Visa is working on allowing its customers to convert digital assets into fiat currencies on its platform as part of its efforts to develop a habit around settlements, according to Cuy Sheffield, the head of Visa's crypto division.

Sheffield said that Visa is investing in global settlements with digital assets and fiat currencies, and that they want to build the same level of ease in converting between digital tokenized dollars and traditional dollars as they currently have with converting between dollars and euros in cross-border transactions.

Despite its efforts to incorporate blockchain technology into its existing network for faster money transfers, Visa still relies on the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) system for settlements. Sheffield acknowledged the limitations of the SWIFT system, which prevents them from moving money as frequently as they would like and stated that they have been testing the acceptance of settlement payments using stablecoins.

Former CEO of Visa, Al Kelly, spoke about the company's plans for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and private stablecoins at the firm's annual shareholder meeting and mentioned that stablecoins and CBDCs have the potential to play a significant role in the payments space and that they have several initiatives underway.

Sheffield confirmed these plans and said that the company is considering how to rebuild some of the value that they provide on existing bank rails using blockchain and stablecoins.

Sources:

https://www.investing.com/news/cryptocurrency-news/visa-executive-reveals-plans-of-stablecoin-settlement-2996116

https://cointelegraph.com/news/visa-s-crypto-strategy-targets-stablecoin-settlements

https://www.forexinworld.com/visa-executive-displays-plans-of-stablecoin-settlement/

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210329005171/en/Visa-Becomes-First-Major-Payments-Network-to-Settle-Transactions-in-USD-Coin-USDC