BBT


CORPORATE CARDS SUPPLEMENT 2015


Innovations By Mark Frary


everything but merely changed the channel. Robson says: “Why do you have to take a photo? You have just moved the photocopier on to the phone.” The real innovation will be when that end-to- end process becomes seamless and there is no longer the need for a physical receipt. There is also the risk aversion of large companies to take into account. Citi’s


Robson says: “When iZettle and Square moved into the acquisition market, I have never seen the card industry move so fast. For our large corporates though, I think they are interested in the new technology where it solves a business problem. Fundamentally they are relatively conservative.” He cites contactless payment, which has been making strides in the consumer market,


as an example, but there is little demand for it in corporate circles. Instead, corporates want better messaging for their travellers or help in extending reach of mobile platforms into new territories.


THE BIGGER PICTURE But what about large companies like Google and other tech behemoths, which are doing things differently with their T&E management? Citi has a number of these ‘new’ companies on its client list, but Robson says even those agile businesses have similar requirements and preferences to longer established companies. Robson sees increasing take-up of virtual


cards (though he asks: “Why are we still calling it a virtual ‘card’ when it has nothing to do with cards at all?”) and believes that widespread adoption is just a couple of years away. “Think of what it could do as a way of defeating fraud,” he says. He also wonders whether existing payment net- works will increasingly become bypassed. Citi, with its global reach, has built its own network so that money never has to leave the bank.


The increasingly tough regulatory environment means providers are not able to focus on innovative research as much as they would like


This inevitably leads to questions about digital currencies that promise something similar, without the commissions and other costs involved with currency exchange. “Take Bitcoin: for it to go mainstream, you need to have trust,” says Robson. “Yet you still hear about banks getting hacked, and there has to be a tipping point.” BAML’s Gargagliano feels that it is still early days for the likes of cybercurrencies such as Bitcoin and P2P systems. She says: “Cybercurrency has been the buzzword for the last few years, and the Mt Gox incident highlights the challenges associ- ated with embracing a payment method that hasn’t been adequately tried and tested.” Mt Gox was a Tokyo-based Bitcoin exchange that suspended trading and filed


In association with BBT CORPORATE CARDS SUPPLEMENT 2015 23 31


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