Fifty-nine percent of chief financial officers (CFOs) consider payments digitization to be “very” or “extremely” important to improving their balance sheets, according to “Business Payments Digitization,” a PYMNTS and Corcentric collaboration based on a survey of 400 CFOs from five industries.
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The share is highest in finance and insurance, with 71% of the CFOs in that sector saying payments digitization is “very” or “extremely” important to their balance sheets. In the healthcare and medical, travel and transportation, and retail trade industries, the share is around 60%. Interest is lowest in industrial and manufacturing, with 45% of CFOs expecting gains from payment processes.
Most CFOs have fast-tracked their payments digitization efforts since the pandemic began. The share of CFOs who have done so varies by industry, ranging from a low of 50% in the industrial and manufacturing industry to a high of 85% in healthcare and medical.
Between 19% and 48% of the CFOs have fast-tracked their payments digitization efforts specifically to improve their balance sheet health. The share saying that was their motivation ranges from a low of 19% in the industrial and manufacturing industry to a high of 48% in both the finance and insurance industry and the healthcare and medical sector.
This fast-tracking of payments digitization has brought other benefits to their businesses too. Data security is the benefit cited by the highest share of CFOs in the finance and insurance industry.
In the other four industries included in the study, employee satisfaction is the benefit cited by the greatest percentage of CFOs.
CFOs also say the transition to digital payments has had a positive impact on working capital, fraud reduction and supplier relationships.
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