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Card, expense vendors see potential for growth.

Article Excerpt
Penetration of expense reporting and corporate payment solutions in small and midsize companies remains shallow, but vendors on both fronts recognize opportunities to target companies with U.S. booked air volumes short of $12 million. New players eyeing the midmarket and established ones with specific midmarket offerings are making payment and expense for smaller companies more accessible than ever.

Among vendors enhancing their presence in the market, American Express this month announced a partnership with American Airlines to issue co-branded cards to midmarket companies. Addressing problems the midmarket has in leveraging their volumes when negotiating with big players, companies that use the card can receive rebates that are as high as 10 percent on up to $1 million in AA air expenditures.

"The card will have the greatest appeal to midsize companies," said Anre Williams, American Express Corporate Services senior vice president and general manager for the middle market. "Large corporations with revenues over $1 billion probably have negotiated discounts with the airlines.

"The airlines know where to find them," Williams continued. "They're actively pursuing them and getting contracts with them. For midsize companies we're bringing something to them that they may not have thought about on their own."

To be made available this year in the third quarter, the card maintains the "core features" of Amex's midmarket card offering, including reporting, billing and payment, employee controls and other expense management features.

As the large corporate market for T&E payment cards has become saturated, or nearly so, card issuers and networks are shifting some focus to the under-penetrated midmarket...

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