The bank expects to launch this new offering in the third quarter, Commerzbank said in a Tuesday (June 18) press release.
“With our new digital credit card solution, we enable our customers to make their billing processes more efficient and thus save costs and time,” Tobias Knoll, head of value stream accounts and payment methods in Commerzbank’s private and small-business customers segment, said in the release.
The new fully digital solution will enable business customers to manage their card portfolio themselves and integrate it into their own billing processes, according to the release.
It will make it easier for companies to issue new cards to employees and to restrict card usage to certain periods of time or purposes, the release said.
To implement the new offering, Commerzbank collaborated with Pliant, a German startup that offers credit cards solutions, per the release.
“Our hypothesis at Pliant has always been that long-term success is only possible in cooperation with banks,” Malte Rau, CEO of Pliant, said in the release. “That is why we are pleased to support Commerzbank as a strong partner of small and medium-sized business customers in Germany with an innovative credit card solution.”
The cooperation between the two companies was initiated by neosfer, which is the early-stage investor unit of Commerzbank Group, has cooperated with Pliant since 2021 and has invested in 36 startups focused on the digital transformation of financial services, according to the release.
“This cooperation between Pliant and Commerzbank underlines once again our approach to ultimately create added value for Commerzbank’s customers,” Matthias Lais, managing director at neosfer, said in the release.
Virtual cards enable clients to obtain and modify their cards instantly with just a click, while seamless solutions like mobile apps capture transaction data and send it directly to accounting, Rau told PYMNTS in an interview posted in January.
“This is a key driver for the adoption of business cards, resolving a pain point overlooked by traditional banks,” Rau said.
