Time Is the New Currency: How Testing Automation Delivers Strategic Value for the Payment Industry

In today’s financial services landscape, every second matters. Whether it’s the speed of a card transaction, the rollout of a new mobile banking feature, or the ability to respond quickly to regulatory changes, time has become one of the industry’s most valuable strategic resources. As digital payments become increasingly complex and consumer expectations rise, organizations that can reclaim, optimize, and reinvest their time gain a clear competitive advantage. This shift has sparked a broader conversation across the industry—one that reframes time not just as a constraint, but as a form of currency with measurable economic value.

In most businesses, particularly in financial services, time has become an increasingly strategic asset. In his recent PYMNTS.com essay, David S. Evans quantifies the value of human time at $4.5 quadrillion, urging innovators to treat time as the ultimate currency. 

Evans asserts that disruptive innovations can make time far more valuable and outlines nine specific levers that businesses can use to find the next big thing in time: 

• Saving Time: Spending less time on one thing so you can spend it on another.
  
  
• Making Time: Extending the human lifespan as long as possible.
  
  
• Enriching Time: Packing more into the time you have.
  
  
• Monetizing Time: Using time to work to make money for people and their families.
  
  
• Enjoying Time: Spending more time on leisure activities.
  
  
• Trading Time: Giving people things for free, or at a discount, in return for them giving some of their attention.
  
  
• Investing Time: Using time to learn and thereby increasing the value of time later in life.
  
  
• Accelerating Time: Shortening the time between the generation and delivery of information.
  
  
• Multiplying Time: Increasing the total of the collective hours of everyone’s time, including their working time.
  
  

Meanwhile, in another recent PYMNTS.com article, payment industry expert Karen Webster observes that, with the rise of Gen AI, the “time spread” — the difference between what something once cost in time and what it costs now — is becoming a measurable asset: “the spread between what used to take hours and what now takes minutes … is massive.” 

For banks, credit unions, and any organization that processes payments, testing automation is a prime example of how technology can save, enrich, and multiply time—delivering measurable ROI and competitive advantage.

Why Payment Testing Automation Matters

Payment systems are the backbone of financial services. They must be fast, secure, compliant, and resilient—handling billions of transactions daily, across ATMs, POS terminals, mobile apps, and digital wallets. Manual testing simply can’t keep up with the pace of change, regulatory demands, and the need for flawless customer experiences.

Documented Time Savings and ROI

Regression Testing: Many organizations report that automation delivers significant reductions in regression testing cycle times. One case study shows how a large US bank used automation to reduce regression testing time by 72%.

Release Speed: Automated testing enables continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD), allowing organizations to release new features and compliance updates up to 4x faster than with manual processes.

Error Reduction: AI-powered test automation in banking has led to a 96% reduction in transaction errors and an 89% reduction in security testing overhead.

Compliance Acceleration: Automated EMV and PCI compliance testing can cut validation time by 73%, helping financial institutions meet regulatory deadlines without bottlenecks.

Industry Benchmarks

Efficiency Gains: Data compiled by Expert Beacon shows that automation helps 46% of QA teams in finance reduce test times by more than 50%.

Cost Savings: Automated payment testing can reduce operational costs by 30–70%, with the cost per test dropping from $10–$15 manually down to $2–$3 with automation.

Expanded Coverage: Automated platforms allow organizations to run thousands of test cases in parallel, expanding coverage and catching edge cases that manual testers might miss.

Strategic Benefits Beyond Time Savings

• Improved Accuracy: Automation reduces human error, ensuring consistent and reliable payment flows.

• Scalability: Automated testing frameworks scale with transaction volumes and new payment types, supporting growth and innovation.

• Resource Optimization: Teams can focus on higher-value tasks, such as designing new products or improving customer experience, rather than repetitive manual testing.

The Bottom Line: Time Is Money—And More

As Evans argues, every innovation should be measured by its impact on time. In financial services, automated payment testing is not just a technical upgrade—it’s a strategic investment in the most valuable resource your organization has.

The ROI is clear: faster releases, lower costs, higher quality, and the ability to keep pace with a rapidly evolving payments landscape. But the benefits extend even further.

By reducing manual effort, freeing up specialized teams, and enabling continuous improvement, automated testing helps financial institutions respond more quickly to market shifts, regulatory updates, and emerging customer expectations.

In a sector where speed, accuracy, and resilience define competitive advantage, the ability to consistently save and reinvest time becomes a powerful differentiator that compounds over every release cycle.

Paragon Can Help

Paragon’s Web FASTest and VirtualATM solutions are tailored to address the payment industry’s unique needs for speed, accuracy, security, and reliability. Our tools support automation of payment and ATM transaction flows, integration with CI/CD pipelines, and include detailed analytics to ensure compliance and performance.

By leveraging Paragon’s software solutions and industry experience, organizations can achieve the significant benefits provided by automation, positioning themselves to thrive in a competitive, digital-first landscape.

Interested in learning more about how Paragon can help update and optimize your payment testing strategy? Request a consultation today. Our industry experts are ready to help.

Full credit to David S. Evans for the inspiration and framework provided in his essay, “The $4.5 Quadrillion Opportunity in Human Time.”