Communications of the acm

COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM
June 2007/Vol. 50, No. 6
57
By
MARK J. COTTELEER, CHRISTOPHER A. COTTELEER, 
and
ANDREW PROCHNOW 
Open network e-payment systems are the future of 
corporate payments, assuming they address the challenges 
of integration, security, and remittance standards. 
CUTTING CHECKS: 
CHALLENGES AND CHOICES IN
B2B E-PAYMENTS
What started in the 1990s as a consumer
push for e-payments has influenced new
thinking in the B2B market. Financial insti-
tutions and businesses alike must closely
monitor this trend because current payment
options fall short of changing business
expectations. For banks, ignoring market
demand could result in disenfranchised cus-
tomers and decreasing revenue and profit.
For businesses, failure to adopt new payment
options could result in lost value, as well as
lost customers. 
The future of electronic banking depends
on the development and adoption of new
technologies. The promise of e-payment
technologies has been that they ease pay-
ment and lower transaction costs [11]. This
promise is being realized in the area of elec-
Changes in the marketplace for business-to-business (B2B) pay-
ments increasingly demand executives’ attention. Growing numbers
of e-payments, decreasing paper check volumes, and new legislation
in the U.S. are the main motivators. Businesses are beginning to
realize they must add new payment options to a process still domi-
nated by paper checks, wire transfers, and automated clearinghouse
(ACH) transactions. 
Cotteleer fig 1 (6/07)
Checks
86%
EDI
2%
Cards
1%
Other
1%
ACH
10%
ACH
Checks
EDI
Cards
other
Figure 1. B2B payment methods