Customers trust your bank but who does your bank trust?

Next week, I changed banks. While this may seem like an extreme reaction to some, as someone who has worked in the payments business for more than 20 years, I can tell you that it’s highly likely that this instance will recur.

That’s because such an outage in services is likely not a failure of the bank’s systems but that of the partners they choose to outsource all or parts of their payment processing activities to, and therefore not a problem the bank can immediately fix internally.

However, if I’m sending my kids out to eat and there is a chance they can’t buy food, or if they are away at university in a different country and need to get around, it’s simply not acceptable to me that they could be stranded because their bank card or access to an ATM doesn’t work.

Don’t lose customers to downtime

Not all shoppers may be aware that banks often do not process card transactions; many rely on specialist payment processors to manage their end-to-end processing needs.

These processors possess the sophisticated expertise required to manage large frequencies and volumes of payments for the bank, all while keeping them available and secure.

While the process of a debit or credit card transaction may appear simple when completed in a matter of seconds, the payment processing company handles a number of the steps behind the scenes.

From authenticating to settling a transaction, payment processors work as a mediator between customers, merchants and financial institutions – and a bank’s choice of payment processing provider can make the difference between seamless transactions and poor business reputation.

In addition to greatly inconveniencing customers, outage incidents across the globe also commonly wreak havoc on social media reputations for banks as customers go online to vent their frustrations at being left standing at supermarket counters with trolleys full of shopping unable to pay for groceries, or buy food for Christmas, or refuel their cars.

Last year, fuming customers of one of Australia’s largest banks tweeted that the bank’s recurring outages was “reason enough to move banks”.

Indian multinational bank ICICI lists not being able to withdraw money whenever needed as among the three most popular reasons for why customers switch banks.

Meanwhile, in the UK, banks have begun publishing the number of operational and security incidents that have occurred, under a voluntary scheme overseen by the financial regulator. According to the data, major banks typically suffer well over one outage a month.

Time is money

The banking business relies on building customer loyalty and trust – for which they need to provide availability and safety. The frequency of downtime across the financial services sector not only erodes this trust but also raises serious security concerns.

The billions of dollars banks invest each year to offer more innovative products and services are of no consequence if they cannot mitigate downtime and risk.

No one is infallible of course but the frequency of outages and how quick order is restored without compromising security is a sure tell of who has made the right decision when choosing their processor.

With stakes so high, banks need to better evaluate their choice of payment processor and look for the provider with the most resilient infrastructure that can deliver secure, always on, anytime, anywhere availability.

Which is why, Network International has invested millions of dollars on data centres, cloud infrastructure, disaster recovery, bandwidth and telecommunications.

Our data centres span across the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, South Africa, Ghana and Nigeria, servicing more than 150,000 merchant outlets and 200 financial institutions in more than 50 countries.

For processors, our business is largely viewed as a security business. We constantly scan the horizon for potential threats and continue to make investments in new-age security solutions. We have invested in five different layers of fraud monitoring and security.

Data Security is ingrained in our culture and permeates to the hundreds of specialists involved in day-to-day compliance and fraud monitoring operations for banks. Investing in each new solution can cost a bank millions of dollars, but as a processor it is spending that is mutualized across multiple clients, delivering the same benefit at a fraction of the cost.

So as a bank, ultimately, the only question to ask when choosing a processor is: Can we afford downtime?

Because while customers might trust your bank, who does your bank trust?

Hany Fekry, Group Managing Director – Processing Business, Network International.