Kani Payments’ Data Scorecard has been spotlighted in Banking Risk & Regulation (BRR), the Financial Times’ specialist title for financial infrastructure, fraud and compliance leaders.
The article—“Patchy data reconciliation weakens banks’ compliance shield”—draws from Kani’s in-depth analysis of 31 leading payment processors, exposing critical issues in the data pipelines that underpin today’s financial services. The findings underscore a growing concern: many firms are making high-stakes decisions using incomplete, inconsistent or non-machine-readable data.
An industry-wide weakness
The FT article highlights how reconciliation (the process of matching transactions to source records) has quietly become a pressure point for regulated firms. As BRR notes, the inability to reconcile data accurately is no longer just an operational headache—it’s a compliance risk.
Kani’s Scorecard revealed that over 70% of processors failed to meet key standards across reconciliation, fraud detection and regulatory reporting. Common deficiencies included:
- Missing or mislabeled settlement fields and transaction identifiers
- Lack of 3DS and BIN data, hindering fraud tracking
- File formats that prevent machine-readability and delay reconciliation
- Poor linkage between transactions and the instruments or customers they belong to
In comments to Banking Risk & Regulation, Aaron Holmes, CEO of Kani Payments, warned that these issues are often invisible until a failure occurs. “A transaction might be authorised in milliseconds,” he noted, “yet reconciliation can take hours or even days due to data gaps or broken logic.”
“Invisible Risk” in Payments Data
The Scorecard’s structured evaluation model has been quietly running since 2023. Using a red–amber–green system, it assesses processor files against scheme requirements (e.g., Mastercard, Visa), ISO standards and operational use cases. The majority of files reviewed fell short of green—despite powering many of today’s leading digital banks and paytech platforms.
Kani’s analysis found that even some modern, cloud-native platforms struggle with basic requirements. As Holmes explains in the FT article, newer processors can offer “a veneer of sophistication,” but still depend on legacy components and fragmented data flows behind the scenes.
These deficiencies don’t just create delays—they lead to regulatory blind spots. When fields are missing or misinterpreted, institutions risk:
- Submitting incorrect or rejected filings such as FCA REP-017, Mastercard QMR and Visa GOC
- Misallocating funds held under safeguarding obligations
- Failing to detect fraud due to incomplete transaction lineage
- Relying on spreadsheets and manual workarounds that increase operational cost and audit exposure
The way forward
The BRR feature also explores the broader industry context. Regulators are increasing pressure on firms to move faster, file cleaner data, and detect fraud earlier. Yet many institutions are still stuck with legacy tech stacks, siloed data and unclear ownership of file quality.
Kani’s Data Scorecard provides a route out of that trap. It turns technical diagnostics into business risk insights—and delivers practical, processor-specific feedback to help firms improve.
Some processors, including Thredd, Enfuce, Paymentology and DPG, are already setting the standard. Their structured formats, rich metadata and operational transparency are enabling faster reconciliation, cleaner reporting, and stronger oversight across the board.
