JPMorgan joins Visa, Billtrust Business Payments Network

JPMorgan Chase has become the first card issuer to join the Visa and Billtrust Business Payments Network in an effort to streamline the delivery of electronic B2B payments for its commercial card clients.

The BPN was created last November when Visa teamed up with Billtrust to accelerate adoption of B2B payments automation by creating a directory of suppliers who accept digital payments. Since launching the BPN, Billtrust reports that it has automated almost $2 billion in virtual card payments for suppliers on the network and has eliminated over 55,000 hours of manual data entry, processing and invoice matching against suppliers’ outstanding invoices for the companies participating in BPN.

“Since announcing BPN last year, we have received very positive feedback from financial institutions and are pleased to have J.P. Morgan as our first issuer using the platform,” stated Kevin Phalen, global head of Visa Business Solutions, in the press release. “As the leader in B2B digital payments, we are on track to surpass $1 trillion in payment volume this year and will continue to find new ways to integrate digital payments into B2B payment flows.”

One of the key drivers behind the creation of the BPN is to entice businesses to eschew manual data entry for billing and payments and choose automated digital processes that are more efficient, less costly and produce fewer errors. The press release highlights a study from Lewel Research that states more than half (57%) of companies still use manual data entry for payables and that 71% of companies reported manual data entry is a pain point for their accounts payables departments.

The strategic partnership between Visa and Billtrust to create the BPN followed 2017 effort by to target B2B payments through the integration of Billtrust’s Virtual Card Capture and Visa’s Straight Through Processing solution. Virtual Card Capture routes virtual card payment instructions from banks and accounts payable departments to Billtrust for processing.