B-to-B payments

R&D capabilities at Interac got a boost last month when Interac Corp. was created by merging Interac Association and Acxys Corp. It brought together a payments network handling nearly 5.7 billion debit transactions annually with a company specializing in payments development, management and consultation.

The investment continues a trend of banks focusing on commercial payments technology.

CFOs can give their accounts receivable valuable time back during the workweek when switching to an automated B-to-B payments solution, writes Ed Jordan, CFO of Billtrust.

Tipalti, whose platform automates domestic and international accounts payable, has raised $30 million in a Series C financing round led by Zeev Ventures, bringing its funding total to $50 million.

In a move to support its business-to-business payments platform, Visa has agreed to acquire software provider Fraedom.

JPMorgan says it will deploy Total System Services Inc. technology when issuing virtual payment cards to commercial clients.

The banks behind the Zelle network had more in mind than P-to-P payments between consumers, and BNY Mellon is beginning the network's evolution by targeting the business payments market.

Success with blockchain does not depend on new technology alone. It requires bringing together experts in people, process and technology to simplify complex processes and apply tested methods to the new technical landscape, writes Michael Goodman, senior director of data and analytics for NTT Data Services.

The fintech revolution is now touching almost every market in the payments space. Some are still further ahead than others, so expect 2018 to be a year of consolidation in more mature sectors, but one of rapid change in those with some catching up to do, writes David Yohe, vice president of marketing at BillingTree.

As organizations look to AP to take on more strategic planning, budgeting, and cash management activities, they have to use automation to get rid of the manual, repetitive, non-value-added tasks they’re doing now, writes Brent Meyers, vice president of national sales for Nvoicepay.