Visa Modernizes Payment Rails With Stablecoins in Europe, Middle East, Africa

What Is Visa Changing in Its Settlement Rails?

Visa is ramping up its use of stablecoins as part of its core settlement infrastructure, extending crypto-based settlement to Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa (CEMEA). The payments giant has partnered with crypto infrastructure firm Aquanow to settle transactions using approved stablecoins such as USDC, aiming to reduce costs, cut operational friction, and speed up cross-border settlement.

The integration effectively upgrades the “backend rails” of Visa’s money-movement stack in the region. Instead of relying solely on traditional , Visa will be able to leverage 24/7 onchain settlement to move value between banks, payment companies, and other clients quicker than legacy systems normally allow.

Godfrey Sullivan, Visa’s head of product and answers for CEMEA, said the partnership will allow institutions across the region “to experience quicker and simpler settlements,” framing the move as part of Visa’s broader strategy to prepare clients for a future in which digital assets and tokenised money play a larger role in payments.

Investor Takeaway

Are Stablecoins Becoming Core Settlement Infrastructure?

Stablecoins began as a way for crypto traders to move funds rapidly between platforms, but they have effectively become the onchain equivalent of the US dollar and, increasingly, other major currencies. As volumes grow and use cases expand, payments and market-infrastructure providers are begining to use settlement, not just trading or DeFi.

Earlier this week, Deutsche Börse revealed plans to integrate EURAU, a euro-pegged stablecoin issued by AllUnity, into its systems. The German market infrastructure group intends to bring EURAU into its first and later embed the euro stablecoin across its full service portfolio. That follows earlier links with Circle’s Euro Coin (EURC) and Societe Generale-Forge’s EUR CoinVertible (EURCV), further cementing euro stablecoins as a tool for institutional workflows.

Visa’s CEMEA expansion with Aquanow fits this trend. For banks and payment companies dealing with fragmented currencies and time zones, stablecoins offer an instantly-settling, programmable asset that can move across borders without waiting for batch-based systems to open. If these pilots scale, stablecoins could become an invisible settlement layer behind consumer-facing card payments, bank transfers, and fintech apps.

How Are Regulators Responding to the Stablecoin Shift?

Regulators are still wrestling with how to classify and supervise stablecoins, especially when they intersect with the banking system and critical market infrastructure. The core questions revolve around risk weighting, reserve quality, redemption frameworks, and systemic implications if stablecoins reach large-scale adoption.

Erik Thedéen, governor of Sweden’s central bank and chair of the Committee on Banking Supervision, recently acknowledged that the current 1,250% risk weight applied to many crypto exposures may need a “diverse approach” when it comes to stablecoins. That is a notable admission from one of the most significant standard-setting bodies for bank capital rules.

In parallel, Bank of England Deputy Governor Sarah Breeden said she expects the UK to broadly keep pace with the United States on stablecoin regulation, suggesting that major jurisdictions may move in tandem as they design frameworks for fiat-backed tokens. For global firms like Visa and Deutsche Börse, regulatory alignment—or at least reduced fragmentation—would make it easier to roll out stablecoin-based products across multiple markets.

Investor Takeaway

What Does This Mean for Crypto, Fintechs, and Banks?

Visa’s expansion with Aquanow underscores a broader convergence: crypto infrastructure is being embedded into mainstream payment networks, while traditional market infrastructures embrace tokenised money as a settlement tool. For crypto investors, that strengthens the case that high-quality, regulated stablecoins could become a long-term backbone of .

For fintechs and banks in the CEMEA region, the partnership offers a potential competitive edge in cross-border payments, where margins are thin and customer expectations for speed are rising. Stablecoin-based settlement could reduce reliance on multiple intermediaries and batch-based systems, enabling firms to offer near-real-time services while still operating inside Visa’s established network.

The open question is how rapidly this model scales and which stablecoins qualify as “approved” under regulatory and risk frameworks. As more payment giants, platforms, and infrastructure providers adopt onchain settlement, the diverseiation will likely shift toward regulatory clarity, reserve transparency, and integration depth rather than just speed.

Crypto once positioned itself as an alternative to banks and card networks; today, the more immediate story is integration. Visa’s latest move suggests that stablecoins are not just competing with legacy rails—they are begining to power them.