Euronet Brings Migration Expertise To Legacy Modernisation

The payments and credit landscape is undergoing a profound transformation as banks and fintechs confront rising customer expectations, rapid innovation in credit products, and accelerating convergence between card-based and account-to-account payments.

Yet many institutions are still constrained by legacy systems never designed for today’s demands, making modernisation a strategic priority.

“It’s clear there is significant and growing demand for more flexible credit products,” says Oscar Munoz, Vice President of Sales for the Americas at Euronet Worldwide.

“Revolving credit has higher yields in general, and it also gives you more recurrent engagement with your customers.”

Credit products deepen institutional relationships and strengthen long-term customer value – not only through transaction volume, but through broader engagement across financial services.

Banks and fintechs increasingly seek to expand this relationship ownership, whether through traditional cards, instalments or embedded lending experiences delivered through new channels.

Oscar cautions that institutions that delay innovation in credit will face increasing competitive pressure. “If you're a fintech that had great success with prepaid and debit but haven't jumped into credit, you’re going to have to respond quickly,” he says.

Patching legacy systems adds complexity

Many banks still operate on platforms built 30–40 years ago – architectures fundamentally misaligned with modern product requirements such as instalments, digital wallets, and tokenisation.

“Most banks today are still running technology that’s 30–40 years old. That becomes a real challenge when you’re trying to launch new products that the original architecture was never designed to support.

"Many organisations try to modernise by putting a fintech layer in front of the legacy core, but that only adds complexity to an already complex problem. The only real solution is establishing a path to a truly modern platform – and doing it in a way that de-risks the process.

"You have to protect the business you have today before you can focus on innovation. Modernisation isn’t just about new technology – microservices matter, but so does having teams who have done this globally at scale.”

Modernising without breaking today's business

Institutions cannot simply migrate away from legacy systems in one step. For banks with significant live transaction volumes, stability and continuity are non-negotiable.

Oscar highlights the tension: “Everybody’s talking about the new things happening in the market, but you still have a business to run today.

"For top-tier banks or large fintechs, the first step is always: ‘How do I de-risk the business I have today?’

"You need to make sure what you’re doing today can actually finance what you want to build tomorrow. That’s the heart of modernisation.”

Phased migrations and surgical modernisation

Replacing a 40-year-old platform requires precision. Euronet’s microservices architecture enables institutions to modernise incrementally, without disrupting revenue-critical operations.

Oscar describes the approach: “You have to be very surgical in how you do this. A phased migration lets us take care of Day 1 first, using the right technology and microservices so we can give you quick wins. Then we create the paths toward the innovation you want to reach.

"We’re experts in migration – and that’s a huge advantage. It’s about taking the business you have today and safely moving it to the next step.”

Mission-critical reliability shaped by real-world impact

Euronet’s private cloud spans 14 instances across eight countries, offering deployment flexibility beyond public cloud or on-premise configurations. Its reliability requirements are shaped by its role as the world’s second-largest money remittance processor.

“The transactions have to work 100% of the time, not 99.99%,” Oscar says. “If a remittance doesn't get somewhere, somebody doesn’t pay the rent. So it has social impact.”

Over 30 years, Euronet has built a network of 680,000 payment touchpoints worldwide – infrastructure competitors cannot replicate easily.

“That’s not something you can flick on, no matter how much money you have,” he notes.

One Euronet model reduces institutional risk

Euronet’s integrated ecosystem includes remittances (Ria), digital content (epay), foreign exchange (XE) and the Dandelion real-time cross-border network, while the Ren platform supports issuing, acquiring, ATM management and direct-to-account transfers.

Consolidation with one provider can significantly reduce operational exposure. “If you have just one supplier, that means less risk for your organisation,” Oscar says.

This is especially relevant as banks adopt domestic real-time networks such as FedNow or The Clearing House while simultaneously seeking global reach. Euronet supports both through shared infrastructure.

Cards + real-time account payments on a single platform

Around the world, payment ecosystems are converging. India’s UPI and Brazil’s Pix demonstrate how card rails and account-to-account payments can coexist seamlessly at the point of sale.

Oscar explains: “We cover the full payment ecosystem. Traditionally, the card world and the direct-to-account real-time payments world don’t talk to each other. But in places like India with UPI or Brazil with Pix, these worlds are converging.

"It’s now normal at a point of sale to pay with a card or with a QR code linked directly to an account.

"Having one provider with a microservices platform that can handle both the card world and the direct-to-account world in the same stack is a major advantage – and not something many others have.”

Revolving credit: a platform built to scale

Oscar also emphasises CoreCard’s unique position in the market: “CoreCard is one of those diamonds not many people know in the industry. When you look at revolving credit, there are only three companies in the world that have truly been battle-tested at scale.

"The first two run on 30–40-year-old legacy stacks. The third is CoreCard. This isn’t a concept – it’s a live platform running tens of millions of cards and moving billions of transactions today.”

Euronet’s combination of microservices-based modernisation, proven migration expertise, global infrastructure, and battle-tested credit capabilities provides a pathway for institutions to innovate without disrupting today’s operations.

“Having different assets that can behave as one Euronet when talking to customers –  very few companies can do that,” Oscar concludes.