Mastercard Expands Virtual Card Platform With New Security, Payment Controls
By CU Today Staff —
PURCHASE, N.Y.— Mastercard has expanded its virtual card platform with new security controls and integration capabilities aimed at helping businesses and financial institutions better manage commercial payments, as adoption of virtual card technology continues to grow globally.
The company said its Mastercard In Control platform now supports issuers, platforms and corporate customers across 43 countries and 174 currencies.
The enhancements include new Issuer Enforced Controls that allow financial institutions to set spending limits, transaction caps and card validity periods when virtual cards are created, as well as expanded Clearing Controls that validate transactions through the clearing stage to help prevent unauthorized payments. Mastercard said fraud rates on virtual cards are less than one-fifth those of traditional payment cards, with even lower rates for cards issued through Mastercard In Control.
"As payments become more digitized and embedded into business workflows, expectations for performance, security and control are higher than ever," said Marc Pettican, global head of corporate solutions at Mastercard. "We're expanding our virtual card capabilities to deliver more unified and scalable experiences — helping partners simplify how they implement and scale virtual card programs with greater security, control and consistency."
Mastercard also announced enhancements to its Commercial Connect API, which enables virtual card creation and payment initiation through a single integration, while expanding its embedded payments ecosystem through partnerships with enterprise software providers and financial institutions.
Spencer Dunham, vice president of financial services and payments practice at Kaiser Associates, said the market is increasingly focused on operational capabilities.
"Kaiser's analysis shows that virtual card providers increasingly compete on operational proof: platform maturity, configurable controls, ERP connectivity, and implementation paths that reduce friction for issuers and corporates," Dunham said. "Against that backdrop, Mastercard's In Control capabilities and Commercial Connect API give banks a differentiated foundation for scaling virtual card programs with greater control and less integration friction."
Originally reported by CU Today.