A significant amount of time at the community meeting was dedicated
to understanding the key trends within the changing payments market.
Mr Simon Bailey from Finarchy outlined four major areas of change that
financial institutions were struggling to get to terms with. Most of these
topics were also raised by other speakers. Improving the customer
experience was at the core of most develop-
ment and it impacted on speed of service,
transparency, spurred fierce competition from
new types of entities and increased regulator
activity. Among the issues yet to be solved,
Mr Bailey pointed to transparency, standards,
identity / authentication and the handling
of access to data, questioning whether
screen-scraping would still be acceptable.
The European perspective was covered by Mr Timmermans from the
European Financial Services Round Table, seating CEOs and chairmen
of more than 20 major European banks and insurers. This group focused
on three topics, keeping the creation of a ‘level playing field’ a top priority:
•
The ongoing Implementation of the Pay-
ment Service Directive (PSD2) coming
into force in 2018, which required banks
to stimulate open access to their accounts
to licensed 3 rd parties (via APIs)
•
Speeding up payments and initiatives to
create an instant SEPA Credit Transfer to
be settled instantly, even cross-border
•
Creating the European Digital Single Mar-
ket (DSM), emphasising use of ‘big data’,
e-commerce, eIDs and Cyber Security.
3
In the eyes of IAMTN, the remittance trade body, and its chairman Mr
Mohit Davar, no entity is better placed to build a successful remittance
solution than the posts. Posts have a unique mix of features for attract-
ing remittance clients, ranging from the largest network, foot traffic, cash
availability, and a mixed work force. Yet the
MTOs drive fast change in the market, and
they use digital technologies, big data and a
mix of access channels that most Posts only
dream of today.
Mr Derek Osborn, Whatnext4u, described the
current market context as ‘turbulence in the
global financial eco-system’. However, Posts
have a strong, extensive and inclusive plat-
form and it is pivotal that they open it up to collaborate with new types
of partners. Posts should consider partnering to diversify and explore
new markets, including developing and expanding financial services and
possibilities from the latest fintech.
The underlying megatrends were continuous
growth in cross-border economic migration
and continuous growth in cross-border
e-commerce. Both trends offered immense
opportunities for the Posts, who were coined
as ‘physical experts in a digital age’. How-
ever, as concluded by Mr Davar: ‘Someone
else is eating your cake!’
3
Trends in international payments
Posts – “you are sitting on a gold mine”
Earlier this year, Rewire signed a collab-
oration agreement with Eurogiro, bringing
digital banking solutions directly to Eurogiro
members’ customers. This enables them to
deposit funds at their branches, hold funds
and make international transfers directly from
their application.
Less than two years have passed since
Rewire launched its innovative remittance
service in Israel, and it seems like thousands
of customers, with 85% return rate and 15%
growth rate month-over-month, are just the
beginning for this young fintech startup.
Rewire was built with the vision of bringing
affordable and secure cross-border banking
services and remittances to internationals
everywhere, starting with Indians and Filipinos
living in Israel.
Its customers in Europe will enjoy an all-in-
one account to manage all their financial
activities with an innovative mobile and a
web app. Customers will be able to receive
Rewire expands
its all-in-one
financial solution
for migrants
in Europe
Key themes in Payments Systems
Change
•
Real 2me and right 2me
–
Customer experience
–
Differing models
–
Se<lement and funding
•
Enhanced transparency
–
End to end transac2on
visibility
–
For customers and
regulators
•
Improving access
–
New regulated en22es
–
Standardisa2on
–
Open to innova2on
•
Enabling compe22on
–
“Neo”/ challenger banks
–
Open access to data and
services
–
Addi2onal service
components
–
Infrastructure provision
4 Eurogiro News
