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even more pressure on the cost of
processing low-value payments.
As a result, I feel banks are at a pivotal
point of inflection as these regulation,
competition and technology changes
put their traditional business models
under even more pressure. If they
want to stay relevant in the industry,
they must accelerate their payments
transformation in order to innovate,
drive new revenue streams and tackle
the market disruptors head-on.
The Icon difference
We started working with BNP Paribas
last year on a visionary transformation
programme for payments. BNP Paribas
wanted to differentiate themselves
as a bank when it came to payments,
but they knew they would have to
radically transform their payments
estate to achieve this. Faced with
challenging timescales, they committed
to delivering a transformation
strategy for their architecture and
technology, and at the heart of this sat
instantpayments.
For a while, instant payment has been
referred to as the new norm. With 43
schemes already live across the globe
and another 15 in planning, there is
no doubt that instant payments are an
expectation, not an aspiration. Banks
need to offer real-time payments to
remain competitive, but the challenge
is that they are burdened with legacy
systems that are not equipped to
handle the demands of year-round
payment processing.
BNP Paribas’ payments transformation
was underpinned by IPF, our state-of-
the-art, cloud-native, flexible payments
platform. We haven’t stretched an
ageing architecture to do things it
wasn’t designed to, and we haven’t
moved existing functionality to a virtual
environment and called it payments
in the cloud. IPF delivers something
unique, embodying the first-hand
payments experience we have and
empowering our customers to
accelerate their transformation while
reducing TCO by between 60 and 75
per cent.
Using IPF enabled BNP Paribas to
successfully deliver instant payments
across four countries and three instant-
payment schemes. As a result of our
involvement, BNP Paribas are making
fundamental progress towards their
goal of significantly reducing the cost
of payment transaction processing
while positioning themselves for
success in an increasingly competitive
payments market and differentiating
themselves. Our payments expertise
and pragmatic approach gave the
bank the confidence they needed
for successful delivery and set the
roadmap for their continued evolution
in the world of payments.
I feel we are exactly where we want to
be – at the forefront of payments, at
a time when customer expectations of
value have changed. Moving money
is simply moving data, and customers
are no longer satisfied to pay for that.
They want value-added services and
new sophisticated technology – and if
they don’t get it, they’ll move provider.
We’re helping banks meet the needs
of their customers at a domestic and
global level.
As a result of
our involvement,
BNP Paribas are
making
fundamental
progress
towards their
goal
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Transforming the future