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Data for this episode of Truth In Data is provided by Mercator Advisory Group’s report – Supplier Enablement: Get More Flexible and Technical
- Plain Old Inertia: change costs time and money, and the current Fed Reserve system (75 yrs old) is still relatively efficient
- Counterparties: A business buyer has commercial counterparties: suppliers. And they don’t like change either.
- Counterparties (cont.): are the biggest obstacle to adoption of card-based payments, which include fees for suppliers
- Awareness: Lack of awareness for the true costs and risks of nondigital payments
- 90% of the recent advancements in payments has occured in consumer, not corporate, payments
- Virtual cards as a B2B solution have grown 20% year on year but still only comprise 2% of payment volume
- Annual growth in B2B noncash payments estimated at 6.5% globally, e-payments 8.5%
About this report
The revolution in electronic payments has been underway for quite some time but has been much more visible in consumer payments than in the more complicated use cases associated with business-to-business (B2B) payments. Recent advancements include faster speed of payment, ncreasing options for cross-border solutions, and greater choices for access to such solutions.
In a new research report, Supplier Enablement: Get More Flexible and Technical, Mercator Advisory Group reviews how banks enabling suppliers to accept card payments and other forms of e-payment need to change their thinking and technology and adapt to the suppliers’ point of view. Not doing so will result in missing a large potential opportunity to capture a portion of the trillions of shifting payments volumes moving away from paper.
The annual growth in B2B noncash payments globally is estimated at about 6.5%, and Mercator Advisory Group believes that the e-payments portion of that growth is about two percentage points higher due to the decline of checks. This varies by region, in particular North America, where the U.S. has been lagging in the elimination of paper process and payments versus some other areas of the world, commented Steve Murphy, Director of Mercator Advisory Group’s Commercial and Enterprise Payments Advisory Service, author of the report. “ When it comes to the cards business, the enablement challenges have been steeper, both because of the change involved for suppliers and the friction of perceived acceptance costs. The industry has pursued best practice attempts to gain wider acceptance with modest success and now needs to try something new.”