Monday 23rd September, 2013

It seems that hardly a day can go by without the announcement of a new strategic partnership in the industry. And lately, many of these have been based around the same premise - supply chain finance. In itself, that's no surprise as the industry catches up with a gap which has been growing in the market for some time. As the economy has struggled and flatlined, banks have become increasingly reluctant to lend, leaving businesses at risk from stagnant cashflow. Nature hates a vacuum - and today Basware has announced a new and important partnership with MasterCard aimed at going some way to filling it. The partnership has created a revolutionary electronic payment solution that ensures suppliers are paid fast upon invoice approval, while extending payment terms for buyers.

Traditionally, businesses, even highly successful ones, can suffer financial performance issues caused by long payment cycles – especially when dealing with costly international payments. This is caused by a reliance on paper-based payments, labour-intensive processes, poor remittance data and low confidence in cash flow management; an issue that can even trigger issues in supply assurance. MasterCard and Basware will transform the way that companies do business with each other through this new single global payment solution.

Esa Tihilä, CEO of Basware, commented: "This is a partnership of huge importance and significance, not just for Basware and its customers, but for all buyer and supplier organisations and the whole purchase-to-pay (P2P) and e-invoicing industry. The launch of this service represents another example of how e-invoicing is evolving from being a largely technical service focused on delivering process efficiencies, to one that is able to deliver transformational commercial benefits to the business. Solutions like this are the present and future of every corporation’s financial strategy and this development has the potential to revolutionise business payment, which can even impact the economy at large.”

Basware's Commerce Network already processes over 50 million invoices annually, totalling more than US$420 billion across 900,000 trading partners in 100 countries. This scope and reach is combined with MasterCard's international payment network covering over 150 currencies across more than 210 countries and approximately 20,000 financial institutions. The new service will make sure suppliers get guaranteed early payment without placing any additional burden on buyers, creating a vital economic buffer for businesses of all sizes.

“MasterCard is pleased to announce this alliance with Basware,” said Hany Fam, President, Global Strategic Alliances at MasterCard. “Together we are changing the way businesses are paid and get paid – delivering increased speed and control as well as cost savings for both buyers and suppliers. MasterCard’s world-class network, data and technology assets operating in tandem with Basware’s industry-leading purchase-to-pay network represents the ideal combination to make this happen. By combining one of the largest payment networks with a transaction network of comparable scale we are simplifying payments and increasing cash flow for businesses of all sizes.”