Nepal Investment Bank Ltd (NIBL), Nepal’s leading bank and Visa, the global leader in payments, have announced the launch of NIBL Visa Direct — a first of its kind remittance service in the country.

NIBL Visa Direct is a new service which simplifies remittances and enables real time transfer of funds via NIBL to any Visa cardholder within Nepal, as per a media release issued today. The service allows funds to be transferred in Nepali rupees to NIBL Visa credit, debit or prepaid card, regardless of the card that the customer is using. NIBL Visa Direct offers customers an innovative alternative to sending money to beneficiaries within country.

“NIBL Visa Direct is a new service which is being launched by us in Nepal and would be a game changer in fund transfers across the country as it simplifies remittance transactions for our customers,” the release quotes NIBL CEO Jyoti Pandey as saying. “They can now remit funds on a real time basis on their Visa debit, and prepaid cards.”

According to The Himalayan Times, Meanwhile, T R Ramachandran, group country manager for India and South Asia, Visa, has been quoted as saying, “Consumers want to be able to transfer money easily and securely across geographic borders without limitations, to their friends and family, and this is what Visa is enabling through Visa Direct. Visa Direct is a payment capability innovation to drive the next generation of peer-to-peer payments, and we are very excited to launch this service with Nepal Investment Bank.”

In order to send peer-to-peer payments using Visa Direct, NIBL consumers can use the internet banking module or other user interface provided by their bank, entering the amount of money they wish to send and the Visa card number to complete the transaction.