Payment hub implementation: Challenges, benefits & best practices

“Why is something so essential as making payments still so complicated?” For global enterprises, managing payments across multiple banks, currencies, and systems can often feel like a chaos. Disjointed processes, inconsistent formats, and manual workarounds slow things down, increase costs, and expose businesses to errors and fraud. A payment hub promises to bring order to the madness—but implementing one isn’t as simple as flipping a switch.

From messy ERP integrations to navigating local banking regulations, the road to a fully functional payment hub is full of challenges. Let’s take look what stands in the way, and what it takes to get it right.

But first:

What is a payment hub?

A payment hub is a centralized platform that consolidates, automates, and manages end-to-end payment processes for businesses. It allows organizations to connect with multiple banks and systems, enabling streamlined payment operations across various payment types and channels.

Enterprises use a payment hub to initiate, track, and control a wide range of payment types, including:

• Supplier & vendor payments: Domestic and international wires (SWIFT, Fedwire, CHAPS), ACH, SEPA, and real-time payments (RTP).
• Payroll & employee payments: salaries, bonuses, reimbursements, and contractor payments across multiple countries and currencies.
• Treasury & liquidity transfers: Intercompany fund movements, internal bank transfers, and FX payments.
• Customer & refund payments: Refunds, chargebacks, and incentive payouts.
• Tax & regulatory payments: Corporate tax, VAT, customs, and duties.
• Debt & investment payments: Loan repayments, dividends, and investment settlements.

Payment hubs are crucial for streamlining payment processes for four major reasons: 

1. Payment hubs provide centralized control and visibility over cash flows, enhancing financial management and decision-making.  
   
   
2. Payment hubs automate manual tasks, reducing errors, saving time, and increasing efficiency by integrating into critical systems   
   
   
3. Payment hubs improve security and compliance by implementing advanced fraud detection and payment controls.  
   
   
4. Payment hubs bring cost savings by reducing systems needed for bank connections and IT resources required to keep them updated. 

Without a centralized payment hub, global payment operations are typically fragmented, inefficient, and risk-prone. Key issues include:

1. Disjointed systems & processes: Payments are managed across multiple ERPs, banking portals, and local systems, leading to inconsistent workflows and limited visibility.
   
   
2. Manual effort & errors: High reliance on manual processes increases the risk of errors, delays, and compliance breaches.
   
   
3. Banking complexity: Maintaining multiple bank relationships with different file formats, security protocols, and approval workflows makes standardization difficult.
   
   
4. Poor cash visibility: Lack of real-time cash positioning results in inefficient liquidity management and increased reliance on short-term financing.
   
   
5. Compliance risks: Meeting local and global regulatory requirements becomes challenging without a unified framework for fraud detection, sanctions screening, and reporting.
   
   
6. Higher costs: Duplicate bank accounts, non-optimized payment routing, and expensive manual processing drive up operational expenses.
   
   
7. Scalability issues: As the business expands, handling increased transaction volumes across multiple entities without automation leads to bottlenecks.

It’s not a secret: Setting up a payment hub can be heavy-duty. Depending on the complexity of the case (number of entities enrolled, in which countries you roll it out, how many banks and bank accounts you have, do you connect multiple ERPs, etc), it may take anywhere from several days to several years. Nevertheless, if it’s done right, the payment hub can have significant business impacts – not just in improving ways of working but also in realizing cost savings. 

To explain how to set up a global payment hub on an enterprise scale, we will go through the main challenges, the project team and its setup, ways of working, lessons learned from our customers, and the benefits and business impact after the successful implementation.

Benefits of a payment hub

• Reports and analytics: With payment hubs finance and treasury gain a clear view through comprehensive reports and analytics.
• Bank connectivity: Payment hubs enable host-to-host, local connectivity, and SWIFT integration for seamless banking operations.
• Controls and workflows: Payment hubs allow businesses to implement company-wide payment policies and standardized controls to ensure compliance and efficiency.
• Format Libraries and conversions: Payment hubs make it quick and easy to convert your data into the format required by your banks, thanks to pre-built format libraries.
• Two-way communication: Payment hubs facilitate communication with banks for status updates, payment tracking, and receipt of payment acknowledgments.

The key challenges of a implementing a payment hub

• Integration with existing systems:
  • Enterprises with multiple ERP systems, especially after acquisitions, face complex integration challenges. Each system may have different payment file formats, connection endpoints, and data structures.
  • Master data management is critical—clean and well-structured master data prevents errors and ensures accurate payment processing.
  • Data mapping is necessary if multiple in-house formats exist. Standardizing data flows to align with bank-specific requirements is time-consuming but essential.
• Standardization vs. local payment practices: A payment hub enables centralization, but global harmonization is challenging due to diverse local banking practices, payment schemes, and compliance requirements (e.g., ISO 20022, SWIFT MT, SEPA, ACH).
• Bank connectivity & relationship management: Establishing and maintaining bank connections (APIs, host-to-host, SWIFT integration) requires substantial effort. Ensuring redundancy and failover mechanisms is vital to prevent operational disruption if a bank or connection fails.
• Cost & resource allocation: Implementation requires substantial upfront investment in technology, infrastructure, and personnel. While long-term savings are achievable through automation and process optimization, initial costs can be a barrier.
• IT & system consolidation: A fragmented system landscape increases operational costs. By integrating all ERP and financial systems into the payment hub, companies achieve automation and efficiency. Some enterprises report hundreds of thousands in savings from consolidating and streamlining their IT architecture.
• Change management & organizational buy-in: Treasury and finance teams must adapt to new payment processes, workflows, and controls. Resistance from local teams, accustomed to existing banking relationships, can slow adoption.
• Vendor dependence & reliability risks: Relying on third-party providers introduces risks related to vendor stability, service quality, and ongoing support.
• Bank account rationalization: Payment hub implementations often lead to bank account consolidation, reducing costs and administrative overhead.

Business impacts of a payment hub implementation

1. Automation & reduced manual effort: While some manual payments may still be required, a payment hub automates the majority of transactions, significantly reducing errors and processing time. Manual payment templates ensure that even non-automated payments follow a structured, controlled workflow. For many global enterprises, achieving near-total automation is a key objective to improve efficiency and reduce operational risk.
   
   
2. Increased control over outgoing payments: A centralized payment hub provides real-time visibility into all outgoing payments across entities, reducing unauthorized transactions and ensuring compliance with internal policies. Approval workflows and built-in security measures enhance control, preventing errors and fraud.
   
   
3. Standardized payment processes: Even if an enterprise does not fully centralize payments, a payment hub ensures consistency by providing a single platform for global users. Organizations opting for full centralization benefit from a hub that serves as the interface between internal systems and banks, improving efficiency and harmonizing payment workflows across regions.
   
   
4. Payment compliance & risk mitigation: Standardized payment processes inherently support compliance with regulatory frameworks (AML, KYC, PSD2, and SWIFT CSP, etc). Key compliance features include:
   • Audit trails for full transaction tracking
   • Multi-factor authentication (MFA) and role-based approvals (six-eyes principle) to prevent unauthorized payments
   • Automated fraud detection and erroneous payment prevention to reduce financial risk
   • Sanctions screening to ensure compliance with global and regional regulations, protecting working capital from unexpected risks
     
     
5. Cost savings & efficiency gains: A centralized payment hub reduces operational costs by eliminating duplicate efforts, optimizing bank relationships, and lowering transaction fees. Enterprises benefit from:
   • Lower banking costs due to better-negotiated rates
   • Fewer manual interventions, reducing labor costs
   • Bank account rationalization, which cuts unnecessary fees and maintenance costs
     
     
6. Improved cash flow & liquidity management: A payment hub provides real-time cash visibility, allowing treasury teams to manage liquidity more effectively. With better forecasting and cash positioning, organizations can:
   • Optimize working capital
   • Reduce reliance on short-term financing
   • Avoid unnecessary overdrafts or idle cash reserves
     
     
7. Enhanced security & fraud prevention: A centralized payment hub strengthens security by enforcing:
   • End-to-end encryption and secure authentication mechanisms
   • Fraud detection algorithms that identify suspicious payment patterns
   • Centralized access control, ensuring only authorized users can initiate or approve transactions
     
     
8. Operational efficiency & scalability: Automating and standardizing payments reduces processing times and eliminates inefficiencies caused by inconsistent workflows. A payment hub also scales seamlessly with business growth, handling increasing transaction volumes without significant additional investment.
   
   
9. Regulatory compliance & centralized reporting: A payment hub simplifies compliance by offering centralized monitoring and automated regulatory reporting. This reduces the risk of non-compliance penalties and simplifies audits by providing a single source of truth for financial transactions.
   
   
10. Improved customer & vendor experience: Faster and more reliable payments improve relationships with suppliers and customers by ensuring on-time transactions. This leads to: 
    • Stronger vendor partnerships 
    • Better credit terms due to reliable payment processing
    • Increased customer trust and satisfaction
      
      
11. Actionable data insights & strategic decision-making: Consolidating payment data into a single hub provides deep financial insights that can drive better strategic decisions. Organizations can leverage real-time analytics to:
    • Identify payment trends and inefficiencies
    • Optimize bank relationships and payment routing 
    • Improve risk management and fraud detection

Best practices for a payment hub implementation

When implementing a payment hub, enterprises must decide between a "phased rollout" or a "big bang approach". The right strategy depends on factors like organizational complexity, risk tolerance, resource availability, and business objectives.

1. Phased rollout (Gradual implementation): In a phased rollout, the payment hub is implemented step by step, either by region, entity, payment type, or banking partner. This approach minimizes risk and allows for adjustments along the way.
   
   
2. Big bang approach (Full deployment): With the Big Bang approach, the entire payment hub goes live across all entities, payment flows, and bank connections at the same time. This method requires intensive preparation and a strong change management strategy.

Choosing the Right Approach

• Phased rollout suits enterprises with complex payment landscapes that need careful risk management.
• Big bang is suitable when a fast, organization-wide transformation is required and the company has strong readiness and risk mitigation strategies in place.

Many companies adopt a hybrid approach, rolling out the payment hub in controlled phases but accelerating adoption in high-priority areas.

Mapping out payment hub implementation best practices

Success in payment hub implementation calls for a studied approach.

• Comprehensive understanding: Gaining a deep understanding of industry standards, technical requirements, and the specific, business goal and objective related pain points.
• Collaboration: Collaborating closely with seasoned professionals and vendors who possess extensive experience in payment hub implementation.
• Strategic alignment: Ensuring payment hub implementation aligns with broader organizational strategies, including cash and treasury management goals.
• Continuous learning: Staying updated on industry trends and developments to anticipate future needs and challenges.
• Transparent communication: Maintaining open and transparent communication channels with stakeholders throughout the implementation process to address concerns and facilitate buy-in.
• Thorough testing: Conducting rigorous testing at each stage of implementation to identify and resolve any technical issues or discrepancies.
• Training and support: Comprehensive training and ongoing support to end-users ensures successful adoption and utilization of the payment hub.

6 steps to payment hub implementation success

1. Assess your payment infrastructure: Payment hub implementation starts with understanding your current systems, processes, and data flows to see how the payment hub fits in and what integration points are needed. Pay special attention to banks, bank connections, and connectivity types that need to be assessed and accounted for. Negotiate with your banks whether they can provide automatic bank statements and at what cost. 
   
   
2. Plan your payment hub integration strategy: Once you know what’s needed you should determine how the payment hub will interface with existing systems like ERP, accounting, and CRM platforms. Seek guidance from experienced partners if needed. 
   
   
3. Data migration and system configuration: Cleanse and prepare data for migration, then configure systems to accommodate new payment processes and workflows. 
   
   
4. Testing your payment hub: Thoroughly test your new payment system to ensure accuracy and identify any issues before going live. 
   
   
5. Go live and monitor your payment hub: Roll out the payment hub to end-users, provide training, and closely monitor system performance and feedback.
    
6. Continuous improvement: Iterate and improve the payment hub based on feedback and evolving needs, ensuring long-term value and efficiency. 

Conclusion: Is your payment operation running you—Or are you running it?

A payment hub can transform global payment operations, bringing automation, control, cost savings, and security to what is often a fragmented, error-prone process. But getting there isn’t easy. Enterprises must navigate complex integrations, standardization hurdles, and resistance to change—all while ensuring compliance and avoiding operational disruptions.

Success comes down to choosing the right implementation strategy, securing organizational buy-in, and working with a vendor that understands global payment complexity. Those who get it right don’t just streamline payments—they gain a financial edge. Those who don’t? They stay stuck in the chaos. Which side will your business be on?

Read more about payment hubs:

• Payment hubs vs. banking portals
• How to choose the right payment hub solution
• Can a payment hub help you tackle fraud?