We built a payment layer on top of existing infrastructure using a strangler-fig approach — SEPA instant processing, payment orchestration, and DORA compliance during a phased enterprise delivery digital transformation.
Industry
Fintech
Services
Technologies
Regional financial services firm partnered with Spectrum to address operational and technology gaps in fintech. Monolithic core slowed feature delivery and made third-party integrations expensive one-off projects. Spectrum applied a phased delivery model — 14 months — aligning stakeholders, compliance needs, and production cadence. Since 2016, Spectrum has delivered similar programs with managed teams and fixed-cost options.
Monolithic core slowed feature delivery and made third-party integrations expensive one-off projects.
Core releases took months — blocking partner integrations.
Each partner API was a one-off project.
Batch scoring missed real-time payment fraud patterns.
Auditors required clearer change and access trails.
Our team implemented a payment layer on top of the existing infrastructure using a strangler fig approach — updating overall infrastructure by replacing individual components over time rather than a big-bang rewrite. We delivered SEPA instant processing, payment orchestration, and full DORA compliance during a phased enterprise software development engagement.
We migrated the client from batch-based processing to an event-driven architecture using Apache Kafka. The new engine meets SEPA Instant Payments Regulation requirements with a 10-second SLA, supports ISO 20022 messaging formats, and handles SCT Inst operations. The system operates 24×7×365 with Verification of Payee (VoP) checks before transactions are cleared.
A central orchestration layer routes payments across multiple rails — SEPA Instant, SEPA Credit Transfer, and SWIFT — with automatic failover to backup rails when primary channels are unavailable. The platform converts bulk payroll and B2B disbursements into individual instant transactions, giving corporate clients the speed of retail payments.
We built DORA-aligned controls including real-time fraud detection, automatic workflow escalation for incidents, and disaster recovery with RPO under 4 hours and RTO under 2 hours. The platform provides a full audit trail for regulators and internal compliance teams.
Operations teams gained real-time visibility into transaction flows by rail and volume. Reconciliation is over 90% automated, and manual work for exception handling decreased by more than 40%. Leadership can monitor SLA adherence and channel health from a single pane of glass.
We integrated AI fraud detection models that evaluate transaction risk before clearing non-retractable payments. The platform complies with PCI DSS and PSD2 requirements for customer authentication, with tokenization of payment data at rest and in transit.
Faster time-to-market
Integrations
Fraud scores
The platform uses an event-based architecture to enable real-time payments across SEPA rails and support incremental modernization without a big-bang cutover.
Java (Spring Boot) microservices handle ISO 20022 messaging, SCT Inst protocols, and Verification of Payee before funds move. Payments route across SEPA Instant and SEPA Credit Transfer within a 10-second SLA, with the processing tier operating 24×7×365 and health checks tied to clearing-house cutoffs.
A Kafka-based routing engine applies rule-based path selection and automatic failover when a primary rail degrades. Bulk payroll and B2B files split into individual instant payments where the product allows, so corporate clients see retail-grade speed without manual re-keying.
Kafka event streams feed ClickHouse for immutable audit logging, incident detection, and automated escalation workflows. Real-time regulatory reporting and third-party risk signals align with DORA expectations — investigators can reconstruct any transaction path without exporting ad hoc spreadsheets.
A React operations console sits on ClickHouse analytics and PostgreSQL reference data for live volume by rail, SLA adherence, and exception queues. More than 90% of reconciliation runs automatically; operators focus on outliers instead of rebuilding daily control totals.
PCI-DSS controls, AWS KMS tokenization, and PSD2 Strong Customer Authentication wrap every customer-facing payment step. AI-based transaction screening runs before non-retractable clears, complemented by WAF protection and continuous infrastructure vulnerability scanning.
Spectrum addressed bottlenecks and compliance needs while keeping delivery incremental and measurable.
Delivered and measured in production with stakeholder sign-off.
Delivered and measured in production with stakeholder sign-off.
Delivered and measured in production with stakeholder sign-off.
Operations gained live visibility across payment rails with reconciliation and compliance evidence in one place — without a big-bang cutover of the legacy core.
Faster time-to-market
Automated reconciliation
Instant rail operations
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