We are excited to announce that we are finalists in two prestigious categories at the upcoming UK FinTech Awards 2025: FinTech Partner Award and Team of the Year. This recognition is a testament to our ongoing dedication to delivering innovative and efficient financial solutions for our clients and to the incredible efforts of our team, whose passion and hard work continue to drive our success.
FinTech Partner Award: The FinTech Partner Award celebrates companies consistently providing partnerships in the fintech sector, driving their clients’ growth, innovation, and success. B4B Payments has always prided itself on its customer-centric approach, ensuring that our Banking-as-a-service solutions are tailored to meet each partner’s unique needs. Being recognised as a finalist in this category reaffirms our position as a trusted and reliable partner for businesses across industries.
Team of the Year: The Team of the Year nomination reflects our employees’ dedication, talent, and hard work, who consistently go above and beyond to ensure our clients & partners receive the best possible service and innovative solutions. From our tech experts developing cutting-edge payment solutions to our business development managers forging strong client & partner relationships and our dedicated account managers working to ensure our partners’ needs are met. Our team plays an integral role in shaping the future of payments. This recognition serves as an acknowledgement of the passion, commitment, and teamwork that have helped us achieve success.
Being named finalists in these two competitive categories is not just a win for B4B Payments. Still, it’s a reflection of the trust our clients place in us, the strength of our partnerships, and the relentless commitment of our team to push boundaries in the fintech space.
Looking ahead, B4B Payments is excited to continue working alongside partners and clients to drive innovation and shape the future of the payments industry.
Managing payroll and disbursements in the public sector comes with unique challenges. Government agencies and institutions often handle benefits distribution and departmental expense management—requiring secure, efficient, and cost-effective solutions. As an approved supplier on the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) Fund Administration & Disbursement Services DPS (FAADS) framework, B4B Payments simplifies procurement for public sector organisations, ensuring compliance and transparency in payout transactions.
Traditional payment methods, such as bank transfers and cheques, can lead to delays, increased administrative workload, and inefficiencies that impact both employees and vendors. Prepaid card services offer a modern alternative, simplifying financial management while ensuring timely and secure transactions.
Businesswire report shows that The UK’s prepaid card market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 10.5% between 2022 and 2026, potentially reaching a value of US$65.54 billion. This growth reflects the increasing adoption of prepaid solutions in both government and private sectors.
The Challenges of Public Sector Payroll and Disbursements
Public sector entities face several challenges when managing payroll and payments:
Administrative Complexity – Processing payroll for government employees, contractors, and social benefits recipients often involves multiple financial institutions, increasing complexity and often leading to bank fees and cheque processing costs, making traditional methods expensive and less sustainable.
Payment Delays – Bureaucratic hurdles can slow down payroll processing, affecting employees and beneficiaries. Some employees and citizens receiving government benefits may not have access to traditional banking, complicating payment distribution.
Fraud and Security Risks – Paper-based payment systems are vulnerable to fraud, mismanagement, and compliance risks.
How Prepaid Card Solutions Support the Public Sector
Prepaid card services provide an innovative solution that enhances financial efficiency, stimulates local economies, and provides security for government payroll and other disbursements. Local councils can promote ‘Shop Local’ prepaid cards to support small businesses in the area.
Here’s how prepaid cards benefit the public sector:
1. Enhanced Security and Compliance
With advanced fraud protection features such as real-time tracking, spending controls, and two-factor authentication, prepaid cards offer a secure way to disburse public funds. Additionally, they ensure compliance with government financial regulations and anti-money laundering (AML) policies. In 1997, The UK government introduced Government Procurement Cards to streamline purchases and support prompt payments, demonstrating the efficiency of prepaid solutions in reducing administrative burdens.
2. Cost Savings and Budget Control
Government agencies can reduce administrative costs associated with paper-based payroll and expense management. Prepaid cards also allow for better budget tracking, as funds can be allocated to specific use cases, such as travel expenses, departmental budgets, or one-time government disbursements.
3. Seamless Expense Management
Prepaid cards offer detailed reporting and spending controls for public sector organisations managing operational expenses. Departments can allocate budgets to prepaid cards for travel, training, or procurement, ensuring responsible spending while minimising reimbursement processes.
Prepaid Cards in the Public Sector
The UK’s public sector is increasingly leveraging prepaid cards for financial disbursements. Governments worldwide are adopting prepaid card services to streamline payroll and payments across multiple sectors:
Social Benefits Disbursement – Welfare, unemployment benefits, and pension payments can be loaded onto prepaid cards for easy access.
Travel and Expense Management – Prepaid cards help government officials and civil servants manage travel expenses.
Emergency and Disaster Relief Funds – Quick distribution of aid and relief funds during crises.
Vendor and Contractor Payments – Faster, more secure payments to suppliers and contractors working with government institutions.
Payout Programs – Public sector agencies can leverage B4B Payment solutions to disburse funds using virtual and physical MasterCard cards for specific payout programs.
Food, Childcare, and Heating Vouchers – Prepaid cards ensure easy and controlled distribution of welfare vouchers to beneficiaries.
Return of Overpayments – Government agencies can refund excess payments seamlessly through prepaid card solutions.
Hardship Payments – Securely providing emergency financial support to individuals in need.
Care or Fostering Expenses – Prepaid cards offer a streamlined method for distributing funds to foster parents and caregivers for child-related expenses.
The Benefits of Prepaid Cards for the Public Sector
As governments modernise financial processes, prepaid card solutions provide an ideal balance between efficiency, security, and cost savings. B4B Payments is an approved supplier of the CCS Fund Administration & Disbursement Services DPS (FAADS) framework, making it easier for public sector bodies to procure regulated and compliant payment solutions. From local councils to national procurement strategies, prepaid cards are a proven tool for simplifying financial management in government operations.
At B4B Payments, we offer a variety of prepaid card solutions that are accepted globally and have been built on our 19 years of experience in the business, perfect for government agencies to simplify financial management while enhancing security and compliance.
Interested in exploring prepaid card solutions for your organisation? Contact B4B Payments today to learn more.
The Shift in Lending: Why Speed and Security Matter More Than Ever
Lending has always been the backbone of financial growth, but how funds are distributed has evolved. Today, individuals and businesses expect seamless access to capital, with minimal friction in receiving and managing funds. Traditional methods—bank transfers, cheques, and cash—are slow, operationally intensive, and often create unnecessary barriers for borrowers. As digital lending accelerates, lenders must rethink how they disburse funds efficiently while staying compliant with evolving regulations.
Embedded payments are at the core of this shift, offering lenders a way to provide instant, secure, and controlled access to funds. Whether supporting a consumer facing an urgent financial need or enabling an SME to maintain to manage working capital, the ability to disburse funds instantly is no longer a competitive advantage—it’s an expectation.
Consumer Lending: Fast Access with Built-in Compliance
Consumer lending spans everything from short-term loans to installment financing, where access to funds is often time-sensitive. A borrower managing an unexpected medical expense or essential household repairs cannot afford to wait for a bank transfer to clear. Delays can create unnecessary financial strain, which is why lenders need solutions that allow immediate payouts with real-time disbursements.
Prepaid physical and virtual cards offer an additional layer of control, ensuring that funds are used for their intended purpose via an open or restricted loop offering.
A lender offering financing for consumer lending, for example, can issue a restricted-use prepaid physical or virtual cards that allow transactions only at the required stores. This ensures compliance with loan terms while providing borrowers with the flexibility they need.
Security is another key consideration. Fraud prevention in consumer lending is a growing challenge, with unauthorised access to funds and misuse of disbursed capital creating risks for both lenders and borrowers. By leveraging virtual card solutions, lenders can reduce fraud exposure through spending controls, real-time transaction monitoring, and enhanced traceability—offering a more secure alternative to traditional disbursement methods.
Corporate Lending: Enabling Business Growth Without Operational Delays
Access to capital is essential for businesses to manage their finances, secure inventory, and drive expansion. However, traditional bank disbursements often introduce unnecessary friction. Loan processing delays can disrupt business operations, forcing companies to slow down projects or postpone critical payments. Prepaid and virtual cards give consumers faster, more convenient access to loaned funds, eliminating long wait times.
Another key challenge in corporate lending is ensuring funds are allocated for their intended purpose. Restricted-use prepaid and virtual cards provide a secure, trackable way to disburse loaned capital while ensuring spending compliance.
A construction firm secures a business loan to purchase materials and pay subcontractors. Instead of waiting for traditional bank transfers to process, funds are instantly loaded onto a B4B Payments prepaid card, pre-programmed to be accepted only by registered suppliers and equipment vendors. This not only speeds up access to funds but also prevents misuse, simplifies reconciliation, and improves cash flow visibility.
How B4B Payments Empower Lenders
B4B Payments provides embedded financial solutions that enable lenders to offer fast, secure, and compliant loan disbursements. Our prepaid and virtual card technology ensures borrowers—whether individuals or businesses—gain instant access to funds, while lenders maintain full control over compliance and spending oversight.
With API-driven integrations and tailored card solutions, B4B Payments allows lenders to streamline their payout processes without sacrificing security or operational efficiency. By integrating B4B Payments’ card solutions, lenders can enhance the speed, control, and flexibility of business funding—allowing companies to focus on growth instead of waiting for capital.
Lending is evolving—make sure your disbursement strategy keeps pace. Get in touch with B4B Payments today to learn how our embedded financial services can help you deliver faster, more efficient loan payouts.
The PropTech industry is undergoing a digital revolution, leveraging cutting-edge technology to optimise property transactions, management, and financing. As the market grows—projected to reach $86.5 billion by 2032 (Source) —payment solutions remain crucial in driving efficiency and scalability. Traditional methods often fall short, causing delays, inefficiencies, and administrative bottlenecks. B4B Payments offers an advanced, seamless, and scalable payment solution that streamlines financial operations across the PropTech ecosystem.
Modern digital payment solutions have reshaped financial transactions in PropTech. According to Statista, real-time payments in the UK are expected to continue growing, with instant payments comprising nearly 10% of overall payments in 2023 and anticipated to increase further by 2028. (Source). While this data encompasses all sectors, the real estate industry’s growing adoption of digital payment solutions suggests a significant contribution to this growth. Factors such as the rise of PropTech innovations, the demand for seamless transaction processes, and the global shift towards cashless payments are driving this trend.
These advancements drive efficiency, reducing transaction times and enhancing financial transparency.
Addressing Payment Challenges in PropTech
PropTech businesses, including property developers, estate agents, and construction firms, face persistent challenges in financial transactions, such as delayed payments caused by traditional banking processes that hinder cash flow and disrupt project timelines. These businesses also struggle with cumbersome expense management systems, navigating the complexities of tracking costs related to travel, supplies, and marketing. Reliance on manual payment methods for vendors and contractors slows transactions and amplifies administrative workloads. At the same time, the absence of streamlined systems for client and employee incentives limits opportunities to foster loyalty and motivation through structured rewards. Together, these issues underscore the need for innovative financial solutions tailored to the PropTech sector.
B4B Payments provides innovative prepaid and digital payment solutions tailored to PropTech businesses, offering an agile and secure way to handle financial transactions:
Business & Employee Expense Management:
Prepaid cards simplify travel expenses, office supplies, and project-related purchases with real-time tracking.
Estate agents can leverage prepaid cards to reward client referrals and successful property transactions.
Corporate & Tenant Rewards:
Property developers can provide prepaid cards as rewards for lease renewals and community engagement.
These cards can cover utility payments and on-site amenities, enhancing tenant satisfaction.
Vendor & Subcontractor Payments:
Digital payment solutions enable quick, secure, and automated transactions for service providers, subcontractors, and suppliers, reducing reliance on manual transfers and streamlining operations.
As PropTech payments evolve, businesses need a flexible, scalable, and secure payment infrastructure. B4B Payments delivers a future-proof solution by offering both prepaid cards and digital payment options to meet diverse financial needs.
Prepaid cards provide a controlled, efficient way to manage vendor, client, and employee expenses, ensuring funds are allocated securely and conveniently. Digital payments automate transactions, streamline cash flow, and ensure compliance, enabling faster and more seamless financial operations.
With real-time insights and advanced reporting, property developers, estate agents, and construction firms can optimise financial workflows, control spending, and accelerate payments.
🚀 Want to transform your PropTech payment processes? Contact B4B Payments today to explore how our tailored solutions can drive efficiency in your business!
We’re proud to support Human Appeal’s mission to provide critical aid worldwide. B4B Payments’ secure and efficient payment solutions help streamline fund distribution, ensuring donations reach those in need faster.
From emergency relief to long-term development projects, our prepaid card solutions empower humanitarian organisations to deliver aid swiftly & effectively.
Learn how B4B Payments is driving impact in global relief efforts.
We’re excited to share that B4B Payments has been featured in The Payments Association’s latest article, showcasing insights from our whitepaper on optimising accounts payable.
As businesses navigate the shift towards digital payments, our payment solutions help streamline accounts payable automation, reduce inefficiencies, and improve financial control.
Learn how embedded payments and automated AP solutions are transforming financial operations.
We’re excited to share our collaboration with Gilgal, a charity dedicated to supporting survivors of domestic violence, as part of our ongoing mission to provide innovative digital payment solutions. In the January 2025 edition of CRA Blog, we showcase how B4B Payments have helped charities transition from cash-based systems to cashless payment solutions, streamlining financial processes and improving operational efficiency.
At B4B Payments, our mission is to empower businesses with solutions that don’t just meet today’s needs but also scale with them for tomorrow. As a finalist in six categories at the Card & Payments Awards 2025, we are recognised for our achievements across different aspects of financial services, from customer service and product design to financial inclusion. This recognition highlights how our tailored payment solutions enable businesses across sectors to operate more efficiently, build lasting customer relationships, and innovate faster. Here’s a closer look at how B4B Payments drive real-world impact in the Financial Ecosystem.
Scaling Customer Success Through Exceptional Service
Our commitment to outstanding customer service isn’t just about responding to queries but building strong, scalable partnerships. We focus on understanding each client’s unique needs and providing proactive solutions that grow with their business. By offering personalised support, we ensure that every interaction adds value and fosters long-term success, making our partnerships more effective and enduring.
“We haven’t found another provider in the industry that supports us in developing the services we need quite like B4B Payments. What sets them apart is their approach—it’s not just an off-the-shelf solution. They genuinely listen to our needs and adapt their services and systems accordingly, which no other provider has been able to offer. We trust their judgement, and they’ve been instrumental in helping us grow our business.” said Alistair Crombie, Founder & Managing Director of One Research.
Enhancing Business Flexibility with Scalable Prepaid Solutions
Our prepaid products transform how businesses manage expenses, payroll, and rewards programs. These solutions enable companies to issue prepaid cards to employees, contractors, or customers, providing a seamless, cashless payment experience. Designed with flexibility in mind, our prepaid solutions quickly scale to meet the evolving needs of businesses as they grow or enter new markets. This adaptability has positioned B4B Payments as the go-to choice for companies seeking greater control and convenience in their payment operations.
Prioritising Design for Better User Experience and Increased Adoption
Good design is more than aesthetics; it’s about creating a user-friendly experience that increases adoption rates and improves overall customer satisfaction. Our product design focuses on intuitive functionality, allowing users to easily navigate and use our payment solutions. This design-first approach helps our client’s employees and customers interact seamlessly with our products, ultimately driving higher engagement and adoption as their operations expand. We ensure a seamless user experience while addressing the organisation’s unique needs by implementing features that provide precise control and flexibility
Enabling Seamless Operations with Integrated Technology
Businesses thrive when their operations run smoothly, and our technology integration capabilities ensure that. By incorporating advanced technology like API-driven integrations and real-time tracking, our payment solutions allow businesses to connect our tools with their existing systems effortlessly. This seamless integration saves time, reduces administrative overhead, and enables enterprises to scale their operations with minimal disruption. With B4B Payments, companies can expand without the complexities of reconfiguring or replacing their payment systems.
Explore more about our platform’s advanced capabilities here.
Engaging Audiences Through Strategic Marketing
Effective marketing is more than just visibility—creating lasting connections and driving meaningful engagement. We understand the power of a well-executed campaign to amplify our vision and strengthen relationships with clients, partners, and stakeholders.
Our recognition at the Card & Payments Awards 2025 underscores the success of our campaign in achieving significant milestones, from expanding our digital reach to fostering deep engagement across diverse audiences. Focusing on organic strategies, we demonstrated how a thoughtful marketing approach can generate tangible outcomes, including lead generation, meaningful conversions, and heightened brand presence.
Through initiatives like these, B4B Payments remains committed to advancing industry standards in marketing, effectively connecting with audiences, and empowering businesses to achieve their goals.
Partner with B4B Payments to Achieve Scalable Business Success
Financial inclusion is at the heart of many businesses’ missions, especially those seeking to serve diverse customer bases. Our commitment to inclusion is reflected in solutions accessible to underbanked populations and adaptable to various financial needs.
Our recognition at the Card & Payments Awards 2025 highlights our solutions’ influential role in enabling businesses to scale efficiently, innovate confidently, and expand their customer base like never before. As we continue to drive advancements in payment technology, we remain focused on creating value and empowering businesses to achieve their goals.
Discover how B4B Payments can help scale your business with solutions designed for growth.
Focus on travel trends and how B4B Payments expense management tools help minimise risks and control expenditures for tour operators and business travellers alike.
Here at B4B Payments we’re interested in the travel industry because our clients are interested in travelling. On a macro scale, 2024 has shown a continued bounce back in travel since the pandemic though at a decelerating rate as spend reverts back to the mean, a study by UN Tourism Barometer.
For example, London Heathrow shows a healthy 6% growth Jan-Nov 2024 over the same period in 2023, a total of 76.8M passenger movements. However, the same statistic for 2023 over 2022 was 30%.
A 6% growth in 2024 indicates that travel demand remains healthy but is stabilising rather than experiencing dramatic spikes.Original source
Continued growth will now depend more on product, price and innovation whilst still being subject to exogenous events such as conflicts or economic performance as well as a growing movement towards sustainability.
Our clients can be divided into two when it comes to travel:
Firstly, those clients who are directly involved in the travel business themselves.
Secondly – and more broadly – the day to day expenses of our business clients as they travel to see their own customers, colleagues and attend conferences.
Let’s take the first group – direct travel clients.
We have a large – and increasing – portfolio of tour operators who use our payments services. The focus here tends to be on supporting group travel and our cards are perfect for tour directors to meet the on-the-road expenses involved with shepherding customers from one location to another.
Primarily our businesses have concentrated on the European market where tourists from the US and elsewhere want to hit the highlights of Europe; London, Paris, and the Southern Med for example.
Young woman with wheeled luggage walking at the airport and texting
Take Expat Explore who offer a multitude of tours to take in the sights of Europe. Customers get an experience of different cities, countries and cultures in a concentrated period of time. Our cards are used on the tours to help Expat minimise risk, control expenditure and make sure the right funds hit the right card at the correct time.
But what we’ve noticed at B4B is an increasing shift from our travel clients towards more far flung destinations over the last couple of seasons. Japan’s hot right now, as is Vietnam, Korea and Australia. It seems travellers since the pandemic – moving away from revenge travel – have decided to value new experiences highly by travelling out of region.
Business travel spend – i.e. spending by companies travelling to meet clients and attend conferences – is a more difficult trend to isolate and project into 2025. This is where economic sentiment and technology advances meet head to head.
Firstly, the economic environment. It’s well known that meeting clients and prospective clients is a good business strategy, a report by BSS Commerce. It increases sales and allows more interaction, formal and informal, with clients for the benefit of both. However, in an uncertain economic environment, the continual wrestling match between sales/marketing and finance really comes to a head. Travel and entertainment is a discretionary budget and is often the first item to be squeezed should the economy take a turn for the worse.
Secondly, one lesson of COVID is that companies can conduct meetings online via Zoom, Teams, Google Meet etc. Ally this to a larger focus on corporates reducing their environmental imprint and potentially we have a nexus where the expedient meets the virtuous. A great deal will depend on the global economic outlook report by Mastercard– in the next 12 months which is uncertain, but is predicted to be similar to 2024.
Conclusion
Whether an industry professional or a company traveller, a decent expense management system helps manage costs, mitigate risks and understand spending patterns. At B4B, we have a long history of helping clients manage their expenses, helping them to maximise resources to focus on their primary business.
But nothing stands still and, in 2025, B4B will be further investing in our expense management capabilities so our clients can continue to take advantage of our experience and services. There will be an aggressive roll out schedule across the year. We will be in touch but if you wish to understand our future developments – or wish to contribute ideas – please contact your account manager.
We are thrilled to share that B4B Payments has won the prestigious ‘Best Bank & FinTech Partnership’ award at the Banking Tech Awards 2024, hosted by FinTech Futures! This recognition celebrates the incredible collaboration between B4B Payments and our sister company, Banking Circle, as we continue to redefine innovation and excellence in the payments industry.
Addressing Key Pain Points in Financial Services.
By merging the agility of fintech with the stability of traditional banking, we’ve developed Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) solutions that:
Simplify payments and eliminate inefficiencies in legacy banking systems.
Enable instant payouts to reduce delays and improve operational efficiency.
Offer compliance-ready tools that address increasing regulatory demands.
With operations spanning the UK, EU, and global markets, our scalable solutions empower businesses to operate confidently and efficiently in an ever-evolving financial ecosystem.
How B4B Payments is Redefining Collaboration in Fintech
In partnership with One Money Way, we provide small and emerging businesses (SEMs) with cost-effective financial tools, bridging the gap for those underserved by traditional banking. Our tailored Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) model offers SEMs access to affordable banking infrastructure, helping them streamline operations and scale their businesses globally.
Streamlining Insurance Operations- Our collaboration with IMG revolutionised insurance fund disbursement processes. By leveraging B4B Payments’ prepaid solutions, IMG simplified claims management, enabling instant payouts and eliminating delays often experienced with legacy systems. This innovation has enhanced customer satisfaction and operational efficiency, addressing a critical pain point in the insurance sector.
Driving Efficiency in Marine and Entertainment Industries- Our Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) model has demonstrated how seamless payment solutions can transform niche industries. By integrating our payment infrastructure, Voly ensures that complex transactions in marine and entertainment sectors—such as crew wages and vendor payments—are managed with ease, speed, and precision.
Leading the Way in Digital Payment Innovation
Businesses today demand payment solutions that are both robust and adaptable. B4B Payments offers an end-to-end digital payment platform that delivers:
Multi-currency support for global operations.
Real-time tracking for better financial control.
Customisable solutions tailored to business needs.
Our commitment to innovation ensures businesses stay competitive by leveraging cutting-edge technology for seamless financial management.
Looking Forward: Celebrating Achievements and Building on Success
This award highlights the strength of our partnerships and the value of collaboration across fintech and banking. Together with Banking Circle, we’ve developed scalable, compliant, and forward-thinking solutions that address real-world business challenges. From multi-currency support to instant payouts and robust compliance frameworks, B4B Payments is reshaping the fintech landscape one solution at a time.
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to our teams, partners, and clients for their trust and collaboration. This win is a milestone in our journey, but it’s also a reminder of the work ahead. Our mission remains steadfast—to empower businesses worldwide through innovation, collaboration, and dedication.
As we celebrate this incredible achievement, we look forward to continuing to solve Payments pain points, drive transformation, and deliver value to the financial services industry. Together, we’re building the future of payments.
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