Survey: APIs are the technology that will have the biggest impact on the B2B payments landscape over the next two to three years

Bottomline Technologies announced the release of the 2019 B2B Payments and Working Capital Management Strategies Survey in partnership with Strategic Treasurer. Among the key insights from the comprehensive study, survey results show that across the B2B payments landscape, partnering with fintechs will be the strategy of choice for a majority of banks and a growing number of corporates.

According to the survey results, three in four banks (76%) are either looking to leverage fintech solutions as much as possible for payment-related services and solutions, or are doing so to deliver select niche capabilities to specific customer segments. Related to this, 28% of corporates indicated that they use a non-bank provider for payments currently, and nearly one in three corporates (32%) plan to expand their use of fintech payment solutions within the next three years.

In the same B2B Payments study conducted two years ago, less than one in five corporates were using non-bank payment solutions. These findings underscore the growing acknowledgement of fintechs’ ability to deliver best-of breed payment capabilities, and the increased opportunity for banks to partner with these providers to meet client demand across all aspects of B2B payments.

The third annual 2019 B2B Payments Survey polled more than 300 financial professionals from companies of all sizes and industries spanning both North America and Europe. The survey was conducted from January to March of 2019.

“Whether you’re a bank or a corporate, fintech payment solutions need to be given a serious examination,” said Craig Jeffrey, Managing Partner, Strategic Treasurer. “Banks and corporates stand to benefit from aligning with fintech solution providers across all aspects of payments to arm themselves with the capabilities required to stay competitive.”

According to the survey, there is variation in which aspect of B2B payments businesses focus on depending on their size. Small companies are twice as likely to focus on accounts receivable (AR) initiatives compared to their larger peers which are more likely to focus on payables. For organizations of all sizes, top areas of remaining inefficiency across treasury, AP and AR include cash forecasting, invoice processing, and payment receipt and reconciliation.

The changing payments technology landscape continues to remain a focus for banks and corporates, with additional findings including:

. The survey finds that faster and emerging payments are gaining traction, as nearly half of corporates are using or interested in using new payment services. Among these new payment services, the top focus is real-time payments (55%), followed by Same-Day ACH (44%) and blockchain based networks (35%).
. Both banks and corporates agree that APIs are the technology that will have the biggest impact on the B2B payments landscape over the next two to three years.
. 76 percent of banks indicate that their corporate customers are asking for automated B2C payment services. One-third of banks already offer these services, and another 48% are evaluating them.
. 13 times more corporates indicate their comfort level with mobile payments has improved vs. deteriorated over the past year, highlighting a consistent trend of rising comfort.

The report also found that payments security continues to be top of mind, with Treasury indicating that fraud is their top payments-related challenge and Accounts Payable (AP) representing the source of the majority of fraud losses. Data shows AP suffers a loss from payments fraud three times more frequently than any other department. This may stem in part from the difficulty AP faces when managing and updating vendor bank account details, with 55% of respondents indicating this is their top AP pain point.

As organizations continue to make the transition from fraud-prone paper checks and manual vendor bank account management to electronic payment networks managed by fintechs, there is significant opportunity to mitigate payment fraud risk and reduce losses.

“The shift in mentality of both banks and corporates means that there is more opportunity than ever for technology adoption in the business payments space,” said Bill Wardwell, VP of Strategy & Business Development, Bottomline Technologies. “The survey results reinforce the need for payments solution providers to deliver truly innovative digital solutions, which enhance the overall payment experience without sacrificing security.”