Boost gears up for Visa's enhanced data era

Pushpendra Mehta: Hello and a warm welcome to the Open Treasury Podcast. Your go to source for the latest news and analysis in corporate cash and treasury management. This show is brought to you by ctmfile.com and the Treasury News Network where Treasury professionals learn and share the information that matters most. I am your host, Pushpendra Mehta. Uh, joining me today is Dean Levitt, Founder and CEO of Boost Payment Solutions, an organization widely recognized as the global leader in B2B payments operating in more than 45 countries. Dean is a highly respected veteran of the electronics payments industry with over 30 years of leadership experience across both private and public sector companies. Dean, a uh, very warm welcome to you.

Dean Levitt: Great to see you as well, sir.

Pushpendra Mehta: Dean, we truly appreciate you joining us today and sharing your time and expertise as we explore some of the most pressing topics shaping the future of payments and treasury management. In today's edition of the Open Treasury Podcast, we'll be covering four key stories. Boost Payment Solutions readiness to support clients through Visa's new Commercial Enhanced Data Program or CEDP Treasury Digital Payments and Payment Strategy, the evolution of payments fraud and how it is spreading across corporate channels and finally, an essential working capital metric that treasurers should closely track in uncertain times. As always, our uh audience can watch videos on the CTM file YouTube channel and explore insightful articles, interviews, industry roundups as well as other content on ctmfile.com either by visiting the site directly or through the links in our show notes. Lets commence today's discussion with our uh, first story. Boost Payment Solutions Gearing up for Visas Enhanced Data UH ERA Boost Payment Solutions has announced full readiness to support clients through Visa's newly introduced commercial enhanced data uh program, a structured overhaul of the Cards Network B2B interchange model. The program represents one of the most significant changes to commercial card processing in decades, replacing Visa's long standing level 2 and level 3 interchange categories with a framework based on real time data validation. Dean Visa's Commercial Enhanced Data Program or CEDP represents the biggest shift in commercial card processing in decades. Moving the ecosystem from simply passing enhanced data uh, to requiring real time machine validated accuracy. In this regard, how has Boost Payment Solutions engineered its platform to particularly its pre funding model and automated data validation capabilities to ensure that clients not only stay compliant but actually gain a competitive advantage under cedp.

Dean Levitt: Sure. So uh, for the past several months, uh, shortly after Visa announced cedp, uh and all the changes associated, all the requirements associated with it, uh, our technical and operational teams have been working hard to make sure that when the program commenced, which was the Middle of August, I'm uh, sorry, October last month, uh, that we would be ready and that our clients, customers, uh, our suppliers, payees would be ready, uh, which we did and uh, which they were. So there were quite a few technical implementations that were required. The essence of the change is that Visa is now essentially verifying that the data associated with these uh, card based transactions are uh, in fact real data, uh, essentially coming off the invoice. Uh, whereas historically there have been uh, concerns on the part of Visa that the data that is associated with these transactions was not accurate, true and complete data. So what this program does, it requires either the supplier who is submitting the transactions, if they're doing so on their own behalf, or uh, companies like Boost, uh, that are submitting the transactions in a straight through processed environment as we do that the data is in fact complete and it has all of the fields that are required in order for that supplier to benefit from the lowest possible interchange rate that Visa has made, uh, available to them. Now part of the program has been in fact a 15 basis point reduction in the interchange once the transaction is verified by Visa. What Boost did is we kind of took even an extra step. What we envision as being part of the, frankly the problem associated with the way in which the program was rolled out was that suppliers would have to first in the first instance pay a significantly higher interchange rate and then in the event that transaction was verified after the fact, to be eligible for the lower CEDP rate, the supplier then would be rebated. The difference which was, call it about 1%, 100 basis points. So uh, our view was that we had such high level of confidence that we would be able to process these transactions uh, so that they would be fully verified. So our view was to uh, have our suppliers avoid the financial and uh, reconciliation friction that would come with, you know, paying a higher amount upfront then getting rebated after the fact. Uh, we decided just to fund, pre fund all of our suppliers based on their actually enjoying the lower interchange rate. So we didn't have to go through the rebate process or the suppliers did not have to go through the rebate process. When Visa after the fact does in fact verify these transactions and initiates a rebate, we would just simply get rebated uh, essentially as a reimbursement for fronting that differential for our suppliers. So we just thought it was a great way to smooth out the transactions and eliminate the need for the supplier to have to deal with the upfront additional cost and the reconciliation process afterwards. So it's really proven to be, um, frankly a great move that we've done. It's a great accommodation for our supplier base and as I understand it was fairly unique in the marketplace. I'm not aware of any other processors or acquirers or fintechs that facilitate commercial card payments, uh, have done the same thing.

Pushpendra Mehta: Thank you, Dean. That's extremely insightful. Let's turn to the next topic. Treasury digital payments and payment strategy. According to the 2025 AFP digital payment strategy Survey report, digital payments continues to gain ground, but adoption is still hindered by a range of persistent obstacles. These barriers are diverse with several recurring challenges standing out. To address these barriers, the AFP report recommends updating an organization's payment strategy as it is a strategic move organizations can make to align financial operations with evolving technolog, shifting customer expectations and broader business goals. Dean, given the barriers many firms still face, what steps do you recommend, given your varied experience, that B2B companies should take to update and strengthen their payment strategy in 2026 and beyond?

Dean Levitt: Sure. So first of all, it is important that corporations, both on the ap, the payer side, and the AR side, the payee side, do in fact have a payment strategy. Most do not. It has been kind of an issue that's been kind of on the side. Right. Uh, they focus on obviously the primary business at hand, but the payment strategy, the way in which they pay or get paid has been largely just kind of, however it's been in the past, that's how it's going to remain. But what we're seeing is more and more, uh, companies, uh, especially those that are, you know, a little more sophisticated when it comes to their, uh, finance activities, are in fact putting together payment strategies. And really what we're recommending is first of all, partner with payment companies that know what they're doing, especially as it relates to business, to business transactions. Make sure you are partnering with a company that understands the idiosyncrasies associated with B2B transactions, uh, especially the larger transactions that might house many invoices, each invoice with up to hundreds of line item, uh, detail associated with these transactions. So as a company that's looking to create a strategy around your payments, make sure that you focus not just on the movement of money, which is obviously mission critical, but also the data exchange. Make sure that you're working with a company that can provide you the data that associated with these transactions that allows you to, uh, essentially ingest it right into your ERP or accounting system. That's really important and I think when most companies think about their payment strategy, again, either as a buyer or supplier, the primary focus is on the movement of money. But equally there should be a focus on, uh, the data. What data am I sending out, what data am I receiving back? How can I reconcile these transactions? The other element I think people should really focus on is how can I dramatically reduce or possibly even eliminate the human effort associated with the payment. Very often companies receive, you know, a, uh, super high velocity of payments coming in, so they have to dedicate AR resources, HR resources to field these payments coming in regardless of the payment modality and manually process the payment if it's, let's say, a commercial car transaction and then manually post. So I think to the extent that companies are getting deeper into the strategy, they can look for ways in which they can eliminate or dramatically reduce the human efforts associated with these transactions to both speed up the transactions, reduce their costs associated with the transaction, and frankly, eliminate a lot of human error.

Pushpendra Mehta: Well, Dean, that's a compelling outlook on how organizations can modernize and strengthen their payment strategy. Your guidance provides a clear path forward for firms navigating digital transformations. Let's move on to our next story, the evolution of payments fraud and how it is extending or spreading across corporate channels. Fraud in payments isn't just growing, it's evolving, becoming smarter, faster, and harder to detect. New research from Detours Insights, commissioned by BNY and published in the new Treasury Frontier, reveals a troubling trend in payments fraud. Despite significant corporate investment in prevention and mitigation, 29% of organizations reported experiencing fraud across multiple payment channels, uh, with digital payments bearing the highest rate of attack. The data shows that altered payment information and card fraud were the most common types reported. And the relevant, relatively narrow spread across fraud categories, ranging from 16% to 29%, suggest that malicious actors are strategically targeting multiple payment channels rather than focusing on a single payment method. While ACH fraud sits at the lower end at 16%, fraud tied to digital and cross border transactions is much higher in the 22 to 25% range. This reinforces the growing vulnerabilities in a globally interconnected payments ecosystem. Dean, the research shows that fraud is spreading across all payment channels. But an area that stands out, at least for me, is that digital and cross border fraud categories are at around 25%. From your vantage point, what makes cross border flows such an attractive target for threat actors? And what practical measures can corporate, treasury and payment teams take to better safeguard these transactions?

Dean Levitt: Sure. So I guess there's kind of two layers. Uh, the first Is any company now that doesn't dedicate significant resources generally to reducing the attack surface of their organization and building up all the appropriate shields through software and processes and technology, do so at their own peril. Right. So first is protect your organization, not just on the payments front, but your entire organization. I think most companies of any meaningful size are in fact doing that now. You know, many are required to, whether it's, you know, SOC rules or others where they interface with other companies or financial institutions. It's no longer a choose to thing, it's now a have to thing. So the first is really tighten up your attack surface as it relates to payments in most cases, especially as it relates to digital transactions and even more specifically as it relates to card based transactions, which is where we focus a lot of our energies. Fraud comes down to who has access to the payment data, who has access to the card data. That's where most of the fraud emanates from. It's unauthorized transactions. It's bad actors utilizing card data to make transactions that are not authorized by the cardholder. Right. So what we do as an organization, and this is across the board, is we are 100% straight through processed, meaning we don't have a single supplier across now 53 countries that we process transactions to that ever sees the card data. Equally important, our buyers also don't have access to the card data. The way that we structure our transactions is all of the card data is either tokenized from the get go, so the card number itself is of zero value to a bad actor, uh, or it's all vaulted and tokenized in our vault, which is obviously PCI compliant. So the key to dramatically reducing or eliminating fraud relating to card transactions is keeping the card data out of the hands of bad actors. And again, our approach is all straight through processing where neither the payer nor the payee ever has access to the card data and it's virtually impossible for an unauthorized transaction to take place.

Pushpendra Mehta: Well Dean, that's a clear and well articulated perspective. Uh, you've laid out a very actionable set of precautionary steps that could give treasury and payments professionals a clear roadmap for better safeguarding cross border transactions. Now let's turn our attention to the fourth story, which explores six essential working capital metrics for corporate treasury in uncertain times. As organizations navigate liquidity and greater economic volatility, corporate Treasury's role in managing working capital has become increasingly strategic. Metrics such as total working capital days, sales, outstanding days payable, outstanding working capital as a percentage of sales and the impact of collection terms and payment terms on working capital all help treasurers assess how efficiently cash moves through the business. These measures provide a clearer view of the cash conversion cycle and enable treasury to identify bottlenecks of optimize cash flow and strengthen financial resilience across the enterprise. Dean, you've emphasized that day's sales outstanding, or dso, is a key indicator of how effectively a company turns sales into cash. Among the six critical working capital metrics, how should treasury teams think about improving and ultimately lowering DSO in a way that strengthens liquidity and supports enterprise value?

Dean Levitt: Sure will. A lot of it comes down to the payment modality, right? So again, we focus heavily on commercial credit cards. So there is in fact a credit instrument in play. And it's frankly not just the CFO of the supplier, the payee, uh, that's looking to reduce their dso, obviously is one of the key metrics for optimizing, uh, payments, but also the payer, uh, that's looking to maximize dpo, their days payable outstanding. To your point earlier, so in the realm of commercial cards, where we operate primarily the win win, the gold star is when you can in fact increase DPO for the buyer while at the same time reducing DSO for the supplier. And the way in which we do that is by sandwiching in the middle the grace period associated with the commercial card product, which is it's the credit extended by the card issuer. So when you have a scenario where a supplier is looking to maximize their working capital, perhaps their customers are in fact sticking to the contracted payment terms, perhaps they're not, you know, perhaps their payment behavior is less than stellar. So whereas their contract says they're supposed to get paid in 30 days, maybe they're actually paying. They're kind of stretching it out and paying it in 45 or even 60 or beyond as we see it all the time. So one of the things that benefits of commercial card is it allows the buyer to make the payment to the supplier, but then still have significant days payable to actually pay back the issuer for those funds. They can expand their DPO while at the same time the supplier enjoys an earlier payment. Right? So again, always shooting for that win win. Commercial cards really serve a, uh, very important source of working capital for both sides of the payment equation. In addition, what we also see are as the office of the CFO frankly gets more and more sophisticated and learns more about the different types of payment modalities, the ways in which they can use, uh, different payment types to expand or contract depending on if It's DPO or dso. Suppliers are using commercial card acceptance, in many cases, as a collection tool, right, where they are offering up commercial cards to their customers that themselves may be struggling with working capital issues. So it's not just third parties like Boost or even the financial institutions that issue the cards, and it's the actual CFOs themselves that they get m more. As they get more sophisticated and understand the capabilities of the different payment modalities, they are reaching out to their trading partners to see if they can, you know, again, reduce the DSO if you're the supplier or perhaps expand, um, DPO if you're the buyer. So we're seeing a lot more of that, the use of commercial cards as a true alternative to traditional, you know, treasury products.

Pushpendra Mehta: Those are some great points and your reasoning, I believe, is spot on. Finally, Dean, what is your choice for the biggest or most important story in recent times and why?

Dean Levitt: Wow, that's a really big question, I guess, as it relates to payments. Right? A lot of answers I can give you on all different fronts. But as it relates to payments, I would say the big story really is AI. How companies are choosing to use AI for those of us that are in the payment industry, to help them facilitate payments, uh, or expedite payments or make payments faster, more secure, more reliable. That's really the big story. And we have been implementing AI now for a couple of years into our various payment strategies and our technology for the purposes of speeding up payments. We use it quite a bit in our parsing technology where we field a host of different payment requests coming in in a host of different formats and delivery protocols. Um, we kind of have this huge funnel out there that catches every type of payment request you can imagine. And we've started integrating AI into that, specifically some machine learning into that, like I said, over the last year, uh, and a half to two years. And while we don't trust it blindly. Right, because the jury is still out, uh, with respect to agentic AI and, you know, some concerns about it, it's also an absolute weapon when it comes to, uh, expediting payments. And what we've actually recently implemented is a strategy where we actually have one AI agent check the work of another AI agent. So whereas we used to have human beings, uh, when we implement AI, we would run concurrent paths, the historical path that was perhaps some human effort associated with it. These are for transactions that can't necessarily run straight through, where there's some anomalies relating to the data that came in, where it needs to be addressed by an operations team used to be human. Uh, then we implemented AI and we run them concurrently just to check and make sure the AI is doing what it needs to do. But now what we're implementing are programs where we actually have removed the human effort entirely and we have AI running but another agent actually checking the work of the other AI agents. So as a non technologist, I'm constantly fascinated by the way in which our tech team comes up with new and amazing ways to use AI, but in a um, kind of a trust but verify mode. I think those who just blindly adopt AI for the purposes of adopting AI again do so at their um, own peril. So we've been very careful but I think that really is the big story. And I think frankly we are at super, super early days of that amazing story. So I think that's kind of the big story.

Pushpendra Mehta: That's great. Dean, can I ask you a follow up question? What intrigued me was your or Boost Payment Solutions partnership, recent partnership with uh, Saptolia. Could you expound on the fact that how you think it would strengthen virtual card automation?

Dean Levitt: Sure. Well, our partnership with uh Tally is very exciting. It's relatively new and it's really all about using our technology to make sure that Talia customers have their payments fully optimized, their card based payments fully optimized. There are some aspects of virtual card use and acceptance that have historically been somewhat cumbersome, especially for larger organizations that receive a lot of these transactions where there's again that manual effort. So what we've done is our partnership is all about automating and optimizing those transactions. So as we've done with other partners, other financial institutions around the world, this partnership really is all about making sure that Talyu customers are getting everything they expect to get with respect to their payment methodology.

Pushpendra Mehta: Dean, you made, like I said, some great points, terrific insights which I think would be extremely valuable for our audience. And as we conclude today's episode, I'd really like to to express my heartfelt appreciation to you for the clarity and depth you brought to each and every topic we explored today. Thank you for sharing your expertise, Dean. It has added tremendous value to today's discussion.

Dean Levitt: Thank you so much and have a wonderful holiday season.

Pushpendra Mehta: Thank you so much and to our CTM file audience, we are grateful to you for taking out so much of time to be with us on today's discussion. Please subscribe and check this the show notes for links to the articles we've discussed today. Wishing you all a wonderful and successful week ahead. Thank you. This podcast is provided for information purposes only, and statements made by CTM file or guests on this podcast are not intended as legal, business, or, uh, consulting advice. For more information, visit ctmfile.com.