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Note from Dr. Jack Baldwin, CEO
Welcome to this latest issue of PaymentsNOW. Payments are changing faster than ever, and that means the back office has to keep up.
In this issue, we’re sharing some great insights from our team and industry experts on how to tackle these challenges — from moving beyond outdated batch systems to choosing the right strategy for modernization and making real-time processing a reality.
You’ll also find updates on new regulations and our latest software enhancements to the Concourse Financial Software Suite. Thanks for reading, and I hope you find this information helpful as you navigate the future of payments!
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Article: The Shift Toward Unified Payment Processing
This recent article in The Green Sheet by Cheryl Fitzgarrald of BHMI outlines the growing need for payment processors to bridge the gap between legacy batch systems and emerging real-time payments.
With instant payment volumes projected to grow by over 160% by 2028, Cheryl makes a compelling case for adopting unified platforms that support both ISO 8583 and ISO 20022, continuous data processing, and flexible rules-based architectures.
Her insights highlight the path forward for payment processing companies seeking to modernize their payment back-office operations to support both traditional and emerging payment methods.
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Article: Modernizing the Payments Back-Office: Why "Buy" Deserves a Second Look
In this PaymentsNEXT article, Kate Knudsen of BHMI breaks down the pros and cons of the three most common modernization paths for the payments back office: Build, Buy, and Outsource.
While many companies lean toward building in-house or outsourcing, Kate makes a compelling case for giving the often-overlooked "Buy" option another look. Modern commercial platforms today are not the rigid, one-size-fits-all solutions of the past. They are modular, API-driven, rules-based, and designed for incremental adoption. They also provide a lower-risk path to agility, compliance, and long-term growth.
This article features great insights from industry experts like Peter Tapling (PTAP Advisory) and Anthony Serio (Serio Payments Consulting). They offer valuable perspectives on risk, scalability, and the realities of build versus buy.
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Article: Revolutionizing Payment Operations with Real-Time Reconciliation
As payment volumes and the adoption of instant payments grow, the traditional batch-based reconciliation processes are no longer enough. In this latest article for BAI Banking Strategies by BHMI's CTO, Michael Meeks explores how real-time, transaction-level reconciliation is essential for operational efficiency, compliance, and customer trust. He also unpacks how high-profile events—like the Synapse Financial Technologies collapse—underscore the critical nature of timely and accurate reconciliation.
Industry experts also weigh in. Eric Grover, Principal of Intrepid Ventures, shares how automated reconciliation tools are saving millions and freeing teams to focus on strategy. Kimberly Teague-Tibbetts, from Endava, emphasizes the role of real-time accuracy in building trust and improving customer experience.
Read the full article to see why real-time reconciliation isn’t just a technical upgrade, it’s a strategic imperative.
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White Paper: Transform the Payments Back Office from a Cost Center to a Profit Center
Recent technology and software advances are providing more options for payments back-office modernization. In fact, companies are finding ways to transform their back office from a cost center to a profit center. Learn more in this recent thought leadership paper from BHMI.
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Press Release: BHMI Enhances the Concourse Financial Software Suite to Support the Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act (IFPA)
The IFPA, enacted in June 2024 and set to take effect in July of 2026, prohibits payment card networks, issuers, acquirer banks, and processors from assessing or receiving interchange fees on portions of electronic payment transactions that represent state or local taxes and gratuities.
Under the new law, merchants must communicate tax and gratuity amounts either at the time of authorization or settlement, or through a post-transaction rebate process, which allows up to 180 days for submission of the relevant data.
In support of the IFPA, Concourse’s configurable rules engine identifies the applicable portions of a transaction so that Concourse clients can configure their fee and settlement rules to incorporate the new law’s requirements to exclude the application of interchange fees when not allowed.
NOTE: Since this press release was published on May 20, 2025, the Illinois legislature passed an amendment to extend the effective date of the IFPA from June 1, 2025 to July of 2026.
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Webinar On-Demand: Maximizing Pricing & Fee Structures with Concourse – Fees & Commissions
The payments industry has grown tremendously over the past seventy years. As a result, transaction volumes and the number of participants in each transaction have grown significantly.
Since payment processing companies are currently facing rising costs, competition, and complexity, they must find new ways to optimize revenues.
This presentation discusses how companies are making this happen with flexible fee and commission structures using Concourse – Fees & Commissions.
It explains how companies are supporting any business opportunity, client relationship, or product offering that their sales and marketing teams bring to the table because they are able to configure any type of fee or commission structure in a matter of hours without the time and cost of software development.
If you are a payments processing company that wants to be proactive, creative, and gain a competitive advantage, we invite you to watch this presentation today.
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Videos: Pioneers in Payments
Have you watched BHMI's Pioneers in Payments video podcast series where payments experts share valuable industry insights?
Below are links to interviews conducted during the last three months:
We also invite you to watch previous episodes and register to be a guest on an upcoming episode.
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Concourse Spotlight: Configurable Rules Engine
The Concourse Financial Software Suite includes features that make it one of the industry’s most powerful and flexible payments back-office solutions. Concourse's configurable rules engine is one of these features because it offers companies the speed, flexibility, and agility to keep pace with an ever-evolving payments landscape.
We invite you to learn about this flexible framework that is enabling companies to tailor business rules to accommodate diverse payment processing workflows, adjust for regulatory requirements, and respond promptly to changing market conditions without the time and cost of software code changes.
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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 reconciliation and settlement. 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 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, payment solution that can be integrated within most payment ecosystems to perform back-office processing on any type of electronic payment, anywhere in the world, 24x7x365.
Contact BHMI to learn how your organization can benefit from Concourse.
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