Mastercard teams with HSBC for B2B card to bank account payments
The problem of merchant reluctance to accept commercial cards is a frequent complaint among industry players. Now Mastercard has announced the launch of a business-to-business (B2B) payment solution in the UK, Mastercard Track Card to Account Transfer. This solution would allow businesses to use their commercial card programme to make payments to any supplier regardless of whether the supplier accepts card payments.
Further the company noted that this solution would help businesses to manage their cash flow, eliminate manual work and also expand their payment options “as suppliers receive card payments from buyers directly in their bank account”.
This solution would be offered by Mastercard issuers to their corporate and business customers, with HSBC the first issuer to offer the service in early 2022.
Earlier, Mastercard announced partners for its digital payments system, Mastercard Send Partner Program. While it also launched virtual card solutions for B2B payments.
“Early payment via Card to Account Transfer will also help to enhance corporate responsibility and supply chain resilience by supporting smaller suppliers”, the press note stated.
Mentioning the data by CEBR, April 2021 by Mastercard in the press note, it stated that the average payment times during the pandemic for large companies was 37 days to pay their supplier vehicle for share of invoices were later than 60 days which had reached four year high.
The solution as per the company is one of the solutions within Mastercard Track and this would address the business problem of payment and collection challenges by “reducing complexity and risk, cutting costs, and automating processes”. This would also allow banks to offer businesses with working capital solutions providing cash flow and accounts payable processes.