Insights

As expected, the ECB has given the green light for the T2/T2S Consolidation 1-year postponement upon the request of the main representatives of the industry and as a reaction to the impact of COVID 19 on banking budgets. The Big Bang migration is now scheduled for November 2022 and the TCCG (Target Consolidation Contact Group) will meet on September 22^nd with the objective to issue the revised project roadmap milestones. Twelve more months give banks the opportunity to reassess some of the choices to be made. Here are just some areas that could benefit from further consideration:

• Network Service Provider and how to connect to ESMIG
• Management of ISO 20022 within the payment architecture of the bank. With more time available some of the payment back offices may be upgraded to ISO 20022 to improve quality of service and reduce operational costs linked to maintenance and processing complexity
• Alignment with Cross Border payment processing, in light of the SWIFT ISO 20022 migration
• Digitalisation of the liquidity management process
• Review of payment data governance and use of analytics

This is where we at TAS are ready to offer our contribution. We are already helping many customers in their Target2/T2S consolidation, supporting them in seizing the opportunities deriving from the postponement and are ready to help new customers profit from the Cloud for their NSP and ESMIG connectivity, in digitalizing their liquidity or just in making their payments infrastructures better able to process ISO 20022. Find out more on our dedicated page or get in touch with our experts

The merchant acquiring business landscape is undergoing major transformation. Two main things are driving this change: increased competition and technology.

Despite continuous growth in market volumes, regulation and increased competition from non-traditional players are putting pressure on already squeezed acquirer margins.

In this Mercator Advisory Group Research Brief commissioned by TAS Group, you’ll discover how ISOs and niche players in the Merchant Acquiring landscape can compete and thrive by leveraging the latest technology and applying smart thinking. The report is especially relevant given the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Download the white paper here to get all the insights and recommendations.

 

Milan, 20 July 2020 - TAS S.p.A. (hereinafter the "Company" or "TAS"), leader in Italy in the supply of software and services for banking and financial applications, also present in Europe and America, announces that it has signed an agreement with Otik to add additional competence to the TAS organisation. Otik Srl is an ICT company specializing in software product design and consultancy in the Finance and Banking sector.

The operation is aimed at further strengthening TAS Group’s leadership in the Italian and European banking market in the area of Liquidity & Collateral Management.

To date, almost 20 financial institutions and interbank service centers have chosen the TAS Aquarius solution for the migration to the new consolidated Target2 /T2–Securities platform.

The initiative undertaken by TAS is also aimed at tackling the launch of the ECMS (European Collateral Management System), the last step among the Eurosystem's Consolidated Target Services, on which TAS is already carrying out analyzes and developments, working in a collaborative manner through the Aquarius User Group in partnership with KPMG and Accenture.

Download the press release

 

TAS Group has just launched a new service that allows out-of-the-box connectivity to all the major US signature networks, including Mastercard, Visa, Amex, Diners, and Discover, and the US PIN debit networks. The service, available for both Issuers and Acquirers, is being offered in SaaS mode deployed on the Cloud.

 The new service delivers real benefit and convenience to Issuers and Acquirers who are able to easily, quickly and securely accept a wide range of traditional and innovative payments, with TAS acting as an aggregator of network traffic towards Mastercard Network Gateway Services (MNGS). Thanks to this smart way of connecting, customers avoid having to carry out individual negotiations with each network and can benefit from the inherent economies of scale this approach delivers, enjoying added efficiencies and lower costs.

 The Network Gateway Service, which includes settlement and reporting, is available both to new and existing customers of CARD 3.0 IE, TAS Group’s card and digital payments management solution, also deployed on the Cloud, and will also be available as a stand-alone service for onboarding, seamlessly interfacing with other third-party platforms.

Milan, Italy, 30 June 2020 - TAS S.p.A. (hereinafter the "Company" or "TAS"), leader in Italy in the supply of software and services for banking and financial applications, also present in Europe and America, announces that today the wholly-owned subsidiary under Swiss law, TAS International SA, in execution of the contract signed on June 8, 2020, has completed the acquisition of 100% of the share capital of the Swiss company Infraxis AG, which in turn holds the entire share capital of the British company Infraxis Ltd (UK).

TAS Group thus expands its presence in Switzerland and Germany, but especially in Great Britain where it is currently not present, strengthening the foundations for further growth in the European market. Thanks to the synergies that will be created on the software platforms with the Infraxis solutions, TAS plans to soon launch a new cloud based and full microservices proposal managing all types payments through a unique platform, to be once again among the promoters in terms of innovation and among the first to guide the transition from e-money to digital payments not only in Italy, but also in the other markets in which it operates, with the ambition to become a leading company also at international level.

With the conclusion of this operation, which determines the integration between two highly competitive and complementary businesses, new horizons for TAS Group beckon. In addition to a significant increase in volumes, an enrichment in human capital, thanks to the professional figures who will join and strengthen the area of research and development, which is essential to guarantee innovative and best of breed solutions to its customers.

The President of TAS Group, Dario Pardi summarized it as follows: “The conclusion of this operation confirms our inorganic growth strategy which accompanies the organic one endorsed by the recently approved Industrial Plan. With this step TAS strengthens its market position in Europe that from today represents for us an international outpost in the world of payments. This partnership and the coming ones under evaluation, are significant milestones aimed at increasing the value of the company to support those who believe and invest with us.”

This is echoed by Valentino Bravi, CEO of TAS Group: “Today TAS is a consolidated reality completely focused on renewal. We are pursuing the goal of an important growth, leveraging our areas of excellence, supported by a continuous search for innovative solutions, by an organic development of our Group and by acquisitions of complementary businesses already consolidated on the market, such as Infraxis. We firmly believe that the synergies in the development of new solutions and the cross selling opportunities, which we will explore in the coming months, will be an important accelerator in achieving the challenging objectives that we have set ourselves."

Manfred Thomi, CEO of Infraxis, comments: “TAS has chosen us and we have chosen TAS. We are ready for the market, we have always been, but today we have, thanks to the union between our already competitive businesses, many more resources on which to rely to offer our customers more and more expertise and innovative solutions".

Read the entire Press Release in the Investor section

Milan, 26 June 2020 - TAS Group completes its internal reorganization aimed at optimizing skills and leveraging the assets of the Group, perfecting the strategic direction for Global Payments SpA and TAS International SA, the two companies created at the beginning of the year to target the Italian and international payments markets respectively.

The Parent Company, TAS SpA, will entrust the coordination of all production activities for the domestic market to Massimiliano Quattrocchi, at TAS Group since 2008 and already head of Global Payments. All commercial development and management activities in Italy will be led by Raffaele Monsorno Monaco, who will also have responsibility for strategic partner management. TAS SpA will continue to be responsible for the provision of administrative and financial services for all Group companies.

Lastly, the position and strategic orientation of the Group in the international markets will also be strengthened, not only through the recent acquisition of Infraxis SA, but by calling on Mario Mendia, previously head of TAS Group’s Capital Markets Business Unit and with previous experience in management consulting, to lead the creation of a consultancy structure to support the organic and inorganic growth of the company.

At Group level, a new Global Channel function has been created, entrusted to Umberto Pardi, who recently joined the Parent Company's Board together with Fabio Bravi, the latter to support President Pardi on special M&A projects. The two new Board members will work in synergy with Mario Mendia to achieve the ambitious goals that form part of the business plan recently approved by the Board of Directors. Download the press release

Like us, you may have been watching with interest the developments concerning the new consolidated Target services platform and in particular the calls for an extension to the migration deadline. The big-bang migration is now expected to be moved to 22 November 2022, a year later than scheduled, following requests made to the ECB’s Governing Council by four European banking bodies (EBF, ESBG, EACG and EAPB) to shift the deadline, citing impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic and SWIFT’s decision to delay the ISO 20022 migration for cross-border payments as the main reasons. The decision by the ECB is expected at the end of July. Stay tuned. Follow us to stay updated on further Consolidation developments and on the collaborative path led by TAS in partnership with Accenture and KPMG Get in touch to find out how TAS can support market participants for the ISO20022 migration and the new Consolidated Target services

Milan, June 8th, 2020 – TAS International SA, the wholly-owned subsidiary of TAS S.p.A., has today signed a binding agreement for the acquisition of the Swiss company, Infraxis AG, and its British subsidiary, Infraxis Ltd (UK).

Infraxis is a leading company in the Swiss and German payment markets, where in the latter its PayStorm processing solution currently authorizes payments for approximately 30% of all issued credit cards. PayStorm supports both card and instant payment solutions within a microservice, omni-channel framework, where ultimate flexibility, scalability and reliability are assured for deployments within private and public cloud networks. Infraxis also provides quality assurance and testing solutions based upon its enterprise-wide, on-demand testing solution IQS, which offers simulation and testing for all aspects of payment infrastructure.

With this acquisition, TAS Group increases its market coverage in both Switzerland and Germany, where it is already present within the Capital Markets sector. TAS will now offer agile processing solutions across all verticals of the payment market, increasing its offerings within existing countries of operation, such as its home market Italy, and empowering its expansion internationally.

The integration of the two companies is expected to result in significant growth for the combined business, primarily due to an increase in turnover at an international level. Significant synergies are envisaged linked to both cross-selling opportunities and platform rationalization in the areas of card program management, credit, debit and fuel card issuance, mobile payments and fuel payment processing.

President Dario Pardi commented: "This acquisition forms part of the strategy laid out in the 2020-22 Business Plan, approved in March, where international expansion is one of the fundamental growth parameters. The acquisition of Infraxis is certainly an important step for TAS Group considering that with the new skills and solutions acquired, TAS will now play a primary role in the digital payments sector at a European level. The confident investment in the capital of TAS International by the current shareholders of Infraxis further confirms the validity of the business plan, and guarantees a combined contribution towards a successful and fruitful Business Integration".

CEO Valentino Bravi added: “We are now entering the concrete phase of the new TAS following the complete financial restructuring and the strengthening of our organisation. TAS is now a completely transformed business, capable of seizing every opportunity that our market offers. The acquisition of Infraxis represents a continuation of our rapid progress and it enriches us with new solutions in the world of Digital Payments, with unique specificities such as the one dedicated to the Fuel Card sector. Furthermore, it allows us to expand our presence in countries with high payment digitization rates, such as Switzerland and Germany. We view this acquisition as being the strategic starting point for further international momentum".

Manfred Thomi, CEO of Infraxis concluded: “The bringing together of Infraxis and TAS marks the start of the next exciting chapter for us. We at Infraxis are looking forward to offering our customers the benefits of a wider combined set of complementary payment solutions, which are backed up by a strong corporation with an international outlook. We are now perfectly positioned to better serve existing customers and to expand the TAS business internationally.”

Read the entire Press Release in the Investor section

TAS Group suppors the NGO "Rise Against Hunger" since 2014 sharing its core value: an upcoming world without hunger is possible. This belief is also strengthened by the UN being enclosed into the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). TAS Group employees meet every January for a big charity reunion: collecting and crafting high nutritional meals to be donated to schools in remote African villages. Ensuring at least a daily high nutritive meal is of a fundamental importance to eradicate both child labor and hunger: poor families won't be obliged to carry their children at work letting them go to school instead. We are really pleased to know that although the Covid19 crisis is hindering transport and communication, the food donated by TAS Group reached the Africa soil where the Feed The Hungry UK volunteers are distributing it to the children of the The Joseph Foundation Zimbabwe Learn more about Rise Against Hunger