For Visa’s Kevin Phalen, comparisons between the pandemic’s economic impact and the 2008-2009 financial crisis aren’t fair. The current situation is far more wide-reaching. But so, too, he says, are the opportunities to overhaul the B2B payments space.

Phalen, the head of global business solutions at the financial services giant, works with businesses of all sizes to expand Visa’s network through both card and non-card transactions. In the wake of the pandemic, he’s seen the ecosystem for the slow-to-change payments infrastructure soften toward modernization efforts and views 2021 as a year where the company can keep extending its reach.