Bank Of America Launches Pay To Card To Advance B2C Payments

Bank of America (BoA) is expanding its digital business-to-consumer (B2C) payment offerings with its Pay to Card solution, according to a press release.

“As the payments industry continues to evolve, we are constantly investing and bringing to market new solutions and services that can help clients become more efficient and relevant to a broadening set of stakeholders,” BoA Head of Global Payments in Global Transaction Services David Kretz said in the release.

Kretz said this latest addition to BoA’s B2C payments suite extends new speed and convenience while also being flexible, per the release.

The Pay to Card solution can help companies meet the needs of users that desire faster payments. BoA’s latest tool deposits money directly into users’ accounts, whether they are individuals or businesses. Pay to Card taps debit cards associated with an account to process the transaction, according to the release.

Domestic payouts happen almost in real time — within 5 minutes — and cross-border payments take about 30 minutes. BoA said in the release that it anticipates that Pay to Card will be able to process payments to some 170 countries in more than 120 currencies.

A PYMNTS study done in collaboration with Pollinate — Making Loyalty Work For Small Businesses — indicated that some 50 percent of consumers think shopping locally is essential. Some 44 percent feel it is important to help money remain in community businesses.

Pollinate Founder and CEO Al Lukies told PYMNTS that the company is aiming for rewards related to loyalty. Some 57 percent of global respondents indicated they would use a loyalty perk when shopping with local retailers.

“That adds up to 277 million people who, if they were enabled to support their local community and participate in a loyalty scheme for those small businesses, would do it,” Lukies said.

Nikita Melnikovs, a board member at card payments tech firm DECTA, told PYMNTS that the first step for most small businesses is to adopt a digital mindset — but that initial connection might not be the best choice.