In the world of consumer payments, the transition from physical channels into simpler, more secure and convenient digital methods have been, by and large, a rather seamless shift over the past decade. However, the business-to-business (B2B) market still presents a technology laggard when it comes to payments, falling behind the curve compared to consumer deployment in crucial and distinct processes such as listing, buying/selling, payment and financing – which, traditionally have relied on analogue methods due to its complexity.

The biggest pain point that have plagued B2B payments in businesses, namely between a customer (buyer) and a merchant (supplier), is contributed by the lack of payment data flow and need for manual reconciliation and intervention efforts – be it for invoice processing, making or receiving payments, transaction tracking or accounts reconciliation – resulting in cost-ineffectiveness and increased fraud risks. On the corporate banking scene, banks are seeking ways to generate optimal revenue margins with existing flows for B2B payments that ride on cards network, tapping on the large market volume with B2B payments and collections.

As mounting pressure is on businesses to reduce costs, maintain data security and streamline cashflows, real-time payments technology is sought after to help alleviate the long-standing friction in B2B payments, especially for account-based transfers to make payments more efficient, accurate and secure.

With the ability to leverage on B2B’s ‘closed loop’ controlled payment environment of known buyers and known sellers, Infinitium’s expertise and experience within the card payments space is able to bring to the table the right technology and understanding on payment processes and stakeholder requirements to close the gaps and deliver a secure payments processing solution that is beneficial to the customers, merchants and banks.

Infinitium offers Straight Through Processing (STP) payment capability for B2B payments connected to the cards network, to enable an automated, end-to-end payment process between buyers with suppliers, and merchants with customers.

Within the STP payment flow, Infinitium uses Virtual Account Number (VAN) as the tool for B2B payment processing between buyers and suppliers. With B2B STP, the buyer/customer is able to initiate payment in real-time by sending payment instructions via a secure platform (secure email, secure file or an application programme interface, or API), in which a VAN will be generated and charged to the supplier.

Upon validation of the payment instructions, direct payment is initiated, all these within Infinitium’s hosted environment. At every end-of-day, both buyer and supplier will receive notifications of all successful transactions for confirmed payments, as well as any unsuccessful transaction should there be an invalid payment instruction from buyer to supplier.

STP benefits all stakeholders in the B2B payments ecosystem, as it allows companies to share information electronically in order to share information in a quicker, more secure and effective manner – especially in an increasingly globalised business environment involving cross-border B2B transactions.

This B2B technology is best fit for geographically distributed businesses to cater for multi-channel and multi-mode cashless payments and collections with ease of reconciliation. It helps to speed up transaction processing time and allow both parties to have the same information be streamlined through a process across multiple points.

For buyers, STP provide them with a more streamlined way of paying for products and services and enables them to tap into various reward packages such as reward points or even cashback. Additionally, when a supplier accepts a payment using STP, the buyer knows their payment card data is secure and not stored with the supplier, which in turn helps the supplier reduce risk and meet PCI compliance obligations.

On the merchant side, STP enables them to receive payment from a customer without any action required. By limiting manual process for employees of having to keep entering the same information over and over again or checking to ensure a transaction fully processed, it reduces chances for errors, which in turn will lead to cost savings and increased productivity.

The future of business is adopting STP, not only for the value-add of accuracy and efficiency in payment processing, but most crucially in its security proposition using technology. Infinitium’s responsibility thrust in enabling B2B payments market is to be committed to fulfil the market need for secure payments.

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