Oracle and Mastercard make it easier for customers to access working capital

Oracle and Mastercard are partnering to offer companies faster access to working capital by automating end-to-end B2B payment transactions directly from their Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP applications.

The new partnership, announced at Oracle CloudWorld on September 19, will leverage Mastercard’s leading virtual card platform to let the more than 45,000 Oracle Cloud ERP customers make end-to-end supplier payments as easily and securely as consumers use credit cards, said Rondy Ng, Oracle executive vice president of applications development.

“Buyers no longer have to make payments using their available cash on-hand and thus can preserve cash flow and working capital,” Ng said. “Thirty-day cash flow is a big deal. Preserving it avoids having to take on expensive loans.”

Oracle Cloud ERP customers will no longer need to cut checks or schedule electronic payments, which can add up to thousands of transactions within a short period. Using a virtual Mastercard issued by their bank, buyers can make secure, high-volume payments with automated confirmation and reconciliation.

Companies have long needed a frictionless B2B payment system, unhindered by the complexities of disparate banking software, mismatched data, and ill-timed payment methods. But without in-house expertise in financial technology, buyers and sellers alike have had to depend on expensive third parties for such embedded payments functionality.

According to Ng, the Oracle and Mastercard B2B virtual card payments solution is a first. He is aware of no other ERP system at this time that natively integrates enterprise-level supplier payments using virtual credit cards.

Virtual card payments are exactly what they sound like: No physical card is involved, just numbers. They come with built-in fraud protection and firm control over their use—companies can list authorized vendors, purposes, date ranges, and spending amounts.

HSBC pilot, with more banks to come

HSBC is the first bank to deploy the Oracle-Mastercard solution and plan to offer embedded virtual card payments to Oracle customers in the United States and United Kingdom.

“Embedding HSBC’s financial services into the systems that our clients use day to day is a key focus for us,” said Brian Tomkins, HSBC managing director and global head of commercial cards. “Many of our customers are also users of Oracle Cloud ERP, and so this partnership makes perfect sense. We'll be working with Oracle and Mastercard to offer this opportunity to our mutual clients around the globe.”

Other major banks are working with Oracle to improve the user experience and encourage virtual payment card adoption. More are expected to embrace the solution soon.

While buyers gain from extended payment terms and financial rebates, suppliers and banks benefit, too. Suppliers get paid immediately, by the cardholder’s bank, reducing the need to collect unpaid balances. Banks gain a new channel to offer their payment services to the $130 trillion global B2B market. Banks recognize that commercial buyers expect a smooth ecommerce experience, just as they do when shopping online as consumers.

The partnership with Mastercard follows similar ones Oracle announced last year with JP Morgan Chase and FedEx to embed Oracle Cloud ERP with services that automate purchasing, selling, financing, billing, and shipping to reduce business costs. A similar partnership with Avalara, a provider of tax compliance automation software, was announced in August.

“We’ll continue to diversify and scale our B2B services by offering them where our customers are, where they bank, ship, do taxes, and more,” Ng said.

View more Oracle Connect articles