The value of cloud-based payments

Two decades into the 21st Century, we have become accustomed to having every convenience at our fingertips exactly when we want it. In many ways that extends to our finances, but for businesses it doesn’t go far enough.

The value of cloud-based payments

The days of being happy to cash in a cheque and wait a few business days for it to clear are long gone, but payments are still not fast enough, and they still cost too much – writes Michel André, Chief Information Officer for Banking Circle.

In a fast-paced global market, organisations want and need access to payment avenues that enable them to send funds to, and receive funds from, anywhere immediately.

Banks and Payments businesses need the ability to provide a seamless customer experience, and the prevalence of digital tools in both our personal and professional lives is driving this expectation amongst customers.

The payment industry is filled with exciting players and standing out from the crowd is ultimately  dependent on the speed and ease with which businesses can deliver cross border payments.

The problem is that Financial Institutions struggle to deliver such a service because the legacy technology underpinning them limits their ability to send payments internationally.

Maintenance of outdated legacy systems is an ongoing challenge for banks – 42% of 300 senior decision makers at banks across Europe told us it is one of their three biggest internal challenges.

While institutions could build their own infrastructure and solutions, that generally requires vast resources, time and expertise to invest in development. But, in the fast-moving world of payments, speed is paramount, and waiting for internal investment and development isn’t necessarily the answer.

Instead, the most effective way for Financial Institutions to quickly add innovation to their offerings and speed up cross border payments is through partnering with an expert payment specialist – such as a tech-first licenced bank. And, more specifically, one that has developed completely cloud-based solutions.

Accessing Agility

Cloud-based infrastructure offers so much flexibility and scalability it enables Financial Institutions to be agile in the face of ever evolving requirements. Customer demands are always changing, but when organisations are confident that they have the environment and infrastructure to quickly adapt, they are future proofed.

For the providers themselves, a decoupled cloud infrastructure means they can update individual modules seamlessly with minimal impact on their clients’ workloads.

This allows new features to be added, such as event-based payments processing and real-time reporting, all while delivering the quality of service expected. Simply put, cloud-enabled partners are best suited to provide Financial

Institutions with innovation and quality of service that reduce payment cost and time.

Keeping Up With Digital Demand

Ultimately, operating in a rapidly evolving industry, Financial Institutions that don’t choose suitable cloud-driven partners risk not being able to keep up with customer demand – and the competition.

Partnering with an innovative payment specialist like Banking Circle overcomes that challenge, providing access to the most advanced, purpose-built payment rails available and at a fraction of the cost of developing in-house.

When Financial Institutions are able to integrate these into their own propositions, the customer experience will only improve – leading to happy, returning clients and revenue growth.

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