The customer is always right

It’s a fact that when it comes to banking and payments, customers have high expectations of reliability, efficiency and dependability. This has not changed over the decades.

What makes it more challenging for banks today is the speed at which transactions occur, along with the sheer growth of the number and complexity of payments. More and more payments are being executed in real time as more customers use online services and mobile banking, moving away from ACH to immediate payments.

Real time processing for customers means real time everything—real time status information, real time settlement, real time balance positions, real time response to questions, real time resolution to problems – especially in the light of regulations concerning liquidity such as Basel III that demand a intra-day view of liquidity.

Adding in the development of more payment destinations, more settlement paths and more originating channels increases the complexity of the transactions – and the information that accompanies them.

However, banks can differentiate themselves in the amount and timeliness of the information around the payment itself, and it is this that will help one or two banks stand out from the crowd in the future. The question is – which banks will it be?