B-to-B payments

Flywire is working with Bank of America to streamline cross-border payments for the bank’s higher education and corporate clients, whose foreign transaction traffic is rising along with global commerce.

Mastercard has launched two separate initiatives that touch the health care market — blockchain for visibility in food systems and Mastercard Healthcare Solutions to detect fraud and bring efficiencies in health care organizations.

The online platform lender Kabbage is making the move beyond just providing working capital loans to small businesses, putting it in direct competition with alternative acquirers and payment companies.

Visa is retooling its small-business credit cards by expanding credit card lines, adding travel insurance and product-warranty extensions and making it easier for business owners to integrate card accounts with accounting software.

In seeking to eliminate manual back-office payment processes for long-term health care and social service providers, AvidXchange says it is launching new software to steer providers to digital accounting and B2B e-payments — and eliminate paper checks.

U.S. Bank wants to disrupt the way consumers pay their bills by offering billers a new platform fit for faster payment rails, new messaging formats and digital assistants.

Because such a high number of new cardholders were paying fees for premium cards, Amex is earning subscription-like recurring revenue.

Eliminating checks from corporate payments will take many more years, but Nacha’s latest data suggests the B2B category is playing a key role in Same Day ACH's growth.

Technology companies like Square and Stripe have nimbly captured small-business share from banks that often overlooked the segment. Royal Bank of Canada is trying to respond through a mix of merchant services, tied to the national debit system and incentive marketing.

Making a domestic or cross-border B2B payment should be as easy as a consumer making a payment at a retailer's point of sale. There are plenty of obstacles toward this goal, but also plenty of paths to success.

Intuit has partnered with Visa to enable QuickBooks users to get faster access to funds through Visa Direct, the network’s debit push payments service.

Ripple is collaborating with financial software company Finastra, boosting both companies' reach in the cross-border transaction market.

Companies like Stripe provide a needed source of capital, but should expand lending beyond their existing base, says Become's Eden Amirav.

The card networks are taking blockchain seriously as a means of streamlining cross-border B2B payments. But while they share a vision, they are taking different paths to this goal. Visa has opted for a closed network that it controls, while Mastercard envisages a wider, more open ecosystem.

Payoneer found its niche providing technology for Amazon, Google and Facebook to deliver mass payouts to independent contractors, but the company has added options for small U.S. businesses to send payments to vendors and suppliers globally.

Governments use varying methods for tracking the flow of money in and out of the country in order to deter fraud and money laundering, writes Nvoicepay's Alyssa Callahan.

Oak HC/FT is the lead investor in a $100 million round in Rapyd, a company that’s designed to serve a complex international supply chain.

To really solve cash management struggles once and for all, it’s critical to start by targeting necessary process improvements, says Bottomline Technologies' Bill Wardwell.

As businesses navigate the trade war, these loans can help cover anything from inventory to office supplies – any area where a business is taking a hit, says Become's Eden Amirav.

Today, borderless supply chains define business opportunities and brick and mortar presence is just an afterthought, says Amex's Dean Henry.