Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) today announced the commercial launch of the Visa B2B Connect network, giving financial institutions an ability to quickly and securely process high-value corporate cross-border payments globally.^[1] The Visa B2B Connect launch will cover more than 30 global trade corridors, with an aim to expand to as many as 90 markets by end of 2019.

“Launching Visa B2B Connect marks an important industry milestone which will accelerate the evolution of how commercial payments move around the world,” said Kevin Phalen, SVP, global head of Visa Business Solutions. “By creating a solution that facilitates direct, bank to bank transactions, we are eliminating friction associated with key industry pain points. With Visa B2B Connect, we are making payments quicker and simpler, while enhancing transparency and consistency of data.”

Visa B2B Connect removes friction and time spent on cross-border corporate transactions by facilitating transactions from the bank of origin directly to the beneficiary bank. The network’s unique digital identity feature tokenises an organisation’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.

“It’s exciting to see the hard work of the combined teams come together for the commercial launch of Visa B2B Connect. Having participated in the pilot program, Commerce Bank is excited to see how this innovative solution will change the way cross-border payments are made, while increasing the speed and transparency for businesses around the world,” said Brian Gordon, SVP International Payments and Trade, Commerce Bank.

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“As a pilot participant, we are excited about the Visa B2B Connect launch. This modern way of carrying out cross-border B2B payments will create a substantial added value for our corporate clients. Velocity, security and control of transactions, as well as lower counterparty risks are essential for a successful business with international partners,” said Alessandro Seralvo, director of Cornercard & executive vice president of Corner Bank.

Partners, including Bottomline, FIS and IBM are integral parts of the future scale of Visa B2B Connect. Bottomline and FIS are bringing Visa B2B Connect platform access to its participating bank clients. Along with Visa’s core assets, Visa B2B Connect utilises open source Hyperledger Fabric framework from the Linux Foundation, in partnership with IBM. This helps provide an improved process to facilitate financial transactions on a scalable, permissioned network.

“Bottomline is delighted to be working with Visa to accelerate the adoption of innovative ways for businesses to make faster cross-border payments,” said Rob Eberle, president & CEO, Bottomline. “Our ability to provide our mutual financial institution clients globally with access to Visa B2B Connect will help these banks to continue to deliver differentiated payment capabilities to their corporate customers.”

“Enabling modernisation for financial institutions across all payments systems is a key tenet of FIS’ global strategy, and we’re glad to be amongst Visa’s first partners to bring Visa B2B Connect platform access to our mutual clients at scale,” said Raja Gopalakrishnan, international head of Banking and Payments for FIS Global Financial Solutions.

“Working together on Visa B2B Connect, we are combining the strengths of the world’s leader in electronic payments with IBM’s recognised expertise in helping scale distributed ledger technology. This is a unique example of how blockchain-based architecture can help transform B2B value chains by facilitating secure and transparent transactions globally,” said Marie Wieck, general manager, IBM Blockchain.

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“With Visa B2B Connect, we are leveraging Visa’s existing assets and our expertise in cybersecurity, data privacy, the scale of our network — and layering that with new elements of distributed-ledger technology to meet unique needs of this industry,” said Sam Hamilton, SVP, data product development at Visa. “This lays the foundation for a service with the potential to transform cross-border payments.”

SOURCE Visa