The Top 3 Digital Solutions Corporate Clients Demand From Banks

The last two years have changed the way businesses and their vendors interact and pay. And though financial institutions have worked to meet consumers’ needs, many are lagging when it comes to providing the same seamless, digital experiences for corporate clients, according to the “B2B Digital Payments Tracker,” a PYMNTS and American Express collaboration.

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Whether it’s running into roadblocks during client onboarding or coming up against the challenges of incorporating payments and invoicing capabilities into the legacy enterprise resources planning (ERP) systems, banks are struggling to adopt the new technologies needed to keep up with the digital transformations of many of the world’s businesses.

Seeking Operational Efficiencies 

The pandemic has underscored the need for greater process control and operational efficiencies, Trina Dutta, vice president and general manager, B2B payments automation, global commercial services at American Express, told PYMNTS in a May interview.

Read more: Digital Innovations Improve B2B Buyer-Supplier Interactions

As a result of remote teams finding it more difficult to work with paper, Dutta said, many business owners and chief financial officers (CFOs) have been approaching providers — American Express among them — to help make their accounts payable departments fully virtual.

“AP automation helps eliminate this manual paperwork,” Dutta said, adding that with fewer time-consuming tasks and data entry steps required, business leaders can turn their attention to other projects that can help firms grow.

Working on Digital Solutions 

PYMNTS’ research found that financial institutions are working to improve their digital payment offerings for businesses of all sizes.

To help fix the friction points that their corporate clients face in their B2B payments processes, one-third or more of financial institutions are currently working on or planning to work on three digital solutions for corporate clients:

A single view of cash flow management and forecasting. Fifty-five percent of financial institutions are working on or planning to work on this solution.

Letting receivers to choose their method of payment. Forty-six percent of financial institutions have this digital solution on their to-do list.

Sharing data between AP and accounts receivable to automatically net invoices. Thirty-three percent of financial institutions intend to offer this solution.

Becoming a Business Partner 

These digital solutions will join four others that are already commonly offered to corporate clients by financial institutions: account validation (which is offered by 89% of financial institutions), digital lockboxes (82%), immediate transaction confirmation (76%) and automatic matching of payments and invoices (48%).

Financial institutions are working with their partners to help them accept and process more digital invoicing and payments, streamline accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR) processes and plan for the future.

By becoming not just a bank but also a business partner, financial institutions can attract and retain corporate clients by helping them maintain satisfying relationships with their own customers.

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