B-to-B payments

B2B transactions are still heavily reliant on checks, and a lot of fintechs hope businesses are ready to break the habit. Silicon Valley fintech Coupa’s part of the parade of innovation, offering a virtual card and a payments-as-concierge approach.

Credit unions are well positioned to serve small businesses, but they'll lose that opportunity if they're not adequately protecting those members' cash flow.

Taking a cue from his previous success in commercial cash checking services, Conext CEO Michael Casalini hopes a Venmo-style mobile app that supports a quick conversion of checks to digital money can attract small businesses.

The ploys vary widely—digital tracking, fee incentives and "coopetition"—but banks are turning up the volume on innovation to pry businesses away from checks and keep them from signing up with rival tech startups.

To make commercial cards more viable, stakeholders in the B2B payments ecosystem need to break down traditional constructs and dynamically price card transactions so that they complement the commercial relationship between buyers and supplier, according to Dean Leavitt, CEO of Boost Payment Systems.

Right on the heels of securing a partnership with Amazon to benefit small business owners, American Express is launching a new Business Gold Card designed to reward spending in key categories and offer extra management tools.

Visa and Billtrust are pressuring businesses to embrace automation by developing a directory of suppliers who accept digital payments.

While B2B will never perfectly mimic the B2C space, there’s a lot businesses can learn from their consumer-facing counterparts, writes Mark Bartlett, marketing chief at FPX.

Automated payment technology provider Yooz North America is partnering with digital payment provider SnapCheck to help companies speed up accounts payable processes, while cutting operational and fraud costs.

ABN Amro plans to levy fees for some clients that don’t use digital payment processes, an aggressive tactic that’s had mixed results for the companies, retailers, and governments that choose to make intentionally harder to use manual payment processes.