Corporate payment cards

Most growing international businesses hit the same wall: the bank account exists, but moving and spending money across currencies, entities and countries is slow, expensive and opaque. Staff use personal cards and chase reimbursements. Foreign-currency spend bleeds value on conversion. Finance cannot see who spent what until the statement lands. Corporate payment cards, issued sensibly and tied to the right accounts, solve a surprising amount of this.

We help companies put in place multi-currency corporate cards and prepaid card programmes that match how the business actually operates across borders. For an operating group this is about control, foreign-exchange efficiency and clean reconciliation. For a newer or cross-border entity it is sometimes the most practical way to get usable spending power while fuller banking relationships are still being built.

This page sets out what these programmes are, where they are issued and why that matters, how to put one in place, and the traps that catch the unwary.

What corporate and prepaid cards actually are

The two are different tools. A corporate card is a payment instrument issued against a company account or credit line, usually with multiple named cards under a central administrator who sets limits and sees consolidated spend. A prepaid card is funded in advance from a balance the company tops up; it carries no credit and stops when the balance is exhausted.

Multi-currency programmes add a layer most businesses underrate. A well-built programme lets you hold balances in several currencies and spend each in its native currency, so a euro invoice is paid from a euro balance rather than converted twice at a poor rate. For a business with revenue and costs in different currencies, this alone can recover meaningful margin over a year.

Where cards are issued, and why the jurisdiction matters

The issuer's location and licensing shape the cost, the currencies, the acceptance and how much diligence you will face. The right choice depends on where you operate and bank.

• United Kingdom. A deep, mature electronic-money and card-issuing market with strong scheme access and excellent multi-currency fintech products. Best for businesses with UK or European footprint; expect proper diligence but reliable infrastructure.
• European Union (notably Lithuania, Ireland and the Netherlands). Home to many licensed electronic-money institutions issuing euro and multi-currency cards across the single market. Best for EU-facing operations and SEPA-native flows; Lithuania in particular has become a hub for card-issuing fintechs.
• United States. Vast market, strong rewards and credit products, but card issuing is tightly tied to a US entity and US banking, so it suits US-incorporated operations rather than offshore holders.
• United Arab Emirates. Increasingly capable for businesses with genuine Gulf presence, useful for AED and regional spend, and improving fast; substance expectations are real, so a paper-only UAE entity will struggle.
• Singapore and Hong Kong. Strong fintech and banking ecosystems serving Asia-Pacific operations, good for regional currencies and trade flows; both regulators expect a coherent business rationale.

The practical rule: issue cards close to where you bank and trade. A mismatch between your entity, your bank and your card programme is the single biggest cause of frozen cards and rejected applications.

How to put a programme in place

The process is lighter than opening a full bank account, but it is not automatic, and treating it as automatic is where applications stall.

• We start with the spending profile: currencies, monthly volume, number of cardholders, the entities involved and whether you need credit or prepaid funding.
• We match that profile to issuers, weighing currency coverage, foreign-exchange pricing, per-card and scheme fees, spend controls and the quality of the reconciliation and accounting integrations.
• We prepare the application and the underlying diligence: corporate documents, beneficial-ownership evidence, expected usage and source of funds. Clean, consistent documentation here is what gets approvals through.
• We set up the administration: cardholder hierarchy, per-card and per-category limits, approval rules and the feed into your accounting system.
• We test with low limits, then scale once reconciliation and controls are confirmed to work.

What goes wrong

• Treating cards as a substitute for banking. Prepaid programmes can be a useful bridge, but they are not a settlement account and not a place to park reserves. Building core treasury on them is fragile.
• Hidden foreign-exchange and cross-border fees. The headline pricing can look cheap while conversion spreads and cross-border surcharges quietly erode value. The real cost is in the margins, not the monthly fee.
• Diligence mismatch and sudden freezes. Programmes issued by lighter-touch providers can suspend cards abruptly when activity does not match what was declared. A frozen card in the field is a genuine operational risk.
• No spend governance. Issuing cards without limits, categories and approval flows simply moves the control problem rather than solving it.
• Concentration risk. Running everything through one fintech issuer with no fallback means a single account review can halt company spending.

How HPT helps

This is practical, adviser-led work, and we are candid about its limits. Corporate cards are a tool inside a treasury setup, not a strategy on their own, and we will tell you when what you actually need is a proper banking relationship rather than another card.

We map your spend profile, recommend issuers that genuinely fit your currencies and footprint, and set out the trade-offs in writing rather than steering you to whatever is easiest to open. We prepare the application and diligence pack to the standard issuers expect, coordinate setup of the cardholder hierarchy and controls, and connect the programme to how your finance team reconciles.

Where cards sit alongside the bank accounts, entities or treasury structure we are already helping you build, we make sure the pieces fit together, so spending is controlled, conversion is efficient and your finance function can finally see, in real time, who spent what and where.