transaction. At present the former option predominates but in future mobile and invisible payments are likely to take over. However, Conferma chief execu- tive Simon Barker argues mobile and invisible will only really prove effective once they start being used in conjunction with virtual cards. Barker’s view is based on observing the behaviour of drinkers in a pub he owns. The pub’s punters increasingly use contactless cards – and decreas- ingly take notice of how much they are paying for rounds of drinks. What contactless, mobile and invisible have in common, he says, is that they make payment so painless that users don’t apply self-control. Hence the need for the controls imposed by virtual cards, where appropriate constraints can be applied and varied for every transaction. Looking ahead for digital payments, the next trend could be deeper integra- tion with other mobile technologies and the Internet of Things. For example, the four-star Kvi Hotel opened in Budapest in March. Guests use their smartphone to select their hotel room and check in up to 48 hours before arrival. They also use their phone as their room key and to control room temperature, and then settle up through the card number they have stored on their app, avoiding the need for check-out. With clear benefits like these, travel


managers arguably need to embrace digital payments now because it is surely only a matter of time before their travellers demand the right to use the technology anyway.


16 BBT CORPORATE CARDS SUPPLEMENT 2018


IS THE END OF THE PLASTIC CORPORATE CARD NIGH?


YES, BUT NOT YET, IS THE VIEW OF MOST commercial payment experts. “Mobile payments are gaining ground, but equally have some way to go before they replace legacy payment methods,” says Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s David Voss. Clive Cornelius, senior director, global


card products at CWT, is more gung ho. “I am 100 per cent sure corporate cards as we know them today will cease to exist, but it won’t be in the next three to five years,” he says. “We can only replace them once we have acceptance for digital payments everywhere.” Asked why plastic cards will disappear, Cornelius turns the question on its head. “Why would you need them?” he asks. “Producing and distributing them is a cost for the bank, yet digital is genuinely more secure, and you can have payment from a central account.”


Simon Gilson-Fox at Amex says: “We


are still a few years off from seeing the end of plastic corporate cards... at the moment there’s still a place for both.” It’s a view shared by Steve Robson, head of commercial cards EMEA at Citi, who says virtual cards are a complementary rather than a replacement technology. Virtual cards are “getting bigger but not replacing the standard products,” he says. Virtual cards are “capturing transactions that don’t fit the lodge or


plastic model, such as paying for travel for temporary workers on oil rigs”. Maria Parpou at Barclaycard has a


more nuanced perspective, fitting for the company that claims to have introduced the first corporate plastic cards in the UK 50 years ago. On the one hand, Parpou believes macro-economic trends will make the traditional idea of companies dishing out plastic to long-term employees largely obsolete. “Virtual cards will be encouraged by changes in the workforce,” she says. “With our transient gig economy, the only way really to help people travel on funds that are not their own is with virtual or pre-paid cards.” Yet, Parpou observes, plastic has a dependability that is hard to replace. “Plastic cards don’t run out of batteries. I don’t see them disappearing any time soon,” she says. Even Airplus International, a vigorous


promoter of digital payments, is not giving up on plastic yet. It acquired a plastic card issuer in Belgium last year. “Every request for proposal we receive includes a request for corporate cards for on-trip expenditure – for withdrawing cash, for example,” says Paul Spelman, country manager, UK and Ireland. “We are launching a pan-European [plastic] card because we have clients looking for a card programme across all markets.”


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