With advancing computing power and the availability of vast datasets, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made remarkable progress over the past decade. Applications based on transformers, a type of neural network architecture optimised…

What is Verification of Payee? Verification of Payee (VoP) is a requirement for financial institutions in SEPA countries introduced by the EU’s Instant Payment Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2024/886) to tackle rising fraud….

On Wednesday 5th February, Icon is hosting its annual payments conference in New York to explore the growth of instant payment adoption in North America. We will hear from U.S banks on…

Matthias Lossek, one of Icon’s solutions architects reflects on the payments transformation journey with IPF, and the wisdom of embracing change. When I started my career in the financial services industry, on…

Verification of Payee (VoP) is an additional mandatory layer of payments protection to avoid payments in error and to prevent fraud such as an Authorised Push Payment (APP). With the increased adoption…

While using the IPF tool kit to implement a payments solution for a tier 1 international banking group with a presence across the globe we were faced with the challenge of designing…

For banks, payments modernisation is no longer a nice-to-have that can be kept on the backburner – it is imperative to staying in business. The ability to adapt to changes in how…

Sibos 2024 opened its doors in Beijing this year, welcoming over 9,000 attendees from across the globe to explore the key trends and technologies shaping the future of financial services. Having sat…

This is the first in a series of blogs exploring the evolving landscape of digital currencies, their impact on the financial sector, and the implications for banks and other financial institutions. What…

The European Payments Initiative (EPI) was launched by 16 leading European banks and financial institutions with the goal of streamlining payments across Europe. EPI aims to create a unified payment system leveraging…

HM Treasury published its National Payments Vision (NPV) report on 14 November 2024, immediately after the Chancellor gave this year’s Mansion House Speech. The National Payments Vision work was kicked off exactly…

Our client’s ageing technology estate was constraining its ability to provide a highly resilient, scalable and “always on” payments solution. Change costs were also high, making it difficult to offer new product…

Currently, only 38 participants are directly connected to CHAPS (Clearing House Automated Payment System), with most connecting through indirect agreements. Many prospective participants choose not to pursue direct participation due to strict…

Driving the mainstream growth of Open Banking payments continues to be a key talking point for the UK government, regulators and wider banking industry. With more than 10% of the UK adult…

Last month, Icon brought together payments professionals from across Europe and the US for our 3rd IPF Day. Amid regulatory pressures, increasing competition and evolving business needs, the event served as an…

In 2024, Sibos is opening its doors in Beijing, marking the first time that China’s capital is hosting the event. Taking place 21-24 October, the event will bring together thousands of senior leaders…

In today’s turbulent economy, corporate treasurers are looking for banks that offer payment and treasury services that help them automate tedious AP and AR processes, optimise their liquidity management, reduce risks as…

The G20 roadmap seeks to enhance cross-border payments by tackling challenges around cost, speed, access, and transparency, prompting various industry initiatives. One such initiative is FMI interconnectivity, covered in the blog “Developments…

Our client’s legacy payments platform was not able to support the ISO 20022 data format, and with the impending Cross-Border Payments and Reporting Plus (CBPR+) transition to ISO 20022, they needed a…

In 2020, the G20 launched its Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-Border Payments focussing on goals around speed, transparency, cost and access. Progress on this roadmap is leading to change across the cross-border payments…

As the EU Instant Payments Regulation (IPR) implementation deadlines loom (January 2025 for receiving and October 2025 for sending instant payments), Payment Service Providers (PSPs) are scrambling to get their instant payment…

On 30th July, the Bank of England (BoE) published a new discussion paper outlining its approach to innovation in money and payments. The BoE’s goals are to maintain stability, trust and confidence…

Over recent years, starting with the SEPA scheme, and now with SWIFT and CHAPS, there has been a convergence onto the ISO 20022 standard messaging format. As payment messages in ISO 20022…

From Delays to Innovation: Payments Canada’s Real-Time-Rail (RTR) is the country’s new real-time payment system, enabling account-to-account (A2A) money transfers 24/7 for low-value payments with immediate fund availability and irrevocability. This initiative…

Our client, a Tier 1 UK bank, approached Icon for support with developing a payments and payment card strategy for its Commercial Banking division. Alongside upgrading its payments product strategies, the bank…

As banks look towards their priorities for the coming year, instant payments – particularly the new European Instant Payments Regulation (IPR) – loom large in the minds of many. A poll of…

Instant payments, characterised by their speed and availability, are transforming the financial landscape across the globe. The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region in particular, has emerged as a leader in adopting and innovating in…

Icon recently released IPF 2024.1, which included upgrading all of our components to Java 17 and required Java 17 as a minimum. I was the lead engineer on this piece of work,…

Matt Piper, Head of Pre-Sales at Icon Solutions, explains why flexibility is key when it comes to future-proofing payments but, to understand the steps that must be taken, there are fundamental questions…

Following NACHA’s annual Smart Faster Payments Conference in Miami, Arjeh van Oijen, Head of Product Management for Icon Solutions, explores the key trends shaping the rollout and adoption of real-time payments in…

In the run up to NACHA’s annual Smart Faster Payments Conference in Miami, Arjeh van Oijen, Head of Product Management for Icon Solutions, explains why real-time payments are top of the agenda…

In this blog, Jamie Packham, shares his own experiences deploying generative artificial intelligence (AI) models and explores the potential for AI to help accelerate banks’ migration to the ISO 20022 messaging standard….

It is critical for financial institutions to have an efficient Reconciliation and Investigation (R&I) capability to minimise financial risk by identifying potential payment errors, discrepancies, or irregularities promptly and fixing them early…

A recent independent survey conducted by Celent found that 73% of corporate banks have reported clear revenue benefits from investment in advanced data analytics. Looking ahead, analytics, intelligent automation, and artificial intelligence…

For this bank Icon delivered a target Payments Reference Architecture that met the client’s strategic objectives in terms of resilience, performance, simplification and agility. Icon’s consultants worked within a closely integrated team,…

Back before Christmas, at the same time as the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, a new report by HM Treasury was released – the Future of Payments Review report [1]. This report proposes a set…

In the first blog of our two-part predictions series, we explored the key technological and regulatory trends shaping the payments landscape in 2024. In this second blog, we explore the practical strategies…

2023 put the traditional processing model for account-based payments to the test, as evolving customer demands, intensifying competition from fintechs and shifting regulatory requirements continued to intensify margin pressures. And although 2024…

This case study is about Icon helping a Tier 1 UK bank onboard a Payment Service Provider to expand the number of currencies available for customers to make international payments. We provided…

Last month Icon hosted its final IPF Client Day of 2023. The event brought our clients together in London to explore the latest business trends in the payments market and technologies shaping…

Icon’s expertise was needed when a Tier 1 global bank wanted to introduce an automated self-service customer journey for account closures. We did not only bring our strong architecture capabilities and banking…

Where is your bank on the order management (or pre-processing, or initiation management – whichever you prefer) maturity scale? Are you running your order management on legacy technology as a routing/integration layer…

This case study is about Icon providing a Tier 1 UK bank with expert solution and data architecture capabilities to augment the bank’s own teams across three areas: 1 Payments – Creating…

This case study is about a South Africa-headquartered pan-Africa bank that engaged Icon to determine the bank’s overall capability to deliver their target architecture and make prioritised recommendations for transforming the bank’s…

With Artificial Intelligence (AI) being part of the Zeitgeist and almost every newspaper containing an article on AI, it is reasonable to want to ensure that your business can gain competitive advantage…

This Tier 1 bank was looking for a payments infrastructure that would allow them greater flexibility, speed and innovation. The bank recognised Icon’s proven track record in delivering payments transformation strategies for…

Icon Solutions was founded in 2009 with the desire to be different and simplify banking transformation, using technological expertise and deep experience to fight complexity, promote transparency and put the needs of…

With the Payments IT landscape frequently changing due to regulations, customer needs, and innovations, Financial Institutions (FIs) face challenges of high cost, slow pace of change, operational complexities, and a constant struggle…

By all measures, Sibos 2023 in Toronto was a great success. The event brought together more than 9,000 attendees to discuss this edition’s theme – ‘Collaborative finance in a fragmented world’. Rich…

When this Tier 1 UK bank was facing a strict industry timeline for compliance with ISO20022 messaging standards, Icon helped the bank in a number of ways. One was that we proposed…

Traditional banking has evolved over centuries into what we have today: digitalized products and services that keep the worldwide economic cogs turning. In pursuit of automation and digitalization banks have accrued sizeable…

As banks continue to grapple with the account-based payments processing model amid seemingly interminable margin pressures, the wider commercial implications of software developer capacity limitations are coming into much sharper focus. In…

The traditional payments processing model for account-based payments is under unprecedented strain amid diminishing profit margins, increasing competition from fintechs, and rising costs. These challenges are only set to compound in a…

The rapid convergence of emerging technologies and evolving business models is presenting banks with systemic and operational challenges that are proving profoundly difficult to navigate. Many banks are simply slow in responding…

On 28th June 2023, the European Commission (EC) set out its proposals for ‘modernising payment services and opening financial services data’. The proposals for payments – referred to as ‘PSD3’ –essentially reflect…

With 2023 emerging as the year of choice for banks when it comes to adopting new strategies and technologies to take control of their payments processing capabilities, many now find themselves at…

Just over a year ago, my colleagues and I offered a few predictions about developments and trends in global payments and banking, intended to help financial institutions shape their strategy for the…

Compared to other sectors, the financial industry has been slow to move to the cloud – and with good reason. Regulatory compliance and data privacy issues alone make banks hesitant to give…

The UK is due to upgrade its instant payments platform by mid-2025. The New Payments Architecture (NPA) aims to deliver multiple benefits, including ease of access and enhanced data carrying capabilities. In…

The critical role of women in computer science has arguably been under reported throughout history. From Ada Lovelace – who developed the first computer software – to Margaret Hamilton leading the development…

A sea-change is coming to UK payments. In 2016-17, the UK’s industry-wide Payments Strategy Forum created the New Payments Architecture (NPA) initiative. The initiative seeks to create a state-of-the-art, real-time payments infrastructure…

As we celebrate the eighth International Day for Women and Girls in Science on Saturday 11th February 2023, we know that, as technology specialists, our industry needs to do so much more….

Research indicates that payments transformation isn’t optional—it’s imperative for survival. Yet modernising payments infrastructure can be a costly undertaking. Toine van Beusekom, Strategy Director at Icon Solutions, discusses how Tier 2 and…

This Tier 1 UK bank needed to accelerate change to its payments platforms to be more competitive and deliver value sooner. Read what Icon Solutions did to help the bank transition to…

By all accounts, 2022 was difficult for just about everyone. Continuing economic fallout from the pandemic, geopolitical upheaval, soaring inflation, rising energy costs and a host of other pressures all underscored the…

It’s no secret that the account-to-account payments processing model remains under strain. Despite payment services being ‘mission critical’, many Tier 1 banks continue to see these payment operations as a ‘cost centre’….

Discover how Icon Solutions enabled BNP Paribas to meet their first challenge on the transformation journey through the fast track deployment of IPF for instant payments, and how the impact of our…

Innovation is enabling new types of payments and creating a truly dynamic ecosystem. Yet in order to create a market where new schemes like Account-to-Account payments can compete, regulation must play a…

Icon Solutions was engaged by the bank to assist them with evolving their current payments technology estate. The bank needed to enhance and refine their current payments technology estate in order to…

Icon Solutions was engaged by the bank to propose an enhanced payments proposition for small and medium business customers and to recommend the best technical approach for deployment. The project was co-sponsored…

The bank’s reaction to major changes in the global Payments industry was a new Payments Platform Reference Architecture. Icon Solutions was asked to assess both current and target states, and overall delivery…

Our client is a Tier 1 bank with £750+ billion of assets and 19 million customers across UK and Ireland. Icon had proven experience at the bank from previous engagements, and were…

Our client wanted their in-house payments platform to be used for processing all types of payments and needed to migrate legacy systems to the platform. As part of this programme, they needed…

Our client, a major Swiss bank operating in a number of countries across the globe, selected Icon Solutions to assist them on their payments transformation journey and chose Icon’s payments platform, IPF,…

Our client needed to transform their current payments architecture to ensure scalability and resilience, moving to an event-driven architecture approach. Faced with this significant strategic challenge, the bank needed a trusted third…

Central banks across the globe are exploring and testing Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to provision Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC). In this blog, Arjeh van Oijen, Head of Product Management, and Atul…

Icon Solutions was engaged by the wholesale banking division, co-sponsored by the Global CIO and the Chief Architect for Payments, Liquidity and Cash Management. In commissioning Icon, the Wholesale division’s business and…

Icon Solutions was engaged by the bank to help sharpen and future-proof their technology strategy for payables and receivables products. The work Icon undertook was led by the Wholesale Banking division and…

This time last year, as we wrapped up 2020, we had so many questions and wondered what 2021 would bring. With remote working, lockdowns and travel restrictions, we wondered when life would…

Market forces are driving banking innovations which promise significant downstream benefits for corporates. Banks are facing intense competition, with 8% of corporates already reporting that they are using non-bank specialists for credit…

Request to Pay is an emerging payments service that promises benefits for merchants, banks, acquirers, billers and end consumers. It is becoming an increasingly popular value-added service for payments, with adoption under…

This is fifth part of our series exploring the motivations, architecture and principles driving the development of IPF. Volodymyr Prokopyuk, Senior Payments Architect at Icon Solutions, discusses the benefits of Language Orientated…

Icon recognised for outstanding contribution to charitable causes 12 July 2021 – Icon Solutions, the specialist provider of world-class payment solutions and technology consultancy services for banks and other financial services organisations,…

At a recent payments forum hosted by the Bank of Finland, ECB board member Fabio Panetta signalled commercial banks must make instant payments ‘cheap and easy to use’. While on the operational…

Highlights from our recent webinar where Toine van Beusekom, Strategy Director, Payments at Icon Solutions, Boris Bialek, Global Head of Enterprise Modernization at MongoDB, Kieran Hines, Senior Analyst at Celent and Krystle…

Thomas Halpin, Managing Director, Global Head of Payments Product Management, Global Liquidity and Cash Management, HSBC and Michel Vaja, Head of Payments Consulting, Icon Solutions, speak to FinextraTV about the recent report…

How many people have heard of Kathleen Booth or Margaret Hamilton? Chances are not many. But why not? These two women achieved two significant firsts. Kathleen invented the first assembly language and Margaret,…

08 June 2021 – Research conducted by Celent on behalf of Icon Solutions and MongoDB has revealed the bank data services that corporates will pay for, and the ones they consider table…

17th May 2021 – Icon Solutions is delighted to return as a key sponsor for the sixth year running at this year’s EBAday Virtual Conference, ‘Payments transformation in 2021 – The road…

In the fourth part of our series exploring the motivations, architecture and principles driving the development of IPF, Tom Beadman, Principal Engineer at Icon Solutions, discusses the benefits of using Domain-Specific Languages…

As competition in payments has increased, data has long been touted as the cure-all for incumbent banks. If banks could charge a transaction fee for every time they are told that ‘data…

Remaining competitive in payments is the key to future relevance and profitability for incumbent banks. But with incumbents now competing on multiple fronts against various players, how can they stay ahead of…

13 April 2021 – Icon Solutions, the specialist provider of world-class payment solutions and technology consultancy services for banks and other financial services organisations, has today announced the appointment of Simon Barrows…

For several decades, incumbent banks have held a comfortable leadership position in payments. But the rapid growth of digital payments has signalled opportunity for new market entrants to attack this status quo….

11th March 2021 – Icon Solutions, the leading provider of technology solutions and payments expertise, is delighted to announce its sponsorship of this year’s MoneyLive Summit. The company’s payments experts will be…

In July 2020, a group of sixteen major European banks from five Euro countries announced the launch of the European Payments Initiative (EPI) with the aim of creating a unified payment solution…

Financial and technological industries have always been male dominated, with men at the forefront of key projects and making up most of the workforce. Although things have improved over the years with…

For decades, incumbent banks have held a leadership position in the payments business and enjoyed high fees, healthy margins and limited competition. But as the payments ecosystem expands, these incumbents find themselves competing…

Setting the scene In the third part of our series exploring the motivations, architecture and principles driving the development of IPF, Pat Altaie, Senior Consultant, discusses the benefits of using interoperable programming…

11th January 2021 –  Icon Solutions, the specialist provider of world-class payment solutions and consultancy services, has today announced the appointment of Alastair Brown to its Board of Directors. Alastair is the…

It has been said that prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future. The unprecedented events of 2020 demonstrated quite how difficult it can be. The monumental uplifts in digital…

After a challenging year for many, the unprecedented events of 2020 affected us all in some way. We saw entire industries shut down overnight, monumental uplifts in digital volumes as everyone went…

In the second part of our series exploring the motivations, architecture and principles driving the development of IPF, Sirin Sevinc, Senior Solution Architect, explains the roles CQRS and Event Sourcing play in…

24th November 2020 – Icon Solutions, the leading provider of technology solutions and real-time payments expertise, has been featured in Financial IT’s winter magazine ‘Innovations in FinTech‘ (page 28). Financial IT interviewed…

Standardisation, regulation and technological innovation means payments are well on the way to becoming instant, invisible and free. This is good news for everybody. Well, not quite everybody. Banks are now faced…

Over the past 20+ years, I have been deeply involved in designing, building and delivering systems in a few different sectors across a multitude of technologies and methodologies, varying team sizes and…

9th November 2020 – Icon Solutions, the leading provider of technology solutions and real-time payments expertise, was yesterday featured in The Sunday Times report by Raconteur on ‘The Future of Banking and…

3rd November 2020 – Icon Solutions, the leading provider of technology solutions and real-time payments expertise, is delighted to return as a key sponsor and presenter for the fifth year running at…

29th October 2020 –  Icon Solutions, the specialist provider of world-class payment solutions and consultancy services, today announced a strategic investment from J.P. Morgan. Icon Solutions is a leading global provider of…

As part of Icon Solutions’ thought leadership in the world of payments, our latest webinar, ‘Busting the Myths of Payments Transformation’, delved into the noise and misnomers in the payments transformation space and…

Icon Solutions is delighted to be taking part in the AFP virtual conference on 20th October at 12pm ET. ‘The ISO 20022 financial messaging standard is now seeing widespread adoption for domestic…

COVID-19 has been a major stress test for digital transformation. Merchants have had to ramp up their e-commerce, delivery and card-not-present capabilities. As COVID-19 continues to take its toll, players in the…

The US payments industry is undoubtedly ripe for change. Before the unprecedented shock of COVID-19, digitization and payments transformation initiatives had been organic, piecemeal and predominately the preserve of the largest banks….

Post Covid-19 there will be no return to the norms of 2019 for banks in the US; with the impact on the behavior and expectations of customers resulting in an overwhelming demand…

03 September 2020 – Icon Solutions, the specialist provider of payment solutions and consultancy services, has been selected by a Tier One Australian Bank to review and industrialise its payments transformation strategy….

Many of us take it for granted, but accessing basic financial services is fundamental to our economic and social development. It is hard to ‘get on’ if you are forced to hide…

What’s next for banks in this strange new world we find ourselves in? Forget the forecasts and predictions, we are in uncharted territory and the honest answer is that no one truly…

‘Payments transformation’ has emerged as perhaps the single biggest opportunity for banks. But getting payments transformation right is no easy task. With only 9% of banks nearing completion in their transformation efforts,…

Payments transformation has emerged as perhaps both the single biggest opportunity, and challenge, for banks. Given the proven link between successful payments transformation and payments profitability the potential rewards are huge. But…

Discover how Icon Solutions enabled a Tier 1 bank to reboot their payments transformation programme, evolve their payments technology strategy and secure executive support.

In the U.S. and across the globe, financial institutions are wrestling with evolving consumer expectations, razor-thin margins and increased competition. Yet, significant opportunities are there for those who have built a foundation…

Icon Solutions’ article on ‘Preventing and detecting fraud using machine learning’, written by Tamsin Crossland, Senior Solution Architect, has been featured in issue four of The Public Sector Counter Fraud Journal. With…

Instant payments is no longer the new kid on the block, with over 40 schemes around the world. The question now is how do banks make a return on the investment they’ve…

Discover how Icon Solutions enabled a Tier 1 bank to migrate to new technologies which were capable of executing enormous volumes of payments.

As traditional financial institutions compete with big tech and fintech players, gaining access to and extracting value from payments data has become paramount. In fact, the Economist recently described data as now the most…

The first Faster Payments Barometer, conducted by the US Faster Payments Council in partnership with Glenbrook, received over 700 responses with broad coverage across industry stakeholder groups such as financial institutions, core…

At a recent webinar hosted by InstaPay on payments transformation, a question was posed to the speakers (from HSBC, Nordea and Icon Solutions); “Given the challenges involved in payments transformation and the…

Learn how Icon refreshed this Tier 1 Bank’s technology, providing robust documentation and a flexible foundation for ongoing change.

Discover how Icon Solutions implemented a Ring Fence Banking Solution for a major UK Bank in under four months, ensuring fast and effective delivery.

Find out how Icon ensured a new core banking platform was integrated into the UK’s largest retail and commercial bank’s existing systems landscape.

AFP Annual Conference drew a huge number of attendees this year and packed a lot into three days. People came from far and wide to attend and discuss all things payments, risk…

The new report “The Payments Transformation Race: Criteria for Success” from Aite and Icon Solutions identified that banks that have a clear and robust payments transformation plan are more profitable than their…

ISO 20022 is celebrating its fifteenth birthday this year and in recognition of this milestone, Icon Solutions have released a new whitepaper exploring some of the reasons why it has become the…

London, 4th October 2019 – Icon Solutions, the leading provider of technology solutions and payments expertise, is delighted to announce it will be exhibiting at this year’s AFP 2019 Show in Boston 20-23rd…

Icon Solutions, a leading Fintech provider of payment and technology solutions, was approached by City AM to give a view on whether we should be worried about yesterday’s services sector PMI data. Simon…

The payments industry relies on data every day. It is through this data that consumers are able to receive salaries, pay bills and make purchases. But financial institutions are under increasing demand…

Report reveals that slow payment transformation risks shrinking margins further London, 17th September 2019 – Icon Solutions, the leading provider of technology solutions and payments expertise, today launches a new report “The Payments…

Increasingly software development in large organisations is moving to agile methods, primarily scrum.  Agile empowers developers to design and build the system – where does solution architecture fit in? Agile and scrum…

London, 31st July 2019 – Icon Solutions, the leading provider of technology solutions and payments expertise, is delighted to announce it will be exhibiting at this year’s Sibos event, “Thriving in a hyper-connected world”,…

Can Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) be the basis for a revolution in cross-border payments?  Cross-border payments and the correspondent banking model have not kept pace with advances in domestic payments such as…

London – 26th June, 2019 – Icon Solutions, the specialist provider of global payment technology solutions and consultancy services, has been named as one of the ‘1000 Companies to Inspire Britain’ in…

Icon Solutions, a leading Fintech provider of payment and technology solutions, has commissioned Aite, an independent research and advisory firm, to explore the payments transformation progress of global banks. The research provides…

Faster Payments have changed the world for the better and many corporates are already reaping the benefits. During our recent webinar we heard from industry experts in the US, Steve Ledford –…

Icon Solutions, a leading Fintech provider of payment and technology solutions, has commissioned Aite, an independent research and advisory firm, to explore the payments transformation progress of global banks. ‘Payment transformation’ is…

While payments transformation is high on the list of priorities for banks, there is a lack of information around strategic considerations, best practice and how to minimise risk to ensure success. In…

While Canada has been a leader in mobile and app-based banking technology, the same cannot be said for the speed of their implementation of Real Time Payments (RTP).  However, the last Payments…

Icon Solutions, a leading Fintech provider of payment and technology solutions, is delighted to announce that Gema Montoya, Head of Continental Europe, will speak at NACHA’s Alliance 2019 Spring Meeting in Madrid…

Thank you to all who completed our recent survey, developed in partnership with InstaPay.  As you’ll remember, the aim of the survey was to understand how far along banks are from adopting…

London, 14th May 2019 – Icon Solutions, the leading provider of technology solutions and real-time payments expertise, is delighted to return as a key sponsor and presenter for the fourth year running at…

As part of a NACHA initiative, we are conducting a short survey to collect views from the banking community on the adoption of real-time payments and payments modernisation in North America. The results…

Discover the era of collaborative payments platform at NACHA Payments 2019! For the last 10 years banks have focused on consolidating payment infrastructures, but have ended up with multiple ‘hubs’, inefficient processes,…

Icon’s Toine van Beusekom was recently featured in International Banker with his article titled ‘Why do banking IT failures happen, and what can we do about them?’. In 2018, MPs announced a…

This month, Icon Solutions is celebrating 10 years in business. With over 30% of new businesses failing during the first two months of being open, 50% in the first five years and…

A colleague summed it up perfectly when he described a ‘tsunami of payments’ heading the way of banks on account of changes in the payments landscape. The changes have been fuelled primarily…

Since Fed catalysed the private sector to deliver real-time payment capabilities, there has been advocacy for the central bank backed, real-time payments (RTP) scheme. Many feel the lack of a ubiquitous RTP…

Since time began men have been at the forefront of technological innovations and in the finance world, building and establishing themselves as leaders – this culture has made it difficult for the…

Icon Solutions Executive Advisor, Gene Neyer, has been invited to keynote at the 2019 Payments Summit which will be taking place at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix between Monday 11th and Thursday 14th March. Gene…

Last week I attended a Women in Payments event entitled, ‘New Payments Architecture – What can we expect and how will we get there?’ The event was hosted by AmazonPay in London…

  This week Icon Solutions had the pleasure of hosting a discussion around the UK’s New Payments Architecture, focusing on the Request to Pay (RtP) service which is due to be launched…

  London – 13th November 2018 – Icon Solutions, the specialist provider of global payment technology solutions and consultancy services, was recently announced as a founding member of a newly launched organisation, the…

  At Icon we firmly believe that the combination of APIs and Instant Payments will provide a powerful alternative to card payments, particularly in e-and m-commerce. And it’s not just our belief…

Last week I attended the Federal Reserve’s inaugural FedPayments Improvement Community Forum in Chicago which had six Fed COOs participating and the Fed Governor, Lael Brainard, giving the opening keynote.  The purpose…

There is a lively debate on whether the modern real-time payment infrastructures came into being through regulation or out of commercial necessity and end-user demand. Although regulators are almost always involved in…

  I recently had the pleasure of speaking at an event in Paris organised in partnership with DXC, one of Icon’s partner organisations. The audience included representatives of banks and corporates, and…

Webinar: The road to Instant Payments in Germany: Connectivity, Culture and Global Considerations Tuesday 3rd July 2018 2pm – 3pm CST Gene Neyer, Icon Solutions’ Chief Executive Officer, will be joining esteemed…

The convergence of Open Banking, PSD2 and instant payments are giving rise to new use cases in the payments industry on an almost daily basis. The creation of new customer centric value-added…

  En France, de nombreuses banques étudient actuellement l’évolution des systèmes de paiement en vue d’adopter les Instant Payments. Ceci est principalement dû à des facteurs tels que la réduction des coûts,…

Icon are pleased to confirm they will be taking part in a panel discussion at FinTech South 2018 in Atlanta on the 7th – 8th May. Gene Neyer, Icon’s Chief Strategy Officer,…

  Icon Solutions, the specialist provider of European payment and technology solutions has confirmed its sponsorship of EBAday in Munich. Tom Kelleher, Icon’s Commercial Director has confirmed that Icon will be a key sponsor of EBAday…

  You would think from the many articles, discussion panels and chaotic clamour regarding ISO 20022 in recent years, that it was the new kid on the block. However, ISO 20022 has been slowly…

  “Been there, done that, got the scars to prove it!” Experience is a great thing, but it’s sometimes painful to get it the hard way. It’s quicker, less expensive, and generally…

  The recent InstaPay webinar “Transitioning to Instant Payments in Germany” provided some more TIPS (pun intended) for the introduction of SCT Inst.  Icon’s very own Gene Neyer took part along with…

How can Banks in Germany prepare for Instant Payments whilst controlling costs and managing risks? And what can we learn from those who have already travelled the path to Instant Payments? In…

  London, 9th March 2018 – Icon Solutions, the leading provider of technology solutions and real-time payments expertise, today announced the appointment of Toine van Beusekom as Head of Payments Architecture. With…

I vantaggi di essere i primi ad adottare il sistema dei pagamenti istantanei Benché l’azienda EBA Clearing abbia lanciato i pagamenti istantanei dell’area unica dei pagamenti in euro (SEPA) a novembre 2017…

  While the conversations we have had with payments business leaders point to a willingness to participate in the Clearing House’s RTP scheme, many of them are struggling with the business case…

The benefits of being an early-adopter of Instant Payments Even though EBA Clearing launched SEPA Instant Payments in November 2017 via RT1, so far only a handful of banks (early-adopters) have decided…

  In a recent interview with PYMNTS, Darren Capehorn, Icon’s Director of Services, and Gene Neyer, Executive Advisor, discuss how payments are changing and how flexible technology can help banks adapt to…

  At the European Central Bank’s #TIPSapp event on Tuesday there was lots of focus on opportunity, both short-term and longer-term from the introduction of Instant Payments (IP). The day was to…

  As part of Icon’s continued efforts to support the adoption of Instant Payments across the Eurozone, we were invited to present our thoughts and expertise on Instant Payments to a wide…

  London, 10th January 2018 – Icon Solutions, the leading provider of technology solutions and real-time payments expertise, today announced the appointment of industry luminary Gene Neyer as Executive Advisor to the…

  The neusten Zahlen des European Payments Council (EPC) zeigen, dass sich derzeit mehr als 400 deutsche Payment-Service-Provider (PSPs) auf die Einführung der neuen SCT Inst-kompatiblen Instant-Payments-Plattform RT1 von EBA Clearing vorbereiten….

  In the Canadian market, both consumers and banks have been early adopters when it comes to banking innovation, whether it is mobile, desktop or behind the scenes technology. Canadian consumers generally expect,…

  The Clearing House’s (TCH) central processing scheme in the US has recently started Real Time Payments (RTP) testing for the clearance and settlement of funds between banks. The event is significant…

  Ovum Report: Real-Time Payments Key Driver for $3.3 Billion Rise in Technology Spend by North American Commercial Banks 50 percent of U.S. and 40 percent of Canadian banks to increase investment…

  The latest stats from the European Payments Council (EPC), show there are over 400 German Payment Service Providers (PSPs) gearing up to go-live early next year with EBA Clearing’s new SCT…

There was much agreement at Retail Banking Europe (#RBE2017) in Amsterdam last week. Banks need to support the digital economy and are slowly reinventing themselves to become digital entities. Although different approaches…

  Tom Hay, Icon Solutions’ Head of Payments, will be speaking on instant payments at the T-Systems Symposium on 28th November 2017 in Budapest. This prestigious event takes place annually and hosts…

  This week the Icon team was at Money 20/20 where we saw a lot of discussion around the new ways in which consumers are interacting with their money, modes of payments…

  At the recent Sibos 2017 conference in Toronto, one theme rang out loud and clear – it’s time to think about the corporate. The common thread throughout the four-day conference was…

  London, 12th October 2017 –Icon Solutions, the leading provider of technology solutions and real time payments expertise, are looking forward to attending the highly regarded Money20/20 in Las Vegas, which will…

  London, 5th October 2017 – Icon Solutions are delighted to announce the appointment of Tom Hay, Head of Payments, to the European Payments Council’s Scheme Technical Forum (ESTF). The Forum is…

Author: Lauren Jones Date: 2nd October, 2017 Lauren Jones, Icon Solutions’ International Payments Ambassador, has created a profile on Central America’s regional payments scheme: Sistemas de Interconexíon de Pagos (SIP). This shares key facts and figures…

  Icon Solutions was delighted to host an Instant Payments breakfast roundtable in Hungary, in association with their local partner T-Systems on Wednesday 13th September 2017. Breakfast Roundtable The topic of this…

From July 2019, customers of Hungarian banks will be able to make instant credit transfers of up to HUF 10 million and the beneficiaries would be able to use these funds within…

  London, 5 September 2017, Icon Solutions, the independent IT payment specialist technology provider and consultancy, has today announced the appointment of a strategic senior hire in Canada. Jason Hayes, has joined Icon…

Icon’s Director of Services, Darren Capehorn is scheduled to speak at Payments International on Thursday 14th September 2017. Darren will be presenting ‘Instant Payments – it’s not all about speed…or consumers’ and…

Any mention of payments and multiple schemes, and the gurus are quick to respond with an “industry leader payments hub” as your go-to solution. These hubs are ‘centralized payments platforms’ which provide…

The US has always been more business-friendly than the Old World, and New York is peppered with temples to industry built by 19th century tycoons such as John D. Rockefeller and J….

  London, 27th July 2017 – Icon Solutions, a leading provider of technology solutions and real-time payments consultancy, today announces the completion of connectivity testing between its Instant Payments Framework (IPF) and…

Author: Lauren Jones Date: 13th July, 2017 Lauren Jones, Icon Solutions’ International Payments Ambassador, has created a country profile on the Guatemalan payments market. This shares key facts and figures for this country including modernisation plans…

  London, July 13th 2017 – Icon Solutions, an independent award-winning payment and specialist technology company, has donated £62k during the last 12 months in charitable programmes around the world supporting health,…

We’re at something of an inflection point in the payments landscape. It’s pretty clear that the arrival of PSD2 and Instant Payments will significantly disrupt retail payments, and the media has been…

Author: Lauren Jones Date: 4th July, 2017 Lauren Jones, Icon Solutions’ International Payments Ambassador, has created a country profile on the Belize payments market. This shares key facts and figures for this country including the launch…

  In 2014 Europe started ramping up the rhetoric for building a pan European Instant Payments solution (now known as SCT-Inst). In response, various forums sprung up to enable interested parties to…

  It’s fair to say that Dublin in the June sunshine was out to impress the financial world attending the European Banking Association’s 12th annual congress. Dublin, founded by the Vikings during…

London, EBAday 2017,  Finextra     Finextra interviews Icon’s Richard Dear on the Ovum research “Instant Payments and the Post-PSD2 Landscape” as well as the challenges banks are facing when planning and implementing…

London, EBAday 2017,  Finextra     Finextra  interviews Icon’s Richard Dear regarding financial organisations seeking to move to instant payments. In this interview, Richard identifies some of the key challenges involved and…

A year ago, the European Retail Payments Board (ERPB) flagged that “In practice, PSD2 and the EBA RTS will not cover all aspects that are relevant for the development of an integrated…

While the industry continues its race against time to be PSD2-ready in January 2018, there still remains a number of unknowns and conflicting opinions on how the banking and payments landscape will…

Dublin, June 21st 2017 – Icon Solutions has completed connectivity testing between IPF and SIA’s high-speed and secure network infrastructure SIAnet, which provides access to EBA Clearing’s platform for instant payments. SIAnet…

  Retail Instant Payments in Europe will hit €725bn in transactions by the end of 2027 Single card payments set to decline from 40% to 11% market share by 2027 Instant Payments…

  London, June 13th 2017, Icon Solutions, a leading provider of technology and instant payments solutions, has today announced its expansion into the Hungarian market by partnering with T-Systems Hungary to provide customers with…

The world is now immediate. We’re able to buy things online and have them delivered the same day (sometimes within an hour), our correspondence is sent and reacted to in seconds, and…

  With PSD2 around the corner and Instant Payments no longer a dot on the horizon, the crucial question is: are you ready? Icon Solutions will be partnering with Capgemini to host…

  Icon Solutions, a leading provider of technology solutions and real-time payments consultancy has just announced the enhancement of its Instant Payments Framework (IPF) product to support connectivity to The Clearing House’s…

The banking community of Mexico joined together at SWIFT’s Business Forum in the capital to discuss how the industry should build the future of financial services. It may not come as a…

  PSD2 brings a seismic shift in what it fundamentally means to be a bank. It’s no longer enough to be a trusted custodian of consumer transactions and the traditional bank position…

  London, 23 May 2017, Icon Solutions, the independent IT payment specialist technology provider and consultancy, has today announced the appointment of a strategic senior hire in the US.  James Methe, previously Capgemini’s Senior Director,…

Author: Lauren Jones Date: 18th May, 2017 Lauren Jones, Icon’s International Payments Ambassador has created a country profile on the Mexican payments market. This shares key facts and figures for this country including the names of…

  London, 15 May 2017,  Icon Solutions, the specialist provider of instant payments technology has been published in the April issue of Financial IT’s magazine.  This international publication is renowned for providing cutting edge FinTech…

 London, 09 May 2017, PYMNTS.COM Past Lessons May Prove Invaluable For US Real-Time Payments Rollout Real-time payments initiatives are under way all across the globe, but there is little consistency across jurisdictions…

  With real-time payments on the horizon for the US, NACHA’s Faster Payments 2017  was a key conference for payments professionals. But how close is real-time payments to becoming the norm there…

Tom Hay, Icon Solutions’ Head of Payments will be a panellist at ECN’s Open Banking Summit, where experts from banks, fintechs and government bodies will gather to discuss the huge potential of the…

  Icon Solutions is delighted to be participating in the InstaPay webinar: Is Europe ready for SCT Inst? How ready are organisations for SCT Inst? Webinar: Wednesday 3rd May 2017 12pm BST/…

  What insights can the U.S. take from early real-time payments adopters?    Change is constant in the banking and payments industry – and organizations that can keep pace with this change…

  Real time means ‘now’, like boom – you have it, just like receiving a WhatsApp message. And if we think of what ‘now’ means for e-commerce, the first things that come…

London, 13 April 2017,  Ovum releases: On the Radar – Icon Solutions adds real-time capability to existing systems, which evaluates Icon’s Instant Payments Framework (IPF).This is the latest release in their series…

London, 12 April 2017,  Richard Dear is interviewed by Julie Muhn at Finovate on Icon’s Instant Payments Framework (IPF) that will help keep banks PSD2 compliant. IT payment consultancy Icon Solutions is tackling…

  Lauren Jones, ex Head of Standards at Payments UK, and now Icon’s International Payments Ambassador, reports from out in the field where she is actively testing different methods of payments and…

  Icon Solutions is delighted to be an exhibitor at NACHA’s prestigious Faster Payments 2017 event in Austin, Texas. Taking place in April, Faster Payments 2017 brings together those who are driving and…

  London, 23 March 2017 Icon Solutions, the specialist provider of European payment and technology solutions confirms sponsorship of EBAday, 2017 in Dublin Tom Kelleher, Icon’s Commercial Director has confirmed that Icon…

  The EBA’s new final RTS on Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) and Secure Communications is an acceptable offering that seems cover a lot of ground and will satisfy most, but ultimately leaves…

Author: Tom Hay Date: 13th July 2016 Until now financial institutions (FI’s) have been in control of their digital presence, offering their own branded services to customers via tablets, mobiles and wearable…

London, 6 March 2017,  Fintech Finance      Fintech Finance interview Richard Dear and Tom Hay at Finovate 2017,  on Icon’s Instant Payments Framework (IPF), a real-time payments orchestration engine, built from the ground…

The internet of things (IoT) is at the peak of the hype cycle, so it’s not surprising to find payment companies trying to jump aboard the gravy train. The problem is, consumers…

  Following the success of our whitepaper PSD2 Draft RTS: Ten Key Points, we will be holding an exclusive webinar on the key insights from the recently published PSD2 RTS. Final PSD2 RTS…

  London, 27 February 2017,   Payments Card & Mobile publish Tom Hay, Head of Payment and Mark Burlison, Senior Consultant at Icon Solutions blog on SEPA: Is the ECB stifling competition…

  At Finovate Europe, 2017, 71 Fintech companies got to present their latest and greatest products via a 7 minute live demo, in front of 1,500 people.  What makes this years’ Finovate…

  London, 8 February 2017,  Icon Solutions the specialist provider of instant payments technology, has today announced that it is partnering with Featurespace, the world’s leading supplier of Adaptive Behavioural Analytics technology. ARIC™, Featurespace’s advanced…

  Over the last year, we’ve been talking with many banks and payment service providers about the challenges of instant payments.  The most progressive organisations are looking to instant payments as an…

  London, 6 February 2017, Icon Solutions the specialist provider of instant payments technology, has today announced that it is partnering with Featurespace, the world’s leading supplier of Adaptive Behavioural Analytics technology….

The revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) has been the cause of much hand-wringing in the banking space, with incumbents foreseeing a future when the new banking giants are Starling, Tandem, Monzo and…

  London, 17 January 2017. After a competitive application process, Icon Solutions have been selected to showcase their innovative response to the need for global Instant Payment solutions, Instant Payment Framework (IPF),…

The end of 2016 witnessed an excellent step by the Hungarian Central Bank (MNB) – the release of the ‘Operational model of the instant payment service in Hungary’. It is remarkable for…

  A recent survey conducted by InstaPay.today highlighted that key stakeholders within the instant payments industry overwhelmingly believe that it is consumer demand driving instant payments, and not new regulations. The survey was…

Over the last couple of weeks the media agenda has been dominated by Payment Services Directive Two (PSD2), and unfortunately not for the right reasons. PSD2 has always been a controversial regulation,…

  SEPA instant payments (SCT inst) is the first instant payment scheme to be inter-operable in a region as large as SEPA and is a response to European customer needs for faster…

New research from Lipis Advisors, commission by Icon Solutions, has hit the headlines with a number of payments focused publications. The research “Instant Payments: Insights from Early Adopters” dispels the myths that migrating…

Icon Solutions was delighted to host its first Payments Breakfast roundtable in Amsterdam, in association with EBA and Finextra on Tuesday 22nd November 2016. The topic of this exclusive roundtable was ‘Instant payments –…

 Average five year cumulative costs for small and medium-sized banks as low as €500,000 By year five, maintenance fees can make up over 50% of total costs Modular, highly configurable systems remove…

While the world was waiting with bated breath and crossed fingers for the outcome of the American Presidential race and Election Night events being organised around the world, on other side of…

While reading through the second payments service directive and trying to decipher the recently published RTS draft, I have been trying hard (without much success) not to draw parallels between the soon…

The world is moving towards Immediate Payments (also called Faster Payments and Real-time Payments). In fact a recent survey identified around 30 systems globally that might be classed as immediate payments, with…

Icon’s Payments team have just returned from the FinExtra’s  NextGen Banking conference in Helsinki, Finland and thought we’d share some highlights from the event. To open the event, Erkki Poutiainen summed up…

I was recently on a panel at NextGen Banking Nordics, discussing PSD2 (of course) where I was pretty critical of the draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) on Secure Customer Authentication. After the discussion, a…

Tom Hay, Icon’s Head of Payments has been invited to speak at this year’s Fintech Innovation on the 27th October in Budapest, Hungary. The Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB) expects to establish an instant payment…

Icon Solutions has recently been announced as an Associate Member of the Euro Banking Association (EBA). The EBA is a practitioners’ body for banks and other service providers supporting a pan-European vision…

Tom Hay, Icon’s Head of Payments has been invited to speak at this year’s NextGen Banking conference, 11th October in Helsinki. Tom will take to the stage alongside other payment industry experts to…

Following the recent publication of the European Banking Association (EBA) draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS), covering Secure Customer Authentication (SCA) and secure communication, Icon’s Tom Hay takes a closer look at ten…

Payment consultant Icon Solutions has been shortlisted in the ‘Most Disruptive Payments Technology’ category at this year’s Payment Awards. The Payments Awards recognise cards and payments excellence and innovation – and are organised…

Hear an Icon podcast with PaymentEye – Faster Payments 101 with Tom Hay, Head of Payments at Icon Solutions, discussing the real costs of implementing faster payment solutions and the dangers to…

Following on from the topic of fragmentation in Part 1, we have much to discuss. Techno-genies, the value chain and realism Rather than lamenting the lack of international interoperability, we should consider whether…

Fragmentation has become a very real challenge for the industry as instant payment schemes are being implemented on a country by country basis, and each country is doing it differently. Like the…

Tom Hay, heads up Icon’s payment team and has a wealth of experience in aiding financial institutions move to faster payments. With two decades of payments experience as Head of Architecture with…

The landscape of faster payments has been changing rapidly over the past 12 months, with more change to come. This article tries to capture some of the key debates that have been…

Mastercard’s planned acquisition of Vocalink has the potential to create a new payments powerhouse in Europe and beyond. The news of the planned acquisition broke a few days after the Payment Systems…

Seven major US banks – including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America Corp, Wells Fargo & Co and Bancorp – are collaborating on a jointly owned system that will speed up and simplify…

Icon Solutions, the independent IT payment consultancy and specialist technology provider, today announced the worldwide launch of its Instant Payments Framework (IPF). IPF is an agile yet robust software product that expedites…

Icon Solutions, the independent IT payment consultancy and specialist technology provider, today announced the worldwide launch of its Instant Payments Framework (IPF). IPF is an agile yet robust software product that expedites…

Icon Solutions, the independent IT payment consultancy and specialist technology provider, today announced the worldwide launch of its Instant Payments Framework (IPF). Read More

Icon Solutions, the independent IT payment consultancy and specialist technology provider, today announced the worldwide launch of its Instant Payments Framework (IPF). IPF is an agile yet robust software product that expedites…

Icon Solutions is gearing up to launch a technology framework that enables banks to connect to instant payment schemes. Read More

Icon Launches Instant Payments Framework To Facilitate Real Time Payments. Icon’s IPF solution offers financial institutions flexibility, lower cost of ownership and faster time to market. Icon Solutions, an independent IT payment…

The new framework – available worldwide – is set to open up access to real-time payments for banks. UK-based Icon Solutions, an IT payment consultancy and specialist technology provider, describes its Instant…

Tom Hay, Icon’s Head of Payments has been invited to speak at this year’s Money 20/20 Europe, 4-7 April in Copenhagen, the World’s Largest FinTech event. Tom will take to the stage…

Sahana Hussain, a senior member of the API Banking practice within Icon Solutions has been asked to speak at Thursday’s Payment Services Seminar, where the focus will be on PSD2 as the market opens…

Here at Icon we always look to the future on how Banks can improve their service offering. The following  informs you of the criteria that the API platform needs to meet in…

Yesterday, saw the second of our well received payment roundtables with the topical discussion on PSD2: The Payments World Turned Upside Down? – the second iteration of the Payments Services Directive, which…

Icon Solutions was delighted to host our first Payments Breakfast roundtable, in association with Finextra, this morning. The topic of this exclusive roundtable was ‘The new access model to Faster Payments: Will…

An eclectic group of payment professionals attended this morning’s Payment Services Seminar to discuss PSD2 and its profound impact on the payments industry. Joining the speaker panel was Icon’s Sahana Hussain, a…

Tom Hay, our Head of Payments, was recently invited to speak at the prestigious Payments Conference in Trondheim, Norway. Tom’s presentation “PSD2 – will bureaucracy bury the banks?” looks at one of…