WEX Allies with Higher One

Formerly known as Wright Express Corp, WEX Inc. ( ) announced a strategic alliance with Higher One to provide easy and secure online payment solutions to higher education institutions. Accordingly, a new service – VendorPay – was unveiled by both the abovementioned companies to deliver cost-effective payment solutions.

Through the launch of VendorPay, WEX and Higher One aim to tap the potential higher education market, whereby WEX’s technological expertise complements well with Higher One’s high penetration in this market. Thus, both the companies will offer online payments verticals through VendorPay, to enable educational campuses can conveniently handle issues related to travel, medical and insurance.

Further, the use of VendorPay completely erases the use of paper checks for making payments to the vendors and suppliers on the campuses. It also eases the disbursement procedure of the vendors and suppliers, who can now receive payments swiftly and more predictably. Additionally, VendorPay streamlines and amalgamates detailed report and data for remittance and reconciliation for both the institution and the vendor, thereby authenticating the whole payment process.

WEX will benefit from the launch of this new VendorPay service, which will allow it to reach out to a large number of educational institutions and other organizations by teaming up with Higher One in the U.S. Going ahead, we believe such strategic alliances and joint venture deals should perk up WEX’s growth and help maintain its competitive position against arch-rivals such as FleetCor Technologies Inc. ( FLT - Snapshot Report ) and Total System Services Inc. ( TSS - Analyst Report ) . Also, its pipeline of international opportunities should help stimulate WEX’s above-average growth.

Currently, WEX carries a Zacks #3 Rank, which implies a short-term Hold rating.