Insights

Cascade, the US-based issuer processor, has announced the imminent launch of THAT™ Visa® Prepaid Card. THAT will be the first card program to leverage Cascade Processing, based on the company’s state-of-the-art issuing platform – PayStorm – built upon TAS Group’s advanced, API-first issuing processor technology, delivered in cloud.

Cascade Processing provides Card Issuance, Origination, and Enrolment for card programs as well as a web-based banking portal, mobile app, and contactless payment capabilities.

As an Issuer Processor that provides Program Management services, Cascade can quickly plan, test, and launch expanded offerings for its fintech customers to meet their business and cardholder needs. Spencer Schmerling, CEO of Cascade said: “I’m thrilled to be taking this next step in delivering comprehensive, modern card services to fintechs who are looking for agility, speed and innovation in their card issuing and processing. We have enjoyed working with TAS and are excited to launch our first program on their world-class platform.” Peter Caiazzi, SVP Product Development, TAS International added: “We’re confident that PayStorm can provide precisely the advanced functionality, flexibility and scale that Cascade needs to play an ever greater role in the card management and processing space and provide the next-gen card and digital payment services that its customers are looking for. We’re certain that THAT card will be positively received and wish them much success.” The THAT Prepaid Visa Card is issued by First National Bank, Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. This card can be used everywhere Visa debit cards are accepted. Card program administration by Cascade Financial Technology Corp.

Time is running out. All banks today offering instant payments (SCT INST) and reachable in TARGET2, must become reachable in TIPS before the end of the year. The ECB has defined three options for European Instant Payment interoperability and whichever model Banks choose, TAS is able to accelerate and ease the process and boost compliance efficiency. Further highlighting a commitment to the goal of increased interoperability, reachability and take up of Instant Payments in Europe, the European Commission has launched an assessment on the need for an EU-wide instant payments scheme. The initiative will investigate whether: new legislation is needed, non-legislative measures would be appropriate, or other policy options are suitable. The deadline for submitting feedback is midnight (CET) on 7 April 2021. Click here to have your say. Find out which option is best for you to be reachable in TIPS and contact us for a free consultancy.

Milan, Italy – 21 December 2020 – TAS Group, a leading provider of digital payments, liquidity management and financial messaging software solutions, today announced that it has received global acceptance by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) to support SWIFT’s Cross-Border Payments and Reporting Plus (CBPR+) message specifications, joining the exclusive ranks of certified providers around the world. TAS Network Gateway platform, recently enhanced for the 2020 November change, and Aquarius – TAS leading Liquidity Management solution, are both now ready to support the new ISO 20022 standard, in addition to the legacy SWIFT-MT financial messages, to send and receive cross-border payments and to manage reporting. “TAS’ commitment to bridge compliance complexities for banks in the payments space is stronger than ever,” said Gianpiero Caretti, Senior Business Development Manager at TAS International. “Our financial messaging solutions sit at the heart of the Eurosystem’s payments and securities settlement infrastructures, and are continuously evolved to support changing and emerging standards as well as market infrastructure protocols.” “TAS helps banks to decouple their applications from the network technicalities and simplifies legacy modernization, enabling them to be more competitive. Our 30+ years of collaboration with SWIFT and vast experience in ISO 20022 compliance worldwide can ease the adoption path for any type of PSP worldwide,” he added. TAS Network Gateway, as well as the certified SWIFT Service Bureau operated by TAS, are built on state-of-the-art, enterprise-class, highly secure technologies, coupled with a powerful set of APIs and ISO 20022-ready adapters, all delivered either on-premise or in the cloud. SWIFT CBPR+ Ready: check out the official vendor list Download the press release

Less than 11 weeks to go to the obligatory choice for all European PSPs on how to make themselves reachable on TIPS. The Instant Payments settlement service, despite having been launched over two years ago by the ECB is still very much underused. To overcome the fragmentation of the market present in the various EU countries, the Governing Council of the ECB has formalized the new regulatory obligations that will lead to the “pan-European reach” of instant payments by November 2021. Already by the end of January, therefore in less than three months, all PSPs that currently participate in a SCTInst scheme and are reachable on TARGET2 must open a DCA account on TIPS or choose how to make themselves reachable also on TIPS. Have you already chosen how to make yourself compliant? TAS supports its customers both in the management of central currency accounts on TARGET2 and TIPS with Aquarius, its Liquidity Management platform, and for connectivity to the new ESMIG (Eurosystem Single Market Infrastructure Gateway) via SIA-Colt or SWIFT. Our solutions are available both on-premise and as a service or in the cloud. Contact our experts now!

The results of the interim management report at 30 September 2020, approved by the Board of Directors on 13 November, show an improvement across all indicators compared to the same period of the previous year.

Core revenues are up by 9.1% and the net result for the period is showing a sharp increase compared to a substantial break even in the first nine months of 2019.

Chairman Pardi and CEO Bravi expressed their satisfaction with this positive and consolidated trend, confirming the validity of the Group's business model, the innovation strategies and the alliances put in place with important players in the sector that have allowed growth despite the difficult situation that affected all sectors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

For several years, TAS Group has been a sponsor of the initiative of BNL, our primary customer, part of the BNP Paribas Group, "Relay race 8x20 BNL for Telethon" to support research on genetic diseases. This year the event will not be held in the usual Roman location of the Baths of Caracalla but will be experienced completely online. Everyone can participate in the place they prefer by running, walking or cycling, alone or in a team with friends and relatives, for 20 minutes or more, and post photos and / or videos on their Social profiles (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) by tagging Fondazione Telethon e 8x20 BNL per Telethon to be anyway together in this great commitment of solidarity.

During TAS Group’s workshop at the recent Payvolution virtual event, Stefano Macchi, Global Payments’ subject matter expert, illustrated the great potential of the new SEPA standard developed by the EPC. R2P, together with instant payments and open banking, enables PSPs to offer a more digital, efficient and end-to-end user experience, irrespective of the target segment: consumer, business customer, merchant or public admin.

While the actual roll-out of the standard has been postponed to March 1 2021, from a technical point of view, everything is ready for the first initiative launched by EBA Clearing, whose testing phase began in July, with 27 partners from the financial world from 11 European countries that have joined the project.

R2P is not an additional payment instrument but a new, all-digital way of requesting a payment for which a payee and a payer electronically exchange structured data through a message workflow, before exchanging money. Being initiated by the creditor, R2P allows for a 100% automatic reconciliation of the subsequent payment, even if done in several instalments and deferred instead of in real time.

On the application platforms and channels of TAS, a series of competitive services for customers on both the beneficiary / payee side and the customer / payer side are created on the basis of calls to the standard R2P infrastructure. These services integrate domestic use cases already implemented in the PayTAS scenarios for B2G / C2G interaction as well as on CBI Globe (the leading Italian Open Banking Ecosystem standard), but are ready for billers, PSPs and clients throughout the entire SEPA area.