In one survey, the average cost per STP delay or failure was not a single digit sum of money

Based on a survey in the fall of 2022 of 400 decision-makers representing selected corporations, financial institutions, banks and non-financial corporations across the APAC, EMEA, LATAM and North America regions on the impact of failed payments, the average cost associated with failure or delay in payment processing was found to be around US$12.10.

Problems with the bank beneficiary name and address details were the most common source of payment delay or failure (21%). These details were also the single largest data payment element to be manually checked by humans, with 72% of respondents still confirming this data in that fashion.

Three other findings were made from the survey data:

    • Payment troubles led to lost customers: Respondents have the highest levels of straight-through processing (STP) payments and automation indicated they were very sensitive to failed and delayed payments and estimated they lost a significant number of customers due to these factors. Those in firms with 250–1,000 employees, and those with more than 10,000 staff cited losing a higher percentage of customers than respondents from small firms.
    • Payment automation was shrinking team sizes: The average payment team size for respondents from the largest firms (10,000+ employees) was around 1% of the total workforce, with similar results in all regions covered by the survey. Respondents from banks tended to have smaller payment teams than corporates, due to a higher level of corporate automation.
    • Three critical metrics of cross border payment efficiency: Accuracy of payment details (40%), speed of payment processing (32%) and little-to-low manual labor (11%) were respondents’ three most important factors for cross-border payments processing.

According to Dalbir Sahota, Senior Director (Payments), LexisNexis Risk Solutions, which commissioned the survey: “Failed payments are detrimental to customer retention, increase staff workloads and create additional costs. Businesses must keep up with the competition at a time when technology and real time payment initiatives are rapidly changing the marketplace.”