Visa, Other Firms Get Together to Launch b.yond System
With the pace of development in mobile payments—and by extension the fintech space of which it’s part—steadily climbing, it’s not a surprise to see facilitating technologies gain ground alongside the customer-facing material. Our friends at Visa tipped us off about one such development, a coalition-developed project known as b.yond, which will help drive further development in the sector by making it easier to put digital payment solutions out into the end users’ hands.
The b.yond system had a surprisingly large group of developers behind it; working with Visa on this project were fully seven different partners, including AllPay, Cornercard, Global Processing Services, Meawallet, Modulr, Pannovate and W2 Global.
With b.yond, users can bring out whole new payments solutions in as little as four to eight weeks, a significant reduction over previous launch windows. Since businesses are now able to test potential products by instituting just a few wallet and card accounts, that makes testing that much easier to keep track of. In turn, rolling out new, fully-tested products rapidly should have a positive knock-on effect of improving user retention and maybe drawing in a few new ones besides.
Better yet, b.yond helps reduce complexity in product launches, and also helps cut down on the number of stakeholders involved in an ecosystem. By setting up shop with b.yond, users get access to the full range of options required to launch a program, including Know Your Customer (KYC) tools, card control systems, peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers and more.
Consortium leader and b.yond founder Neil Harris noted “b.yond is breaking the mold with its consortium of industry leading companies who are coming together to drive fintech innovation to a new level of simplicity and speed. The project has been all about collaboration-led innovation and with an established list of other leading companies wanting to join the consortium, we expect the initial propositions to grow exponentially as we onboard new organizations and regions.”
Again, good news, though it’s not the first time we’ve heard about a way-smoother for fintech operations. The good news for b.yond, meanwhile, is it’s going to have a serious name recognition advantage going for it. This is basically working with Visa. Sure, it’s working with a coalition of companies that involves Visa, but Visa’s right out there in the midst of them. That should draw a lot of users who already know and recognize the Visa brand.
Visa et al don’t have the first-mover advantage here, though, so they may have a tougher time than expected breaking in. However, that name edge should pack enough of a wallop to make b.yond a force in the field.