Business-to-Business Payments and Visa’s New Platform
Business-to-business (B2B) payments hold a significant position in the global payments landscape, with Visa introducing a new platform aimed at facilitating connections among major players.
The card company highlighted its Commercial Integrated Partners program as an ecosystem that banks can utilize to offer their enterprise clients a variety of services. These include expense management, a mobile application, and virtual card tokenization.
Under this model, Visa’s APIs serve as the foundation through which banks can access fintech products and embed them directly into their business clients’ enterprise resource planning (ERP) software systems. The goal is to provide a seamless solution that streamlines innovation efforts for all parties involved while enhancing customer experience.
“This announcement is noteworthy,” stated Hugh Thomas, Lead Commercial and Enterprise Analyst at Javelin Strategy & Research. “The program most comparable to this at Mastercard would be their Accelerate initiative which includes elements like Start Path and Fintech Express. However, there are key differences, especially the focus on commercial applications.”
“Mastercard’s Accelerate addresses a wide range of initiatives from emerging technologies such as blockchain to consumer-focused offerings like peer-to-peer payments, while this Visa program is solely dedicated to commercial use,” Thomas continued. “I believe this approach makes sense because the commercial payment ecosystem has fewer potential partners and distinct forces driving change compared to the consumer sector.”
Streamlining Fleet Management
One practical example of this integration is Visa’s collaboration with Car IQ, a fleet technology provider recognized for its software that converts vehicles into payment credentials. Physical cards continue to be a significant challenge in fleet management due to their risk of loss or misuse.
Through the Commercial Integrated Partners program, financial institutions can now provide Car IQ software to their enterprise clients, allowing virtual card payments via a mobile app at fuel stations.
Visa emphasized that such integrations simplify the onboarding process for suppliers and could save companies “18-24 months of due diligence, integration work, and project management.”
Securing Data Sharing
Despite these advantages, concerns regarding data security arise when financial institutions share their information with multiple parties. These fears have intensified following the collapse of fintech company Synapse, which left millions of dollars in bank client funds at risk.
Visa addressed these security worries by pre-evaluating and integrating all fintech partners on its Commercial Integrated Partners platform.
“The idea of certification raises questions about whether organizations have the internal expertise to not only understand their own products but also ensure they can be safely used in other systems,” Thomas noted. “While this certification process aims to accelerate product launches and drive spend volume, it also places responsibility on the organization to guarantee that these solutions live up to expectations.”