Request for Information Mobile Payments (April 2015) Date of publication: 15. April 2015 Profile of the UPU The UNIVERSAL POSTAL UNION (UPU) was founded in 1874 in Berne, Switzerland with the main goal of establishing a single postal territory for the reciprocal exchange of letter-post items and adopting common principles for the international postal service in a non-discriminatory manner. Currently with 191 member countries, the UPU became a specialized institution of the United Nations in 1948. The main mission of the UPU is to stimulate the lasting development of efficient and accessible universal postal services of quality, in order to facilitate communication between the inhabitants of the world. This comprises the commitment towards free circulation of postal items over a single postal territory composed of interconnected networks, the adoption of fair common standards and the use of technology, the cooperation and interaction among stakeholders, the promotion of effective technical cooperation and the satisfaction of customers' changing needs. The UPU is, thus, expected to play a major role in the constant revitalization of postal services. In this sense, the International Bureau of the UPU, a central office operating at the seat of the UPU, acts as an organism of execution, support, liaison, information and consultation, providing assistance and information to the bodies of the UPU and its member countries and designated operators (a member country may designate one or more operators for provision of postal services and fulfillment of obligations arising from the UPU Acts). Furthermore, the UPU facilitates the development of worldwide postal services by providing an information and communication technology environment which allows posts to concentrate on the delivery of postal services to their customers. In this context, the UPU provides a global network (POST*Net) with value added services, as well as computerized applications for the management of international mail and international postal money orders. Contact David Avsec ARP Manager David.Avsec@upu.int Tel: 031 350 35 41 Fax: 031 352 43 23 Union Postale Universelle - Bureau International Postal Technology Centre Mr. David Avsec Weltpoststrasse 4 3000 Berne 15 (Switzerland) Tel: +41 31 350 31 11 Fax: +41 31 352 43 23
Scope of the RFI The RFI concerns the delivery of a technical solution for enabling payments on mobile devices (phones, tablets). The technical solution should also bring service solutions (such as: bridges / interfaces with traditional banking and card services). Objectives The UPU operates a Worldwide Electronic Postal Payment Network (WEPPN), for which the core technical solution is the International Financial System (IFS). IFS currently provides: A global secured Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) network A central Automated Clearing House (ACH), with international settlement service Track & trace functionalities A central claims and inquiry system called FEIS A central Quality of Service measurement System (QCS) An electronic compendium of postal payment services available A family of software applications for postal payment operations at the front desk, and for back office operations (accounting, reporting). The software solutions enable both domestic and international payments. A bridge to other payment networks The IFS is now operated in more than 70 postal organizations worldwide. Since early 2015, IFS is also available as a smartphone (or tablet) application, enabling post offices to be online as long as a phonedata network is available (2G minimum). The smartphone application can also be used by mobile postal employees to transact online while serving clients at home. The next step is to bring mobile payment solution(s) for the citizens of each of the 192 UPU member countries, who are clients of their respective posts. The UPU is looking at the market for a solution that can be integrated within its IFS. UPU General Requirements: - Solution to enable payments to be processed through a mobile device: domestic and international payments, for which the back-end is powered by the IFS, and the front-end is the requested solution - Extension of this solution to be able to interface with third party payment systems i.e. cards, bank transfers - The solution should allow the possibility to store a balance in the system (management of virtual accounts: e-wallets). - The UPU is interested in solutions that domestically (nationally) will enable: o Unbanked customers to use their mobile phone (ewallet) to purchase soft goods or physical goods: any experience of the respondent to this RFI to run such payment ecosystem should be described o Banked customers to link their mobile phone with other payment instruments at disposal (bank or postal accounts, debit or credit cards) o Bridging between un-banked and banked customers and allow payments between the two
Requirements - Details Below is a list of requirements and questions to be answered by the respondents of this RFI. The UPU will be evaluating the answers according to the same structure. I) Technical requirements A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 A9 A10 A11 A12 Does the solution work: -On feature phones -On smartphones -On tablets -On all the above What is the underlying technology (SMS based or USSD based, smartphone application, web app ) What is the platform (Android, Windows, ios etc.), and what are the minimum requirements (specifications) for the mobile phones or tablets? If the solution works both on feature phones and on smartphones, is it compatible between the two technologies? For example: can a payment be initiated from a feature phone and credited on a smartphone? What are the security technologies and procedures to secure the system? Describe if the security is based on industry standards, and what are the standards, or if you use a own-made solution How is the privacy of customer data protected? (Describe the technical, operational and legal policies for protecting the customer data) Is the solution powered by a contracted Mobile Phone Network Provider, or does it work independently of any Network? If it is tied to a Mobile Network Provider, explain why and what this provider brings to the overall technical solution/service. Can the solution operate offline? Ex: is it possible for the user to prepare a payment offline and send it at first opportunity when getting a connection to a mobile network? Describe (if necessary on a separate sheet with diagrams) the architecture of the solution with all its components (software on the mobile devices, central servers and databases, interfaces with other systems etc.) Does the solution need the deployment of servers locally? Or can it be distributed on the cloud? If it is available on the cloud, do you operate the cloud services yourself, or through a third party? In addition to the mobile platform, does the solution offer other user interfaces (such as: internet/web application) What are the interfaces available with your solution to connect it to other systems? Please
A13 join a technical description of these interfaces if possible Is your solution (software and manuals/user guides) available in different languages (list them)? And does it support UNICODE and r-t-l scripts? II) Operations - requirements B1 Explain how the clients (end users of your solution) get registered in the service, and what the necessary steps are to be able to make the 1 st transaction. Is there any mandatory pre-requisite for the clients (such as: owning a bank or card account) for being part of the service? Please detail if the registration procedure is different: -For the person or business sending money -For the person or business receiving money. - Is it possible to receive money without being registered? B2 B3 B4 B5 In other words: please describe if your solution is a closed ecosystem enabling registered users to transact between themselves, or if your solution offers bridges/interfaces to traditional finance/banking systems allowing seamless transactions between registered users and users of other platforms. Is there any limit (number and/or amount of transactions for a given user during a given period) set in the system? Are these limits configurable? Is there any particular measure or service embedded in your solution to fight against illicit transactions (money laundering, financing of terrorism), or to comply with any local regulation (KYC, maximum amounts, identification of persons, reporting, etc.)? Please describe the implemented measures. Who operates the service? Is it the organization (company) to which you provide the technology, or is it your company? Or a contracted third party? In other words: are you only a technical solution provider, or are you a payment service provider? If you are a payment service provider, what is your exact regulatory status? In particular, what type of license do you operate under? Describe how flexible your solution is to define and configure different payment services (person to person, person to business such as bill payments, government payments ).
Describe the general implementation effort to add additional payment services (number of consultancy days for example) Is there any limit to the number of payment services a particular client can have access to? B6 How do you provide: -Technical support -Operational/user support to the users of your solutions? B7 If you do have a helpdesk in place (answer to B6) what are: B7a -its operational hours B7b -the available languages B7c -the provided customer interfaces (phone, web, chat etc.) III) Functionalities - requirements C1 C1a C1b C1c C1d C1e C2 C3 Describe if your solution provides the following features. For each feature describe an example of existing implementation. Feel free should it be relevant- to describe additional features than the ones listed below: -ewallet transfers -ebanking (access to banks or postal accounts via the mobile phone) -ecard (access to card accounts such as Mastercard or Visa) -ATM cardless cash-out (possibility to use ATM without card: the phone is used for the authentication on the ATM) -Payments. Describe the type of payments that are possible: egoods and service only (airtime, ) or other goods and services (bill payments, ) Describe how operations/transactions are settled Referring to the list of features in C1, please describe if the features are available nationally (domestically) or internationally (ex: international money transfers/payments) IV) Commercial D1 D1a Do you own the technical solution, or is it provided even only partly- by a third party? If you have a third party provider, please describe who and what he (they) provide? Do you have the full intellectual property rights on the solution? What is the licensing terms of the technical solution (computer source code and technical/user documentation)? Do you submit your technical solution to independent security audits? If so, the date of the last audit and the scope of the audit.
D2 D3 D3a D3b If a Post was interested in your solution, what would be your pricing model? Examples: -Project one-off fee. Based on previous experiences, please give an indication of the size of a project -License fee (one-off) -License fee (yearly) -Yearly operation/maintenance fee -Transaction fee (per 1 transaction) - Transaction fee (with the guaranteed amount) If the UPU was interested in your solution to integrate it with its IFS: -Would you be willing to white label your technology for the UPU to bundle it (as an optional service) with its IFS? -What would be your pricing model if the white label/bundling approach was selected? Deliverables The UPU shall neither be responsible for, nor pay for, any expense or loss which may be incurred by Respondents in the preparation and submission of their RFI Response. Respondents shall be responsible for fully informing themselves in relation to all matters arising from this RFI. Documents delivered shall be in English or French language in written form or electronically. Replies to the RFI have to be sent to mentioned contact in electronic form (pdf, docx, xlsx) and/or in writing till latest: 15. May 2015
--Readiness and maturity E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 E6a E6b E6c E6d Describe a typical implementation in a postal organization or other financial service provider. In particular, describe if any- how you usually address the regulatory compliance issues with the local authority. How many companies/organizations are using your solution? When was the first roll-out of your solution? How many transactions are going through your solution (yearly)? Can you give some contacts of customers using your solution as references that the UPU can contact? Please give some information about your company regarding: -Headquarters/place of registration and jurisdiction -Number of employees (FTE) -Number and locations of operating branches -Structure and locations of departments (same as Headquarter or different)