TAKING CONTROL
A
s companies do business further and further afield, the need to track, control and leverage their spend becomes an ever-greater
imperative, which explains the increas- ing implementation of corporate card programmes. Consultancy and research firm RBR forecasts that the number of cards will rise at a compound annual growth rate of 4 per cent between 2012 and 2018. Its most recent commercial card survey (published in 2013) reported 42 million commercial cards in issue, in
Europe’s 15 largest markets – but it noted that this was just 4 per cent of all cards in use, suggesting this indicated “consider- able potential”. At Bank of America Merrill Lynch
(BAML), Melissa Gargagliano, head of EMEA commercial cards, says continuing growth in business travel – much of this driven by Asia – has meant an increase in commercial card adoption, this in turn driving growing awareness among buyers of what’s available. “This awareness is giving rise to competition among card issuers and
Corporate cards are the ideal way to track your
travellers and keep spend on target
associated solution providers to innovate and differentiate their offering,” she says. American Express alone has seen card
transactions in the UK and Europe increase by 2.8 per cent over 2013/14, with travel and expenses (T&E) up 3 per cent, and air, in particular, growing because ticket prices are volatile. Surprisingly, it has seen hotel transactions decrease slightly. The company says expenditure is con- densed within a smaller client base, with fewer travellers spending more. Customers fall into two groups: those that are investing,
6
BBT CORPORATE CARDS SUPPLEMENT 2015
In association with
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