Los Angeles – BMO Financial Group is piloting a MasterCard virtual card product with two U.S.-based clients, BMO vice president of North American corporate card products Steve Pedersen this week told BTN here during the 2014 Global Business Travel Association annual convention. Meanwhile, the bank also is gearing up to launch "in a couple of weeks" mobile capabilities, according to Pedersen.
The BMO virtual card pilot participants, which Pedersen did not identify, can create one-time-use 16-digit card numbers to pay for both travel and procurement expenses, he explained. Users can set exact available fund amounts, restrict available merchants and set specific dates for the cards to be used.
"We're piloting first in the U.S., then Canada, and we'll be looking to do a full rollout beginning next year," Pedersen said.
When asked why BMO decided to partner with MasterCard, Pedersen said, "because it's a good product."
"It made so much more sense to leverage their capabilities as opposed to trying to create something from scratch," he continued.
Mobile Moves
Although BMO in June admitted to BTN that it was "a little behind" on the mobile front, the bank now is preparing to boost such online and mobile capabilities for both program administrators and travelers with the development of new mobile features like payment capability, receipt-capture functionality and the ability to check balance and credit limits.
Program administrators also will be able to use the platform to view expense and delinquency reports and check whether travelers are nearing credit limits. BMO plans to allow administrators in the future to increase or decrease credit lines, Pedersen said. The bank plans to provide such capabilities for Android and iOS mobile devices.
BMO previously announced it would begin issuing chip-and-PIN corporate cards upon renewal or replacement. It also plans to have all U.S. ATMs chip-certified by the end of the year.