Payment processor Thredd has helped LianLian Global launch a virtual card program in the APAC market.
LianLian, a China-based cross-border payments company, has chosen Thredd to provide its Yueda virtual card to customers in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region in industries such as e-commerce, travel and international B2B trade, the company announced in a press release emailed to PYMNTS on Thursday (Aug. 8).
Tim Shen, co-CEO of LianLian, said Thredd’s virtual card issuing capabilities will fuel his company’s growth plans after the company secured payment licenses in key markets including mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, the US, the UK, Luxembourg, Thailand and Indonesia.
“We are excited to have found a partner in Thredd that can support us with virtual cards and ensure that payments are supported no matter where a customer needs to send them,” he said, according to the press release. “Having access to a local team of experts who speak our language has made implementation and ongoing operations seamless.”
The partnership comes at a time when, as PYMNTS wrote last month, virtual cards are changing the relationship between buyers and suppliers.
Speaking to PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster, Dean M. Leavitt, CEO of Boost Payment Solutions, explained that virtual cards will soon be more widely used in commercial payments, allowing buyers to extend their payment terms and suppliers to receive their payments faster.
“The leverage that exists on both sides of the equation (buyer and supplier) often dictates the method of payment,” he told Webster.
Leavitt added that in transactions between large companies, there is usually a balance of negotiating power that determines the choice of payment methods. This balance ensures that both parties are on equal footing in negotiations, resulting in fairer and more efficient payment arrangements. In times when suppliers hold the bargaining power, Leavitt stressed the importance of finding some balance.
“You need to make sure the supplier gets something for accepting card payment,” he said in an interview for the series “What’s Next in Payments: Halftime.”
At the same time, providers’ reluctance is hindering wider acceptance of virtual cards, as PYMNTS recently noted.
“Despite a clear economic benefit, adoption is far from the forecast growth potential and the industry does not yet have sufficiently good tools to improve the value proposition of virtual cards for providers, adequately explain that value proposition, or sell and launch the product,” the report said.
Paul Christensen, CEO of B2B payment accelerator Previse, who studied virtual card usage with PYMNTS Intelligence, noted that 80% of shoppers prefer virtual cards, but their usage accounts for only 2% of those shoppers’ accounts payable transactions.
