Amex Go Gears Up For Australia Launch

American Express (Amex) is launching its new American Express Go service in Australia in an effort to help corporate financial managers adopt virtual cards.

Reports in iTnews on Wednesday (Nov. 28) said Amex is rolling out a suite of services for corporate finance departments, including the ability to add virtual cards to Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay wallets. Those virtual cards come with enhanced controls like time and spend limits, reports said, adding that Amex is targeting mid-market and large enterprises with its offering.

The publication pointed out that while other payment players  including Visa and Mastercard  have introduced similar solutions into the market, American Express is targeting corporate clients directly, rather than through their banks.

In an interview with iTnews, American Express VP of Global Commercial Services Becky Cook pointed to the broader, changing payments landscape and how it’s affecting corporate payers.

“Every aspect of payments is facing ongoing innovation who, how, when, where and even why we pay is changing,” Cook said. “For businesses, this means that solutions to enable and manage payments have to advance at the same pace.”

She added that “virtual payments is today’s new reality for businesses.”

American Express announced the launch of American Express Go earlier this month, pointing to the solution’s ability to help businesses allow for temporary and full-time employees to make payments on behalf of the company without handing over a physical commercial card. At the time, Amex VP of Global B2B and International Product Management Gint Balodis said corporates’ changing workforce demographics create a need for more sophisticated expense management tools.

“Mid-sized and large companies are operating with a new, dynamic workforce, as they increasingly employee freelancers and contractors who previously had to wait for several weeks to be reimbursed for business and travel purchases,” Balodis said. “American Express Go was created to alleviate customer pain points faced by companies and their changing workforce by combining the control and flexibility of virtual cards with the convenience of a physical card that can be swiped on the go.”