FOCUS ON THE SEPA With its recognized expertise in the field of payment, Atos Worldline monitors market changes closely and anticipates emerging needs.
31st January 2008 marked the launch of the SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area). The goal of this project is to harmonize money transfers in Euro between member countries (transfers, debits, bank cards, etc.) so that cross-border payment in Euro will be processed with the same speed, same security and under the same conditions as a domestic payment. To achieve this, three new cashless means of payment have been created: credit transfers, card payments and direct debits. Credit transfers and payments with SEPA cards have been available since January 2008. SEPA direct debits will be launched by late 2009 - early 2010. Likewise, in order to back up the SEPA, the European Commission has issued the Payment Services Directive (PSD) which, once it has been implemented on 1st November 2009, will harmonize all the legislation on payments currently in force in Europe. This directive is the cornerstone for the establishment of a single payment market within the European Union. It has to be implemented in member states on 1st November 2009.
| Interview with Philippe Kempeners Head of the Payment Services Department at Atos Worldline |
What changes does the SEPA bring about for banks and companies?
The SEPA brings about a radical change of national payment systems, as these instruments replace most of the means of payment currently in use. Transfers and debits will be carried out in the form of SCTs (SEPA Credit Transfers) or SDDs (SEPA Direct Debits).
Banks are now investing in the integration of SEPA payments tools. SCTs are already in place and SDDs should be integrated by the end of 2009. The SEPA allows banks to streamline processing at European level, and provides opportunities to develop innovative services and make them available to customers throughout the area. To achieve this, banks need to reconsider their information systems, implement new security standards and manage the transition from the old payment methods to the new ones.
What about companies?
The SEPA allows companies to simplify payment management by centralizing their operations on a single account located in any country within the SEPA. Relationships between companies and their partners (customers/suppliers) are thus simplified. They will also benefit from increased competition in the payment sector and from the modernization brought about by the SEPA project.
In short, the goals of the SEPA are to shorten payment periods in the SEPA, generate stiffer competition for the provision of payment services, reduce the costs associated with these payments and their processing, and help conquer new markets.
What is Atos Worldline offering in order to assist banks and companies through this migration?
SDDs have particularities that radically change the standard debit system. Banks and companies now have to equip themselves with solutions that will allow them to successfully switch to SDDs in order to remain competitive in the European banking scene. Therefore, creditors will need to equip themselves with tools for dematerializing and storing mandates, as well as managing their life cycles, even though these tasks are actually far from their core activities. In this respect, service providers have a key role to play by helping banks and merchants switch to the SEPA.
Atos Worldline is very active in this field and provides its customers with appropriate solutions to meet these new challenges. For example, we have just launched a new solution that aims to facilitate the adoption of the SEPA direct debit system by European banks and companies: European Mandate and Direct Debit (EMD2). This solution can easily be integrated into customers’ existing information systems with complete transparency. It greatly simplifies the switch to SEPA direct debits for European companies by limiting the effort required to adapt existing systems and processes. It thus allows them to benefit from the advantages of SEPA Direct Debits more quickly.
Atos Worldline is also taking part in the various European initiatives for card standardization, and includes the SEPA principles into its processing platforms. Likewise, our experts can analyse the impact of the SEPA on the organizations of the market players concerned.
MOBILE AND INTERNET TECHNOLOGIES
PAYMENT Atos Worldline helps financial institutions face the new challenges in the field of payment
To face the new challenges of the market, financial institutions must make crucial decisions concerning their payment systems. To assist them, Atos Worldline shares its expertise of over 30 years in the field of payments. In an expert’s point of view, Atos Worldline presents the key technical criteria for choosing a payment solution that suits the current challenges, constraints and opportunities. The speed and quality of their choices will give institutions definite competitive advantages to conquer new markets. Atos Worldline’s complete payment solution, Worldline Pay, meets these criteria and, in addition, includes cutting-edge technological innovations such as XA EasyFlow, a performance booster based on processing parallelization. This makes it possible to get the best out of the tools currently available on the market. Intended for various types of market players, issuers, acquirers and network operators alike, it can also be enriched usefully with loyalty or security management, according to the user context.
For further information, read our white paper: « Advancing your card payment systems ».
LOYALTY AND PAYMENT Atos Worldline helps the means of payment of diplomatic institutions to evolve
Atos Worldline is in charge of managing the new co-branded Fuel Card for the Diplomatic Card Company. It is intended for customers who are not subject to customs duty (the diplomatic corps: embassies, consulates, international or European organizations). The card was launched in Belgium and then in Spain, Italy, Germany and France. Diplomatic Card Company benefits from a complete service. In addition to tax-free payments for fuel, a loyalty card managed by Atos Worldline allows the company to offer its loyal customers benefits and privileges when purchasing various tax-free products. 'By linking the loyalty card with the co-branded Diplomatic Card Company oil-industry partners fuel card, the solution offered by Atos Worldline enables us to benefit from modern technology and saves our cardholders carrying multiple cards in their wallets. Moreover, Worldline Loyalty is multilingual and multi-country, and hence eminently suitable for an International client', Mr. M.J.H. Stockbroekx, Chairman of Diplomatic Card SA, emphasises.
E-PAYMENT AND SECURITYAtos Worldline is helping banks combat fraud with the implementation of the ACS (Access Control Server).
In order to reinforce the security of online payment, Liability Shift came into force on 1st October 2008 for French transactions. Being at the forefront in the field of Internet payment, Atos Worldline is assisting banks through the deployment of 3D Secure with a complete innovative solution (Worldline ACS) to help them combat fraud. Atos Worldline is deploying this solution for 14 major banks, with over 2.5 million transactions authenticated per month for a repository of over 60 million cardholders.
CONTACTLESS PAYMENTAtos Worldline assists supermarkets through the deployment of new contactless payment technologies
Atos Worldline is installing its integrated e-banking solution in the shops of a large store chain, with an NFC server and contactless payment terminals. The NFC Xenta terminals of the Banksys range are currently being tested in several stores, will be put into general use in the next few months.
SECURITY AND DEMATERIALIZATIONAtos Worldline dematerialises the guarantee of cheque payments: a multimodal web tool
With Worldline Cheque Messenger, investing in a cheque reader in order to benefit from the Cheque Service guarantee is no longer needed! This solution allows any merchant to accept cheques with complete security as long as they have an Internet connection and a webcam. From a website, an image of the cheque is digitized by the webcam and sent to a central server. Available to all, Worldline Cheque Messenger thus combines ease of access with cost reductions while ensuring the confidentiality and security of the information exchanged.
