Mastercard Debuts Tools to Support Growing Embrace of Virtual Cards

Mastercard has introduced a pair of solutions designed to enhance virtual card use.

The company on Tuesday (July 29) announced it had launched “widescale global availability” of Mastercard Receivables Manager, an automated solution aimed at making virtual cards more efficient, secure and cost-effective for businesses to accept.

In addition, Mastercard introduced Commercial Direct Payments, a processing solution that automates virtual card payments and reconciliation.

“Businesses today expect simple, secure, and seamless ways to pay and get paid — with many turning to virtual cards to meet those expectations,” Marc Pettican, global head of corporate solutions, Mastercard, said in a news release.

“To support our clients wherever they are on their modernization journey, we’re thrilled to bring to market another simple path to receivables automation, and to fuel the consumerization of B2B payments around the world in the process.”

The release cites an in-house survey by Mastercard which found that a majority of B2B suppliers find that digitizing payment processes is a key priority for their business, though two-thirds admitted they routinely fall short of buyer payment expectations.

Launched two years ago, Mastercard Receivables Manager has been enhanced with new capabilities such as multi-language and secure card-on-file to support digital commerce around the world.

“Now available globally, acquiring partners are embracing the innovation to modernize supplier virtual card acceptance experiences across major card networks and help customers strengthen buyer-supplier relationships,” the release said.

Outside the B2B payments realm, research shows a significant number of American consumers are using virtual cards.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report, “Digital Payments Evolution: Virtual Cards Poised to Take Off,” done in collaboration with Elan, found that 42% of consumers in the United States had used a virtual card in the prior six months, chiefly for online purchases and subscriptions. In addition, 65% reported that they were likely to use one in the year to come.

“This could signal a potential turning point not just in adoption, but in the public’s appetite for payment tools that offer control, security and flexibility beyond what digitized physical cards can provide,” PYMNTS wrote in June. “Digital wallets have already done much of the heavy lifting in familiarizing consumers with cardless payments.”

Today, more than half of U.S. consumers store at least one card in a wallet such as Apple Pay or Google Wallet, that report added. That familiarity is increasingly proving vital to the rise of virtual cards, which don’t exist as plastic first, but are rather issued and used entirely digitally, often with one-time numbers for each transaction, helping prevent exposure to fraud.

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