US Commercial Cards: A $5.1 Trillion Market by 2027
The report provides a detailed analysis of commercial payment card trends in the US and sizes the method of payment’s global market. Commercial cards are a rapidly growing segment of the payment card market and the finance departments driving use demand seamlessness and evergreen innovation.
Commercial cards in the US and globally have insinuated themselves into corporations by replacing checks and bank wire transfers with dynamic iterations of payment cards. Commercial cards integrated into spend management platforms allow finance departments to almost eliminate fraud and to put the power of corporate purchasing into the hands of more employees while maintaining complete control over how/where/when and dollars spent with payments.
In the US alone, there are 6.2 million employer firms, with 135 million employees, payrolls totaling $8.1 trillion and sales/shipments of $50.3 trillion. These companies spend $13 trillion on procurement, $300 billion on T&E, $304 billion on company fleets and fleet management. We estimate that only half of all employer firms use commercial or corporate cards which means the market size for new cards is 3.2 million firms.
Both commercial cards and Real Time Payments (RTP) are targeting the 3.1 billion checks totaling $8.45 trillion as well as corporate payments made by wire transfer and ACH.
Through 2027, we estimate that US commercial cards will grow at a CAGR within the range of 16.6% to 21.0% while globally, commercial cards will grow to $81.6 trillion by 2027 with a CAGR of 5%.
Some of the most dynamic players in corporate payments are firms using expertise mastered over years in specific niches to develop comprehensive corporate spend and payments platforms using virtual payment cards. For instance, Corpay and WEX are the heavyweights of fleet cards and are experts at collecting time and location and buyer and seller details of each transaction. They have both leveraged their competencies with complex transactions to a larger corporate spend landscape.
The new Commercial Payment Cards: US Market Trends, 13th Edition report profiles each of the largest players and platforms in the commercial card payments sector with a focus on both the market opportunity of the space as well as the barriers to widespread adoption faced by virtual cards.
Report Scope
This report sizes the commercial card market both internationally and in the US with a break-out for each card type subsumed under the category. Additionally, it provides a forecast for global and US commercial card growth to 2027.
Within the commercial card industry, product line extensions are a key driver of adoption and revenue as is the continuing displacement of legacy payment products, principally checks.
While there are bank specific products entering the commercial payments space (e.g., real time payments), to date they have principally succeeded in reinvigorating commercial card innovators and spurring development of technology solutions that will keep commercial cards solidly growing for the foreseeable future.
The largest international global payment networks include JCB, UnionPay, Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express.
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Scope & Methodology
Market Opportunity for Commercial Cards
Small Business Cards
Fintechs Use Niche Expertise to Build Out Market Presence
Global Market of Commercial Card Networks
- JCB
- UnionPay
US Commercial Card Market
- Total US Commercial Card Volume & Volume Forecast to 2027
- Small Businesses Tap Cred Credit Cards for Financing
- Payroll Cards
- T&E Spend
US Card Networks
- Visa
- Mastercard
- American Express
- Discover Financial Services
Leveraging Categories of Corporate Spend
- Travel and Entertainment
- Return to Business Travel Continues in 2024
- US Business Travel Back to 2019 Levels in 2024
- Fleet and Fuel Cards Become Platforms for Providers' Growth
Challenges and Solutions in the Commercial Card Business
- Challenge: Stasis of Business Optimism Strains Commercial Card Growth
- Solution: Fintechs Introduce Scalable Solutions to Specific Problems
- Challenge: Visa/Mastercard Duopoly Challenged by the Credit Card Competition Act of 2023
- Challenge or Solution? Real Time Payments
- Challenge: Virtual Card Friction at Vendor Must Be Addressed
Global Market of Commercial Card Networks
- Table | Volume Processed by Largest Global Payment Networks, 2021-2023 ($ trillion)
- Table | Global Commercial Card Volume, 2021-2023 ($ trillion)
- Table | Global Commercial Card Volume, 2021-2027 ($ trillion)
JCB
- JCB Dives into Europe with Fiserv Partnership
- Table | JCB Annual Transaction Volume, 2021-2023 (JPY in trillion and USD in billion)
- Table | JCB Cardholders, 2020-2023 (million card holders)
China UnionPay
- State Control of Financial Services Ensures Payments Align with Country's Agenda
- UnionPay is a Key Player in China's Economic Growth Strategy
- Growing Domestic Economy Boosts Number of Payment Cards
- Table | Bankcards in China: Number, Value, and Number of Transactions, 2021-2023
- Belt and Road Initiative
- Belt and Road and Payments
Discover Financial Services
- Discover is a Small Issuer with a Mighty Reach
- Highest Levels of Customer Satisfaction
- Discover Acquisition by Capital One
- Table | Discover Transaction Volume, Quarterly, Q1 2023-Q1 2024 ($ billions)
US Commercial Card Market
- Total US Commercial Card Volume
- Table | US Commercial Card Volumes by Network, 2021-2023 ($ billion)
- US Commercial Card Forecast to 2027
- Table | Total US Commercial Card Volumes, 2021-2027 ($ billion)
- Small Business Cards
- Table | Financing and Credit Products Sought by Small Businesses in the Prior 12 Months (percentage)
- Virtual Cards
- Government Commercial Cards
- Table | Federal Government's Spend on Credit Cards by Card Type, Fiscal 2023 ($ billion. million unit, and u
- Payroll Cards
- Largest Consumer Card Issuers Are Also the Largest Commercial Card Issuers
- Table | Credit Card Receivables, Largest Credit Card Issuers, 2021-2023 ($ billion)
US Card Network
- US Network Overview
Visa & Mastercard Overview
- Table | Side-by-Side Comparison of Visa and Mastercard Payment Volume, Quarterly, Q1 2023-Q1 2024 ($ billion
Visa
- Table | Visa Inc. Nominal Payments and Cash Volume for Consumer Credit, Consumer Debit, and Commercial Payments
- Table | Visa Commercial Nominal Payments, 2021-2023 ($ billion)
- Table | Visa Inc. Network Volume, Number of Transactions and Cards in Force, 2021-2023
Visa Commercial Solutions
Mastercard
- Table | Mastercard Transaction Volume, US and Worldwide, 2021-2023 ($ billion)
- Table | Mastercard GDV by Program Type and Cards in Force, 2023
- Table | Mastercard Commercial Credit and Debit Cards, 2021-2023
American Express
- Table | American Express Network Total Billed Business and Cards in Force, 2021-2023
- Table | American Express Commercial Services Segments, Billed Business, Cards in Force and Average Card Membership
Discover
- Table | Discover Transaction Volume, YE 2021-2023
Leveraging Categories of Corporate Spend
- T&E Commercial Card Spend
- Global Business Travel Rebounding
- T&E Spending for Largest Corporate Users
- Table | Largest Corporate Spenders on Travel and Entertainment, 2023
- Airline Revenues Have Rebounded; Almost Reaching 2019 Levels
- Without Consistent Communication, Co-Branded Card Relationships Can Be Lost
- The Power of Co-Branded Credit Cards to Drive Behavior
- Table | Leisure and Business Traveler Co-Branded Airline Credit Card Owners Show Declining Use of Airline as
- Travel - Almost Back to 2019 Levels
- Return to Business Travel Continues in 2024
- Hotels - The Second Cornerstone of T&E
- In 2021 and 2022, Leisure Travel Brought Hotel Industry Back from the Brink
- Hotel Industry Recovered from Pandemic More Quickly Than Anticipated
- Who is Traveling?
- Co-Branded Relationships
- Fleet and Fuel Cards Become Platforms for Providers' Growth
- Table | Corpay Revenue by Segment, 2021-2023 ($ million)
- Table | WEX Total Revenues and Total Volume Processed, 2021-2023 ($ million)
- Table | WEX Revenues by Business Segment, 2022 and 2023 ($ million)
Challenges and Solutions in the Commercial Card Business
- Challenge: Stasis of Business Optimism Strains Commercial Card Growth
-
- Market Opportunities for Growth
- Fintechs Introduce Solutions to Specific Problems
- American Express Leverages Business Banking Account to Bring Small Businesses into a Relationship
- Fintechs are Forcing Traditional Issuers to Innovate
- Ramp Targets Card and AP Spend
- BILL Spend and Expense
- Brex: Outgrowing its Original Customer Base
-
- Challenges
- Visa/Mastercard Duopoly Challenged by the Credit Card Competition Act of 2023
- Virtual Card Acceptance Roadblocks Must Be Remedied
- Challenge or Solution? Real Time Payments
- Challenge: Virtual Card Friction at Vendor Must Be Addressed
Companies Mentioned
- American Express
- Corpay
- Discover Financial Services
- JCB
- Mastercard
- UnionPay
- Visa
- WEX
