Virtual Cards Target Europe’s Business Payments Bottleneck

At first glance, Europe appears to have solved one of modern finance’s most stubborn problems: moving money.

Compared with the United States, where legacy systems have historically slowed transfers, Europe’s payment rails are widely regarded as efficient and mature.

But the biggest bottleneck in Europe’s B2B payments isn’t moving the money; it’s managing the operational processes around it.

“The friction points tend to be in the operational environment,” Rene Stynen, senior vice president, EMEA, B2B Payments at Boost Payment Solutions, told PYMNTS. “Supplier enablement, onboarding complexity and the amount of data gathering required. Those things can become quite complex.”

As companies digitize procurement and finance functions, expectations are shifting. Buyers want automated workflows and visibility into payments across the procure-to-pay cycle. Suppliers want faster settlement and reduced administrative overhead.

“There are expectations both on buyer sides and supplier sides for things to become a little bit more digital and automated,” Stynen said.

That shift is gradually reshaping the payment instruments companies rely on.

The Untapped Potential of B2B and Virtual Cards

Commercial and virtual cards represent a powerful but underutilized tool in Europe’s B2B payments ecosystem. Underutilized because they are a widely used B2B payments tool available elsewhere, particularly in the U.S. Powerful because they can help alleviate the working capital pinch that is being increasingly felt by buyers and suppliers.

“I think both companies on the buy side and the supply side suffer,” Stynen said, adding that suppliers face a persistent challenge with overdue payments.

“[Up to] 60% of suppliers experience overdue payments, and typically on a recurring basis,” he said. “That doesn’t help cash flow.”

Buyers themselves typically seek longer payment terms to improve their own working capital efficiency, he said.

The competing incentives create a structural tension that card-based payment models, which can allow buyers to access short-term credit while ensuring suppliers receive immediate payments, are well-suited to bridge.

Virtual cards in particular are emerging as one of the key payments technologies for achieving an elusive “win-win” dynamic in B2B finance, he said. Unlike traditional corporate cards, virtual cards generate unique payment credentials for each transaction, allowing businesses to automate payments while maintaining strong security controls.

“Virtual cards make it very easy to automate end to end,” Stynen said. “They enable straight-through processing and help build cost-sharing models between buyers and suppliers.”

That cost-sharing element is particularly important in Europe, where suppliers have historically resisted card acceptance due to processing fees. By introducing mechanisms such as early payment discounts or shared transaction costs, companies can create financial incentives for suppliers to participate.

Payments Are Disappearing Into Workflows

Europe’s payments infrastructure is already strong. What is changing now is the layer built around it. More broadly, the evolution of B2B payments in Europe is moving beyond the payment itself.

“Embedded payments, where the payment becomes invisible in the procure-to-pay process, is what everyone wants,” Stynen said. “You don’t want the payment as a separate step.”

Instead of a manual approval process followed by a payment action, the transaction flows automatically through procurement systems, invoicing platforms and payments networks in a single digital chain.

“Automation and integration are becoming much more important across the entire payment life cycle,” Stynen said.

With B2B payments evolving into flexible, automated financial workflows embedded in procurement systems, buyers and suppliers are better able to negotiate and achieve win-win dynamics.

“There’s a lot of elements we can play with,” Stynen said. “It’s really constructing an overall solution that works for both parties.”

Supplier Enablement Is the Missing Piece

Still, even with advanced payment tools available, the biggest barrier to scaling B2B payments innovation remains supplier enablement.

Large enterprises may have thousands of suppliers across multiple countries, many of which are small- or medium-sized businesses with limited technological infrastructure. Convincing them to adopt new payment methods, or even onboarding them to digital payment platforms, can be a labor-intensive process.

“The likelihood that suppliers are already set up with card acceptance is relatively small,” Stynen said.

That gap creates friction in accounts payable and limits the efficiency gains companies want from card-based payments. Platforms aim to create a bridge between buyers and suppliers that enables payments to flow globally. Boost addresses this through its international payment capabilities, which connect buyers and suppliers globally through buyer-funded and shared processing models that expand card acceptance across the supplier base.

In some cases, buyers who prioritize working capital flexibility and operational simplicity over fees can still send a card payment without involving the supplier directly, Stynen said.

The result is a new model for B2B payments, one that is less about transferring money and more about managing financial workflows, he said.

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