Visa partners with major banks to launch VBIP in Australia

Visa has announced a partnership with ANZ, NAB, HSBC, and Westpac to introduce Visa B2B Integrated Payments (VBIP) in Australia, aimed at enhancing and simplifying business-to-business transactions for companies of varying scales.

The VBIP solution is integrated within the SAP Business Technology Platform, which helps businesses automate their B2B payments. This integration eliminates the need for additional reconciliation processes, thereby boosting productivity for administration and finance departments and allowing more focus on business growth activities.

Australian businesses that utilise the SAP platform will benefit from the capability to direct commercial payments to all suppliers, including those not accepting card payments.

The integration into SAP is designed to be straightforward with minimal effort required for implementation.

The service is available through Visa's local participating partners including ANZ, NAB, HSBC, and Westpac, with potential expansion to include more partners in the future.

Chris Newkirk, President of Commercial and Money Movement Solutions at Visa, commented, "Business-to-business payments should not be complicated. And Australians want B2B payments to be as simple and intuitive as the seamless payments they experience as consumers. This milestone will help address common pain points faced by business owners, helping to close working capital gaps and digitise B2B payments across supply chains."

Newkirk added, "For a growing company managing multiple suppliers, payment processes can be automated to reduce the risk of late fees, allowing them to focus on improving their product offerings and customer service while effectively managing supplier payments and cash flow."

This development follows a recent announcement by Visa regarding its collaboration with SAP across the Asia Pacific region to improve B2B payment experiences. The focus is on securing and integrating transactions within existing SAP systems.

Philippa Campbell, Head of Transaction Banking at ANZ Australia and PNG, stated, "As payments become increasingly digital, ANZ is committed to helping our customers streamline their processes and elevate their payment workflows to improve the way they pay suppliers." She mentioned that the partnership with Visa and SAP enhances ANZ's current payment solutions by integrating financial services into the systems customers already utilise.

Paul Riley, Executive for Business & Private Transaction Banking at NAB, expressed excitement regarding the alliance with Visa. He remarked, "As Australia's largest business bank, NAB is focused on making things simpler and quicker for our customers so they can focus on building their businesses."

"We're excited about partnering with Visa on innovations like VBIP which will help business owners simplify procurement and pay their suppliers faster so they can spend more time on the things that matter."

Jeff Byrne, Managing Director of Global Transaction Services at Westpac Institutional Bank, also commented on the new service: "Providing our customers with new capability in payments that create efficiency and value is an important part of Westpac's offer."

"We are pleased to be able to offer VBIP embedded payments within the SAP environment as it provides our customers the ability to pay suppliers with a card embedded in their B2B payment flows."

Byrne noted the benefits of integrating card payments into the broader payment system: "This has the potential to provide process efficiencies and cost benefits where card payments have previously been a stand-alone process. Importantly it could also provide access to more working capital solutions within their technology of choice."