“Measure twice, cut once.”
It’s an English proverb we’ve all heard before, usually in a context other than woodworking. Its ubiquity is for good reason – it’s just common sense advice. Taking the proper time before you engage in any task ensures that needless errors are avoided, especially when moving at the breakneck speed of today’s business environment. It’s a smart practice that’s applicable to virtually any job you do.
There is one task where this principle is largely absent, however, and that’s in payment processing.
Corporations and individuals worldwide make billions of payments bank to bank every day in the course of doing business. Yet they generally do so without being able to validate that the information surrounding that payment (amount, bank details, payment codes, holidays, etc.) are correct so as to make sure that the payment will actually arrive. The result is a rejected payment that can cost upwards of £50 in fees to correct — not to mention all the other ramifications of a payment gone awry. On top of that, the bank incurs costs in both time and fees.
A recent survey of corporate finance teams uncovered the following stats:
- 78% admit the finance team spends more than 10 minutes rectifying each failed Direct Debit; with 14% taking more than 30 minutes per transaction
- 43% of finance teams spend more than four hours every month fixing problem transactions, and 11% take more than 10 hours each month
- Almost three-quarters (71%) of businesses admit failed Direct Debit transactions damage customer and employee relations; 36% said they result in a higher business cost to secure revenue
When payments took 2-3 days to process there was ample time to correct errors before they became a problem. That luxury is now long gone in most cases. As faster payments become more widely used, there is no extra time. Not only are payments moving faster than ever before, but they’re also irrevocable. That’s a big problem, especially when human error is often the cause of a failed transaction.
Apply Financial – What we do
Apply Financial is the world leader in validating global bank payments. Simplifying the payment process by checking, payments at payment entry allows our customers to digitally send global bank payments without any manual intervention so that the payment straight through processes and our customers no longer have to deal with failed and returned payments and the time, cost and hassle of sorting out the lengthy process of payment repair.
Since we started eight years ago, we have seen that the two main reasons why a bank payment fails are either someone ‘fat fingering’ inputting the wrong information or using out of date bank information (data). Checking at payment entry that only accurate bank payment details are entered with the correct supporting information, such as payment purpose codes for certain countries, holidays do not affect payment date and several other key information points, allows the payment to reach its intended recipient on time.
We also know that a failed payment costs the sender on average around £50 to repair and it can cost the banks considerably more, but the real cost can be the bad relationship that is created when the intended recipient does not receive the money on time.
How we solve the issue of failed payments
Apply Financial’s solutions, Validate and Validate DataManager, can be consumed as API’s and online browsers. They are Cloud-based and are a combination of global payment reference data, algorithms and web service functions that deliver a complete solution.
They reduce the time and cost of making digital bank payments, whilst improving the customer experience. This is achieved by guiding the customer to only input the correct payment details at payment entry, for the bank this means they know the payment will STP and reach the payment destination on time without any manual intervention saving time and money and for the business or individual making the payment, they know that the payment will not bounce, they will not receive bank charges, and the payment will reach its intended recipient on time.
Staying compliant with payment rules and bank changes
Validate’s global payments reference data is updated on a daily basis. We only get our data and rules from official sources, so our customers no longer have the headache and overhead of daily data gathering, payment rule updates and compliance when Validate maintains all these from official sources around the globe.
“We saw the immediate benefit of Apply’s Validate API and how easy it was to integrate into our digital platform. Franx provides clients with a superior, cost-efficient experience when making FX and international payments. We selected this world-class validation solution because it enables intelligent, integrated and seamless processes for businesses around FX and international payments. Validate API fits our business now and will scale with our business. Our clients will benefit from seamless transactions because we are using the Validate API. Apply Financial have been great to work with and have enabled us to go live with the Validate API painlessly and as part of a rapid roll out,” Hatim Chebti, CEO, Franx an ABN Company.