Mumbai, Nov 23 (IANS): Digital payments major Visa on Monday announced a collaboration with ICICI Bank on its 'Visa in a Box' programme for fintech acceleration.

Through this collaboration, fintechs can access APIs and the developer sandbox of Visa and ICICI Bank, to rapidly build, test and deploy consumer payment applications, Visa said in a statement.

ICICI Bank is the first bank to partner with Visa for its 'Visa in a Box' programme in India.

"As part of the alliance, ICICI Bank and Visa have come together to help fintechs launch their prepaid card issuing programme in India. The bank offers its financial technology, in-depth market expertise and payment solutions to accelerate innovation within the thriving fintech community," it said.

Under the partnership, ICICI Bank has launched co-branded prepaid cards with three fintechs -- one each in business banking, business expense management and neo bank.

The statement said that the partnership between Visa and ICICI Bank will further accelerate fintech enablement for innovations across digital issuance, lending and prepaid use cases.

T.R. Ramachandran, Group Country Manager, India and South Asia, Visa said: "As India becomes one of the epicenters for payment innovation, it is incumbent upon established players to create a collaborative ecosystem for fintechs to help contribute to India's journey of digital payment adoption. We are delighted to partner with our longstanding partner, ICICI Bank, towards this objective."

He said that through this partnership with ICICI, Visa looks forward to combine its platform assets and expertise, to deliver a robust kickstart for Indian fintechs.

Sudipta Roy, Head of Unsecured Assets, ICICI Bank said: "We believe that this partnership presents us with an opportunity to get innovative solutions for our customers and partners, thereby catering to the growing demand for digital solutions in the country. We look forward to witnessing some pioneering and ground-breaking innovations and solutions through this programme, which have the potential to benefit a larger audience."

Visa and ICICI Bank will also jointly develop programmes aimed at accelerating growth and innovation in their respective businesses, the statement said. ICICI Bank will also have access to Visa's growing network of fintech partners -- part of the Visa Everywhere Initiative (VEI) -- and provide guidance to get them to market in the most efficient way possible.