Visa Study: Corp. Card Use Rising
U.S. and international corporate payment card usage continues to grow, according to a Visa-commissioned survey of 783 financial executives.
The United States remains the region that most relies on corporate cards, with 53 percent of respondents to the 2007 Visa Global Cash Management Survey saying they used corporate cards as a means of making payments. Western Europe was close behind, with 45 percent of respondents reporting corporate payment card usage.
"According to the worldwide survey, companies in Europe—similar to those in the U.S.—are already accustomed to using corporate payment cards for account payables and receivables and, as a result, already appreciate the associated benefits," Luc Janssen, head of Visa Commercial in Europe, said in a prepared statement.
Corporate card adoption is lower in other regions. In Latin America and the Caribbean, 30 percent of respondents used corporate payment cards, as did 25 percent of respondents in Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 20 percent in Asia/Pacific.
The United States also had the highest percentage by far—63 percent—of companies that planned to increase their usage of corporate cards in the next 12 to 18 months. A little more than one-third of respondents from Western Europe said they planned to increase corporate card usage then. Both the Asia-Pacific and Latin America-Caribbean regions hovered around 25 percent. Only one in five respondents from Eastern and Central Europe, the Middle East and Africa indicated a projected increase.
"The research points to a growing industry trend that checks are declining in popularity because more companies are seeking solutions that optimize payment and expense management," according to Aliza Knox, senior vice president for Visa Commercial.
Respondents said increased efficiency was the main reason to incorporate or accelerate usage of payment cards, followed by eliminating paper and improving data availability for vendor negotiations.
Visa based its study on an Internet survey of 400 U.S.-based financial executives, largely representing companies with sales of more than $50 million, and telephone interviews with about 400 financial executives at firms with at least $25 million in annual sales, conducted by research firm Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates.