Standard Chartered and Visa Partner on Cross-Border B2B Payments

Standard Chartered has partnered with Visa to facilitate cross-border B2B payments for the bank’s corporate clients.

The bank has joined the Visa B2B Connect multilateral payment network and has become Visa’s new settlement partner for a set of currencies, the companies said in a press release emailed to PYMNTS.

The solution will launch first for clients of Standard Chartered Singapore and will be expanded to more entities in the coming months, according to the release.

“In today’s increasingly interconnected world, both corporates and payment networks are constantly looking for solutions and partners that can help them simplify cross-border transactions and improve operational efficiencies, without compromising on security,” Philip Panaino, global head of cash at Standard Chartered, said in the release.

“Our engagement in the Visa B2B Connect network — both as a participant and as a settlement bank — is yet another way we are delivering value add to the broader ecosystem as we support corporates on their payments journey,” Panaino added.

Visa B2B Connect enables faster and frictionless account-to-account (A2A) cross-border payments, according to the release.

With application programming interface (API) connectivity between Standard Chartered and the network, transactions will be routed directly to Visa for further processing, the release said. This will eliminate the costs and delays associated with having multiple intermediaries.

In addition, by acting as a settlement partner within the network, Standard Chartered will facilitate settlement accounts, funds movement, foreign exchange (FX) capabilities and other payment flows for Visa, per the release. It will also provide network participants with transparency of their payment status at any point in time.

“Visa is committed to modernizing cross-border payments around the world, and the collaboration with Standard Chartered will extend our network even further,” Ben Ellis, senior vice president and global head of Visa B2B Connect at Visa, said in the release. “We are excited to be partnering with Standard Chartered to simplify and speed up transactions for their clients, cutting out middlemen and reducing costs for a more efficient and secure way to move money globally.”

Tailwinds are in place for commercial transactions to undergo a re-imagining, Chris Newkirk, global head of new flows, commercial and money movement solutions at Visa, told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster in an interview posted in February.

The biggest trend in the B2B payments space has been “what we and our clients refer to as the consumerization of experiences between corporates, their employees, buyers and suppliers and the accounts receivables and payables departments,” he said at the time.

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