Driving B2B Transformation: Insights from Innovators at the Crossroads London Salon

Held on April 29 at London’s Canary Wharf, leaders gathered at the Crossroads FinTech salon to discuss the future of B2B payments and digital transformation. TreviPay’s Allen Bonde reflects on this thought-provoking afternoon.

 This discussion explored how today’s volatile environment is accelerating B2B innovation across six key themes: crisis-driven urgency to open new channels, rapid digital adoption in trade and finance, the growing role of AI in efficiency and personalization, evolving regulations that both enable and hinder progress, the central importance of trust in building lasting partnerships and the need for embedded, flexible payments to scale B2B commerce. A unifying message emerged across presentations from TreviPay users and payments industry experts: deep collaboration across the ecosystem is essential to move the market forward.

Current environment is creating urgency to innovate and activate new channels

Reflecting on how crises drive innovation, as we saw during the COVID-19 pandemic, I began the afternoon by briefly exploring the importance of understanding B2B buyer needs in today’s collaborative landscape. Research highlighted buyers’ preference for trust, choice and convenience as key decision drivers. I emphasized that current disruptions offer a unique opportunity to address long-standing challenges—just as we did during COVID—but with the benefit of hard-earned lessons and the digital foundations in place for more resilient ways of working.

Later, a senior economist at a major insurer analyzed the economic landscape, focusing on U.S. policy shifts. He discussed the rise in U.S. tariff rates—from 2.5% to over 20%, the highest in a century—but noted these could drop to 10% by year-end with positive trade negotiations.

He compared the U.S. economic slowdown with Europe’s improving outlook, pointing to Germany’s €200 billion investment in defense and infrastructure. However, declining U.S. consumer sentiment and spending, which makes up 70-80% of GDP, loomed large.

The speaker concluded: “U.S. tariffs slow global growth, while Germany’s investment may boost Europe. Businesses must adapt to this volatile landscape.”

Digital adoption is transforming buyer preferences and new financial offerings

Two digital leaders at a major bank explored the rapid digital transformation of B2B trade and finance. The speakers highlighted a striking rise in digital penetration—80% of bank transactions are digital today, up from 30% in 2017—largely accelerated by the pandemic, which compelled many traditional businesses to embrace digital solutions at speed. The bank’s own API integration efforts, particularly in trade finance, were spotlighted. However, the speakers noted digital adoption remains uneven across markets, influenced by preferred payment methods and industry practices—such as the continued reliance on documentary credits or letters of credit in countries like Indonesia. Their key message: “Digital adoption in trade finance has surged from 30% to 80%, with APIs and standardization driving the ecosystem collaboration needed for tomorrow’s B2B commerce.”

Meanwhile, senior executives from several payments stakeholder companies, including a payments and fintech consultancy, corporate strategy advisory firm and an advertising firm, discussed how companies offering seamless, personalized payment experiences would gain a competitive edge and expand their share of wallet. The advertising firm speaker summed it up: “The future of B2B payments lies in digitization, personalization, and meeting customers where they are—blending digital efficiency with human expertise to build lasting loyalty.”

Thoughtful application of AI and analytics can drive resilience across B2B

Both the manufacturing and payments network speakers highlighted AI’s growing role in improving efficiency, credit decisioning, and customer personalization. As the manufacturer’s executive stated: By leveraging strategic partnerships and AI-driven personalization for our SMB customers, our goal is to scale this into a billion-dollar business across Europe.”

 A management consultant discussed the shift from manual to digital processes, the maturing of AI beyond buzzwords and how B2B is increasingly shaped by B2C expectations.

To this point, the payments stakeholder companies noted the convergence of consumer and commercial payment experiences, with innovations often starting in the consumer space before reaching B2B. Customers now expect mobile-friendly, intuitive solutions and AI-powered automation in commercial transactions.

A senior B2B leader at a digital payments provider shared how they’re transforming B2B payment processes through AI and data analytics, including AI-driven RFP generation, vendor selection and dynamic risk assessments. He emphasized: “By embedding finance at the point of decision and building more resilient supply chains through AI-driven intelligence, we’re transforming B2B payments.”

Shifting regulations are both helping and hindering payments innovation

“Banking is not payments. Regulators must recognize this distinction and create flexible frameworks that serve merchants, not just banks, across all payment ecosystems.” This was the key message from a payments industry expert. The speaker emphasized the need for regulators to understand the unique requirements of different banking systems, procurement-based payments and merchant transactions, each of which demands distinct regulatory approaches. Merchants, he argued, should be at the center of the payment landscape.

Criticizing current approaches—especially Strong Customer Authentication (SCA)—as “legislative and regulatory incompetence,” he advocated for early regulatory engagement and closer collaboration between policymakers and industry to simplify compliance and address B2B payment challenges.

Building trust, managing risk is key

Trust emerged as a central theme across the event. I introduced our TAIL framework—Trusted, Adaptive, Intelligent and Localized—as a practical way to navigate market complexity. Inspired by Forrester’s COVID-era studies and Future Fit model plus research from McKinsey, Gartner and TreviPay, it’s designed to help organizations turn disruption into innovation. As I put it: “In times of crisis, focus on the long TAIL. Don’t waste the moment—it’s a catalyst for change, just like COVID was.”

The importance of trust was echoed by other speakers. A manufacturer and a global payments network both emphasized their role in partner selection—valuing shared goals, service integrity and long-term collaboration. “Trust scales better than features,” noted the manufacturing executive. The payments leader added, “It takes years to build, seconds to lose.” 

Senior execs from the panel of payments stakeholder companies also explored how experience loyalty—driven by flexibility, reliability and trust—keeps B2B customers engaged, especially when challenges arise and solutions are tailored.

Scaling B2B eCommerce requires flexible, reliable embedded payments and invoicing

The session also featured compelling real-world examples of B2B program scale-ups. The manufacturing leader shared SMBs now account for 60–65% of its business. To better serve this growing segment, the company partnered with TreviPay to launch a 30-day net payment option—now central to its European operations and a key driver of market share. This new payment method complements credit cards, wire transfers and PayPal, forming a strong foundation for scaling its SMB strategy. Currently, it represents 17% of all transactions, with plans to increase that to 20–25%.

A management consultant also presented insights from a study of 1,000 payment projects, noting success is most often achieved by solving specific pain points—not by chasing broad digital transformation goals. True impact, he said, comes from deep operational change: “B2B payments require more than just digital tools—they demand fundamental shifts to deliver real financial outcomes.”

It will take all of us to move the market forward

Looking ahead, the banking leaders called for market-wide collaboration and new API standards—particularly for guarantees—to reduce information gaps and increase transparency. A payments expert stressed early regulatory engagement and cross-industry teamwork to address B2B payment challenges. The dialogue captured this urgent need and underscored that true transformation will come from collective action across the ecosystem.

The Crossroads event highlighted a crucial takeaway: B2B commerce is evolving rapidly, and collaboration is key. From digital adoption and AI innovation to changing regulations and embedded payments, the most effective strategies are built through shared insight and infrastructure. As disruption becomes the norm, trust, flexibility and partnership will drive the next phase of growth.