa is a global payments technology company operating one of the world’s largest electronic payment networks. Visa operates VisaNet, a processing network that connects consumers, merchants, financial institutions, and governments, enabling the secure movement of funds through credit, debit, and prepaid card transactions as well as digital and mobile payments. In addition to payment services, the Company provides authorization, clearing, and settlement processing, cross-border payment and currency conversion capabilities, and a range of value-added services, including risk management, data analytics, advisory, marketing, and customer engagement solutions. The Company also invests in emerging technologies aimed at enhancing the security, efficiency, and accessibility of digital payments, including tokenization, artificial intelligence, and advanced authentication solutions.

Originally established in 1958 as BankAmericard and subsequently reorganized as Visa in 1976, the Company evolved from a bank-owned association into a publicly listed corporation following its IPO in 2008. Currently, Visa operates in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. For the twelve months ended June 2026, Visa's network processed approximately US$17.9 trillion in payment volume, intermediated 274.8 billion transactions, and supported more than 5.2 billion cards globally.  


Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

For Inquiries About the Project, Contact

Visa International Service Association
Caitlin McDonnell
Vice President, International Affairs
+1 202 412 0778
camcdonn@visa.com
701 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20004
https://www.visa.com/

For Inquiries and Comments About IFC, Contact

General IFC Inquiries
IFC Communications
2121 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington DC 20433
Telephone: 202-473-3800
Fax: 202-974-4384
 

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

You can submit a request for information disclosure at: https://disclosures.ifc.org/#/inquiries

If you believe that your request for information from IFC has been unreasonably denied, or that this Policy has been interpreted incorrectly, you can submit a complaint at the link above to IFC's Access to Information Policy Advisor, who reports directly to IFC's Executive Vice President.

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF IFC/MIGA

The Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by an IFC or MIGA- financed project. If you submit a complaint to the CAO, they may assist you in resolving a dispute with the company and/or investigate to assess whether the IFC is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. If you want to submit a complaint electronically, you can email the CAO at CAO@worldbankgroup.org You can learn more about the CAO and how to file a complaint at http://www.cao-ombudsman.org

How it works

How it works