Analytics, ERP Key to Managing Bank Master Data, Simplifying X-Border Transactions

Global payments are not as simple as we’d like them, or need them, to be.

Leslie Bailey, vice president of market planning at LexisNexis, told PYMNTS that global commerce has brought to the surface the challenges of global payments for those trying to facilitate them. Best practices in payments processes can help, and the right, robust enterprise resource planning (ERP) system can eliminate headaches and help sustain long-term business growth.

“Given the speed of which business moves these days, particularly in the environment with so much going digital and with everyone working remotely, there’s the desire for immediate gratification,” she told PYMNTS.

But as Bailey noted, particularly in the world of cross-border payments, financial institutions (FIs) must grapple with quickly changing regulations, ever-evolving client issues and rapidly-changing tax policies.

It’s no easy task to move at scale, with speed, across the globe. Consider this: In a single market, in the U.S. alone, there are thousands of banking rules and regulations at the state and federal levels — and things just get more complex from there.

Watching for Sanctions

On a global stage, she said, a daunting task confronts FIs in any country: They have to comply with the sanctions levied by their respective governing authorities.

“Vendors and suppliers alike are doing business with companies around the world virtually anywhere,” said Bailey, “and you don’t want to risk doing business with someone you shouldn’t.”

ERP systems and providers, she said, have to move quickly to meet those challenges and demands — skating, as it were, to where the puck is headed. To give one example, when a consumer sends a mobile payment, the provider has to move in near-real time to check for fraud and ensure that all the right payments-related data is in place.

Bailey added that fortunately, ERP and other operations tied to making sure that payments are streamlined and speedy are increasingly moving to the cloud, rather than expensive and time consuming on-premises installations.

Managing and collecting bank master data is critical and complicated, too, she said. Key banking data such as country codes, controls and other essential details are optimally maintained through systems integrated with an ERP system where, as Bailey noted, “everyone has access to a ‘central truth.’”

Vendor master level data (and payment instructions between buyers and suppliers) also has to be current and accurate, as it’s a key component in managing risk and improving the payments experience — especially as businesses move away from the paper check.

“Think about the speed at which payments move, think about how often any number of people are online at any given time making payments,” she said.

Manual reviews of red flags or data issues slow things down and leave room for human error. Duplicate data can ultimately throw things off, raising false alarms and triggering reviews. Having robust ERP systems in place, with the dynamic ability to edit data, can address those bottlenecks.

Automating reviews and analytics removes those obstacles, allowing payments to be routed as efficiently as possible.

As Bailey told PYMNTS, “Advanced analytics is going to be key and machine learning is a necessity.”