Business-to-business (B2B) payments lead the global payments landscape, and Visa is introducing a platform aimed at connecting major players.

According to the card company, its Commercial Integrated Partners program offers an ecosystem that banks can use to provide their enterprise clients with a variety of services, including expense management, a mobile app, and virtual card tokenization.

In this model, Visa’s APIs act as the infrastructure through which banks can access fintech products and integrate them into their business clients’ enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. The goal is to deliver a seamless solution that allows all parties to focus on innovation and enhancing the customer experience.

“This is an interesting development,” observed Hugh Thomas, Lead Commercial and Enterprise Analyst at Javelin Strategy & Research. “The most similar thing I can think of at Mastercard is their Accelerate program, which includes things like Start Path and Fintech Express. However, the key difference here is the focus on commercial payments.”

“Where Mastercard’s Accelerate initiatives cover a wide range of solutions from emerging technologies like blockchain to consumer-focused offerings such as P2P payments, this Visa program is specifically focused on commercial,” he stated. “This seems sensible because the ecosystem for commercial payments has fewer potential partners, and the factors driving change are different from those in the consumer market.”

Speeding the Fleet

For instance, Visa highlighted its partnership with Car IQ, a provider of software that turns vehicles into payment credentials. Physical cards remain prevalent in fleet management and can be problematic due to the risk of loss or misuse.

Through Commercial Integrated Partners, a financial institution could offer Car IQ’s software to its business clients, allowing them to make virtual card payments via a mobile app at fuel stations.

Visa noted that this integration can reduce the need for extensive supplier onboarding or development and might save a company “18-24 months of due diligence, integration work, and project management.”

What it Says on the Tin

Despite the potential benefits of this model, financial institutions may have concerns about data security when their information is shared with multiple parties. These worries were highlighted following the collapse of fintech Synapse, which left millions of dollars of bank clients’ funds at risk.

To address these concerns, Visa stated that all fintech partners on the Commercial Integrated Partners platform have been pre-evaluated and are already integrated with the card company.

“The other aspect that caught my attention was the certification process,” Thomas remarked. “Certifying solutions implies you have in-house expertise not only to understand your own products but also to certify their use in others’ systems.”

“It’s a good idea in theory—enabling issuers and other partners to avoid 18 months of certification work before launching something that drives spend volume. However, in practice, you’re also then responsible for whether the solution delivers on its promises,” he said. “This certainly speaks to Visa’s commitment to growing the card network-driven commercial ecosystem.”