About payments & co

Sibos 2010: Value Team Finance presents QrPayments Solution

Borgese S. — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 09:00:53 +0000

Finally a bit of innovation at SIBOS 2010. Value Team Finance presented its solution for mobile payments integrated with VTPIE virtual wallet.

An innovative solution that enables contactless, remote and mobile commerce in one way!

Let’s see it.

http://cdn.livestream.com/grid/LSPlayer.swf?channel=vtpiechannel&clip=flv_27b734fd-ef57-4297-9c87-a300434bd65c&autoPlay=false

Watch live streaming video from vtpiechannel at livestream.com

Sibos 2010: The innovation behind the change…

Borgese S. — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 21:00:26 +0000

…is not always a matter of changing the core business of a company but is often a crucial question of innovating the processes.

This is the beggining of my speech at Sibos 2010 and the “fil rouge” of VTPie programme.

Everything starts from Customer Experience. The payment has to be:

-Simple and cheap

-Secure

-Fast

-Multi-channel

…the old core banking solutions are not able to do it and the clients look for simplification, better use of the solutions (l-phone, l-pad, …). The payment systems of the future have to be:

-Flexible

-Scalable

-Service Oriented

Payment Platform VTPIE: original product concept:

-To develop products with a common / standard component (e.g. SEPA DD, multi-currency CT), defining AOS/VAS on the basis of the distinctive characteristics of each Bank’s offer respecting the competitive market situation

-To deliver economies of scale in development activities, reducing the implementation costs of projects thanks to the significant component of re-use deriving from Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

-To standardize ordinary and evolutionary maintenance activities on the diverse solutions installed (SOA vs SILOS) drastically cutting application and infrastructure maintenance costs (Open environments vs Mainframe)

-To favor the process of IT environment skill development thanks to application components implemented 100% in Java and 100% in SOA

How will we pay things in the future?

Borgese S. — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 13:24:44 +0000

Nowadays a payment is coupled with specific devices such as credit cards, cash, cheques, mobile phones etc that give a further concreteness to the real purchase we intend to make.

This is not only a habit, but it depends on the little diffusion of “digital identity” concept.

Faced with a recognizable digital identity, payments will be linked to devices and sales channels, in a cheaper and more secure way. For example, I will be able to buy something through my Wii platform, my wi-fi refrigerator, my mobile phone, etc. without credit cards, POS, ATM and so on just because all devices will be able to verify my digital identity and then make secure payments via ip connection. These technologies already exist and rose a very good level of maturity and cheapness.

This kind of scenario, to be enabled, needs:

improving wi-fi connectivity
empowering knowledge on digital certificates
implementing “sw device independent” services
and, overall, open-mind and trust in a future of innovation and substainable growth are needed by providers and customers.

In this scenario you can easily understand why security and payments have to be more and more considered as an unique environment.

iPhone Android payments test

Roggero R. — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 11:02:00 +0000

Look at this interesting test payment applied to New York Underground access.

New EPC Rulebooks: useful or “the game is not worth the candle”?

Arena D. — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 16:24:08 +0000

The new EPC Rulebooks apply as from 1 November 2010 and from that date on only the new messages are supported.

In the SEPA Credit Transfer Scheme Rulebook a new process has been added: the Recall.
Due to the introduction the new Recall process two new messages are added (camt.029 and camt.056).

The standard messages are based on a new version of the ISO standard for both SEPA Credit Transfer and SEPA Direct Debit.

Due to the upgrade to the new ISO standards the messages contain a new message structure (root element) and a new format structure (changed fields, checks and rules).

The banks are responsible for the required changes to their own automated information processing systems and the consequence of not meeting the deadline of 1 November 2010 is that the bank will be unable to successfully process SEPA payments received from or sent to ACH.

What are you doing for this new compliance? Is the game worth the candle?

VTPie at Sibos 2010 in Amsterdam

Roggero R. — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 17:32:05 +0000

A second time at Sibos for VTPie and Value Team Finance: the world’s premier financial services event takes place from 25th to 29th October at Amsterdam’s RAI Congress Center.

Sibos is the most important international showcase for learning, collaborating and taking the collective action that shapes the future of the industry. Every year Sibos brings together the financial industry for a week to create opportunities for individuals, organisations and the community as a whole.

Do not miss our speech on Monday 25th October at 10:45 in the Open theatre 2: Salvatore Borgese, CEO of Value Team Finance, will talk about “Creating new Value based on the framework of compliance, innovative and attractive payments”. Fastest technological developments generate sophisticated needs: just thinking about standard payments (i.e. SEPA, credit/debit card) and innovative payments (like mobile and micro-payments, DBTV, interactive services) that have to constitute an integrated framework of added value services for final customers.
Recent studies have shown that lots of Financial Institutions have to introduce innovative models and architectures in order to face market changes and new challenges, even by introducing a shared service center for a pay per use approach.

Come and visit us at stand A742: discover the VTPie program, the innovative solution based on Open platforms, Java technology and SOA architecture.
Now VTPie also includes new software platforms, like Access Bridge for the management of SWIFTNet and other interbank networks – that came from the recent acquisition of NetValue.

The first Sibos was held in Brussels in 1978 when 300 people took part. Last year we were at Sibos in Hong Kong, the largest event ever showing in Asia Pacific with 5,782 participants (42% of whom were from Asia) and 176 exhibiting firms.

Innovative Payments

Roggero R. — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 16:12:55 +0000

Over the last 8 years, in Italy, the number of BCT transactions rose by 25%, meanwhile the number of cheques issued fell by 36% (source: “Base Public Information – Banca D’Italia”). Despite this, Italy is one of the European nations which still use mostly cash as the payment method. It is thus likely that the growth trend in BCTs will be confirmed in the years to come.

On the e-commerce side, increased trust in Internet drives conversion of users from the merely informative approach to use as a device (on line purchases, transactions, …).

There would thus appear to be interesting potential for growth in the volume of payments via both traditional channels and innovative channels.

If bank margins are shrinking, also be effect of regulations (one thinks of certain repercussions of PSD which tend to standardise instruments and of greater competition), it is necessary to concentrate on incrementing transaction volumes, In this, particular attention is due the innovative payments market. Further to the attractions implicit in potential development (rising online transactions, diffusion of mobile phones, …), the technologies applicable activate interesting payment scenarios, such as:

- credit card integrated into mobile phones:

- contactless electronic purse;

- BCT services for subscribers to a payment service;

- payment against biometric recognition;

- immigrant money home transactions.

- …

There are diverse, decidedly complex aspects of this market requiring evaluation:

- highly innovative offers;

- impacts on merchants’ payment terminals;

- user resistance.

From the technological viewpoint how can the opportunity to penetrate the innovative payments sphere by best exploited? Can the logics of silo applications handle this kind of challenge delivering competitive operating costs?

PSD – Payment Services Directive

Carbonelli M. — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:08:13 +0000

We are now close to the deadline for application of the Payment Services Directive (PSD) by Member States; the deadline is indeed set for 1st November 2009. The new Directive is the regulatory framework to integrate and regulate the establishment of the Single European Payment Area (SEPA).

The next step is thus required of the Member States who must promulgate applicative legislation in time, so that financial institutions can apply the regulations and arrange the necessary technological adjustments. The PSD is regulation and rationalization of the payment market through the introduction of higher levels of consumer protection.

The guidelines underlying the legislation are intended to:

Improve Payment Service Provider competitiveness;

Reduce costs to consumers, expanding consumer choices;

Introduce Payment Institutes: non-bank bodies authorized to provide payment services.

In a scenario that tends to reduce bank revenue, with a simultaneous increase in competitiveness (standardization of instruments and introduction of new payment services entities), reducing operating costs is not merely a choice, but an imperative.

Is all this a threat or can you exploit opportunities? Probably there is no a single answer for everyone, but it is surely time to reflect seriously on technological evolution in the Payment Systems area.

Is it better to change old procedures continuing to stratify applications to manage new regulations, or is the time right to create an open, univocal platform (based on new technologies and architectures) for all payment types (on traditional and innovative channels)? Which are the impacts on operating costs in the two scenarios?