EPIF is delighted to share with you a White Paper produced by Elavon UK. “Embracing the  Economy of Things”

This White Paper is about how “Internet of Things” will shape the ways business buy and sell.

EPIF is glad to share with you an informative leaflet on the contactless payment solutions and their use prepared by the EPC.

VocaLink, an EPIFobserver, has published a White Paper on Instant Payments. The White Paper explores what will happen to SEPA after Instant Payments becomes a reality. It considers how Instant Payments may eventually become the “new normal! for Europe or “SEPA 2.0”, how this convergence to SCT Inst will affect the stakeholders and what levers there are to guide and tune the convergence process.

This paper explains the ways in which merchants can simplify payments optimization processes. The paper takes into account credit cards as well as the increasing number of alternative payment methods to determine which generate the best conversion rate results.

The Committee on Payments and Markets Infrastructures (CPMI) published a study on the role of non-banks in retail payments services and analyses the repercussions that the emergence of these entities has had on the retail payments industry. The report, conducted by central bankers, revealed a significant presence of non-banks in all stages of the payment process and across different payment instruments. After analysing the main issues and the implications for central banks the report concluded that the main issues relate to the potential impacts of non-banks on operational risk, level playing field issues, consumer protection aspects and the risks that might emerge if the outsourcing of payment services is concentrated in the hands of a few or one non-bank.

The paper on Tackling Internet Payment Security is a paper co-written by PayVision and Innopay and presents an insight to the SecuRe Pay Forum Recommendations. Either than the observations on these Recommendations, the paper also provides insights for professionals in the online payments industry.

The Paypers published on 4^th May 2014 (Volume 7, Issue 4) its monthly paper focusing on updates related to SEPA. The paper discusses three main points:

• Regarding the ECB Secure Pay Recommendations for the Security of Internet Payments, more clarity is needed. It is also essential to take into consideration the lack of a level playing field and the competitive disadvantage produced by these recommendations.
• Additional elements need to be added on the proposed Interchange Fee Regulation.
• How the non-regulated “massive payment volumes” in Europe would affect payment services and e-money products in the European market.

PayVision prepared a report in 2013 on cross-border eCommerce. This was the result of a global survey conducted in 2013 which included acquirers, merchant service providers, payment service providers and online merchants. The objective of the global survey was to identify and quantify the business drivers and challenges which stakeholders face across the online payment industry while trying to expand into cross-border eCommerce.

Digital identity service providers are an evolutionary expansion of the e-identity ecosystem. The goal of this report is to identify the risks in e-identity and find balanced solutions. More particularly, the report focuses on an analysis of the following points:

• Trusting the electronic identity;
• Identifying the internet challenges on the identification process;
• The fragmentation that could emerge out of the level of trust;
• An overview of the global e-identity trends;
• Proposed three generations of e-identity solutions; and
• Identifying the e-identity landscape through the digital identity service providers.

The study on the Payment Services Directive (PSD) and the Cross-Border Payments Regulation focuses on examining the effects of the fees and charges for cross-border payments. The study covers pricing to a large extent and also the scope of the PSD and Cross-Border Payments Regulation and the impact on innovation. The study starts by looking who benefits from the PSD and then continues by analyzing the PSD and the existing market for payment services. More particularly, the study makes reference to payment services provided by credit institutions, electronic money institutions and post office institutions. The payment institutions are also subject to analysis in this study as well as the impact of this Directive and Regulation. Some further analysis is presented on the market structure and prudential rules, transparency, rights and obligations under the PSD and Cross-Border Payments Regulation.

The remittance sector helps transferring money around the world. This industry appears to be continuously growing according to this report and this sector is widely used for payment transactions in Australia. The report highlights the close collaboration between Australian banks and money transfer operators.

The report analyzes the following issues:

• The functioning of the remittance sector : objectives, costs, risks and services;
• A global overview of the remittance sector: patterns, recent trends and impact;
• The remittance sector in the Australian financial sector: analysis of the remittance providers in Australia, migration flows in Australia, pricing and size of the remittance industry in the country;
• Trends in payment arrangements: present techniques and trends of the sector; and
• Public Policy issues: competition and money laundering issues, consumer protection aspects and  Australian Regulation.

The report on Universal Commerce is giving an overview of the transformation of consumer’s buying behavior in the eCommerce context. The report then highlights what the explanation of the universal commerce and illustrates the differences between online and offline experiences through various examples. The consumers perceptive and services necessary for the universal commerce are also illustrated in this report.

Earlier this year, DMA consultants (Leon Isaacs and Sarah Hugo) were commissioned by HTSPE and Eurotrends to produce and deliver the report: ‘EU Remittances to Developing Countries, Remaining Barriers, Challenges and Recommendations’.  Having spoken with over 100 contributors to the remittances and development agenda and visited a number of countries throughout the EU and Africa, the report is finally completed.  It is attached to this email. The report addresses many areas relevant to remittances with a focus on providing recommendations to the European Commission on how it can contribute effectively in this vital area. The report focuses on:

• Data collection methods for remittances throughout the EU.  This includes migrant, remittance volume and pricing data;
• An overview of the remittance markets in relation to the General Principles on Remittances;
• Policy coherence throughout the EC Departments related to remittances;
• An overview of the existing European payments environment and suggested improvements.  This section includes a review of the Payments Services Directive and its implementation throughout EEA;
• A review of the role of information/price comparison portals and recommendations for the future approach.

In collaboration with the Merchant Risk Council, E-Commerce Europe and Innopay, EPIF presented its view on the Cross-border Business Transactions. The paper presents the key barriers and opportunities for the cross-border transactions, as well as the solutions for online payments.

The Briefing on Migration and Developments produced by the Migration and Remittance Unit of the Word Bank presents the officially recorded remittance flows to developing countries for 2010. Furthermore the briefing highlights the growth rate of remittances by geographical area as well as the expected Remittance flows to developing countries and on a worldwide basis.

The World Bank Group published a report in 2010 which aims to analyze the legal and regulatory framework and identified a standard approach to the remittance sector. The remittance sector is functioning based on cross-border person-to-person payments of relatively low value. This report identifies the reasons the remittance sector has to be standardized. One of the main reasons is that payment transactions are usually conducted between two jurisdictions and it can be difficult to ensure the proper and legally compliance of both parties. Finally, the report presents the results from a survey conducted in 2008 on national regulatory authorities and global systems.

This report presents an overview of the operation of international transactions in remittances. The report focuses on demography, transaction channels and regulatory aspects of remittances. Other issues the report covers are:

• The concepts and components of remittances;
• The data sources and estimation methods of international transactions;
• The compilation and data processing issues in the international remittance sector; and
• Dissemination issues in the remittance sector.

The Risk-Based Approach Guidance for Money Service Businesses is divided into three sections. Firstly, the report underlined the usage of the guidance and purpose of the risk-based approach presenting the background, purpose, benefits and challenges of the Risk-Based Approach. Secondly, guidance for public authorities are analysed as well as the high-level principles for creating a risk-based approach and its implementation. Finally, the report concludes by presenting its guidance for money services businesses on implementing a risk-based approach.

The Word Bank published a report on general principles for international remittance services in January 2007. The report focuses on the issues listed below:

• The analysis of the key issues concerning remittance services such as the lack of transparency and understanding, infrastructure issues, legal and regulatory framework, lack of competitive market conditions and risks.
• General principles for international remittance services for instance the public policy objectives, the general principles and their application, the role of remittance service providers and public authorities and  formulating an approach to implement the general principles.