Most people are familiar with plastic credit cards which are used for company and personal expenses. Some also know what a purchasing or P-Card is—these are used for purchases made on behalf of a department or company. In a B2B payments context, both will soon be obsolete. A competent and well-funded group of technology providers and issuing banks have been promoting a new generation of card issuing technology called “virtual cards” (also referred to as single use cards). We believe that in a B2B payments context, virtual cards can be a significant game changer in terms of efficiency, precision, and data breadth and depth. Already, we see notable adoption of virtual cards for B2B payments, and we expect significant growth in this area well into the middle of this decade.

KEY ISSUES

  • How will B2B Payments technology evolve?
  • What are the key drivers of Virtual Card adoption?
  • What is the economic case for Virtual Cards?
  • When will Virtual Card adoption move into the mainstream?
  • What is the overall business impact of Virtual Card adoption?