Furthermore, because of the higher education
levels of Asian youth today and the high pene-
tration of mobile phones, a growing fraction of
payments went through channels provided by
other networks such as tele-companies.
AML/ATF regulation shapes our business
Tighter regulation within anti-money launder-
ing and anti-terrorist funding and within avoid-
ance of tax-evasion is having an effect all over
the world and complying with these require-
ments demands a great deal of resources for
Eurogiro members. Deutsche Bank, as well as
the Eurogiro Compliance Audit Group, offered
advice to the audience on best practices
within this area.
In 2015, Eurogiro took an important step
to ensure that our system is compliant with
future requirements of transaction screening
when we introduced the second generation of
the Single Settlement Provider service. Many
Eurogiro members are currently upgrading
their systems to access the new service.
eCommerce
A rapidly growing number of customers shop
online all over the world, and both Lucky
Venture Group (a CUP subsidiary) of Hong
Kong, as well as the ‘The Postal Innovation
Platform’, pointed to the opportunities for
Eurogiro members within this area. Both
financial institutions and posts could re-use
their payment systems and benefit from their
branch network, while the posts had much to
gain from positioning themselves as carriers,
not least in the area of return goods.
Finally, Eurogiro gave a briefing on its ongoing
process to shape the future strategy of the
company.
Again in 2015, the mix of general information,
bilateral talks and enjoyable social events was
greatly appreciated by the participants.
3
The Eurogiro CEO, Mr Michel Stuijt, under-
lined the dual importance of the meeting.
Eurogiro wants to update and inspire the
participants about the main trends in today’s
cross border payments and intends to offer
a unique opportunity for multilateral collabo-
ration. Mr Stuijt welcomed the newly-signed
Eurogiro member, AgriBank of Vietnam, and
greeted a few prospective members and part-
ners attending the meeting, being SeABank,
Vietnam, Wells Fargo Bank, USA, and Uglii of
Australia.
Eurogiro members enjoyed the excellent loca-
tion, the perfect organisation by the co-hosts
from Vietnam Post and welcomed the many
opportunities to brush up relations with old
partners and meet new ones.
Cross border payments
– in Asia and globally
New technology and new market entrants
were highlighted as clear market drivers, not
least in the form of mobile payments. Whilst
financial institutions, including those amongst
Eurogiro members, had various offerings to
customers in this area, the frontrunners were
from outside the ranks of banks. Chinese
Alibaba, once a local eCommerce market-
place, was going cross-border and had an
integrated payments engine amongst its
services. Traditional non-bank payment
providers like PayPal were looking at next
generation technologies such as block-chain
and providers like Ripple. The SWIFT MT103
correspondent-based business model was
being challenged, in particular in the P2P and
P2C space.
In Asia, the market was still growing much
stronger than in Europe. The Asian market
was particularly sensitive to costs of Foreign
Exchange and this adds increased pressure
on payment providers. The Eurogiro partner,
Western Union, is reported to having reduced
its fees significantly in Asia in recent years.
First time in Asia – Eurogiro’s 2015
annual member meeting
Ho Chi Minh City was a perfect and inspiring venue. The main topics during the meeting were cross border
payments, AML/ATF Compliance and eCommerce – each topic impacting the business of Eurogiro members,
regardless of whether they were Postal organisations, banks or MTOs.
Caravelle hotel was an elegant and efficient venue for the 2015 Eurogiro Community
Meeting. Eurogiro CEO, Mr Michel Stuijt, greets the participants at the first Community
Meeting in Asia.
Source: Postal Innovation Platform
Eurogiro News 5
