Unifying card programmes: The cost-reduction imperative

• What are financial institutions’ biggest operational pressures today?
  
  
• How can the unification of card programmes solve these?
  
  
• What is the best approach to customising payments offerings?
  
  
• What are the key features of a best-in-class solution, in terms of consolidatory, technological and security benefits?

Faced with soaring operational costs, it is high time for financial institutions to being unifying their card programmes. The consolidation of systems is the only real long-term vision for banks looking to seize the reins of their runaway expenses.

The manner of modification is just as important. While the piecemeal customisation of legacy mainframe platforms may cost less in the short term, each future release drives up the total cost of ownership (TCO) – since extending services such as debit, credit, pre-paid, Buy-Now-Pay-Later, and personal loans means bolting to the core new, disparate systems. Not only does this necessitate continual waves of testing, training, and compliance updates for each product, it forces banks to manage a complex web of software vendors.

The approach of the forward-thinking bank is therefore to ensure all tweaks are brought under a single card system. As is the case with any worthwhile solution, institutions can expect a clutch of positive knock-on effects from card unification – including as the reduction and bracing of the attack surface targeted by fraudsters.

Sign up for this Finextra webinar, hosted in association with FIS, to join our panel of industry experts who will analyse the biggest costs facing banks today, their operational roots, and how the unification of programmes is the future.