Research: US remains a heavy user of B2B payment checks
- US business still rely heavily on checks as a primary form of payment.
- The value of those checks dwarfs credit and debit cards.
Often times, B2B fintech firms in the US find themselves competing not with other digital technologies, but with checks and cash. As much digital uptake has occurred, US businesses still weigh heavily towards checks.
Mastercard estimates that 43 percent of all B2B payment volume in the US is still in paper form of some kind.
What's interesting as you drill down into B2B payments is how differently businesses treat forms of payments. So, while card payments might be the most popular type of payments, research from the Federal Reserve Bank shows that businesses make much smaller payments on cards ($207) when compared to ACH debit ($31,118) and checks written ($2526).
So, businesses find credit cards appropriate and easy to use for small purchases but tend to revert to checks and ACH for all other payments.