Visa is rolling out its “installments” option to more merchants and credit cardholders in Canada. As part of this move, Visa is partnering with Global Payments — which provides software, payments technology and services — and Desjardins, which bills itself as North America’s largest financial cooperative group,
In a Tuesday (July 13) press release, the companies said the partnership would allow Global Payments’ merchant customers to offer Visa Installment options to consumers. Per the release, “Desjardins will be among the first to enable Visa Installments” as well as “offer its eligible cardholders the ability to pay in equal payments over a defined period of time at participating merchants.”
In other words, Visa’s new installments option potentially provides shoppers with the ability to take part in the buy now, pay later (BNPL) trend.
“Installment payments represent a significant segment of the payments ecosystem globally, and it is growing rapidly here in Canada,” said Brian Weiner, vice president and head of product and digital, Visa Canada. “We are thrilled to be able to provide more Canadians with the power of choice through this offering with Global Payments and Desjardins.”
“We believe the time is right for installments, to address the growing merchant and consumer demand for innovative, flexible payment options,” said Rene Belanger, president, Canada and Latin America for Global Payments.
The collaboration will give the Desjardins credit cardholders the option to use Visa Installments, said Yann Jodoin, vice president, payment and retail product officer with Desjardins. Jodoin added that it will allow the company “ to add an innovative payment solution to our offerings and to better meet our members’ and clients’ changing needs.”
“Consumers want flexibility in terms of how they want to pay,” said Weiner told PYMNTS in June. “They don’t want to take on more debt, and they want to have flexibility in how they manage their cash flow,” Weiner added.
The conversation followed the news that Visa Canada, Scotiabank and CIBC would offer installment payment options to their cardholders for online and in-person purchases.
