The Transaction Symphony: Staying Competitive with Payments Orchestration | BR-DGE | The Paytech Show #82

Acquiring banks are feeling the pressure from new players.

Payments orchestration presents a way forward for helping merchants and banks tackle the ever widening payments ecosystem.

In the latest episode of The Paytech Show we speak to Tom Voaden, VP of Commercial at BR-DGE, who discusses how they’re addressing gaps in traditional acquiring banks’ technology.

It’s an interesting look at how data could enable both merchants and banks to optimize their payment ecosystems and leverage actionable insights for improved service delivery.

Bridging the technology gap

Over the past few years, BR-DGE have worked directly with enterprise merchants, serving as an intermediary between them and their traditional acquiring banking partners. In this episode, Voaden goes on to explain how the role of BR-DGE has grown due to the gaps in technology offered by traditional banks. With many new payment methods emerging merchants need better systems. BR-DGE’s orchestration platform now allows merchants to enhance their payment processes without needing to switch from their traditional banks.

Interestingly, Voaden highlights how this need to solve technical challenges led to a shift in the dynamic between BR-DGE and acquiring banks. Initially focused on merchant needs, BR-DGE began working with banks directly, providing orchestration solutions that helped them stay competitive in a fast-changing market. Banks are under pressure from new fintech entrants like Stripe and Adyen, who offer cutting-edge technology. At the same time, regulatory requirements like PSD2 and the forthcoming PSD3 have consumed significant development resources, leaving traditional banks struggling to keep up with innovation. 

This is where BR-DGE comes in. Benefits of their orchestration platform include helping banks route transactions across different endpoints or integrate network token solutions, ultimately supporting them in modernizing their legacy tech stacks.

The key to payments orchestration

A major takeaway from Voaden’s discussion is the versatility of orchestration platforms. While many view them as all-encompassing solutions, he emphasizes that orchestration can be modular. BR-DGE’s platform can seamlessly integrate with a bank’s existing front end or even sit behind their gateway infrastructure, tackling specific pain points without requiring a full-scale transformation. As is often needed this flexibility allows acquiring banks to take a step-by-step approach to improving their payment systems.

BR-DGE also have a white-label offering, enabling banks to rebrand and customize the orchestration platform. By doing so, banks can maintain control over the user experience, offering their merchant customers a tailored interface while relying on BR-DGE’s core technology for routing, tokenization, and data management. This white-label solution has allowed BR-DGE to scale its offerings, allowing banks to onboard merchants rapidly via API.

The data within

Voaden also touches on how orchestration provides a more holistic view of the merchant’s payment ecosystem. Traditionally, merchants had to manage multiple tools—fraud prevention, alternative payment methods (APMs), and acquirers—across different platforms, resulting in fragmented data. With orchestration, all relevant data is unified in one place, benefiting both merchants and acquirers. This integrated data enables acquirers to assess the performance of APMs and fraud tools in a 360-degree manner, allowing them to adjust their offerings to better serve merchants. Getting independent analysis and actionable insights of customer and merchant data is undeniably the future of payments. 

There’s an increased level of trust in orchestration across the ecosystem and Voaden is particularly bullish about the potential of data generated through orchestration. As transaction volumes grow, so does the data available for analysis, offering valuable insights into the performance of various payment channels, geographies, and transaction types. This data not only benefits merchants but also helps banks benchmark their performance, refine their strategies, and improve their services. Voaden envisions that data will become one of the most valuable aspects of payment orchestration, as it allows for more informed decision-making and enhanced partnerships between merchants, PSPs, and acquirers.

It’s a really interesting look at a growing area, one which will be around for years to come. To catch more episodes like this, head to our website.