Clear2Pay extends hub to run virtual institutions
Clear2Pay has launched Business-in-a-Box, based on the company’s existing corporate payments hub (CPH) and open payments framework (OPF). The two products are aligned with the company’s new Virtual Vault Account Solution (Vivas) in a package that can be used to establish a virtual financial institution.
Mark Hartley, chief innovation officer at Clear2Pay, said it enables a corporate treasurer to consolidate activities onto one physical bank account. This means treasuries can gain all the efficiency benefits of being able to close other bank accounts and streamline accounts payable (AP) and receivable (AR) processes by implementing Vivas. All of Clear2Pay’s existing CPH customers using it on AP and AR, and OPF customers reliant on the payments engine will have the option to be added to the virtual platform as it is rolled out. Alternatively, Vivas can be specified separately ‘out of the box’ as long as partner banks’ payment engines can connect.
“We are already using the Vivas virtual solution ourselves at Clear2Pay and getting benefits on reconciliation, better cash flow oversight and control, efficiency and so forth,” said Hartley. “For instance, it means we can issue an invoice and give a customer a dedicated virtual Iban [international bank account number], feeding into a single physical bank account.”
The cloud-based solution relies on an easily accessible application processing interface. “It is already helping Clear2Pay deal with some 30 legal entities and banking relationships internally and manage its more than 100 banking relationships more efficiently, allowing us to rationalise our bank accounts,” added Hartley, who is confident that corporate treasurers can gain similar benefits as it is rolled out.
