An onboarding process with a state-of-the-art user experience, while ensuring compliance with legal requirements and limiting the risk of fraud, money laundering and other financial crimes, should be central to your business strategy. Designing and executing it can rightly be called an art: the Art of Onboarding.  This episode of Connective Payments Insights is about a benchmark research we conducted last year into the onboarding processes at 13 financial institutions active in the Netherlands, aimed at small and medium sized business clients.  --- Send in a voice message: https://po ..read more

SPAA, an initiative of the European Payment Council (EPC), is a new, voluntary payment scheme. Enrollment  for banks and third-party providers has opened on 1 September 2023. The scheme's ambition is to drive ‘open payments’ in Europe and to become the de facto European standard in the field of open banking. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/connective-payments/message ..read more

As the end of the investigation phase comes into view, it is noticeable that the discussion about the digital euro is definitely shifting from the technological to the political domain. The European Parliament is playing an increasing role in the discussion, among others with papers casting doubt on the attractiveness of a digital euro. Meanwhile, the Eurosystem is trying to generate public interest in the project, including through surveys of focus groups in the various euro area countries. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/connective-payments/message ..read more

Anyone who travels through Europe by public transport shares the experience that it is not always clear how to pay your fare. Payment methods and schemes for public transport vary significantly across European countries, reflecting cultural, technological, and economic differences. Is there a trend towards standardisation, which would be in the interest of foreign travellers? And what trends do we distinguish? --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/connective-payments/message ..read more

As the European Commission is still busy evaluating the impact of the Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2), the banking community is looking beyond the Directive and preparing a new scheme for open banking, called SEPA Account Access (SPAA). In this podcast you will get an update on recent developments. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/connective-payments/message ..read more

The lightning-fast substitution of public money for private money, and the increasing popularity of cryptocurrencies, have raised concerns about financial stability worldwide. Given that cash in Sweden is fast becoming something of a tourist attraction, it’s not surprising that Sweden is leading the way in Europe with the e-krona project. Already in 2017, the Swedish Riksbank started a study on how the e-krona could be issued to the general public. This article summarises the technical infrastructure and the two-tier model that was tested in phase 2 of the e-krona pilot. --- Send in a voice me ..read more

Central banks worldwide have to make many choices during the design and implementation of digital central bank money (CBDCs). It must be prevented that large amounts are transferred simultaneously from private to public money, which can lead to self-fulfilling effects and financial instability. A study by the US Treasury’s Office of Financial Research suggests that these risks of CBDCs may be smaller than they appear. There seems to be yet another tradeoff central banks have to consider: between maturity mismatch of commercial banks on the one hand, and the benefit of real-time information on ..read more

Nearly two and a half years ago, the Dutch Minister of Finance launched the so called FinTech action plan to let FinTech companies grow faster and give opportunities to new companies. According to the plan, The Netherlands´ strong points are its digital infrastructure, attractive culture, English language, central location and high quality of supervision. The so-called FinTech census showed that supervision in the Netherlands is perceived as relatively strict compared to other countries, but that a Dutch license is therefore also seen as a stamp of quality. However, there is also room for ..read more

ING, NXP and Samsung have developed a method that allows smartphone users to pay among themselves via ultra-wideband. According to the parties, the method called “NEAR” is the first “peer-to-peer payment application” where users pay by holding the phone close to each other. Users therefore do not have to look up a username, e-mail address or telephone number first. In this episode of Insights, we tell you more about NEAR. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/connective-payments/message ..read more

Until recently, there was little public interest in CBDCs and the digital euro in particular. But in the Netherlands, criticism is growing of the technocratic nature of the process, which seems to take place largely outside the political arena. The subject also seems to be coming to life in the (social) media. Doubts are widely shared within the House of Representatives and mainly concern the lack of democratic control and the privacy aspects of the digital euro. On the other side of the spectrum, Dutch banks have their doubts: they wonder aloud what such a digital euro is actually needed for ..read more