Betaaljournaal 19

The past two years have been somewhat unsettling for our organization, with the departure of Piet and Lex, the transition of valued colleagues with team Risk to the Banking Association and the separation of the Payments Association and Currence. With the appointment of the new chairman, adjustments in governance and my appointment as managing director, the cycle that was agreed with the board in December 2021 has been completed.

It is an honour that I can now formally lead the Payments Association, with a fine and highly motivated staff. This allows us to energetically undertake the implementation of the 2023 Annual Plan and its main objectives in particular. Those main objectives are accessibility & inclusion and sustainability & costs of infrastructure (follow-up on the McKinsey study). More than ever, we will focus on positive impact for members, taking into account the justified social objectives of stakeholders. I am looking forward to this and hope to continue our good collaboration in 2023!

This year ends with a milestone: for the first time, more than 5 billion debit card transactions were made in a single calendar year. I symbolically performed the 5 billionth transaction by checking in on the Amsterdam subway. Purposely there, to draw attention to this new payment method in public transport. Our members have worked hard for this over the past few years. I wish you all merry holidays and a healthy and happy New Year!

Gijs Boudewijn, Managing Director

 

• Acceptgiro test facilities to cease operation on 1 January 2023
• Online purchases and spending appear to stabilize after period of strong growth
• Further roll-out of OVpay
• Migration of merchants to new debit card brands almost complete
• General Members’ Assembly, Open Banking and SPAA
• Pilot walk-in banking consultations at libraries
• More than 5 billion debit card transactions in 2022
• Study on cash chain
• Checkout.nl to be discontinued
• New version of Request to Pay rulebook
• Consultations and legislative proposals
• Figures
• Agenda
• Association news

 

Acceptgiro test facilities to cease operation on 1 January 2023

Ahead of the final end to the Acceptgiro by 1 June 2023, Currence recently announced to certified printers and service providers for Acceptgiro, that the Acceptgiro testing facilities will cease operation on 1 January 2023. Information on certified printers and service providers will be removed from the Acceptgiro website on 1 March 2023.

Currence has urged distributors of Acceptgiro forms to stop sending Acceptgiro forms to their customers on 1 March 2023. Currence further encourages printers and service providers not to supply their customers with more Acceptgiro forms than those customers can distribute until 1 March 2023.

It is important that Acceptgiro distributors inform their customers in good time about the alternatives to Acceptgiro that they offer after 1 March 2023. Suggestions for alternatives can be found on the websites of banks, Acceptgiro and the Dutch Payments Association. Payments Association director Gijs Boudewijn: “We see that distributors are energetically implementing alternatives to the Acceptgiro, including paper alternatives. For example, an occasional donation to a charity can be very well be paid with a one-off paper-based direct debit mandate.”

 

Online purchases and spending appear to stabilize after period of strong growth

Online consumer spending increased slightly in the third quarter of 2022. In total, Dutch consumers spent €7.2 billion online in that quarter, 4% more than in the same quarter last year. This growth was driven by higher online spending on services (+14%), especially on package holidays (+20%) and on tickets for attractions and events (+19%).

The number of purchases in services remains fairly stable (+1%), but consumers buy fewer products, leading to a fall of the total number of online purchases (-5%) compared to Q3 of 2021. This is revealed in the latest Thuiswinkel Market Monitor, the research on online consumer spending in the Netherlands. This research is conducted by GfK, commissioned by Thuiswinkel.org and Retail Insiders, in cooperation with PostNL, the Dutch Payments Association and Currence.

 

Further roll-out of OVpay

Since the end of November, travellers in Amsterdam can use their debit or credit card to check in and out at GVB. After HTM, the Amsterdam transport company is the second city carrier where it is possible to travel with a debit or credit card. Nationwide, the OVpay campaign continues rolling out. Several regional carriers had already introduced this payment and ticketing option and this gradually becomes possible nationwide.

NS started a trial with a limited group of participants at the end of August. This trial will continue until 20 December 2022. The experiences of both travellers and public transport operators are positive. Travellers appreciate the convenience. They already carry a payment card anyway and no longer need to bring or recharge a separate OV-chipcard.

In early 2023 it will become possible to travel with a debit or credit card throughout the Netherlands with all operators (on bus, tram, subway and train). Initially only for full fare. In the course of 2023, it will also be possible to travel with discounts, such as an age discount or an off-peak discount.

Click here for more information about the roll-out

 

Migration of merchants to new debit card brands almost complete

The Debit Card Acceptance (DCA) project should ensure that by the end of 2022 debit card payments can be made not just with Maestro and V PAY, but also with Debit Mastercard and Visa Debit. Meanwhile, the infrastructure has been prepared for processing these card brands: POS terminals can handle the new debit cards and route transactions to acquiring processors that can then process them at the usual debit card rates. Merchant card contracts have been extended for Visa Debit and Debit Mastercard and POS information material has been developed for businesses.

Currently, the last merchants are migrating to the new card brands, through a software upgrade and the activation of the new brands on their POS terminals. To monitor progression, the Dutch Payments Association receives weekly reports to estimate nationwide coverage of the new card brands. Meanwhile, Debit Mastercard and Visa Debit can be used at seven out of 10 terminals. We expect coverage to rise to 85% by the end of this year. The remaining terminals will be updated or replaced in the first quarter of 2023.

 

General Members’ Assembly, Open Banking and SPAA

On Thursday 17 November, we organized our semi-annual General Members’ Assembly followed by an informative programme on Open Banking hosted by Gijs Boudewijn. About eighty members attended the meeting. The speakers were Maarten Bakker, partner at Innopay, Jan van Vonno, head of industry strategy at Tink and Christian Schäfer, co-chairman EPC SPAA Multi-Stakeholder Group.

At the start of the programme, Gijs spoke with the chairman (Rob van Bergen, ING) and secretary (Niels Pranger) of our Working Group Open Banking. This working group is closely involved in the European Payments Council’s (EPC) SPAA initiative for the SEPA Payment Account Access scheme. Several speakers referred to SPAA during the meeting. Recently, the SPAA rulebook version 1.0 was published, approved by the EPC board. The rulebook is expected to come into force in November 2023. The initiative seeks to support new premium account information and payment initiation services in the market.

The Dutch Payments Association’s website explains more about Open Banking and SPAA. There you will also find a report of the meeting and a photo impression.

 

Pilot walk-in banking consultations at libraries

Since 11 October, people can consult retired bank employees about banking and payments, during walk-in sessions in libraries in three cities. This is a pilot project aimed particularly at Dutch citizens in vulnerable positions, such as the elderly, low-literate people and people with physical or mental disabilities. The volunteers are retired employees of ABN AMRO, ING and Rabobank. They provide neutral, bank-independent information and are on location for 2 hours a week in libraries in Utrecht, Rotterdam and Deventer. We expect these pilots to be further rolled out in the new year.

Click here for more information about the pilot

 

More than 5 billion debit card transactions in 2022

Today we reached the milestone of 5 billion debit card transactions within one calendar year. To mark this, we issued a press release. Throughout this year, the transaction numbers for debit cards have been generously above the figures of previous years. The share of transactions using a mobile phone or wearable in particular, is growing: almost 30% of all debit card payments are currently made by mobile. Inserting debit cards continues to lose ground: 88.6% of all transactions are contactless.

 

Study on cash chain

The Ministry of Finance and the Dutch National Bank (DNB) have commissioned PwC to study the advantages and disadvantages of options for a market organization and financing of the cash chain. This so-called TICKET study follows an earlier study by McKinsey commissioned by DNB in 2021 (called CITO) and the Cash Covenant concluded in April 2022. The study has been underway for several months. PwC has spoken to all stakeholders and will present them the drawn-up options in the coming weeks. PwC will bring their feedback and views on the options into the final part of the study. The results are expected by the end of January 2023.

Click here for more information about the study.

 

Checkout.nl to be discontinued

For years, business owners could go to www.checkout.nl for information on POS tellers and terminals. This website was the only independent comparison tool in this field. After the introduction of the euro, the website was set up by the Hoofdbedrijfschap Detailhandel (first as betaalterminal.nl). Subsequently, the website was taken over by the Stichting Bevorderen Efficient Betalen. In recent years it had to stand on its own feet financially, unfortunately to no success.

While many entrepreneurs were looking for a payment terminal for the first time or had to replace their obsolete terminal, the website attracted more than a hundred thousand visitors per year. Suppliers had a stake in keeping their offers on the website up to date. Those days are over: debit card payments are so well established that entrepreneurs visit the website far less. The can now navigate this market  by themselves. Consequently it was decided to discontinue the website and refer visitors to www.pin.nl/ondernemers for general information.

 

New version of Request to Pay rulebook

On 30 November, the EPC published version 3.0 of the SRTP rulebook (SEPA Request To Pay).  SRTP aims to facilitate standard payment requests for various situations (C2B, B2B, P2P) with SEPA Credit Transfers (SCTs). With SRTP, the payer receives the correct data for the transfer (such as amount, payee name and IBAN) and the payee can easily reconcile the payment.

SRTP services are ‘just’ messaging services; no specific licence is required to provide them. An SRTP service provider is therefore not subject to supervision by DNB (unless it also provides payment services). The rulebook describes the ground rules for providers of SRTP services. It also describes the data elements that providers exchange with each other. ISO-20022 messages are defined for this purpose. New in version 3.0 is that API technology is supported for exchanging SRTP data. Another new element of rulebook 3.0 is that the redirect is supported, as used with iDEAL in the Netherlands. This was important for the Netherlands, as it keeps iDEAL in line with the SRTP standard.

Although the rulebook and associated specifications have matured, SRTP is still hardly offered in the market: only two SRTP service providers are registered with the EPC. This may change in the future. One promising possibility for instance, is that SRTP combined with a QR code could lead to Instant Payments at points of sale. We keep monitoring developments around SRTP and represent our members in SRTP consultations.

 

Consultations and legislative proposals

On 26 October the legislative proposal for a regulation on Instant Payments was published by the European Commission. With the legislative proposal, the European Commission aims to make Instant Payments in euro available to all citizens, businesses and institutions holding a payment account in EU and EEA countries, ensure that Instant Payments in euro are affordable and secure, and that they can be processed without obstacles.

The bill consists of amendments to the SEPA regulation (Regulation (EU) No 260/2012) and the revised Cross Border Payment regulation (Regulation (EU) 2021/1230). It is composed of four parts:

1. Banks in the EU that already offer their payment account holders traditional SEPA Credit Transfers in euro (SCT), both inside and outside the eurozone, will be required to do the same for European Instant Payments in euro (SCT Inst);
2. Banks in the EU that already offer their payment account holders traditional SEPA Credit Transfers in euro (SCT), both inside and outside the eurozone, will be required to do the same for European Instant Payments in euro (SCT Inst);
3. All Instant Payments providers must offer their payment account holders (consumers and business parties) ‘IBAN name verification’ as a service;
4. All Instant Payments providers must offer their payment account holders (consumers and business parties) ‘IBAN name verification’ as a service;

Although at first glance the impact for our members seems relatively low (unlike in many other countries), we will have to look very carefully at the potential consequences if the proposals were adopted unchanged by the European Council and Parliament. The Commission is aiming to complete the legislative process by the fourth quarter of 2023. To make our views known, the Dutch Payments Association will take the opportunity to submit a collective opinion to the Commission (‘Have Your Say‘). The response must be submitted by 4th January 2023.

Click here to view all of our consultations.

 

Figures

Agenda

• December 19th – Board meeting
• March 6th – Giraal Stakeholder Forum / Card Forum
• May 17th – General Members’ Assembly

Association news

Ahead of the semi-annual General Members’ Assembly of Betaalvereniging Nederland on 17 November, the association’s board appointed Gijs Boudewijn as managing director.

The Payments Association welcomes electronic money institution Modulr Finance as a new member. Furthermore, one of our members, Bitsafe Payments B.V., has undergone a name change. Bitsafe is now officially called Yoursafe B.V.

On 8 December, Cynthia Tulp (ABN AMRO) took over the role of chairperson of the Advisory Board from Suzan van Eeten (Rabobank).

 

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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