Downtown-based City National Bank has launched a virtual Visa corporate credit card in partnership with fintech startup Extend Enterprises Inc.
 
According to City National, commercial credit card holders at the bank will now be able to generate virtual credit cards on demand compatible with Google Pay and Apple Pay mobile wallets.
 
Users can set spending limits and expiration dates on the cards and issue them to parties such as employees, contractors and vendors.

City National framed the move as a way for employers to gain more oversight and control over how corporate cards are used and help support employee safety during the pandemic. The bank said these functions were particularly relevant to entertainment clients in Los Angeles.

“This new product is critical for the entertainment industry and is a big safety solution for those working on sets,” Linda Duncombe, chief marketing, product and digital officer at City National, said in an email.
 
According to Duncombe, City National banks more than three-quarters of all U.S. business managers who handle entertainment industry money.

“Few industries have been hit as hard by the Covid-19 pandemic as entertainment. All production stopped, and theaters and venues went dark,” she said. “Now that production has started again, entertainment clients can use this new capability to make contactless payments on set whenever possible. It increases safety by removing the need for physical cards and petty cash.”

City National’s new offering is part of a broader trend toward cashless payments. A study by the National Retail Federation and Forrester Research Inc. showed digital wallet payment acceptance among U.S. retailers grew from 44% in 2018 to 56% in 2020.
 
A 2020 blog post by management consultancy Accenture called “a strong push toward a cashless society” the most likely long-term impact of Covid on the global payments process.