Cloud hosting

Payments technology has advanced quickly in the past decade because newcomers in the industry have operated fully, or at least partially, in the cloud.

The number and type of channels for customer support are exploding – with Facebook Messenger, Apple Business Chat, and WhatsApp Business among the most recent additions. And channels are evolving, says Genpact's Jason Osborne.

As the pandemic speeds digital adoption at financial institutions, the technology giants are pitching products that scan in data from mortgage documents and provide security and compliance controls used by in-house tech developers.

Even before the pandemic, retailers were pushing terminal makers to adjust to new trends on the fly. Technology cycles have become even shorter now — if there even are development cycles anymore.

Microsoft has boosted its role in the digital payments migration through a series of ventures, using its cloud computing platform to support merchant upgrades and real-time processing.

Speed isn't enough. There also has to be value and new products, says Icon Solutions' Toine Van Beusekom.

The online lender has deployed new software designed to spot security risks early, especially the kind of cloud-data issues that led to the Capital One-Amazon breach.

A managed services approach can help payment firms and fintechs pick the best open source projects, says Asset Control's Mark Hermeling.

Bankers cannot say that real-time doesn’t matter or that the status quo is fine, according to Neocova's Sultan Meghji and Kelsey Weaver.

Payment firms and fintechs can use open source and the cloud for a potent innovation combo, says Asset Control's Mark Hermeling.

Financial institutions and payment companies are embracing the cloud, but they hoped for better results, Maria Allen of Unisys contends.

Inertia or resistance to change have kept small businesses from making the move to more modern systems, says Clover's Mark Schulze.

Newcomers Nymbus, Neocova, Finxact and Technisys and older competitors like Temenos, Infosys and Oracle are winning over community and regional banks by offering what some bankers describe as more flexible technology at fairer prices.

Liability for missteps by vendors, jurisdictional headaches tied to locations of servers and legacy technology are other potential impediments.

In a move to aid faster expansion and provide more security and regulatory compliance tools, Sweden's Klarna Bank is strengthening its longtime relationship with Amazon Web Services by making it the preferred cloud provider.

In a move to aid faster expansion and provide more security and regulatory compliance tools, Klarna Bank in Sweden is strengthening its longtime relationship with Amazon Web Services by making it the bank's preferred cloud provider.

In a move that accelerates Western Union's plan for its money transfers to be part of advancing digital technology, the cross-border payment provider has entered an agreement with Amazon Web Services for long-term cloud services.