Enhancing the Global Payments developer experience for fintech partnerships and SaaS providers

The following is a summary of a talk at the 2024 Fintech Catalyst Conference, where Global Payments leaders discussed their focus on improving the developer experience. Key points included the introduction of a unified Global Payments REST API integration, the importance of SaaS partnerships, and supporting over 6,000 developers across 100+ verticals. They also highlighted their commitment to embedded commerce, security, and a more successful Global Payments developer experience built around code, content, and community. With these innovations, Global Payments continues to simplify integration and empower developers to deliver more efficient, scalable solutions.

Seamless integrations and robust partnerships are at the core of driving innovation and delivering value in today’s market. Global Payments has long recognized the power of partnerships and integrations, particularly with SaaS providers and fintech companies, as a fundamental aspect of our strategy. Today, with over 5 million global customers and 830 million cardholders, we are proud to enable secure, frictionless commerce experiences across more than 100 verticals, powered by the efforts of over 7,000 developers worldwide.

SaaS and Global Payments partnerships: The cornerstone of our strategy

As Kevin Thompson, Head of Partnership Acquisition, highlighted during his talk, fintechs and SaaS providers are not only the architects of modern commerce solutions—they’re gatekeepers of the Global Payments ecosystem, too.

The solutions that SaaS companies create determine which payment technologies businesses choose to implement. We’ve made it a priority to make our entire stack of Global Payments commerce enablement tools approachable and easy to integrate with for this reason. Our company empowers developers to drive the adoption and success of both their own platforms and ours.

Developer focused: A unified experience

With more than 7,000 integrations across 100+ verticals, Global Payments is proud to be a part of a diverse and robust developer ecosystem. Despite this, we never forget that the power of our platform hinges on simplifying the developer experience in order to amplify these dynamic relationships.

The challenge of managing multiple developer portals, navigating separate APIs, and integrating support for 140 currencies and alternative payment methods across 100 countries has historically created friction. The need for more powerful Global Payments embedded commerce solutions continuously inspires us to push our approach to business further.

As a response, we're moving towards a unified experience, introducing a single cloud-powered Global Payments REST API integration. This allows our partners to access our full suite of services seamlessly—from payment facilitation, card issuing, to our suite of proprietary Global Payments multi-currency payment systems—all through one integration point. Embedded features such as accounts payable automation with Global Payments keep day-to-day operations running optimally.

As SVP of Product Management, Mark Hagan emphasized, “This shift will significantly reduce complexity and allow developers to focus on building great products, not wrestling with integration challenges.”

Embedded commerce: Enabling smarter, faster transactions

Global Payments' vision for embedded commerce goes beyond traditional payments; clients will find a Global Payments payment integration that corresponds directly to every possible need.

Our strategy is to integrate commerce-enablement solutions directly into software platforms, offering a comprehensive range of tools to support every aspect of a merchant’s operations. This includes money-in services like card processing, money-out services like settlement splitting, accounts receivable automation, and additional tools like reputation management, loyalty solutions, and customer engagement.

Embedded services aren't just about facilitating payments. They allow merchants to operate more efficiently, offering better customer experiences through transparency and speed. Whether it's telephony, analytics, or personalized customer engagement tools, these services are designed to make everyday commerce better and easier.

Security and simplicity: A commitment to trust

At Global Payments, secure payment solutions remain at the heart of everything we do. Audited by third-party experts, our solutions are trusted by some of the largest names in commerce. Simplifying the payment process remains critical to our mission.

We understand that partners and developers need a platform that provides a complete commerce solution, all in one place. Our goal is to be that ideal partner, offering a single, secure platform with a unified Global Payments API for easier integration and minimal friction. This is why we offer solutions like hosted fields, hosted checkout, and various other integration options that stratify the payment experience.

Every Global Payments card processing integration is dedicated to protection at every level. Your servers will be free of sensitive consumer data that could fall into the wrong hands later on thanks to our Global Payments payment gateway security standard.

The global payments developer experience: Past, present, and future

Developer-friendly solutions from Global Payments have come a long way since 2013 when many were tasked with navigating complex SOAP messages and fragmented documentation. By 2015, we introduced a suite of SDKs in most major programming languages, reducing the time it took developers to integrate from six months to six weeks. Today, we continue to evolve by offering low-code and no-code payment integration with Global Payments as an effortless bridge between our solutions and the needs of our partners.

The future of Global Payments' developer experience is driven by three key pillars: Code, Content, and Community. Our unified Global Payments developer portal will soon offer centralized access to SDKs, advanced documentation, payment facilitation APIs by Global Payments, and a fully-configurable sandbox environment, making it easier for developers to experiment, build, and scale their solutions. With enhanced technical support, we aim to provide not only the tools developers need but also the partnership they deserve.

Building the future of commerce together with global payments developer-focused solutions

As we look ahead, our commitment to the future of the developer experience at Global Payments remains unwavering. By focusing on simplifying integration, embedding commerce services, and providing trusted, secure solutions, our experts ensure that Global Payments continues to empower our partners to innovate and thrive in an ever-changing industry.

With a clear vision and dedication to improving the developer experience, we are poised to deliver even greater value to our partners in 2025 and beyond.