Fifth Third Turns to Brex for Commercial Card Tech

Fifth Third Bank and Brex have partnered on a commercial card that will enable the bank’s commercial banking clients to access Brex’s intelligent finance platform.

With access to the platform and the Fifth Third Commercial Card powered by Brex, these clients will be able to issue corporate cards, automate expense management, make real-time payments, and use artificial intelligence (AI) agents that reduce manual review and control spend, the companies said in a Tuesday (Dec. 9) press release.

The card is built on the Brex Embedded payments infrastructure and will become the default commercial card solution for Fifth Third’s commercial banking clients, according to the release.

“The future of business demands financial platforms that do more than process payments — they must power growth,” Fifth Third Bank Chairman, CEO and President Tim Spence said in the release. “Our partnership with Brex is a commitment to redefine how companies leverage financial technology.”

Brex CEO Pedro Franceschi said in the release that Fifth Third Bank accounts for 8% of the U.S. commercial banking sector and that the companies’ partnership will deliver agentic finance solutions “at an unprecedented scale.”

“Together, we’re giving commercial teams the automation, speed and accuracy they need, all seamlessly connected to the financial institution they already trust,” Franceschi said.

Brex launched Brex Embedded in September 2024, saying this solution leverages application programming interfaces (APIs) and issuing integrations to enable software vendors to integrate Brex’s global corporate card and payments capabilities directly into their platform.

Businesses that have done so can then enable their own customers to make fast, secure global payments in virtually any currency and automate their existing financial workflows and payment reconciliation.

In January, Brex secured a $235 million credit facility to expand its ability to provide global corporate cards and solutions for expense management, travel, banking and bill pay.

“This transaction highlights the continued momentum of Brex’s card offering and our entire product suite,” Brex Chief Financial Officer Ben Gammell said at the time in a press release.

Fifth Third’s third quarter results showed growth in commercial payments and specifically the embedded finance platform, Newline by Fifth Third. Fees grew by 3% compared to the previous quarter and Newline revenues were up 31%.

For all PYMNTS AI coverage, subscribe to the daily AI Newsletter.