December 20188The Future of PaymentsAs a digitally connected CFO, you likely wake up and check your phone first thing for emails. You may ask your smart home device for the weather forecast or to order you a car to get to work. In the car you can pre-pay for your coffee or pay with a QR code in store. In the elevator on the way up to your office, you may use your phone to order new clothing, or make dinner reservations at a restaurant. Finally, when you sit down at your desk, and approve a vendor payment, you likely authorize or physically sign checks that are put in envelopes and mailed. Something is wrong with this picture. The state of technology and our consumer expectations are rapidly evolving, however, business payments have failed to keep up. Consider these statistics; Over two-thirds of consumer payments are made electronically, 24 percent of eCommerce goods are ordered using a mobile phone and 90 percent of adults have their mobile phone within arm's reach at all times. However, for corporate payments, approximately 50 percent of vendor payments are still made using paper checks.The good news is that corporate payments are beginning to evolve. One of the most significant trends is the increasing adoption of virtual cards and Straight Through Processing (STP) payments. According to the 2017 RPMG Research Corporation Purchasing Card Survey, approximately 36 percent of North American Fortune 500 Companies had a virtual card program in 2017. The pace of virtual card adoption is accelerating quickly with over 60percent of Fortune 500 Companies forecasted to have a program in place by 2019. If your company does not already have plans to launch a virtual card program, you should consider taking the leap.Virtual cards are unique one-time tokenized account numbers which are used to pay suppliers as part of a By Seth Goodman, Director, North America Product Head, Citi Commercial Cards, CitiSeth GoodmanIN MY OPINION
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