SmartStream, a provider of financial transaction lifecycle management (TLM) solutions, today announces a major upgrade to its Advanced Payment Control (APC) solution.
This update further simplifies and streamlines payment inquiries by accommodating any number of different payment rails to improve resolution times and reduce costs in the age of instant payments.
Banks face major challenges in maintaining connections with multiple payment systems and supporting various forms of messaging, each system has its own rules. Often, banks’ technical infrastructures struggle to effectively manage these complexities, leading to inefficient deals, failed inquiries and customer dissatisfaction.
SmartStream’s enhanced APC solution addresses these issues by connecting financial firms to any payment rail globally, providing a single, comprehensive solution to monitor, track and investigate transactions across the payment corridor.
Christophe Vastesaeger, Senior Solutions Architect, SmartStream, states:
“With volume increasing and over 70% of cross-border payment exceptions taking more than five days to resolve, it was essential for SmartStream to develop a robust solution for its customers to solve some of the biggest barriers to financial companies. We are now able to handle exceptions as they arise. This functionality not only provides financial institutions with an accurate view of payments for better financing decisions, but also limits risk exposure.
In addition, the management of railway payment lines in different geographical areas is essential for the industry. We are constantly working with our customers to ensure they meet local standards and regulatory requirements.”
This support for instant payments through advanced automation of agreements and investigations across multiple payment tracks represents a major advance in payment exception management. The fragmented nature of payment systems and corridors introduces different forms of data and messages, making exception management highly complex, labor intensive and difficult to automate.
SmartStream’s APC offers standardized ways of working through pre-configured workflows, ensuring consistency and efficiency across different payment rails, making it easier to manage exceptions and maintain operational excellence.
The solution includes sophisticated analytics that provide insight into the root causes of failed or investigated payments. This enables financial institutions to address issues at source and understand the effort required for different types of exceptions, payment systems or correspondent banks – improving overall payment processing efficiency.