In today’s always-on digital economy, PayTechs – and when I use this term, I mean EMIs, PSPs, and adjacent fintechs that sit at the intersection of technology, payments, and regulation — face a stark reality.
Even minutes of downtime can trigger financial losses, reputational harm, and regulatory attention. At the heart of the operations lies the
core banking platform – the system that processes transactions, accounts, and financial data. As threats from cyberattacks, outages, and systemic shocks grow, business continuity planning (BCP) has shifted from a back-office safeguard to a
boardroom priority.
Modern banking platforms are now engineered with resilience embedded at their core. Cloud-native design, real-time data replication, and modular architectures align with regulatory expectations under frameworks such as the Basel Committee’s operational resilience
principles and the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). For PayTechs, continuity is no longer optional – it’s the foundation of strategy, governance, and trust.
Why Core Banking Resilience Matters
Core systems function as the financial nervous system, handling everything from payment authorizations to loan disbursements. If they fail, services grind to a halt. Legacy platforms, often mainframe-based, were not designed for instant payments or 24/7
uptime. By contrast, newer core platforms leverage cloud computing and distributed architectures to deliver near-zero downtime and continuous scalability.
The stakes are high. An hour of outage can cost millions in losses, and customer trust erodes quickly. Visa Europe’s eight-hour outage in 2018, which blocked over five million transactions, remains a vivid reminder of the societal impact of core system failure.
For PayTechs competing on seamless experiences, even smaller incidents risk negative publicity and regulatory scrutiny.
Business Continuity in the PayTech Era
Business Continuity Planning (BCP) ensures that critical functions – payments, account access, security – remain available despite disruptions. A typical plan includes business impact analysis, risk assessment, disaster recovery steps, communication protocols,
and regular testing.
For PayTechs, the challenge is sharper: without physical branches or manual fallback options, technology is the business. Resilience must therefore be baked into both systems and processes. Regulators worldwide now expect firms to define acceptable downtime
thresholds, regularly test plans, and demonstrate recovery capabilities.
Unique Challenges for PayTechs
- 24/7 expectations. Customers now demand uninterrupted services, leaving no room for planned downtime.
- Complex interdependencies. PayTechs rely on ecosystems of card networks, APIs, and partners; disruption in one link can ripple outward.
- Cyber threats. Ransomware, DDoS, and supply-chain attacks increasingly target financial platforms, threatening both availability and data integrity.
- Third-party risks. Outsourced cloud or core banking providers create concentration risks, as shown by Amsterdam Trade Bank’s collapse after sanctions cut its IT access.
- Regulatory scrutiny. Frameworks like DORA and the Bank of England’s impact tolerance rules require institutions to prove resilience under extreme scenarios.
How Modern Core Platforms Build Resilience
- Cloud-native and redundant. Distributed cloud deployments enable seamless failover between regions, minimizing disruption from outages.
- Modular architecture. Microservices and containerized systems isolate faults, preventing one failure from cascading across the platform.
- Real-time replication. Data is mirrored instantly to backup systems, reducing the risk of loss and enabling near-immediate recovery.
- Automation and orchestration. Monitoring and self-healing tools enable rapid failover and reduce human error in crisis response.
- Continuous deployment. Safe rollback mechanisms ensure upgrades don’t cause downtime – historically a leading source of outages.
- Integrated security. Zero-trust architecture, immutable logs, and incident response playbooks blend cybersecurity with continuity.
These capabilities turn resilience from a reactive patchwork into an embedded design principle.
Managing Third-Party Dependencies
No PayTech operates in isolation. From cloud hosting to KYC providers, third-party services are critical – and potential single points of failure. Regulators increasingly demand robust third-party risk management, including due diligence, contractual continuity
clauses, and multi-vendor strategies.
The fall of Amsterdam Trade Bank in 2022 underscored the danger: strong liquidity and capital could not compensate for the sudden loss of outsourced IT systems. Resilience today requires not only robust internal platforms but also contingency plans for external
providers.
Strategic Benefits of Core Resilience
Beyond compliance, resilience delivers competitive advantage:
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Customer trust. Always-on service strengthens loyalty and brand reputation.
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Regulatory alignment. Strong continuity planning eases supervisory pressure and reduces the risk of sanctions.
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Revenue protection. Downtime costs are minimized, and incident responses are smoother.
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Scalability. Cloud-native, modular systems allow PayTechs to grow and innovate without sacrificing stability.
Resilience also supports the broader financial ecosystem: reliable PayTech infrastructure contributes to systemic stability, reinforcing trust across the industry.
Final thoughts
Overall, core resilience has become the defining capability for PayTechs in a world of constant digital demands. Modern platforms transform continuity from an afterthought into a competitive strength – enabling firms to innovate, expand, and maintain customer
trust without fear of disruption.
The winners in the next phase of digital finance will be those who can bend without breaking. Core resilience makes that possible.
