An Asian bank uses advanced merchant payments and intelligence

An asian bank moves from being a simple payment processor to a value-added partner for its merchant customers. By leveraging the rich transactional data from Cardlink and ASCCEND, the bank can create a suite of AI-powered services that help merchants increase sales, reduce costs, and better understand their customers

How it works (powered by AI in the data lake):

Dynamic & personalised fee structures: instead of a standard, one-size-fits-all fee structure, the AI model is able to gain insights from each merchant's specific transaction profile

Data points: it looks at transaction volume, average ticket size, the ratio of card-present vs card-not-present transactions, and historical chargeback rates

AI action: the model calculates a personalised "risk and value" score for each merchant. High-volume, low-risk merchants are automatically offered lower processing fees, creating a powerful incentive for them to stay with the bank. For merchants with higher-risk profiles (e.g. a high rate of international transactions), the model can suggest appropriate fraud-prevention services

• Actionable performance benchmarking: the AI model analyses a merchant's sales data and benchmarks it against an anonymised, aggregated dataset of similar local businesses

 Data points: it compares daily/weekly sales trends, peak hours, and average customer spending

AI action: the merchant receives insights through their online portal, such as: ‘Your lunch sales on Tuesdays are 20% lower than similar cafes in your district. Consider a “two-for-one Tuesday” promotion.’ or ‘Your average customer spending is in the top 25% for boutiques in your city, indicating strong brand loyalty.’This provides tangible value that helps the merchant run their business more effectively

• Customer behaviour & affinity Analysis: the model identifies patterns in customer purchasing behavior.

Data points: it can determine which products are frequently bought together (‘market basket analysis’) and identifies repeat customers versus new ones.

AI action: the bank can provide insights like: ‘Customers who buy your premium coffee beans are also highly likely to buy a cheesecake. Suggesting a “coffee and cheesecake combo” could increase your average sale value by 15%.’ It can also help the merchant identify their most valuable customer segments, enabling them to create targeted loyalty programs.

• Business value to the bank

Reduced merchant churn: by providing tangible value beyond basic processing, the bank builds stickier relationships

New revenue streams: the ‘Merchant Intelligence’ dashboard can be offered as a premium, fee-based service

Informed cross-selling: the bank gains deep insight into a merchant's financial health and needs, allowing it to proactively offer relevant products like business loans, lines of credit, or specialised insurance

The future is hybrid

The future of banking is not about choosing between the mainframe and the cloud; it's about leveraging the strengths of both. A hybrid cloud strategy provides the perfect foundation for innovation, allowing you to build a more intelligent, agile, and customer-centric bank. By combining the unmatched reliability of your IBM systems with the limitless potential of on-premises solutions and cloud-based AI, you can transform your transactional data from a simple record of the past into a powerful predictor of the future.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you build your on-premises data modernisation journey and hybrid cloud future.