BMO Joins up with Mastercard and Extend to introduce a mobile wallet for virtual cards

BMO Commercial Bank revealed recently that it is working on a new mobile wallet for virtual cards. The bank teamed up with two other companies — Mastercard and Extend — and their product will grant their clients the power to create and push virtual cards to their employees’ mobile wallets.

This will make BMO the first global Mastercard issuer to offer contactless virtual cards using its co-branded Extend for the BMO application.

Making payments on the go is easier than ever

Thanks to the new wallet, corporate card clients will be able to create virtual cards as well as send and manage them. The cards themselves are beneficial as they allow users to make simplified payments, whether they are doing their shopping on the internet, within the app, or in stores.

Extend’s CEO, Andrew Jamison, commented on the new development. He said: “People expect to be able to make payments on the go, even when those payments are for business expenses. By enabling virtual cards in mobile wallets, we have traveled the last mile toward widespread adoption.”

Jamison added that the ability to empower employees to make ad hoc in-store purchases safely and securely should be the norm. Now, the wallet and virtual card will allow it to become reality and equally available to everyone.

At the same time, this also provides an opportunity for businesses, as the new solution will allow users to use their virtual cards almost anywhere. Spending will become more efficient, but also more available.

Virtual cards are the next frontier

BMO’s head of Treasury and Payment Solutions, Product Management, and Payments Modernization, Derek Vernon, also commented on the move. He said “By offering mobile wallet functionality for physical cards and now virtual cards and contactless payments, BMO is equipping our Corporate Card clients with convenient tools to manage their businesses and make financial progress.”

According to him, this will make banking faster and simpler for the people, and it was possible thanks to the bank’s investments in sophisticated technology and partnerships with organizations like Mastercard. As a result, the bank is in a position to deliver innovative, secure digital payment tool that users have come to expect from a digital-first bank.

Mastercard’s Marie Elizabeth Aloisi, the Executive VP, also added that virtual cards will be the next frontier for digitization of business payments. Businesses can easily deploy virtual cards from their existing BMO Corporate Card program. There is no need for technical integrations, and the entire process takes only five minutes.

With this, BMO is paving the way as a digitally-enabled, future-ready bank. It harnesses the potential of new, emerging technologies for real-time information and processing. If nothing else, the agreement will act as one more milestone in the bank’s Digital First journey.