KeyBank Finds An Appetite For B2B Payments Disruption

Business payment solutions haven’t seen the same speed as consumer payments, but that doesn’t necessarily mean there isn’t a demand for more sophisticated B2B payments technology. New insight from KeyCorp seems to confirm this theory.

Recent reports in American Banker said KeyCorp recently conducted a survey among its corporate clients and found that these customers are in need of better payments technologies.

In asking business customers what their pain points were, Key Enterprise Commercial Payments Group Head Clark Khayat said “digitizing payments and reducing paper” were among the most prominent.

According to Khayat, there are “a lot of pain points in B2B payments, and it’s really ripe for disruption.”

[bctt tweet=”There are ‘a lot of pain points in B2B payments, and it’s really ripe for disruption.'”]

The publication pointed to Key’s response to this demand by stepping up its commercial payments efforts. Earlier this month the bank inked a collaboration with software firm Aptexx in an effort to reduce friction in property management and rent transactions by allowing these businesses to accept mobile payments. Key also recently invested in health care payments firm InstaMed, reports said, as well as eInvoicing firm AvidXchange.

These deals emerged from discussions with upwards of 100 FinTech companies, Khayat told reporters, adding that the bank was especially selective when choosing its collaborators.

“I think we’ve moved into a new age of FinTech, where the banks and the disruptors are seeing the value of partnership more than ever before,” Khayat said of these recent deals. Reports added that the market seems to be shifting away from a “banks versus FinTech mentality.”

According to Khayat, banks may not have the technological capacity to push for innovation in B2B payments, but by partnering with FinTech startups, there can be a joining of banks’ payments expertise with startups’ innovative efforts.

Key Enterprise Commercial Payments Unit Head of Product and Innovation Ken Gavrity added that the bank has only “scratched the surface” when it comes to partnering with FinTech innovators to disrupt B2B payments.