Finastra unveils OperatorAssist AI for payment operations efficiency

Finastra has launched OperatorAssist, an artificial intelligence-based capability designed to help banks streamline payment exception handling and reduce operational inefficiencies across the payments lifecycle.

The solution integrates with the company’s payments hub interface and is available to users of Global PAYplus and Payments To Go. It uses AI to analyse payment issues, recommend corrective actions, and guide operations teams through resolution processes, with the aim of reducing manual investigation and improving processing accuracy.

Exception handling and payment errors remain a persistent operational challenge for banks, often increasing transaction costs and delaying payment processing. According to Finastra, early results from OperatorAssist indicate potential efficiency improvements of more than 20%, with manual investigation time reduced by 20–30% and users saving over 1.5 hours per day through automated analysis and guided workflows.

“OperatorAssist is revolutionising how banks around the world handle payments,” said Barry Rodrigues, EVP, Payments at Finastra. “By combining AI with a cloud-native, ISO 20022-native platform, we’re removing friction from daily operations and empowering institutions with faster, smarter ways to resolve issues. Delivering speed, accuracy, and superior customer experience, this isn’t just an incremental improvement but a step-change in how payments teams work.”

The system also provides AI-driven repair recommendations, supports payment investigation and reporting processes, and acts as a virtual expert to help new users navigate complex workflows, potentially accelerating onboarding and reducing reliance on manual tracking.

Gareth Lodge, Principal Analyst, Global Payments at Celent, said, “The rate at which a bank can do straight-through processing is critical. Complex inquiries and exception processing can take a significant amount of capacity from bank operations, resulting in higher transaction costs and payment delivery delays, and a poorer customer experience. AI based tools that enhance the productivity of operations have potential to address these problems.”

The launch reflects a wider shift across the payments technology sector, where financial institutions and technology providers are increasingly embedding artificial intelligence into core payment infrastructure to automate operations, improve resilience, and support the growing complexity of modern payment systems.