Having just announced the official launch of the cross-border payments platform a couple of months ago, Visa now indicates that it can connect to 62 markets in the Visa B2B Connect network, with an eye towards 100 countries in 2020, although exactly when is not specified.
The announcement in Yahoo Finance also indicates that Infosys is now an integration partner, allowing its existing corporate clients to access the platform through Infosys digital solutions. Visa typically works directly with financial institutions to implement new capabilities, but given the greater strategic focus on non-card global B2B payments flows, a number of partnerships with enterprise fintech solution providers in the broader corporate banking and payments digital space has become a key distribution channel. In this case they are referred to as hub partners.
‘Visa B2B Connect is a fast, secure and more efficient network, designed specifically to overcome obstacles in the cross-border corporate payments space,” said Alan Koenigsberg, global head, new payment flows, Visa Business Solutions. “We are excited to bring on Infosys and expand Visa B2B Connect to new geographies – all in a joint effort to accelerate innovation and increase efficiencies for financial institutions and their corporate clients.’
Previously announced partners included Bottomline Technologies and FIS. Interest on the part of financial institutions is not specifically known, but a number of cross-border payment improvements have been coming to the fore in the past couple of years, and we expect that to continue.
Visa also conducted a survey to determine potential drivers of adoption, and it seems the overall focus on faster payments (not just real-time but generally faster settlement) is a key for banks. For readers who are members of the Mercator Commercial & Enterprise Advisory Service, we just released a Viewpoint around the topic of faster payments in the B2B space.
‘According to a recent survey commissioned by Visa, almost six-in-ten respondents (59%) expect overall revenues from cross-border payments to increase in the next five years as a result of faster payments. Nearly a quarter of respondents (24%) expect to see faster payments drive up revenues by as much as 25%.’
Visa B2B Connect is delivered through a permissioned access DLT foundation and utilizes tokenization to establish and protect participants’ digital identity. As always, there’s more to come in the changing space of B2B payments.
‘Visa B2B Connect’s unique digital identity feature tokenizes an organization’s sensitive business information, such as banking details and account numbers, giving them a unique identifier that can be used to facilitate transactions on the network. Visa B2B Connect’s digital identity feature will transform the way information is exchanged in business-to-business cross-border transactions.’
Overview by Steve Murphy, Director, Commercial and Enterprise Payments Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group