Visa Announces the Launch of Blockchain-based B2B Payments

Following the American Express partnership with Ripple Net, which will allow it to offer blockchain-based financial services, another big credit/debit card provider is joining the race. With this in mind, recent reports indicate that the global credit card giant Visa, has just started the pilot phase of its business-to-business (B2B) payment system based on blockchain technology.

B2B connect was initially announced last year, when Visa mentioned that it is planning to use the platform to facilitate cross-border payments between companies and institutions, essentially removing the middleman from these transactions. Some of the main benefits associated with the technology, include, but are not limited to faster, more secure and more transparent payments being carried out between enterprises internationally.

To make the project a reality, Visa has been working with the US Commerce Bank, the South Korean Shinhan Bank, the Singaporean United Overseas Bank, and lastly, the Union Bank of the Philippines. At this time, these banks are actively working on the beta version of this project, thus trying out the services on bank-to-bank and cross-border payment transactions.

Once the trial phase of the project is conducted, it is likely that a commercial launch will be happening sometime in mid-2018. The Global Head of Solutions for Visa, Kevin Phalen mentioned that: "This week's announcement is just the first step as we work towards a commercial launch of Visa B2B Connect. We are beginning to process bank-to-bank test transactions with select clients. Additional banks, including corporates, will follow soon."

Additionally, the company’s existing partners alongside with the future ones will be able to use the API interface, in order to develop their very own blockchain-based platforms in the future. In the long run, these projects will positively reshape the way cross-border and bank-to-bank transactions are made, thus leading to lower wait times, transaction commissions, and of course transparency. Hopefully, focus will soon be shifted towards client-to-client transactions in the future as well.

Based on everything that has been outlined so far, all of the world’s credit card giants are actively working on developing blockchain technology to improve their services. This is a welcome sight in the financial world, where the systems being used haven’t been changed from the ground up for years.