JoAnn DeLuna
Business Travel News
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Past articles by JoAnn:
AppZen Automates Expense Report Approval:
In 2017, Certify president Bob Neveu told BTN, “There’s a big difference between [being able to] flag exceptions, incorrect or fraudulent expenses versus just auto-approval and instant reimbursement. ... No customer is looking for that.” To the contrary, artificial intelligence-powered expense audit company AppZen thinks that market is out there. → Read More
What Do Alipay & WeChat Pay Mean for Corporate Payments?:
Merchants around the world now enable the millions of outbound Chinese tourists to pay for items as they can do at home. These merchants now accept the two most widely used Chinese mobile apps: Alipay and WeChat Pay. These apps "are processing 10 to 11 times more transactions than the U.S. as a whole," said Bradley Seitz, a partner in consulting firm Nina & Pinta. → Read More
UATP Initiates Travel Management Company Issuer Strategy:
UATP plans to grow its card network by allowing U.S.-based travel management companies to issue UATP cards, the airline-owned payment network's chief commercial officer, David Holmes, told BTN. The Company Dime first reported the news. "In the past, we've approached that through partnerships with existing issuers," he said. "In those conversations, the question from TMCs always came up: 'Why… → Read More
FCM Travel Enhances SAM Chatbot & Links with Lumo:
Two years after launching SAM, which stands for Smart Assistant for Mobile, travel management company Flight Centre has added three features to the chatbot. SAM Duty of Care provides travel alerts and travel information to both travelers and travel managers through the app. Travelers can check in, send their locations and ask for help in emergencies. → Read More
2017 Visa & Mastercard Corporate T&E Increased Almost 10 Percent:
Mastercard and Visa's combined 2017 U.S. corporate T&E purchase volume totaled $51.36 billion, up 9.6 percent from 2016, according to July's Nilson Report, which excludes American Express and Discover products. Mastercard's 2017 U.S. corporate T&E purchase volume increased 11.3 percent to $26.6 billion. Visa reported a 7.7 percent year-over-year increase to $24.8 billion. → Read More
CWT Launches Travel Consolidator Analytics Tool:
Carlson Wagonlit Travel's new proprietary analytics tool captures, consolidates, standardizes and cleans data from travel management company bookings, expense tools, corporate cards and HR, said CWT chief data scientist and VP Eric Tyree. Unlike CWT reporting tool AnalytIQs, which similarly captures expense and card data, Travel Consolidator integrates the four data sources into one file. It… → Read More
Wex Issues Visa Virtual Cards:
Wex clients now have the option of issuing virtual cards on the Visa card network. Wex–which offers travel, corporate, fleet, health and employee benefits payment solutions–already was offering Visa virtual cards for its health segment but now does so companywide, a Wex spokesperson said. Wex already issues Mastercard virtual cards across its network. → Read More
BoA Launches Mobile App for Commercial Prepaid Cardholders:
Bank of America Merrill Lynch commercial prepaid cardholders now have a mobile app that allows them to view balances and transactions; find ATMs; lock and unlock their cards if lost, stolen or later recovered; set alerts; and change contact information. On biometric-enabled devices, users can log in via touch or facial recognition. Cardholders also still can access their information online or… → Read More
Amex GCS Billings Volume Increases 12 Percent in Q2:
Card-billed business for American Express Global Commercial Services, the division that houses corporate cards, increased 12 percent year over year in the first quarter to $122 billion. Cards in force increased four percent to 14.3 million. First-quarter GCS net income increased 18 percent to $564 million. GCS total revenue net of interest expense increased 8 percent to $3.2 billion, reflecting… → Read More
BMO Now Can Email Virtual Cards to Hotels:
BMO Financial Group has partnered with Conferma to enhance the Canadian bank's existing Mastercard virtual card offering, which it piloted in 2014. Through an application programming interface, Conferma enables BMO to email virtual cards to participating hotels in addition to faxing details to them. BMO head of North American cards Steve Pedersen said the email option increases automation. For… → Read More
Certify Acquires Abacus:
Certify has acquired expense management company Abacus for an undisclosed amount. Abacus joins expense tools ExpenseWatch, Nexonia and Tallie under Certify's management. Each company has maintained its own brand identity, as will Abacus, according to Certify founder and CEO Bob Neveu. → Read More
ARC Enables Alipay for ARC-Accredited Agency Transactions:
Airlines Reporting Corporation now can process Alipay transactions made through ARC's 12,262 U.S. retail and corporate travel agency locations, satellite ticket printing offices and online travel agencies. The capability is made possible through UATP's existing partnership with Alipay, first signed in 2013. → Read More
New CEO at Oversight Systems:
Terrence McCrossan is replacing Patrick Taylor as Oversight Systems CEO. Taylor founded the expense monitoring and auditing company in 2003 and remains on the board of directors. McCrossan joins from payment firm Comdata, where he had served as general manager and SVP since 2013. Prior to that, McCrossan worked at payroll and workforce management firm ADP. → Read More
DVI:
DVI has made promising strides since fall 2017’s Innovate conference, including increasing its customer base by more than 300 percent and adding more bells and whistles to its Vantage Point data analytics platform, according to DVI president and CEO Brian Beard. → Read More
AirPlus Promotes Hagenbring to Managing Director:
Effective July 1, Andreas Hagenbring will replace Roland Kern as one of three AirPlus International managing directors. AirPlus chairman and managing director Patrick Diemer and managing director Spencer Hanlon remain in their roles. Hagenbring has been Lufthansa Group head of investor relations since 2012 and has worked for the airline group since 2008. At AirPlus, Lufthansa Group’s payment… → Read More
Card & Expense Startup Raises $9 Million:
Bento for Business, a Chicago-based financial solutions provider, has raised $9 million through an investment led by equity investment firm Edison Partners. This follows 2015's $2.5 million in seed financing from Anthemis Group, Blumberg Capital, LionBird and Pivot Investment Partners. In September, secure logistics and security provider Brink's began white-labeling Bento's card and expense… → Read More
U.S. Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Amex in Antitrust Case:
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday in a 5-4 opinion that American Express' rules barring Amex-accepting merchants from steering customers to less expensive forms of payments are not anticompetitive. The controversial decision settles an antitrust case that began in 2010 and has gone to multiple courts in the past eight years. → Read More
TripIt Adds International Travel & Safety Features:
User's of SAP Concur's TripIt users now have access to safety ratings for nearly 30,000 neighborhoods around the world through a partnership with travel safety ratings firm GeoSure, and the itinerary app now can read confirmation emails in English, as before, but also in French, German and Japanese. The app parses such emails to extract travel details for the traveler's itinerary. → Read More
Sodexo Launches Integrated T&E Solution Rydoo:
After acquiring Belgian expense management company Xpenditure and business travel booking tool Maya last year, employee services firm Sodexo has integrated the tools into a T&E solution called Rydoo. When Xpenditure launched in the U.K. in March, Sodexo had told BTN it was planning to merge the two tools. → Read More
Coupa Profit Increased 38 Percent YOY:
Coupa's gross profit for the first quarter of its 2019 fiscal year increased 38 percent year over year to $38.2 million. The quarter ended on April 30. The spend management company's total revenue also increased 37 percent to $56.4 million. The growth largely owed to a 40 percent year-over-year increase in subscription revenue, a 95 percent renewal rate for the second straight quarter and… → Read More