Visa teamed with Dubai-based bank Emirates NBD to launch a commercial payment solution.
The partnership makes Emirates NBD the first bank in the United Arab Emirates to offer Visa’s Commercial Pay Mobile module for its small business and corporate clients, according to a Wednesday (March 5) press release.
“This initiative aligns with the UAE government’s vision of [digitizing] payments while at the same time providing a distinctive and unique proposition to Emirates NBD’s clients to enhance payment efficiencies enabling security, automation and reconciliation through tokenized credentials,” the release said.
Visa Commercial Pay Mobile is designed to help corporate clients and small businesses manage expenses, allowing employees to make payments using Visa virtual cards on their mobile devices through digital wallets, according to the release.
“…Emirates NBD and Visa’s virtual card capabilities are aimed at revolutionizing payments on card rails,” the release said. “These capabilities drive working capital benefits and tokenized solutions through secure channels. Additionally, they provide key insights for real-time decision making, business planning, and enable mobile payments.”
The partnership came amid a surge in virtual card issuance, a trend that underscores how the cards are helping shape new commerce ecosystems for businesses and consumers.
“The purely digital flow, from card design to issuance to use, underpins new payment experiences,” PYMNTS reported last month. “For the banks and the brands launching card products, the platform approach shortens the time to market to introduce, say, a BNPL card or a B2B-focused instrument that tailors spend management across a supply chain.”
The ongoing embrace of credentials and program management through which platforms manage compliance and risk continues to serve as a growth engine for the enablers, as cards and credentials are delivered in real time.
The benefits are seeing wider recognition. Among middle-market companies — defined as firms with annual sales of between $50 million to $1 billion — 56% of executives said flexible working capital solutions like virtual cards are essential to managing cash flow during unpredictable times. Still, the market is virtually untapped, as only 3.3% of middle-market firms in North America use virtual cards.
