First Bankcard, Provident Bank Team For Commercial Payments

First Bankcard, a division of First National Bank of Omaha, has formed a strategic partnership with Provident Bank, First Bankcard announced Wednesday (Jan. 22).

Provident Bank, a New Jersey-based financial institution (FI), will issue a comprehensive suite of commercial payment solutions in conjunction with First Bankcard.

“We’re excited to expand the services available to our commercial clients through our partnership with First Bankcard,” said Bernadette N. Macko, senior vice president, director of corporate cash management. “Moving payment options beyond traditional methods with the use of Corporate Cards improves cash flow, provides greater visibility into purchasing behaviors and reduces fraud, while offering rewards and rebates to our clients.”

The corporate card program has higher limits to accommodate individual client spending habits.

“Purchasing card programs reduce the costs in the steps from procurement through final payment and can accelerate the process to allow a client to take advantage of supplier discounts and cash flow forecasting,” the release stated.

The First Bankcard team will also help Provident’s clients in “developing a comprehensive spend analysis” to pinpoint suppliers that already take card payments.

“We are committed to empowering financial institutions across the country to provide commercial payment services to their customers,” said Jerry J. O’Flanagan, executive vice president of consumer banking at First National Bank of Omaha. “We are confident this program will help Provident Bank grow its commercial business by providing a more complete array of products and services to its commercial customers.”

In other banking news, open banking and bank-FinTech collaboration are the new norm for FIs around the world looking to upgrade their offerings for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

Several banks have announced collaborations with banking Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and loan technology service providers to boost their corporate and SMB lending capabilities.