The analysis finds that the steady increase in U.S. commercial credit card spend continued in 2018 driven by a combination of factors, including continued growth in noncash payments, a reasonably strong economy, and what may be an accelerating trend away from paper and toward digital cash cycle solutions.

“If one thinks of the roughly $600 billion in North American B2B payment flows associated with commercial credit cards in the mid-to-large market space alone (not including other commercial card products), annual gross revenues are in the range of $15 billion, which is a substantial business. We have consistently maintained that there is a large opportunity available for cards-based payments to gain share above the 2% level given the unique underlying credit structure and ubiquity of the networks, availability of data, and relative speed of settlement,” commented Steve Murphy, Director of Mercator Advisory Group’s Commercial and Enterprise Payments Advisory Service, author of the report. “The major hurdles to gaining double or triple the share of commercial payments flows remain pricing and ease of use, including acceptance and automated handling of receivables.”

The document is 19 pages long and contains 6 exhibits.

Companies mentioned in this report include: ACOM Solutions, American Express, Bill.com, Billtrust, Capital One, Comdata, Earthport, Interac, Mastercard, Microsoft, NAPCP, National Center for the Middle Market, Nets, Open Text, Payments Canada, RPMG, SAP Ariba, Synaptic, Transfast, Visa, Wells Fargo, and WEX.