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Insights and Expertise

Effective payments address the complexities of a modern payment sys-
tem.
testing: DIY versus • Cost and time efficiency: Building and maintaining
a sophisticated in-house testing environment is often
getting the experts in costly and time-consuming. Specialist, external solu-
tions can streamline the process for your in-house
team, automate repetitive tasks, and reduce the need
for extensive manual testing, actually saving money
and resources.

There are four stages to using payment testing solutions
successfully:
1. Test creation (a human, creative approach is recom-
mended using your internal expertise to implement)
2. Set-up (can be repetitive, time consuming and prone
to error)
3. Test execution (is "Fiddly", time taking, and can be
easily automated)
4. Test result analysis (can be automated, leaving more
time for the good stuff, which is a human taking a crit-
ical view of what has really taken place during testing
By Anthony Walton and its impact).
Iliad Solutions If you can get stages 2 and 3 to near zero and add automation

IY or do-it-yourself is a common approach to stage 4 using an externally created, cutting edge testing
when trying to save money. It's usually a ref- solution, then you can better utilize the expertise in your
erence linked to home improvements but can own team to do what they should be doing: creating great
D equally apply to wider situations. DIY pay- test cases and tweaking and evolving them based on the
ment testing is a phenomenon in the financial services results they observe.
sector, but at what risk? • Up-to-date compliance and standards: Payment
ecosystems must comply with strict regulatory stan-
At the outset it may seem like a good idea for a bank's dards (for example, PCI DSS, SEPA and ISO 20022).
in-house team to do significant manual testing or use Specialist testing providers are generally quick to
legacy technology, but like any other resource-challenged
project, payment testing of this kind can be at higher risk
of glitches and go spectacularly wrong. Five reasons to outsource payment testing

Any testing error can inflict significant pain on a bank and 1. Accuracy and reliability: Specialized testing tools
its customers both in monetary and reputational terms. reduce errors and ensure flawless performance across
Payment testing needs to be flawless. Getting external, payment scenarios.
expert testing resources involved from the get-go, to
support the in-house team, is considered a must by many. 2. Cost and time savings: Automating repetitive tasks
cuts manual labor, freeing teams for strategic work.
Benefits to outsourced payments testing
3. Regulatory compliance: Providers stay current with
Financial institutions using a specialist, outsourced PCI DSS, SEPA and ISO 20022 standards, reducing
payments testing option can benefit in a number of key regulatory risks.
ways: 4. Security and rraud prevention: Modern solutions
• Enhanced accuracy and reliability: Specialist ex- simulate threats to strengthen defenses and ensure
ternal solutions are designed specifically for the resilience.
complex requirements of payment systems. They 5. Scalability and speed: Flexible platforms adapt to
provide industry-standard testing capabilities that new payment types and enable faster launches.
reduce human error, improve test coverage and en-
sure that transactions perform as expected across a Outsourcing payment testing ensures compliance, secu-
variety of scenarios and payment rails. rity, and efficiency—protecting banks from costly errors
Recent technological advances are being leveraged while enabling growth in a competitive market.
for the first time to build platforms that can truly

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