BoA Expands Mobile Wallets To EMEA, APAC Corporate Clients

Bank of America (BoA) has expanded its mobile wallet use to include corporate customers in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific (APAC) regions, hoping to enhance clients’ experiences through faster and more secure business transactions, according to a press release.

In 2018, BoA launched digital wallets in the U.S. and Canada. With the expansion, the bank is now “the first commercial bank issuer to offer the technology to corporate clients worldwide,” the release stated.

Clients can access the mobile wallets with Google Pay and Apple Pay to make and manage purchases. The release noted that, like many areas of life affected by social distancing over the past several months, the ability to pay for things in a contactless manner is a plus.

Clara Wang, head of BoA’s Asia Pacific Corporate Payables, Cross Currency and Commercial Cards Products with Global Transaction Services (GTS), said corporate clients would have use for the mobile wallets.

“Clients are looking for even more secure ways to pay, and Mobile Wallets deliver a fully digital payment experience, avoiding potential exposure of sensitive card credentials,” she said, according to the press release. “Our clients in APAC and EMEA can now conduct transactions on the go quickly and more securely, providing them with time and cost benefits.”

The release also goes into detail on the way the mobile wallets help to keep information safe through tokenization, meaning a customer’s data is replaced by a token while they pay, passing that to merchants rather than card data. There are also measures put in place to require comprehensive identity verification, like facial recognition, a thumbprint or a passcode, before the payment can be completed. According to BoA, this helps to prevent fraud.

BoA recently added $4 billion to its reserves to cover future credit losses, PYMNTS reported, as the company wanted to steel itself against potential losses due to the pandemic. That came despite a surge in use of its digital products during the same time period.