To help small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) bolster their cashflow, Nium’s InstaReM brand has rolled out BizPay in Australia. BizPay, which was introduced in Singapore in June, harnesses business card credit limits and transforms them into working capital to assist companies with paying utility bills, rent or other supplier payments, according to a Tuesday (July 7) announcement.
BizPay is a digital platform that taps into corporate cards as a funding source for business payments. Companies only have to input the beneficiary’s name and the value and currency of the payment, and can then charge the entire payment to their business cards. The beneficiary doesn’t have to take cards directly or go through an onboarding process as part of the payment procedure.
InstaReM said that in many cases, SMBs encounter difficulty in receiving loans or credits from financial institutions (FIs) or banks. Just 52 percent of Australian SMBs were able to receive the loans that they required, even prior to the pandemic. The postponement in payments brought about by the pandemic, however, has only worsened the credit challenges faced by SMBs.
Companies might turn to card-based payments to extend payment terms, but the FX margin and high transaction fees serve as a disincentive for those making and receiving payments. To alleviate this problem, InstaReM rolled out BizPay to assist SMBs in receiving cash flows via current credit lines.
Nium Global Head of Commercial Payments Sanjiv Razdan said in the announcement, “COVID-19 is proving to be a litmus test of resilience for businesses worldwide. It has caused significant disruption to working capital cycles and intensified SMBs’ legacy liquidity concerns. In such a situation, a means to generate funds using available credit resources emerges as a promising solution for businesses.”
In separate news, Nium had become a Visa issuer in Australia as part of its Visa FinTech Fast Track initiative membership.