Unlocking Innovation Beyond Payments Tops Week in B2B

Innovation is no good to the businesses that fail to embrace it.

But as advanced technologies to streamline payments and financial data management reshape competition in commercial payments, the transformation of business-to-business (B2B) payments is taking center stage this month as PYMNTS, together with industry experts, dissect the technologies, strategies and collaborations that are reimagining what commercial payments could be.

The first week of the Outlook 2030 event centers on how platform and network models are impacting business payments. Week Two covers interoperability and data standards, while Week Three lands on closed vs. open networks. We end the month with the lifeblood of any company: cash flow.

Many of those themes and trends defined the B2B news PYMNTS tracked this week, from the rise of B2B card payments to the growing need for systems integration.

Free registration: B2B Payments: Outlook 2030

Cards Become Preferred B2B Option

Once the go-to for B2B deals, checks are quickly becoming yesterday’s news, and businesses that haven’t caught on may be left behind. The culprit behind paper’s decline? A growing embrace of card payments and other digital-first solutions.

Revolut Business has partnered with American Express to enable its merchants in the U.K. to accept American Express payments, it was announced Wednesday (Oct. 9).

LendingClub and AI lending network Pagaya have acquired Tally Technologies’ intellectual property. Tally, a FinTech that helped consumers manage credit card debt, closed its doors in August. As the two buyers noted in a news release Wednesday, the company also created an “embedded, white-label B2B credit card debt management platform.”

Also on Wednesday, FinTech company Mercury secured a $100 million credit warehouse with Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking to grow its corporate credit card business.

But cards aren’t alone at the vanguard of B2B payments. As reported last week, Bank of America launched Virtual Payables Direct, a B2B payment solution that, among other features, is offering buyers in the EMEA region an enhancement that lets suppliers be paid through a direct bank transfer.

And PYMNTS dug into the growing role that account-to-account (A2A) transfers are playing in B2B on Tuesday (Oct. 8).

Cash Flow Visibility and Systems Integrations

Cash flow is the lifeblood of any business, and companies that can’t see where their money is going are risking a financial disaster. Real-time insight into finances can make or break growth strategies, and businesses are turning to system integrations to keep their cash flowing smoothly — and it’s paying off big time.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report, “Embedding Transformation: Solving Critical AP Challenges With Embedded Payments,” done in collaboration with Finexio, finds that 64% of small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) face delayed payments, and underscores the need for businesses to rethink their payment processes and consider modern solutions that integrate seamlessly into their existing systems.

This comes amid news Wednesday that FreedomPay has launched a partnership with financial infrastructure platform Stripe designed to aggregate and integrate various software and payment solutions, pushing digital system integrations into the spotlight.

Payment systems integration helps automate tasks that were previously time-consuming and error-prone, such as invoice processing, reconciliation and payment approvals. It also frees up valuable time for teams to focus on strategic decision-making, such as optimizing cash flow and managing working capital.

“The most underappreciated part of any one of these finance organizations is the controller’s office and the back end of treasury, where they need to be able to take in reporting at the end of every day, be able to close the books in two or three days at the end of a month,” Cindy Turner, chief product officer at Worldpay, told PYMNTS.

Read more: B2B Payments Aren’t Boring Anymore: Here Are 8 Reasons Why

And as Dean M. Leavitt, founder and CEO at Boost Payment Solutions, told PYMNTS in an interview posted Wednesday, new intermediaries, such as FinTechs and accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR) platforms, are reshaping competition and creating new opportunities for innovation and efficiency in commercial payments.

“Across all different payment types, the rails have largely remained the same,” Leavitt said. “What has changed dramatically is the work being done around those rails.”

This sentiments were shared by Alexander Knothe, head of client solution and partner management at Deutsche Bank, who told PYMNTS that treasury organizations are “pushing for higher levels of automation” to manage payments and financial data with minimal intervention, adding that the integration of advanced payment tools directly into enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems has been key in enhancing payment tracking, reconciliation and reporting.

Small Business Goes Digital

It can be challenging for small businesses to make a big splash, but that doesn’t mean it is not possible. In a series of six interviews with PYMNTS TV, Visa executives weighed in on how SMBs can thrive in the current environment — if they embrace technology and consider that payments are critical.

Elsewhere in the SMB space, WEX is rolling out a new app to give independent truckers access to benefits normally only available to larger companies. Truckers who want to use the app can upload their credit or debit card details to gain access to fuel discounts, per the Oct. 4 announcement. WEX does not require credit applications or credit checks to use the app, which is built with embedded payments technology.

And as it relates to widening the aperture on SMB access to capital, Markaaz CEO Hany Fam told PYMNTS in an interview posted Thursday (Oct. 10), that because SMBs are fast and dynamic, they may not be tracking the day-to-day ins and outs of their cash flows and other data. Banks asking them to voluntarily submit that information may not be getting the whole picture.

Register now to access all streaming and on-demand videos from the B2B Payments 2024 event series.