Mobile Payments To Continue Lagging In B2B Space

A recent survey from TSYS and NAPCP found that, when it comes to new technology in B2B and commercial cards, mobile payment and messaging adoption lags, significantly — and may continue to do so.

Amid the movement of B2B payments beyond the realm of paper checks and expense management that relies on paper receipts, some initiatives have yet to gain traction.

In a recent survey announced jointly by the NAPCP and TSYS, titled “Trends in Commercial Card and Program Management,” several concerns held by commercial card and payments professionals might be hindering wholesale adoption of payments methods deemed relatively technologically advanced and certainly more efficient. These methods are as far-flung as purchasing cards, travel and entertainment card programs and mobile B2B payments.

About hindrances, the companies said that “supplier resistance” stood out as a barrier to automated payments. Barriers in place that might stymie card adoption, such as for purchasing cards, come amid concerns over security and the fact that employees still use personal cards. The survey also cited “lack of upper management support” as an additional issue. Purchasing card programs face policy restrictions within organizations, while cards geared toward travel and entertainment management could get a boost from incentive and rebate programs.

As for emerging technologies, the outlook is less than sanguine. The study found that only 10 percent of professionals surveyed said they “were likely or very likely” to use mobile payments within B2B transactions. Chief concerns here centered on payment security, with TSYS and NAPCP positing that one avenue of addressing this may lie with tokenization. As for alerts and two-way SMS, per the survey, a minority of those queried, at a respective 38 percent and 39 percent, said such initiatives were likely to be adopted by their firms.