Payments Heavyweights Dig Heels Deeper Into Commercial Cards

Commercial card innovation continues to make big waves in the accounts payable (AP) department, as corporates and card issuers alike explore new ways to drive business spend on cards beyond business trips or ad-hoc purchases.

This week’s Commercial Card Innovation Tracker finds the biggest names in the industry, as well as FinTech newcomers, stepping in to drive further adoption of the corporate card.

American Express Debuts AP Tool

American Express commercial cards have been a staple for many corporates over the years. As the B2B payments landscape modernizes, the payments technology company is ramping up its innovation efforts to drive further adoption of commercial cards with value-added services.

In its most recent initiative, American Express announced the rollout of its accounts payable solution, American Express One AP. The result of its acquisition of acompay last year, the solution digitizes and streamlines supplier payments while supporting a range of payment methods, including ACH, checks and, of course, virtual and physical commercial cards.

“By automating the accounts payable process with an innovative, end-to-end solution, One AP makes it easier for businesses to pay for what they need to operate and ultimately grow,” the firm’s Vice President and General Manager of B2B Payments Automation, Global Commercial Services Trina Dutta said in a statement.

This wasn’t the only initiative in the B2B payments space that American Express has announced this month. Last week, the company announced its collaboration with SAP Concur to streamline invoice and expense management, with an integration enabling employees to pay invoices through the SAP Concur platform using American Express commercial cards.

Nium Broadens Card-Issuing Reach

FinTech company Nium revealed this week the expansion of its card-issuing capabilities within Europe, just weeks after rolling out operations in Australia. The company is expanding its partnership with Visa to white-label its offering, enabling corporates to issue their own cards and consolidate their own commercial card programs.

Nium’s offering includes real-time funds transfers to physical and virtual cards, tokenization of card details, and support for multiple currencies. In addition to facilitating card issuing, Nium also recently launched a new service in Singapore via its InstaReM unit. BizPay allows businesses to make use of their existing commercial card credit lines to access capital for supplier payments and other necessary purchases.

Accrualify Taps Visa For Corporate Card Offering

Accounts payable and spend management FinTech Accrualify is introducing its own corporate card offering, the result of its participation in Visa’s FinTech Fast Track Program.

In an announcement, Accrualify said it is partnering with Visa to launch its Corporate Card Module, a co-branded corporate card program that enables businesses to access cards with value-added services like spend limits and real-time tracking, employee spend management and pre-approval functions, fraud controls, and support for both virtual and physical cards.

“The digital transformation of payments creates an exciting opportunity for us to leverage our accounts payable automation technology with Visa’s global payment network to give corporate finance teams a complete spend management solution,” said Benjamin Portusach, CEO of Accrualify, in a statement.

Privacy.com Sets Sights On Business Cards

Virtual card FinTech startup Privacy.com has built its consumer-facing solution around the security and privacy value proposition that single-use virtual cards offer.

Now, with $10.2 million in new funding, the company is reportedly seeking an expansion into the B2B realm with a focus on wielding virtual cards for employee and corporate spend.

Reports this week said Privacy.com raised the Series A funding from Teamworthy Ventures, while Tusk Venture Partners, Index Ventures, Quiet Capital, Exor Seeds and Rainfall Ventures also participated. The investment will fuel the rollout of its Card Issuing API, designed for corporates to issue virtual cards for their own employees and other back-office payment workflows.