Dr. Lynne J. Baldwin, President and Michael E. Meeks, CTO The rapid evolution of the payments landscape has reshaped expectations across the board. New payment methods have left legacy back-office systems in limbo, and maintaining them is challenging. Financial services companies relying on outdated systems face rising costs, liability and operational risks. Modernization has become imperative to manage the surging volume of transactions and stay competitive.
BHMI is at the forefront of payments innovation with its flagship product, the Concourse Financial Software Suite™. The fully integrated platform is designed to modernize and optimize the back-office processing of electronic payments.
"Modernization can't stop at the front end," says Dr. Lynne J. Baldwin, president. "The most innovative institutions are transforming their back-office operations into unified, intelligent ecosystems that offer speed, transparency and control."
A major drawback of legacy platforms is their fragmented structure, which divides functions across siloed systems. One system for reconciling daily transaction data, another for assessing and applying network and interchange fees, a third for generating and managing settlement files, and another for tracking disputes and chargebacks. The result is a complex environment marked by data inconsistencies across platforms, leading to delayed reconciliation and settlement cycles, manual handoffs that introduce mistakes, limited real-time visibility into the true status of payments throughout the day, and inefficient dispute resolution processes.
“Fragmentation is one of the biggest challenges we see in payment operations today,” says Michael E. Meeks, CTO of BHMI. “Institutions can’t afford to have their data, workflows, and systems disconnected. A unified back office is no longer optional—it’s essential for real-time visibility, automation, and control.”
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Modernization can't stop at the front end.
The constraints of legacy back-office systems are particularly apparent in settlement processing. Payments are complete only when they are settled, but most back-office systems are batch oriented. When payments reach these systems, they are gathered into large files collected throughout the day and submitted for settlement only once or twice during the period. The delay leaves payments incomplete and limits visibility. The legacy platforms are built for card-based transactions and are rigid and expensive to modify for newer digital, real-time and account-to-account payments.
Streamlined Back-Office, Smarter Payments
The Concourse Financial Software Suite is a modular package that performs back-office processing functions, such as transaction reconciliation, fee assessment, settlement processing, and dispute workflow management. Its unified architecture supports all types of electronic payments, including credit, debit, prepaid, and real-time payments made using any device, such as ATM, POS, or mobile.
It directly addresses hampered operational agility and efficiency by replacing batch-oriented workflows with real-time loading and continuous processing that accelerates reconciliation and settlement cycles. User-configurable business rules provide enhanced productivity and flexibility.
The suite also strengthens business relationships by offering greater flexibility in fee and commission structures, unlocking new revenue opportunities. Its ability to provide accurate and timely evidence significantly reduces chargeback losses and financial write offs. Automation and streamlined processes lower the operational costs and simplify IT management, while unified audit trails and consistent controls enhance compliance.
Built with agility in mind, Concourse supports emerging payment types, such as real-time and A2A transactions, ensuring financial institutions remain adaptable in a rapidly evolving payments landscape. It natively supports emerging formats, such as ISO 20022, alongside the long-standing ISO 8583 standard, ensuring institutions can seamlessly adopt new payment types without disruption.
To see Concourse’s modernized approach to back-office processing in action, consider a typical debit card transaction.Within seconds of the transaction being authorized, it is loaded into the Concourse system. Reconciliation logic instantly matches it with issuer, acquirer and network data while fees are assessed in real-time using pre configured business rules. Settlement instructions are generated and validated within the same system, and reports and output files are automatically created. If this transaction is later disputed, a dispute analyst will gain immediate access to transaction records, fee details and settlement history, enabling them to submit complete case packages within network deadlines. This streamlined process ensures faster back-office processing, fewer errors, and a higher level of transparency for financial institutions and their customers.
BHMI transforms the back office from a bottleneck into a strategic enabler, helping organizations to thrive in a fast-paced, real-time payments ecosystem.
