All articles by EPI editorial
EPI editorial
UK’s largest general insurer selects Neovia as standard across brands
Notching up a significant new client gain, payments solutions specialist Neovia has been selected by RSA Group, the UKs largest general insurer, as the standard to process payments for all its brands. As an initial step, Isle of Man-based Neovia will begin processing online and telephone card payments for More Th>n, RSAs flagship brand boasting 2.6 million policyholders and offering products such as home, motor, pet and travel insurance Processing will cover one-off and scheduled premium payments and run on Neovias NETBANX platform.
Losses mount at embattled Earthport
Tough economic conditions took a heavy toll on UK online payments specialist Earthport in its financial year to 30 June 2009, sending revenues sliding 18 percent compared with the previous year to £1.57 million ($2.6 million) and its net loss ballooning from £3.38 million in 200708 to £7.3 million Earthports balance sheet also sustained significant damage with a positive net asset value of £1.8 million at the end of the 2008 financial year swinging to a net deficit of £127,000. The financial results were not as positive as we had hoped, commented Mike Harrison, who also announced his move from the position of executive to non-executive chairman of Earthport.
More calls for end date as SEPA’s big test looms
Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) direct debits (SDD) are set for a successful launch, a high-powered delegation from the European Payments Council (EPC) assured delegates to a press conference held in Brussels a month ahead of the 2 November launch date. Underscoring the EPCs optimism, 2,607 banks representing about 70 percent of SEPA payment volumes are ready to roll-out SEPA direct debit services from 2 November onwards This will enable customers to make and receive domestic and cross-border euro direct debit payments in the 27 European Union (EU) member states, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Monaco.
First Data goes for growth in
Marking its entry into the South African ATM market, US payments processor First Data has acquired ATM deployment specialist CashAxcess from South African investment companies Mvelaphanda and Venfin for an undisclosed sum.Established in 2005 CashAxcess provides outsourced ATM services to two second tier local banks, Mercantile and Capitec, and to ABSA, one of the four major banks CashAxcess also offers a range of ATM products and services to the corporate and retail market, including ATM installation, signage, wireless GPRS communication, cash management and ATM monitoring and sales and marketing.ATM outsourcing is a growth area within the South African payments market as banks look to drive more cost efficiencies through their operations, commented Estevao Tokata, the director with responsibility for First Datas sales organisation in Africa.Increasingly, banks are concentrating on building and providing core banking services to their customers while working with specialist partners such as First Data to enhance the breadth of payment solutions offered to their customers.Still a minor player in South Africas ATM market, CashAxcess has 200 ATMs deployed or just over 1 percent of the countrys total ATM population of some 17,000 machines
Western Union looks to B2B for
This acquisition makes Western Union an instant player in the business-to-business payments space and its account-to-account capabilities complement our existing services, commented Ranjana Clark, Western Unions president, global business payments and head of global strategy.Focused on small and medium enterprises, the 17-year old Canadian-based Custom House processes cross-border payments for more than 40,000 customers through its multi-channel delivery system for payout in 120 countries and over 150 currencies
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Nordic giant emerges
Volume is the game in payments, a reality that has prompted Pengeinstitutternes BetalingsSystemer (PBS) and Nordito, two major players in the Nordic regions payments market, to strike a deal that will see them merge in the first quarter of 2010.In order to remain competitive and innovative, it is vital for companies in the cards and payments arena to consolidate volumes, said Peter Lybecker, PBSs chairman and deputy chairman of Nordea, Denmarks second-largest bank.Founded in 1968 and owned by Danish banks and the countrys central bank, PBS operates nearly all electronically-based payments available to Danish bank customers PBS reported revenue of DKK2.5 billion ($395 million) in 2008.Nordito, created in 2007 as holding company of independent payments service providers BBS Handel and Teller, has as its major shareholders Norways largest bank DnB NOR, Nordeas Norwegian unit and Fokus Bank, the Norwegian unit of Danske Bank, Denmarks largest bank.Established in 1972, BBS plays the central operational role in Norways banking industrys common payment infrastructure
Which?: Some UK banks fall short
The PINSentry device makes any vulnerabilities moot, since you need your bank card with the PINSentry and your PIN in order to log in, commented Which?s security expert.At Barclays, we have pushed ahead with pioneering anti-fraud initiatives over the past two years to provide our 3 million online banking customers with increased securitysite protection, commented a Barclays spokesperson.Other banks did not fare as well with two, Halifax and Abbey, rated poor for online security.Summing up Halifax and Abbeys security, Which
Nokia partners with Obopay in global venture
We believe mobile financial services offer a market opportunity with long-term growth potential, commented Nokia executive vice-president and chief development officer Mary McDowell.With more than 4 billion mobile phone users and only 1.6 billion bank accounts, global demand for access to financial services presents a strong opportunity to combine mobile devices with simple but powerful financial services such as Nokia Money, she added.Notably, Nokia Money is intended to function on all makes of mobile phones and across all mobile networks.Nokia Money will enable consumers to send money to another person by using the persons mobile phone number, to pay merchants, pay utility bills and recharge prepaid mobile phone accounts
Santander tackles UK merchant
Heralding an intensification of competition in the UKs payments industry Spanish banking group Santander and US payments processor Elavon have formed an alliance with the unequivocal objective to become one of the leading players in the UK merchant acquiring market.Underscoring this objective Steve Pateman, Santanders head of corporate and commercial banking, commented: Santander aims to become the best commercial bank in the UK.Santander operates three retail banking units in the UK Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley which will be rebranded as Santander during 2010 and Santander Corporate Banking.For Elavon, a wholly owned subsidiary of the US sixth-largest commercial bank US Bancorp, entry into the UK payments market expands on existing operations serving a total of over 1 million merchants in the US, Europe, Canada and Puerto Rico Elavons payment solutions include credit and debit card processing, electronic cheque services, gift cards, dynamic currency conversion, multi-currency support and cross-border acquiring.Santanders move into the UKs merchant acquiring market comes at a time when small to medium-sized merchants are willing and eager to consider an alternative service supplier, indicates a recent study by research and advisory firm East & Partners (E&P).According to E&P, based on a survey of 505 merchants with annual turnovers of from £2 million ($3.3 million) to £50 million, one in five will look to change their current acquirer during the next six months with the primary reason cited as being dissatisfaction with service
Clear2Pay’s big win in Portugal
In another significant client win for Clear2Pay, Portuguese payment processor Sociedade Interbancaria de Servios (SIBS) is to implement the Belgian payment processing technology specialists Open Payment Framework (OPF) solution as the core technology for its Processos units payment hub outsourced services project.The objective of Processos project is to offer banks a full outsourcing service integrating SIBSs central payment hub with a wide range of applications at participating banks, including domestic and international payments and Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) direct debit and credit transfer solutionsSIBS director Joo Luis Baptista commented: We have a solid track record in providing outsourced services through the management and operation of the Portuguese ACH and our POS and ATM networks, as well as other back-office operations outsourcing and we feel that this is the right time to start offering full payments processing.Underscoring Baptistas comment Michel Akkermans, CEO and chairman of Clear2Pay noted that not all banks will be willing or able to invest in the changes that SEPA requires For many this is the right moment to make a strategic change and to outsource their clients payments processing to a solid and trusted partner, said Akkermans.Owned jointly by 27 banks SIBS and its subsidiaries processed over 2 billion transactions, averaging a total of some 500 billion ($730 billion) per month in 2008.SIBS joins a number of other major payments processors who have recently opted for Clear2Pays OPF solution