Today In Data: Unattended Retail, Cross-Border Exposure And Russian Indictments

Today in PYMNTS data, the business-to-business (B2B) payments market is growing in valuation, self-service vending machines are easing customer complaints at the Sacramento Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), business exposure to cross-border suppliers and service providers is on the rise, Russian nationals are under indictment for their role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and eInvoicing’s perks are becoming more widely known.

Here are the numbers:

$20 trillion | Expected valuation of the B2B payments market, which Ross Garrett, head of Strategy for application program interface (API) integration platform Cloud Elements, says means the B2B payments industry needs to step up to the plate — and perhaps even start acting a bit like business-to-consumer (B2C) payments — most importantly by making a break from paper checks.

100+ | Number of unattended, self-service vending machines — known as DMV Now Self-Service Terminals and deployed by the State of California’s DMV — that allow customers to handle their vehicle registration renewals without having to wait in long lines or speak with a department employee.

90 percent | Portion of payables automation company Tilapti’s customers that have some exposure to cross-border suppliers or service providers, according to CEO Chen Amit. The processes are rife with complexities and are also far-flung, the executive explained, ranging from capturing the right data for a payment to ensuring they are sent to the remote bank in a timely manner.

13 | Number of Russian nationals exposed in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s unsealed indictments related to possible interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, according to Friday (Feb. 16) news. Beyond reverberations across the political and foreign relations spheres, these indictments will doubtless have a ripple effect across the payments realm. They also included allegations against three Russian businesses.

9 percent | Increase in the number of invoices that get paid on time when a company switches to electronic invoicing, according to Mattias Hansson, CEO and co-founder of eInvoicing solution Zervant. Hansson explained there are two key motivations behind encouraging entrepreneurs to invoice clients electronically: speed and ease of use. In addition, “True adoption of electronic invoicing is heavily driven by cost savings on the buyer’s side,” he said. “By requesting eInvoices from suppliers … they have significant invoice processing costs.”