Transforming Payment Infrastructure for a Middle Eastern Bank with Finastra Fusion P2G

Overview

A mid-tier bank headquartered in the Middle East, with operations across five countries, sought to modernize its fragmented payment infrastructure. Struggling with outdated legacy systems, slow settlements, and limited real-time capabilities, the bank engaged Tellestia to overhaul its payment ecosystem. The goal: build a scalable, API-driven, ISO 20022-compliant platform powered by Finastra Fusion Payments To Go (P2G) to support real-time and cross-border payments, streamline integration, and drive compliance readiness.

The Challenge

The bank faced a series of critical challenges that hindered operational efficiency, customer experience, and regulatory compliance.

Business Challenges

• Lack of real-time payment capabilities, delaying transactions like Fedwire in the U.S.
• Inability to scale payments business due to legacy systems and slow settlement cycles (2–5 days).
• Regulatory pressure to adopt ISO 20022 and adhere to global compliance standards.
• High operational costs and poor visibility into payment statuses.

Technical Challenges

• Outdated, batch-based processing infrastructure with high maintenance overhead.
• Poor integration capabilities with fintech partners and payment service providers.
• Disjointed testing processes across functional systems.
• Difficulty handling diverse communication protocols (SFTP, JSON, XML, EDI).
• High technical debt and administrative complexity.

The Objective

To future-proof the payment ecosystem by:

• Implementing a cloud-native, API-first payment processing platform.
• Enabling real-time and cross-border payments with minimal latency.
• Achieving seamless integration with the bank's core banking system, channels, and third-party partners.
• Ensuring full compliance with ISO 20022 and emerging global standards.
• Building an architecture that supports scalability, observability, and operational efficiency.

The Solution

Tellestia designed and implemented a tailored mediation and transformation platform using Finastra Fusion Payments To Go (P2G), enabling the bank to process payments with greater speed, accuracy, and resilience.

Tellestia played a critical role in the success of this payments transformation initiative by delivering value in two key areas:

The Impact

The transformation delivered substantial business and operational value:

• Enhanced Customer Experience: Real-time payments significantly improved customer satisfaction.
• Future-Proof Architecture: Ready for schemes like FedNow, Fedwire, and SEPA Instant.
• Fraud Risk Reduction: Embedded AI/ML models helped detect anomalies and reduce fraud exposure.