BMO and Mastercard have launched a capability that lets eligible BMO Corporate Card clients start and manage BMO Commercial virtual card payments directly inside the software they use to run their operations. BMO becomes the first Mastercard issuer in Canada to offer an integrated embedded finance and payment experience by virtual card.
The capability is available now for eligible clients in Canada and the United States. It connects commercial payments to enterprise resource planning, procurement, accounts payable and travel management systems, so businesses can handle payments inside their existing workflows. It runs on Mastercard’s Commercial Express framework, which gives participating software platforms a standard way to enable issuer backed virtual card payments, with the aim of reducing setup effort and supporting wider adoption.
The two companies said payment workflows inside companies have long been split across separate systems, with manual steps and disconnected banking portals. Under the new model, clients can pay supplier invoices, travel and corporate expenses without leaving their main workflow. Treasury, procurement and accounts payable teams can start, approve and reconcile virtual card transactions inside the platform they already use, and the companies point to tighter spending controls, automated reconciliation data and better working capital efficiency.
Seth Blacher, Head of TPS Product Management and Payments Modernization at BMO, said corporate card clients expect the bank to fit into their existing workflows as they digitise, and that the Mastercard partnership removes the gap between finance software and payment execution.
“As our Corporate Card clients digitize their operations, they expect us to integrate seamlessly into their existing workflows. This partnership with Mastercard lets us deliver exactly that by removing the friction between finance software and payment execution, creating a more streamlined payment experience,” Blacher said.
Diane Miquelon, Senior Vice President, Financial Institutions Partnerships at Mastercard Canada, said payments need to move alongside everyday business activity and that building virtual card capabilities into treasury and finance platforms reduces friction while improving security and control.
“As businesses digitize their operations, payments must move seamlessly alongside day-to-day business activities. By embedding Mastercard’s virtual card capabilities directly into the platforms where treasury and finance teams operate, we are removing friction, enhancing payment security, and helping organizations optimize working capital management with greater control and predictability,” Miquelon said.
For corporate finance teams, paying a supplier by virtual card from inside the system where the invoice already sits could cut down on switching between tools and manual checking, and keep spending controls and reconciliation data alongside the approval. For software providers, the shared framework is meant to make adding card payments less work. For BMO, being first among Mastercard issuers in Canada gives it an early position with those providers and with clients who want to pay without leaving their main workflow.
Digital Trade Outlook’s View: Virtual Card
What stands out is that the contest in commercial cards is moving from the card itself to the place where a payment is started. By going into the ERP, procurement and accounts payable tools that finance teams already use, BMO puts its virtual cards in front of the person approving an invoice, rather than waiting for that person to come to the bank. The Commercial Express framework may matter just as much, because a standard way for software platforms to connect issuers lowers the cost of adding more banks, which could shorten the head start that comes with being first in Canada.
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