When they first appeared, neobanks and fintechs might have appeared to payments processors as fantastic as the White Rabbit of Alice in Wonderland. But now, processors must keep up and catch them as clients if they want to secure diverse revenue streams in the Wonderland of Digital Payments. These neobank digital ‘rabbits’ need innovations tailored to their specific market niche, a high level of personalization for their payment products and services, fast time-to-market, and overall cost efficiency. How can a payment processor provide this and become a smart, digital Alice — a welcome companion for neobanks and fintechs?
Imagine that Alice catches up with the White Rabbit, offering valuable insights. Processors must practice agile, both internally and with partners and clients, so they can reassess project interim results to eliminate obstacles, find smart solutions, and fine-tune the technology stack. This speeds up the launch of digital payment products and services. Digital payments software providers serve payment processors who often try new business models, market niches, technologies, and customer segments.
Imagine that Alice has the ability to be in several places simultaneously, so she knows what is going on with not just one rabbit, but several. When a processor’s technological partner has a network of partners around the globe, this strengthens discovery, delivery and support capacity.
For example, OpenWay has a distributed network of hubs for R&D, delivery, and business development in EMEA, Americas, and Asia. There is an ongoing knowledge transfer between all hubs and teams. The distributed structure makes OpenWay resilient to high project loads and regional disasters. This benefits client processors while they are supported by the vendor’s local and global expertise.
When some Wonderland characters faced execution, Alice stepped forward to protect them and succeeded. Similarly, payment companies are also called upon to demonstrate their social and environmental awareness through ESG. This makes them attractive partners for socially conscious neobanks and fintechs. ESG-oriented services such as transaction-based carbon footprint trackers for each cardholder, card-based distribution of social aid to financially vulnerable populations, and financial inclusion for unbanked consumers and SMEs via wallet are valid examples of how tech can be utilized for this purpose.
If Alice hadn’t been quick to notice the White Rabbit jump down the rabbit hole, her adventures would never have started! Quick reflexes and response times are needed by processors to keep up with the demands of neobanks and fintechs. But most payment processing systems feature a separate front- and back-office that slows things down.
Farseeing processors who choose a fully online platform avoid this problem because they can process both transaction data and internal configuration data in real time. All product and service parameters are applied in real time, all balances are updated immediately, and all related data is accessible immediately both inside the system and via over 1,000 APIs.
Imagine that Alice during her adventures falls asleep in the middle of a conversation. Unresponsive systems are the nightmare of large e-commerce acquirers, international bank groups, and digital banks whose customers generate transactions 24x7 in multiple countries and time zones.
If payments are unavailable, the damage to their business, brand reputation, and customer portfolio may be irreversible. A flexible payments platform with high-speed transaction processing and high availability helps processors and their customers survive peak sales seasons. OpenWay’s Way4 solution is one of the tools that prevents interruptions in data flow by routing transactions between international and local payment schemes, and even between Way4 and legacy infrastructure.
The White Rabbit was always worrying about being late, but he still arrived on time because he traveled light without a bulky suitcase to slow him down. Similarly, most fintechs and neobanks lack the resources to deploy all possible products, scenarios, and technologies at once.
They need innovations strategically packed in compact carry-on luggage, custom-tailored for their journey. A payments platform must be a proven carry-all for a processor’s diverse projects and innovations, but also offer a starter kit for launching an MVP in record time.
With the metaverse, CBDCs, cryptocurrencies, and other disruptors on the horizon, there are plenty of opportunities for new, curious, ambitious players in the payments ecosystem.
OpenWay provides the Way4 digital payments software platform for tier-1, mid-size and startup players – including card issuers, acquirers, processors, telcos, payment switches, fleet companies, and digital wallet providers. Gartner, Omdia and Aite have ranked OpenWay as the best digital payments software provider and the best payment solution in the cloud.
Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.
Subscribe now