ATMs, what they will and will not do with Poste, Nexi, Apple and Huawei
Present and future of the agreements between ATMs and companies such as Poste, Nexi, Apple and Huawei
Update of the Business Plan, agreements with Apple and Huawei for tokenization services, agreement with Nexi for the HUB platform, step back on the project with Poste: these are just some of the activities carried out by Bancomat spa last year and which are illustrated in the Annual Report financial year 2022.
THE AGREEMENT WITH NEXI
During 2022, the activities to implement the "New Supply Chain Governance" mainly concerned Bancomat relations with Nexi, its technology supplier. In January, the company led by Alessandro Zollo (in the photo) signed a development agreement for the technological implementation of the Schema HUB platform with Nexi. In the first six months of last year, analysis activities were launched, including the new use cases identified and the development of the software.
At the same time Bancomat and Nexi started working on the Service Agreement for the management of the operation of the HUB platform including the processes for disputes, anti-fraud, technical and functional monitoring of the platform itself. In parallel, they worked to define the migration strategy, in a progressive way, distinguishing between the Transitional period and the Target scenario, with the new use cases enabled. In July, then, the board resolved not to proceed with the establishment of a newco, instead concentrating the activities to create the HUB. In the following months of August and September, a new migration plan was defined for the banks participating in the supply chain to favor a lower impact.
NEW FOR TOKENIZATION SERVICES
Various activities on this front during 2022.
In March, an agreement was signed with Apple for the tokenisation of the PagoBancomat card in the Apple Pay wallet in order to enable holders to carry out mobile proximity payment transactions. Since July 2022, however, PagoBancomat cardholders and holders of a Huawei smartphone can digitize the card in the Huawei Pay payment wallet.
In this regard, the financial statements show that the reclassifications for the period, equal to 76 thousand euros, are mainly linked to the conclusion of developments on the tokenization platform for the commercial launch of the new Huawei Pay wallet. Finally, in the last quarter of 2022, discussions were initiated with two other important wallet providers to allow the tokenization of the PagoBancomat card and therefore payment in stores via NFC.
THE PROJECT WITH POSTAL SERVICE FAILED
On the other hand, the project with PostePay did not go through, which led to 320 thousand euros out of the over 424 thousand total, recorded under "fixed assets in progress and advances". The financial statements underline how Bancomat spa "in consideration of the impracticability of the Project with PostePay and the new strategies outlined in the latest 2023-2027 Business and Financial Plan", approved by the board of directors in December 2022, proceeded to write down these costs as "their economic and future benefit has ceased".
THE MEMORANDUM WITH FSI
A memorandum of understanding was signed on 26 July 2022 between Bancomat and the FSI "to evaluate the feasibility of a partnership project". In this way, the two groups defined the methods which then led to the entry of FSI into the capital of Bancomat. Recently, the Fund led by Maurizio Tamagnini signed a binding contract with the shareholder banks Intesa Sanpaolo, Iccrea Banca, Banco Bpm, Bper and Bancomat itself to invest up to 100 million euro, through a reserved capital increase, against a qualified minority stake in the capital. At the end of the operation, according to Corriere della Sera, FSI should come to hold 43% of Bancomat spa.
THE INDUSTRIAL PLAN
Another important element of the 2022 activities concerned the update of the Industrial and Financial Plan for the 2023-2027 horizon to "guarantee the company and its shareholders and customers high readiness, agility and flexibility in the face of new technological, commercial, corporate actions of the new financial year 2023”, reads the financial statements. The updated Plan confirms the strategic objectives of the previous one and focuses, like the other one, on five tech-based business solutions: contactless, digital payments, e-commerce, significant technological assets, continuous promotion and communication initiatives to support adherents.
Activities to update the prospective trends of the Bancomat, PagoBancomat and Bancomat Pay services are planned (based on the trends recorded in 2022 and the 2023-2027 market forecasts) and the go-live methods and times of the new Bancomat spa HUB platform; the introduction of the Discover business line thanks to the partnership stipulated with Dscover Financial Services in order to allow the acceptance of Discover cards on POS and ATMs in Italy.
COLLABORATIONS WITH PLAYERS IN THE PAYMENTS AND INNOVATION SECTORS
Bancomat spa also mentions the collaborations carried out "with the main players in the Italian payments and innovation panorama" for sector research activities. Mentioned the Innovative Payments Observatory of the Milan Polytechnic and the Fintech & Insurtech Observatory of the Milan Polytechnic, of which it is the main partner, and the Community CashLess Society of The European House – Ambrosetti, of which it is once again the main partner from the 2021 edition -2022.
THE REJECTION OF THE ANTITRUST
In the 2022 financial statements, a separate chapter is dedicated to the Antitrust parenthesis. At the end of 2020, in fact, Bancomat Spa had submitted the project for a new business model with regard to interbank commissions for withdrawals from ATMs to the scrutiny of the Competition and Market Authority. The company writes: the new model "involves the elimination of the MIF (interbank commission, ed ) currently associated with the Bancomat Circuit, with the consequence that the Issuer (the institution that issues the card, ed ) will not be required to pay the MIF itself in favor of the Acquirer (the institution that owns the ATM, ed )”. The latter, as the entity that actually offers and supplies the withdrawal service through its own equipment, will be called upon to charge the service through the ATM.
However, the Authority led by Roberto Rustichelli did not like the new model which, at the end of 2022, rejected it because, as Bancomat recalls, it considered that “it constituted an agreement restricting competition in violation of art. 101 TFEU (Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, ed. ) for its alleged anti-competitive effects and was not worthy of an exemption as an exception to the prohibition pursuant to article 101”. According to the company, however, the conclusions of Piazza Verdi "appeared to be flawed in many respects" and for this reason it has appealed to the Lazio TAR and possibly, if this proves it wrong, it will continue with the Council of State.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/bancomat-accordi-postepay-nexi-apple-huawei/ on Sun, 20 Aug 2023 05:59:30 +0000.