Visa and US Bank have formed a joint venture company, providing a global financial supply chain network for companies and governments to electronically process invoices and payments.
The new company, called Syncada, will offer a business-to-business network for participants to process and track invoices, make and receive payments around the world, and have payables or receivables financed through local and global financial institutions.
The venture will tap US Bank's PowerTrack, an automated B2B e-invoicing, payment processing and trade finance network. The bank is also providing staff.
Meanwhile Visa has made a capital investment in Syncada and says it will bring its experience in building and managing a multi-bank network, as well as marketing, sales and risk management support to the venture.
The partners say the network will allow banks to offer commercial clients standardised B2B invoice processing, financing and payment services across a variety of payment types and local currencies.
In addition, the firms claim their venture will help financial institutions build transaction and credit-based treasury management business by offering the network's services to buyer and supplier clients.
Participants will save money by eliminating paper processes, cut billing and payment errors and get more accurate accounting of spending by category, says Visa.
Syncada will be headquartered in Minneapolis with operations in Chicago, Memphis, Toronto, Mumbai and Brussels. Day-to-day operations are led by its independent management team.
Joseph Saunders, chairman and CEO, Visa, says: "Syncada complements Visa's core payments business by expanding our capabilities in B2B supply chain management. By investing in this leading platform, we can offer Visa's financial institution clients around the world access to Syncada's services, backed by a comprehensive sales and support infrastructure that will help extend the reach and capabilities of Visa's commercial product suite."
Richard Davis, CEO, US Bancorp, adds: "Taking what we built in PowerTrack, combining it with Visa's deep experience in building a multi-bank network and transforming it into Syncada will enable the network to grow by expanding the offering to new partners around the globe."