Visa has launched its new Visa Ready Program for Business Solutions, a framework designed to ease the ability of technology firms to integrate with the business-to-business (B2B) payment services offered by the world’s largest credit card issuer.
To launch the initiative, the California-based financial services giant has partnered with a select group of tech companies that are now considered Visa Ready, meaning that they are approved to bring their customers into the fold. These first firms include Bora Payment Systems, Bottomline Technologies, CSI globalVCard, MineralTree, and Priority Commercial Payments.
Each is now enabled to validate, on their websites and through other protocols, various B2B payment solutions, such as payment controls, virtual card integration, enhanced data, and payables automation.
“We are coming together with our technology partners to help quickly and securely bring to life a variety of use cases to meet unique needs of financial institutions and their corporate businesses, large and small, and across different industries,” said Vicky Bindra, head of global products and solutions at Visa Inc.
One example of how the launch partners are already implementing the service comes from MineralTree. It has integrated its accounts payable and payment automation platform by using Visa APIs to help mid-sized organizations drive their invoice payments to virtual cards.
Bora Payment Systems, for its part, has also integrated its “Buyer-Initiated Payments” architecture with Visa APIs to “help deliver faster, more automated, and streamlined corporate payments,” according to Visa.
According to Bindra, such partnerships with tech-focused firms are vital. She believes that these types of companies are on the cutting edge and that they can help increase the adoption rate among their users that are looking for easier and more user-friendly payment options.
“B2B payments innovation has been fueled by businesses always looking to simplify complexities and time spent associated with paying and getting paid, as well as expense reconciliation,” said Bindra.