Keeping up with payment network compliance is getting harder and harder. Payment network compliance teams are under more pressure than ever, and a surge in bulletin publications contributes to this increasing difficulty. From 2022 to 2023 alone, bulletin publications increased by 34%, making it more demanding than ever for issuers and financial institutions (FIs) to stay compliant.
However, the cost of payment network compliance goes beyond fees and fines. The time spent retrieving and interpreting updates, the risk of misinterpretation, and the information lost in translation all add up.
For issuers, keeping up with payment network updates is a challenge, especially when balancing commercial and operational costs and benefits. But here’s a key question: how much time do different teams spend retrieving, interpreting and understanding payment network bulletins?
Even within the same organisation, different team members may spend time interpreting the same bulletin and understanding it differently. One compliance professional might read a bulletin and conclude one course of action, while another may see it differently. A single footnote, if misinterpreted or overlooked, can result in significant financial consequences, both in internal rework and external fines and competitive advantage. In the UK, this challenge is even bigger. Issuers must navigate domestic, EEA, and global payment network compliance requirements, which are further complicated by post-Brexit regulatory changes.
Enabling stakeholders to collaborate and share their perspectives on the requirements can help establish a common understanding and ensure correct implementation.
According to the Nilson Report, branded Visa and Mastercard cards grew by 163.4 and 33.9 million in 2024, respectively. More cards mean more transactions… and more compliance risks.
But there’s no universal playbook for implementing payment network updates. Key questions to consider include: Who assesses the impact and scope of the requirements? How is this information communicated to affected teams? How is it embedded into their development plans? Without clear answers, duplicated work can lead to mistakes, disputes, and unnecessary delays.
The real cost here isn’t just fines or audits; it’s the time multiple employees spend trying to make sense of unclear or inconsistent interpretations. That time could be better spent on more strategic tasks that drive the business forward.
Yet many organizations don’t always recognize these hidden costs until they become too significant to ignore. Without a clear, transparent system for tracking and interpreting scheme updates, inefficiencies accumulate, straining resources and growth opportunities.
This is where bridging the knowledge gap becomes crucial.
Many banks struggle with increasing manual work to efficiently share critical scheme updates within their organisation. Compliance, security, fraud and risks, product, finance, and operations teams all need access to certain information from schemes… but updates often get lost in complex distribution processes or fail to reach the right teams on time.
Having a knowledge directory of all payment network requirements, including a complete catalogue of resources such as best practices, guides, manuals, releases, and rules, makes it easy for everyone to access and find the information they need. Instead of chasing updates across different teams, everyone gets the information and insights they need, structured, organised, and easy to find.
Payment network publications will not slow down, and compliance requirements will not disappear. Without a structured approach, misinterpretations will continue, leading to unnecessary risks and costs and increasing manual effort.
The solution isn’t just keeping up with updates; it’s making them easier to access, use, and share. Essentially, it’s about transforming compliance into business value and a competitive edge. Banks that fail to adapt to compliance changes risk costly penalties, inefficiencies, and reputational damage.
By adopting a new approach to payment network compliance, issuers can streamline compliance, save time, and reduce regulatory risk—without the headache.
With a more strategic approach to payment network compliance, issuers can turn this into a competitive advantage and drive a smarter, more efficient, data-driven organisation.
At Rivero, we understand these challenges. Our Kajo platform centralises payment network compliance, turning a complex, manual process into a seamless, automated experience.
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