US firms spent $1.6 million per month on the average in 2003, says RPMG Research, and the spending amount is expected to top $160 billion by 2008.At the end of 2003, the volume of commercial cards purchased cards in the US equaled $264 billion. The annual savings volume of firms using commercial cards is known to be $23 billion, which is expected to hit $40 billion by 2007.

So far p-card adoption has been hampered by the problems associated with B2B data integration and popularity of paper checks. Solutions like the Amex Variance Report, Bank of America Payment Manager and MasterCard’s e-P3 product may change the situation, reports Mercator Advisory Group.

MasterCard now offers e-P3 (procurement, presentment and payment) product that is offering support to B2B commerce joining settlement options with e-invoice presentation and payment systems. After online talks, the system raises a purchase order with the supplier, and approves the correlating invoice in the buyer’s system.