Betaaljournaal 13

Newsletter Dutch Payments Association

As the the new year closes in, we race against the clock. During the holiday season online and physical shopping spikes and news media are eager to receive data on transaction volumes. There are various consultations to properly close this year and to get everything in order for the next year. The transition of our Risk Management and Veilig Bankieren (Safe Banking) activities for example, is now fully completed. You will read more about it in this newsletter.

I am looking forward to the new year, when we will be looking for a new chairman of the board, amongst others. Lex Hoogduin has resigned as chair after more than four years. We owe Lex a great deal of gratitude for his skilful leadership in dynamic times. Vice-chairman Gerjoke Wilmink accepted to take over the chairmanship for the time being.

I end this introduction with a number of appointments. Our own Piet Mallekoote has been appointed by the ECB as a member of the Digital Euro Market Advisory Group. Gerard Hartsink, former chairman of the European Payment Council, will be a fellow member to Piet Mallekoote. Also our former Advisory Board member Evelien Witlox will strengthen the ECB with her expertise. She will lead the Digital Euro Programme. I think that with these appointments we are well represented at the ECB! Enjoy reading this newsletter and I wish you a healthy 2022.
Gijs Boudewijn, Director a.i.

 

 

Transition of Risk Management to Dutch Banking Association

The Dutch Payments Association and the Dutch Banking Association (NVB) decided, in consultation with their members, to cluster their activities in the area of security and risk management. This will strengthen the fight against fraud. As of 1 January 2022 all the concerned activities will be placed under single management within the NVB. The Veilig Bankieren programme will also be transferred from the Dutch Payments Association to the NVB.

The Risk Management team at the Dutch Payments Association will cease to exist and most of its staff will move to the NVB. This concerns Marco Doeland, Remco Ruiter, Oscar Covers and Laurens Messing. After this transition, the Dutch Payments Association will remain responsible for a number of cybersecurity-related matters that specifically concern payment institutions. For more information, please contact Peter Kleppe:

The Risk Management team thanks all our members for the successful cooperation in risk and security matters with the Dutch Payments Association in recent years. They will move full steam ahead with the NVB for an even more effective joint approach against fraud!

 

Acceptgiro stops 1 June 2023

In November Acceptgiro(in Dutch) product owner Currence informed its licensees of the decision to discontinue Acceptgiro from 1 June 2023. Currence informed various stakeholders individually about this decision. The main reason for discontinuing Acceptgiro is that is used less and less. In recent years, many Acceptgiro dispatchers have successfully switched to more efficient payment methods, such as direct debits, mobile payment requests, invoices by e-mail with payment links, QR codes and the standard paper payment instruction. Consumers also use the paper Acceptgiro less and less. Most Acceptgiro forms are discarded; mailing a pen-signed Acceptgiro form by postal services to a bank, is increasingly rare.
From January 2022, banks will help the remaining Acceptgiro dispatchers to switch to suitable alternatives. The National Forum on the Payment System (MOB) will contribute to this effort through its Working Group on Accessibility and Reachability.

Recap of the General Assembly

Originally, a festive edition of our annual conference had been planned for 18 November, but due to the COVID-19 restrictions it could not go ahead as planned. We organised an online meeting for our members instead. The meeting consisted of two parts: the formal General Assembly, followed by presentations on the developments in payments over the past 10 years. Inge van Dijk (DNB) gave a lecture on this subject and considered the challenges that lie ahead. Miriam Osten (Dutch Payments Association) presented the results of a survey among consumers. In conclusion, Gijs Boudewijn moderated a talk with Inge van Dijk, Kitty Koelemeijer (Nijenrode) and Suzan van Eeten (Rabobank). To our delight, about one hundred attendees watched the live stream. We made a short video to give you an impression of the meeting (in Dutch).

 

Maestro debit cards to be retired by mid-2023

Mastercard has announced that banks will stop issuing new Maestro debit cards on 1 July 2023. Instead of Maestro cards, there will be cards branded Debit Mastercard or Visa Debit. This follows a worldwide development for Maestro cards. Customers can already pay with the new cards at roughly half of all Dutch cash registers, for example in hotels, restaurants and places frequented by tourists. Shops where customers cannot yet pay with Visa Debit or Debit Mastercard will be able to conclude agreements with their bank or payment service provider in the coming year. All common existing payment terminals only need a simple remote software adjustment. Some outdated POS terminals need to be replaced for acceptance of the new debit cards. Read the full article(in Dutch).

 

Instant Payments via TIPS more widely available in Europe

Similar to the Netherlands, other euro countries developed initiatives for Instant Payments, based on the same standard for SEPA Instant Credit Transfers. For various reasons the various implementations are not yet interconnected. As a result, an Instant Payment from the Netherlands to Spain for example, is only possible to a limited extent. To break this deadlock, the ECB Governing Council decided that every bank that participates in Instant Payments (over 60% of the banks in Europe) must connect to TARGET Instant Payments Settlement (TIPS) by December 2021. Through this common settlement system, all participating payment service providers can always reach each other. From the looks of it, the process will continue until the beginning of 2022, but after that, an Instant Payment between different countries should be as self-evident as it is already within the Netherlands.

Next steps
The European Commission sees Instant Payments as the new standard that offers an extra opportunity to compete with other international payment schemes. Instant Payments must also fulfil a role within the European Payments Initative (EPI) that is welcomed by both the commission and the ECB. To that end, it is important that even more banks offer Instant Payments. The European Commission has indicated that an accelerated roll-out of Instant Payments may require legislation. What measures will follow, should become clear in the course of 2022. The Dutch Payments Association follows these developments closely.

 

TARGET XML migration in full swing

Banks and other financial service providers are currently migrating high-value payment traffic via TARGET2 to the ISO 20022 XML standard, coordinated by De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB). In line with the overall planning, the development is virtually completed and the participants are currently testing the connection to the TARGET2 infrastructure via selected network providers.
User testing started on 1 December, with banks going through a mandatory testing process. Banks have agreed on a test process among themselves, in addition to the mandatory tests, to test the entire transaction chain. This includes matters that apply specifically to the Netherlands, such as the Dutch bank switching service (Overstapservicein Dutch).
At present, 23 banks participate in these ‘end-to-end tests’. Four testing windows have been planned. The first window – with about 10 banks – will start in February 2022. The start of each next windows is currently planned one month after the start of the previous window. The test process is coordinated by the Dutch Payments Association and will help to ensure that the ‘big bang’ migration to XML in December 2022 for TARGET2 runs smoothly for our members. Interested banks can still sign up via:

 

Applied Cryptography Course a success once again!

On 19 November the course in Applied Cryptography was concluded with a certificate presentation. This was followed by a presentation by cryptography expert Philip R. Zimmermann for graduates and other attendees.

One of the organisers of the course, Senior Advisor Information Security Maarten van Wijk, told about his time as a cryptographer. At that time he received the floppy disc pictured here, from a colleague. This disc was classed a weapon, for containing a program called Pretty Good Privacy, developed by Zimmermann. Since then, PGP has become more accepted.

Zimmermann founded several companies with PGP as their core business. He has also been involved in many otherinnovations, he has received several awards and was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame for his outstanding contribution to privacy on the internet.

In his speech, Phil expressed his concern about the vulnerability of democracy, which can collapse in a polarising society. Governments, but certainly also algorithms of social media platforms on which consumers receive more and more clickbait, can easily fuel polarisation and make people believe in conspiracy theories. The students now know better than anyone how important cryptography is for our modern digital society.

 

Article in JPSS on the payment sector in the Netherlands

As announced earlier, Piet Mallekoote and Gerard Hartsink have written an article on the payment sector in the Netherlands for Journal for Payments Strategy and Systems (JPSS, volume 15, no. 3). The publisher gave permission to make this article available to our members free of charge. You can read the article here.

You don’t want to miss anything going on in the payments industry. Gerard Hartsink, JPSS editor: “I warmly recommend a subscription. You will be presented with numerous new insights, case studies and topics of discussion in the world of payments.  You can subscribe here.

 

Card payments Black Friday and Sinterklaas similar to last year

The number of debit card payments in Dutch shops around Black Friday and Sinterklaas was comparable to the same period last year. Compared to two years ago, before COVID-19, up to 20% fewer payments were made per day during this period this year. We know that the number of cash payments at shop counters also decreased sharply, by about 30%. The busiest card payments day was the Saturday after this year’s wet and cold Black Friday, with about 18.5 million debit card payments, for an estimated turnover of €558 million. This is over 5% fewer payments than on the same Saturday last year. Read the full article here (in Dutch).

 

Fraud with QR codes

The police, Fraudehelpdesk (Fraud Helpdesk) and various media are warning against phishing and fraud with QR codes. Criminals use two types of fraud with QR codes:

  • A person or company asks to scan a generic (standard) QR code, either with a random QR scanner or with the standard camera of a smartphone or tablet. This QR code usually opens the web browser and can show a fake website, supposedly from a bank or another well known organisation, for example the Tax Office or DigiD.
  • A person or company asks to scan a special QR code with the mobile app of a bank or payment service such as Tikkie. Via this QR code, the fraudster tries to get the victim to pay something or gain direct access to his bank account.

Read the full article(in Dutch).

 

Results National Forum on the Payment System (MOB) meeting

The MOB of 25 November 2021 discussed, among other things, the following topics:

  • Status of the migration of ATMs and cash deposit machines to Geldmaat
    The Forum was informed of the final phase of the migration of the ABN AMRO, ING and Rabobank ATMs to Geldmaat. Since the last lockdown was lifted early in the summer, the number of cash withdrawals has increased more than expected. Due to staff shortages at the cash-in-transit company, consumers and businesses regularly experienced inconvenience when withdrawing and depositing cash. A great deal of work has been done – and is still being done – to resolve these problems.
  • Improving accessible payment services for vulnerable groups
    The Forum discussed the first interim report on the implementation of the action plan. It appears that good progress has been made. Various discussions have taken place with different parties to gain a better understanding of the needs of vulnerable groups in order to improve the accessibility and availability of payment services to them.
  • Damage caused by bank helpdesk fraud alarmingly high
    The Forum has noted with concern the increased damage caused by bank helpline fraud and demand-side fraud. In the first six months of 2021, the losses due to bank helpline fraud amounted to €16.5 million (full year 2020: €26.7 million). In the first six months of 2021, the losses incurred due to WhatsApp fraud amounted to €8.3 million and those due to phishing to €6.1 million.
  • National Forum on the Payment System (MOB) notes end date for Acceptgiro mid-2023
    The Forum has noted Currence’s announcement that it will discontinue the Acceptgiro in June 2023.

Figures

More figures? Visit factsheet.betaalvereniging.nl

 

Association News

At the General Members’ Meeting of 18 November, Professor Lex Hoogduin stepped down as Chairman of the Board of the Dutch Payments Association after more than four years. Vice Chairwoman Gerjoke Wilmink is taking over the chairmanship and is supervising the search for a new independent chairman. Board member Alexander Baas on behalf of Volksbank will be succeeded by Joyce van der Rest as of 1 January 2022.

 

Agenda

  • 31 March 2022 – Event Future of the payment system. Members of Betaalvereniging Nederland receive a 20% discount. Topics this year are: Regulations – Reality, New payments behavior, Acceleration towards cashless
  • May 19 2022 – Annual Conference Dutch Payments Association

 

Member Bulletins

In addition to this Betaaljournaal, the Dutch Payments Association issues Member Bulletins. These bulletins usually appear a few times a month and relate to a specific topic. If you are a member and you do not yet receive these bulletins, you can subscribe to the mailing list via secretariaat@betaalvereniging.nl.

 

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