Visa Launches b.yond To Fast-Track EU Digital Payments Innovation

To let businesses quickly deploy digital payment services, a consortium of major companies is rolling out a new financial innovation platform called b.yond. Global Processing Services, Pannovate, Cornercard, MeaWallet, Modulr, AllPay and W2 Global are founding partners of the consortium in collaboration with Visa, according to an announcement.

Visa Head of FinTech Smriti Vicari said in the announcement, “At Visa we believe in the power of partnership to bring the best possible solutions to both emerging payment players and our existing clients and partners. The launch of b.yond is another big step towards enabling our clients to gain rapid access to the capabilities that lie within Visa’s global network to power their own ideas.”

Businesses that want to roll out a payments program can tap into b.yond to access a platform of solutions using Visa’s rails that they can deploy for customers in under eight weeks. The platform also seeks to decrease the complexities of rolling out a payment program and having to deal with multiple stakeholders in the ecosystem for payments.

Through only one contract from b.yond, businesses will have several elements that are necessary for the launch of a solution for payments: Those functions include KYC (Know Your Customer) and onboarding; card control; P2P transfers; agency banking;  physical or virtual cards; alert notification; and visualization of statements/spending – with account load, multi-language, chat support, multi-FX, saving pots; rewards and cash-back; and tokenization as well as “more to follow shortly.”

At the same time, the solution enables businesses to deploy vertical add-ons that are specialized for travel and forex; eCommerce wallets; expense management; gift, loyalty and employee recognition; money remittance and membership; and insurtech. In addition, businesses have the ability to test as well as monitor the performance of their propositions.

Global Processing Services Chief Commercial Officer Neil Harris said in the announcement of the solution, “b.yond is breaking the mold with its consortium of industry-leading companies who are coming together to drive FinTech innovation to a new level of simplicity and speed.” He continued, “The project has been all about collaboration-led innovation, and with an established list of other leading companies wanting to join the consortium, we expect the initial propositions to grow exponentially as we onboard new organizations and regions.”