How virtual cards boost business

Virtual bank cards are set to improve banking safety while offering a convenient payment experience for businesses in South Africa.

Lauren Deva, head of commercial transactions at FNB Commercial, says the move towards virtual cards in South Africa is an essential one for the digital transformation journey of businesses. It also coincides with the phasing out of cheques, which are no longer accepted as a valid payment method.

“There has been an overwhelming response to our Virtual Card offering, from both individual and business customers, with approximately over 200 000 cards activated since January this year,” she says. “A key security feature on the Virtual Card is the dynamic Card Verification Value (CVV) security number that changes every hour to help minimise the risk of fraud. 

“Our business clients have the flexibility to create multiple Virtual Cards and the expiry period is longer than that of a physical card. Furthermore, the Virtual Card can be uploaded and used on various online subscription platforms such as Microsoft for seamless, safe payments.”

She unpacks eight key benefits of Virtual Cards for businesses:

• Businesses can easily facilitate business-to-business payments.
• The Virtual Card removes the need for individual corporate cards as it can be safely used by multiple people and the CVV constantly updates.
• Considerably reducing the risk of online fraud as the verification data is always different
• Since the virtual card is saved within your banking app, it is impossible for it to be lost
• It is a convenient payment method for business travel or business expenses.
• Businesses can track and approve spending which provides them with better over business expenditure.
• Expenses can be allocated to the correct team budget within your business and you can limit purchasing so that no employee spends more than necessary.
• Virtual cards can be frozen or cancelled at any time from your banking app, and you can activate a new virtual card within the app at the touch of a button. This means there is no need to go into a bank branch or pay for a new card to be issued.
• Businesses can load their Virtual Cards on trusted websites or apps for safer and convenient purchases. The Virtual Cards can also be used for Business to Business (B2B) eCommerce payments, streaming services and QR payments via Scan to Pay on the FNB app.

“As technology evolves in different aspects of your business, your banking too should evolve so that your business can reap the benefits of increased convenience, reduced costs and efficient banking,” says Deva. “The virtual bank card is just one more layer in that constant evolution.”