Visa Adds More Banks To B2B Connect Network

Visa, the payments company, announced Wednesday (Nov. 15) that it is enabling bank-to-bank test transactions with a handful of partners, including Commerce Bank in the U.S., Shinhan Bank in South Korea, Union Bank of the Philippines and United Overseas Bank in Singapore.

In a press release, Visa said it will test bank-to-bank transactions with more partners as it prepares for a commercial launch of Visa B2B Connect, which will give banks a fast, secure way to process cross-border B2B payments.

“In a world of increasing global interconnectedness, the ability to make and receive payments quickly and transparently is critical for companies of all sizes,” said Chris Wiedenmann, VP of commercial payments and products at Commerce Bank, in the press release. “Commerce Bank is dedicated to delivering new and innovative solutions for our customers and, through our powerful relationship with Visa, we are excited to be participating in the Visa B2B Connect pilot.”

According to Visa, the company has been leading in commercial card payment services and is seeing increasing opportunities in cross-border payments, an area that is ripe for improvements and more innovations.

“Today, making cross-border corporate payments can be a cumbersome, lengthy and friction-filled process for financial institutions and their corporate clients. Using technology based on blockchain architecture, Visa B2B Connect simplifies this process by sending transactions over Visa’s network from the bank of origin directly to the recipient bank,” Visa said in the press release, noting that as it brings new cross-border solutions to market, it will focus on security, interoperability and governance. What’s more, its open APIs will enable developers to take Visa’s capabilities and build on them to quickly bring products to market. As a result, Visa said, the company has designed B2B Connect with an “API first” strategy.