MasterCard to Automate Small and Medium Business Payment

The need for new-age payment process for small and medium enterprises is growing by the day. In order to cash in on this trend, Mastercard Inc. MA has launched The Mastercard B2B Hub, a program which uses automated tools for commercial payments.

Mastercard hopes to make it big in this market, which still uses the traditional check and manual payment methods.  With more than 350,000 businesses, the underpenetrated small and medium enterprises market offers ample scope for growth.

The company is a leader in the global payments market has been undertaking significant investment in technology to stay ahead. Its shares have gained 31% over the past one year, significantly outperforming the Zacks categorized Financial Transaction Services industry's gain of 20%.

U.S. small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are crucial to the country's economy. Mastercard has been widening its reach in the growing SME market. In 2013, along with Western Union Co. WU, the company started a dedicated international payments service to increase flexibility with which small and medium-sized businesses conduct cross-border trade.

The Mastercard B2B Hub will debut in the U.S. later this year in partnership with AvidXchange. With its 5,500 customers in North America and integration in more than 130 accounting processes, AvidXchange will provide invoice and payment automation facilities.

This service will help SMBs to maintain manual accounts payable and payment processes, and will also help in overall cost reduction. Moreover, automated digital payment offers greater speed, flexibility and security, which in no way can be matched by the physical payment mechanism.

Recently, another player in the same industry, Visa Inc. V, along with Viewpost – a secure B2B network for electronic invoicing, payments and real-time cash management – announced an exclusive partnership to bring electronic business payments to Viewpost's SMB clients.

Mastercard carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A better-ranked player in the same space is Total System Services, Inc. TSS. The stock carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Total System beat estimates in three of the last four reported quarters, with an average positive surprise of 3.6%.

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