CSI globalVCard Ramps Up Staff On B2B/FX Demand

If ramping up staff is any indication of rising demand, corporate payments firm CSI globalVCard has been taking up its staff count for precisely that reason. The firm said earlier this month that it had brought on board a trio of new executives to help expand its global partnership operations and had moved that segment’s headquarters to Dallas from Southwest Florida.

In an interview with PYMNTS, two of those executives spoke about the evolving need for B2B innovation and technology-driven account tracking and oversight.

Jim Foster, who comes to CSI from MasterCard and who now oversees payment network, processor and financial institution partnerships, and Larry Kirschner, newly installed as head of FX sales and alliances with tech startups after a multi-year Wells Fargo tenure, said that the initial thrust of the firm’s new hires represented a movement to, as Kirschner said, “get closer to the firm’s customers … and to drive global expansion.” Regardless of vertical, they agreed, firms are in need of streamlining processes, especially as they become ever more extended across time zones and supply chains.

The overall landscape for FX, said Kirschner, is one where pain points exist where SMBs, and firms of all verticals, devote significant “attention to the strategic management of FX, such as hedging and risk … and yet they are less engaged on the project side.” Paying vendors and others working with (but outside) a firm may also take a toll on a firm’s financial performance. A firm may, in a hypothetical situation, pay its suppliers (for goods or services) in dollars, and yet, that choice may largely ignore the preferences of a vendor. In terms of payments, said Kirschner, “not everybody wants dollars every day” or for every payment. Currency fluctuations may, in fact, make such conversions costly to a firm’s suppliers. In fact, added Kirschner, the situation can arise where a B2B payment is made in dollars, and then, the contractor returns to the firm that made the payment and asks for additional payment, noting that they feel they’d been shortchanged a bit.

Everyday transactions, added Foster, especially those done on an everyday basis in volume, can benefit from the elimination of inefficiencies (and paper-based processes, including check writing), which remains a key initiative for the firm. With offerings such as those of vCards, said Foster, that means firms can track “when vendors fill an order, when and how payments are made and how accounts payable is functioning … and this helps to redeploy staff” as attention can be turned elsewhere.