Insights

The Eurosystem has communicated the milestones in the lead up to the final migration on November 2022. The main changes can be summarised as follows:

1. No milestones to reach until March 2021
2. New milestones have been added (User Testing activities started, Training for user testing started, Network connectivity tests on production started, Network connectivity tests on production completed)
3. Milestones not completed in 2020 will be postponed between 8 and 12 months.

With specific regard to the most operational impacts:

• NSP selection and contract preparation to be completed by 31 March 2021
• Software development for the required adaptation changes to TARGET2 to be completed by 30 June 2021
• Testing of the internal applications to be completed by 31 August 2021
• User Testing activities to be started by 1 December 2021

In addition the ECB has communicated that, as disclosed by the ECB’s Governing Council in July:

• All PSPs which have joined the SCTInst scheme and are reachable in TARGET2 should also become reachable in a TIPS central bank money liquidity account, either as a participant or as a reachable party (i.e. through the account of another PSP which is a participant)
• All ACHs offering instant payment services should migrate their technical accounts from TARGET2 to TIPS.

In order to implement the new European Instant Payments interoperability paradigm, a project has been launched starting in January 2021 where all participants must be live by 15 December 2021 and follow the additional milestones to ensure their go-live readiness in a synchronised manner across all national communities. In summary the TARGET2 participants have today:

• 6 months to confirm, review or fine-tune their NSP choice for TARGET2
• 9 months to complete TARGET2 developments and 11 months to finalise testing
• Less than 15 months to set up their TIPS central bank money liquidity account

Many banks will be using the TARGET2/T2S Consolidation delay to absorb the impacts of COVID-19 priorities and the implementation of TIPS accounts. However, the extra time will allow participants to improve their digital transformation and consider cloud strategies, improve data management and analytics, and embrace ISO 20022 more deeply and extensively. TAS is ready to support market participants ensure the best possible implementation of these projects, focusing on:

• NSP access in Cloud
• Intraday Liquidity
• Payments transformation
• Instant payments management in the new framework

Find out more on our dedicated page or get in touch with our experts

The consolidated half-year report of TAS Group, approved yesterday by the Board of Directors, highlights a growth in all financial indicators compared to the same period of the previous year, with double-digit increase (13.9%) in the Gross Operating Margin (EBITDA).

Dario Pardi, President of TAS Group, commented: "We are undoubtedly satisfied with the results obtained in the first half of 2020 which see an increase in all indices, in particular in margins, despite the period being characterized by an unprecedented pandemic and which led to containment world-wide, with important repercussions on the economy. These have been important months for us, marked by the conclusion of the corporate reorganization of Global Payments Spa and TAS International S.A., which led to an optimization of skills and an enhancement of assets for the domestic and international market. In addition, we have completed important transactions that will allow us to grow further in the future, particularly internationally. In fact, in June we completed the acquisition of Infraxis AG, a reference reality in the digital payments sector, in the Swiss and German markets, laying the foundations for consolidating our presence in the European market ".

"TAS Group - added Valentino Bravi, CEO of the Group - will continue focusing on technological innovation as the foundation of its business strategy, after an absolutely satisfactory first half. Although the future global economic outlook is uncertain, given the current crisis generated by the pandemic, we can look to the coming months with optimism, also thanks to the boost that digital payments are having, particularly in our home market. We therefore continue our commitment to complete software development projects with the usual determination, focusing investments on innovation and working to confirm our leadership as a company of Italian excellence recognized abroad ".

TAS recently contributed to ESMA’s (European Securities and Markets Authority) regulator consultations on Outsourcing to Cloud Service Providers, offering valuable recommendations on key requirements for financial market participants. The contributions were made as part of ESMA’s three-month public consultation phase on their June publication and will shortly be made available on the Regulator’s website. At TAS we continuously monitor regulatory guidelines and industry best practices to improve our solution delivery capabilities, both for SaaS and Cloud delivery models. We are therefore proud to state that we fully comply with ESMA’s guidelines in all our outsourcing offerings. Below are just a few of our most popular outsourcing solutions for the financial market community: PAG€ - the most convenient way to connect to ESMIG TAS SWIFT Service Bureau – beyond pure network access TAS 3DS Access Control Server (ACS) – secure buyer authentication for e- & m-commerce Hosting/Housing/Cloud @ TAS France (learn more) With more than 35 years of experience in software solutions for e-money, payments and financial markets and playing an active role in the Eurosystem Consolidation Project, we believe we have a responsibility to share our expertise and views with the European Financial Community and are always happy to do so. Working with TAS as your outsourcer means being guaranteed that we have the right focus on the business, as well as the full knowledge and control on the underlining application developed by TAS digital sw factory experts inhouse.

Geneva and Milan, September 14, 2020 - Information Technology and Solutions and Services (ITSS), a global banking software integrator, and TAS Group (TAS), a global provider of digital payments software solutions, are pleased to announce their new strategic alliance aimed at accelerating innovation in Financial Services. Through this partnership, ITSS together with TAS, both Temenos partners, will strengthen their services and be able to offer best-in-class solutions in the area of Payments, Card Management Services and Intraday Liquidity management to Temenos T24 Transact core banking customers worldwide. TAS’s state-of-the-art software allows banks, both incumbents and digital-first challengers, to deliver innovative payments products with a short time-to-market, integrating with and leveraging the latest technologies and making use of rich-data APIs to offer end users a superior customer experience. For over 35 years, TAS, through its deep domain expertise and advanced technology has brought its flexible, secure and high-performance solutions to financial operators around the world. Now, supported through this synergistic partnership, T24 Transact customers can leverage CARD 3.0 IE, a flexible, modular and scalable card issuing, acquiring and processing platform that can be easily and quickly deployed either on-premise or on the cloud. Since 2001, ITSS has been committed to delivering banking technology services and solutions to banks and financial institutions worldwide. As a Temenos partner, it has supported over 220 Temenos clients as a system integrator for all Temenos products including T24 Transact, FCM, Islamic banking, TAP, Multifonds, Inclusive banking and Infinity. ITSS’ global delivery capability and extended service offering enables it to establish long-term partnerships with its clients. Umberto Pardi, Executive Vice President of International Channel Sales, TAS said: “We are delighted to cooperate with fellow Temenos partner, ITSS, a leading system integrator with a global reach and excellent reputation, to bring powerful payments solutions through an extensive library of APIs integrated into T24 Transact core banking to clients in a matter of weeks. Together we enable banks to elevate their market agility in an ever-changing payment ecosystem”. Patrick Jaccoud, CEO, ITSS Global said “We are excited to embark on this mutually beneficial partnership with TAS to offer sophisticated payments solutions to our clients from a renowned partner. As we join forces to strengthen and expand our service delivery to our T24 Transact clients, we are confident that we will accelerate business growth for our clients to remain competitive”.

Download the press release

Mario Mendia, TAS Group’s International Markets SVP and Raphael Barisaac, Global Head of Cash Management and Global Co-head of Trade at Unicredit, were recently invited by Fintech Finance to speak with Ali Paterson in his Virtual Arena.

The topic was the dynamic European Payments scene today, how it’s evolving, the COVID-effect on payments, how ISO20022 is set to be a game-changer, and the challenges (and opportunities) of the T2/T2S Consolidation project.

Mario Mendia offered viewers valuable insights and shared his views on the upcoming changes to the Eurosystem, where TAS Group is playing an active role in the T2/T2S Consolidation Project.

In case you missed the Fintech Finace Virtual Arena discussion on the European Payments Ecosystem, you can watch it  on our YouTube channel.

 

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.

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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.