The pace of change in the European payments landscape today is unprecedented. Initiatives such as the Single Euro Payments Area (Sepa) and the Payment Services Directive (PSD) are reshaping the industry, encouraging new market entrants, enhancing competition and, ultimately, improving customer service for consumers and corporates alike.
Banks' payments business is coming of age and has never been so important to the future success of the organisation as a whole.
Against this backdrop, Callataÿ & Wouters is launching a guide which looks at the drivers for and benefits of payments standardisation and provides advice to financial institutions on best practice payments solutions to manage this change.
Abdelmajid Moujane, payments specialist at Callataÿ & Wouters, comments, "In order to capitalise on the opportunities that accompany today's market change, financial institutions are reviewing their payments infrastructure and are often coming to the conclusion that it falls short of their strategic requirements, present and future. A period of infrastructure refresh is expected within the industry and decisions that will influence the long-term future of the bank need to be made.
"SEPA has emerged as the principal driver behind much of this change and the ISO 20022 messaging standard has emerged as the recommended format for all payment processing steps. It introduces a number of benefits, such as greater STP rates that enable banks to save time and money. What's more, it offers a more standardised payments service that enables banks to conduct business across national borders, thereby delivering improved customer service. Crucially, ISO 20022 will streamline and standardise payment processes, which means that banks will also have a greater opportunity, as well as more time and money, to focus on innovating payment solutions and services.
"However, in order to take advantage of these benefits, banks will need to migrate from old siloed applications to a universal modern payments engine. This will help banks reduce the global maintenance costs dedicated to payments processing. As banks look to introduce a payments infrastructure refresh, the Payment Services Hub has emerged as the recommended approach for banks, enabling them to achieve greater standardisation.
"Our Guide makes the business case for greater standardisation beyond SEPA and provides best practice advice for those banks looking to move to a Payments Services Hub. As the market continues to recover and new entrants make their mark and introduce more competition within the payments space, banks with a sophisticated and standardised core payments infrastructure will be in the best position to adopt innovative payment channels, create internal efficiencies and adhere to evolving regulatory requirements."