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Tokenised deposits

Don't just update payments. Transform them.

Success requires a clear strategy, measurable KPIs, and a roadmap that balances quick wins with long-term value. Financial institutions must move beyond legacy systems and rethink how payments operate as a strategic, value-driving function.

At Icon, we help organisations navigate this complexity through a structured payments transformation approach. By aligning business goals with technology strategy, we define clear target states, identify priorities and deliver practical roadmaps that drive measurable outcomes. We don’t just define the North star. We provide a pragmatic, step-by-step path answering the tough questions: Why do we need to transform? What does ‘great’ look like? How do we get there?

From strategy through to delivery, our expertise allows us to modernise with purpose – improving efficiency, reducing risk and unlocking new opportunities for innovation and growth.

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Banks face pressures on all fronts, including:

Evolving customer expectations and regulatory demands

The need for resilience and 24/7 availability

Evolving customer expectations and regulatory demands

The need to innovate and differentiate

OUR PAYMENTS SERVICES

Payments transformation strategy

Rapid growth in real-time payments, new data standards, cloud adoption and API connectivity are creating major opportunities for innovation and lower-cost services.

To capture this, banks need a technology strategy that goes beyond incremental change - cutting costs at scale, unlocking new revenue streams, and strengthening resilience in an increasingly complex regulatory environment. Payment processing must evolve to handle volumes, always-on services, and a shifting model where value sits in differentiation, not low-cost margin execution.

A modern payments technology strategy should harness these capabilities to deliver stronger customer propositions, lower operating costs and more robust compliance - future proofing the business against both industry and regulatory change.

Key industry drivers include: Faster Payments Enhancements, ISO 20022, Digital Currencies, Order Management, Platforms-as-a-Business (PPaaB). We help financial institutions define and deliver end-to-end payments transformation. By understanding your business drivers, we establish a clear vision, define target states and build practical roadmaps that align technology with commercial objectives. Our approach ensures transformation is measurable, prioritised and achievable.

Payments data & AI

The rise of Account to Account (A2A) payments, and the global shift to real-time processing, are driving an explosion in data - generated at unprecedented speed and scale, both internally and externally.

At the same time, rising customer expectations and competition pressure mean banks can no longer treat data as a by-product. It must be central to business strategy. Advances in Analytics and AI -across predictive, generative, and natural language capabilities – are accelerating the need to modernise the data landscape. To respond, banks must focus on the three pillars of a modern data strategy:

Modernising legacy infrastructure: Replace legacy systems with resilient, cost-efficient platforms, that enable real-time integration.
Trusted data foundations: Centralise, standardise, and enrich payment data to create accessible ‘golden sources’.
Value creation: Turn data into insight to drive better decisions, personalised services and new revenue opportunities.

Key industry drivers shaping this shift include: ISO 20022 migration, payments data consolidation and the growing use of AI.

We enable organisations to unlock the full value of their payments data. From improving visibility and reporting to deploying advanced analytics and AI, we help you make faster, smarter decisions. This allows you to enhance customer experiences, optimise operations and create new revenue opportunities.

Payments solution delivery

Off-the-shelf payments solutions are becoming less attractive to many financial institutions. Rising licence costs, complex upgrade paths, limited influence over vendor roadmaps, and a lack of differentiation are driving organisations to consider their own solutions.

Building in-house restores control - allowing banks to set the pace of modernisation, respond quickly to market changes, and capitalise on new revenue opportunities while staying ahead of regulatory demands.

However, success depends on combining deep payments expertise with strong architecture and engineering capability. Mission-critical payments systems require specialist knowledge across both functional (business, scheme, compliance) and non-functional (resilience, performance) domains.

Crucially, building everything is neither practical nor necessary. Institutions must be clear on which parts of the payments ecosystem are truly strategic - and select the right technologies, frameworks and accelerators to deliver them effectively.

We provide deep payments expertise to support the successful delivery of complex initiatives. Whether augmenting your teams with specialist SMEs or supporting implementation programmes, we bring the technical and domain knowledge needed to accelerate delivery and reduce risk.

Why choose Icon?

At Icon, payments aren’t just a capability, they’re our core.

Payments Centre of Excellence factsheet

We combine deep industry expertise with hands-on delivery to help banks move from strategy to execution, fast. We design, build and run modern payments platforms that deliver real results.

We bring end-to-end capability across the full transformation lifecycle, powered by proven assets and accelerators that speed up delivery and reduce risk. No generic playbooks – just practical, experience-led transformation that works.

Every engagement is tailored to your priorities, delivering measurable impact in as little as 8-12 weeks. Quick wins where you need them, long-term delivery where it counts.

Icon speeds delivery and reduces risk through a proven set of reusable assets and accelerators, including:

Icon’s Payments Centre of Excellence (PCoE) is built to turn strategy into action. Combining expert consultants, proven accelerators and real-world insights, it gives banks everything they need to move quickly.

Capability reviews and peer analysis to transformation roadmaps and reference architectures: we provide practical tools that drive immediate progress. Whether it’s enabling Verification of Payee, unlocking data, or identifying high-impact use cases, we focus on what delivers value.

No theory, no delays. Just proven assets, sharper decisions and measurable results from day one.

Featured RESOURCES

Blogs

Explore our selection of resources - insights, case studies, whitepapers and more, designed to help financial services organisations navigate the payments landscape.

See all Resources

Blog

Architecture-as-Code: Testing theories out in the real world

Architecture-as-Code: Testing theories out in the real world

Explore the challenges and insights from implementing Architecture-as-Code, highlighting the importance of data management and AI in real-wo...

Blog

Designing AI for the long term: The case for vendor independence

Designing AI for the long term: The case for vendor independence

The importance of vendor independence in AI for banks, ensuring flexibility, control, and long-term value amidst evolving regulations and te...

Blog

Can banks actually handle Tokenised Money - or just talk about it?

Can banks actually handle Tokenised Money - or just talk about it?

Banks face urgent challenges and opportunities with the rise of stablecoins in payments. Discover strategies to adapt and thrive in this evo...

Blog

Tokenised Deposits – Are they the future of Payments?

Tokenised Deposits – Are they the future of Payments?

Explore the potential of tokenised deposits in transforming payments, their benefits, challenges, and recent UK initiatives shaping the futu...