Payments Orchestration in the Era of Money Mobility
Though it usually receives little attention, payments orchestration is a long-standing and vital concept in payments. It involves the management and coordination of all the disparate parts of a payment from start to finish across external vendors, internal systems and financial institutions.
Traditionally, this term refers to merchant acquisition or an inbound consumer payment and covers payment authorization, transaction routing and settlement. But the rise of Money Mobility and an ever-evolving digital fraud landscape has dramatically changed the dynamics of payments orchestration.
The expectation that money can flow seamlessly into and out of any account a consumer chooses, instantly and safely, requires payment orchestrators to now manage both inbound and outbound money transfers. This is a level of orchestration that few third-party providers can reach and that fewer still have actually achieved successfully and at scale.
Payments Orchestration 101
Payments orchestration is a term of art influenced by many factors and perspectives. More than a simple payments process, its function varies widely depending on the company, its industry and the complexity of its payment operations.
At its core, a payment relies on a processor to deliver funds to an account number. As the originator, a company issues a directive to “pay this account” and the processor obliges.
But it would be wrong to assume an organization can simply engage a processor like Stripe and begin issuing payments. The value of a payments orchestration layer will quickly become apparent once chargebacks arrive and losses mount.
This is because a processor does not handle all the many other ancillary, yet vital operations that go into making a payment. They do not confirm if the account number is valid and active, that the account is owned by the intended party, that it has been screened for sanctions nor do they tokenize the account for future payments.
These are functions normally performed by separate vendors or partners and that are managed by the payments orchestrator. In many cases, companies serve as their own payments orchestrator, but rising complexity and the demands of money mobility are making this ever more challenging.
Ingo Money is the only external payments orchestrator handling both inbound and outbound money flows today.
Payments Orchestration for Money Mobility
As the pioneer in push payments and the leader in money mobility solutions, Ingo is practiced at the art of payments orchestration. Through a single API integration, we can handle every component of a payment on a client’s behalf and configure these services to meet a client’s business and digital workflow processes and desired customer experience.
From the moment a company supplies payment instructions, we go to work. The Ingo system first verifies the account is valid, in good standing and passes account verification screenings.
We then report back on this status and – if valid – tokenize the account so companies can send future payments without having to store personally identifiable customer account information, relieving them of PCI-level security burdens.
Once the sender issues an actual payment process request using the token information and transaction amount, Ingo initiates all the required regulatory screening. These include all relevant anti-money laundering (AML), Know Your Customer (KYC) and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) requirements to ensure recipients are not subject to sanctions or other concerns.
If the recipient account clears all the checks, Ingo then issues the payment. If there is a hit on the screening, the platform escalates the concern to the Ingo Risk Center for further review.
Ingo Money also offers clients a unique guarantee against losses. Our add-on transaction risk underwriting and transaction guarantee services allow clients to breathe easy knowing they will enjoy exceptionally high approval rates without being on the hook for fraudulent payments or other risk-related issues.
Saving Time and Money with Ingo
Ingo Money’s end-to-end payments orchestration capability means clients can “fire and forget it” because we handle every facet of a payment in an in-line flow. Our platform can plug into external vendors and even be customized to allow certain functions to be handled in-house or by another trusted partner if preferred.
Without Ingo, clients would have to either integrate separately to different vendors for account verification, sanctions screening, tokenization, processing and more, or integrate to a processor that might offer some of these third-party services. In both cases, a client would still need to build its own payments orchestration system and processes. This DIY approach means more vendors and agreements, more technical integration, more complex technical development, and, ultimately, more incremental expense.
With Ingo, clients get the advantage of a simplified integration with third-party services configured and managed synchronously by Ingo behind a reduced API call set, significantly reducing development complexity. Our clients also benefit from the halo effect of our cumulative volume and pricing, as well as the redundancy necessary to protect against downtime due to third-party vendor technical issues and outages.
Ultimately, the need for payments orchestration is taking on greater urgency and complexity in the era of Money Mobility. Ingo Money stands alone as a trusted, proven orchestration partner that can deliver on the promises of seamlessness and security at scale, providing companies with time and cost savings and – perhaps more importantly – peace of mind.