How a modern payment infrastructure can impact your business

The subject of payment infrastructure modernization is relevant to every player in the financial service ecosystem. From banks to payment service providers, merchants, and eventually consumers, payment systems affect everyone who’s ever made or accepted cashless payments.

And this is because payment infrastructure is at the core of every payment. No electronic financial transaction would be possible without a payment infrastructure.

The world of digital payments is quickly evolving, and so are the systems this world is built on. While many companies still use legacy payment systems, other businesses are thinking ahead and integrating modern payment infrastructures. And this can have a significant impact on their business.

How can payment infrastructure impact a business? What are the main differences between legacy payment systems and modern infrastructure? What is the future of payment systems? Read on to learn all about payment infrastructure modernization.

What is a payment infrastructure?

Payment infrastructure is a network of systems and technologies that enable electronic payment processing. This network allows everyone in the ecosystem to exchange payments from financial institutions to individuals.

Payment infrastructure can define how open, efficient, and secure payment systems are, as well as impact overall business growth and success. It can also cover payment compliance, flexibility, security, and other factors. While a consumer's payment experience highly depends on the company’s payment infrastructure, it can also have a much broader impact on the company.

Modern systems can offer real-time payment processing and data-rich messaging, making connecting and exchanging information much easier and more convenient. Meanwhile, legacy systems may struggle to process payments in real time.

How does a payment infrastructure work?

As an ecosystem, in general, a payment infrastructure includes various participants. These include payment service providers, banks, the country's central bank, processing centers, and technical infrastructure providers that cover communication tools for payments.

All these parties interact with each other based on certain agreements and rules clearly defined by legislative frameworks. This coordinated communication between multiple parties enables convenient and quick monetary transactions.

Simply put, a payment infrastructure makes it possible for consumers to pay for goods or services online and in-store. It enables the communication between all the participants that are needed for a transaction to travel from a consumer’s bank account into the merchant’s account.

Legacy payment systems vs. a modern payment infrastructure

Legacy payment systems were developed decades ago when the landscape of payments was completely different from what it is now. For a long time, they served their purpose. But in the current environment, these systems cannot fully serve the needs of modern businesses and their customers.

Here are the main features of legacy systems which make them no longer relevant:

• High maintenance costs due to outdated systems
• Monolithic payment architecture makes it difficult to perform quick changes
• System adaptation for new products/services is slow and complicated
• Dependence on various third-party services
• Security issues
• No room for innovations and additional features
• Little customization options to meet individual business goals

Banks and financial institutions built these systems when the industry lacked unified regulations, transparency, and standardization.

New regulations emerged with a focus on consumer needs and accelerated the development of innovations in the payment industry. For example, open banking has enabled financial data sharing with authorized parties via secure APIs.

As a result, fintech companies started developing innovative solutions that greatly expanded the offerings of traditional financial services. Expanding services and new financial solutions called for payment infrastructure modernization.

What are the benefits of payment infrastructure modernization?

The rise of electronic payment transactions, the widespread development of instant payment systems, and constant innovations in the industry are calling for payment infrastructure modernization.

Modern systems have multiple advantages, and here are some of the main ones:

Flexibility

The traditional legacy monolithic payment architecture lacks the flexibility that modern payment infrastructures can offer.

Modern solutions allow integrating additional functionalities much easier. This means that updating one part of the modern system wouldn’t affect the performance of other system parts, which is often the case with outdated solutions.

Modern infrastructure can also be compatible with various other solutions, so you don’t have to worry about replacing existing equipment. This is due to the fact that modern systems are being developed in a much more unified regulatory environment than legacy systems.

Reduced payment processing costs

Modern infrastructure means that integrating various payment methods becomes much easier. The payment process also becomes much more concise since payment infrastructure providers, such as kevin., can offer payment solutions without any additional intermediaries.

For example, kevin.’s direct bank account payments eliminate card networks from the payment process and significantly shorten the payment flow, which means you get your money quicker. Cutting out payment cards also increases security and completely eliminates card payment fraud risk.

Unibrokker, one of Latvia’s top insurance service providers, has reduced their payment processing costs by 90% after implementing kevin. payment solution.

Better customer experience

Consumers are at the core of payment system modernization. Quicker, safer, and more convenient payments are the ultimate goal of modern payment solutions. After all, if your customers don’t find their preferred payment methods that are fast and easy, they’re likely to go to a competitor.

Thanks to modern payment infrastructures such as kevin., consumers can pay with a single click. This feature has a number of benefits. For example, the payment comes through faster, increasing your company’s cash flow.

Modern payment infrastructure’s impact on businesses

Integrating a modern payment infrastructure can have a significant business impact in different areas:

Growth

Modern payment infrastructure enables businesses to scale quickly. While legacy systems may be incompatible with other innovative systems, modern solutions are more flexible.

Integrating new payment technologies into modern systems is much easier and quicker, which means your company can expand to new markets quickly.

Enhanced security and resilience

Partnering with a reliable payment infrastructure provider means reducing the number of third-party services involved in business payment processing. Eliminating unnecessary intermediaries not only reduces transaction costs but also enhances security.

The right partner can take care of compliance and adapt to ever-changing financial environments. For example, if the payment infrastructure provider is compliant with relevant security standards, your business won’t need to take separate action to become compliant.

Increased cash flow

Our partners confirm that consumers appreciate businesses that offer convenient and frictionless checkouts and therefore buy more or pay for the services quicker. This applies to companies across various industries that modernized their payment infrastructure.

For example, offering a convenient checkout reduces abandoned carts for e-commerce merchants. Meanwhile, utility companies can see their customers pay their service bills much quicker.

Increased cash flow is just one of the many advantages of modern payment infrastructure.

The future of payment systems

With the rise of digital transactions and the changing payment landscape, payment infrastructure modernization is inevitable. All participants in the financial ecosystem will eventually shift from legacy systems to modern solutions.

Those who do it sooner will be able to enjoy the benefits and grow their consumer base. Meanwhile, companies that hesitate to migrate risk losing their clients and overpaying for systems that no longer serve them.

kevin. - a partner for a modern payment infrastructure

Partnering with kevin. allows companies to enjoy all the benefits of a resilient and modern payment infrastructure. We provide a payment infrastructure that you can use to build and shape your business in any way that suits your company’s needs best.

Our infrastructure provides the grounds for customer-centric, secure, flexible, and convenient payments. It allows your business to grow and thrive without worrying about the pains that legacy payment systems incur.