Security and reliability are of the essence when it comes to corporate payments. This is one of the conclusions of a new study* conducted by AirPlus with 500 decision-makers at major companies in Europe and the US.
“This trend is constantly gaining momentum, with increasing numbers of businesses now basing their payment strategy primarily on security,” says Mads Krumhardt Enggren.
According to him, this development originates from the introduction of the EU’s Payment Services Directive (PSD2), which enables data sharing between companies, but also poses challenges linked to data security around payments. These include companies being required to guarantee compliance with the GDPR and ensure that e.g. the AI models many businesses use to manage and sort their corporate data do not leak sensitive data that can then be used for criminal purposes.
“It’s both obvious and a wise move to place security high on the agenda, because if you breach data security, you jeopardise your entire business,” he says.
The solution is to take ownership and control of your own transaction data.
“There’s a great deal of valuable knowledge to be extracted from the data generated when an employee makes a purchase,” he says. “And by linking the right data to the payment system and taking the correct action based on the insights obtained, you take full ownership of the information, enabling you to more easily detect fraud attempts and internal errors.”
He goes on to say, “You’ll also gain a better understanding of the factors impacting your company’s expenses, such as business travel or procurement, making it easier to optimise purchases and reduce costs for the entire company. It also makes it easier for external auditors to ensure you’re complying with legislation and regulations.”
So what can a company do to gain better control of its transaction data? Where should you start? Mads Krumhardt Enggren gives two clear pieces of advice:
Partner with the right corporate payment provider
“Choose a corporate payment provider that is aware of the data you need and able to make it available at any time and protect it from unauthorised access. Also, make sure that only employees with the correct authorisation can carry out transactions and that you use a login process with robust authentication protection.”
Choose the right corporate card
“My advice is to always choose a corporate card for which the company assumes the credit risk; in other words it is ultimately liable for payment. The company then owns the transaction data, not the employee, which is a prerequisite for gaining control. You can also opt for a corporate card that works seamlessly between countries, allowing you to manage cards and transaction data in real time, regardless of where your employees are or where your business is located.”
* Read more about the study here
