As financial complexity increases, so do the numbers of bank accounts and payment methods businesses are grappling with. In the fourth module of the series, ONPEX explores how businesses can simplify and streamline their payments operations.
In the old days, it was not uncommon for an everyday person to hold a single bank account throughout their entire life. Today, the possibilities and the offerings have changed. People tend to have savings accounts, retirement funds and international transactions spread out between different banks. If a single person has a financial complexity equivalent to four or five bank accounts, just imagine what happens in the management of business finances.
Most businesses today operate with a multitude of bank accounts. These are set up to accommodate cash flows spanning several countries, if not continents, where particular legal and financial systems can be as diverse as night and day. They also have to control payments in varying denominations from and to international customers and suppliers, which leads to complex exchange rate issues.
Ade’s international expansion
Take, for instance, Ade, who has just set up an online shop that sells all across Eastern Africa. With innovative inventions such as M-Pesa, it is much easier for him to receive payments within the region. Now he wants to expand into the promising markets of Europe and Asia. If he wants to become a market leader in all those regions, however, he has to be able to accept and pay out in various currencies and payment methods. If his only option is to set up a bank account in every country he expands into, this will take more time than Ade has.
He also has to factor in his business cash streams, which have a huge number of moving parts, such as taxes and billing models. He has to be able to handle deposits and reserves and he has to keep his bank balance in the black. Managing these accounting and banking procedures could prove to be a significant headache.
Modern flow of transactions
In modern payments, this process is made even more complicated by the fact that most transactions have to be managed on two levels, namely technology and actual cash transfer. Businesses have to accommodate various payment methods in different countries. Ideally, Ade — and anyone in a similar position — should be able to find one solution that simplifies payments across the globe.
Whatever technology Ade chooses, it has to be implemented with a minimum of fuss. It has to adapt to his needs and methods and has to do so without costing him valuable business time. Adopting and implementing new technology can be fraught with difficulties; Ade doesn’t need this.
Payment transaction information is processed through gateways (as explained in article 2 of this series). Not all of these processes do necessarily correspond to “real” banking transactions: It is not unusual that funds are transferred in batches and the merchant has to figure out the related technical payment transactions. The technical settlement, fee and chargeback procedures differ widely between payment methods. This makes the reconciliation with the actual banking operations even harder. In order to keep pace with competitors, customer requirements, and government demands, most businesses incur continuous high costs for a process that is not even very efficient.
One solution for all processes
In this situation, an ideal solution has to synchronise all “real” banking transactions and show them in an easy-to-use overview. Such a tool will also enable the automation of all management tasks. This simplifies all administrative and financial tasks of any global company, like Ade’s.
Unifying all bank accounts on a customisable user interface also gives an overview of a company’s entire cash flow. In addition to that, processes can be defined, automated and tracked through all payment stages. To achieve this, the payment technology has to be connected to the banking and cash-management world. This necessitates its compatibility with SWIFT, SEPA, ISO 20022, EBICs, blockchain, and other existing or upcoming banking or trading standards and protocols.
ONPEX identified the need for this kind of streamlined funds management as one of the most pressing for both their partners and customers. On top of that, their application enables businesses to reconcile payment technology and bank accounts. With this, customers can manage international cash flows — for example, collections and settlements — efficiently from their central ONPEX account.
“We wanted to make all banking services easily accessible via API,” says ONPEX Founder and CEO Christoph Tutsch. “Synchronising their bank accounts with the ONPEX payment account enables users to see all their assets at a glance. It also simplifies cash management processes, as they can all be mapped into and coordinated from a single interface.”
Find out more about modern payment technology next week.
About ONPEX’ Payment Technology
ONPEX wants to make all payments truly accessible globally. To achieve this, the company will bring together all technical steps of payment processing, banking and regulatory requirements. The technological foundation of ONPEX’ solution is a cloud-based Platform as a Service (PaaS) that combines local and cross-border card processing, as well as international alternative payment methods, on one omni-channel platform.
The software consists of independent micro-services. With just the click of a mouse these can become modular-scaled to provide higher performance levels. In turn, the modules and functions can be combined to new solutions to meet any requirement in the payments industry.
About ONPEX
ONPEX is an award-winning, global, white-label cloud payment solution combining local and cross-border card processing and international alternative payment methods on one omni-channel Platform as a Service (PaaS). ONPEX’ solutions accelerate international expansion and the development of banks, PSPs, ISOs and developers. They offer the flexibility all of them need to grow globally in the payment business. ONPEX has connectivity to hundreds of acquirers, alternative payment methods and payment related solutions internationally and operates entities in Europe, North America and Asia. For more information about ONPEX, please visit www.onpex.com.