Article

How companies are modernizing payment strategies to stay competitive


4-min read

Share:

Copy link to clipboard

Key takeaways

  • Finance leaders view payments transformation as a growth lever, prioritizing revenue, cash flow and efficiency gains.

  • As legacy payment usage declines (such as checks), organizations are diversifying their payment mix, with ACH widely used and card-based options (corporate, purchasing and virtual cards) representing a growing share of payments.

  • Companies cite faster payments and better experiences as key drivers for virtual cards, alongside lower costs, reduced fraud risk, and improved working capital.

A recent survey of finance leaders conducted by Visa in collaboration with U.S. Bank found that top priorities for payment transformation include driving revenue growth (44%), improving cash flow (43%), and reducing costs and improving efficiencies (39%).1

Our new report explores how today’s leaders can look to payments to support growth and build resilience.

Infographic titled “Top priorities” showing three circular charts: 44% driving revenue growth, 43% improving cash flow and 39% cutting costs and driving efficiencies.

View the full infographic (PDF)

Legacy payments are losing their dominance

Legacy payment methods remain deeply embedded in purchasing habits, but their dominance is waning. While 62% of companies surveyed still use checks, 26% expect to decrease their check use year over year – and this increases to 48% among large market companies. Additionally, 57% still use wires, with 11% expecting to decrease wire use year over year.

Continued check use is largely driven by external payment requirements, not internal payment preferences. In the survey, executives cite meeting customer and vendor payment requirements (33%) as the primary benefit of using checks.

A broader mix of payment solutions

As check use declines, organizations are modernizing payments and embracing a broader mix of solutions.

Bar chart comparing payments transformation methods by ranking and total usage, including ACH, check, digital wallets, wire, virtual card or expenses, corporate card or travel and expense, purchasing card, personal credit card, instant payments, peer-to-peer payments and prepaid card.

Preferences appear to be shifting toward paperless payment methods. Our report finds that of the companies surveyed, 64% report using ACH, and 42% of large market companies rank ACH as their most used payment method. In addition, about half of the companies surveyed use corporate cards (49%), purchasing cards (48%) and virtual cards (47%). Collectively, these three methods make up 25% of total payments. This shift reflects a broader payments transformation strategy focused on efficiency, flexibility and growth.

Virtual card usage is on the rise

Virtual card usage is growing faster than any other payment method, particularly in hospitality and retail, and 78% of the companies surveyed plan to expand their virtual card program by 2027.

This share is higher in certain industries and segments:

  • 89% in hospitality
  • 87% in retail
  • 85% in healthcare
  • 84% of middle market companies with $500 million to $1 billion in annual revenue

Additionally, companies surveyed report an average anticipated increase of 28% in payment allocation to virtual cards by 2027.

Companies also plan to increase their use of other modern payment methods, including digital wallets (85%), peer-to-peer payments (80%) and instant payments such as the FedNow® Service (79%).

Why are companies turning to virtual cards?

Companies say they are turning to virtual cards to improve payment speed (30%) and enhance the employee and customer payment experience (25%). The survey also found that virtual cards provided lower payment costs, reduced fraud risk and extended working capital. These benefits are often overlooked due to misconceptions about modern payment technologies.

Download the full report to learn more about Payment modernization: understanding the gap between perception and reality.

Explore more

Report: Hidden gaps in payment modernization

Uncover misperceptions about fraud, cost and payment types and how data can drive smarter decisions.

Read more

Webinar: Future-proof your payments

Explore emerging payment trends and strategies to enhance security, speed and customer experience.

Read more
Request a call
Start of disclosure content

Disclosures

  1. All stats above are from “Commercial Industry Research.” Visa. 9 December 2025.

Start of disclosure content

FedNow® is a registered trademark of the Federal Reserve Bank.

The creditor and issuer of U.S. Bank charge cards is U.S. Bank National Association, pursuant to separate licenses from Visa U.S.A., Inc., and Mastercard® International Inc.

Notice: Foreign-denominated transactions are subject to foreign currency exchange risk. Customers are not protected against foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations by FDIC insurance, or any other insurance or guaranty program.

The foregoing products are available solely for business transactions and not for personal, family or household transactions.