Payments: Value Is No Longer in the Transaction

Alejandro Martínez · 2026-04-28

### The Paradox: More Complexity, Less Perceived Value Payment infrastructure is getting more complicated and expensive to run. Yet customers are less willing to pay for the transaction itself. This is the core paradox reshaping the industry. Memo Bank was built from scratch as a real-time banking infrastructure, owning its entire tech stack. That's a big strategic move: owning your infrastructure means controlling long-term costs, speeding up innovation, and delivering a seamless customer experience. iBanFirst focuses on international payments and currency complexity for SMEs that operate globally—the "small and medium multinationals." So where does the money come from now? It's shifted to value-added services around the transaction. Think currency optimization, cash flow management, automated reconciliation, and predictive analytics. SMEs will pay for these, but only if they're part of a smooth, frictionless experience. ### Real-Time Payments: From Advantage to Must-Have Instant payments aren't a differentiator anymore—they're survival for SMEs with tight working capital needs. Seeing cash flow in real time, collecting and paying instantly directly impacts competitiveness and financial resilience. Memo Bank stresses that speed alone isn't enough. You need complete, immediate visibility into cash positions. It's the combination of instant execution and real-time information that creates real operational value. That's why legacy batch-processing systems just don't cut it. iBanFirst tackles the international side. For an SME dealing in multiple currencies, managing settlement delays and exchange rate gaps is a real—and often underestimated—cost. Optimizing these flows by combining instant payments, currency risk hedging, and multi-currency consolidation is a genuine competitive lever. ### Owning Your Tech Stack: A Long-Term Edge Relying on third-party vendors for critical payment processing components means giving up control. This is especially important in Europe, where new payment rails like wero are emerging. Wero is a European payment initiative aimed at creating a unified, instant payment system across the continent. It's part of a broader push for digital sovereignty. For professionals tracking European payments news, wero represents a shift toward infrastructure that reduces dependence on non-European providers. Stablecoins are also entering the picture as new rails, offering faster, cheaper cross-border transactions. But they bring regulatory complexity. The key differentiators now are: sovereignty, the ability to manage multi-rail complexity, and navigating regulation. The transaction itself is becoming a commodity. The value lies in what you build on top of it—data services, embedded finance, and orchestration across different payment methods. ### What This Means for US Professionals For US-based professionals following EU payment system news, the European experience offers lessons. The move toward real-time, low-cost infrastructure is global. But Europe's focus on sovereignty and new rails like wero and stablecoins creates unique opportunities and challenges. Understanding these shifts can help you anticipate similar trends in the US market. - **Real-time becomes baseline**: Just as in Europe, US businesses will need instant payments to stay competitive. - **Value shifts to data**: The transaction itself won't be the profit center; analytics and embedded services will. - **Regulation is a differentiator**: Those who can navigate complex rules will win. > "The transaction is becoming invisible. The real value is in the services that surround it." That's the takeaway from the fireside chat between Sonia Boudier of iBanFirst and Jean-Daniel Guyot of Memo Bank, moderated by Chloé Rossignol of Paiement.fr at FinTech R:Evolution. It's a new world for payments, and the winners will be those who adapt.