Visa Readies to Launch Blockchain-Based Digital Identity System with IBM

Visa’s Distributed Ledger Platform Provides Groundbreaking “Digital Identity” for Clients;

IBM and Bottomline Technologies Announced as New Partners for Commercial Launch

Visa Inc. announced new product details surrounding digital identity in preparation for a first quarter 2019 launch of Visa B2B Connect. This one-of-a-kind distributed ledger-based platform is designed to give financial institutions a simple, fast and secure way to process cross border business-to-business payments globally.

“With B2B Connect, we’re developing a new way for businesses to make cross border, high value payments – fixing broken processes and breaking down geographic barriers along the way,” said Kevin Phalen, global head, Visa Business Solutions, Visa. “B2B Connect will facilitate payments for financial institutions for a variety of industry verticals, including supply chain, trade, institutional banking and more.”

B2B Connect’s digital identity feature tokenizes an organization’s sensitive business information, such as banking details and account numbers, giving them a unique identifier that can be used to facilitate transactions on the platform. Encompassing safety, security and governance all in one solution, B2B Connect’s digital identity feature will transform the way information is exchanged in business-to-business cross-border transactions.

“B2B Connect’s digital identity greatly reduces the opportunity for fraud that might otherwise exist with checks, ACH and wire transfers today, while also helping companies remain compliant as part of the regulated financial ecosystem,” continues Phalen.

Expanding Partnerships

In preparation for the commercial launch next year, Visa is expanding partnerships to add additional functionality to the B2B Connect platform.

As part of the B2B Connect platform, Visa is integrating open source Hyperledger Fabric framework from the Linux Foundation with Visa’s core assets. This will help provide an improved process to facilitate financial transactions on a scalable, permissioned network. The work between Visa and IBM will enable our mutual financial institutional clients and ecosystem to maximize the network. Building on a 40-year relationship between Visa and IBM, this is a natural progression that highlights both companies’ commitment to ensuring a frictionless cross-border payment experience with the utmost security, trust and transparency.

“When industry leaders in payments and in financial services technology work together using open source technology, the entire business landscape stands to benefit,” said Jason Kelley, general manager, IBM Blockchain Services. “IBM Blockchain Platform and Hyperledger technology are delivering real business value today and B2B Connect is one of the most powerful examples to date of how blockchain is transforming payments.”

Bottomline Technologies, a leading provider of financial technology that helps make complex business payments simple, smart and secure, is working with Visa to be the first partner to integrate its solution with B2B Connect.

With the integration, Bottomline’s financial institutions who participate in B2B Connect can gain easy access to the B2B Connect platform, without requiring complex technology updates.

“Bottomline serves 1,200 financial institutions globally, and they are always looking to us to provide them with value-add innovations that simplify processes and increase efficiencies,” said Rob Eberle, President & CEO, Bottomline Technologies. ”We’re thrilled to work with Visa on this integration to enable our mutual financial institution clients to easily access the B2B Connect platform.”