NatWest and Mastercard have partnered to launch Approval2Buy, a mobile virtual card payment tool for UK businesses.

The new service uses Mastercard’s mobile virtual app card and tokenisation technology, allowing organisations to provide digital wallet-compatible virtual cards for employees, who won’t need to carry physical cards during their corporate trips.

The card payment solution is available for businesses of all sizes, and aims to provide increased flexibility and security, with cardholders’ sensitive data being replaced by a unique card number to avoid sharing of sensitive data.

With Approval2Buy, cards numbers will not be reused, avoiding issues with credit and refunds, aiming to provide the ability to handle global programmes with cards issued in multiple countries, and providing real-time control of virtual cards.

The service enables full- -time, part-time or temporary workers to add the cards to their digital wallets to complete quick checkout options, near-instant payments, and immediate access to funds for urgent needs.

The companies said that end-users and businesses will also benefit from reduced admin time spent reporting and reconciling expenses thanks to the pre-populated expense data feature.

“The launch comes at a time where virtual card use is on the rise,” said Simon Forbes, president UK and Ireland at Mastercard, said: “The introduction of mobile virtual cards represents a step change in the corporate payments landscape.

“It will simplify, speed up, and bring flexibility to what has long been a cumbersome process for many businesses and their employees.”

Andrew Harrison, MD customer goals and journeys at NatWest, emphasised how payments technology presents new ways for businesses to progress and grow.

“Virtual cards are a great example,” continued Harrison. “Businesses can now use virtual cards for point-of-sale transactions using mobile phones.

“This additional feature has generated new use cases.”

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