For the first time, banks and other financial institutions will be able to select and customise payments solutions in an 'app store' environment before deploying them to their customers. Ixaris' app store approach promises to empower business decision makers when it comes to product development by liberating them from the perennial constraints of limited IT resource at financial institutions.

Banks and other financial institutions notoriously find it difficult to innovate with IT resources tied up in compliance mandates and 'keep the lights on' projects. Through open payments platform Ixaris Payments Server, non-technical staff at banks can configure or even combine the functionality of a wide range of payment services into business payment solutions without the need for IT expertise. This enables banks to develop new revenue streams by quickly bringing to market new payments programmes.

Ixaris Payments Server comes with a collection of market-tested, PCI-compliant payment applications for consumers and businesses - both corporate and SME - which meet common payments needs. Solutions include corporate and SME purchasing, travel and expenses, incentives and rewards, consumer e-commerce, gifting, remittance, disbursement and payroll.

These applications are open and highly customisable. Ixaris provides easy-to-use tools to modify, enhance or even create new user interfaces, publish APIs to enable corporate clients to integrate with their back-office systems, as well as create new payment solutions by assembling and configuring a range of payment functions.

Banks can access Ixaris Payments Server in the cloud, either as a complete Application Platform as a Service (aPaaS) requiring no integration effort with their IT, or integrated with their existing legacy payment processing systems. Alternatively, they can install it in their own data centres. These options allows banks to quickly and with minimal capital outlay try outout the 'app store' while having the possibility of bringing the whole solution in-house at a later point.

Alex Mifsud, CEO and founder of Ixaris, comments: "Ixaris Payments Server enables non-technical staff at banks and financial institutions to rapidly set up and deploy solutions to meet a wide variety of payments needs. We have market-tested these solutions with demanding corporate and consumer clients of our own in various sectors and have shown how to deliver profit from them."

"The development of payments products is now open to the commercial and business divisions at banks. Banks can now bring to market compelling and innovative payments programmes at a fraction of the cost and time it would take with traditional methods. We believe Ixaris Payments Server heralds a transformation in how banks approach the product development lifecycle for payments. We believe the future of payments is open and we are providing a platform to help make it happen", adds Mifsud.