Banks move beyond connectivity to streamline payments

A recent online webinar brought together banking and payments experts to examine how institutions can move beyond basic network access to create more intelligence, visibility and control across clearing, settlement and reconciliation. Scott Hamilton moderated the panel.

Panelists described the operating environment as a mix of domestic and international schemes, real-time rails, legacy systems and new payment methods that have increased pressure on routing, data management, fraud prevention, regulatory compliance and reporting. They said those issues raise operational costs and slow responses for customers and partners, especially in cross-border flows that use multiple formats and settlement models.

The group noted ISO 20022 has provided a more standardised message format and richer data fields, but conversion to the standard has not removed problems around routing, data quality and downstream processing. Panelists identified specific friction points: message mapping, inconsistent field usage, gaps in enrichment, and the need to reconcile differing settlement models across corridors.

Speakers pointed to wider use of application programming interfaces and improved connectivity across ecosystems to consolidate access to multiple networks. They described a single orchestration layer that handles routing and data enrichment as a practical way to reduce the number of point-to-point integrations and centralise decisioning.

Panelists recommended layering automation and straight-through processing to apply consistent rules and decision logic, while keeping human oversight for exceptions and high-risk items. They presented AI and data analytics as tools for monitoring, anomaly detection and faster decisioning, and they stressed the need for trusted data foundations and explainable models so automated actions can be audited for compliance and customer service.

Participants advised governance measures that include model validation, ongoing performance monitoring and clear escalation paths. On fraud and sanctions screening, the panel said better data mapping and normalization across formats improves transaction screening and sanctions checks, and that contextual scoring driven by machine learning can reduce false positives and accelerate legitimate flows.

Operational resilience topics included building redundancy across rails and defining procedures for outages and settlement failures. Cross-border innovation and blockchain were discussed as additional rails that can operate alongside existing systems; speakers described interoperability through standards, APIs and central orchestration as the method to integrate those options.

The panel outlined a phased approach promoted by the speakers: stabilise data and messaging standards, introduce API-based orchestration to simplify connectivity, apply automation and AI for routine decisioning, and maintain governance and human oversight for critical interventions.