Mastercard pushes for ‘Plug-and-Play’ future in B2B payments

Mastercard is stepping up its efforts to simplify business payments with the launch of two major innovations — the Commercial Connect API and Clearing Controls — designed to make corporate transactions faster, smarter, and more secure.

Together, they reflect a growing ambition by the payments giant to move beyond network infrastructure and become a platform orchestrator for B2B payments.

Fixing the Friction in B2B Payments

Plug-and-Play future in B2B payments

For years, B2B payments have lagged behind consumer payments in terms of speed and user experience.

While tap-to-pay, mobile wallets, and instant checkouts have revolutionised retail, business payments often remain bogged down by fragmented systems, manual reconciliation, and compliance bottlenecks.

“Corporate clients run a plethora of technology across their organisations,” says Marc Pettican, Mastercard’s Global Head of Corporate Solutions.

“They may be using ERP platforms, procure-to-pay systems, or industry-specific software — and few of these systems speak the same language.”

The new Commercial Connect API aims to change that.

By embedding Mastercard’s payment capabilities directly into enterprise systems, it allows businesses to integrate payments seamlessly without adding new layers of complexity.

For finance leaders, the benefit is clear: greater efficiency, enhanced control, and improved access to working capital.

“This is effectively a single front door to Mastercard’s ecosystem,” Pettican explains. “It gives businesses a simple, scalable connection to payment capabilities so they can focus on running their operations rather than managing integrations.”

Bringing End-to-End Control to Virtual Cards

Alongside the API launch, Mastercard is introducing Clearing Controls for its virtual card products — a feature designed to extend transaction-level security and visibility across the entire payment lifecycle.

Traditionally, payment controls such as spending limits or merchant category restrictions have applied only at the authorisation stage. But in corporate environments, where transactions may be delayed, aggregated, or adjusted, risk persists well beyond that point.

Clearing Controls now enable issuers to monitor and block transactions even after authorisation but before settlement, reducing the potential for fraud or compliance breaches.

“This allows our issuers to apply controls right through to the clearing stage,” Pettican says. “The feedback from customers has been very positive.”

The Consumerisation of Business Payments

Mastercard’s latest moves underscore a broader industry trend: the consumerisation of B2B payments. As digital-native finance leaders rise through corporate ranks, they bring expectations shaped by the ease and immediacy of consumer payment tools.

By embedding intelligence, transparency, and automation into corporate finance workflows, Mastercard is helping payments “disappear into the background,” as Pettican puts it — becoming frictionless, invisible enablers of business growth rather than operational burdens.

In short, the company is reimagining B2B payments not as transactions, but as seamless, integrated processes — a transformation that could finally bring the convenience of the consumer world to the corporate finance desk.