Visa Announces Partnerships with Big Name Tech Companies in Launch of “Groundbreaking Digital Identity” Services

Visa has announced details for its upcoming digital identity services product, scheduled to launch during the first quarter of 2019. A press release states that the new Visa B2B Connect will feature a “one-of-a-kind distributed ledger-based platform [that] is designed to give financial institutions a simple, fast and secure way to process cross border business-to-business payments globally.” IBM and Linux are among the big name tech companies partnering with Visa to help maximize the B2B Connect network.

“With B2B Connect, we’re developing a new way for businesses to make cross border, high value payments – fixing broken processes and breaking down geographic barriers along the way,” said Kevin Phalen, global head, Visa Business Solutions, Visa. “B2B Connect will facilitate payments for financial institutions for a variety of industry verticals, including supply chain, trade, institutional banking and more.”

B2B Connect will utilize tokenization as part of an all in one safety, security and governance solution to organize sensitive business information. Banking details, account numbers and so on will be given unique identifiers that will be used to facilitate transactions on the platform. The product aims to remove friction and time between cross-border corporate transactions.

“B2B Connect’s digital identity greatly reduces the opportunity for fraud that might otherwise exist with checks, ACH and wire transfers today, while also helping companies remain compliant as part of the regulated financial ecosystem,” said Phalen.

Suggested Reading : Learn more about a similar and competing platform, Ripple.

IBM will be partnering with Visa as one of B2B Connect’s earliest adopters. The two companies have been working together for 40-years.

“When industry leaders in payments and in financial services technology work together using open source technology, the entire business landscape stands to benefit,” said Jason Kelley, general manager, IBM Blockchain Services. “IBM Blockchain Platform and Hyperledger technology are delivering real business value today and B2B Connect is one of the most powerful examples to date of how blockchain is transforming payments.”

Visa B2B Connect integrates Linux Foundation’s open source Hyperledger Fabric framework with Visa’s core assets. The platform is also partnering with leading financial technology provider Bottomline Technologies. Financial institutions using Bottomline will have easy access to B2B Connect, without complex tech updates.

“Bottomline serves 1,200 financial institutions globally, and they are always looking to us to provide them with value-add innovations that simplify processes and increase efficiencies,” said Rob Eberle, president & CEO, Bottomline Technologies. ”We’re thrilled to work with Visa on this integration to enable our mutual financial institution clients to easily access the B2B Connect platform.”