American Express partners with Coupa for virtual card integration
American Express has partnered with business spend management (BSM) provider Coupa in a deal which will see the former provide virtual cards as a payment option.
American Express want to solve supplier payments pain points
The new payment integration with Coupa Pay, a set of payment and financial solutions within the Coupa BSM platform, is expected to first be available to American Express Corporate customers in the United Kingdom and Australia in late 2019 and the United States in mid-2020.
Once the business’ American Express account is tied to Coupa Pay, virtual Cards can automatically be sent to authorised suppliers.
“Our priority is to seamlessly unify the buyer and supplier customer experience and as part of this mission, we seek to partner with innovative companies who help to make electronic business payments easier,” says Dean Henry, executive vice president of business financing and supplier payments at American Express.
Speaking to FinTech Futures, Henry expresses his belief that relieving supplier payments pain points will become a crucial factor as customer bases begin to expect more fluid systems and platforms.
Related: Click to Pay launched by Amex, Mastercard, Visa
Contrasting the industry with the consumer payments world, he adds that people across all sectors are beginning to expect an easy to use experience, and that the business leaders of tomorrow will have grown among services provided by tech firms like Uber, Netflix and Spotify.
“Those digital natives will be looking for a system which is both easy to use but full of functionality,” says Henry, and a solutions like those provided by Coupa tick those boxes.
“We launched Coupa Pay to fix the fragmented business payments process because we knew there was a better way for buyers and suppliers to interact at this critical step,”adds JR Robertson, vice president of Coupa Pay. “American Express is a strong partner to help us continue driving forward our mission. Together, Coupa and American Express will empower businesses around the world to pay simpler, smarter, and faster.”
