Mastercard has announced a series of enhancements to its Mastercard In Control® virtual card number (VCN) platform, strengthening its capabilities as businesses worldwide increasingly shift towards secure, scalable and digitally integrated B2B payment solutions. The latest innovations introduce advanced virtual card controls designed to reduce risks throughout the payment lifecycle, alongside a scalable connection to Mastercard’s growing embedded partner network.

The enhanced platform is designed to give enterprises, financial institutions and payment platforms greater flexibility, control and efficiency in managing corporate payments. Mastercard’s VCN ecosystem now spans issuers, direct platforms and corporates operating across 43 countries and territories, including 14 markets in Asia Pacific, and supports transactions in 174 currencies, highlighting its ability to facilitate global business expansion while maintaining consistent oversight.

Mastercard Executive Vice President, Commercial and New Payment Flows, Asia Pacific, Anouska Ladds, said businesses across the region are facing increasing pressure to digitise payments while also managing complex supplier relationships and working capital across cross-border operations. She noted that virtual cards can provide finance and procurement teams with greater flexibility while helping minimise risk and friction in supplier relationships.

One of the key enhancements is the Commercial Connect API, described by Kaiser Associates as the market’s only single API front door. The solution is designed to simplify how customers access, manage and scale virtual card capabilities, addressing integration challenges faced by businesses as they connect payment systems with existing business platforms.

The platform now offers expanded card controls that allow multiple control sets to be applied at the real card level. This enables businesses to enforce controls across transactions and associated virtual cards without requiring them to manage sensitive credentials. Mastercard has also simplified the integration process by enabling virtual card creation and payment initiation through a single, seamless step.

These improvements are expected to help businesses reduce operational complexity, accelerate the implementation of payment solutions and scale virtual card programmes more efficiently. By providing a more unified experience, Mastercard aims to help organisations integrate payment capabilities into their existing workflows while maintaining stronger control and visibility.

Mastercard is also expanding its embedded virtual card programme, which was launched globally in March 2025. Since then, dozens of partners across expense management, enterprise resource planning (ERP), accounts payable, travel, hospitality, healthcare and e-commerce have joined the programme to provide businesses with more integrated corporate payment experiences.

In Asia Pacific, Mastercard, together with Coupa and HSBC, recently completed its first live fully embedded finance virtual card transaction in the region. The transaction enabled Pact Group to make supplier payments using virtual cards embedded directly within its procurement platform, demonstrating how integrated payment solutions can help streamline workflows and modernise B2B commerce.

The company is also expanding virtual card applications across industry-specific use cases. Partnerships with companies such as Juniper Travel, HBX Group and TravelSoft highlight the growing adoption of VCNs within the travel industry, while Mastercard’s collaboration with Volo Health in India is helping improve healthcare payment, collection and reconciliation processes through greater automation and efficiency.

Security remains another key focus of Mastercard’s latest developments. According to Mastercard data, fraud rates on virtual cards are less than one-fifth of those recorded on non-virtual cards, with even lower fraud rates reported for virtual cards issued through Mastercard In Control.

To further strengthen protection, Mastercard has introduced Issuer Enforced Controls, which allow issuers to establish baseline safeguards when virtual card numbers are created. These controls can include spending limits, transaction caps and validity periods, helping ensure that appropriate safeguards are implemented from the outset.

Mastercard has also enhanced its Clearing Controls, which extend transaction control validation beyond the authorisation stage and into the clearing process. The improvements allow corporates and platforms to block invalid transactions, apply more precise controls and better manage payment timing, while enabling centralised policy management as virtual card programmes expand.

Citi is already live with both Issuer Enforced Controls and Clearing Controls and is expected to become the first issuer to roll out these virtual card capabilities globally later this year. Together with Mastercard’s network-level security, tokenisation, fraud monitoring and enterprise-grade cybersecurity solutions, the enhanced controls are designed to provide stronger protection throughout the payment lifecycle.

Mastercard Global Head of Corporate Solutions Marc Pettican said the growing digitisation and integration of payments into business workflows has raised expectations around security, performance and control. He added that the latest enhancements are intended to provide partners with more unified and scalable virtual card experiences while simplifying implementation and supporting secure growth.

The developments further position Mastercard In Control as a comprehensive solution for businesses seeking to modernise B2B payments. With enhanced security controls, embedded payment capabilities and a unified API connection, Mastercard aims to help enterprises, banks and platforms simplify payment operations, improve visibility and manage corporate transactions with greater confidence.