European Commission, DG Internal Market and Services Rue Joseph II Brussels BELGIUM

Transcription

1 Currence Holding B.V. Beethovenstraat WZ Amsterdam P.O. Box AB Amsterdam Phone +31(0) Fax European Commission, DG Internal Market and Services Rue Joseph II Brussels BELGIUM Date 5 November 2010 Contact Phone +31 (0) p.m.mallekoote@currence.nl Subject Currence response to e-commerce consultation Dear Sirs, Currence supports the European Commission s holistic approach to identify barriers to cross-border provision of online services. We would like to highlight that the establishment of online e-payments would help the uptake of cross-border e-commerce activities and bring with it benefits of payment security and cost-efficiency for both consumers and web merchants. Introduction Currence is the owner of ideal, an e-payment method which leverages existing online banking applications using an innovative Online Banking e-payments (OBeP) Messaging Protocol. This enables consumers to make a real-time guaranteed payment to a web shop in a user-friendly, cost-efficient and secure fashion by generating a credit transfer from their online banking account. (See Annex 1 for ideal case study) A secure, user-friendly and cost efficient payment method The European Central Bank has identified OBeP schemes as a promising secure and efficient online bankingbased e-payment solutions, hence recommended their deployment 1 : Online merchants urgently need readily available payment methods whereby the buyer is properly authenticated. Online banking-based payments are a strong option for this. The European E-Commerce and Mail Order Trade Association (EMOTA) welcomes any initiative, which can make this category of payments the norm for cross-border trade in Europe. 1 ECB 7 th SEPA Progress report: Onder Currence Holding B.V. vallen Currence Services B.V., PIN B.V., Chipknip B.V., CeaNet B.V., Acceptgiro B.V., Currence Incasso B.V. en Currence ideal B.V.. KvK

2 5 November of 7 Its main consumer and merchant benefits can be summarised as the following: - User-friendly format through direct integration with customer bank account; - A secure payment method which helps to solve online payment security and privacy concerns (e.g. payment fraud, identity theft) regarding cards-not-present transactions and typically make use of multifactor authentication (no static passwords or PINs); - A real-time, guaranteed payment method as it allows for online status confirmation of a payment transaction and ensures retailers of no default on payment; - Fees are set by banks individually in competition with each other and with other payment methods - Low investment -and operating costs as OBeP schemes build on existing online banking infrastructure, support fully automated straight-through processing and their integration in web shops is easy. For these reasons, OBeP schemes are both an enabler and facilitator of e-commerce activities, boosting the growth of e-commerce as they attract customers who were unwilling or unable to pay with a card online. OBeP schemes growth has particularly been at the expense of less efficient, off-line payment methods. (See Annex 2 for ideal case study). Standardisation of e-payments in Europe At present, multi-bank OBeP schemes (which can be used by a consumer and a merchant with accounts held at a different bank) are not available throughout Europe, which limits consumers online payment facilities for cross-border purchases. Currence is developing an interoperable OBeP Messaging protocol, in partnership with its German and Austrian counterparts Giropay and eps. An interoperable framework would avoid the costs of supporting many local solutions and subsequent fragmentation of e-commerce activities. Consequently, this would lower costs for end-users and facilitate the uptake of cross-border e-commerce activities. Conclusion We would welcome the European Commission s support in the endorsement of standardisation initiatives to reduce the cost of setting up an e-payments Framework, while maintaining sufficient scope for innovation and competition of e-payment schemes. Kind regards, CURRENCE P.M. Mallekoote CEO

3 5 November of 7 Annex I ideal explained Currence is the owner of the ideal scheme. Banks and payment institutions can acquire an ideal license: - An ideal issuing license allows the bank to offer their internet banking customers the opportunity to make an ideal payment. The customer who already has an internet banking account and contract does not need to sign up separately for the ideal-service. Thus ideal is directly available to all customers which have an internet banking account with one of the ideal issuing banks. - An ideal acquiring license allows the bank to offer their web merchants the opportunity to receive an ideal payment. Merchants can make use of ideal by signing an ideal contract with their (ideal acquiring) bank. In ideal there is a clear separation between scheme (Currence) and processing, which is the responsibility of the ideal licensees. Currence is a not-for-profit organization with independent governance, ensuring a level playing field for all participants. Banks compete with each other in providing the ideal payment option to their customers. Similarly IT service providers compete with each other in offering their services for transaction processing to ideal licensees. For more information on ideal see There a demo shows how a customer makes a payment using ideal. Fig. 1: ideal business model

4 5 November of 7 Annex II ideal s Netherlands experience ideal was introduced in the Netherlands in October Currence licenses ideal to banks, which offer this payment method in competition with each other to their customers (consumers and merchants). Past and present developments of ideal are done in close consultation with all the stakeholders: merchant and consumer organizations, payment service providers and banks. This has contributed to the quick uptake and wide adoption of ideal Within 3 years ideal became the most widely used payment method in Dutch web shops. The figure below shows the rapid rise of ideal payments: Fig. 1 Nr. of ideal transaction s since October 2005

5 5 November of 7 It is important to note that the growth of ideal has come at the expense of less efficient offline payment options. Other research also shows that ideal has primarily brought new buyers into the market and replaced offline payments while (credit) card use has remained stable in volume (in a growing market): Fig. 2 Share of ideal payments in Dutch web shops

6 5 November of 7 The rapid adoption of ideal has been driven by clear advantages for consumers and merchants: Benefits for consumers: - Directly available if you have access to online banking. No separate sign-up is necessary, customers can try and use ideal straight away. - Simple, familiar and easy to use. The consumer uses the same identification and authentication as in online banking and is presented with familiar screens from his bank (a subset focused on the approval of the payment. Other functions in online banking are not shown and will not distract the customer). - Wide-spread acceptance and use of online banking. The Netherlands has over 10 million users of online banking (out of a population of 16.5 million). Countries with a lower penetration of online banking are catching up. - Trust in/security of online banking (multi factor authentication). Banks have built up a good track record in the last years, with hardly any fraud. - Support from Consumentenbond, the Dutch Consumers Union (Dutch member of CI- Consumers International and BEUC - Bureau Européen des Unions de Consommateurs) Online shoppers who paid their last purchase with ideal cite as most frequent reason for use of ideal: - Payment is dealt with immediately (31%) - Secure (28%) - Convenient (20%) A consumer survey by Blauw Reseacrh in 2008 showed that the perceived safety of ideal is higher than for other payment methods. 89% of the respondents considered ideal as safe or very safe, whereas only 34% of the respondents perceived credit cards as safe or very safe. The majority (54%) of online shoppers prefer ideal over other payment methods: Fig.3 Preference of online shoppers for payment methods

7 5 November of 7 Benefits for merchants - Real-time status confirmation of transaction and unconditional payment guarantee from merchants bank - Fully automated straight-through processing: no hassle and costs from charge backs or reversals. Payments can be reconciled automatically with the order administration. - Low investment costs and low operating costs: integration in web shop and back office is easy, bank fees are listed at 0,70 per transaction or less (with large discounts offered at higher volumes) - Many merchants report significantly lower product returns and payment queries. Acceptance of ideal is very high in Dutch web shops (89%), much higher than credit cards and Paypal (Visa 50%, MasterCard 49%, Amex 20%, Paypal 30%). The few Web shops which do not offer ideal usually accept only offline payment methods.