Currently, over 40% of payment services hub projects are at large financial institutions with assets exceeding $100 billion, and nearly 56% are in Western and Northern Europe, based on data provided by nine leading PSH vendors. However, banks of all sizes and from all geographies are starting to consider how to adopt PSH concepts in their payments businesses.

In this report, Payment Services Hubs: The Bank's Perspective, Celent reviews the state of payment services hub (PSH) market adoption, discusses the drivers for building a PSH, and explains the key decisions a bank needs to make when embarking on a PSH project.

“To understand why banks start payment services hub projects, it is helpful to distinguish between the true reasons and how the banks justify them,” says Zilvinas Bareisis, Senior Analyst with Celent's Banking group and author of the report. “The fundamental drivers include the presence of a ‘burning platform’ or a large related programme, while the benefits case is usually built around cost reduction, revenue retention and enhancement, risk and liquidity management improvement, and increased agility.”

This is the third and final report in a series on payment services hubs, which takes the bank's perspective. It starts by exploring the drivers behind PSH projects—the Why? question. The report then focuses on the How? question—the key decisions a bank needs to make in defining a PSH strategy and provides tips on how to ensure success of the programme. The report concludes with the Who? question by reviewing the macrotrends in payment services hub adoption and describing several examples of how banks have used PSH concepts to further their ambitions in payments.