As the race for corporate and commercial card business continues to intensify, companies are looking beyond points as an incentive to acquire clients. A new partnership pairing an established provider with a startup is betting on delivering security, usability, and simplified management as a means to outpace the competition.
City National Bank, a Los Angeles-based private and business bank, has partnered with New York City-based fintech startup Extend, a digital payment infrastructure provider, to launch a virtual Visa commercial credit card solution. The joint offering enables clients to generate virtual cards on-demand and easily add them to Google Pay and Apple Pay mobile wallets for simple and secure contactless payments at the point of sale.
“We’re all about providing our clients with state-of-the-art, efficient, and secure payment solutions,” says Linda Duncombe, executive vice president and chief marketing, product, and digital officer of City National Bank. “City National has a long history of serving our clients in new and innovative ways, and providing our clients with easy-to-use digital solutions for their payment challenges allows us to better support them — especially at a time when many are working remotely. We’re proud to work with Extend and Visa on this terrific and groundbreaking functionality.”
The product provides clients with enhanced security through the Visa Token Service, a new tokenization program that replaces a cardholder’s 16-digit Visa account number with a secure token. It protects the underlying card number from fraudsters and enables clients to distribute virtual cards safely and securely without exposing card numbers. Cards can also be canceled at any time.
“According to Visa Back to Business Study – 2021 Outlook, two-thirds (65%) of consumers would prefer to use contactless payments as much as, or even more than, they are currently,” said Kevin Phalen, global head, Visa Business Solutions. “Our collaboration with City National Bank and Extend to bring Visa virtual card capabilities to their commercial clients delivers innovation that makes B2B payments as simple and effortless as consumer payments are today.”
City National commercial card clients can use Extend mobile app or web-based application instantly send
virtual credit cards to employees, contractors, and vendors with enhanced digital capabilities, distinct spending limits, and expiration dates, giving companies more oversight and control over how corporate cards are used. Additional features, including automatic reconciliation, receipt, invoice attachments, and expense integrations, benefit program managers and end-users.
“Working with City National and Visa has been one of the most exciting opportunities of the last year,” said Andrew Jamison, CEO, and co-founder of Extend. “This is a huge industry first. Until now, no one has been able to tokenize true virtual cards for mobile wallets, which brings virtual cards to the point of sale — a hurdle that has stood in the way of serious mass adoption. Now virtual cards can be used just like plastic cards. We’re very excited to see the new value it can create for City National and their business clients.”
