Todos makes mobile authentication reliable and convenient
Todos AB, a leading provider of security solutions for eBanking and eCommerce strong authentication, has announced about its launching of onMobile for iPhone(TM) and iPod Touch(TM) and updating onMobile Java MIDP technology and new application for the Android platform. All these innovations will give banks a full range of solutions for user authentication and transaction verification using the latest mobile phones.
Todos designed unique technology for users to feel safe and confident transacting with their phone. Todos’s Dynamic Signatures allows a bank to adjust the level of security according to the riskiness and value of the transaction. Sign-what-you-see confirms key details of a transaction with a user on their mobile phone screen before they sign it. Secure Domain Separation gives ecommerce, banking, digital signatures and one-time passwords their own secure channel simplifying the process for the user.
Article continues here: http://www.ecommerce-journal.com/news/25355_todos-makes-mobile-authentication-reliable-and-convenient?drgn=1
Free Trusteer anti-malware software
Alliance & Leicester has started providing free software to its Internet banking customers which gives an additional layer of protection against phishing attacks and fake websites, the bank announced today.
The innovative ‘Rapport’ anti-malware software from Trusteer, silently protects information entered by users into their Internet browser, including their unique customer ID and PIN, from malicious software like Trojans which could be hiding on some computers. It will also protect against redirection to fake lookalike web sites.
Rapport works alongside existing anti-virus software and firewalls to provide additional protection when banking, by ring-fencing information away from the Trojan. Rapport is currently available to over one million Alliance & Leicester’s Internet Banking customers who can download this software from the Alliance & Leicester website.
Article continues here: http://www.finextra.com/fullpr.asp?id=30772
Risk Management Principles for Electronic Banking
The Bank for International Settlements has – already some time ago – developped a nice document about risk management in electronic banking. You will find an interesting list of the specific threats to risk management of your brick and click bank but also a nice suggestion of the responses to this risks. It will surely help to redraw or update the risk policy of your bank.
Here you can download this usefull document : http://www.bis.org/publ/bcbs98.pdf
Raiffeisen Bank Romania Orders Close to 200,000 Smart-Card Readers from Todos AB
Raiffeisen Bank Romania has ordered 190,000 Todos A200 smartcard readers. The bank’s objective is to increase security for its online customers and, as a result, increase their trust and confidence in eBanking with Todos’s advanced technology. Raiffeisen Bank is one the country’s leading banks with more than two million customers. It is a subsidiary of the Austrian Raiffeisen International Bank-Holding AG, which in turn is a fully consolidated subsidiary of Vienna-based Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG (RZB).
RZB operates one of the largest banking networks in CEE, covering 17 Central and Eastern European markets through subsidiary banks, leasing companies and other financial services firms. The group’s nearly 62,000 employees service 14.9 million customers via more than 3,200 business outlets.
Article continues here: http://www.pr.com/press-release/180917
Africa’s mobile banking revolution
Millions of Africans are using mobile phones to pay bills, move cash and buy basic everyday items. So why has a form of banking that has proved a dead duck in the West been such a hit across the continent?
It has been estimated that there are a billion people around the world who lack a bank account but own a mobile.
Africa has the fastest-growing mobile phone market in the world and most of the operators are local firms.
In countries like South Africa, for example, mobile phones outnumber fixed lines by eight to one.
In Kenya there were just 15,000 handsets in use a decade ago. Now that number tops 15 million.
Setting up a bank account on your phone is straightforward. All you do is register with an approved agent, provide your phone, along with an ID card, and then deposit some cash onto your account.
You can use it to pay for everything from beer to cattle – one Masai farmer told the BBC that when he sells cows in Nairobi, he puts the money on his phone to ensure that robbers can’t get his cash.
A Kenyan woman said she uses the technology to transfer money from her phone to that of her parents while a Nairobi businessman told us it was handy for settling customer accounts.
Interested ? The article continues here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8194241.stm
CoCoNet’s e-banking products ready for SEPA Direct Debit
CoCoNet has a clearly defined roadmap for preparing its innovative e-banking solutions for SEPA in a stepwise approach. CoCoNet’s products are already able to process SEPA Credit Transfers. The next steps will integrate SEPA Direct Debit functionality in three stages.
The MULTIVERSA IFP International Finance Portal has been handling SEPA Credit Transfers in different country and bank flavours since the SEPA standard was introduced in January 2008, just like the MULTIVERSA PBS offline client, the banking server MULTIVERSA IBS and the well established and highly successful MULTICOM Banking Server and MULTIWEB Banking.
At end of March 2009 the decision-making body of the European banking industry, the European Payments Council (EPC) confirmed the 2nd November 2009 as the launch date for SEPA Direct Debit at banks which are available as a core and B2B type. Companies use the “core” type to debit consumers, whereas the “B2B” type enables Business-to-Business direct debits between companies. The differences primarily derive from the deadlines for returning payments: The debtor of a core direct debit can return it within eight weeks and in exceptional cases up to 13 months after debiting whereas B2B direct debits are not refundable by the debtor and even require a mandatory verification of the mandate by the debtor bank. CoCoNet will provide enhancements for both types of SEPA Direct Debits.
Right in the first step CoCoNet’s systems will support the features of the new SEPA Direct Debit. Next to the displaying of IBAN and BIC and the payment reference (end-to-end reference) these include a due date, a creditor ID issued by the central bank, and the so-called mandate related information (MRI) that amongst others consists of a valid mandate reference and the mandate issuing date. In this context CoCoNet’s e-banking solutions process the extended account statement information according to the SWIFT specifications of the MT940- and MT942 formats and the respective specifications of the German ZKA. The regulatory aspect of displaying additional information originates from the mandatory so called “reachability” for SEPA payments.
In a second step CoCoNet will enable users of its client system MULTIVERSA IFP and MULTIVERSA PBS to initiate SEPA Direct Debits via the graphical user interface both via manual payment entry and via the upload of payments.
In the third stage CoCoNet’s customer products will offer a new ergonomic mandate reference handling for the management of mandate information. CoCoNet will consider if and how companies can migrate their existing mandates to SEPA mandates. In Germany the ZKA currently discusses options for migration solutions.
The general intention of the SEPA payments is to allow corporates unified cross boarder collections and credit transfers. CoCoNets SEPA-ready e-banking products directly help banks and corporates centralising and streamlining their business processes in order to actively leverage the upcoming potentials and to profit from the regulatory changes.
About CoCoNet
CoCoNet is a leading software company for e-banking solutions headquartered in Erkrath/Dusseldorf (Germany) and supplies banks and large corporations in various European countries with internationally applicable electronic banking products. These solutions cover national and international payment transactions, format conversion, professional cash-management, e-invoicing and Trade Finance. International banks (such as ING, Citigroup, Rabobank, JPMorgan, SEB and HSBC), large corporations (Deutsche Telekom, Allianz and Daimler) and various service providers rely on CoCoNet’s e-banking customer products and banking servers.
The MULTIVERSA product suite consists of three main products:
- A high-end e-banking portal solution (MULTIVERSA IFP International Finance Portal)
- A web-based customer system (MULTIVERSA PBS Professional Banking System)
- A bank server (MULTIVERSA IBS International Banking System
Maybank launches online income tax payment service, looks to boost business e-banking adoption
Monday 17 August 2009 | 04:34 PM CET
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According to Maybank’s president and CEO quoted by Yahoo News, the bank expects that within the first year, around 1,000 of the 12,000 existing business customers who use its M2e.net enterprise cash management portal will also sign up for its newly launched online income tax payment service.
The initiative aims to promote the use of online banking in the Malayan corporate sector. According to the same source, in the seven-month interval between January and July 2009 Malayan corporations carried out a total of 1.7 million transactions, out of which only 119,000 transactions were made via electronic banking.
Source: http://www.thepaypers.com/news/
New payment methods: e-money (1/3)
In this article we will look at the situation with which banks are confronted as far as new methods of payment are concerned (through the new channels, innovative offers from non-banking partners or competitors). We will also have a look at what is available on the e-money market and close the article with some tips on a monetary policy central banks could develop in this field.
To situate better the subject of e-money, we can subdivide e-commerce globally into e-payment and e-finance. So with e-payment we will cover all types of electronic money, mobile payments etc. Another definition comes from the legal side: e-money systems defined by the European Central Bank in 1998 and in the Directive 2000/46/EG about e-money institutions in 2000.
What is a definition of e-money given by the IMF[1]?
Electronic money, or e-money, is any electronic payment media – any material, device, or system that conducts payment via the transfer of electromagnetically stored information
1.1. Situation[1]
The e-money market was characterised by a slow take off in the past. The use of card-based e-money is every day more widespread in the European Union. Many countries are coming out the experimental stage. Developments in the area of network e-money have been a bit less rapid than those in the area of card-based products.
Some of the basic reasons for this are given here. Merchants were reluctant to accept new methods of payment and invest in new techniques. They did not want to have more to worry about with different accounts and inflow of money. This also influenced the cost structure, since every new way of payment involves new costs (banking, technology infrastructure etc.). For these new methods of payments (e-purse, digital cheques, …) special security measures have to be installed (these are different from traditional payment methods and also require a higher degree of security control) in e.g. vending machines and storage media. This was another reason for the slow take off.
On the customers’ side adapting their payment habits (e.g. less cash) were rather slow in order to use e-money. During the introduction phase, the customer information about this systems were also insufficient.
There were also worries about the legal and regulatory framework which had to be decided on, fixed in different countries, accepted and implemented before it could be used. Cross-border payments, funds of uncertain origin etc. were just some of the troubles merchants (and clients) had to face.
For a network system to work properly, a critical number (high volume) is necessary: acceptance in many countries, by many clients and by many merchants affiliated (to different systems).
Multifunctionality could have been another problem to solve before the system could be accepted widely by the merchants. Multifunctionality means that there are bridges between the different systems (new and classic payment methods, e-money and credit cards, bank accounts ant internet accounts etc.).
As soon as there is more liquidity and most of the problems mentioned above have been solved, the new payment methods will be an attractive alternative to classic methods of payment. Customers will use them more widely for their transactions both in shops and for person to person transactions (e.g. e-bay auctions paid from person to person through Pay Pal).
To conclude this situational overview, let’s look at some figures:
| Total amount of cash (notes & coins) in use of money | ||
| 1990 | 2003 | |
| Netherlands | 28 | 5,7 |
| France | 15 | 7,4 |
| Germany | 24 | 11,3 |
| Belgium | 24 | 11,8 |
| Italy | 14 | 11,3 |
A clear decrease in use of cash money can be noted in these European countries who introduced e-money, debit and credit cards as an alternative to cash.
The new developments in the e-money sector are :
- the integration of different sections into the chip card, such as electronic ticketing and other non-banking products
- the combination of e-money facility with credit or debit cards
- the cross border use of electronic money thanks to improved standardisation and interoperability
[1] ECB The effects of technology on the EU banking systems, July 1999
[1] Source: Six Puzzles in Electronic Money and Banking
Connel Fullenkamp and Saleh M Nsouli
International Monetary Fund
Mobile banking for micro finance
Mangolia’s leading microfinance bank XacBank and Horus Nomadic Solutions have announced the launch of AMAR, a new mobile banking service for microfinance, on Thursday.
It will help XacBank’s clients to conduct cash transactions using mobile phones through a network of agents and merchants. AMAR services can be used with all four mobile operators — G-Mobile, Skytel, Unitel and Mobicom — in Mangolia, said a press release.
Horus Nomadic Solutions has developed Noomadic, a mobile banking platform for the purpose, to launch AMAR which will now serve the needs of banks and microfinance institutions. The platform is designed to offer financial institutions a wide range of mobile services using any type of mobile handset, the release said.
XacBank has entered into partnerships for the service with Petrovis, the country’s largest gas distribution network with 400 outlets and Mongol Post networks.
Source: http://www.microfinancefocus.com
About
Celufo is managed by H. Van de Vyver
After 10 years of professional experience in the industry as Project Manager and Marketing Manager in Belgium and abroad (Germany, Mexico), he started a new career for 15 years in the banking sector as a Private Banker and later as an expert in electronic marketing and communication for banking.
He has held many seminars in Eastern Europe and also in Asia (Mongolia, Vietnam), in Africa (Rwanda) and in Latin America (Mexico)
