Blogs

Fighting fraud: How to enhance financial crime prevention…

Financial crime is on the rise, and it is costing billions. New research shows UK financial services organisations are collectively spending £34.2 billion each year on financial crime compliance, up 19% since…

Howard Norman

25 July 2024

Blogs

EBADay or Groundhog Day? Transforming to end the…

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…

Toine van Beusekom

26 June 2024

Blogs

The Future of Payments – Time to Take…

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…

Vatsal Bhatt

24 June 2024

Blogs

Upgrading to Java 17, or: how I learned…

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,…

Patrick Altaie

14 June 2024

Blogs

How to future-proof payments: key questions to ask…

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…

Matt Piper

11 June 2024

Blogs

Is now the time for real-time payments in…

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…

Arjeh van Oijen

23 May 2024

Blogs

Understanding the Road to Real-Time in North America…

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…

Arjeh van Oijen

23 April 2024

Blogs

Adventures in AI: Addressing a Fundamental Challenge Facing…

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….

Jamie Packham

19 April 2024

Blogs

Modernise Payment Reconciliations and Investigations to reduce operational…

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…

Sandeep Tolanur

25 March 2024

Blogs

Hype, hope or holy grail? Unlocking new opportunities…

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…

Toine van Beusekom

18 March 2024

Blogs

Core banking transformation: Key considerations for success

The banking industry is going through significant transformation across its various business domains and core banking has been one of the key areas of focus for many banks in recent years. Most…

Babukumar Valaguruvan

1 March 2024

Blogs

The Future of Payments – Will I Need…

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…

Adam Richardson

5 February 2024

Blogs

How Can Banks Take Control of Their Payments…

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…

Mady Dyson

30 January 2024

Blogs

2024 Predictions: Payments Trends to Watch This Year

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…

Arjeh van Oijen

19 January 2024

Blogs

Customer-centric innovation – why our IPF Client Days…

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…

Arjeh van Oijen

20 December 2023

Blogs

It’s time to revisit the order management concept

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…

Toine van Beusekom

3 December 2023

Case Studies

Defining the strategic roadmap for a major African bank’s payments transformation journey

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…

Cindy Heidebluth

21 November 2023

Blogs

AI can help your business, but only once…

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…

Tamsin Crossland

21 November 2023

Case Studies

Supporting an ambitious technology transformation by delivering the strategy, roadmap and architectural support

This case study demonstrates Icon’s expertise and understanding of how enterprise architecture supports effective transformation and that it must encompass people, processes and technology. It’s about work we recently did for a…

Cindy Heidebluth

30 October 2023

Blogs

A transformative year for Icon Solutions

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…

Mady Dyson

25 October 2023

Blogs

The value of a “Payments Reference Architecture” in…

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…

Ranga Natraj

19 October 2023

Blogs

Collaboration is the Key: Takeaways from Sibos 2023

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…

Arjeh van Oijen

18 October 2023

Case Studies

Supporting a UK challenger bank to transition towards an NPA-compliant payments architecture

Icon’s consultants are recognised New Payments Architecture (NPA) experts and this case study details the work our team has done for a leading UK challenger bank. Specifically, we helped with the implementation…

Cindy Heidebluth

5 October 2023

Blogs

Core banking transformation: key drivers for change

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…

Gene Philip

28 September 2023

Blogs

Is low code the answer to higher payment…

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…

Toine van Beusekom

27 September 2023

Blogs

Vertical thinking: Why banks need to decouple their…

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…

Esther Groen

7 September 2023

Case Studies

Transforming a premium finance provider’s technology architecture and strategy

This case study describes Icon’s work for a specialist provider of premium finance solutions to the insurance industry. The business wanted to transform its operations and technology estate because the existing Core…

Cindy Heidebluth

10 August 2023

Case Studies

Developing a Debit Card Platform Strategy and Roadmap

Icon Solutions was engaged by this bank to support their Debit Card Gateway replacement process and to assist them in developing their strategy for the wider Debit Card Platform Transformation programme.

Kate Nelson

30 November 2021

Case Studies

Bringing technical strategy to life in AML Transaction…

Icon Solutions was engaged by this bank to provide expert review and validation of the bank’s target architecture and technical roadmap for Transaction Monitoring. This initiative was sponsored by the CIO for…

Kate Nelson

23 November 2021

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