In recent years, the core offering of commercial cards has undergone significant transformations. As a result of new product offerings and changing business expectations, commercial card use has risen dramatically. The renewed growth of these products presents credit unions with an opportunity that has been overlooked by their larger counterparts.

In fact, many of the larger national banking corporations had considered commercial cards to be a thing of the past, with many either failing to update their offering or selling their commercial card portfolios to third parties. However, commercial cards are now among the fastest-growing products for banks and commercial card spending continues to increase. By 2020, we estimate that spending levels will have increased by 71% from 2013 and the compound annual growth rate will reach 8%. This growth has resulted in issuing banks racing to improve their capabilities and gain a share in a growing but highly competitive market.