One by one, corporate payment players are expanding the range of solutions available to businesses. BNP Paribas, having launched a virtual card for low-cost airlines, hotels and car hire, followed by a mid-market card for air and rail tickets, is now issuing a paperless payment solution focused on key accounts, the Visa Central Travel Account. This technology is part of our strategy of complete coverage" said Laurent Sautré, then head of commercial cards at BNP Paribas, at the time of the launch at the beginning of last year.
AirPlus has chosen France, one of its key markets along with Germany, its country of origin, to launch its new pan-European corporate card.
Société Générale, for its part, added the following in 2017 to its range of plastic cards The new card will be complemented by a virtual card number and optional travel insurance by the end of the year. " This is to ensure that the solution is truly competitive" says Élodie Trouillaud, Head of Cards for the French bank.
Now it's the turn of AirPlus, a pioneer in centralised payment through its A.I.D.A. virtual cards, to sound the trumpets for the launch of its pan-European corporate card. Affiliated to the MasterCard network, the first cards will begin to be issued from the last quarter of 2018. And for this big first, AirPlus has chosen France, one of its key markets along with Germany, its country of origin. While AirPlus was already distributing plastic cards in Germany, the UK, Belgium and Luxembourg - thanks to its acquisition of BCC last year - this proposal takes on a whole new dimension. This corporate card will be distributed in no fewer than 19 European countries between now and the end of 2019, making it the most widely used plastic card in Europe. an offer that is virtually unique in terms of the number of countries involved. By starting to distribute on a large scale the most developed means of payment in the corporate world, AirPlus is at the same time acquiring a key communication tool to enhance its brand image.
Is this a real turnaround for AirPlus, which has long championed the centralisation and dematerialisation of payments? " In no way does this change our strategysays Julie Troussicot, Managing Director of AirPlus in France. The corporate card remains a complementary product for expenses incurred during business trips. But there are still companies that do not have, or do not want, to centralise all their travel expenses. The plastic card has therefore useful for everyday expenses when travelling, such as in taxis or restaurants. "This launch of a corporate card also marks the end of the marketing and commercial partnership with BNP Paribas, when the two players were associated to offer major French accounts a complete range of payment solutions.
What a blessing!
The fact that everyone is going their own way also fits in with another logic, that of businesses, whose propensity to want to see only one head among their payment solution providers is increasingly marked. One contact, one contract: What a simplification for buyers and travel managers! And what a blessing it is for the finance department, which can now report on expenditure in the same way and benefit from optimised data reconciliation! As a result, calls for tender are asking the various players to offer not only a full range of payment solutions, but also for banks and corporate payment specialists to have very wide geographical coverage.
The calls for tender require the various players to offer all payment solutions and to have very wide geographical coverage.
" The rationalisation of card programmes by continent, and even at global level, is a real trend. Many customers are joining us who, before this, had programmes spread across a multitude of suppliers." says Gregory Wharton. According to the head of sales in France for the Global Transaction Services business of Bank of America Merril Lynch (BofAML), " there are many players who can support customers on a global scale on the fingers of one hand. "This handful naturally includes BofAML, the world's number two commercial card issuer, with a presence in over 50 countries, including 28 in the EMEA region, as well as Citi, with a presence in 65 countries. To a lesser degree, BNP Paribas covers several countries in Western Europe, as well as North America with its subsidiary Bank of The West, while AirPlus is stepping up the opening of offices in emerging countries.
It's impossible not to mention the world leader in corporate payments, American Express. " Being present throughout the world with solutions that cover the full scope of the needs of companies and their employees is part of the uniqueness of American Express.says Pierre-François Brézès. This enables a company to reap major benefits in terms of reconciling expenses with standardised and enriched data, while making it easier to manage accounts payable. And not just for a single country, but for the whole world. on all markets. This is very important for companies. It gives them an idea of the total cost of their business travel. "
Basic trend
In this context, and according to Traveldoo, 43 % of travel managers expect to see the subject of payment become a major trend in the coming years. There is no doubt that the tracking of all expenses incurred for business travel is a key factor in this trend. the strongest pillar on which to base the management of travel policies. Even more than travel agency reporting, the convergence of information - that linked to the corporate card for large budget items such as air or rail tickets; data from virtual cards for everything to do with accommodation, car hire and even the MICE segment; everyday expenses paid by corporate card - provides a global overview of the entire travel budget. It's a very clear picture, which goes hand in hand with the seamless integration of expenses into expense reports, with all the benefits of seeing this time-consuming task disappear. The result is a better definition of travel policies, as well as improved negotiations with suppliers.
A very clear view of expenditure leads to a better definition of travel policies, as well as better negotiations with suppliers.
The Visa Travel Account payment solution distributed by BNP Paribas emphasises its " aggregated view of expenditure" says Ahmed Djoubri, Marketing Director for Visa in France. Reinforced by the Intellilink Spend Management platform, it consolidates all transactions from the Visa network - the Central Travel Account, the business card, the virtual card - while identifying expenditure by supplier, by destination, but also by travel class or hotel category.
However, with current developments, particularly the digitisation of payments, we need to be more vigilant, do these solutions still complement each other? " I am seeing an increase in the number of projects to integrate virtual cards, either to replace traditional stored-value cards or - and increasingly - to broaden the range of expenses that are paid for by card solutions." says David Voss, Head of BofAML's European Cards business.
Smartphones and connected objects: the future of payments can't wait
Mastercard
Adapting to new payment methods, offering the same experience in the professional world as in the private sphere: as contactlesspayment via smartphones is also beginning to make inroads into the corporate world. " Payment via Apple Pay is available for all consumer and business cards" says Pierre-François Brézès of American Express. " We plan to integrate the corporate card into mobile wallets such as Apple Pay in the coming months or year." says David Voss of Bank of America Merril Lynch. " We have developed Apple Pay for private use, and the second stage will be to add it to our business and corporate cards.says Élodie Trouillaud of Société Générale. As is often the case, this is a two-stage process. However, unlike contactless payment, mobile payment is still marginal. "
This desire to adapt means of payment in tune with the times is also present at AirPlus, which intends to go even further in the dematerialisation of travel expenses. " We have an R&D team working on innovative mobile solutions, like Dine+Go." explains Julie Troussicot. This application allows you to leave a restaurant without paying, but with your head held high, because the bill is paid directly from the mobile phone and its amount already recorded in an expense account. Already tried out in Hamburg and Berlin, it has been tested in Paris since 8 June. In the same vein, MasterCard has teamed up with a number of restaurant chains such as Eataly in Italy and Pizza Hut in the UK to enable them to offer their customers a digital payment solution.
Everything points to an increase in high-tech payments. As a sponsor of the Olympic Games, Visa is using these high-profile events to showcase its innovations, such as bus and metro payments using contactless cards or smartphones. As a partner of Transport for London since the London Olympics in 2012, Visa has already recorded more than a billion ticketless journeys. And to take things a step further, the payment solutions specialist has announced a partnership with some fifteen players around the world involved in digital payment for public transport.
As well as the uses, the media are also evolving. After the ring integrating payment tested by athletes taking part in the Rio Olympics in 2016, the latest Winter Olympics in PyeongCheang, South Korea, saw the appearance of gloves with a contactless chipThis will allow spectators to keep their hands warm while paying for their purchases.
Of course, it is by no means certain that travellers will be clamouring for this innovation from their travel manager, except for those who frequently visit countries where there is a polar cold. Perhaps more interesting, at least for the many executives who are keen runners, is the new possibility offered by MasterCard and Visa of paying with Fitbit Ionic and Garmin vivoactive 3 connected watches. No more need for runners to hide their change or credit card in their socks or underwear to pay for their post-jog coffee or smoothie. It's all so simpleBy presenting the watch in front of the payment terminal. With the rapid development of the Internet of Things, the possibilities seem endless.
No uberisation
Not everyone shares this view. " One might have thought that the virtual card would one day take over from the housed card or individual cards.. This is not the casesays Pierre-François Brézes of American Express. The embedded card is a simple and stable solution, with a real capacity to feed back very rich information from the back office of travel agencies and airlines. If the agency needs to generate a virtual card for each transaction, this requires an unnecessary investment compared with the embedded card. So.., why complicate things? At the same time, a company wishing to empower its employees and simplify their lives will continue to promote corporate cards. While moving towards digitisation, no one solution ubersizes the other. It is important not to lose sight of the fact that, ultimately, the objective is total reconciliation of travel expenses. "
But while plastic cards still have a bright future ahead of them, the virtual card is gaining in popularity every year. greater scope in the corporate world. In 2016 alone, Traveldoo reported an increase of 182 % in transactions via this channel. Offering a great deal of control over spending, with the possibility of setting ceilings per purchase or modulating authorisations very easily, this card created "on the fly through a virtual 16-digit number adds the flexibility of the individual card to the advantages of the stored-value card in terms of information feedback. It is mainly used to secure online hotel or car hire bookings for regular travellers, but can also be adapted to the needs of infrequent travellers or outside consultants who do not have corporate cards, in order to pay a large proportion of their expenses on the company account. Another field of application: MICE". where a single number can be used to cover all the costs involved in organising an event" David Voss, from BofAML.
Société Générale
" The virtual card has become an increasingly popular payment solutionsays Pierre-François Brézes. What makes us special at Amex is that these virtual cards can be used not only for a single transaction, but also for multiple transactions, without limitation. Assigned to each employee and entered in their profile, they can pay centrally via the company's online booking tool. It's totally transparent for the passenger. For our part, we take care of interfacing with the reservation systems. "
The virtual card is gaining ground in the corporate world every year. Traveldoo reported a 182 % increase in transactions in 2016.
The ability of paperless payment solutions to interface with all the players in the business travel industry is undoubtedly a key factor in the success of your business. one of the challenges of the years ahead. At the end of the year, AirPlus will be equipping itself with a new IT infrastructure, with the latest generation of tools that are totally open to the outside world. Julie Troussicot promises that this will increase the company's capacity for innovation. At any time, if a start-up - and God knows there are a lot of them developing in fintech - comes up with something interesting, it will be very easy for us to connect them to our systems to offer innovative things to our customers. We're changing the way we operate culturally by moving to agile project management. "
Mastercard
Improved process
" The big trend is APIs (Editor's note: application programming interface) which will enable highly integrated and secure real-time machine-to-machine communicationstresses Gregory Wharton. To say that 50 % of communications will be via APIs in the near future is an exaggeration. Nevertheless, it can happen very quickly, and improve the entire travel process. Ultimately, this process could be completely rethought, with full automation and interconnections from the moment the decision to travel is taken and authorised by the manager, through to the booking and final payment. "
Enough to make you feel like a nerd the good old corporate card ? Probably not. Or not yet, anyway. Especially as it too is evolving and adapting to current trends. BofAML, Société Générale, Citi and, in a few months' time, AirPlus and Amex: all the new cards have contactless payment in common. At last, one might say, while the world of business travel has long remained on the sidelines of this innovation, which has become the norm for day-to-day spending, with Mastercard noting growth of 145 % in contactless payments last year.
In 2017, Master-Card was the first to introduce a card combining a biometric chip and fingerprint sensor, joined earlier this year by Visa.
" Why are we all going? Pierre-François Brézes answers: "Above all for the customer experience, to offer a convergence of uses between personal and professional life. Because, in reality, its use is limited by the amount spent on travel, which quickly exceeds the contactless threshold. "Travellers, on a personal level, have appreciated its practicality when it comes to paying for a coffee at the airport, a transport ticket or a quick lunch. " Contactless technology is so widespread in the home that it seems inconsistent not to develop it now on business cardssays Élodie Trouillaud of Société Générale. This could have been much quicker if there had been a real demand from businesses. By the end of the year, contactless technology will be extended to all our Visa and Mastercard business cards." says Élodie Trouillaud.
Before all these cards appeared on the market, Societe Generale had already launched a Visa Business card with a dual innovation: contactless payment, but also a contactless payment function. dynamic cryptograma new service available to private customers since last year. " A serenity product" as described by the bank. To limit the risk of fraud, this card has a small screen on the back where the three-digit code changes every hour. So even if the card's details end up in the wrong hands - a hacker, a waiter or a shopkeeper who takes the card to his back room - the fact that the code is constantly changing makes it virtually unusable.
" If card details are stolen on the Internet or in the physical world, they become unusable after an average of half an hour. Fraudsters are generally no longer interested in this." explains Stéphane Nicaise, Commercial Cards Product Manager at Société Générale. This strengthens the security of online payments and makes it even more difficult for cardholders to make online payments. all the problems associated with fraud. Just a few days or a few hours before leaving on a business trip, it is always annoying to have to cancel your card and wait for a new one to be issued...
The fight against fraud could take another turn with the development of biometric payment. In 2017, Master-Card was the first to introduce a card combining a chip and a fingerprint sensor, joined earlier this year by Visa, which launched a pilot test with Mountain America Credit Union and Bank of Cyprus. It is simple to use: when a cardholder places their finger on the sensor to authenticate a transaction, a comparison is made between the fingerprint and the template previously recorded by the cardholder and stored on the card.
A cashless world
According to a study conducted for Visa by AYTM Market Research, the general public is ready, since 86 % of consumers say they are interested in biometrics to verify their identity or make payments. " For financial institutions, there has never been a better time to integrate biometric technology into the payment experience.said Mark Nelsen, Senior Vice President of Risk and Authentication Products at Visa. On the one hand, advances in mobile devices are increasing the accuracy and speed of biometrics, so that they can be used for financial transactions. And on the other, consumers are becoming more comfortable with the use of biometrics, particularly those used to unlock their phones." . Contactless, biometrics: welcome to a world without cash or codes.
