CSI GlobalVCard's European Expansion, Revamped Mobile App & Partnerships

Payments provider CSI GlobalVCard has opened a London office to support its multinational clients in Europe and will offer as many as 120 currencies through a partnership with corporate prepaid payments firm PrePay Solutions, CSI GlobalVCard SVP of travel Juliann Pless told BTN. The London-based PrePay Solutions—70 percent owned by France's Edenred and 30 percent owned by MasterCard—offers virtual, prepaid, loyalty and gift cards, among other products. CSI Enterprises has offered payment solutions since 1989, including purchasing and fleet card solutions, for verticals like advertising, media, sports and entertainment. In 2013 it expanded into business travel by partnering with travel management companies and offering GlobalVCard to customers. It partners with 15 TMCs, primarily in the U.S., and brands the company as CSI GlobalVCard.

CSI GlobalVCard, which issues in Canadian and U.S. dollars, will add euros and British pounds and gradually expand to other currencies, Pless said. "The driving reason for us going global was: Our clients in North America who use virtual cards for accounts payable … wanted to mirror what they were doing in the States with all of their global offices and locations and didn't want to use multiple providers," she said. CSI GlobalVCard will tap into PrePay Solutions' currency capabilities and utilize its technology on the back end, and CSI GlobcalVCard will serve on the front-end with customer-facing technology.

Expanding Virtual Card's Use

In 2016, CSI GlobalVCard's processed volume grew 4,000 percent year over year, resulting from an increase in hotels that accept virtual cards, partnerships and the types of travelers using virtual cards, according to Pless. "Instead of just using virtual cards for contractors or recruits, customers are seeing the benefits and rolling it out to all their travelers and employees, including executive-level travelers."

Clients also have expanded use cases to airline tickets and are evaluating others. Previously, clients used virtual cards primarily for lodging, she said. Last July, CSI signed a partnership with Avis Budget Group to enable virtual payments for car rental; CSI will integrate directly with Avis Budget's website and several TMCs, but the companies are still working out the logistics.

CSI GlobalVCard also is exploring the use of virtual cards in meetings. While some of its customers already use virtual cards for booking meetings space or holding blocks of rooms, Pless said that's not done through direct integrations with partners. A direct integration could improve, for example, the process of sending guest names for room blocks, now typically sent to hotels as Excel spreadsheets. "We'd look to automatically send that out by [developing] a way for our system to ingest that information from either a TMC or another partner," Pless said.

CSI also is integrating its purchasing card and virtual card data with Certify.

Revamped Mobile App

CSI globalVCard soon will relaunch its mobile app, Pless said. Two features will remain after the app redesign. Program managers will continue to be able to send virtual cards to the app so travelers can display card images and numbers at check-in. And travelers will continue to be able to resend fax confirmations for the cards.

Additionally, the app will feature a user display with local weather and images of the city a traveler is in, based on geolocation. It also will offer links to Uber and expense management systems, Pless said. The company plans a soft launch at the end of March to hundreds of end users at 75 companies.