A new report from Aite Group discusses the current commercial environment for business and bank payments practices. It highlights opportunities to improve payments processing, and draws connections between key payments conceptspayments consolidation, payments hubs, a payments maturity model, and payments data infrastructure integrationthat Aite Group has analyzed in recent years.
Businesses trading internationally need to make and receive risk-controlled foreign payments. Controlling cross-border payments risk involves foreign exchange, the use of local currency accounts, or both. Given budget and staffing constraints, many businesses are turning to their banks to provide assistance. Clients want straight-through processing, where no manual intervention is required to complete their payments. Further, clients want their banks to use industry standards to the greatest degree possible, conform to laws and regulations, ensure data integrity and completeness, and process their payments efficiently and accurately. In a December 2010 Aite Group survey of 47 U.S.-based senior bank managers, technology vendors, and consultancies, 60% indicated that the business of payments is extremely important for banks.
Globally, banks continue to focus on their payments franchises, says Nancy Atkinson, senior analyst with Aite Group and author of this report. Payments are fee-based, and were strong contributors to bank revenue during the economic crisis. By implementing the key solutions most sought after by business customers, banks will achieve cost savings and greater revenue opportunities going forward.
D.C.