CIMB’s Corporate Card Solutions to see big growth

CIMB Bank Bhd’s newly-launched Corporate Card Solutions is expected to gain significant growth momentum, given that it is a gamechanger in the market.

In collaboration with MasterCard, the CIMB Corporate Card Solutions offers convenience, control and transparency for business operational expenditure, through its corporate card, purchasing card and virtual card solutions.

“We are very excited about this launch because the corporate segment has been a domain of the consumer segment in the past.

“This is a very new solution, for us and in the market as well.

“A lot of banks now do not do this business,” said CIMB Group transaction banking head Thomas Tan after the launch ceremony yesterday.

The Corporate Card Solutions offers unique, customised solutions for companies, such as setting spending limits and customising merchant categories by each individual card holder, with real-time overview of employees’ travel and entertainment expenditure.

Meanwhile, the purchasing card automates the company’s procurement process by capturing card transactions in real time, which facilitates account reconciliation.

Companies also have the option to decide on the billing cycles, like a 45-day or 60-day credit interest-free period, unlike consumer credit cards which have one determined billing cycle.

As for the virtual card solution, businesses can randomly generate a 16-digit virtual card number that is associated with a specific payment, which is then securely transmitted to a specific supplier when payment is due.

Data is captured real time and matching a unique virtual card number to a specific payment improves reconciliation and aids data analysis.

These solutions help optimise cash flow, enabling businesses to operate more efficiently through the entire value chain.

“In today’s business environment where cost management is a high priority, it is our aspiration to help organisations to significantly improve their operational and cost efficiency by automating their transactional flows.

“These solutions offer unique savings features by optimising cashflows and working capital.

“Our digital banking solutions such as these are also a response to Bank Negara Malaysia’s call for a reduction in the usage of cheques from 207 million in 2011 to 100 million by 2020,” said CIMB Group chief executive Tengku Datuk Sri Zafrul Aziz.

The CIMB Corporate Card Solutions is targeted towards government and state agencies, small and medium enterprises (SME) as well as corporate sectors.

Prior to yesterday’s official launch, CIMB had converted five corporate clients to its Corporate Card Solutions during the soft launch.