B-to-B payments

Robotic Process Automation and other cognitive automation tools can handle repetitive manual tasks such as processing data from websites and other applications says Kofax's Wendy St. Clair.

Paystand's Zero Card leverages its proprietary blockchain-based bank-to-bank payments network in combination with a virtual Mastercard.

Womply is joining the growing niche of providers offering card-based bill-payment services for cash-strapped small-business owners.

Cross-border payments do not and should not exist in a vacuum, says Veem's Marwan Forzley.

Bill Clerico created WePay during the last financial crisis, and sees a similar opportunity now. The coronavirus pandemic is affecting different markets in vastly different ways, and easing the flow of capital is just one way to provide help.

Nobody likes making errors or admitting they make them, but they are a fact of life when you’re sending payments, says Nvoicepay's Deirdre Christensen.

Three months ago, Stephen Squeri, the chairman and CEO of American Express, declared a global "economic free fall" due to the coronavirus. Its second-quarter earnings show how far a fall it has been.

Suppliers that still need to receive physical checks should still be able to do so. Even if they do, the process remains electronic on the accounts payable side, says AP side so that customers can issue check payments in the same batch as other electronic payments, says Nvoicepay's Angela Anastasakis.

Viewing it as a way to help businesses emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, Ingenico is targeting digital merchants with expanded services addressing cross border, recurring and subscription payments.

Josh Cyphers, who had been vice president of product and strategy for Nvoicepay, takes over for Karla Friede, who Nvoicepay says is departing after 11 years to devote time to her work as an angel investor and board member.

American Express Global Business Travel has developed a new service enabling small businesses to manage travel, office purchases and cash flow on a single platform.

Payments technology company WEX has received a $400 million investment to offset negative effects from coronavirus, and will back out of a $1.7 billion pair of deals announced six months ago.

While a business seeking payments and business management services could piece together what it needs from a few different providers, it's increasingly easier to find fintechs and startups demonstrating how all services can funnel through one platform.

The spending and account management capabilities of corporate prepaid cards have been given new purpose in a pandemic-struck world dependent on government and charity aid.

By adding direct debit from bank accounts as a payment option, YayPay feels it is in a far better position to help the accounts receivable departments of U.S. businesses expand international growth.

Even where there have been innovations in the B2B payments space, often it has not accounted for the needs of both sides of the B2B transaction, and thus, adoption has been slowed, says Billtrust's Nick Babinsky.

Given American Express was reporting a 95% hit to one of its core businesses less than two months ago, announcing access to the world’s largest digital payments market has to be a major sigh of relief — even if there’s still entrenched competitors, an international virus and a cold war to navigate.

Nobody knows what the next six to 12 months are going to look like. That means AP needs to focus on conserving cash while keeping operations moving, says Nvoicepay's Josh Cyphers and Derek Halpern.

MineralTree has retooled its platform so midsize corporations may process domestic and international invoices through one channel, and the firm has also formed a partnership with TransferMate to improve users' global currency payment options.

Inaccurate payments have plagued accounts payable and receivable departments from the time suppliers' contracts and invoices were stored in boxes and file drawers to the dawn of data-driven digital transactions.