US Bank Mobilizes Mastercard Corporate Cards

U.S. Bank is mobilizing Mastercard commercial card products, the financial institution (FI) announced on Wednesday (April 11).

In a press release, U.S. Bank Corporate Travel Card said it will now support mobile payments for corporate customers using business travel cards that run on the Mastercard network.

“Our clients who have adopted mobile commercial payments are responding with great enthusiasm to its use for business travel,” said Jeff Rankin, U.S. Bank Global Bankcard general manager in a statement. “At the same time, the number of hotels, airlines and other merchants accepting contactless payments via mobile phones is climbing.”

According to Rankin, analysts estimate an 80 percent increase in the volume of mobile payments between 2015 and 2020.

“These trends are making the on-the-road payment experience increasingly easier and more secure,” the executive added. “We’re delighted to partner with Mastercard to help advance that vision.”

“Consumers expect to have multiple ways to pay, including cards, phones and other mobile devices,” added Mastercard EVP of North America Account Management Ed Glassman in another statement. “It makes sense to bring these same options to the world of commercial cards. Mastercard is pleased to join forces with U.S. Bank to make life a little easier and more secure for business travelers.”

According to U.S. Bank and Mastercard, mobile payments can enhance security for corporate travelers and other business payers because the technology tokenizes payment data, reducing opportunities for card data theft and fraud.

In an interview with PYMNTS last year, U.S. Bank President of Corporate Payment Systems Jeff Jones said he has faith that mobile payments will take off with corporate payers.

“When you look at Apple Pay made available to consumers and the convenience and security it provides consumers, I think increasingly we’ve seen an interest from corporate clients in terms of having similar types of ability to use Apple Pay,” he said.

U.S. Bank announced last year that it had begun enabling commercial cards for use on Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay, following earlier announcements that it would support all of its small business card products for Apple Pay. The FI said at the time it would be focusing these mobile B2B payments capabilities first on the corporate travel segment, and first with its Visa business travel cards.