Commercial Cards

Virtual Card Solutions

Payments to fit the demands of your business

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) provides a number of payment services aimed at meeting your business requirements. The right one for you will depend on many different factors, which may include:

• Urgency in paying suppliers to take advantage of discounts being offered
• Reach and acceptance of the payment method, ensuring payments can be made anywhere at anytime
• Cost of making payments
• Appetite to optimise cash flow and working capital
• Visibility and control of spend to reduce risk of fraud and misuse

If any of the these are key to your business, consider SVB’s Virtual Card platform to take care of your payment needs.

SVB’s virtual card solution

SVB’s virtual card solution is a platform which generates a unique 16-digit card number that’s linked to a single real charge card. Virtual cards can be used in the same way as a normal payment card for single or multiple ‘card not present’ transactions, anywhere around the world where MasterCard is accepted.

With usage expected to increase by 90% over the coming years, more businesses are opting to include virtual cards alongside other payment solutions like Bacs and traditional cards. SVB’s virtual card solution works to complement to your existing payment methods, or as a stand-alone solution for your payment needs.

Comfort and control

Virtual cards reduce the risk of fraud, misuse, loss or theft compared with plastic cards.

Because the cards are virtual, you never have to provide the real charge card number when you make payments. Instead you use the platform to issue a randomly generated virtual card number. This also removes the worry of cards being lost or stolen.

You can set the rules on how cards are used, giving you control and visibility over:

• Who has permission to create and approve them
• The amount users can spend
• When and where they can be used
• How often they can be used

Fit virtual cards around your business needs

You can set up our virtual cards with an approval workflow that suits the needs of your business and mirrors your existing purchasing processes. And with the ability to attach up to 29 data fields, you’ll be able to capture the reporting and reconciliation data that’s key to your business.

Integrates with your own systems

If you use travel management and procurement systems you can set up our virtual cards as a payment method on them, whether they’re in house or outsourced. Or create one for a supplier, giving them permission to charge the card themselves in accordance with rules you set, so you’ll save the time and effort needed to make payments each time.

Example uses for virtual cards

Virtual cards can be used to purchase all the products and services you might use a traditional credit card for:

• Project spend control - create a virtual card to capture all charges for a specific project
• Department or team spend control - allow different teams or departments to create their own virtual cards and set them up with approval workflows that meet finance policies in your business
• Accounts payable payments - pay your suppliers early and take advantage of discount terms
• One-time supplier and ad hoc payments – Set up one-time suppliers and ad hoc payments easily while still capturing the reporting and reconciliation that’s key to your business
• Business travel – stay in control of travel spend in your business by setting up virtual cards and approval flows to make sure travel bookings align to your internal travel policy. You can integrate directly into your travel booking systems to help support payment efficiency
• Procurement – improve efficiency by integrating our virtual card solution directly into procurement platforms and eMarketplace
• Working capital benefits – purchase with up to 56 days interest free so you can pay your suppliers promptly while keeping on top of cash flow

How it works

A number of ways to set it up

Web-based application (User Interface)

• Intuitive online application that doesn’t require integration into your own systems
• Enables authorised users to easily generate VCN’s for purchase requests
• Ideal for low volume and ad-hoc payments with workflow approval control.

Accounts Payable batch file

• Requests a VCN for invoice payments through a batch file from a financial system such as an enterprise resource planning system (ERP)
  or e-procurement
• Replaces existing accounts payable runs while maintaining your existing approval process
• Ideal for high volume accounts payable operations.

Application Program Interface (API)

• Enables real-time generation of VCN’s through direct integration with your systems and processes
• Developer-friendly interface, capable of high levels of configuration
• Ideal for high volume payments, a fragmented payee base or niche spending.