Eighteen months after initially rolling out
its mobile wallet-based virtual card service, Conferma Pay is seeking to scale
up the service via a new deal with Visa. The global agreement enables bank
issuers to make Visa corporate virtual cards available through the Conferma Pay
app for use by corporate travellers – and the payment network has done the
heavy lifting to make it easy for banks to do so, according to Conferma.
"Only minimal work is required on
[banks'] part to turn this on," a company spokesperson said. "Visa
has done a vast majority of the standardisation and industrialisation, so it’s hassle-free for the banks."
One issuer, Singapore-based United Overseas
Bank, is already offering the service to its corporate card customers. Conferma
already has existing relationships with some 50 other existing Visa issuer
partners for its booking system-based virtual card service, and the company
plans to leverage those partnerships to quickly ramp up distribution via the
app as well.
Conferma also already has in place a virtual
card distribution deal
with Mastercard, a pact the companies signed in 2018.
Since it began piloting distribution of
virtual cards via an app update in early 2019, Conferma has touted
the mobile wallet channel as a promising method for overcoming the challenges
to using virtual cards for hotel check-in and in-trip payments. Instead of
sending card numbers through the clunky fax-based process, cards can simply be
loaded to travellers' phones, where they're stored in mobile wallets and
subsequently used to make payments via contactless acceptance systems. Payments
made via virtual card are subject to spending controls and budgetary limits,
while transactions are reconciled directly with expense management systems.
And with the recent global outbreak of the
COVID-19 pandemic expected to drive increased emphasis on physical distancing
once travel resumes, contactless payments provide an added layer of safety as
well, according to Conferma CEO Simon Barker.
“As business travel slowly begins again,
travel managers will grapple with one question above all others: ‘how do I keep
my people safe?’," noted Barker. "The agreement we’ve struck with
Visa means business travellers can pay with contactless, directly from the
company bank account, using virtual cards lodged in their mobile phones. It’s
only a small part of the picture, but payments can play a role in helping us
navigate this nightmare.”