Bottomline: B2B Payments are Facing Fragmented Organisation

According to Bottomline’s latest report, there is a level of intelligence that’s missing between financial institutions. 

As regulatory deadlines loom, the research points to a lack of readiness as financial institutions are facing a gap in intelligence. 

The research indicates barriers to being ISO ready, in addition to market changes adding pressure to finance leaders, cross-border payment deadlines and AI integration in B2B payments. 

Speaking to Finance Chief exclusively, Natasha Lapierre, Global Head of Product Strategy and Innovation, Financial Messaging at Bottomline notes: "According to our latest research report, nearly two-thirds of finance leaders and institutions identify poor data quality as their main barrier to ISO 20022 adoption. 

“This makes it increasingly complicated for finance leaders trying to adapt to regulatory and market shifts like Verification of Payee (VoP) and operational resilience rules, which rely on end-to-end transparency and traceability. 

“When data flows through disjointed legacy systems, it often becomes broken or corrupted, and that impacts organisations’ ability to point to where a payment or piece of data is or explain decision-making processes.”

Intelligence in payments 

Bottomline, a leader in business payments, surveyed over 300 professionals from both banking and non-banking institutions for its annual Payments Intelligence Gap report. 

In a poll about cross-border payments, 35% of respondents indicated that their biggest challenge was compliance and regulation. 

When asked about future goals from VoP, 44% said enhanced fraud detection.

Natasha continues: “Financial institutions are facing growing operational risks due to an over-reliance on fragmented legacy systems. 

“While institutions have become much better at connecting their infrastructure, the intelligence inside them, such as fraud controls, compliance checks and customer data, is still scattered.”

A significant portion of financial institutions remain uncertain about meeting the G20 cross-border payment milestones, as 12% anticipate failing every target. 

Furthermore, 27% expect to fulfill only a selection of goals and miss the required timeframes.

The report notes that 35% cite the biggest pain point in sending cross-border payments is the lack of visibility and the slow or completely unknown speed of arrival. 

How is AI doing in payments? 

According to the survey, over a third (36%) of respondents indicate they have no AI capability within their systems, while 25% deploy basic tools like automated support chatbots and document processing. 

Only 21% have advanced to intermediate functions such as AI-powered fraud mitigation and automated balance reconciliation. 

Nonetheless, adoption remains top of mind for finance leaders, with 48% identifying AI integration as a critical or high strategic priority for the coming year.

“Many financial leaders see AI as the solution to these operational demands, with nearly half saying that integrating it is a critical or high priority over the next 12 months” Natasha notes.

“However, this is at odds with the fact that one-third report having no AI in their financial systems, and only 21% have reached the point where AI supports advanced functions such as fraud detection or automated reconciliation. 

“Unlocking those capabilities depends on first addressing the quality of the data those systems rely on, yet this is often what financial leaders overlook. Payment data must be clean, structured and usable for AI to advance out of the foundational level, so institutions can tap into its full benefits.”

Bottomline partners:
Wolters Kluwer: listed as a technology partner on the Bottomline website, Wolters Kluwer specialises in professional services specifically for corporate compliance, legal and regulatory firms, tax and accounting, corporate performance and ESG and healthcare. 

American Express: Designed to eliminate operational inefficiencies and payment discrepancies between trading partners, the collaboration offers buyers extended working capital versatility alongside robust fraud safeguards, while allowing suppliers to gain from accelerated, predictable electronic settlements paired with automated account reconciliation.

Koxa: Through the pairing of Koxa's integration platform and Bottomline's Commercial Digital Banking API framework, financial institutions enable corporate treasury units to execute payments – including ACH, wires, and B2B or B2C transfers – directly within ERP systems, while accessing real-time status updates, approval processes, account statements and automated reconciliation tools.

onPhase: onPhase partners with Bottomline to embed direct access to the Paymode business payments network into its AI-driven financial management platform. AP teams using onPhase can manage the complete invoice-to-payment lifecycle, from purchase orders to final settlement, within a single unified workflow.

Pairsoft: PairSoft integrated Bottomline’s Paymode-X network into its procure-to-pay and accounts payable automation platform. The partnership connects PairSoft’s spend management and procurement tools directly to Bottomline's B2B payment rails.