The partnership will open up the use of debit and credit cards to the £120bn classified industry.

Shieldpay’s instant digital escrow solution mitigates the risk of fraud by verifying the identity of all parties, holding funds securely and only releasing funds when all sides agree they are happy. As part of the partnership, Shieldpay will work with Visa’s CyberSource platform to enable access to new verticals where secure peer to peer payments have been tough in the past - such as classified ad platforms and peer to peer marketplaces.

The partnership will also allow Shieldpay’s partners to make use of the Visa Direct push payments service, enabling funds to be disbursed directly to a Visa card in real time in many European markets.

Peter Janes, CEO and Founder of Shieldpay, said: “The Visa and Shieldpay partnership is game changing for the digital peer to peer marketplace and classified ad world. Fraud is a huge concern for users of these platforms, and the security Visa and Shieldpay can now offer will revolutionise the space.”

“The team at Shieldpay continually strives to offer the most secure payment solutions to give consumers complete piece of mind when buying and selling online. Partnering with Visa will give us a strong platform for expansion and enhance our product offering by leveraging our combined assets. We are excited about the future and what we can build alongside Visa.”

Mike Lemberger, SVP Product Solutions for Visa, said: “Our partnership with Shieldpay is a great opportunity to bring Visa’s digital payments capabilities to marketplaces and ad sites. CyberSource enables Shieldpay to offer enhanced security and fraud management for card payments and Visa Direct enables real-time payouts to sellers across markets. We are excited to work with Shieldpay to launch in multiple markets utilizing our enhanced offerings to help them to expand with speed and safely”