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Insights and Expertise

Why payment prep real time with near-zero tolerance for failure, conditions

that demand a prepper mindset: anticipating volatility,
is the best defense embedding redundancy at every layer, and rehearsing re-
sponses long before the next policy shock hits.

against volatility Regulation is raising the stakes
Layer on top of this the evolving regulatory landscape.
In the UK, the FCA's operational resilience regime echoes
many of these requirements. Firms must demonstrate
they've mapped their most crucial services, defined "im-
pact tolerances" and proven their ability to stay within
them during disruptions. The EU's Digital Operational
Resilience Act (DORA), which came into effect in January,
elevated expectations for how financial entities, including
payments firms, manage risk, test for failure and protect
their digital ecosystems.

While there isn't a single, direct U.S. equivalent to the
By Robin Anderson DORA, the United States has its own set of regulations
Tribe Payments and frameworks aimed at ensuring the operational resil-
ience of financial institutions, such as the FFIEC guide-
arkets crave certainty, and right now, it's in lines, NIST CSF and NIST SP800-53. In all jurisdictions,
short supply. With President Trump's return the message is clear: it's not enough to prevent failure; you
to office resulting in sweeping new tariffs, must plan for it and demonstrate readiness in the face of
M global trade has entered a fresh cycle of vola- real-world events.
tility. The ripple effects are being felt: currency markets
are reacting, supply chains are shifting and businesses Enter the prepper mindset
are scrambling to adapt. In this new reality, the payments This is where payment prepping comes into play. The term
sector is vulnerable. The infrastructure that moves tril- "prepper" might conjure images of bunkers and freeze-
lions across borders daily was built for stability, not for dried meals, but during the pandemic, it was those with
whiplash-inducing policy shifts. And yet, payments are a plan who weathered the chaos best. They had fallback
the connective tissue of global commerce. When disrup- options, clear protocols and the flexibility to adapt when
tion strikes, they're among the first to feel the strain and others were caught flat-footed. That mindset—rooted in
the last to be forgiven for failure. preparation, not panic—is exactly what payments firms
now need. Today, resilience isn't just about having back-
Now more than ever, firms need payment systems that ups. It's about building continuity into every layer of oper-
can flex, absorb shocks and recover fast. Resilience is no ations. If one provider fails, another must pick up the load
longer a regulatory checkbox. It's a strategic hedge against instantly and invisibly. That means understanding exactly
uncertainty. who your upstream vendors are, how critical they are and

Policy change meets payment fragility what happens if they go dark.
Tariffs aren't just about goods; they're about money in But awareness alone isn't enough. Crisis response must
motion. When trade routes veer and import costs surge, be rehearsed, not improvised. Playbooks should be tested
currency markets lurch, transaction volumes seesaw, under pressure, with clear roles across compliance, com-
fraudsters spot openings and processing fees spike. For munications, recovery and customer service. When the
payments firms, those macro shocks roll together into a unexpected happens, every team must know what to do,
single pressure wave. Sudden exchange rate changes clog and how fast.
settlement pipelines and leave reconciliation teams chas-
ing ghosts. Cross-border volumes can swell overnight or Resilience also needs to cut across silos. This isn't a tech-
evaporate, overwhelming platforms architected for yester- nology problem, it's an organizational one. Operations,
day's traffic patterns. engineering, risk, legal and support all have a stake in
keeping services online when systems are strained. Co-
Meanwhile, every jurisdiction writes its own rulebook ordination across teams must be practiced well before the
in response to Washington's tariff regime, layering fresh pressure is on. Payment prepping isn't worst-case para-
compliance puzzles on top of technical strain. Consumers, noia; it's strategic foresight. It's about building the capac-
feeling the jitters, either frontload big-ticket buys or slam ity not just to bounce back, but to stay running through
the brakes entirely… twisting demand curves beyond rec- volatility and change.
ognition.
Supply chains and systems are intertwined
That turbulence converges on a network that must run in Instability triggered by tariffs and trade policy doesn't just

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