Author: Lisa McFarland

Guide Topics Include: Coffee, Whiteboards, and the Moment a Core Decision Gets Real The Story So Far: How We Arrived at Three Dominant Architectures QUICK GLOSSARY — My Plain-English Decoder Ring Sidecar Cores: A Parallel Track for Hyper-Speed Innovation Middleware & BaaS Hubs: Translation Layers for Lightning Launches Above-Core Platforms: Modern APIs Without Abandoning the Mother Ship A Fintech & Banking Builder’s Decision Tree Security & Crypto: The Silent Contract with Your User Accounting & Regulation – Staying Nimble as the Rules Keep Shifting Ingo’s Modular Core: Flexibility by Design Builder & Bank Checklists Final Thoughts: The Builders Who Choose Well Coffee, Whiteboards, and the Moment a Core Decision Gets Real It’s 9:30 a.m. on a bright Tuesday in May. We’re in a glass-walled “innovation lab” two blocks from the Des Moines River—white oak tables, thoughtful lighting, espresso machine working overtime. Around the table sit a CIO who still bookmarks mainframe manuals, three SaaS-seasoned product leads itching to ship weekly, and a compliance officer who talks about Fed examiners the way hikers talk about bears. The gig-economy is booming, Apple just spun up tap-to-pay for teens, and every payments deck at Money20/20 promised instant everything. This bank wants in: “We need embedded accounts and same-day payouts for a gig-work platform—by December.” I sketch three rectangles: Legacy Core, Sidecar Core, Middleware. I add a question mark box above them—Above-Core Layer—and draw arrows in both directions. Twenty minutes of lively debate later the inevitable, business-defining question lands: “Do we upgrade the old core, park a modern sidecar next to it, or let a BaaS partner translate for us?” That single fork determines compliance workload, launch speed, revenue share, and boardroom stress for years. Yet most teams freeze at the vocabulary: shadow ledger, omnibus account, above-core cache—wait, aren’t those the same thing? This guide is my field manual for un-freezing that moment. We’ll unpack the three working patterns—sidecar cores, middleware hubs, and above-core platforms—using plain language and real outcome data. Then we’ll layer on security must-haves, the latest crypto accounting twists, and a checklist you can tape to your own war-room wall. Read straight through if you’re drafting a transformation charter, or hop to the sections that may be keeping you up at night. Either way, you’ll leave with a practical decision tree—and the confidence to pick a path that won’t implode at audit time. Coffee in hand, marker uncapped—let’s sketch. The Story So Far: How We Arrived at Three Dominant Architectures Bank tech hasn’t always been a choose-your-own-adventure novel. In the 1990s, a mid-tier banking institution would buy a monolithic core from Fiserv, FIS, or Jack Henry and run it untouched for a decade. In that era, innovation meant bolting on an Internet Banking module and praying batch jobs would finish by dawn. Fast forward two decades: Fintech’s first wave—PayPal, Square, Chime—exposed how brittle that single banking core model felt once mobile apps demanded instantaneous ledgers. Vendor roadmaps couldn’t keep up, so three distinct work-arounds emerged: Sidecar Core Middleware / Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) Above-Core Platform Here’s the breakdown: PatternFirst MoversCore Pain It SolvedSidecar CoreMoven, Starling Bank, later JPM UKLegacy batch cores couldn’t post instant payments or thousands of daily account creations.Middleware / BaaSGalileo, Stripe Treasury, Treasury Prime, Unit, SyncteraCommunity banks lacked the talent to build APIs but still craved deposit growth from fintechs.Above-Core PlatformSutton Bank + Infinant, Fifth Third’s “banking as a service” deskBanks wanted real-time APIs yet refused to let an outsider own their ledger of record. Those prototypes matured into full-scale production models. Today every embedded-finance and banking deal I negotiate lands on one of those three rails (or a blend of them). Before we weigh trade-offs, let’s explore each pattern from the inside out. QUICK GLOSSARY — My Plain-English Decoder Ring A short pit-stop before the deeper dive. Use these definitions to keep the tech jargon from tripping you up. TermLisa’s one-linerWhy it matters in this guideSidecar CoreA modern, cloud ledger that runs next to the old mainframe—think bullet train alongside a freight line.Powers real-time payments and new digital brands without ripping out the legacy core.Middleware / BaaS HubA translation layer that speaks JSON to fintechs and COBOL or batch files to banks.Fastest go-live, but you inherit a third-party ledger and revenue-share fees.Above-Core PlatformA bank-owned micro-services “skin” that wraps the legacy core with APIs and a high-speed cache.Gives fintech partners near-instant balances while the mainframe stays the book of record.Shadow (Sub-) LedgerA secondary set of balances—often in middleware—that tracks each end-user while the bank sees only pooled funds.Great for scale; dangerous if not reconciled daily.Omnibus / FBO AccountOne big core account “For the Benefit Of” many end-users.Simpler for the bank, but clarity dies if the shadow ledger drifts.ReconciliationThe nightly (or hourly) ritual of proving every debit and credit rolled up correctly to the core GL.Skip it once and tomorrow’s auditors own your weekend.FedNow / RTPU.S. instant-payment rails—FedNow (Fed) and RTP (The Clearing House). Both settle in real time, 24 × 7 × 365.Legacy batch cores struggle here; sidecar or above-core makes life easier.TokenizationSwapping sensitive data (card number, account number) for a random “token” that’s useless if stolen.Reduces PCI scope and soothes regulators.Cryptographic Hash ChainEach ledger entry plugs the hash of the previous one into its header—edit a byte, break the chain.An immutability trick borrowed from blockchains; boosts audit confidence.SAB 122 (ex-SAB 121)SEC bulletin that rescinded the rule forcing banks to book custodial crypto on-balance-sheet.Re-opens the door for compliant crypto custody inside modern cores.1250 % Basel Risk WeightProposed capital rule for unbacked crypto: hold a dollar in capital for every dollar of Bitcoin.Drives architecture—banks prefer models that keep those assets off their own books. How to use this table: If a term shows up later and you can’t remember why it matters, jump back here. Everything in the guide builds on these building blocks—and yes, we’ll revisit them in context so they stick. With a common vocabulary in place, let’s walk through the first rail the CIO circled in red—Sidecar Core. Sidecar Cores: A Parallel Track for Hyper-Speed Innovation With our terms locked in, we can finally explore the three rails that dominated the whiteboard. We’ll start with the option our CIO scribbled “Plan A” beside—the sidecar core. How It Works Picture a freight train (your legacy core) rolling reliably at forty miles an hour. You can’t stop it, but you can lay a second track beside it and run a bullet train (your sidecar core) on electrified rails. At designated stations—cards, deposits, loan postings—the two trains exchange cargo through well-timed sidings. Technically, the sidecar is a separate core database—cloud native, event-driven, ISO-20022 fluent. Banks can migrate new digital brands or specific product lines (crypto wallets, teen cards, multicurrency accounts) onto that modern stack while the mainframe continues to serve branch and ACH traffic. Pros of Sidecar Cores Immediate real-time capability. FedNow, RTP, and 24/7 card auth need millisecond journaling the old batch core can’t achieve.Risk isolation. If the sidecar hiccups, the branch system still clears checks at 4 p.m.—no five-state outage headlines. Migration runway. Once executives trust the sidecar, entire portfolios shift naturally over months, not years. What to Watch-For Dual governance. Auditors now have to test two sets of change-management pipelines. Ledger sync discipline. Reconcile events happen at least hourly; though drift feels small on day-one, on day-hundred they’re catastrophic. Exit strategy. Choose a vendor whose data model exports cleanly; otherwise you’ve traded one legacy for another. Is It Your Track? Use a sidecar when product innovation outruns mainframe release cycles and your board is willing to pay an up-front licence in exchange for long-run flexibility. Sidecars are great when you can fund a second core; when time or budget says “no,” teams grab a translator instead. Middleware & BaaS Hubs: Translation Layers for Lightning Launches Sidecars solve the “need-for-speed + total control” problem—great, but not every bank has the budget or the appetite for a second core. When launch deadlines shrink from months to weeks, many teams reach for a translator instead. Enter middleware and BaaS. How It Works Imagine hiring a multilingual concierge. Fintech apps speak JSON; your core speaks COBOL. The concierge (middleware) takes each request—“open an account,” “post a debit”—converts it, then batches updates back to the core. Some concierges also keep a sub-ledger so they can answer balance inquiries without waking the mainframe. Early middleware providers wrapped this service in compliance, KYC, and dispute handling, selling an all-in-one on-ramp to thousands of startups. On the other side, banks earned interchange and deposits without touching a line of code. Pros of Middleware & BaaS Speed. OAuth keys within a few days, and an MVP in six weeks. Talent arbitrage. Community banks gain Silicon-Valley API expertise overnight. CapEx friendly. Pay per transaction; no need to buy a second core. What to Watch-For Third-party risk. If the concierge’s (in this case, your middleware/BaaS provider) ledger drifts or its capital dries up, your customers will feel the outage first. Margin leakage. Revenue share can reach 30–40 bps. At scale that matters, turning your business into a revenue incinerator instead of a profit engine. Regulatory spotlight. U.S. regulators issued more enforcement actions to BaaS partner banks than any other category over the past two years. Is It Your Play? Choose middleware when you need to validate market demand yesterday and accept that you are trading control for launch speed. And, most important of all: Build an exit plan on day one. Middleware buys speed but adds third-party ledgers. The middle road is an above-core layer your bank owns outright—let’s break it down. Above-Core Platforms: Modern APIs Without Abandoning the Mother Ship Middleware gets you on the track fast, yet some sponsors worry about third-party ledgers and revenue-share bleed. For them, the compromise is an above-core layer: modern APIs, familiar ledger-of-record. Let’s see how that works in practice. How It Works An above-core layer wraps a legacy banking core (the one that was bought in the 90s) with micro-services, message queues, and a high-speed cache. The core remains the official system of record, but the cache handles real-time auth and fires webhook events to fintech partners. Think of it as a neural layer sitting atop an older brain stem. Some banks run this layer themselves; others license platforms like Infinant or Finzly, which include GUI consoles, virtual-account engines, and automated settlement back to the core. Pros of Above-Core Platforms Regulator-friendly. No extra ledger outside the bank’s direct control. Incremental. Swap one service at a time; sunset them once the new layer proves itself. Multi-tenant. One platform can host dozens of partner programs with isolated configs. Cons Core finality delay. If the underlying host settles EOD, the platform must manage pending-balance logic. Engineering ops burden. Bank teams own cache coherency, alerting, and hot-patches. Not unlimited. Some legacy cores cap account objects; virtual accounts hide, but don’t eliminate, systemic limits. Is It Your Move? Leverage above-core when your institution refuses a second core but still wants to court fintech deposit flows. Expect three to six months of standing-up effort rather than six weeks. A Fintech & Banking Builder’s Decision Tree Now we’ve walked all three tracks. The natural question at the whiteboard was, “Which one do we pick, and in what order?” The next section lays out a decision tree we’d use to map for stakeholders: Let’s return to our Des Moines whiteboard I introduced in the intro. The bank’s product lead wants instant payouts, a gig-worker debit card, and a crypto reward wallet on the 2026 roadmap. Together we walk through five narrative checkpoints we’d likely cover in the meeting: Speed Promise vs. Regulatory Calendar: Launch by Christmas argues for middleware. Fed exam in March nudges us toward above-core, where bank staff own the ledger. Feature Ambition: FedNow and tokenized deposits in Year 2 signal sidecar. These functions thrive on modern cores with event sourcing. Balance Sheet Appetite: If the bank fears omnibus balance swings, middleware’s pooled-fund model feels uncomfortable. Sidecar or above-core keep account granularity clear. Capital vs. Opex: Community banks love revenue-share until volume spikes. Our CIO sketches unit economics at 500k accounts; licence fees win by Year 3. Talent Reality Check: Three engineers? Middleware. A 12-person DevOps squad and a cloud budget? Sidecar or above-core is possible. So what could a solution look like in the end? By noon the whiteboard shows a phased plan: launch on file-based SFTP middleware to prove demand; in parallel, integrate Ingo’s API gateway into the bank’s FIS core. Twelve months later migrate balances to that near real-time channel. The board approves because no customer path dead-ends. Security & Crypto: The Silent Contract with Your User By now, we’ve mapped out the integration options (sidecar, middleware, above-core), drawn up your game plan, and even envisioned a future state architecture. Feels good, right? But there’s one critical step we can’t skip: making sure your system is secure and trustworthy from day one. In payments and banking, trust is everything. While users may not care about encryption algorithms or audit trails, they will absolutely notice if their balances seem off or if news headlines about leaked data suddenly break. Here’s the good news: building security into your solution doesn’t have to be rocket science. Whether you implement a sidecar, middleware, or an above-core layer, securing your platform comes down to a six fundamental practices I’ll outline here: The Six Essentials of Secure Payment Systems Lock your data: Encrypt everything. That means every databases (Postgres, Cassandra, you name it), and every API call. This prevents unauthorized access and protects sensitive account information from being stolen or sold. Swap secrets for tokens: Replace sensitive data—like PANs, Social Security numbers, and bank account numbers—with randomized “tokens.” Use a proper Key Management System: Store cryptographic keys, system passwords, and application secrets securely in a dedicated Key Management System—not alongside user data—so they are separated from processing systems with proper access controls. Apply strict access controls and regular audits to protect these critical assets from insider threats and external attackers. Ensure non-repudiation for API calls: Design your API system so that every request is cryptographically signed and logged to ensure that no one can deny or tamper with actions once they happen. This practice strengthens accountability and simplifies audits. Seal your ledger entries: Adopt blockchain-inspired practices by cryptographically linking each ledger entry to the previous one. This creates a tamper-evident chain, instantly triggering alerts if someone tries to alter records. Change your keys often: Rotate encryption keys and certificates regularly. Fresh keys frustrate hackers and keep compliance officers happy—no nasty audit fndings due to outdated certificates. Pro tip: With newer systems like sidecar or above-core models, many of these protections are built-in. With older middleware solutions, you’ll likely need to add extra tooling to achieve the same security standards. What about crypto and digital assets? If your roadmap includes handling Bitcoin, stablescoins, NFTs or other digital assets, you’ll have a few additional requirements: Multi-signature vaults: Protect custody accounts with multi-signature (multi-sig) schemes that require multiple independent keys to authorize withdrawals and prevent a single insider or hacker from draining customer assets. Clearly label custodial assets: Always mark crypto holdings as “off-balance-sheet” custodial assets (owned by your customers, not the institution). This satisfies regulatory requirements and shields your corporate balance sheet from crypto market volatility. The upside? Modern cores make managing crypto custody easier. Sometimes it’s as simple as flipping a configuration switch to stay compliant and audit-ready. At the end of the day, security is not just about locks. It’s also about trust. Just as important as building strong protections is staying nimble as regulations evolve… which leads us to the next chapter: Accounting and Regulation. Accounting & Regulation – Staying Nimble as the Rules Keep Shifting Regulations might sound boring until they suddenly aren’t. A single bulletin from regulators can rewrite the rules overnight—and if your technology can’t pivot just as fast, your business suffers. Let me illustrate with a quick story: Back in 2022, the SEC released something called SAB 121. Essentially, it said, “Banks, if you hold customers’ crypto, you must count that crypto as your own asset.” Suddenly, holding Bitcoin meant banks needed huge capital buffers. Many institutions backed away immediately—too risky, too costly. Fast-forward to early 2025, and the SEC reversed itself with SAB 122, lifting that rule. Banks scrambled to re-launch crypto custody services within weeks. What does that rollercoaster mean for your core choice? Simple: your technology can’t be rigid. Two key regulatory concerns you should track: Basel’s proposed 1250% risk-weight: Still being debated, this rule could force banks holding crypto directly on their balance sheets to keep huge capital reserves. Instant audit-readiness: If regulations change again, expect auditors to request immediate proof showing exactly which assets belong to your customers versus your bank—within hours, not days. Here’s how different core choices affect your flexibility: Core ChoiceWhat happens if regulators shift tomorrow?SidecarEasily mark crypto as “off-balance” or “on-balance” with a simple config change. No code refactoring needed.Above-coreUpdate a setting in your cache or service layer quickly. Usually just a small adjustment, overnight.Thin MiddlewareYou’re at the mercy of your middleware vendor—changes might require their engineering team, meaning weeks of waiting. In short, pick a core setup that lets you change asset labels with the flick of a switch, not weeks of development time. Future you—and your CFO—will be eternally grateful. Ingo’s Modular Core: Flexibility by Design At this point, you might be thinking: “Okay Lisa, you’ve walked me through all these paths—sidecar cores, middleware solutions, and above-core platforms—but where does Ingo actually fit?” Great question! Let me simplify this: Think of Ingo as your ultimate modular toolkit. Rather than locking you into a single rigid setup, we built flexible pieces you can easily combine, rearrange, or swap out based on your evolving needs. Here’s what’s in the toolbox: Core Adapters: Plug directly into FIS, Fiserv, or Jack Henry cores using your preferred method—file-based (like SFTP or BAI2), or modern RESTful APIs. High-Speed Ledger: Handle not just dollars, but also stablecoins, reward points, or even NFTs—all from one ledger that can scale instantly. Real-Time Event Bus: Instead of making your partners constantly ask for status updates, we proactively push out notifications via Kafka-style streams or webhooks—faster and friendlier. Programmable Workflows: Customizable tools that make KYC, fraud screening, card tokenization, and FedNow instant transfers simple to manage—and easy to change as rules or your roadmap shift. Here’s the magic part: Banks choose their pace: Want to start with overnight file-based batches today and upgrade to real-time tomorrow? No problem. Fintech builders code once: Build your app just one time against Ingo’s SDK, and you automatically inherit the capabilities your bank partner chooses. No rewrites. No headaches. In short, Ingo’s toolkit is designed to move at your pace. As your business grows, regulations evolve, or your roadmap takes new turns, our tech keeps up effortlessly—so you’re always ready for what’s next. Builder & Bank Checklists Having a versatile toolkit is great, but let’s face it—projects rarely go exactly as planned. That’s why I insist every project manager keeps a practical checklist taped somewhere visible (like that whiteboard we’ve been talking about) to keep all stakeholders aligned and accountable. Think of these checklists as your “sanity checks,” the items you’ll want to double-verify before anyone commits significant resources. For Banks Go-live date vs. Board Approval: How much lead time do you actually need from decision to launch? Projected Peak Volume: What’s your realistic max transactions-per-second (TPS) and total account count two years from now? Crypto Accounting Strategy: Have you clearly defined how crypto will appear (or not) on your balance sheet? DevOps & Pager Duty: Who’s answering the 3 a.m. alerts, and is the team staffed to manage real-time support? Regulatory Calendar: When’s your next safety-and-soundness review or IT audit? Can you confidently demonstrate readiness? CapEx vs. OpEx Preferences: Does your leadership prefer capitalized software licenses or variable, revenue-share structures? Data-Sovereignty Compliance: Are you fully aligned with state laws, GDPR, and sector-specific regulations around customer data? For Fintech Builders Sponsor Bank’s Architectural Preference: Do you know upfront what tech pattern your sponsor bank prefers? (Don’t guess—ask early!) Settlement SLAs for User Experience: What’s your target timing for balances to be settled for users, so you don’t get angry support calls? Reconciliation Reporting Needs: Exactly what month-end reports does your finance team expect, and can your provider deliver them consistently? Escrow Terms (Middleware Providers): If your middleware provider hits turbulence, what’s your contingency plan for protecting customer balances? Migration Hooks: Can you quickly export balances and account data if you need to pivot your strategy? Fraud Rules Flexibility: How easily can you customize fraud rules at the ledger layer to stay ahead of risks? Tokenization Approach: Are you clear on how sensitive data (card and account numbers) is handled—network tokens, aliases, or virtual account addresses? If any line stays unchecked for more than two sprints, that’s your cue to escalate and regroup. But if you check every box? Then your project launches the way our hypothetical team’s did: smoothly, with compliance satisfied, auditors relaxed, and dashboards lighting up with fresh revenue. Ready for one last sip of coffee? Let’s close this loop and get ready to celebrate your success. Final Thoughts: The Builders Who Choose Well Choosing the right architecture goes beyond a simple technical decision. It shapes your company’s ability to innovate, compete, and scale for years. Whether you opt for a Sidecar Core, Middleware Hub, or Above-Core Platform, the path you choose will impact your customer experience, compliance posture, and bottom-line outcomes. As you weigh these options, remember: Pick the model that aligns with your ambitions and roadmap—speed, control, and flexibility each have their place. Prioritize security, auditability, and regulatory clarity from day one to ensure trust never becomes an afterthought. Build in checkpoints to revisit your decision regularly—markets, rules, and customer needs evolve, and so should your strategy. The future of embedded banking and payments is exciting, fast-moving, and full of potential for those who approach it thoughtfully. You don’t have to navigate it alone. At Ingo, we’ve seen what separates lasting success from costly missteps over our 25 year history in the market. Our team knows these paths inside out, and we’re here to help guide you through your next big decision. Ready to talk through your plan, explore new ideas, or just sanity-check your roadmap? Reach out to our team—let’s build something remarkable, together. Bring your ideas. We’ll bring the coffee, markers, experience, and solutions.

For over a decade, I’ve watched the payments industry act like a city transportation department obsessed with building newer, faster train lines. First it was the peer-to-peer express, then the blockchain bullet train – each promising to be the next breakthrough in moving money. But as we look toward 2025, I’m convinced we’ve been focused on the wrong goal. After all, a shiny new train line doesn’t help if you really need to take a bus, grab a taxi, or ride your bike. What people really want isn’t another way to get from point A to point B – they want the freedom to travel anywhere, anytime, using whatever transportation makes sense for their journey. The same is true for money movement. Beyond the Rails: The Real Payment Revolution The numbers tell the story. Heading into 2025, the CFPB will now oversee more than 13 billion annual consumer payment transactions. The average consumer juggles multiple bank accounts, payment apps, and digital wallets. Businesses need to pay out through everything from instant deposit to digital wallets to paper checks. It’s like asking someone to buy separate tickets for every mode of transportation they might need on a trip – inefficient, expensive, and unnecessarily complex. And this complexity isn’t just theoretical. Take for example an insurance company trying to process claims payments. They might need one system for ACH transfers, another for check printing, another for card payments, and yet another for digital wallet transfers. Each system has its own integration requirements, risk management protocols, and regulatory considerations. It’s like running four different transit authorities in the same city, each with their own ticketing systems, safety protocols, and schedules. The operational overhead is enormous, and the potential for things to go wrong multiplies with every new system added. Yet most payment solutions still force consumers and businesses into rigid pathways. Want to deposit a check? Wait three days at the station. Need to move money between accounts? That’ll be a 24-48 hour layover. Want to receive an insurance payout instantly? Sorry, you’re on the wrong line – please transfer to platform 9¾. This fragmentation isn’t just inconvenient – it’s becoming a regulatory liability. When Ingo first pioneered push-to-debit capabilities over a decade ago, we were solving what seemed like a simple problem: getting money to a consumer’s debit card instantly. But we quickly learned that speed without security creates chaos. It’s like building a high-speed rail system without proper safety signals and crossings – you’re just creating new risks at higher speeds. As payment volumes grow exponentially, regulators are demanding stronger consumer protections and more sophisticated risk management. The old model of treating each payment rail as its own isolated transit system simply won’t cut it anymore. The solution isn’t building more isolated systems, it’s fundamentally rethinking how we connect and secure all forms of money movement. The Rise of Intelligent Money Movement What’s emerging instead is a new paradigm I call “intelligent money movement.” Think of it as a universal transit pass that works across every form of transportation, with built-in safety features and real-time journey planning. This approach focuses on three critical elements that will define successful payment platforms in 2025: First, unified risk management across all transaction types. Whether you’re taking a train, bus, or taxi, you want consistent safety standards. The same goes for money movement – whether it’s a check deposit, card load, or ACH transfer, every transaction needs real-time risk scoring and fraud prevention. Second, instant availability with appropriate controls. Just as modern transit systems can fast-track known commuters while adding extra security checks for unusual journeys, smart payment platforms use real-time data to make funds available instantly when safe while applying additional verification when needed. This intelligent approach to money movement isn’t just about making things faster – it’s about making them smarter. Our experience processing billions in transactions has shown that different payment types carry different risk profiles, just like different types of journeys require different levels of security. A payroll deposit from a known employer is like a daily commuter train – predictable, regular, lower risk. A large check deposit from an unknown source is more like an international flight – it requires additional verification to ensure everything is legitimate. The key is having systems intelligent enough to adapt security protocols based on the type of journey. Third, complete payment freedom for the end user. Your transit pass should work everywhere, and your money should move just as freely. The platform shouldn’t care whether someone wants their insurance payout on a debit card, in their PayPal account, as a paper check, or on a new, instantly issued account. Building for 2025: A New Architecture for Money Movement This vision requires a fundamental rethinking of payment architecture. Instead of building separate stations for every type of transportation, enterprises need unified hubs that can: Handle any payment source or destination through a single integration Apply consistent risk management across all transaction types Provide real-time visibility into money movement Maintain regulatory compliance at scale For enterprises building or expanding payment capabilities, here are the critical considerations for 2025: Audit your money movement infrastructure: Map out every vendor, integration, and system needed to process different payment types. Each connection is a potential point of failure. Assess your risk management consistency: Test whether a $1,000 transaction gets the same level of scrutiny whether it’s coming through ACH, card deposit, or check scanning. Inconsistency creates vulnerability. Evaluate your customer experience: Try to complete common payment journeys through your platform. If customers hit dead ends or forced detours, you’re limiting their financial freedom. My 2025 Prediction The technology to enable this vision already exists. We’re seeing and helping leading enterprises implement unified payment platforms that can process everything from instant digital account funding to disbursements through a single integration. These platforms are proving that with the right architecture and risk management capabilities, you can offer payment freedom without compromising security or compliance. The real challenge ahead isn’t technical innovation – it’s embracing a fundamental shift in how we think about moving money. Just as modern cities succeed by connecting their subways, buses, bikes, and rideshares into one seamless transportation system, tomorrow’s payment leaders will win by unifying all forms of money movement under one intelligent platform. My prediction for 2025 is simple: Just as travelers today expect to get anywhere using any combination of car, plane, or train without hassle, consumers and businesses will expect that same freedom with their money. The companies that succeed won’t be the ones building slightly faster trains – they’ll be the ones creating intelligent networks that can move money as freely and safely as people move through a well-designed city. The future of payments isn’t about rails – it’s about freedom. And that freedom comes from having the intelligence to get money where it needs to go, safely and instantly, by any path necessary.

It seems like these days every transactional business is looking for a way to simplify and accelerate payouts and disbursements. Many companies are turning to payout orchestration providers like Ingo Payments, to handle every facet of a disbursement, so they can essentially “fire and forget it”.  While Ingo Payments offers a host of embedded payments technologies, we pride ourselves on the comprehensive scale of our DigitalPay SaaS platform. Simply put, our DigitalPay SaaS platform is an end-to-end payments platform that seamlessly manages customer digital engagement and payouts orchestration across the disbursements lifecycle, from initiation to settlement, while ensuring security, compliance, and risk management, in a custom-branded experience. But what are the components of our DigitalPay SaaS solution? And what makes it a superior choice for a company looking to implement digital disbursements without the hassles of building internal infrastructure or managing risk and compliance?  This article will walk you through the benefits of a full-scale solution and discuss what makes Ingo Payments a top choice that can make payouts easier for your business, no matter what industry you operate in. (For more information on how Ingo can work to create a bespoke payment solution for your specific industry needs, check this out.) What Do We Mean By “Full-Scale”?  Launched in 2019, Ingo’s full-scale platform supports both single- and multi-party ad hoc and recurring disbursements and P2P payments. It offers configurable, dynamic workflows, as well as comprehensive risk and compliance management.  All this comes with a customizable look, tone, feel, and voice for your unique business. Our platform can be configured for both small-scale individual clients and large, enterprise payment systems. In other words, whatever your needs, the DigitalPay SaaS platform will fit your business.  But let’s break down our platform’s key features and how they might help a business scale.   A Customizable Digital Payment Center platform  Building out an interface for a digital payments disbursement center is no small task: it involves extensive development work as well as UX design to support a wide array of workflows and user journeys. It also requires complex back-end integrations with both existing payment rails and external partners. Ingo makes the whole process simple by offering a proprietary digital payouts solution that is easily configured and fully brandable, incorporating your existing website or mobile app interface’s look, tone, and feel and your brand voice.  Robust Payments Processing Our SaaS platform offers broad payment choice and reaches over 4.5B accounts, including bank accounts by debit card, RTP and ACH, credit cards, digital wallets, even instant digital accounts and cards providing disbursements recipients with unmatched choice—which leads to increased customer satisfaction.  That’s the Ingo difference. Our proprietary payments network is designed to provide redundancy, automated failover, and least-cost routing. This network was created based on decades of experience and long-established integrations with payment networks and top-tier financial institutions. Our clients can rely on these direct integrations to ensure that their money reliably goes to the right place at the least cost, every time.  Risk Management/Compliance: User Authentication and Account Verification When it comes to payment processing, risk management, and compliance are vital aspects of ensuring that money ends up in the right place. Good risk management begins with user authentication. Ingo provides a variety of authentication capabilities, including knowledge-based, multi-factor, one-time authorization and single sign-on integration options. Authentication methods may vary by use case and according to custom risk rules. Ingo’s DigitalPay SaaS solution boasts multiple customer payment options, which means that behind the scenes verification (name, address, account number, codes and routing numbers, etc.) and comparison of data sets between client and customer is a vital aspect of keeping money secure.  The Ingo solution also includes counter-verification through payment network or third-party services which matches up data and ensures that an account is in good standing in terms of ownership as well as status before money is moved, reducing payment failures and transactional risk.  Different companies have different needs associated with risk, often depending on the amount of funds involved in day-to-day transactions. The Ingo solution allows individual clients to determine what they want their risk rules to be, and how robust their risk management engine is. We then configure the platform to balance seamless/frictionless transactions with tighter, more customer-intensive verification.  Payment Reconciliation Our payment orchestration system keeps track of all transactions to ensure that the amounts settled match the amounts processed. Discrepancies are flagged for further inspection in our reconciliation platform, which works to ensure accuracy in every transaction. Ingo also provides daily line-item reconciliation reporting and aggregated treasury account settlement to ensure maximum security and clear visibility into your numbers.  Reporting and Analytics Speaking of data, Ingo’s SaaS solution boasts comprehensive reporting and analytics tools that provide insights into transaction volume, metrics associated with your customer journey and behavior (from risk screening to payment type mix), and other key performance indicators. This data helps businesses optimize payment strategies and identify areas for improvement, ultimately upping client satisfaction and reducing friction.  In addition, SaaS clients not only get financial business performance, but also trend reporting and industry benchmarks to get you the insights you need to guide business decision-making. Data Security Ingo maintains data security and integrity meeting data encryption standards for non-public personal information and financial data. This means maintaining compliance with SSAE SOC 1, Type 2, SOC 2, Type 2, and PCI DSS Level 1 security standards, which is considered the most robust in each category. Unparalleled Client Servicing and Support Throughout the entire process, our DigitalPay SaaS platform prioritizes a seamless and frictionless client experience, minimizing payment errors, delays, and disruptions. We provide our clients with end-to-end operational support for payment disputes, including proof of payment evidence and clawback requests.  Ingo also conducts quarterly business reviews to optimize your disbursements program, receive feedback and inform future product offerings. In Conclusion Ingo Payments’ full-scale, DigitalPay SaaS platform is a best-in-class all-in-one solution for building and scaling digital disbursements capabilities for companies across a wide spectrum of payout needs. Ingo provides infrastructure and support to make adding disbursements a breeze for businesses of all sizes, from start-ups to enterprise-level businesses.  To learn more about how the Ingo SaaS platform might work for your specific business needs, contact a specialist here.

At Ingo, we care about payments orchestration. And that’s no surprise, considering orchestration is both a vital aspect of the payments landscape, and one that’s often overlooked. But what is payments orchestration, and why does it matter? At it’s most simple: payments orchestration involves the management and coordination of all the disparate parts of a payment—from start to finish, across external vendors, internal systems and financial institutions. Traditionally, this payments orchestration has referred to merchant acquisition or an inbound consumer payment and covers payment authorization, transaction routing and settlement. But the rise in popularity of increased money mobility and instant access, as well as an ever-evolving digital fraud landscape, has dramatically changed the dynamics of payments orchestration. The expectation that money can flow seamlessly into and out of any account a consumer chooses, instantly and safely, now requires payment orchestrators to manage both inbound and outbound money transfers. This is a level of orchestration that few third-party providers can reach and that fewer still have achieved successfully and at scale. Payments Orchestration 101 Payments orchestration is influenced by many factors and varying perspectives. It’s. more than a simple payments process—its function varies widely depending on the company, its industry, and the complexity of its payment operations. At its core, a payment relies on a processor to deliver funds to an account number. As the originator, a company issues a directive to “pay this account” and the processor obliges. But it would be wrong to assume that an organization can simply contract with a processor like Stripe and begin issuing payments. The value of a well thought-out payment orchestration system quickly becomes apparent when chargebacks start and losses mount—with poor visibility into what’s going on, and poor organization to keep everything running smoothly. This is because a processor does not handle all the many ancillary (yet vital) operations that go into making a payment. The processor does not confirm if an account number is valid and active, that an account is owned by the intended party, or that the account in question has been screened for sanctions. Nor do they tokenize the account for future payments, creating a redundancy in the system which can cause slower payments. These orchestration functions are normally performed by separate vendors or partners that are managed by the payments’ orchestrator. In the past, many companies have served as their own payments orchestrators. But rising complexity and the demands of money mobility are making this ever more challenging, as we have articulated. So, with mounting complexity and poor internal mechanism in place, what does a business do to ensure smooth payment orchestration at every step of the process? Well, that’s where we come in. Ingo Payments is the only external payments orchestrator handling both inbound and outbound money flows. Payments Orchestration for Money Mobility As the pioneer in push payments and the leader in money mobility solutions, Ingo Payments is practiced at the art of payments orchestration. Through a single API integration, we can handle every component of a payment on a client’s behalf and configure these services to meet a client’s business and digital workflow processes and desired customer experience. From the moment a company supplies payment instructions, we go to work. The Ingo system first verifies the account is valid, in good standing and passes account verification screenings. We then report back on this status and, if valid, tokenize the account so companies can send future payments without having to store personally identifiable customer account information, relieving them of PCI-level security burdens. Once the sender issues an actual payment process request using the token information and transaction amount, Ingo initiates all the required regulatory screening. These include all relevant anti-money laundering (AML), Know Your Customer (KYC) and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) requirements to ensure recipients are not subject to sanctions or other concerns. If the recipient account clears all the checks, Ingo then issues the payment. If there is a hit on the screening, the platform escalates the concern to the Ingo Risk Center for further review. Ingo Payments also offers clients a unique guarantee against losses. Our add-on transaction risk underwriting and transaction guarantee services allow clients to breathe easy knowing they will enjoy exceptionally high approval rates without being on the hook for fraudulent payments or other risk-related issues. Saving Time and Money with Ingo Payments Ingo Payment’s end-to-end payments orchestration capability means clients can “fire and forget it.” We handle every facet of a payment in an in-line flow. Our platform can plug into external vendors, and even be customized to allow certain functions to be handled in-house (or by another trusted partner if preferred). Without Ingo, clients would have to either integrate separately to different vendors for account verification, sanctions screening, tokenization, processing and more, or integrate to a processor that might offer some of these third-party services. In both cases, a client would still need to build its own payments orchestration system and processes. This DIY approach means more vendors and agreements, more technical integration, more complex technical development, and, ultimately, more incremental expense. With Ingo, clients get the advantage of a simplified integration with third-party services configured and managed synchronously by Ingo behind a reduced API call set, significantly reducing development complexity. Our clients also benefit from the halo effect of our cumulative volume and pricing, as well as the redundancy necessary to protect against downtime due to third-party vendor technical issues and outages. Ultimately, the need for payments orchestration is taking on greater urgency and complexity in the era of Money Mobility. Ingo Money stands alone as a trusted, proven orchestration partner that can deliver on the promises of seamlessness and security at scale, providing companies with time and cost savings and—perhaps more importantly—total peace of mind.