Note from Dr. Jack Baldwin, CEO

Greetings from BHMI.  We have entered the Fourth Quarter of 2023 and it has been an exciting year in the payments industry.  The most notable is the rapid adoption of real-time payments across the globe.  In this newsletter, you will see a link to a recent podcast about this important topic.  I invite you to listen to this session because it provides some valuable insights from payments experts.  

We continue to hear that one of the most significant hurdles companies are facing during this time of payment innovation is modernizing payment processing operations.  Many companies have legacy systems that are not designed to support new payment methods, such as account-to-account real-time payments. 

BHMI is focused on helping its clients modernize the back-office components of payment operations.  If you are experiencing any challenges with your payments back office operations, including functions such as settlement processing, reconciliation, and disputes management, I invite you to contact us anytime to discuss how we can help.

Podcast:  In 2023, Real-Time Payments Expanding Across the Globe

During this PaymentsJournal podcast, experts from different parts of the payments world discuss how real-time payments are expanding across the globe, and particularly in the United States and Australia.

With the availability of RTP and FedNow, the United States has fully embarked on its journey toward real-time payments. Across the globe, real-time payments are creating not only competition among payment methods but also new use cases, making previously unattainable services accessible to businesses and consumers. Yet the road to global ubiquity in real-time payments has challenges. Technical hurdles, legacy systems, and the imperative of interoperability need to be overcome.

In a world with seventy-nine countries operating real-time payment systems, achieving cross-border real-time payments requires diplomacy and meticulous planning. Furthermore, the modernization of outdated back-office systems is imperative to keep pace with the exponential growth in real-time transactions. The good news is that businesses recognize this urgency and are upgrading technology infrastructures and streamlining processes.

This podcast provides some valuable insights about the rapid trajectory of real-time payments, and the steps we as industry stakeholders can take to bolster real-time payments ubiquity.

Article:  How a Modern Back-Office Improves Employee Retention

As unemployment nears historical lows banks, payments processors, and financial services companies face challenges to find and retain high-quality talent. One of the important areas to consider is ensuring employees have the tools and technology that will enable them to be successful.

Check out this recent article in The Green Sheet by our own Lynne Baldwin, President of BHMI, who shares valuable insights about how a modern back-office improves employee retention.

As Marc Badalucco, managing partner of Impact Payments Recruiting, states in this article, “The lack of new technology will always hurt attracting the best talent. Simply put, payment professionals always gravitate to companies that offer innovative services and processes that provide value to their clients.”

In this article, Kimberly Tibbetts, Principal Industry Consultant of Endava added that “Employees using legacy systems take longer to complete their work and have a higher chance of errors. Legacy systems are typically slow to respond which can lead to employee frustration and impact performance since things take longer.”

Barry Tooker, principal at TransactionBanker.com also says that “Upgraded back-office systems ultimately improve the employee experience by streamlining processes, reducing manual labor, and providing employees with real-time data. This empowers employees to make better decisions and frees time to focus on more valuable work. Additionally, modern back-office systems can provide managers with access to analytics and reporting tools, which can help them make better decisions and improve the efficiency of their operations and productivity of their personnel.”

Videos:  Pioneers in Payments

Check out BHMI's Pioneers in Payments interview series where payments experts share valuable industry insights.  Below are links to the interviews we completed during the last three months but you can watch all the interviews on BHMI's YouTube Channel.   

• Endava, Kimberly Tibbetts
• Form 3, Miriam Sheril 
• Innovative Payments Association, Brian Tate
• Lipis Advisors, Andrew Gomez 
• Photon Commerce, Michael Young
• PSCU, Lou Grilli
• PTAP, Peter Tapling
• W. Capra Consulting, Clint Cady

Event:  PayTech Women Omaha Chapter Meeting -  Sponsored & Hosted by BHMI

BHMI is honored to sponsor and host the next PayTech Women Omaha chapter meeting! Click the link below to learn more about this event, the speaker, and to register free-of-charge.

Work Group:  U.S. Faster Payments Council Operational Considerations for Instant and Immediate Payments

BHMI is a member of the U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC) Operational Considerations Workgroup for Instant and Immediate Payments. The workgroup’s primary objective is to develop guidelines, best practices, and other considerations for supporting faster payments operationally. The FPC Board of Directors recently approved the Operational Considerations for Instant Payments Receive Side Primer to which BHMI contributed. The FPC team will now prepare this document for publication, with the intended release to the broader industry scheduled for the week of October 9th.

About BHMI

BHMI is a leading provider of software solutions to modernize back office payments operations. When we say back office, we are referring to the processing that occurs after a payment has been authorized. The authorization of a transaction is only a very small part of the payment lifecycle. There is so much that occurs after authorization. This includes functions such as settlement, reconciliation, and funds movement. It also includes the assessment of transaction-based fees and the handling of any transactions that are disputed. The back office is also where companies view transaction data and financial positions, perform transaction research, create reports and so much more.

BHMI is best known as the creator of the Concourse Financial Software Suite® – an innovative collection of modular back office software solutions that reduce the cost and complexity of back office payments processing. Concourse is ideal for organizations with complex, high-volume, multi-rail payments operations. Concourse is a modern, resilient, omnichannel payment solution that can be integrated via API's within most payment ecosystems to perform back office processing on any type of digital payment, anywhere in the world, 24 x 7 x 365.

Contact BHMI to learn how your organization can benefit from Concourse.

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