Il denaro cresce sugli alberi? (video)

RaboDirect ha sponsorizzato una interessante campagna pubblicitaria per capire la reazione degli australiani davanti alla possibilità di vedere delle banconote sugli alberi.
Le reazioni dei passanti sono state analizzate da uno psicologo e da un consulente finanziario e sono state molto diverse tra loro: qualcuno che faceva jogging ha ignorato le banconote mentre altri si sono aiutati a vicenda per poter raggiungere i rami più alti.
Commentando i risultati dell’esperimento la banca ha espresso sorpresa per l’interessa manifestato dai passanti in confronto all’attenzione che il correntista medio dedica ai fondi che annualmente giacciono inutilizzati presso le banche australiane.

[Fonte: Finextra, 25 maggio]

Concerti rock nel banner. Una campagna originale ed innovativa di Dexia Bank

Chi ha detto che le banche trascurano i Social Media e non possono essere innovative?

Dexia Bank, ha infatti lanciato nel 2009 una delle più originali iniziative nel settore finanziario: i concerti nel banner  (“Axion Banner concerts)”.

La banca Axion è già di per se un concetto innovativo, in quanto si tratta di un istituto finanziario di proprietà del gruppo Dexia separato e completamente dedicato alla cosiddetta generazione Y, cioè sulla fascia di età compresa tra i 12 ed i 25 anni.

L’idea originale di Dexia è stata quella di promuovere Axion lanciando un concorso per una band musicale che eseguisse dei brani all’interno di uno spazio fisico che ricordasse (ed avesse le stesse proporzioni) di un banner pubblicitario su internet. La cosa diventa più facile da comprendere guardando il seguente video della band Tim Van Hamel.

Le caratteristiche principali di questa campagna, realizzata insieme all’agenzia Boondoggle,  sono:

• La band vincente è stata scelta tramite un concorso online tra 25 diversi gruppi
• Ogni gruppo ha eseguito il suo pezzo in uno spazio che avesse esattamente le stesse proporzioni di un banner internet.
• I filmati in streaming sono stati distribuiti su internet e sui principali social networks, predisponendo un minisito in cui il pubblico potesse vedere il filmato e votare la band preferita
• Each performance was filmed and streamed onto popular websites or social networks
• La campagna dei Banner Concert ha utilizzato anche media più “tradizionali” come email, annunci su MTV, poster in negozi di musica, ristoranti, bar, etc.
• Il sito della campagna ha ricevuto contatti da 44.845 visitatori
• Hanno votato complessivamente 7.581 persone (la maggioranza ha preferito l’opzione  a pagamento via SMS a quella gratuita sul web)

La campagna ha ricevuto diversi premi ed è riassunta in questo video di 3 minuti.

Decisamente una iniziativa originale e da ricordare come esempio per qualsiasi settore merceologico, non solo per quello finanziario!

Social Media e le banche (presentazione)

Come promesso, ecco una nuova versione della presentazione Social Media per le PMI con alcuni esempi e numeri specifici per il mercato bancario.

The english version is here.

Monte Paschi Siena utilizza i Social Media

Al momento non sono molte le istituzioni finanziarie che utilizzano i Social Media.

E’ con piacere quindi segnalare i Video virali di Monte Paschi Siena.

Blippy – cosa stai comprando adesso?

E’ stato recentemente lanciato Blippy, un nuovo social media che permette di condividere automaticamente le transazioni effettuate con la carta di credito. Gli utenti del servizio, invece di scambiarsi tweets su cosa stanno facendo o pensando in quel momento, condividono pubblicamente informazioni quali l’importo della spesa, il luogo e, in qualche caso, la descrizione dell’oggetto acquistato.

L’idea a prima vista può sembrare totalmente incomprensibile ma in realtà ci sono alcuni elementi interessanti in questo social network. Infatti il servizio è mirato principalmente ad acquisire (e analizzare) informazioni dettagliate sulle transazioni più che a condividerle, consentendo così all’utente di monitorare in tempo reale se il prezzo che sta pagando per un determinato bene è appropriato.

Per approfondimenti suggerisco la lettura dell’ articolo pubblicato su cnet Blippy launches the Twitter of personal finance.

Accenture Payments Survey on PSD

Accenture has recently released a research study
to understand bank preparations for the PSD in the EEA. The
research was facilitated by the EBA (Euro Banking Association)
who distributed the survey to their membership, and was
conducted on-line using facilities provided by Finextra. The
survey objectives are to understand the current state of PSD
readiness and to allow banks to compare their progress against
the market.

The research was conducted during May 2009 and can be downloaded here.

2009 FinTech 100 rankings released

New York, Oct. 29, 2009 — American Banker and Bank Technology News, SourceMedia’s renowned publications for banking and financial services professionals, and IDC Financial Insights, an independent research services firm, today released the sixth annual FinTech 100 rankings of the top global technology providers to the financial services industry.

As the business environment within the financial services industry continues to be a challenging one, the FinTech 100 listing represents an insightful representation of where financial services companies are choosing to invest their technology dollars. Specific highlights from this year’s report include:

* Fiserv (NYSE: FISV) retains the number one spot as the largest provider of technology to the financial services industry;
* There are 41 companies on this year’s listed headquartered outside of North America;
* Representation from EMEA companies continues to be strong with 23 companies with combined revenues approaching $6 Billion;
* Three Chinese companies made list and include Hundson Technologies, Inc, Yucheng Technologies, Ltd and new this year Longtop Financial Technologies, Ltd.; and
* The number of Indian companies on the list continues to rise with 11 companies included representing combined revenue of more than $5 billion.

Vendors included in the 2009 FinTech 100 rankings are as follows:

1. Fiserv, Brookfield, Wis., USA
2. Sungard, Wayne, Penn., USA
3. Fidelity Information Services, Jacksonville, Fla., USA
4. Diebold, Incorporated, North Canton, Ohio, USA
5. NCR Corporation, Dayton, Ohio, USA
6. Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS), Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
7. First Data Corporation, Greenwood Village, Colo., USA
8. Total System Services, Inc. (TSYS), Columbus, Ga., USA
9. Lender Processing Services, Jacksonville, Fla., USA
10. Metavante Technologies, Inc., Milwaukee, Wis., USA
11. Infosys Technologies, Ltd., Bangalore, Karnataka, India
12. CA (Computer Associates), Islandia, N.Y., USA
13. Cognizant Technology Solutions, Teaneck, N.J., USA
14. DST Systems, Kansas City, Mo., USA
15. Experian Group Limited, Dublin, Ireland
16. SAS Institute, Cary, N.C., USA
17. Equifax, Atlanta, Ga., USA
18. Jack Henry and Associates, Inc., Monett, Mo., USA
19. Oberthur Card Systems S.A., Nanterre, France
20. Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc., Lake Success, N.Y., USA
21. Ingenico S.A., Puteaux Cedex, France
22. FICO, Minneapolis, Minn., USA
23. Open Solutions Inc., Glastonbury, Conn., USA
24. Itautec, São Paulo, Brazil
25. EDB Business Partner ASA, Oslo, Norway
26. Temenos Group AG, Geneva, Switzerland
27. Hypercom Corporation, Scottsdale, Ariz., USA
28. ACI Worldwide, New York, N.Y., USA
29. Murex SA, Paris, France
30. Misys, London, UK
31. IPC Information Systems, Ltd., New York, N.Y., USA
32. 3i Infotech, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
33. CPM Braxis, São Paulo, Brazil
34. Syntel, Troy, Mich., USA
35. Harland Financial Solutions, Lake Mary, Fla., USA
36. SS&C Technologies, Inc., Windsor, Conn., USA
37. Mphasis Corporation (EDS), Bangalore, India
38. TransFirst Holdings, Inc., Dallas, Texas, USA
39. Polaris Software Lab Ltd., Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
40. Patni Computer Systems Ltd., Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
41. Advent Software, Inc., San Francisco, Calif., USA
42. Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, Minneapolis, Minn., USA
43. Simcorp, Copenhagen, Denmark
44. GFT Technologies AG, St. Georgen, Germany
45. Ness Technologies, Canonsburg, Penn., USA
46. Linedata Services S.A., Rueil-Malmaison, France
47. Resolve Corporation, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
48. Fidessa, London, UK
49. BancTec, Irving, Texas, USA
50. S1, Norcross, Ga., USA
51. GlobeOp Financial Services, London, UK
52. Headstrong Corporation, Fairfax, Va., USA
53. Firstsource Solutions Limited, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
54. DealerTrack Holdings, Lake Success, N.Y., USA
55. Charles River Development, Burlington, Mass., USA
56. Algorithmics, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
57. Politec, São Paulo, Brazil
58. Avaloq, Zurich, Switzerland
59. Interactive Data Corporation, Bedford, Mass., USA
60. Wall Street Systems, New York, N.Y., USA
61. Calypso Technology, San Francisco, Calif., USA
62. Longtop Financial Technologies Ltd., Beijing, China
63. Pegasystems, Cambridge, Mass., USA
64. Bravura Solutions Limited, Sydney, Australia
65. FundTech, Ltd., Jersey City, N.J., USA
66. Collabera, Morristown, N.J., USA
67. iGATE Global Solutions Limited, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
68. OpenLink, New York, N.Y., USA
69. Mastek, Mumbai, India
70. Sophis, London, UK
71. Vasco Data Security, Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., USA
72. ERI Bancaire SA, Zurich,Switzerland
73. Chordiant Software, Inc., Cupertino, Calif., USA
74. Odyssey Financial Technologies, Prilly, Switzerland
75. Online Resources Corporation, Chantilly, Va., USA
76. Eagle Investment Systems LLC, West Hartford, Conn., USA
77. Viewpointe, New York, N.Y., USA
78. TAS Group, Bologna, Italy
79. Diamond Management & Technology Consultant, Chicago, Ill., USA
80. Callatay and Wouters, Brussels, Belgium
81. SmartStream, London, UK
82. Investment Technology Group, New York, N.Y., USA
83. ORC Software AB, Stockholm, Sweden
84. Goldleaf Financial Solutions, Inc., Norcross, Ga., USA
85. Nucleus Software, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
86. Wausau Financial Systems, Mosinee, Wis., USA
87. Hyland Software, Inc., Westlake, Ohio, USA
88. Actuate Corporation, San Mateo, Calif., USA
89. Hundsun Technologies Inc., Hangzhou, China
90. Viveo, Paris, France
91. Eze Castle Integration, Boston, Mass., USA
92. Panini, Bologna, Italy
93. Callidus Software, Inc., San Jose, Calif., USA
94. AurionPro Solutions, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
95. COCC, Avon, Conn., USA
96. FRS Global, Stevens-Woluwe, Belgium
97. Norkom Technologies, Dublin, Ireland
98. Yucheng Technologies Limited, Beijing, China
99. Celero Solutions Inc., Calgary, Alberta, Canada
100. Argo Data Resource Corporation, Richardson, Texas, USA

European Vending Association makes contactless payments push

The European Vending Association has announced the publication of its cashless position paper, which the Members of the Cashless Committee have been working on for almost 2 years.

It is a collaborative, comprehensive document that sets out the requirements needed to increase the uptake of contactless payment systems in vending machines.

Please click here to read or download the position paper.

Italy Not Ready for PSD, Says Industry Players

[Source: gtnews - 27 Oct 09]

Italy will not have fully transposed the Payment Services Directive (PSD) into law in time for 1 November launch date, according to key players in the Italian banking and payment services community at an industry event in Milan. Despite appearing to be on target according to the European Payments Council (EPC) website, the picture is “very patchy”, said Carlo Tresoldi, president of SIA-SSB, pinpointing contentious areas such as payment service provider (PSP) provisions (Title II), transparency of conditions (Title III), rights and obligations (Title IV), and final provisions (Title VI).

The delay of Italy and other national legislators in transposing the PSD is of great concern for industry players across Europe as they are suspended in limbo, to a degree, and this situation may not change in the near future. Tresoldi said that it would still take a long time for the directive to be fully adopted, adding that the EU regulators have indicated they will review the directive in 2012, with an eye to developing a PSD II the year after to fill the gaps.

Speaking to just over 500 participants at SIA-SSB’s fourth ‘Do You SEPA?’ conference entitled ‘Landing on the PSD Planet’, Tresoldi also highlighted the reality of implementing the directive heterogeneously, stating that Italy, for example, is still not clear on its national transposition path. “The current PSD implementation scenario is producing worrying forecasts in terms of the harmonisation objective,” he said.

Giampaolo Galli, director general of Confindustria, an organisation representing Italian manufacturing and services companies, agreed with Tresoldi’s points on the problems associated with differentiated national implementation. “Within the national implementation, we need to provide highly harmonised instruments because this will affect the benefits for corporates,” he said, adding that the main concern in Italy is that the industry will lose some its payments system functionality by moving to a European standard.

Issues plaguing the implementation of the single euro payments area (SEPA) schemes identified at last year’s event have continued this year, such as the lack of an end date for legacy instruments and the lag in public administration uptake. Implementing a ‘mini-SEPA’ is seen as a significant risk, particularly with a lack of effective commitment from the national governments, corporate and consumers, according to Tresoldi.

Franco Passacantando, managing director central banking, markets and payments system area, Bank of Italy, said that SEPA’s problems lie in the fact that the advantages have not yet materialised, mainly due to the lack of mass adoption. “The SEPA Credit Transfer scheme has only 4-5% uptake, which is far away from the 20% objective to be reached by December 2010,” he said. He also highlighted the slowness of public administrations to take up SEPA instruments, and added that the co-operation around common infrastructure was still very low.

“SEPA is no longer reversible, but we should be aware that it will take more time and cost more than originally thought,” he warned.

Extending Payments Interoperability

[Source: gtnews - Fred Bär, VocaLink - 06 Oct 2009]

The introduction of the single euro payments area (SEPA) is transforming the face of the European payments landscape. It will improve the efficiency of cross-border payments by turning fragmented national markets for euro payments into a single domestic area. It brings standardisation, opportunities for cost reduction and encourages competition, all of which means that the customer should ultimately benefit. But why can’t the principles of SEPA extend beyond Europe? The world’s economy isn’t limited to Europe alone.

We need to harmonise payment processing to help achieve this goal. Interoperability plays a key role and much progress has already been made. Since 2006, the European Automated Clearing House Association (EACHA) has worked to establish an interoperability framework. Furthermore, the International Payments Framework (IPF) was set up to support the growing requirement for efficient processing of low-value cross-border payments on a global scale. Its aim is standardising the technical operating model for interoperability of clearing and settlement mechanisms (CSMs), facilitating reach between infrastructures carrying out payment processing, clearing and settlement. In three to five years, it is expected to enable members to offer clients payments to new countries and/or currencies in a low-cost and efficient manner, eliminating the complexities in international non-urgent payments. This is a significant step towards addressing the issue of international cross-border payments.

However, the group is not alone in striving for this goal. Earlier this year, the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA) commenced work to create international standards for e-payments schemes. This signals the first move towards globalising interoperability of payment infrastructures. The development will initially focus on the delivery of a new International Automated clearing house (ACH) Transaction (IAT) rule. The organisation’s goal is to link all participating schemes so that a consumer in one country using online banking can seamlessly make a purchase from an online merchant located in a different country. Interoperability provides a huge opportunity for online merchants by providing access to a global online customer base across participating schemes.

So what are the benefits of interoperability? And how do the benefits move us towards a true standard?

One Big, Happy Family

Banks and payment processors will benefit from the seamless payment processing environment that global interoperability creates. Operationally, it promotes the opportunity for straight-through processing (STP), supporting the principles of SEPA beyond the European marketplace. It could facilitate the removal of unnecessary boundaries enabling banks to choose from a wide range of processors, thereby encouraging competition in the payment processing market. Greater competition results in lower costs, which will further enhance services leading to benefits for the customer. Furthermore, there will be no need for proprietary interfaces with CSMs for payment service providers, as they can easily link up to CSMs or other payment service providers at a comparatively low cost.

Additionally, under the EACHA framework, settlement, credit and liquidity risk will be mitigated through the ‘settlement before output’ model. The model guarantees the payments by ensuring messages are only ever forwarded to the bank of the receiving CSM once settlement has been successfully completed.

All these benefits will ultimately reach the customer, but interoperability can offer a direct benefit to the end consumer. If a cross-border interoperability model is implemented, money can be transferred more quickly, more cost-effectively and without the need to connect to multiple CSMs. This model represents an opportunity to support not only the worldwide financial community but also recipients of international remittances. These are usually family members of foreign workers and the beneficiaries are often dependant on the funds to cover day-to-day living expenses, providing a cushion against emergencies or as funding for small investments. However, transaction fees incurred through bilateral relationships expose a direct expense to the remitter/beneficiary, which is currently expensive compared to the often low incomes of migrant workers and the relatively small amounts sent.

There are markets that are uncompetitive or have regulatory barriers to the provision of remittance services. As a direct result, higher-risk alternative international remittance providers are often used to avoid these high fees. Some remitters revert to unregulated or even illegal cash-based channels and the financial streams disappear in the grey and black economy. Moreover, underdevelopment of a domestic financial infrastructure, particularly in receiving countries, may mean that transferring funds to the access points is slow and unreliable. In some cases, non-cash payment services may only be available in urban locations. Mobile payments service providers are actively entering this space in Latin America and Africa.

An important aspect of the infrastructure is correspondent banking, widely used for cross-border transfers of funds, which can be expensive for low-value payments such as remittances. The opportunity to leverage and enhance interoperability of global payment system infrastructures gives rise to the potential to increase the efficiency of remittance services. Ultimately, this not only aids the customers remitting payments but also reduces the cost of their transfers. This gives banks the opportunity to improve their customer service and increase loyalty while competing with international remittance providers, some of which are looking to enter into the banking world.

Finally, interoperability can support the reduction of fees associated with cross-border ATM withdrawals. At present, the majority of foreign visitors wishing to withdraw money from an ATM can only use dual-currency credit cards, which carry high withdrawal fees. However, in 2007, the Euro Alliance of Payments Schemes (EAPS) was formed to unite the networks of independent domestic card schemes (LINK, ZKA, SIBS, Euro 6000, Eufiserv and Consorzio Bancomat). The scheme, which supports SEPA standards, enables European banks to deliver a standard card payment experience direct to cardholders and retailers alike. This reaches right across Europe, at the lowest cost for all participants achieved through interoperability.

Card interoperability, beyond SEPA, is also taking shape. In 2008, China Union Pay signed an interoperability agreement with LINK to enable their customers to withdraw from any LINK ATM.

One Language for All

While interoperability has numerous benefits for banks, their customers and payment providers, there are also challenges to consider. To ensure consistency of communication formats, the introduction of ISO 20022 enabled standardised the communication for interoperability between financial institutions, their market infrastructures and end-user communities. In the long term, there needs to be a common format for all. For now, however, there are still major obstacles to be overcome in the implementation of a standardised communication format. Nevertheless, the fact that businesses are increasingly automating manual processes as they evolve might help achieve this aim, since it makes it possible for banks to implement XML rather than continue with the outdated MT formats. Ultimately, standardisation of these formats will reduce the complexity and costs of corporate-to-bank communication while increasing the STP rate, not just within SEPA but also beyond Europe. These standards are also helping to achieve a shorter turnaround and delivery time for payments, which is supporting the Payment Services Directive (PSD) requirements in Europe.

What’s more, the large number of clearing houses which payment processors must connect to, as well as bilateral agreements between banks, add time and costs to the transaction cycle. Moving forward, banks should be looking at a direct connection to a CSM to complete the transaction cycle. The CSM infrastructure can also be re-used to support bilateral arrangements. In this way, banks will be able to cut their fees and reduce the risk of payments being delayed or failing, which will ultimately benefit the customer.

The Future is Now

Market demand for efficient payments processing on a global level is on the increase. To future-proof services and support banks in offering the services that their customers want and need, payment providers must leverage the opportunity that interoperability offers.

While SEPA has introduced a new payments landscape, it is time to start looking beyond the borders of Europe, extending interoperability, and introduce a new approach to payments that promotes efficiency and reduces costs for banks and their customers. The industry has already taken its first steps towards achieving this goal. It must, however, continue to work collaboratively in order to create a truly efficient, interoperable infrastructure beyond SEPA.

Update on SEPA and PSD from Sibos Hong Kong

[Source: Joy Macknight, Section Editor, gtnews - 29 Sep 200]

With just under half (41.4%) of the 5,804 participants at Sibos 2009 from the Asia-Pacific region, it may surprise some that the single euro payments area (SEPA) and the Payment Services Directive (PSD) had such a high profile during the week. But significant factors, such as the pressing November deadlines for the PSD and SEPA Direct Debit (SDD) scheme and the majority (45.3%) of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) delegates at the conference, meant that eurozone payment developments loomed large in the sessions, and saw a flurry of announcements and reports released in and around the conference.

In the week before Sibos, three reports were released, the most significant being the European Commission’s communication ‘Completing SEPA: a Roadmap for 2009-2012’, which was seen as a signal of political will that hasn’t really been there to date. The communication, which is also in line with the view of the European Central Bank (ECB) and will be endorsed by the ECOFIN Council in December, presented a series of actions to be undertaken by EU and national authorities, industry and users over the next three years.

This communication is significant because for many, whether corporate, bank or public sector, the move to SEPA instruments has lacked a sense of urgency. In July 2009, one and a half years after the launch of SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) scheme, only 4,4% of all credit transfers used SEPA standards. As Charlie McCreevy, Internal Market Commissioner, said: “By providing a roadmap where actions, actors and deadlines are clearly identified, this communication will play a decisive contribution in helping SEPA successfully achieving its last miles.” In particular, this means bringing on board the public administrators.

The EC set two important deadlines that will drive forward public sector SEPA adoption: the migration of European institutions by June 2010 and the migration of national public administrations by end-2010. With nearly 50% of EU gross domestic product (GDP) and around 20% of all cashless payments made, the public sector has not played the leading role it should in SEPA migration.

At a Sibos session entitled ‘SEPA: Have We Reached Cruising Altitude?’, the consensus was that, although the SEPA aircraft has taken off, cruising altitude was still some ways – and some effort – away. Gerard Hartsink, senior executive vice president, ABN Amro and chairman of the European Payments Council (EPC), wants to see more action from the public sector. “It is clear that public administrators are not making enough progress in all member states,” he said, adding that technology vendors also had to step up and provide the technology for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in order to help them migrate their payments to SEPA.

Progress Made but Issues Still Lingering

The fifth World Payments Report (WPR), from the Royal Bank of Scotland, Capgemini and the European Financial Management and Marketing Association (EFMA), said that clearly progress had been made on positioning the building blocks needed for SEPA to succeed in the long run, despite the financial crisis, but outlined a number of unresolved issues that still needed to be addressed:

• SEPA cards face certain hurdles, such as issues over scheme compliance. It is too soon to contemplate any additional type of end date for cards beyond the currently agreed deadline of end-2010 for migration to EMV standards (for cards, POS terminals and ATMs), even though some market players are already arguing in favour of it. Interchange fees and standardisation present significant practical hurdles to the SEPA Cards Framework (SCF), with MasterCard having reached an interim solution for calculating fees (after being forced to act by the EC).
• For SEPA migration to speed up, each set of stakeholders needs to overcome their concerns. Banks need to be convinced of the business case for moving forward aggressively and corporates need more information to justify the necessary investments (for example in IT) required for SEPA compliance. Public administrations, prime potential users, have yet to become SEPA advocates.
• The risk of a mini-SEPA remains real, unless stakeholders get certainty on key overarching issues:
  1. A wide range of stakeholders are increasingly agreeing that setting an end-date for full migration to the SCT and SDD Schemes will be an essential step. Earlier in 2009, a European Parliament resolution called for an end date of no later than end-2012 and the EC has since launched a wide-ranging public consultation on the end date question.
  2. SEPA solutions must demonstrate their potential to offer tangible improvements in operational performance. National authorities may have a role to play at a practical level to support and ease SEPA implementation in their local markets.
  3. Banks and corporates need clarity on all the standards to be used for SEPA payments (e.g. around data) in order to prioritise relevant IT investments and progress with SEPA implementation plans.

The report also stressed the need for corporates to be convinced of the benefits of migrating to SEPA instruments. The corporates surveyed gave SEPA only three out of 10 on the priority scale. And yet corporates identified these benefits in the following order:

• Improved reconciliation capabilities.
• Reorganisation/optimisation opportunities.
• Decline in transaction costs (although one respondent said transaction costs could increase as individual incentive deals disappear).
• Alignment of domestic/cross-border transaction prices.
• Enhancement of card acceptance and lower fees.

None of the corporates cited account reduction possibilities. As long as corporates are unclear of the business benefits of SEPA, they are likely to delay switching to SEPA payment instruments, at least in the short term – and especially in the absence of a stated end-date for migration.

The issue of an end date or dates for SEPA is still overshadowing other issues. In an interview with gtnews, Bertrand Lavayssière, managing director global financial services, Capgemini, was very clear: “SEPA has taken some good first steps but we need an end date.” The consensus seems to be that the timeframe needs to be near term enough to stimulate adoption, but far enough away to allow for the refreshment cycle of technology.

In the WPR, corporate executives cited a few specific prerequisites for SEPA to succeed from their perspective:

• More clarity on the impact of the SEPA/PSD, i.e. more communication and information from banks and European authorities.
• More clarity on the benefits of using SDDs, and ways to safeguard the advantages that currently exist in national payment means.
• Card standardisation.
• A single European automated clearing house (ACH) for all participating countries.

Interestingly, SEPA was viewed in a more positive way by non-European, global corporates surveyed than by domestic European corporates – SEPA is seen as facilitating a reduction in their transaction costs, reducing business difference between countries, and allowing a better integration in enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.

A Land of Confusion

Another report released in the week before Sibos summed up its findings in the title: ‘European Payments: A Land of Confusion’. Commissioned by BT, Earthport and Logica, the Financial Services Club research found that Europe’s policymakers, banks, corporates and infrastructure providers have become increasingly frustrated with 58% of them saying that the PSD is being transposed inconsistently and 63% stating that this is because of different interpretations at the country level. Only 13% believe it is being implemented correctly.

The research surveyed over 350 global payments professionals about SEPA and the PSD’s progress, as well as conducting over 25 interviews with the key organisations involved, including the EC, ECB, EPC, Euro Banking Association (EBA) and European Association of Corporate Treasurers (EACT), as well as leading banks, infrastructures, payment institutions, corporates, vendors, consultancies and more.

The research found that European member states are implementing the PSD in an inconsistent manner that threatens to derail the progress of SEPA. Certain member states were particularly cited as at issue more than others, with Germany and Italy seen to be actively blocking progress while France and Spain are viewed as delaying the process.

On a more positive note, participants do expect new payments institutions to gain market share, particularly money transfer service providers, and that these changes have motivated many banks to look for more innovative services for their clients, particularly around corporate information services, e-payments, m-payments and e-invoicing.

Announcements Round Up

Sibos is the place to announce new products and alliances, and VocaLink led the press release charge, making three announcements mainly around SEPA interoperability. The week before Sibos began, VocaLink announced an interoperability agreement with Krajowa Izba Rozliczeniowa (KIR), the national clearing house for Poland, for SCTs, establishing a bilateral link for the exchange of SCT payments based on the European Automated Clearing House Association (EACHA) interoperability standards. This is despite the fact that Poland is not currently a member of the eurozone.

Additionally, VocaLink and STET confirmed that they are working together to establish a bilateral link for the exchange of SEPA payments based on the EACHA interoperability standards. The provision of reciprocal interconnection services will allow the two organisations to mutually exchange SEPA-compliant payment messages on behalf of their respective clients. The agreement will further enhance their reach within the eurozone.

Lastly, VocaLink announced that it has extended the bilateral agreement with Equens to include SDD payment processing, in addition to the SCT service already offered. The interoperability agreement helps to create a more competitive payments market as banks will be able to choose which processor they want to use for SDDs, as well as SCTs. It is the intention to go-live with the extended interconnection with the start of SDD on 2 November 2009.

Next, EBA Clearing made two announcements. First, it announced that the preparations for the launch of its SDD services on 2 November 2009 continue to be fully on track. The first three scripted testing windows in May, June and July were successfully completed by 19 banks for the STEP2 SDD core service and by 15 banks for the STEP2 B2B service. The number of direct participants signing up for the remaining testing windows prior to the SDD services go-live continues to grow: by early August, EBA Clearing had counted 73 registrations for its SDD core testing and 51 registrations for its SDD B2B testing on the STEP2 platform.

Second, EBA Clearing announced that its new EURO1/STEP1 Directory lists close to 2,400 reachable banks, in addition to the 10,000 participating banks’ bank identifier codes (BICs), a year after the agreement to jointly deliver the payments directory was signed by EBA Clearing and SWIFT at Sibos in Vienna. This means that participant banks are now able to use EURO1/STEP1 for the routing of transactions to close to 7,500 additional BICs across the world. This represents an increase in the reach of the EURO1/STEP1 services by almost 75%.

In other news, Fundtech and Microsoft introduced the SEPA Integration Suite, a new suite of service-oriented architecture (SOA) services that adds SEPA transaction processing to a bank’s existing payments infrastructure with minimal disruption and risk. While Distra launched its universal switch, which includes advanced payment switching applications capable of performing a variety of payment processing rules including multi-leg transactions, and supporting multiple payment channel types such as ISO 8583, ISO 20022 and batch. It runs on an intelligent fault tolerant platform proven in a tier one environment, supports Payment Card Industry (PCI) and PSD compliance, and enables real-time transaction metrics and performance reporting.

And finally, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU) has become the first financial institution to adopt Pelican for SEPA software-as-a-service (SaaS). ACE Software Solutions and Capgemini BAS, a provider of application services in the Dutch market, offers the service jointly. Initially BTMU has adopted the service in the Netherlands, for Amsterdam and Paris. Following this implementation, the service will be rolled-out to branches in London and the rest of BTMU’s European network.

Conclusion

In the build up to the November 2009 deadlines, SEPA and the PSD are on everyone’s lips. Sibos 2010 in Amsterdam will be the real test, where the financial industry will come together again to discuss what has happened almost one year after implementation. (Despite it being traditionally the American region’s turn to host SWIFT’s user conference, Amsterdam has pipped Toronto to the post.) How will the financial industry and corporates view SEPA and the PSD? Will the SEPA project be at cruising altitude, or will it be grounded? Today, most believe that the European payments industry has come too far to turn back, but the flightpath is still uncertain.

Diminuisce l’uso delle carte di credito in Italia

[Fonte: La Repubblica, 23 settembre 2009]

La crisi ha fatto tornare gli italiani alla loro proverbiale prudenza nell’uso delle carte di credito. Da un’indagine presentata stamane a Milano dall’Osservatorio curato da Assofin, Crif e GfK Eurisko emerge infatti che nel 2008 in Italia sono diminuite dello 0,7 per cento le carte di credito attive e il tasso di attività è passato dal 47 al 39,5 per cento. In calo anche le nuove emissioni. “Gli italiani si confermano tra i più prudenti in Europa”, rilevano gli analisti dell’Osservatorio sulle carte di credito, che sottolineano anche un aumento del tasso di sofferenza, passato nel maggio 2009 al 2,6 per cento, contro il 2 per cento del maggio dell’anno scorso.

Altro segnale di ‘prudenza’ sta nel fatto che l’80 per cento dei titolari possiede una sola carta di credito, con limiti di spesa piuttosto contenuti. Certo, gli italiani tradizionalmente non amano troppo indebitarsi, e preferiscono l’uso del contante all’addebito sulla carta, tanto che l’Italia risulta anche l’ultima in Europa per il numero di operazioni di pagamento fatte con POS per singolo terminale (appena 677 operazioni contro le 6.561 degli inglesi e le 4.811 dei francesi). E questo nonostante nel 2008 sia cresciuto del 5,7 per cento il numero di transazioni effettuate su POS.

Però ad accentuare questa tendenza ‘conservatrice’ è sicuramente la crisi: infatti nel 2007 si era registrato un aumento delle carte di credito attive del 9,4 per cento rispetto all’anno precedente. Tuttavia cresce il numero di carte di debito e di credito in circolazione. E crescono anche le transazioni (più di 522 milioni nel 2008), e il loro valore medio: 108 euro contro i 104 del 2007.

Nel 2008, inoltre, forse ancora una volta per via della crisi, l’uso e la titolarità delle carte di credito si è maggiormente concentrata in quelle che l’Osservatorio definisce “le fasce della maturità e dell’indipendenza economica”. Il 56 per cento dei possessori di carta di credito ha un’età compresa tra i 31 e i 50 anni e solo il 13 per cento ha un’età inferiore ai 30 anni.

Frenano le carte revolving (che permettono il pagamento a rate), che negli anni precedenti avevano avuto uno sviluppo a tassi robusti. Infatti dopo l’aumento del 7,2 per cento dei flussi finanziari registrato ancora nel 2008, nei primi sei mesi del 2009 l’incremento è piuttosto contenuto, +2,9 per cento. Inoltre le emissioni di carte revolving si sono ridotte del 5,3 per cento a fine 2008. I clienti tendono a preferire le carte multifunzione (64 per cento delle transazioni) piuttosto che le revolving (36 per cento).

PSD and SEPA research results

A research report has been published on September 8th by The Financial Services Club, sponsored by BT, Earthport and Logica.

The report can be purchased on a single user licence basis at The Financial Services Club. A free copy of management summary of qualitative analysis (19 page pdf, 300kb) and a free copy of key answers to quantitative views (27 page pdf, 1.5mb) can be downloaded below.

Download Survey Summary

Download Results Summary

The press release says that there are alarming differences in country interpretations and implementation.

In particular:

When asked: “how ready are your banks for the implementation of SDDs in your country?”

• Belgium: 13 out of 15 respondents said ready (87%)
• Germany: 20 out of 24 respondents said ready (83%)
• Austria: 10 out of 12 respondents said ready (83%)
• Italy: 10 out of 12 respondents said ready (83%)
• Spain: 6 out of 8 respondents said not ready (75%)
• Ireland: 11 out of 18 respondents said not ready (61%)
• Sweden: 4 out of 8 respondents said not ready (50%)
• France: 4 out of 8 respondents said not ready (50%)
• UK: 36 out of 78 respondents said not ready (46%)
• Netherlands: 4 out of 9 respondents said not ready (44%)

When asked: “How well prepared do you believe your national authorities are for the implementation of the Payment Services Directive on 1st November 2009?” the survey found that only 15% of country-based respondents felt their country was ‘very ready’; 23% felt ‘quite ready’; 30% ‘just about ready; 27%, ‘not really ready’; and 6% ‘not ready at all’.

When asked: “How is your country implementing the PSD?”

• 7% of respondents say their country is implementing the full PSD with no changes;
• 60% state they are implementing the full PSD with changes that are permitted;
• 19% are implementing part of the PSD, but the important parts (10% with no changes and 9% with changes that are permitted);
• 10% are transposing with changes that are not permitted; and
• 4% are not implementing the PSD at all.

CONCLUSIONS

The Payment Services Directive is flawed in both its drafting and transposition.

The 23 Additional Optional Services (AOS) mean that Member States have inconsistencies over how currencies are treated and whether they are in or out of PSD’s coverage (the ‘leg-in’ / ‘leg-out’ issue); how small businesses are classified as consumers or corporates; how payment accounts are defined; how direct debit products are defined; and more.

Every country is using AOS to protect historical products, services and infrastructures.

This inconsistency means that there is no harmonisation across Europe’s payments instruments, even though this is a maximum harmonisation directive.

It is highly likely that 2012, when the European Commission review the transposition and implementation of the PSD, that a revised PSD will be drafted eliminating AOS and other anomalies, such as multilateral interchange fees on cross-border direct debits.

The result is that the PSD will not support an integrated and harmonised European payments marketplace until 2013 or beyond.

The Single Euro Payments Area is progressing but too slowly.

SEPA’s clearly gained momentum as banks convert core systems to use the new schemes and formats; by way of example, SEPA Credit Transfers have more than doubled in volume from under 2% of all credit transfers in the Eurozone in May 2009 to almost 5% by August 2009.

SEPA is still progressing far too slowly to be convincing however, and when SEPA Direct Debits come into play in November 2009, if the new schemes are not demonstrating critical mass within an eighteen month timeframe, then the SEPA program will be deemed to have failed.

SEPA has strong support amongst the banking community, but not amongst corporates and other end-users; this support needs to be promoted through political weight of force by ensuring all member state public authorities and utilities migrate to the use of SEPA instruments during 2010 and by the introduction of an end-date for SEPA migration as a regulatory mandate.

The SEPA end-date is expected to be around the end of 2013, but the migration of end users (corporates) and obsolescence of existing national infrastructures is not expected to happen until the end of the next decade (2018 or thereafter).

VocaLink Opens European Centre in Amsterdam to Support its Growing Customer Base in the Benelux Region

LONDON, September 14 /PRNewswire/ — VocaLink, the international payments specialist, today announced the opening of its European centre in the World Trade Center, Amsterdam, in response to its growing customer base in the Benelux region. The new Dutch centre underpins VocaLink’s commitment to supporting clients in their local markets, whilst recognising that payment systems must provide international capabilities.

VocaLink, who already processes more than 15% of the total volume of European payments, has invested in the development of a Euro Clearing and Settlement Mechanism, designed to meet the requirements of its customers by facilitating the processing of both domestic Euro and SEPA pan-European payments. With the imminent introduction of SEPA Direct Debit (November 2009), VocaLink can provide reach to any bank across Europe and its value-added services, such as payments capture and mandate management, have been developed to meet customer needs.

Marion King, Chief Executive Officer at VocaLink said: “Clearly our recent investment has enabled us to respond quickly to our customer demands and we are delighted to announce the opening of a new European centre in Amsterdam. Being physically closer to our clients has become of paramount importance. With further harmonisation in the European payments market expected, VocaLink will continue to listen to customers’ requirements and align our investment and presence accordingly.”

About VocaLink

VocaLink is a specialist provider of payment services to banks, their corporate customers and Government departments. It processes domestic and international automated payments and provides ATM switching solutions. On a peak day, the VocaLink automated payment platform processes over 90 million transactions and over half a billion in a month. Its switching platform connects the world’s busiest ATM network of over 60,000 ATMs. Its Real-Time Payments platform provides the central infrastructure for the UK Faster Payments service. VocaLink is working with BGC (Bankgirocentralen) to provide outsourced processing for the majority of Sweden’s domestic payments.

    VocaLink European centre
    World Trade Center
    4th floor
    H-Toren
    Zuidplein 36
    1077 XV Amsterdam
    Netherlands

Europe-wide payment project not yet in credit

An update on the current status of SEPA can be found on this article (via EuropeVoice.com) dated 27 August 2009.

Regarding a possible binding end-date for SEPA the article says:

The prospect of binding end-dates has been warmly welcomed by the EPC and by large multi-country banks, but has been rejected by business groups and consumers.

Savings banks, which generally have very little, if any, cross-border business, have also reacted cautiously, warning that the market should not be rushed.

Hartsink points out that a legally binding deadline has been set by the EU for all banks to provide SDD by November 2010.

Barron McCann names John Doyle Swift business manager

I am glad to post this news since I had the pleasure to work with John while we were both working in VocaLink.

Leading information security and IT services specialist Barron McCann has appointed former director of VocaLink and Swift, John Doyle, to lead a major new business drive into the Swift and corporate payments marketplace.

Read the news at Finextra.

SEPA Direct Debits: Benefits for Corporates (1)

In the first part of the Guide to European Payments, Tony Richter from HSBC Global Payments and Cash Management explains how, overall, the benefits of the SEPA Direct Debit scheme are derived not only from receiving payments quicker and cheaper than before, but also in making corporates’ processes more standardised across Europe and thereby reducing operational costs.

Read the first part of the guide from gtnews.

Presentazione da Banking Forum 2009

American Express launches social media site for business owners

[Source: American Express, 23 July 2009]

The site is designed to forge meaningful business connections and provide practical, actionable information and insights from influential bloggers, industry leaders, and savvy entrepreneurs. In addition, the site will aggregate relevant online small business conversations from Twitter.

At the heart of the new OPEN Forum is the ConnectodexSM, a powerful tool for American Express OPEN Cardmembers which enables them to market their business, find vendors and build relationships. The Connectodex differentiates OPEN Forum from other social media sites because it allows members to navigate a virtual rolodex of credentialed businesses to make meaningful business connections.

The Connectodex’s recommendation engine can help users find businesses with similar interests or in similar geographies, as well as connect with members that may offer complimentary services and expertise.

Coming later this summer, OPEN Forum will introduce The Pulse, an innovative feature that can help business owners harness the vast information and collective brainpower of the popular microblogging website Twitter in one easy-to-follow location. The Pulse section curates and filters small-business-focused updates and allows users to sort by industry to help make it easier to follow conversations relevant to their businesses. Business owners can also receive the latest news from OPEN Forum by following @OPENForum on Twitter (twitter.com/openforum).

“Our research has found that nearly 60 percent of small business owners feel challenged in finding innovative ways to market their business, yet only one-in-ten are tapping opportunities in social networking,” said Marcy Shinder, vice president of brand management for American Express OPEN. “The new OPEN Forum provides a one-of-a-kind community where business owners can equip themselves with the best information and resources available to build and grow resilient businesses, including opportunities to leverage social media.”

Ideas and Insights from Recognized Experts

First launched in 2007, OPEN Forum is building on its award-winning content with the introduction of the Idea Hub, a virtual trading post of insights between industry experts and other business owners. Idea Hub features original and exclusive articles and blog posts from Federated Media’s business and social media thought leaders such as Guy Kawasaki (Alltop), Henry Blodget (The Business Insider), and Adam Ostrow (Mashable). Fresh and timely content from experts, trendsetters and influencers is delivered across seven content pillars and headlined by top thinkers in each area:

Idea Hub Topic Area Featured Authors
Money                                   Henry Blodget – The Business Insider
Marketing                               John Jantsch – Duct Tape Marketing
Managing                               Scott Belsky – Behance
Forward Thinking                     Anita Campbell – Small Business Trends
Technology                            Adam Ostrow – Mashable
Lifestyle                                Jill Fehrenbacher – Inhabitat
The World                             Guy Kawasaki – Alltop

FedEx and American Express OPEN have extended their alliance to OPEN Forum. This alliance will bring small businesses “The World” Idea Hub topic area and provide expert content on an ongoing basis.

Media partners of Idea Hub include BusinessWeek, Inc., Entrepreneur, Slate.com, and CondeNet/WIRED .

OPEN Forum also showcases some best practices in entrepreneurship through new content from the Next New Networks and BigThink video series. Today’s leading thinkers and innovative entrepreneurs will provide guidance to small business owners via streaming video.

“OPEN Forum is more than just a networking site. It’s an online resource that can help inform, promote and grow their business,” said Shinder.

OPEN Forum Featured in National TV Spot Launching Today

In conjunction with the unveiling of the new OPEN Forum, American Express will launch a new brand television spot that highlights the critical role business owners play in their communities, society and the economy. It features real entrepreneurs who built their businesses from the ground up, and who continue to innovate, inspire and show resilience. The entrepreneurs featured are:

* Chris Zane – Zane’s Cycles in Branford, CT
* Sue Kirchoffer, Moravian Florists in Staten Island, N.Y.
* Laureen and David Barber, Blue Hill Restaurant in Pocantico Hills, N.Y.
* Warren Brown – CakeLove in Washington, DC
* Bobby Oppenheim – TripleEight in New York, N.Y.
* Paul Cernuto – High Tech Landscapes in Branchburg, N.J.

End user warn of SEPA Direct Debit failure

A report on SEPA SDD has been released yesterday by the End User Committee associations, which comprise:

• the European Association of Corporate Treasurers (EACT);
• the Confederation of European Business (BUSINESSEUROPE);
• the European Association of Crafts and SMEs (UEAPME);
• Bureau Européen des Unions de Consommateurs (BEUC);
• EuroCommerce, the European wholesaler and retailer organisation;
• the European insurance and reinsurance federation (CEA);
• the European e-commerce and Mail Order Trade Association (EMOTA); and
• the European Federation of Magazine Publishers (FAEP).

Read more on this blog post on the Financial Services Club Blog.