Wells Fargo Debuts Digital Supplier Payment Tool

Wells Fargo is beefing up its digital payments arsenal with a new service aimed at business customers.

The financial services giant on Thursday (Nov. 19) announced in a press release that it is adding a new solution to its WellsOne Virtual Commercial Card, enabling business customers to digitally pay invoices to suppliers and others.

To use the tool, customers electronically send payment instructions, which are routed to the WellsOne Virtual Card Payments service, the release stated. Each card payment is then assigned a virtual number tied to a commercial card account.

A key feature is the use of one-time, virtual card numbers to make the payments, one of the benefits of which is protection against fraud, Wells Fargo said in the release. The virtual number can only be used once, and only for the exact dollar amount in the payment instructions.

The payment, in turn, is sent by the bank — via the WellsOne Virtual Card Payments service — through a “digital secure channel” to the supplier on the other end for processing.

The new digital payments offering by one of the world’s largest banks comes with the pandemic having upended the business world, including traditional, paper-based ways of paying invoices.

As businesses are forced to do more and more work and bill paying remotely, there has been a steady rise in interest in replacing paper checks with digital payments, according to experts like Dean M. Leavitt, founder and CEO of Boost Payment Systems, who told PYMNTS that commercial cards, especially virtual cards, are poised for a steep takeoff amid the pandemic.

In the Wells Fargo release, Mary Mazzochi, senior vice president and manager of the Commercial Card product suite at Wells Fargo, said: “It’s important we continue to introduce simple ways to help our customers transition to new digital payment strategies by using products and channels they are already familiar with. Unlike paper checks, our virtual card service provides more transparent, precise payment timing to help optimize working capital, and added controls like single-use numbers help further mitigate the risk of fraud.”