Billtrust Announces Business Payments Network (BPN) 3.0, Record Volumes and New Partnerships

BPN Now Optimizes ACH and Wire Acceptance, Addressing Decoupled Nature of Electronic Remittances

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Aug 10, 2020, 10:00 ET

LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J., Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Billtrust, the leader in B2B order-to-cash solutions, in collaboration with Visa, announced that its Business Payments Network (BPN) has seen a 118% increase in payments volume in the first half of 2020 compared to H1 2019, surpassing expectations and indicating strong supplier adoption bolstered by significant new financial institution and fintech partnerships. Carrying strong momentum into the second half of 2020, Billtrust also announces that BPN 3.0 now offers support for ACH and wire, giving network participants the flexibility to automatically transact through the modalities they prefer.

Visa Clients and Partners Fuel BPN Adoption
Since the beginning of 2020, the number of accounts payable providers and issuers processing payments through BPN has doubled, expanding its reach to suppliers wishing to receive touchless electronic payments while programmatically enforcing their payment policies. Visa clients including Heartland Financial USA, Inc., M&T Bank and Regions Bank have begun participating in BPN in the first half of 2020.

In addition, Commerce Bank, which consistently ranks among the top commercial card issuers, is announcing expanded participation in BPN. Having previously enabled commercial card customers to achieve greater levels of electronic spend as payers into the network, Commerce Bank now enables its merchants to accept automated payments as suppliers in BPN. This marks the first time a financial institution will enable both its issuing and acquiring customers the ability to participate in BPN and benefit from the digital transactions offered through the network.

"With our vast customer portfolio of buyers and sellers, we are uniquely positioned to leverage our relationship with Visa and utilize BPN to enable businesses on both sides of the transaction to streamline their payment processes," said Jeff Burik, Senior Vice President of Commerce Bank. "This not only fuels growth for our business clients by capturing higher levels of electronic spend, but it also drives increased value for our shareholders."

BPN has also welcomed several fintech leaders in the payables space during the second quarter of 2020, including PayClearly and Finexio.

BPN 3.0 Adds Support for ACH, Wire with a New Approach to Remittance
Released to Billtrust customers this week, BPN 3.0 furthers its ability to digitize commercial transactions for participants by adding support for ACH and wire transactions. While traditional ACH and wire payments often settle without the remittance details suppliers need to apply and reconcile transactions, BPN is taking a new approach to ensuring every payment arrives with data.

"In this new normal of accounts receivable and accounts payable teams initiating and accepting payments from the comfort of their homes, paper checks simply do not fit into this environment," said Flint Lane, Billtrust Founder & CEO. "Digital payments from buyers can often lead to more manual work for suppliers, whether it be extracting payment details from emails and web portals, or reconciling potentially hundreds or thousands of settlements that do not carry remittance information. The organizations partnering with Billtrust and Visa that are taking advantage of BPN are truly making digital payments touchless for both buyers and suppliers."

"We're excited about BPN's growth and our ability to offer it to clients, knowing that it pairs well with their existing ACH and card capabilities to offer suppliers increased automation while quickly and efficiently driving new value to their own customers," said Kevin Phalen, global head, Visa Business Solutions. "The network's growth and its innovative features further solidifies our ability to enable financial institutions and fintech partners seeking 'last mile' capabilities to gain increased supplier electronic B2B payments acceptance now when the demand for digital B2B payments is more critical than before."

What is Billtrust's Business Payments Network (BPN)?
Billtrust's Business Payments Network is a first-to-market, supplier-driven platform which streamlines electronic payment delivery and enables financial institutions and corporate buyers to directly deliver digital payments to suppliers' acceptance platforms. BPN allows complex financial and payment data to seamlessly come together at scale while providing reconciliation to suppliers and buyers. Participating buyers and financial institutions can also facilitate payment automation with access to BPN's supplier directory, a transparent listing of supplier payment preferences. Learn more at Billtrust.com/BPN.

About Billtrust
Billtrust accelerates cash flow by automating credit decisioning and monitoring, invoice delivery, payment capture, cash application, and collections. Billtrust customers improve operational efficiency across the order-to-cash spectrum via a flexible and integrated cloud-based solution set. Finance executives and A/R specialists love and recommend Billtrust for the remarkable cost savings, ease-of-use, process efficiency, and improved customer satisfaction rates. For more information, visit Billtrust.com.

SOURCE Billtrust