This Week in B2B: Payments Get Interesting When Finance Teams Get Smarter

For decades, B2B payments were an unglamorous yet essential component of corporate finance.

Now, B2B payments have started to become a little more glamorous as executives realize the keys to their kingdom are often buried in the back office.

Businesses are re-evaluating the nature of financial transactions, moving toward systems that are not only efficient but also agile and adaptable to changing economic and regulatory landscapes.

That’s the reality taking center stage this month, during four weeks of B2B-focused panel discussions where industry experts share their thoughts about the technologies, strategies and collaborations reimagining what commercial payments can be.

The Evolution of Automated B2B Payments

The industry executives PYMNTS has been speaking to for the monthlong event, B2B Payments: Outlook 2030, agree that finance leaders can move beyond traditional cost savings and extract more value from payments as an engine for growth.

The catch? It’s nearly impossible with a legacy and manually driven back office.

Manual payments are not just inefficient — they can lead to mistakes, create friction and potentially disrupt cash flow. This can put a company’s bottom line at risk and damage business relationships.

“Consumers have definitely embraced digital payments, but many businesses still rely on mailed invoices and paper checks,” Trina Dutta, vice president and general manager of B2B solutions and global commercial services at American Express, told PYMNTS. “And this is a big challenge in the industry because manual payments are more likely to result in late B2B payments. And these delayed payments have consequences.”

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Businesses at Risk: The High Cost of Manual AR Processes and What to Do About It” showed how embracing B2B payments automation has become essential for survival and growth.

“As digital payments have advanced and the technology that surrounds the payment acceptance landscape has evolved, the ability to implement, adhere and administer a payment policy that is both tied and centered to a merchant’s corporate objectives has become increasingly more important,” Kunal Patel, general manager of payments at Billtrust, told PYMNTS, noting that this is even more crucial for firms handling large volumes of transactions.

B2B payments are no longer just back-office concerns — they’re front and center for businesses looking to streamline operations. Finexio CEO Ernest Rolfson, Emburse CEO Marne Martin and Mastercard Senior Vice President of Commercial Solutions Loralee Bodo dissected with PYMNTS how strategic partnerships can better help businesses tackle industry challenges.

“It’s not just about digitalizing payments but about rethinking the entire procure-to-pay process,” Bodo said.

What’s Next for B2B Payments?

The trends and themes PYMNTS tracks are being brought to life with innovations across the marketplace.

HoneyBook launched an expanded suite of financial tools Wednesday (Oct. 16) that can be integrated into its client relationship management (CRM) platform for independent businesses. The new HoneyBook Finance includes the HoneyBook business checking account, the HoneyBook Visa business debit card, payments, and cash flow management and savings tools.

Elsewhere, commercial card FinTech Pivot Payables launched an integration with American Express Tuesday (Oct. 15) that lets American Express business and corporate card members generate virtual cards within PivotLynx, Pivot Payables’ accounting automation application, getting requests to managers for budget approval and cost accounting.

Also on Tuesday, Ghost announced it raised $40 million in a Series C funding round to continue expanding its members-only B2B marketplace that connects brands and retailers and facilitates the buying and selling of surplus and wholesale inventory.

Security is a crucial component of B2B payments innovation, and with scammers becoming more and more sophisticated, Swift is bolstering its artificial intelligence-enhanced fraud detection capabilities. The global messaging service announced Wednesday (Oct. 16) that it will begin offering this service to the payments sector in January, following a pilot earlier this year and collaboration with banks worldwide.

In other Swift news, Andy Elliott, vice president of strategy at EvonSys, and Tanja Haase, global product lead of payment experience at Swift, told PYMNTS that improving the front-end experience for cross-border payments is critical. Haase and Elliott noted that 80% of small businesses and consumers go to their banks first when they seek to make an international payment.

“The process is more complicated than it needs to be,” Elliott said.

Banks might say a payment will arrive at a foreign beneficiary’s bank account within three to five days. The costs may be as high as $40 a transaction, and the fees are opaque.

Many banks are investing in their payments technology and seeking to address the friction inherent in end-user experiences in the digital banking channels, but they need to upgrade the front-end portion of those experiences.

“If you look at the cross-border payment space over the last five years, the payment volumes have grown,” Chandana Thanthrige, managing director, head of FIG and transactional FX product APAC, global payments solutions at Bank of America, told PYMNTS.

However, with this growth, managing market volatility, regulatory compliance and cross-currency risks remains challenging for treasurers.

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