Visa B2B Connect is a cross-border business-to-business (B2B) payments network that enables account to account (A2A), international payments in a quick, secure, predictable manner, connecting corporates in over 100 countries and territories.
Visa B2B Connect is looking to address systematic issues with poor visibility and inefficiency in cross-border payments through means of modernisation of existing global payment processes with the help of its digital-first capabilities. Visa cited wanting to surpass these issues after research conducted by East & Partners on behalf of Visa Inc. in June 2019, which unearthed the fact that cross-border payments represent an opportunity for the payments industry that is valued at USD 10 trillion but is seen facing significant obstacles.
The network facilitates transactions between the bank of origin directly to the beneficiary bank, thus simplifying international corporate cross-border payments. With increased visibility and predictability of the transaction flow, Visa B2B Connect aims to create more cost-effective cross-border transactions through means of improvement of fee transparency, transaction accuracy, and help for companies when it comes to managing cash flows and settlement efficiency.
Akhil Lamba, Executive Managing Director and Head of Global Transaction Banking, TD Securities has declared that the company would be the first financial institution in Canada to join the Visa B2B Connect network. "This collaboration is part of TD's ongoing commitment to delivering innovative payment solutions to our corporate clients, along with seamless client experiences that make doing business internationally, faster with more end-to-end transparency and predictability,” Lamba added in the official press release statements.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada saw significant advancing in modern payments in 2021. Payments Canada launched Lynx, a modernised high-value payment system to replace Canada’s previous payment system of more than two decades, the Large Value Transfer System (LVTS).
Concomitantly, the Real-Time Rail (RTR) has been continuously progressing, a new payment system that will enable Canadians to initiate payments and receive irrevocable funds in a matter of seconds; RTR is in its pre-integration test phase as of July 2022, believed to be launched in mid-2023. RTR is ISO 20022 enabled, ISO 20022 being the international standard that allows efficient payments clearing and settlement among financial institutions globally via a common set of messages that have been agreed upon by the institutions to be used in a consistent way. ISO 20022 will be beneficial for both businesses and consumers, as its diverse data can be carried in financial payments messages both within Canada and across borders, allowing an easier understanding of consumer charges (e.g.: credit card charges), and a faster payment reconciliation with invoices for businesses.
Canadians have also adopted the use of products such as Interac e-Transfer to conduct money transfers, a service that has an infrastructure in the payment system that connects approximately 300 financial institutions and more than 95% of retail bank accounts.
With large businesses particularly having to still rely on some legacy payment methods, modernisation is looking to introduce payment processes that are more efficient, replacing thus manual processes. Efforts in this direction have been made by Interac, who launched Interac e-Transfer for Business, an off-the-shelf solution available via Canada’s major financial institutions, to help organisations improve their payments and migrate from manual solutions such as paper and cheque to digital solutions.
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