American Express Bolsters Virtual Card Processing for US Merchants

Financial services giant American Express is launching commercial virtual card processing services to US merchants in partnership with B2B payments provider, Boost Payment Solutions.

Through its ongoing investment in its business-to-business (B2B) network and in enhancing buyer and supplier capabilities, American Express is now offering merchants access to ‘Boost Intercept’, Boost’s Straight-Through Processing (STP) solution, at no additional cost.

It says this collaboration will enable suppliers to streamline the acceptance of American Express virtual cards and minimise the challenges associated with the manual processing of virtual cards. Virtual cards offer a dynamic payment option that replaces a physical card number with a tokenised, one-time-use digital version.

Many suppliers continue to process virtual card payments manually, including the opening of each email and copying the tokenised card number in their Point-of-Sale (POS) terminal. However, the increasing volume of virtual card transactions is making automation even more essential for suppliers. In fact, 52 per cent of US commercial card spending is estimated to be on virtual cards by 2025.

With Boost Intercept, qualified American Express merchants can automate the end-to-end process entirely, eliminating the manual work previously associated with processing virtual card payments via e-mail. Automating the process can also shorten the length of time between when a payment is authorised and when funds settle, potentially leading to better cash-flow management.

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By automating each step – receiving, parsing and processing – American Express promises to save suppliers time, as well as help their business run more efficiently and safely. Because virtual cards are generated with unique details for a specific transaction, merchants do not have to worry about handling sensitive payment and Card data from buyers.

From data entry errors to reliable information. Boost Intercept automates and therefore simplifies reconciliation efforts, with detailed transaction data accompanying each payment, making it easier for suppliers to match payments with invoices.

From a supplier staffing perspective, data shows that automating digital payments can save precious time compared to manual processes: According to the Amex Trendex B2B Edition, of the US businesses who said that payments automation is saving their finance team’s time (36 per cent), the average reportedly saved was 9.9 hours per week, or more than 500 hours per year.