Page 30 - gs260302

Insights and Expertise

The KPIs will show escalating damage, but in prac- even data breaches. KPIs provide the evidence of ineffi-
tice the company may not have full control over it. ciency, but without ownership of the underlying flows, the
True resilience is about understanding who ulti- organization stays in reactive mode.
mately handles the base codes, how data is secured
and whether alternative routes exist. The role of the chief payment officer
Every international company will face a payment and
This needs expertise and understanding of how banking issue soon or later: this is clearly a governance
the payment and banking infrastructure actually gap, but very few organizations recognize it as such. There
works—but this is a unique and special skill. With- are still no clear standards, no widely accepted best prac-
out this clarity, the technology KPIs can give a false tices and no commonly recognized certification that prop-
sense of security while the real exposure remains erly trains decision makers on the nuances of payments,
concentrated in one place. banking and fintech.
4. Data security KPIs Today, critical decisions are made without structured
knowledge, and that lack of expertise can become an ex-
Large or increasing incidents under data breaches can sig- tremely expensive mistake. This is exactly where the chief
nal weak encryption, unmonitored API vulnerabilities, or payment officer becomes essential.
even reconciliation mismatches in sensitive payment data.
These metrics often become warning signs for unresolved A dedicated executive function with full visibility over
security gaps. Without a structured review, they easily es- fund flows, provider relationships, fee structures, re-
calate and distort the true operational integrity. serves, descriptors, routing logic and settlement timelines
can read KPIs differently.
• Off-metric exposure: Contingent risks related to cy-
ber threats, fines or scheme penalties are often not Instead of seeing customer complaints as a UX flaw, the
recorded in core KPIs until they materialize. Until CPayO evaluates them against method availability and
that moment, they remain outside the numbers, industry benchmarks. Instead of accepting risk warnings
even though the vulnerability is already building. as seasonal, the CPayO traces them back to provider risk
The early warning signs are usually visible else- treatment and portfolio design. Instead of treating down-
where: rising fraud flags, increasing security audits, time as a tech choice, the CPayO questions infrastructure
higher monitoring fees or stricter data protocols im- dependencies and security protocols.
posed by the provider.
A CPayO, for example, would not accept 12 percent aban-
KPIs are by nature backward looking. They show donment as a UX issue, but would trace it to missing local
what has already happened. Payment risk, however, APMs and force routing changes. The role bridges the gap
builds in real time. By the time a breach, downtime between the various operational functions that payment
penalty or forced migration is formally reflected in and banking affects, and can flag repeated license reviews
the metrics, the structural issue has often been pres- as upstream exposure, not just a compliance hiccup, and
ent for months. diversify fund holders accordingly.

For example, if a processor starts flagging elevated Payment and banking are already difficult to manage in a
cyber risks at portfolio level, the merchant may first global environment, but if the most vulnerable operation-
experience higher holds or warning alerts before al bottleneck, which is payment and banking, is ignored at
any formal incident appears. If management reacts the level of KPI analysis, the business will keep firefight-
only when the damage hits the KPIs, it is already too ing symptoms instead of correcting root causes from the
late to prevent operational disruption. beginning.
From metrics to strategy

The fundamental issue is not that companies lack data but Viktoria Soltesz is the CEO and founder of PSP Angels and The Soltesz
that they have no one to interpret it well. KPIs are usually Institute. She is a leading advocate for strategy-led financial operations,
kept in isolation from payment and banking mechanics. ethical industry practices, and structured education in an area too often
overlooked in traditional business training. PSP Angels is a globally
Finance looks at numbers, risks checks the "what if" sce- awarded, independent payment and banking consultancy that has sup-
narios, legal handles compliance, tech teams integrate and ported over 1,000 companies in building scalable, secure financial infra-
secure flows, but there is no single role that connects how structures. The Soltesz Institute is the first and only independent online
everything is connected. organization offering EU-accredited training and certifications focused
exclusively on payments and banking. To contact Viktoria, please email
A simple UX setting, routing logic or a security clause viktoria@pspangels.com.
eventually can appear as a customer complaint. Or if a
company fails to do its regular due diligence on its pro-
vider, its funds might be facing threats, blocked days or
30