Categories
Company News Newsroom

Virtual Gift Cards for Rewards and Incentives Businesses Great Value

With the economy continuing to struggle, the use of incentives to retain high-performing employees and valued partnerships is a major strategy for many companies.

The holiday season presents a perfect opportunity for businesses to strengthen employee and partner retention efforts. One of the easiest and fastest-growing ways companies can deliver thanks is by presenting virtual cards.

It’s no surprise that the global virtual gift card market is estimated to grow by $420.49 billion, with a CAGR of 20.13 % between 2021 to 2026, according to an Infiniti Research market study. The rapid digitalization of currency, the increased usage of contactless payments via tap-and-pay physical point-of-sale devices and eCommerce, and the convenience factor virtual cards offer are key reasons why this digital alternative to traditional physical gift cards is growing rapidly.

Companies and consumers alike have realized that obtaining and sending physical gift cards can be time-consuming and expensive, especially if you have a large number of recipients on your list. The cost typically incurred by a company looking to present physical cards includes having an additional budget for packaging and shipping, and should the package get lost or stolen, then the cost to reship comes into play.

An unfortunate reality today is that logistics and shortages are creating unexpected delays in shipping and handling, even with drop shipping. Sending physical gift cards to employees and partners is even more expensive and complicated for businesses with a global presence.

Sending a virtual gift card directly through email is more efficient and cost-effective. An advantage of using virtual cards for your business is that the cardholder can use their card immediately. No need to wait for a traditional card to be sent in the mail. As soon as the card is created and funds loaded, the user will receive an email with instructions on retrieving their new card details.

Other benefits of offering virtual gift cards to employees, team members, or partners include:

Flexibility and choice

Offering a virtual gift card, supported by major networks like Visa and MasterCard, ensures your recipients receive the gift of choice. This means they can reward themselves with whatever is most important to them. With no limitations, each recipient can choose a gift that’s perfect for them. The flexibility of virtual cards also easily allows recipients to donate to charitable organizations.

Support Sustainability Values

The rapid digitization of the world is supporting growing interest and focus on sustainability. Companies are becoming more aware of consumer interest and demand for sustainability and transforming and innovating their businesses to stay relevant. In fact, 85 percent of consumers have shifted toward being more sustainable during the past five years, according to a recent survey by Simpon-Kucher strategy and marketing agency. A virtual gift card has a small carbon footprint, and unlike physical cards and gifts that may not really be on anyone’s wish list, won’t end up in a garbage fill.

To find out more, please complete our form HERE and we will be in touch.

Categories
Company News Newsroom

This festive season is the perfect time to reward your employees with the gift of choice

Claim your FREE Virtual Cards today and spread cheer amongst your employees.

Why let employees choose their own rewards

The festive season is here! Event planning has started, business gifts are being ordered and discussions around employee Christmas rewards have begun. Some of those discussions will soon be about a Christmas bonus that could be dependent on performance or business revenue. Although a bonus is a great way to show appreciation towards employees, it’s also taxable so they won’t receive the full benefits. Especially, when the cost of physical gifts are soaring a virtual card is the perfect cost effective option.

Businesses this year need to consider how their rewards can support employees during this cost-of living crisis. That’s why B4B payments believe you should allow your employees to choose a gift that is meaningful to them. 

Virtual cards are hassle-free easy gifts

We recently rewarded our own B4B employees with virtual cards! They loved having the choice to buy anything they wanted online or in-store. 

With virtual cards, there are no delivery costs or waiting times. You can choose any of our festive themed templates, personalise the email and send it straight to your employees inbox. It’s that easy! They can add the virtual card in their Apple pay or Google pay wallet, and spend online or in-store where Mastercard is accepted. 

Show your appreciation with the gift of choice

Studies show that businesses across the UK could do more for their employees, according to Appreciate Business Services. In their most recent report, they found at least 33% of all UK employees feel undervalued at work. And, alarmingly, it reported 74% of people said they would look for a new job if they felt undervalued.

Now you would imagine Christmas would be the perfect time to let your teams know how much their work all year round is valued. Take advantage of the festive season, and spread cheer. 

Claim FREE virtual cards today

We are offering free virtual cards this Christmas *terms and conditions apply*. But hurry as the offer ends on the 30th of December 2022! To claim or find out more, please complete our form HERE and we will be in touch.

Categories
Company News Newsroom

Simplify corporate expenditures with B4B Payments

The complex process of serving customers, balancing corporate expenses, and delivering consistent payroll can be costly and resource intense for businesses.

The complex process of serving customers, balancing corporate expenses, and delivering consistent payroll can be costly and resource intense for businesses. With the UK alone predicted to become a cashless economy as early as 2026, developing other physical ways to manage and spend has become a top priority for many businesses across the globe.

At B4B payments, we specialise in providing tailored card services to help businesses achieve their payment goals by allowing complete customisation of branded, prepaid and virtual cards, incentives and rewards, and more.

Read on and discover how B4B Payments can help take your payments to the next level with our card services.

Corporate expenses solved

Keeping track of corporate expenses can be difficult for large-scale companies, whether you’re planning a corporate event or providing ongoing travel and work expenses for your employees.

At times, juggling your outgoings through multiple platforms can increase the chance of human error, and give birth to a variety of challenges that can impact your finances too. For example, missing out on opportunities to secure contracts for events, or even forcing your staff to temporarily cover their own expenses due to slow payments, or lack of processing resources, can be detrimental to your business, and even affect retention. To remedy these situations, B4B Payments offers corporate card and payment services, allowing clients to issue employees card and platform access to complete daily expenses across the globe.

B4B Payments hands you complete control through a streamlined, one-stop platform, allowing you the power to reload and deploy funds as you see fit to ensure that your executives are always covered for their travel and expenses. Our iOS and Android application lets employees track their expenditures and store photographic proof of purchase receipts at the click of a button.

What’s more, with built-in measurement and reporting capabilities, you have complete oversight over all outgoing expenditures and the power to identify leaking pipes within corporate expenses.

Branded, prepaid and virtual pay-out cards

Commercial card services are becoming increasingly beneficial in a cashless society, allowing customers and clients alike to make and receive payments instantly across the globe. At B4B Payments, we offer a variety of card solutions that tackle our client’s individual needs and the customers they may be serving.

Our virtual cards provide instant reimbursement or payment services, giving businesses the power to pay people overseas instantly, without the need for time-draining or unsecured delivery processes. Our prepaid cards are perfect for customers without established account information, particularly useful for retail cashback schemes, or helping charities and refugee communities in a cashless environment. But, of course, there are benefits for your business, too; with our branded cards, you can alleviate the stress of setting up regular or recurring payments and generating brand awareness through a customisable look and feel.

It’s easier than ever to deploy cards with B4B Payments through our unified platform, which gives your business complete control over the design, distribution, and loading. In addition, streamlining your card operations into one platform eliminates breaks in the process caused by multiple third-party communications and approvals, allowing you to create a method of payout or payment quickly and efficiently.

Rewards and incentives

Rewards and incentives are a time-tested tradition for retaining employees and customers, and maintaining partner relationships. While there is a place for gift-giving in smaller businesses and niche customer sets and industries, it’s hard to argue with the language of cash when it comes to the perfect reward or incentive.

For larger industries, using B4B Payments physical and virtual (closed and open loop) card services will eliminate the challenges of navigating sensitive areas of requirement like gender or religion for customers, employees and partners. Cardholders also get access to an easy-to-use application, which is downloadable on both iOS and Android devices, allowing them to view card balances, and keep track of their spends and rewards. 

Using these services, your business can seamlessly offer customer acquisition and employee retention schemes through prepaid card bonuses, cashback offers, and bespoke partner reward programmes.

To wrap up

Whether you’re looking for corporate solutions or payment services for B2B, B2B2C or B2C clients, we’ve got you covered at B4B Payments. With over 15 years of experience in innovations in the payments space, and unique card services that cover all bases, we make sure that our clients are ahead of the games with fast and efficient transactions around the globe.

Strengthening your payment and payout solutions through card services has never been easier. Discover more about B4B Payments and the transparent, quick and effective card services that we provide contact us today!

Categories
Company News Newsroom

Optimising payment processes with B4B Payments

Whether you’re looking to optimise your own B2B payments services or provide innovative fintech payment opportunities, B4B payments can help you achieve your goals quicker and more easily than ever before.

According to Gartner, 80% of business-to-business (B2B) transactions will be digital by 2025, which suggests that digital transformation is at the heart of modern industries. At B4B Payments, we offer a scalable and cost-effective payment solution which combines various services tailored to our clients’ unique challenges across industries.

Read on and discover how B4B Payments can provide fintechs and embedded payment facilitators with solutions to manage high volumes of domestic and international payments for B2B/B2B2C/B2C and internal payments through our tried-and-tested products.

Go big with mass bank payouts

There are many challenges when providing global payouts on a mass scale. Traditionally the process is long and cumbersome, especially when directing funds or recurring payments around the world, often leading to slow or even delayed payouts to customers.

What’s more, navigating complex and high-cost Foreign Exchange (FX) processes and tax compliance is more strenuous than ever, especially for digital-only businesses in sectors like adtech, online marketplaces, affiliate marketing, and eCommerce. Add to this the constant introductions of new ways to pay (e.g Google, and Apple Pay!) it’s easy to see why businesses could be experiencing a higher churn rate as they struggle to pay quickly and keep up with ever-changing economic landscapes.

But how do you streamline your payment process on a mass scale? Using B4B Payments for your mass bank payouts, eliminates the risk of slow or late payments when paying out to over 25 countries across Europe, with low-cost and transparent global transaction fees and FX rates.

Utilising mass bank payouts through B4B Payments enables you to begin making consistent and quick payments through branded, prepaid, and virtual payout cards, or recognisable banking rails like SWIFT, Faster Payments, CHAPS, SEPA, local clearing in the USA (ACH) and DKK.

Rapid service set-up

Start-ups or businesses moving into new markets suffer a variety of pain points throughout their journey, including the setup or overhauling of their own payment services. As new businesses in B2B SaaS or Fintech, it’s even more critical to offer quick and effective digital solutions for other businesses to grow your partner and customer relationships, and stay ahead of the competition.

If you’re experiencing an increase in human error from disconnected and complex tech stacks or draining resources from a high volume of digital touchpoints in your process, it can easily create bottlenecks in your supply chain and customer or partner churn rates.

B4B Payments provides a one-stop fix for your B2B, B2B2C, or B2C woes, and offers a tried and tested infrastructure that allows you to manage your own payment services and permissions through our sleek and easy-to-use platform.

With our payment rails, your payment services are streamlined, removing unnecessary legacy processes and distilling your tech stack, alleviating the need for multiple touchpoints and helping you increase your speed-to-market for new ventures!

Plus, with over 15 years of experience in navigating payment solutions for start-ups and established businesses across multiple sectors, you can be sure that working with B4B Payments will keep you at the forefront of innovation as your business grows.

Collaborate through one tested platform

Managing payments, payouts, and card services can be messy, especially when you’re using multiple third-party providers. Traditional sectors like travel, transport, and payroll are succumbing to increased pressure to digitally transform since the COVID-19 pandemic. New digital-only businesses in areas like B2B SaaS are bursting onto the scene, creating the expectation of instant settlements and payouts from clients and customers alike.

At B4B Payments, we recognise that using separate services can drain resources and lead to delays in payment and payout processes, and we’ve solved that problem with the main hub of our enterprise: our one-stop platform.

Using our platform, we have combined all our products into an all-inclusive platform for businesses to manage their card and payment services.

Let us explain…

Our unique platform connects services under one single User Interface (UI), including prepaid, instant virtual, and branded card creation and management, as well as payout and payment processing across multiple countries. Not only this, we’ve integrated new and popular ways to pay into our platform, like Google and Apple Pay, with more on the horizon.

Going the extra mile, we’ve also included in-depth reporting and analysis tools into the platform that measure your expenditure and payment performance, as well as making the package accessible through our robust, customisable API and readily integrated for data exchange with your existing accounting software like XERO.

Offering your own services

Start-up or growing companies in the fintech sector require deeper levels of payment integration to meet regulatory requirements and stay ahead of the competition when it comes to handling customer and business transactions.

BIN-sponsorship is a great way to separate your start-up or fintech company from the crowd, allowing you to offer your own payment solutions to your unique customer base.

At B4B payments, we offer a rapid speed-to-market solution through a full BIN sponsorship and Settlement only package. Full BIN sponsorship allows unregulated Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs) to partner up on their journey towards becoming fully regulated issuers and scheme members. The BIN sponsorship offers total support with compliance and implementation of payment solutions while including fully-managed card services from settlements and reconciliation to Anti-money Laundering (AML) and fraud monitoring.

We offer a settlement-only product, too, allowing regulated EMIs the opportunity to tap into B4B Payments expertise as a global payment provider, leveraging our issuing capabilities while allowing them to build their own customer interface through APIs.

To wrap up

At this time of year, strengthening your payment services is more important than ever.. With the peak holiday season and accelerated festive spending on the horizon, we can expect businesses to be in high demand when making and receiving payments.

Not only this, Christmas is the time for giving, and B4B Payments is the perfect platform to manage your customers and even your company’s all-important festive bonuses through prepaid cards and the universally accepted language of cash whilst eliminating the faux pas associated with customised gift giving.

Discover more about B4B Payments and the services we provide to stabilise your end-to-end cash flow over the Christmas period, contact us today!

Categories
Case studies Company News

B4B supports ‘Patientprimary’ with a digital expense solution

Patientprimary, a division of mdgroup, works with B4B Payments to provide swift and easy expense reimbursement to support clinical trial participation.

About Patientprimary

Patientprimary, division of mdgroup, facilitates remarkable patient experiences at every stage of the clinical journey. Powered by next-generation care management tools and technologies, their solutions focus on the four key metrics of a successful clinical trial: recruitment, engagement, retention, and trial outcomes.

The situation

When founded in 2017, Patientprimary supported rare trials with ultra-hard-to-find participants. That all changed in 2020 as governments and research centres provided additional support to get patients to trial fast. Patientprimary responded by widening its reach to support trials for less rare diseases. With global reporting on the high-profile vaccine and COVID treatment trials throwing the clinical research process into the spotlight, there was increased interest and an uptick in people signing up to participate. Between 2020 and 2021, there were over 20,000 clinical trials in the US alone.

With increased participant numbers come more opportunities to develop life-changing treatments, but increased scale also brings a need for innovation to ensure that trials continue to run smoothly and efficiently. Delays in the reimbursement of expenses incurred, for example travelling to clinics, can lead to participants having a negative experience, which can often result in them not completing the trial.  Like many industries, the clinical research industry has had to look to digital technologies to deliver trials at an increased scale while maintaining safe working practices in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The solution

The global clinical trials market is expected to grow at a rate of 5.7% annually until 2028. An essential aspect of clinical trials is keeping participants engaged and appropriately reimbursed for expenses incurred. Card-based reward schemes can offer participants immediate return on their contributions and the ability to spend in millions of locations worldwide.

Patientprimary seamlessly used B4B’s programme to distribute funds to participants in a wide range of countries using GBP, EUR or USD cards. The ease of use for both the clinics and participants as a method of reimbursing trial participants improves the trial experience and crucially increases the retention in follow-ups, reducing the need to recruit additional participants. In addition to reimbursing participants, they supported participants who were incurring significant costs travelling from home by preloading the card ahead of time to support them along their journey. 

Our card-based reward programme also encouraged ongoing engagement by offering instant compensation for completing tasks such as diary entries, meaning that researchers can ensure that data is gathered promptly and that participants are kept engaged for the duration of the trial, improving data quality. Our iOS and Android app allows cardholders to view their balance and transactions and upload photo expense receipts where required, with the latest biometric login features for the highest levels of cardholder security. 

The benefits

‘’B4B payments’ innovative solutions offered an effective method of reimbursing and compensating trial participants, increasing the likelihood of compliance and of attendance at follow-up visits, and potential participation in follow-up and future trials.’’

Our card solutions paired with Patientprimary services and processes, eliminated the need for trial participants to pay up-front and apply for reimbursement, encouraged ongoing compliance by offering instant rewards with a card-based reward scheme and ensured Patientprimary will be kept in front of mind for returning participants with our fully branded card solution.

B4B played a vital part in supporting Patientprimary in their journey, helping to drive improved participation levels and maintaining smoother and more efficient processes.

To find out more, contact us today!

Categories
Company News Newsroom pr

B4B Payments to Showcase Instant Card Issuing and Payments Innovation at Money 20/20 USA

B4B Payments, a Banking Circle Group company, will demonstrate its robust and scalable corporate card issuing and payments platform for the first time publicly to US companies at this year’s Money 20/20 event in Las Vegas, NV.

Check out further information here.

 

 

Categories
Case studies Company News

B4B awards Ana for the Above and Beyond Award (US)

She has been awarded a virtual card sent to her email, where she can spend online or in-store.

We are incredibly proud to announce that Ana Santos, the Client Operations/Account Manager for B4B Payments, has won the Above and Beyond Award (US)!

Being recognised for your hard work is always a great feeling. It’s even better when that recognition comes from your colleagues. That’s why we hold this award to give all employees the opportunity, to nominate a colleague they believe embodies our core company values.

This award is also a way to show appreciation for those who go above and beyond in their work. We believe rewarding our employees is essential in creating a positive and supportive work environment where everyone can succeed. Here is what Ana had to say:

1. How do you feel about winning the award?

It’s always nice to be recognized by one’s colleagues for a job well done. The gift of a virtual B4B Payments Visa card is a simple, fast method to acknowledge that hard work, and it allows the recipient the opportunity to use those funds anywhere Visa is accepted.

2. Was it easy to get started?

Registering my virtual B4B Payments Visa card was quite simple on the web browser and took only a few minutes. Once I completed the registration process, I could easily find the card details. In the email instructions are provided on how to use it, as well as contact information for Customer Service should I have any additional questions.

3. Where and when do you plan to spend your virtual card?

I am eyeing a leaf blower (‘tis the season, you know) and this will help me pay for it.

4. Why do you think this is an excellent way to reward employees?

It’s a fast, convenient way for employers to acknowledge their staff for their contributions to the enterprise. B4B could not make it any easier.

Prepaid virtual cards are the perfect choice

Organizing an effective reward and recognition scheme in the workplace can be a challenge. You want to give your employees something that will boost motivation and productivity, but you also don’t want to break the bank. Our prepaid virtual cards are the perfect solution! They’re flexible so that you can tailor them to everyone’s needs. They’re a great way to attract top talent into your business. You’ll stand out from the competition by giving them something they want.

We provide the option to brand your cards with a cardholder app fully. Your employees can also add the card to their Google Pay and Apple Pay wallets!

Our prepaid virtual cards are the perfect choice if you’re looking for a way to give your employees the recognition they deserve. To find out more, contact us today!

Categories
Company News Newsroom pr

B4B Payments at Money20/20 USA: globalising US fintechs for European issuing and payment expansion

We look forward to attending Money 20/20 USA and discussing with industry friends and partners how we can help them achieve their payment vision.

Check out further information here.

 

 

Categories
Company News Newsroom

B4B are proud finalists for The Banking Tech Awards 2022

We are delighted to be shortlisted as a finalist for the Best FinTech Partnership and COVID-19 Response by Financial Inst The Banking Tech Awards 2022, hosted by FinTech Futures.

The Banking Tech Awards recognise excellence and innovation in the use of IT in financial services worldwide, and the people who make it happen. 2022 will be the 23rd year for these prestigious awards.

For the COVID-19 Response by Financial Institutions category, B4B played an important role in supporting Patient Primary, a division of the mdgroup, in their clinical trials journey helping to drive improved participation levels and maintaining smoother and more efficient processes.

For the Best Fintech Partnership category, B4B’s next-gen BIN sponsorship solution supported Juni through all the stages in bringing their business to the next level. You can find out more about this partnership here.

Best of luck to all the finalists! We look forward to the awards ceremony on the 1st of December at the 5-star Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.

Categories
Company News Newsroom

B4B Payments named the best end-to-end issuing and payment solutions company in the UK

We are proud to have won the Best end-to-end issuing and payment solutions UK category from the World Business Outlook Awards. The application was supported and substantiated by our partner, Voly.

Voly is an award-winning fintech provider specialising in financial management for the yacht and multi-assets industry. Recently the Voly offering has been successfully adapted to support the music, TV and film industry.

They were looking for a card issuing and payment platform to help streamline and scale their yachting and music business more quickly, and B4B was able to support them through this journey.

B4B and Voly partnership

Our partnership with Voly has successfully developed over many years. Although the financial services landscape has changed significantly during that time, both companies were committed to innovating to stay at the forefront of their industries. We have understood the ever-changing needs of Voly’s business and have worked hard to adapt and evolve our offerings, to ensure they have the best solution available in the market.

Talking about the partnership with B4B, Ian Flanagan, Found and CEO of Voly Group says:

Voly’s collaboration with B4B has been a great success. B4B understands our product and the industries in which we provide financial management services. In working with B4B, we have built a relationship that provides a market-leading treasury management solution for the yachting and music space. It was definitely a learning experience for both parties to begin with, but one which has gone from strength to strength over the years and we look forward to continued growth and collaboration with B4B

Next-gen solutions for future businesses

B4B Payments’ next-gen solutions are designed to scale flexibly over time to support fintech companies like Voly. From direct payments to client branded cards, B4B’s offering is designed to be either embedded within a client’s infrastructure or as a stand-alone product.

Our commercial model is streamlined, and uncomplicated, technical requirements are minimal and significant control is placed within our client’s hands. We believe these attributes are fundamentally important to corporates who wish to save time, money, and hassle.

Paul Swinton, CEO of B4B Payments says:

We value our partnerships and our relationship with Voly has lasted many years and will continue building together a leading-edge solution for the yachting, music,  TV and film industry. We’re committed to providing innovative solutions that make a difference to our clients and being recognised for this is a big honour

Partnering with B4B Payments allowed Voly to provide more value for their demanding customers and helped the company to scale quickly while also giving them an edge over the competition.

To find out how our solutions can help you, contact us today!