Bottomline Sees Its Global Pay Connect Setting the Stage for Future Payments – Digital Transactions

Bottomline Technologies Inc. early Thursday unveiled Global Pay Connect, a platform aimed at easing real-time payments adoption for banks through APIs. The move comes as the company’s research indicates 40% of chief financial officers at banks name outdated technology as the biggest obstacle to real-time payment adoption.

“Financial institutions are trying to build a foundation for richer operational intelligence and emerging payment models,” said Vitus Rotzer, global head of banking at Portsmouth, N.H.-based Bottomline, in a statement. “The challenge has moved from connecting to payment networks towards institutions needing infrastructure that can adapt to real-time payments, API-enabled services, and evolving payment models.”

Bottomline’s move comes as real-time payments are gaining momentum and as banks are seeking technology to support faster-payments processing. The Clearing House, which has been processing real-time payments since 2017, reached 142 million transactions in the second quarter with a total value of $576 billion. The New York City-based processor is owned by many of the nation’s largest banks. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve’s FedNow service, launched in 2023, reported June-quarter daily volume grew 81% to 54,921 transactions from 30,317 in the first quarter.

Bottomline’s latest initiative also embraces blockchain-based transactions, the company says. It has entered into an agreement with Chainlink, a blockchain platform, to ease interoperability and pave the way for banks to reach several blockchain networks through an existing link to Bottomline. The move comes as a set of vital rules for cryptocurrency, the Clarity Act, failed 50-49 Tuesday in a crucial U.S. Senate vote.

For now, Bottomline sees its move as laying the groundwork for longer-term development. “Global Pay Connect is the bridge between today’s payment-infrastructure requirements and the future evolution of payments ecosystems,” Rotzer says in his statement. “It will help institutions deliver greater value from payment data through intelligent validation and AI-enhanced insights, while supporting emerging payment models, such as digital assets and tokenization.”

A portfolio company of the investment firm Thoma Bravo, Bottomline says it processes more than $16 trillion in payments yearly.