HCM CITY — Mastercard, on July 24, announced a series of enhancements to Mastercard In Control® – the industry-leading virtual card number (VCN) platform according to Kaiser Associates – reinforcing its position as a global leader in secure, scalable B2B payments.

New innovations include advanced virtual card controls that help reduce risk across the full payment lifecycle, and one scalable connection to Mastercard’s growing embedded partner network — enabling enterprises, financial institutions and platforms to manage payments with greater confidence, flexibility and efficiency.

Mastercard’s VCN ecosystem now includes issuers, direct platforms and corporates transacting across 43 countries and territories – including 14 in Asia Pacific – and 174 currencies, underscoring its ability to support global expansion while maintaining consistency and oversight.

Commercial Connect API, the market’s only single-API front door according to Kaiser Associates, is simplifying how customers control and scale virtual card capabilities. The solution addresses long-standing industry challenges, as 69 per cent of companies struggle to integrate payment and business systems.

New enhancements to the platform include expanded card controls, including the ability to apply multiple control sets at the real card level and simplified integration and accelerated access to end-to-end payment capabilities by enabling virtual card creation and payment initiation in one seamless step.

These capabilities offer businesses a more consistent way to integrate, control and scale their virtual card programmes, helping them reduce operational complexity, accelerate time to value and innovate faster within a single, unified experience.

Since Mastercard launched its embedded VCN program globally in March 2025, dozens of partners across expense management, ERP and accounts payable systems — as well as travel, hospitality, healthcare and e-commerce platforms — have signed up for a simpler, more unified corporate payment experience.

The programme’s integration model – recognised by Kaiser Associates as industry-leading – reduces onboarding complexity for issuers, platforms, and corporates.

As virtual card use grows across industries and regions, Mastercard continues to strengthen security at every stage of a transaction. Mastercard data shows that fraud rates are less than one-fifth on virtual cards compared to non-virtual cards, with that number being even lower when those virtual cards are issued through Mastercard In Control.

Mastercard is building on this with two distinct solutions that improve control across the virtual card lifecycle, including Issuer Enforced Controls and Clearing Controls. Citi is already live with both Issuer Enforced and Clearing Controls and is expected to be the first issuer to roll out these VCN capabilities globally, later this year.

Together, these capabilities are underpinned by Mastercard’s network-level security, tokenisation, and fraud monitoring, complemented by enterprise-grade cybersecurity solutions — delivering stronger, end-to-end protection across every stage of the transaction.

With Mastercard In Control, e-commerce flows are supported in real time on a platform designed to be always available, fast, and resilient. The platform offers smooth, secure, and dependable payment experiences that customers can trust — at e-commerce scale. — VNS