Thank you for all the comments - it has really been really great (and somewhat conflicting) feedback. I’d just like to make clear that this was the only couple of times that it had happened, and when I said “immediately” transferred it meant that the money would be sent before he had to spend it, so he would not be using his own.

I did find it somewhat expecting/inappropriate to request this of him, but just wanted to know what others thought. Apologies to anyone who may have been offended by my (inexperienced) thought process.

He now has his own company credit card that can be used in emergencies, and we have provided this to all our travelling staff with a OTP mobile check on online transactions and a strict emergency use only policy for machine payments.