Visa Inc. entered an agreement with Fidelity National Information Services Inc. to allow the company's commercial financial institution clients to access Visa's B2B Connect platform, a distributed ledger system that allows large-ticket, cross-border payments to be completed within a matter of days, according to a company press release.

FIS is integrating its payments technology into Visa's B2B Connect, which will allow the two companies' mutual banking clients to send corporate client funds to and from other participating banks, removing the usual level of friction associated with these type of transactions. FIS has created a custom integration model, which will help reduce the need for clients to make upgrades to their existing systems, according to the release. 

The companies are in the pilot phase and will officially launch the service within the quarter.

"FIS is excited to partner with Visa to enable financial institutions to connect to this groundbreaking new payments service," Raja Gopalakrishnan, international head of banking and payments for FIS Global Financial Solutions, said in the release." The combination of FIS's global customer base and leadership in commercial payments and Visa's extensive experience as a payments processing network, creates a strong partnership for adding value to the multinational commercial value chain."

Kevin Phalen, global head, Visa Business Solutions, said innovation in cross-border B2B payments was a development that is long overdue.

"Visa's core strategy is to help clients and partners drastically improve their customer's friction filled experiences," he said in the announcement.