Working Capital Needs and Supplier Acceptance Take Virtual Cards Mainstream

The future of B2B payments is being played out across today’s business landscape.

Driven by digital transformation, the push for working capital optimization and the mainstreaming of technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual cards, the B2B landscape is increasingly resembling the world of consumer payments.

“There’s a lot of change going on, and it all centers around working capital,” David Bork, senior vice president, Boost 100 Business Development at Boost Payment Solutions, told PYMNTS. “Savvy buyers are looking at different ways to utilize cards that maybe they weren’t considering before.”

Virtual cards have long been a tool in that arsenal, but what’s changing now is how they’re being used. While higher education and government sectors have historically led in adoption, “there’s a lot of room to grow” among small- and mid-sized enterprises, Bork said.

Yet, while the consumerization of B2B payments is undeniable, the corporate environment introduces a layer of complexity. Unlike a $4 coffee purchase on Apple Pay, a B2B transaction often involves multiple stakeholders, customized contract terms, approval workflows and intricate compliance requirements.

This complexity necessitates more than just flashy front-end experiences. It demands deeply integrated back-end systems that can support nuanced business logic, regulatory requirements and dynamic pricing models. Interoperability between ERP systems, accounts payable (AP) automation tools and banking platforms is essential.

From No to Yes: Overcoming Supplier Resistance to Virtual Cards

For years, finance leaders viewed B2B payments as a necessary evil, a back-office function to be managed as cheaply and quietly as possible. But in the new paradigm, payments are becoming a strategic lever.

Still, one of the longest-standing hurdles in virtual card adoption is supplier enablement, and the key to unlocking supplier adoption can often lies in reframing the cost-benefit equation.

“You hear this a lot — ‘net 30’ terms, but maybe they’re actually paying net 60 or 75,” Bork said. “And when you add up the cost of collections, sales involvement and account management, the argument can be made that it makes sense to accept a card.”

In this light, the true cost of card acceptance — often cited as a 3% hurdle — becomes more manageable.

“We’ve economically proven this in a number of cases,” Bork said. By combining straight-through processing with optimized pricing models, “the overall cost of acceptance can be absolutely palatable.”

“Our bread and butter at Boost is straight-through processing,” Bork said. This method allows payments to be made automatically from buyer to supplier without any manual intervention, which drastically simplifies acceptance on the supplier side.

Moreover, Boost is seeing a rise in hybrid payment structures — agreements where the cost of acceptance is shared between buyers and suppliers. This type of flexibility, along with buyer-funded models, is attractive in today’s capital-conscious environment.

A New Era of B2B Finance

Fraud and security are persistent concerns in B2B payments, especially as transaction volumes and values increase, but virtual cards can help mitigate some of the common fraud risks that have long plagued the B2B space.

“The benefit of a virtual card when it’s a single-use account is … it’s normally for a very specific amount and normally specific to a SIC code,” Bork said. “When you layer on straight-through processing … that’s when you really up the security game.”

On the horizon, Bork is closely watching developments in artificial intelligence (AI) — especially agentic AI, or systems that can both decide and act without human intervention. “AI can determine and then execute,” he said. “Determine what type of payment is going to be made, when it’s going to be made, and then actually make the payment.”

While these capabilities are still emerging, Boost sees huge potential in eliminating friction in accounts payable processes. With machine learning models already parsing invoices and performing three-way matches, full automation is not far off.

Another frontier in B2B payments is the historically difficult terrain of cross-border transactions. Traditionally, fees in the 4% to 5% range have made it hard to justify card-based solutions. Boost’s new product, Boost 100, directly addresses that challenge.

“Outside of the U.S., it’s not normal or customary to accept a card,” Bork said. “Now you’re fighting this … and they think it’s going to be expensive.”

Boost 100 flips that narrative by removing cross-border fees through a card-to-account strategy. “Now you’re having a conversation that you were never going to have before,” Bork said. “Our financial institution partners have really said … this is new territory for us.”

With the global expansion of digital commerce, the ability to facilitate low-cost, secure, cross-border payments via virtual cards could become a key differentiator for businesses seeking new supply chain efficiencies and global sourcing capabilities.

And as more companies look to future-proof their finance operations, Boost is prepared to guide them step by step — or better yet, straight through.