ZPAY Consulting Ltd is the UK based trading entity supplying consulting and advisory services of Zlatan Kovachevich, a seasoned IT professional with 30 years of experience in the card/payments industry.

"I am a dedicated and results-driven independent consultant/advisor with a strong passion for the card and payments industry. I specialise in helping businesses navigate the ever-evolving landscape of payments, offering strategic insights, and delivering customized solutions to drive growth and efficiency. I am passionate about staying at the forefront of industry trends and delivering tangible results for my clients. Let's connect to explore how I can contribute to your organization's growth and success."
Zlatan Kovachevich short bio:
Provided consultancy, development, implementation and sales expertise to software development companies servicing financial institutions and transaction processors globally. Held roles spanning technical/SME and senior managerial/executive positions and assisted with acquisitions of two London-based software companies. Managed card payments and transaction switching and authorising system deployments and replacement for financial institutions worldwide.
Past engagements include the following:
- Managing replacement of ACI’s BASE24 Classic system and implementation of credit card authorisation software solution at a Colombian bank (2019-2021).
- Establishing of a Centre of Excellence for deployments and support of a switching software product in the USA (2015-2017).
- Managing deployment of a transactions switching solution at a P2P payments processor in Arizona and replacement of the FIS Connex system at a regional bank in New Jersey (2015-2017).
- Participation in due diligence process during the acquisition of two switching vendors and managing of post-acquisition restructuring and integrating activities (2000-2001 & 2014-2015).
- Assistance with sales, contracting and managing of deployments of transaction processing and fraud detection solutions at a “Big Four” US bank (2013-16), a payments processor in Australia (2011-2012) and a well-known card issuer and processor in Israel (2009-2011).
- Program management of global deployment of a transaction switching software solution at a global card scheme (2005-2007).
Customer Testimonials
Explore our Customer Testimonials section, where professionals and companies who have previously benefited from our services generously share their experiences and feedback.
ZPAY Consulting Services
-
Provision of Subject Matter Expertise for implementation, upgrade and replacement projectsList Item 1
Unlock the full potential of your projects with our subject matter expertise.
- System integrations
- Solution architecting
- Technical leadership
- Business and technical level issues resolution
- Vendor liaison
-
Assistance with procurements of new and replacement systemsList Item 2
Whether you're upgrading or transitioning from legacy systems, our expert advice and guidance will ensure a seamless journey.
- Analysis of current solutions
- Requirements gathering
- Assistance with RFIs/RFPs
- Vendor independence considerations
- Vendor selection
- Guidance on contractual negotiations
- Creation of migration strategy
- Execution/implementation advisory
-
Development of testing strategies
When it comes to card/account acquiring and authorising solutions, crafting an effective testing strategy is paramount. Our services are tailored to ensure your testing approaches are not only robust but also strategically aligned with your specific needs.
- Approach to testing of new and legacy systems
- Testing methodologies
- Test planning
- Selection of testing tools
- Testing automation
-
Assistance with new business initiativesList Item 3
Accelerate your business initiatives in card/account processing and transaction authorization with our expert services. Explore our service offerings designed for your success.
- Participation in card wallet schemes (ApplePay/GooglePay)
- Introduction of instant account-to-account payments processing
- Participation in buy-now-pay-later & monthly repayment initiatives
- Implementation of instant card issuance
- ATM channel reimaging and expansion
-
Message transformation, normalisation and standardisationList Item 4
Streamline your transaction switching solutions with our precision-focused services. We excel in message transformation, normalization, and standardization, ensuring a higher level of data consistency and reliability with us by your side.
- Mapping of numerous flavours of ISO 8583 (versions 1987, 1992-3 & 2003)
- Support for implementations of ISO 20022 (ATICA) message protocol
- ISO 8583 to ISO 2002 (ATICA) conversion
- XML / JSON
- Tag Length Value (TLV) data elements
- Message translations
-
Advisory on operational model
Achieve operational excellence with our strategic advisory services tailored to your needs.
- Monitoring and alerting
- On-premise vs. outsourcing
- Managed service options
- Platform as a service options
- Cloud alternatives
-
Assessment of and guidance with implementing of regulatory and security compliance requirements
Simplify compliance with our expert guidance. We'll help you navigate and fulfil the regulatory and security requirements pertaining to your card processing and terminal driving solutions.
- Transitioning to remote loading of encryption keys to terminals
- Migrating to TR31 key block encryption standards
- Hardening of systems and connections
- Selection of free and open source software (FOSS) solutions
- Optimisation of HSM usage
-
Resilience & Business Continuity Planning (BCP)/Disaster Recovery (DR)
Elevate security and resilience of your solution with our expert services. Prepare for the unexpected and safeguard your operations with our expert services.
- Review of resilience and robustness of the current environment
- Review and improvement of existing DR and BCP processes and plans
- Proposing improvements in resilience and continuous processing
- High-availability architecture considerations (Active-Active vs Active-Passive vs Blue-Green, etc)