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that nearly 50 percent of all business payments were made
Insider’sreport by check in 2016, 32 percent were ACH transactions and just
11 percent were card payments. (Businesses made about 8
on payments: percent of payments by cash or wire transfer, combined,
the survey found.)

Checks have at least two inherent advantages over
electronic payments, such as ACH and credit cards:
simplicity and universality. All that is needed to initiate
a payment is check stock and a mailing address. But as
more business interactions move to electronic channels,
Visa, Mastercard aim checks are losing their luster, Flint Lane, founder and CEO
of Billtrust, suggested in a recent interview. "The desire to
move off paper is clear," he said. "How it happens is still
to accelerate B2B unclear."

card payments One stumbling block is cost: many businesses balk at
paying prevailing merchant discount fees, which as an
upfront cost can seem more burdensome than the baked

By Patti Murphy in overhead of handling checks. Lane doesn't see this as an
insurmountable obstacle, though. "I think Visa is looking at
ProScribes Inc. ways it can be creative about that," he said.
aving made significant inroads in consum- Visa focuses on receivables
er adoption of credit and debit cards, Visa
and Mastercard have now set their sights on Over the past year, Visa has been aggressive in pursuing
H expanding their footprints in the business-to- opportunities to move more accounts receivable
business (B2B) payments space. Each is pursuing different transactions to its network. Receivables processing can
sides of the B2B payments equation: for Mastercard it's the be one of the most complex tasks in corporate treasury
payables side; for Visa it's, receivables. operations since payments often cover multiple invoices
that must be accurately matched to buyer records.
The B2B payments market in the United States is huge. It has
been expanding at a combined annual growth rate (CAGR) Last June, Visa launched a program it calls Visa Ready for
of 5.8 percent over the past several years; the growth rate Business Solutions, a framework that helps technology
for B2B ecommerce transactions has been almost twice firms integrate with Visa's B2B payment services and data
that. This is according to the consultancy Deloitte, which solutions. To date, five companies have been certified under
expects the B2B payments market to top $23 trillion in 2020. the program: Bora Payment Systems LLC, globalVCard
LLC, MineralTree, Priority Commercial Payments and
Small businesses (those with less than $50 million in annual Bottomline Technologies Inc. All offer solutions that
revenues) and midsize businesses ($50 million to $1 billion integrate with the Visa network to support B2B virtual
in revenues) will each account for about $4.5 trillion of the cards, which generate unique 16-digit virtual account
expected 2020 total, according to Deloitte's calculations, numbers for each payment made.
while the largest companies (those with over $1 billion in
annual revenues) will account for the lion's share at just Virtual cards are an emerging trend in what the research
over $14 trillion in B2B payments. firm Packaged Facts estimates to be a $1.9 trillion
commercial card market. "This is a space that continues to
Industries with the largest volumes include professional attract heated interest from payments market participants,"
and business services, which in 2014 made about $2.6 trillion said David Sprinkle, the company's Research Director. He
in B2B payments, and finance, insurance, real estate, rental predicted that business spending on virtual cards will
and leasing firms, which made about $2.2 trillion in B2B soon outstrip spending on corporate travel cards.
payments that year. Manufacturing firms accounted for the
largest chunk of B2B payments at $3.5 trillion, Deloitte said. In October 2017, Visa formed a strategic partnership
with Billtrust, which specializes in automated solutions
The majority of payments made by businesses continue to for invoice delivery and payment, as well as for cash
be check and automated clearing house (ACH) transactions. applications, which is a major pain point for billers. Visa
A survey of credit and account receivables professionals said it also made a strategic investment in Billtrust. "We
conducted in 2017 by NACHA –The Electronic Payments have a unique opportunity to make cards more palatable
Association and The Credit Research Foundation revealed to suppliers," said Lane of the Visa partnership. And

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