Trends in B2B Payments and Working Capital Management

The payments landscape is changing faster than ever before. To say that the challenges faced by corporates and banks are heavily complex would be a significant understatement. For an organization to be successful, understanding the B2B payment trends will be critical. There has been ongoing economic globalization as organizations have sought to expand their footprints worldwide, a movement that introduces both new opportunities and new threats (growth is good, but it can be a painful and eye-opening process that’s rife with speed bumps). Innovations in payment technology have hugely impacted the funds transfer process for many organizations. Not only are new payment management processes being adopted, but many established payment processes are being left behind (we're looking at you checks).

At the same time, fraud is an ever present cloud that hangs threateningly over every organization, with fraudsters always finding new and creative ways to steal from or intercept payments. This has prompted many corporates to reevaluate or even to significantly restructure their security frameworks. In this time of change, corporates and banks have moved from managing significant complexity into battling hyper-complexity on multiple fronts. The act of simply keeping up with everything taking place in the payments industry has become a monumental challenge. But just how significant has the evolution of the B2B payments landscape been? How has it impacted corporates and banks? How are organizations adapting and evolving? These were the questions that we set out to answer when we developed the 2017 B2B Payments & Working Capital Management Strategies Survey. This survey captured the responses of 335 corporate and bank practitioners regarding their views on new payments technology, payment security, working capital management and the current regulatory environment, as well as how they are thinking about payments and working capital today and tomorrow. If you’re curious to know how your organization fits in to the big picture, here are some of the top trends we thought you’d find interesting…