Acquired.com partners with Visa to launch Visa A2A

Source: Hawthorn Advisors / Acquired.com

Acquired.com, a payments infrastructure provider for recurring commerce, today announces a partnership with Visa in the UK to bring to market Visa A2A, a new account-to-account payment solution, designed specifically for recurring and variable payments. The collaboration introduces an alternative to direct debit and card-on-file, designed to deliver a smarter way to make recurring payments.

Visa A2A brings commercial Variable Recurring Payments (VRPs) to market through a Visa-managed network, combining real-time execution via Faster Payments with a structured consent model. Customers grant a one-time approval within their banking app that defines how much can be collected, how often, and for how long. This creates clear boundaries, greater transparency, and stronger control for recurring payments.

Recurring payments underpin lending, insurance, utilities, and collections; but while Direct Debit is low-cost, it’s slow and rigid, making it difficult to adapt when customer circumstances change.

Visa A2A addresses this gap by enabling real-time account-to-account recurring payments with immediate settlement and clear customer consent. Payments execute via Faster Payments, while Visa provides the operational governance, rules and commercial framework required to support adoption at scale. Businesses gain near real-time visibility of success or failure and immediate settlement, enabling faster recovery, more responsive customer support, and improved cash flow timing.

Acquired.com integrates Visa A2A into its multi-rail payments platform, allowing merchants to collect payments across cards, Direct Debit, Open Banking and Visa A2A within a single infrastructure. This enables businesses to introduce Visa A2A with minimal engineering uplift, and route customers onto the most effective payment system based on performance and risk and migrate customers away from other payment methods at natural friction points. Another key feature, benefitting businesses and Visa A2A is Acquired.com’s Confirmation of Funds checks, helping businesses time collections more intelligently and reduce avoidable failures caused by insufficient funds. This addresses a long-standing limitation of traditional recurring payment methods, supporting higher collection success with lower operational overhead.

Eline Blomme, chief product officer at Acquired.com, said: “Recurring payments have not kept pace with how customers live or how businesses need to operate. Visa A2A changes that equation. By combining real-time account to account payments with clear customer consent and operational governance, we are giving businesses a more responsive way to collect and customers greater visibility and control.”

Mark Wilcocks, vice president, head of product & solutions, Visa UK & Ireland added: “Working with Acquired.com, we will unlock a more transparent, trusted, and flexible payment experience for customers through commercial VRPs. Together we are removing friction for customers at sign-up, strengthening their sense of control, and ensuring they have the strong protections and safeguards that they expect. Building on the momentum of the first Visa A2A transaction in November, our partnership with Acquired.com marks another exciting step in our journey to modernise recurring payments in collaboration with the industry and we’re excited for what’s ahead.”

For additional industry insight, watch Mark Wilcocks in a Live Lounge interview where he discusses wider themes around payment innovation and consumer behaviour – Catch the conversation here.

Further reading: Acquired.com joins OBL cVRP industry initiative, launches own VRP solution