Traditionally, suppliers have had to deal with the short end of the stick in the buyer-supplier dynamic, with larger buyers often using their power to dictate payment terms that can ultimately strain supplier cash flows.
To even the balance, value-added services like faster onboarding, richer supplier data and smoother compliance workflows have emerged over the past decade as buyer-led supplier benefits. But many suppliers, especially small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), have historically experienced supplier enablement less as empowerment than as administrative drag.
New portals multiplied. Payment terms lengthened. Cash flow uncertainty remained unresolved. The result has been a growing gap between the promise of supplier enablement and its lived reality.
But 2025 proved that the gap needed to be closed. This past year of tariff turbulence, supply chain shocks and geopolitical uncertainty pushed companies to confront a reality that procurement teams had flagged for some time: Brittle supplier relationships are a strategic risk for B2B firms.
As companies enter 2026, supplier enablement is becoming a priority as a different set of institutions is stepping into the center of the equation. Looking out to the rest of 2026, banks are increasingly set to become one of the most consequential forces shaping supplier enablement.
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Read also: How Strategic Mover CFOs Spent 2025 Solving Cash’s First-Mile Problem
Why Banks Are Set to Transform Supplier Enablement in 2026
Banks have always been present in B2B relationships but largely as utilities. They moved money, extended credit and enforced compliance. What has changed is not their role, but their posture.
Under pressure from shrinking margins, real-time payments and competition from FinTechs, banks have spent the past several years modernizing their infrastructure. They have invested in digital onboarding, API-driven payments, embedded finance and data analytics. At the same time, they have been searching for new ways to defend transaction volume and relevance in a world where financial services are increasingly invisible.
As financial institutions double down and partner up to bring priorities like virtual cards, embedded payments, working capital optimization and digital onboarding to market, they’re unlocking capabilities suppliers have struggled to access on their own while helping businesses automate treasury management and digitize payments.
From a bank’s perspective, suppliers represent an underleveraged asset class. They generate predictable transaction flows, maintain recurring commercial relationships and often lack access to optimized working capital tools.
One reason banks’ influence in supplier enablement has gone largely unnoticed is that it operates at the infrastructure layer. Procurement platforms focus on workflows and user experience. Marketplaces emphasize discovery and scale. Banks sit beneath those surfaces, controlling the rails that determine how money, identity and risk actually move.
This positioning gives banks a structural advantage. They already manage supplier identities through know your customer requirements. They already sit at the intersection of payments and liquidity. They already have regulatory permission to assess risk and extend credit. As supplier enablement shifts from documentation to execution, from collecting information to improving outcomes, those capabilities become central.
In effect, banks are turning supplier enablement into a financial problem, not just an operational one.
See also: Why CFOs Who Prioritize Cash Flow Improvements Start With Receivables Innovation
Payments Are Becoming the Front Door
Payments have long been the least glamorous part of supplier enablement, but in 2026, they are becoming the primary entry point.
Virtual cards are a case in point. Once viewed as a niche tool for travel and expense management, virtual cards have been repositioned as a B2B payment standard.
“The really progressive companies are getting in front of [the transition to virtual cards],” WEX President of Corporate Payments Eric Frankovic told PYMNTS in April. “… They have to cut costs, they have to control costs, they have to keep a healthy supply chain.”
The shift matters less because of the payment instrument itself and more because of what it enables. Virtual cards allow banks to attach data, controls and financing directly to transactions. They turn payment into a programmable event, opening the door to embedded working capital, real-time visibility and automated treasury operations.
The rise of embedded payments further reinforces banks’ role. As financial institutions partner with ERP vendors, procurement platforms and vertical marketplaces, payments are moving upstream, integrated directly into business workflows rather than handled after the fact.
For suppliers, this integration reduces friction in ways traditional enablement initiatives rarely achieved. Payment initiation, confirmation and settlement happen inside systems they already use. The distinction between “doing the work” and “getting paid” narrows.
“There’s a fundamental misalignment between the expectations of the younger generation and the reality of how things happen in the workplace,” Zachary Held of Boost Payment Solutions told PYMNTS in May. “…Forty-four percent of Gen Zers don’t even know how to write a check. At the same time, one-third of B2B payments are still made via check.”
As banks embed more deeply into supplier ecosystems, they accumulate data that was previously siloed. Transaction histories, payment behaviors and performance metrics converge into a richer picture of supplier health.
The irony of banks’ growing influence is that it may remain largely invisible. Suppliers will notice faster onboarding, quicker payments and more predictable cash flow without necessarily attributing those improvements to their bank. Buyers will see higher automation and fewer exceptions without building bespoke systems.
Supplier enablement in 2026 is less about portals and promises and more about plumbing.
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