Visa and Bluechain Partner on Card-Based B2B Payments in UK

B2B payment orchestration platform Bluechain and Visa have partnered to enable digital transformation of B2B payments  in verticals in the United Kingdom in which card acceptance has historically been limited or nonexistent.

The collaboration enables businesses to use Visa cards to pay any supplier, including those that don’t accept cards, the companies said in a Wednesday (Aug. 13) press release.

In addition, with this solution, Bluechain handles billing, collection, reconciliation and merchant-of-record requirements, according to the release.

The solution offered by Bluechain and Visa is designed to serve U.K. businesses in verticals like construction, freight, hospitality and wholesale distribution, where card acceptance is limited and B2B spend is often routed through slow, manual or siloed systems, per the release.

“We’re building the infrastructure layer that business payments have been missing,” Bluechain Co-founder and CEO Tim Annis said in the release. “Visa shares our vision, not just digitizing payments, but making them frictionless, visible and intelligent.”

Alessandro Figueroa, head of B2B partnerships at Visa Europe, said in the release: “Businesses need smarter ways to manage payments, and data to make better decisions. Partnering with Bluechain brings those capabilities directly into workflows, helping businesses unlock new flexibility, visibility and efficiency.”

The PYMNTS Intelligence and Esker collaboration “Getting Paid: Digital Payments for Improving Cash Flow and Customer Experience” found that digital payments offer streamlined processing, enhanced operational efficiency and improved customer experience.

Despite the growing adoption of digital solutions, many businesses still rely on outdated payment methods. For example, 75% of organizations use paper checks, despite their high costs and inefficiencies, according to the report.

The drawbacks of paper checks are evident in industries like construction, where 76% of subcontractors receive payments through checks and where this method led to $273 billion in losses due to slow payments in 2023, per the report.

PYMNTS reported in November that Visa and fellow payment network Mastercard have trillions of dollars’ worth of B2B transactions firmly in their sights.

Cross-border payments, small and medium-sized business (SMB) transactions, virtual cards and even the buildout of non-card networks are all part of the companies’ multi-year strategies outlined at the time in earnings calls.

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