Barclaycard Payments has announced it has agreed to join Mastercard Track Business Payment Service, making new services available to Barclaycard Payments’ customers later this year.

The open loop network is designed to deliver value to both buyers and suppliers by simplifying and automating the set up and execution of business payments using multiple payment rails and enhancing the exchange of payments-related data. In turn, it enables buyers and suppliers to utilise the best available option for paying each-and-every invoice.

Building on good foundations

The agreement builds on Barclaycard Payments and Mastercard’s existing relationship in commercial cards. The two businesses have recently signed a new multi-year agreement, ensuring that together they can continue to deliver outstanding commercial payment services to businesses around the world.

Individual companies connect to Mastercard Track Business Payment Service through a ‘Payment Agent’, who assists them in getting the best value from the service. Demonstrating its position across the spectrum of the global payment business, Barclaycard Payments has agreed to join Track as both a Buyers and a Suppliers Payment Agent. This enables corporate customers to solve both payables and receivables challenges, which should mean that painstaking manual reconciliation and lengthy delays in allocating cash will become a thing of the past.

The challenges that result from manual processes are highlighted by research from Barclaycard Payments which found that more than four in 10 (44%) of businesses seek greater automation when it comes to payment processes. Nearly a third (32%) also say they would like to add functionality that automatically matches supplier invoices against purchase orders - both of which participation in Track should accelerate.

What the participants have to say

"We are delighted to be building on our successful partnership with Mastercard," commented Marc Pettican, president of Barclaycard Payments. "This announcement further strengthens our relationship and I look forward to continuing to drive transformational change across our industry to benefit businesses. What excites me most about today’s B2B payments landscape is the opportunity to help save time, money and working capital - especially now when it is most important - and our partnership with Mastercard is another step forward toward that goal."

"Barclaycard has been a longstanding partner and we are delighted to be expanding our relationship further, offering new services to make B2B payments work harder, faster and smarter," said Mark Barnett, president of Mastercard Europe. "We have a mutual goal to give businesses a better way to maintain control, manage cash flow and be more operationally efficient - all things that are incredibly important for companies navigating today’s economic challenges."

"There is a paradigm shift happening in the B2B payments landscape," noted James Anderson, executive vice president of Commercial and B2B Solutions at Mastercard. "Our partnership with Barclaycard Payments will work at scale to give businesses a multi-rail experience to manage working capital, get better quality information, improved payment security. We are honoured that Barclaycard Payments has chosen to work with Mastercard as they deliver on their mission to make B2B payments work better."

Modernising B2B payments through a multi-rail strategy

In November 2020, Mastercard announced its commitment to continue delivering on its multi-rail strategy with the addition of account-to-account payments functionality to the Track Business Payment Service in the US. The firm says that global expansion of account-to-account services and cross-border payments are forthcoming.