Global credit card giant Visa has rolled out the first (the pilot phase actually) of its blockchain-based business-to-business payments service, named Visa B2B Connect.The platform is designed to give financial institutions a secure, fast and predictable way to process corporate cross-border B2B payments.
The company in a press release described the initiative as an efforts to transform the business-to-business (B2B) payments space. it also announced that the project has been done with innovators from Commerce Bank in the United States, Shinhan Bank in South Korea, Union Bank of Philippines and United Overseas Bank in Singapore. Visa claims it has begun to process bank to-bank test transactions with a few of these partners, with others to follow soon.
.@Visa launches first phase of Blockchain-based business-to-business payments service, B2B Connect, designed to give financial institutions a secure, yet transparent way to process payments between enterprises. https://t.co/WvI6fbwCtp #API pic.twitter.com/jWTZ6ak0lL
— VisaNews (@VisaNews) November 17, 2017
And, it seems the partners are excited about the idea. According to Chris Wiedenmann, Vice-President, commercial payments and products at Commerce Bank, “In a world of increasing global interconnectedness, the ability to make and receive payments quickly and transparently is critical for companies of all sizes. 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.”
Visa also revealed that it is going to allow developers to take our capabilities and to build solutions that can quickly scale in multiple markets. “we designed B2B Connect with an “API-first” strategy. With B2B Connect APIs exposed in the Visa Developer Platform, B2B Connect is designed to harness the power of the global developer community to enable a smarter cross-border B2B payments flow”, the release said.
.@Visa unveils exciting updates to Visa B2B Connect, a platform now processing bank-to-bank test transactions. https://t.co/YJoOPcmj1f #VisaDevSquad pic.twitter.com/6f8fiiVLY2
— VisaNews (@VisaNews) November 16, 2017
Following this first phase of the project, the project is expected to move to a commercial launch on the next phase. This is expected to take place sometime in the middle of 2018.
Visa first announced the plans for a blockchain platform last year. Coindesk reports that Visa plans to use the platform to ease cross-border payments by facilitating direct payments between institutions, cutting out the middleman the industry currently relies on.
The company plans to share the new development at the Fintech Festival taking place this week in Singapore, home to the second busiest port in the world and a major hub for cross-border shipping.
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