Driving extra value from your payment infrastructure - it's a 'hell yeah' decision

Corporate Payments And Payables

Daniel Bardini

Daniel Bardini

Apr 24, 2018

We’ve all been faced with the dilemma of trying to ascertain whether or not we should purchase something. Is it really needed? Is it a priority? Is one supplier’s product any better than the other’s -- and if not, will one add more value than the other? Adding value is about the ability to offer more, going a step further. From a business perspective, the most successful people, projects and products are those that provide additional value over and above the core offering. One sure-fire way to help cut through indecision is to apply Derek Sivers’ ‘Hell Yeah’ rule. The American entrepreneur states that the rules are simple: if the opportunity doesn’t make you say, “Hell Yeah,” then it should be a no. In the Fintech world – a sector of constant fast-paced change – it’s the innovative solutions and forward-thinking service providers that go a step further in helping you secure and better manage your institution’s financial messages and payments. They go beyond the core capabilities of accessing payment clearing and settlement systems globally and provide value-add offerings that tip the scales enough to herald a ‘Hell Yeah’ decision. Two areas that yield this type of value spring to mind: minimising risk and increasing real-time visibility.

Minimising risk

These days all organisations are burdened by changing regulations and sanctions, new payment services and models, rapid technology developments and an ever-increasing risk of fraud. It has become essential for financial messaging and payment processing technology to better protect the organisation against cyber-attacks, insider threats, web and mobile fraud, payment fraud, and money laundering. There is a reputation at stake and a responsibility to protect the institution and its customers. Finding the quickest, most cost-effective way to achieve this is critical – whether that is inherent in the financial messaging software or through closely integrated solutions. Payment aggregation technology that offers built-in compliance, sanctions screening and real-time fraud detection can help achieve exactly this (how’s that for a ‘Hell Yeah’ moment?). For banks and FIs, that means that catering to new multi-regulations across the globe - such as the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), SWIFT CSP, and Payment Harmonisation to name a few - becomes much easier. It also means that it becomes possible to stop fraudulent activity and data theft before it happens with the use of real-time transaction and behaviour monitoring.

Gaining real-time visibility

If your financial messaging and payment processing infrastructure needs another ‘Hell Yeah’ moment, then achieving complete transparency is probably it. Without the ability to apply sophisticated, configurable and fully automated reconciliation rules, financial institutions find themselves having to manage a task that is not only tedious, but very complicated and time-consuming due to the combination of complex data sources and messaging formats. Putting aside the numerous core benefits that aggregation technology can offer banks and financial institutions, integrated reconciliation is certainly a valuable addition that delivers more visibility and tighter control. Whatever your choice of financial messaging and payments processing platform, when it comes to the ‘should we / shouldn’t we’ question, the balance should quite rightly be in favour of the one that offers supplementary value beyond core functionality. One that not only provides unparalleled global access to an array of payment infrastructures, but that also goes a step further to help future-proof your environment, drive down costs, and maintain your reputation. One that shouts “hell yeah - this is a no brainer!”

Daniel Bardini

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Daniel Bardini

As Managing Director of Financial Messaging for Bottomline Technologies, Daniel offers extensive experience in the finance industry developing and implementing business payment strategies.
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