Lloyds Bank has selected payments behemoth Visa to provide a virtual card offering to its business customers. 

Visa Commercial Pay will give Lloyds Bank’s business customers access to virtual cards through which they can control spending, reconcile invoices and file expenses, a Sept. 27 Visa release stated.

The new solution allows Lloyd’s business customers to instantly issue virtual cards to their employees and expedite online payments, the release stated. The virtual cards can be issued for single or multiple uses and offer real-time controls to administrators.  

“We’ve worked hard to create a solution that offers a secure, simplified process that enables businesses to pay their suppliers earlier while protecting their working capital,” James Sykes, head of commercial cards at $1.9 trillion Lloyds Bank, said in the release. 

The bank, which said it is upgrading its payments channels to remain competitive and compliant, is also currently adopting the ISO 20022 payment messaging system by 2025, and identifying use cases for the network’s data as it rolls out the capabilities in phases. 

Curve adds PayPal to payments suite options 

Curve, a payments-providing fintech, has added PayPal to its digital wallet, enabling customers to make payments through their PayPal account on Curve’s platform. 

Curve customers can connect their business or personal PayPal accounts to Curve’s platform and make in-store purchases using their PayPal balances, according to a Sept. 26 release from Curve. 

Customers will also be able to earn cash back when they make transactions using their PayPal accounts on Curve’s platform.  

The service, which is live for U.K. clients, allows customers to use their PayPal accounts to pay off their loan balances, the release stated.  

GFT and Thought Machine deepen their relationship 

IT solutions provider GFT and cloud-based core and payments provider Thought Machine will bring their tech together to help financial institutions digitize operations. 

Moving a bank’s core systems to the cloud can be costly, timely and risky as banks are “migrating decades of mission-critical consumer data and legacy processes to an entirely new cloud-based infrastructure,” Marco Santos, chief executive of Americas at GFT, told Bank Automation News.  

The combined offerings will help banks move their operations to the cloud quickly and securely through the companies’ Vault Core solution, a Sept. 28 GFT release stated. 

Vault Core “reduces the up-front migration work associated with core system migration so that organizations can test and launch new banking products quickly while they continue migrating their products and experiences to the new system in controlled phases,” Santos said. 

The companies are also allowing banks to leverage data analytics AI technologies to gain insights, enhance risk management and improve customer engagement, Santos said. “Some of the services that we’re planning to continue building in this regard include predictive analytics and AI-driven chatbots.” 

London-based Thought Machine provides its services to banks such as JPMorgan, Trust Bank in Singapore, and Standard Chartered, a company spokesperson told BAN. 

It is helping banks move their operations from “monolithic, on-premise mainframe systems” to a cloud-based system where “banks can take advantage of the many features of cloud infrastructure, including elastic scaling, high availability and continuous deployment,” a Thought Machine spokesperson said. 

Credibly taps Green Dot to provide banking services to its business clients 

Credibly, a finance-providing fintech for small businesses, is tapping neobank Green Dot to provide bank accounts to its small and medium-sized business clients.  

Green Dot’s banking-as-a-service offering will allow Credibly’s business customers to quickly open bank accounts with the credit provider, allowing for management of all their financial relationships with Credibly on one platform, according to Green Dot’s Sept. 26 release. 

Green Dot believes the total addressable market for its embedded finance business to be around $75 billion, with the SMB segment accounting for a significant portion of that, Simran Singh, head of enterprise business development and embedded finance at Green Dot, told BAN. The United States is experiencing a surge in new business: 5 million applications for new businesses were filed in 2022, up by 42% from 2019, and Green Dot wants to cater to that segment, Singh said. 

“Given the majority of small business owners without a business bank account are rejected for loans – and a third of Credibly’s applicants do not have an existing business checking account – we believe this partnership will enable us to positively impact many more SMBs,” Singh said. 

BMO taps DailyPay to provide commercial customers earned wage access 

DailyPay, a payroll management and payments-providing fintech, is teaming with BMO Financial Group to provide the bank’s commercial clients with earned wage access.  

BMO’s clients can integrate employers’ payroll systems onto the platform and allow their employees to access their earned but unpaid income on their own schedule, according to DailyPay’s Sept. 21 release.  

“More than ever before, businesses require flexible digital payment solutions that reflect the changing economy and new expectations surrounding employees’ payment preferences,” Andrew Harrison, head of U.S. digital partnerships at BMO, said in the release. “Partnering with DailyPay is one of the many ways we’re empowering our clients to help their employees by providing innovative and convenient payment solutions.” 

The offering can help commercial banking clients in hiring and retaining workers in a tight labor market, the release stated.  

Santander Bank and TD Bank are other major financial institutions to use DailyPay’s services. 

Visit Bank Automation News’ Transactions Database, which lists the technology selected or acquired by companies in the financial services industry, with a specific focus on technology that enhances automation.