PNC and Extend Team to Upgrade Commercial Cards

PNC Bank has launched a partnership with spend/expense management platform Extend.

The collaboration, announced Monday (Nov. 10), is aimed at offering new payment capabilities to PNC’s commercial clients.

“By enrolling their existing PNC Bank commercial cards, businesses can access Extend’s mobile and web platform — unlocking a full suite of digital tools to control, manage, and optimize business spend within minutes,” the companies said in a news release.

The new capabilities let companies pay vendors with “unique virtual cards” to minimize the threat of card fraud, while also giving employees, contractors, consultants, interviewees and interns access to temporary virtual cards to cover business expenses.

It also allows for real-time transaction monitoring, and lets companies set limits and controls to “align spend with budgets and approval workflows,” while also using Apple Pay and Google Pay for instant and contactless payments, the release added.

“Business owners are looking for smarter and more secure ways to manage payments,” said Andrew Jamison, Extend’s chief executive.

“By collaborating with PNC Bank, we’re giving clients the flexibility to issue and track virtual cards directly through their existing accounts. Whether it’s managing subscriptions, empowering employees, or making secure vendor payments, this partnership makes everyday business spend easier to control.”

“At PNC, we are constantly seeking opportunities to help our clients run their businesses more efficiently,” added Tom Lang, executive vice president and head of treasury management product and operations at PNC. “Through our collaboration with Extend, we’re delivering an intuitive, easy-to-use solution that helps businesses simplify spend, strengthen security, and optimize payments.”

Research by PYMNTS Intelligence and Visa has found 44% of chief financial officers turn to commercial cards to streamline payment workflows, while 43% cite better control over approvals and 40% reported a reduced operational burden.

Corporate cards, PYMNTS wrote last month, have evolved from tools for travel and small-ticket purchases into “strategic instruments” for liquidity control, spend visibility and supplier agility.

They address an underlying tension in payables: Companies wish to move fast, but finance needs to stay in control. The larger the organization, the more friction builds up in that balancing act. Invoice approvals, purchase orders, and manual reconciliations are all designed to plug leaks or prevent errors or fraud, but they can also slow down the business.

“Cards promise a middle ground,” the report added. “By embedding the same controls directly into the payment instrument, companies can compress the time between intent and action without losing oversight. A virtual card issued for a specific vendor, amount and time window, for instance, eliminates the ambiguity of open credit lines or vague purchase orders. It’s a payment that obeys a rulebook.”