How Stanchion won its first Southeast Asian contract by working around legacy systems

International business story | Austrade’s 1 November 2026 account follows Stanchion Payments’ expansion in Southeast Asia. The payments-technology company applied capabilities pioneered in Australia a decade earlier to help Tier 2 and mid-sized banks connect to mobile payments. It did not begin with “all banks”; it focused on a customer group with fewer resources and clear modernisation pressure, giving the product a defined problem to solve.

Mid-sized banks face legacy core systems while needing tokenisation, digital issuance, Click-to-Pay and wallet integrations. Stanchion’s entry point was to connect existing systems to emerging payment ecosystems rather than demand a total core replacement. The lesson for software exporters is to identify what the customer cannot remove, then design a staged interface, scope and responsibility boundary around it.

The company joined three Southeast Asia business-exchange missions focused on Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Repeated visits made market development a continuing process rather than a single exhibition. A small firm could use the first trip to verify the problem and buying roles, the second to bring technical partners and evidence, and the third to pursue an executable pilot. That sequence is editorial advice, not a guaranteed formula.

Because regional banks expected local implementation teams, Stanchion initially worked with systems integrators and later hired three local business-development directors. This combined partner channels with its own people instead of relying only on remote sales. Before quoting, a technology supplier should decide who owns integration, security response, training, go-live support and after-sales service, and assess the local partner’s capability.

In the Philippines, cooperation with a local IT services provider led to Stanchion’s first commercial contract in Southeast Asia. The official source confirms a first contract but gives no value or profit, so it should not be described as large-scale success. The practical next step is a 90-day pilot for one mid-sized client problem, defining data, integration ownership and exit conditions, then validating it with a trusted local partner.

Sources

• Australian fintech helps Southeast Asian banks to adapt and upgrade payment systems | Austrade

Some images in this article are generated illustrations.