Insights

Milan (Italy), 22 June 2021– Flywallet S.r.l. (“Flywallet”), the innovative startup that created a digital platform for enabling payments and services through wearable devices with biometric authentication, has signed a reserved investment agreement for the entry of Global Payment S.p.A. (“GP”), a subsidiary of TAS Group’s mother company TAS S.p.A., into the capital with a minority stake.

TAS Group is a multinational company, whose payment software solutions are adopted by commercial and central banks throughout Europe and beyond. More than 100 million payment cards are managed by TAS platforms worldwide. Thanks to its leadership, TAS Group will be a vehicle to accelerate the go-to-market for Flywallet’s mobile wallet, the world’s first for tokenizing payment cards on wearables with biometric authentication. The partnership will also result in a commercial agreement under which GP will distribute Flywallet’s wearables and service platform to TAS Group's business customers.

Flywallet’s flagship product is named Keyble, a new type of wearable that adapts to the user’s lifestyle, created with eco-friendly materials and inspired by made-in-Italy styles. It consists of a smart device that can be inserted into fashion accessories such as bracelets or watch straps and is equipped with biometric sensors for user authentication and health monitoring.

Through fingerprints or heartbeat measured via ECG, the user can enable in-store contactless payments, passwordless logins to online services, ticketing, loyalty cards, access to gyms, offices and homes, car door locks, digital identity and more. In early 2022, the wearable will be certified as a medical device capable to perform analysis of cardiac arrhythmias, blood oxygen saturation and body temperature.

Flywallet is proposing a unique “Biometric Wearable Platform as a Service” model for e-money and payment institutions, banks, insurance companies and businesses. By connecting via dedicated APIs, the Flywallet Platform allows Partner companies to deliver new types of digital services easily and securely through the proprietary wearables.

Valentino Bravi, CEO of TAS stated: “At TAS, we have always applied the principles of “continuous innovation” to ensure the market a constant technological and functional evolution of our products and services, both through significant investments in R&D - more than 10% of our revenues in the last decade - and through the acquisition of innovative companies.

In 2019, for example, the acquisition of Mantica enabled us to expand our offerings in the Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence areas.

Today, we are investing in Flywallet because we are convinced that offering wearable technology that is customizable and adaptable to our customers’ user experiences is a critical success factor.

We also appreciate that this project gives us the opportunity to reaffirm our decades-long commitment to promoting Italian technology in a sector that will undoubtedly improve our lives and make them more secure in the years to come.”

Lorenzo Frollini, Founder and CEO of Flywallet added: “It is an honour for Flywallet to count TAS among its shareholders and partners. Between TAS and Flywallet there is a perfect strategic fit and a total sharing of the company’s core values, including customer centricity and a relentless pursuit of service quality. In the medium term, the strategic partnership with TAS will also allow Flywallet to expand its range of services through the opportunities offered by PSD2.”

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We recently surveyed Payment Service Providers from around the world about how they are dealing with today’s volatile payments landscape.

We particularly focused on the hot topics: instant payments, ISO 20022, and liquidity management, all of which are heavily impacting the payments industry, and asked PSPs to reveal what they saw as the main challenges experienced today, how they are rising to these challenges including insights into global technology investment strategies and cloud adoption trends among others.

The survey took place against a backdrop of rapid digitalization, where advancements in technology, regulatory overhauls, the introduction of new initiatives and schemes – not to mention the wide-reaching impact of the pandemic – are having a tumultuous effect in the payments industry – perhaps the greatest experienced in the last decade.

Navigating these changes successfully no doubt involves rethinking existing approaches, business models and systems as well as intelligently leveraging on the many innovative technologies available including, in many cases, adopting a cloud-based strategy.

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.

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.

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!

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.

 

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.

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.

The Consolidated T2/T2S platform goes live in 2021 and banks have to adapt their access mode to reach the Eurosystem,especially those who currently connect to T2 over the Internet, since this will no longer be allowed. In order to help T2 participants easily comply with the new mandatory ESMIG interface, TAS Group developed PAG€, the first cloud-based, easy and scalable solution that embeds certified NSP connectivity for a smooth and transparent migration. With its user friendly interface, PAG€ allows quick access to the Eurosystem Targ€t Services, enabling both U2A and A2A functionalities, through an agile and secure cloud service that guarantees all the standards required by the new ESMIG interface. What makes PAG€ so powerful is the cutting-edge technology at its core: PAG€ is the result of a combination of TAS leading-edge technology and over 35 years of payments experience in mission-critical market infrastructures, Amazon Web Services (AWS) secure cloud and accredited NSP connectivity. Discover more