AXPNew deal, same old goal: make payments less annoying
American Express is linking up with Bottomline to bring Paymode into its Buyer Initiated Payments setup through a new feature called BIP Connect. In plain English: it’s trying to make B2B payments smoother, more connected, and a little less like wrestling a fax machine in 2009.
Why you should care
The pitch here is pretty simple. If eligible AmEx customers can tap into Premium ACH vendors on Paymode more easily, that could mean more digital payment adoption and more reasons for businesses to keep using the AmEx ecosystem.
The investor angle
This isn’t a flashy revenue number or a blockbuster acquisition, but it does matter if you’re watching AmEx as a payments platform rather than just a card company. Partnerships like this can help:
- expand transaction volume
- deepen customer relationships
- make switching away from AmEx a bit more annoying for businesses
Big picture
AmEx keeps trying to turn itself into the nice, polished operating system for business spending, not just the plastic in your wallet. Small partnership? Sure. But in payments, the little plumbing upgrades can be the difference between “meh” and “sticky.”