Visa Launches New Virtual Card Capabilities for Businesses

Need to Know 

• Visa has partnered with payments tech provider Conferma Pay to launch a new virtual commercial card for businesses.
• The virtual suite of services, which includes a new mobile app, is designed to streamline transactions for employees working remotely or ordering supplies online.
• Visa has launched a number of digital initiatives this year to better support customers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Competitors American Express and Wells Fargo also launched virtual commercial cards in recent weeks.

Analysis

In an effort to improve cash flow for businesses, Visa has teamed up with Conferma Pay (a virtual payments technology provider), to launch Visa Commercial Pay. The new suite of payment solutions acts like a virtual commercial credit card, designed to make B2B payments easier for remote workers and buyers and suppliers who need more efficient ways to send money. 

The new service comes in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disrupted the normal workflow and forced millions of employees to work from home without access to a company credit card and the inability at times to do business in-person. 

Visa Commercial Pay is designed to simplify the movement of money and features “enhanced data, automated payment processing, and expense reconciliation.”

The new suite of services includes: 

• Visa Commercial Pay Mobile, a Visa brand app that hosts Visa virtual commercial cards on employees’ mobile devices. The app allows users to track spending and make purchases online or in-person using their mobile wallet. 
• Visa Commercial Pay Travel, a digital payment solution that can be accessed through the new mobile app that integrates with the business travel reservation system to better manage expense reconciliation 
• Visa Commercial Pay B2B, a platform that offers buyers and suppliers more options to pay and get paid. The B2B platform provides a number of features that “help companies better manage cash flow and capture enhanced data for reconciliation and reporting capabilities.”

“Businesses are turning to Visa and our clients with a great sense of urgency to help them solve payment inefficiencies that the pandemic has quickly exposed,” said Kevin Phalen, global head of Visa Business Solutions. “The launch of Visa Commercial Pay in partnership with Conferma Pay allows us to accelerate B2B money movement away from slow, outdated methods to fast, data-rich, secure digital payments and give businesses better control over their finances.”

The new launch could be a direct effort to keep up with competitors American Express and Wells Fargo, who both launched virtual commercial cards in recent weeks. 

Visa has launched a range of other initiatives to support customers during this challenging year.  In September, the financial giant partnered with PayPal to extend their Instant Transfer service to North America, Asia, and Europe and later launched a new AI tool to help reduce declined customer transactions.