Commercial Cards: Evaluating Multinational Card Programs

March 28, 2012 - PRLog -- Boston, MA -- Multinational corporations are extending their use of commercial card programs as tools to control risk and improve operating efficiency. Today, both travel and entertainment (T&E) and procurement cards are available in more than 100 countries, and firms are seeking ways to balance the needs of local markets while maintaining centralized risk control. Within this market segment, a small group of issuers are committed to providing multinational solutions.
 
Mercator's latest report, Commercial Cards: Evaluating Multinational Card Programs, overviews the card types available in today's market along with the benefits of domestic or single-country card programs. The report introduces specific aspects of the multinational challenge along with solutions that address those challenges. Card program managers or project administrators responsible for developing multinational programs will find a wealth of guidance regarding the necessary decisions and the major implications of the various choices.

Highlights of the report include:

The considerations in a corporation's choice of card currency and card issuer entity for each country

Data integration complications that can arise from multiple partner-supported programs versus programs supported directly by single issuers

Scope of country coverage by the three major U.S. entities offering multinational card programs, and overviews of other participants in the market

Four summary guidelines to assist multinational firms in planning global programs

Patricia McGinnis, director at Mercator Advisory Group's Commercial and Enterprise Service and the author of the report comments, "Multinational card programs are of interest to a growing number of corporations, all trying to institutionalize the efficiencies and enhanced risk control of such programs and to deliver their benefits across global organizations. The experience of firms that have implemented such programs indicates that the task is far from simple, but the in the end, benefits outweigh the difficulties."

The report is 22 pages long and contains six exhibits.

Companies mentioned in this report include: American Express, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, MasterCard, Visa, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Barclays Bank, Standard Chartered, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Societe Generale, Nordea, Deutsche Bank, UOB of Singapore, HDFC of India, AOC Solutions, Chrome River Technologies, Concur Technology, First Data, InvaPay Payment Solutions, IBM OpenWay Group, Oracle Financials, and TSYS.

Members of Mercator Advisory Group's Commercial and Enterprise Advisory Service have access to this report as well as the upcoming research for the year ahead, presentations, analyst access and other membership benefits.

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About Mercator Advisory Group
Mercator Advisory Group is the leading, independent research and advisory services firm exclusively focused on the payments and banking industries. We deliver pragmatic and timely research and advice designed to help our clients uncover the most lucrative opportunities to maximize revenue growth and contain costs. Our clients range from the world's largest payment issuers, acquirers, processors, merchants and associations to leading technology providers and investors. Mercator Advisory Group is also the publisher of the online payments and banking news and information portal PaymentsJournal.com.