Acquiring is such a vital part of modern banking processes that it is important to keep a close eye on the systems which make it possible. Acquiring involves the crediting of bank transactions – from a host of different sources – to the correct merchant account, ensuring compliance by passing those transactions through the appropriate clearing systems.

In the past, clearing systems were designed to split the various transactions into groups and to collect the funds through a number of other different clearing systems. Over time the number of types of clearing systems in use proliferated and the market became obscure and cloudy. Now the industry has moved – pushed by the European Union – to develop one common standard clearing system – the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).

With the timetable now set for the SEPA, payment software provider RS2 Software is warning that Centralised Acquiring and Reconciliation is crucial to preparing acquiring banks in Europe for compliance.

“For financial organisations still wrestling with disparate systems and the resultant difficulties of handling cross-border payments, the added technical requirements and regulations of SEPA may seem overwhelming,” comments Radi El Haj, Director of Sales and Implementation at RS2.

“But now is the time to get your systems right. This is the perfect opportunity for financial institutions to seriously review their technologies and opt for systems that are adaptable and future-proof.”

RS2 Software recommends that, when selecting a system or processor, institutions need to ensure that it meets the following requirements:

• No limitation in the range of currencies supported
• Covers all interchange requirements in all regions
• Provides flexible FX currency conversion support, retaining a record of the rates used
• Offers flexibility in loading multiple rates within the same day from various sources based on transaction type
• Supports multiple payment methods for the same merchant
• Provides the customer with multi-lingual statements and reports
• Offers flexible consolidation at group level, region, by currency, etc
• Provides flexible configuration of product accounting
• Supports tiered pricing based on a range of drivers
• Supports individual client agreements.

Centralised acquiring removes the need for separate terms of business, separate settlement periods or complicated behind-the-scenes reconciliation.
It also allows acquirers and their customers to streamline their operations and save administrative costs.

Testimonial

OmniPay has benefited hugely from deploying Bankworks as its Back Office Merchant Accounting System. Bankworks’ flexible architecture and parameter driven rules based approach has supported the rapid growth of our business, which now processes in excess of 1 billion transactions annually.
We look forward to continued sustained growth with the support of our vendor partner RS2.

Hubert O’Donoghue, CEO, OmniPay
Omnipay a Global Multicurrency Payment processing company deploys RS2’s Bankworks System as one of the key components to its Global Processing Platform.

More information

Germany Tel: +49 6102 73 00 30
Malta Tel: +356 2134 5857

Email us info@rs2.com