The collaboration is one of several recent business relationships with a financial technology company intended to bring efficiency and innovative digital solutions to clients.

As part of the relationship, Fifth Third will become the first bank to join The Mastercard B2B Hub powered by AvidXchange, a solution announced earlier this year.

“There are a number of inefficiencies and complexities that traditionally come with managing payments,” said Bridgit Chayt, senior vice president and director of commercial payments and treasury management for Fifth Third Bank. “Joining The Mastercard B2B Hub will help eliminate these pain points for our clients in an innovative and user-friendly format. The relationship aligns with and supports our NorthStar strategy to better serve our clients through technology.”

Delivered through card issuers, The Mastercard B2B Hub is an end-to-end automated platform that converts payable processes traditionally done by paper into an electronic transaction. More than half of U.S. business-to-business payments are still made by paper check, a costly, inefficient and insecure method.1

The Mastercard B2B Hub leverages AvidXchange’s technology to maximize electronic payments using virtual cards and enhanced automated clearing house (ACH). With it, businesses will no longer face the burden of costs or potential errors associated with manual accounts payable processes.

“The North American market for B2B payments is $25 trillion and yet, in the U.S., over 50 percent of B2B payments are still being made by check. It is inefficient and expensive. Fifth Third is meeting these challenges head on by offering The Mastercard B2B Hub to businesses who want to increase their financial control by outsourcing their payments processes,” said Colleen Taylor, executive vice president of new payments business for Mastercard.

This announcement follows an equity investment in AvidXchange last year by Fifth Third Capital Holdings LLC, an indirect subsidiary of Fifth Third Bancorp. Mastercard also invested in the Charlotte, North Carolina-based financial technology company earlier this year.

“As a result of our partnership with Mastercard, which we announced in June, we’ve created a great solution for banks to make it easy to offer accounts payable and payment automation solutions with The Mastercard B2B Hub powered by AvidXchange,” said Michael Praeger, AvidXchange’s chief executive officer. “We’re very excited about Fifth Third being the first bank to use the Hub to bring our great value-added solutions to their customer base. We admire Fifth Third’s dedication to being on the forefront of revolutionizing commercial payments, and we feel honored to be selected as the Bank’s technology partner in this endeavor.”