As global trade and commerce grow more digital and interconnected, the limitations of traditional business-to-business (B2B) payment systems are becoming impossible to ignore. What was once built for batch processing, manual reconciliation, and long payment cycles is now being forced to operate in real time, across geographic borders, with better integrations, and enhanced fraud protection. Speed, visibility, and interoperability are no longer just nice-to-haves—they’re table stakes.
Beyond familiar modes like electronic funds transfer (EFT), cards, and cheques, new payment methods, identity frameworks, and automation layers are poised to create growth opportunities worth $15.88 trillion by 2030. But this demands systemic and structural change from providers and customers.
B2B Payments: Press Play on Growth
Frost & Sullivan’s detailed analysis of the global B2B digital payments landscape reveals emerging growth segments, disruptive technologies, transformation drivers, competitive strategies, and leading providers across 5 regions.
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- AI agents and machine learning (ML): Optimizing and orchestrating payment routing and anomaly detection across fragmented networks. These technologies learn transaction patterns, reduce false fraud alerts, and help enterprises move from reactive to predictive financial operations.
- Open banking initiatives: Enabling direct, Application programming interface (API)-driven connectivity between businesses, banks, and finance platforms, thereby reducing reliance on traditional card networks. This can reduce processing costs, improve settlement speed, and allow tighter integrations with treasury, cash management, and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems.
- Automated finance platforms: Streamlining accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR) by connecting e-invoicing, payment execution, and expense management into unified workflows. Instead of manual handoffs and transactional management, this enables CFOs and finance teams to focus on the strategic initiatives with centralized dashboards, automated workflows, and predictive analytics.
- Distributed ledger technologies and blockchain: Improving transparency and trust in complex, multi-party B2B transactions by creating shared, tamper-resistant records. This is particularly valuable in cross-border payments, and trade finance, where reconciliation and dispute resolution are persistent challenges.
The question is – Which growth processes and best practices will help your teams adapt to these headwinds?
🎧 Listen to Our Growth Podcast on B2B Digital Payments to Know More!
Don’t Let Legacy Systems Hold Back B2B Payments
Download Sample Analysis to Enable Faster Settlements and More Scalable Workflows
Strategic Imperatives for Digital Finance Providers
The next phase of digital payments will be determined by how effectively providers align technology, business models, and ecosystem strategy to reduce friction and unlock new value, keeping in mind these imperatives:
- Disruptive Technologies: Building orchestration tools that let AI agents securely connect with ERP systems, accounting platforms, and payment services through API-first frameworks and pre-built accelerators.
- Innovative Business Models: Delivering embedded finance at scale by leveraging software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery models, open banking, eCommerce, and real-time payment (RTP) rails, thereby enabling companies to generate more transaction value.
- Transformative Megatrends: Reducing friction in both domestic and cross-border payments by focusing on interoperability, blockchain-based infrastructure, and distributed ledger technologies.
Which best practices will you implement to adapt amid these imperatives?
Companies to Action
Going forward, as standardization and competition create downward pressures on transaction fee rates for standard services, the following providers are well poised to challenge more established players:
- Bitso Business: a Latin America (LATAM)-based B2B payments platform bridging traditional finance and digital assets to enable faster, lower-cost cross-border payments, foreign exchange (FX), and treasury operations.
- Banking Payment Commerce (BPC): a European payments and banking technology provider offering unified platforms for digital and physical transactions, enabling financial institutions to modernize processing, channels, and commerce across geographies.
- Bottomline: a global business payments provider delivering cloud-based platforms for payment automation, connectivity, cash management, and fraud mitigation, helping banks and enterprises modernize, secure, and streamline real-time transactions.
Do you have the benchmarking tools to analyze the ROI potential of payment solutions from other leading providers in this space?
Top 3 Growth Opportunities in B2B Digital Payments
Now, amid the rising cost of technology infrastructure (e.g., cloud hosting and security), compliance, and banking partnerships the following avenues will help providers differentiate themselves and command premium pricing:
- Agents for AP Solutions: AI-powered agents are reshaping AP, helping providers automate invoices, fraud checks, and financial workflows from start to finish. By combining the benefits of ML and generative AI, these improve accuracy, visibility, and data-driven decision making. But success depends on strong data governance, security, and compliance.
- Automated Finance Platforms: Customers today use fragmented tools for AP, AR, treasury, cash flow, and expense management. Providers who unify these and prioritize ERP, banking integrations, predictive analytics, and modular designs can empower CFOs with real-time insights and strategic control, thereby ensuring flexibility while mitigating implementation risks.
- Stablecoins in B2B Payments: Enabling near-instant, always-on cross-border transactions with streamlined payment layers and reduced fees. When integrated with traditional banking systems, stablecoins, Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), and AI can automate settlements, reduce fraud, and enable condition-based verifications that minimize fraud and manual work.
Digital Financial Services: Opportunity Universe
Read on about regional best practices, companies to action, and growth strategies in other segments Digital Finance here:
In conclusion, as real-time commerce, AI, and interoperability become the standard, legacy systems will continue to fall short. Providers that invest in intelligent orchestration, open architectures, and automated finance platforms can reduce friction while unlocking new value for enterprises. In a more connected global economy, payments innovation will increasingly determine who scales, who differentiates, and who leads.
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B2B Payments: Frequently Asked Questions
- How to evaluate and compare various B2B payment solutions in 2026?
Enterprises should assess providers based on integration depth with ERP systems, scalability across regions, security certifications (ISO 27001, SOC 2), and support for future payment rails (not just current pricing). - What KPIs matter most in modern B2B digital payments?
Beyond cost per transaction, leading indicators include straight-through processing rates, exception handling time, fraud false-positive rates, and days payable outstanding (DPO) optimization. - How long does it typically take to modernize B2B payment infrastructure?
Most organizations see phased implementations over 6–18 months, starting with API connectivity and automation layers before replacing core payment rails. - What role will regulations and compliance play in shaping future digital B2B payment strategies?
As B2B payments become more global, organizations must navigate evolving regulations related to data privacy, anti-money laundering (AML), know-your-customer (KYC), and cross-border reporting. Modern payment platforms will increasingly embed compliance automation, transaction monitoring, and audit-ready reporting to reduce operational risk while supporting scalable international expansion.
🎧 Listen to Our Growth Podcast on B2B Digital Payments to Know More!
