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American Express has teamed up with Coupa to offer a new payment integration, offering customers the option to pay with American Express Virtual Card within Coupa’s business spend management (BSM) platform.

According to a statement from the company, the new payment integration, which takes the form of being a set of payment and financial solutions within the Coupa platform, will first be available to American Express Corporate customers in the UK and Australia later this year, and the US by the middle of next year.

Key features of virtual cards

According to American Express, the solution gives customers the ability to manage supplier payments more easily due to the fact that they are able to use virtual cards to pay suppliers for spend that goes through Coupa’s platform.

Once a business’ American Express account is tied to Coupa Pay, Virtual Cards can be automatically sent to authorised suppliers.

In addition to this, American Express states the integration benefits customers through increased security with reduced fraud and visibility into the payment process, as well as automated invoice matching and reconciliation, and tracking to help manage cash flow.

American Express customers will also receive servicing and supplier onboarding support from both Coupa and American Express. 

Unifying buyer and supplier experience

American Express executive vice president of Business Financing & Supplier Payments, Dean Henry, says the company is focused on unifying the buyer and supplier customer experience.

He says, “Coupa’s cloud-based BSM platform rates high on usability so it’s no wonder they have a fast-growing customer community.

“Coupled with the unprecedented backing, service, and security from American Express, we’re combining the best of both brands so that our mutual customers can benefit from a better electronic payment experience.” 

Vice president of Coupa Pay, JR Robertson, says the service aims to improve the way buyers and suppliers interact and improve the business payments process. He says the partnership with American Express will ‘help to drive forward our mission’.

More details and availability will be shared about specific geographic markets in coming months, according to American Express.