Future-Proofing International Payments: How Pega and Agentic AI Are Reshaping Investigations and Disputes
During my recent visit to PegaWorld last month, one of the things that most impressed me was the way that the Pega Smart Investigate and Smart Disputes applications have been completely re-engineered to support the radical transformation currently underway in the international payments arena – now and into the future.
Once considered a slow-moving sector dominated by legacy infrastructure, the cross-border payments landscape is now being reshaped by rising customer expectations, instant settlement initiatives, new messaging standards such as ISO 20022, which support compliance and reporting for increasingly stringent global regulatory frameworks.
Financial institutions (FIs) are under immense pressure to deliver real-time, frictionless payment experiences while also enhancing transparency, compliance, and operational efficiency. The latest versions of Pega’s ‘Smart Apps’ are amazingly well-equipped to support the transformation FIs need to undertake in order to remain current with ongoing and future initiatives whilst remaining compliant with the ever-changing regulatory mandates.
The Changing Face of International Payments
International payments used to be slow, opaque, and expensive. SWIFT’s Global Payments Innovation (gpi) has made strides in enhancing speed and traceability, but as the world transitions to real-time payment rails such as FedNow, TIPS, and Singapore’s FAST, customer tolerance for delays has evaporated. Simultaneously, new MX ISO 20022 data-rich message types are becoming the global norm, enabling better straight-through processing, analytics and reporting.
On the regulatory side, standards are tightening. Requirements around anti-money laundering (AML), sanctions screening, and fraud prevention are evolving, particularly as geopolitical tensions rise and financial crimes become more sophisticated. For every innovation in payments, regulators are introducing new compliance expectations—leaving institutions racing to keep pace.
Investigations and Disputes: The Hidden Cost Center
One of the most overlooked yet critical areas in this transformation is the handling of payment investigations and disputes. Delayed, failed, or incorrect transactions don’t just create customer dissatisfaction—they lead to time-consuming, manual processes that eat into operational margins.
For many banks, these workflows are still rooted in spreadsheets, emails, and fragmented legacy systems. This leads to significant friction, slow time-to-resolution, and inconsistent compliance practices—exposing institutions to risk and reputational damage.
A Future-Proof Investment
In a landscape where agility, compliance, and trust are key differentiators, Smart Investigate and Smart Dispute offer a dual benefit: immediate efficiency gains and future-readiness. Institutions leveraging these Pega solutions will reduce operational costs, improve SLA adherence, enhance the customer experience and adapt quickly to new regulatory or business changes—without the need for massive code rewrites.
More importantly, by embedding Agentic AI, banks can leapfrog to a new operating model—one that is adaptive, proactive and built for continuous innovation.
Final Thought
The future of international payments will be defined by those who can seamlessly blend compliance, customer centricity and automated exception processing. As regulatory expectations climb and real-time becomes the norm, Smart Investigate and Smart Dispute, powered by Pega’s Agentic AI, offer financial institutions a decisive edge that provides them with a true differentiator.
If you want to find out more how a combination of the Pega Smart Apps and the unparalleled experience Eclantiqxconsulting team has in helping organisations achieve their strategic objectives in the Financial Services exception management arena, please contact us at sales@eclatprime.com. We are excited to engage with you on this important topic!
