AirPlus this week announced the launch of a new pan-European corporate card covering 19 countries, starting with France in September. The move represents a departure for the company as the new cards are self-issued rather than being provided by a national banking partner and means multinational clients will be able to negotiate a single contract direct with AirPlus.
Announcing the launch, AirPlus CEO Patrick Diemer, said, "With the new European Corporate Card Solution, AirPlus meets the need of multinational customers to standardise payment processes. AirPlus customers and their employees can now count on a single partner who centralises, simplifies and harmonises all processes: from the implementation of the card program to payment and reporting."
Airplus' European Corporate Card will be available in France from 24 September and Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland by the end of the year.
Our chart this week looks at credit card transactions (which includes corporate cards) in Europe. The figures, from the European Card Payment Yearbook 2017-18, show that the number of cards in circulation and the number of card payments has been steadily increasing over recent years.
The corporate card market has changed much in 2018.
Under the Payment Services Directive 2 regulations which came into force across Europe earlier this year, merchants may no longer impose surcharges on consumer card transactions. However, corporate cards still attract surcharges - British Airways, for example, charges a 1% surcharge up to £20 on corporate cards used to buy flights. There are some oddities, however. Individual pay corporate cards are considered consumer cards under the new ruling.
AirPlus is already a leading name in corporate payments and the new launch will put it into more direct competition with American Express. It will be hoping that the overall growth in the market and the move away from cash towards card that has recently been accelerated by the introduction of contactless will spell a happy future.