As the number of underbanked people continues to increase, Tala has partnered with Visa to onboard several individuals who do not have access to basic financial services into the crypto economy.
Announcing the move in a press release yesterday, Tala partnered with Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) and popular stablecoin issuer, Circle, for the project.
Under the initiative, underbanked individuals will be able to buy, sell, and store the USDC stablecoin, “with efforts being made to add other cryptocurrencies,” the announcement reads.
Tala noted that the acquired USDC will be stored in its digital wallet, which would create an easy avenue for easy conversion into other cryptocurrencies or fiats.
With Visa on the team, the unbanked will have access to the payment provider’s credit card, thus giving participants a better way to spend the USDC across the more than 70 million global merchants that accept Visa cards.
Commenting on the move, Shivani Siroya, Tala’s CEO and Founder, said the firm has been focused on using disruptive technology like blockchain to solve global problems of financial inclusion.
“Digital currencies have tremendous potential to radically open financial access and put more control directly into the hands of underbanked and underestimated people,” the CEO added.
Tala is popularly known as a lending platform that provides the underbanked populace with access to basic financial services.
Since its launch, the lending firm has awarded up to $2 billion in credit to about six million people in various countries such as Philippines, Kenya, Mexico, and the company recently established its presence in India.
The development comes two months after Visa announced that it would be settling transactions in the USD-pegged stablecoins, USDC.
This is not the first time Visa has used digital currencies as a necessary financial instrument that will grant underbanked populace access to basic financial services.
In December last year, the American multinational payments technology company published report claiming it has the capacity to develop a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) that works offline.
Visa opined that CBDCs cannot reach their full potential, which includes providing underbanked citizens access to financial services if they cannot be used without the internet.
“Digital currencies like USDC have the potential to extend the value of digital payments to a greater number of people and places,” Cuy Sheffield, Visa’s Head of Crypto, said in today’s announcement.