The collaboration, announced Tuesday (April 28), has resulted in the debut Key Virtual Card (KeyVC), a virtual commercial card program designed to help businesses more easily monitor and handle payments.

“Managing commercial payments can be complex, often requiring businesses to juggle multiple systems and reporting processes,” Rouzbeh Rotabi, Qolo’s chief operating officer, said in a news release.

“KeyVC is designed to reduce that complexity by allowing clients to use virtual cards alongside other treasury tools, with consistent reporting and simplified reconciliation across payment types. Businesses want payment tools that fit naturally into how they already operate.”

According to the release, the new offering lets KeyBank’s commercial clients create and manage virtual cards within KeyBank’s Virtual Account Management platform (KeyVAM).

By making virtual cards part of the same system clients use for treasury and cash management, the program helps businesses pay suppliers more efficiently while offering stronger spending and reconciliation oversight, the company said.

“Commercial clients are increasingly looking for simpler and more controlled ways to manage payments,” said John Withrow, head of commercial cards at KeyBank.

“By expanding our partnership with Qolo, we’re making virtual cards easier to use within our existing treasury platforms, helping clients streamline accounts payable, improve visibility, and maintain better control over how and when money is spent.”

Qolo and KeyBank launched KeyVAM in 2024, with the bank making an equity investment in Qolo last year. KeyBank has also turned to Qolo to offer clients embedded banking solutions.

This extension to their partnership comes as businesses are increasingly adopting virtual cards and ACH as they shift away from payment methods like paper checks.

These tools “support digital onboarding, automated approvals and straight-through processing; and they are able to integrate with procurement, accounts payable and treasury systems,” as PYMNTS wrote last month.

One of their benefits is their ability to lessen the friction that appears “when payments live in a separate, analog universe,” that report added.

“Those companies that do it right are starting to see benefits by using digital payments as a strategic tool,” Daniel Artin, head of strategic partnerships at Boost Payment Solutions, said in an interview with PYMNTS earlier this year.

Research by PYMNTS Intelligence shows that small businesses are seeing benefits from these cards that include dispute protection and refunds — cited by 63% of businesses — and the ability to manage liquidity without immediate cash (59%).