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Wilfahrt pointed out that agile payments reduce friction said. "In this case, agility is unlocked by adopting EDA
by removing barriers to seamless commerce, such as lack and utilizing an event mesh to convert semi-static data in
of security, trust or access and any number of poor user legacy databases and mainframe systems into real-time
experiences. Being agile means moving attentively, intel- events that flow through the organization."
ligently, nimbly, and frequently, he noted, while swiftly re-
solving any impediment to satisfactory commerce for both With EDA implementation and event mesh deployment,
payor and payee. banking and financial institutions can quickly enhance
their agility, which Hobbis noted will enable them to in-
AP Technology early on recognized the importance of novate their payments platforms. Harnessing the business
embracing agility as a means of producing and consum- power of EDA gives providers a flexible platform to in-
ing more modular application interfaces (APIs), Wilfahrt novate, manage the cost of change, and maximize the cus-
stated. Through this approach, he added, the company tomer experience, he said, adding that EDA architecture
creates solutions that can easily port to servers and Cloud helps organizations scale for higher volumes while main-
environments. Being agile also helps transitioning organi- taining performance guarantees as they adapt to commer-
zations create better workflows as they shift from in-office cial and regulatory trends.
to remote operations, he pointed out.
EDA promised land
The move to faster payments, whether same-day ACH or Hobbis has seen strong interest in EDA and event mesh
RTP, is reducing processing times and bottlenecks, which architectures as financial services providers modernize fi-
helps service providers meet ever-changing demands as nancial services. In fact, he mentioned that Solace's August
new payment types and security standards emerge in the 2021 survey of providers in North America, EMEA, Aus-
B2B sector, Wilfahrt said. And in this dynamic market, tralia and APAC regions found 85 percent of respondents
he noted, service providers that support faster payments initiated EDA journeys, with 13 percent in the "promised
with agile development, testing and release processes will land" of EDA maturity.
reap significant rewards.
Agile fraud resistance "For those still on the journey, a number of obstacles lie in
their way," researchers wrote. "One critical hurdle is the
Mathew Hobbis, chief architect, financial service institu- buy-in disconnect from IT (61%) to Senior Management/
tions at Solace, noted payment service providers (PSPs) Line of Business executives (35%)."
need to enable frictionless payments to keep pace with
changing market conditions and regulations across an With the approaching November 2022 deadline for sup-
increasing number of payment channels. Agility is a re- porting ISO 20022 messages to and from SWIFT, research-
quirement for PSPs in this space, he stated, as they scale, ers predict more organizations will begin to leverage ISO
lower prices and add new systems and services designed 20022 capabilities. "Using such a standard internally will
to make payments more effective and secure. remove much of the confusion and complexity about data
types, taxonomies and translations/transformations that
"If you are not easy to use and available at the right price exist between business lines in many banks today," Hobbis
with the right level of security, there are alternative pro- said. "Removing this complexity will streamline not just
viders that are," he said. "PSPs must manage their, and payments."
their users', exposure to risk of fraud by integrating new
systems into the payment process." Agile payment rails
The Federal Reserve Board is planning a phased roll
For example, Hobbis noted, services such as Confirmation out of the FedNow Service in the third quarter of 2023.
of Payee allow users to confirm the name assigned to an FedNow is designed to facilitate instant payments through
account before making payment, which reduces user error business and personal depository accounts. The FedNow
and mitigates certain types of fraud such as authorized clearing and settlement network will enable funds to be
push payment scams. transferred from the account of a sender to the account of

Event-driven architecture a receiver on any day and in near real time, and depository
institutions and service providers will be able to layer
Hobbis advised new PSPs to build systems with modern optional features and value-added services on top of
design patterns that support multiple microservices, event FedNow rails, Fed representatives noted.
driven architecture (EDA) and APIs within their software
architecture. This will give them the agile performance In a recent interview with The Green Sheet, Craig Ramsey,
they need to stay competitive, he stated. head of real-time payments at ACI Worldwide, said he
expects FedNow to expand RTP in the United States.
"For incumbent providers, the legacy nature of older bank-
ing institution IT systems often means they encounter dif- "Broad access to instant payments in the U.S. is already
ficulties when trying to adapt, particularly in terms of a reality with The Clearing House RTP network," he
scalability, flexibility, reliability, complexity and risk," he said. "But with FedNow, we will see more institutions
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