As business payments become increasingly digital and globally connected, corporate finance leaders may need to rethink strategies for 2026 and after. Forces shaping B2B transactions, including AI, real-time vs. legacy, embedded payments, and more effective fraud prevention, demand new levels of agility and foresight. It all makes for a busy year.
RTP and FedNow®: Promise, Progress, and Practical Barriers
Real-time payment networks, namely RTP® from The Clearing House and The Federal Reserve’s FedNow® service, were imagined by many to revolutionize B2B transactions. Yet, most organizations remain cautious today, sticking with trusted ACH and wire processes.
In B2B payments, most B2B payers of any size still choose to wait three days for a regular ACH payment, reflecting widespread reluctance to overhaul proven workflows.
Both real-time rails have increased transaction limits to $10 million on talk of more commercial demand to come. It’s a bold move, though it may not bear fruit by 2026.
Eric Campbell, Global Solutions Architect at Bottomline, has seen expectations for the real-time revolution come and go. “We thought it was going to be explosive in 2020, 2021, 2022,” he said, noting that only about 15% of banks working with Bottomline have adopted TCH RTP by 2025, and Bottomline is recognized as one of the world’s top payment services providers. It’s a valuable glimpse into commercial demand for instant in 2026.
According to Campbell, technical inertia and cost are major obstacles. “After a fairly slow start for RTP, FedNow has been slow to the plate, and has very few initiators,” he said. He also noted that without counterparties having robust interfaces, real-time advantages are greatly diluted. “Unless both banks have a very good real-time front end that incorporates all the back-and-forth of messaging capabilities built into the payment type itself, a lot of the value gets lost,” he said.
For many U.S. banks, the scale of investment is daunting as well. On the topic of cost and complexity, it’s “multiplied by the fact that our country has thousands and thousands of banks,” Campbell said, calling this a classic case of vision meeting reality in the complex landscape of the U.S. national banking environment.
Widespread adoption, he concluded, “will probably not happen until there’s a catalyst or broad, synchronized industry investment.”
Embedded Payments and ERP Integration: Scalability Versus Complexity
Embedded payments and banking sit high on B2B payment agendas, promising direct links between ERPs and payment accounts. “Embedded payment and banking services is one of the hottest topics we hear about,” Campbell said, noting the special appeal it holds for businesses with a single ERP system and a single primary bank. “That model works well, because that client will want to do business with that bank from within their application.”
But the advantage erodes quickly as it scales, and other variables are introduced. An assortment of ERPs and banking relationships can introduce layers of complexity. “Once you get to multiple ERPs and multiple banks, then it becomes much more problematic,” Campbell said, recalling the case of a major manufacturer caught in a loop of proprietary “host-to-host” links with their back-office systems, and their multiple banks. Embedded Payments may well repeat the same pattern of fragmentation.
Campbell expects 2026 to be decisive in this regard, however, he notes that “[2026] will be the year users understand where the rubber meets the road on this. Does it work? Who does it work for?”
For enterprises, universal standards matter most. “If you’re a large corporate, the best way to communicate with your banks is over Swift,” he said. “You should be investing in a Swift infrastructure and talking to your banks if you have multiple systems that generate payment instructions, and multiple banks to send them to.”
Campbell sees another important trend emerging where more corporates are selecting new banking partners for superior ISO 20022 messaging capabilities. As far as that goes, some players will lag as others will step it up with payments modernization and getting new forms of value out of the ISO 20022 cutover of November 2025.
Fraud, Regulation, Paper Checks and Next Steps
For all the industry’s progress, paper checks remain a stubborn risk. According to the “2025 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey Report” use of paper checks in B2B payments increased from 75% in 2023 to a staggering 91% in 2024, despite a yearslong effort to “kill the check.”
“Our industry's biggest exposure is checks,” Campbell said. But even with check fraud on the rise – again – he sees light at the end of the tunnel. “There are a few major players who have set deadlines to eliminate check payments. Once a few more [companies] set deadlines for ‘no more checks’ it’s going to be like dominoes falling.”
That, plus things like the U.S. Treasury ending its use of checks in September 2025, help Campbell’s ‘domino’ theory hold water.
But the sector learned the hard way that transitioning to digital payments and ditching the check still elevates the need for robust fraud defenses. Campbell points to the UK’s Confirmation of Payee (CoP) validation as one model the U.S. should consider, if and when such regulations are adopted in the U.S. CoP is a simple premise that matches the beneficiary name with the financial institution and the bank account.
There’s optimism on that front. “I think those types of things are going to take off,” he said. Until then, cross-border payments will struggle with friction and vulnerabilities. As it stands, Confirmation of Payee is focused on solving a domestic U.K. problem, with no consideration for payments originating in other countries.
“There are a whole lot of companies around the world who make payments into the UK,” he notes. But since there are “CoP checks” as such happening in foreign countries where payments may originate, a fully processed payment from one country could have a costly failure when the message is received by a bank trying to clear the payment on UK rails.
Campbell urges finance leaders to push for collaboration among banks, Swift, and regulators to harmonize regional safety measures with international business needs. Without international collaboration, cross-border payment failures will continue.
As for standards, ISO 20022 enforcement is moving from rollout to practical application.
“There’s going to be some evolution mandating how the new [financial messaging] standards are used, making sure that the original intention for how these changes get adopted and applied aligns with reality. I think we’re going to shake this out in 2026” he said.
For business payments professionals, 2026 demands more than technical upgrades to fight fraud. It requires a strategic commitment to agility, security, and digital trust. Next year will reward those prepared for complexity and bold enough to embrace change, Campbell said.