GraspPay has added Corporate Spending Innovations, formerly CSI GlobalVCard, as its second virtual card issuing partner. Wex had been GraspPay's sole issuing partner since the solution launched in 2015, but Grasp Technologies chief security officer and VP Dave Lukas had said it would be open to more partners after the first year.
GraspPay has been marketed as a single-use virtual card product but functions more as a connector of virtual card solutions, online booking tools and travel management companies. Rather than integrating with each booking tool, a virtual card provider can plug into GraspPay and connect to its partners. Conferma functions similarly.
CSI, which partners with five banks in the U.S., one bank in Canada and a European bank, will provide clients with more bank options and mobile technology, according to CSI SVP of travel solutions Juliann Pless.
If there's a problem, GraspPay support will be the first point of contact, but the company may contact CSI for such problems as credit issues. "Typically, if there's an issue, we'll see it there [in the booking stage], but it may be that you're out of credit on the back end. … We'll alert CSI and work with them to figure it out," Lukas explained. "To make the service easy, come to us first and we'll take a look."
Last year CSI began looking into incorporating a booking component to its platform and app but a year later is still debating the best way to do that, Pless said. "We are a payment provider and we do not want to stray too far from where our knowledge and expertise lie," she said. In the meantime, CSI partnered with AmTrav Corporate Travel last year to allow clients to use virtual cards for hotel bookings on the TMC's desktop booking tool. CSI also partnered with Concur Compleat for a virtual card integration in the mid-office. While CSI works on a direct integration with SAP Concur Travel's booking tool, Pless said, GraspPay provides Concur booking capability, as well as integration with other booking tools.
Grasp and CSI are currently integrating their first client, according to Lukas.