Insights

Sophia Antipolis, 24 June 2021 - TAS Group unveils a new brand and a new service line: TAS Group Cloud Services. The operational heart of TAS Group's SaaS and cloud services is concentrated in the Sophia-Antipolis Datacentre supported by other Datacentres in Europe (Milan, Bologna, Paris). By virtue of the large SME clientele with which it has worked since 1997, TAS France, the French subsidiary of TAS Group has developed a unique expertise in offering flexible, tailor-made hosting and housing solutions adapted to the different stages of the digital transition of businesses. TAS Group Cloud Services combines all this know-how that companies have been benefiting from for many years. Thanks to the synergy with TAS Group as a whole, TAS France can now go beyond regional borders and operate on a global scale, providing innovative solutions that reinforce the independence of SMEs and the protection of their data. Its IT outsourcing value propositions are adapted to each company context (business activity, existing infrastructure, organization, projects, ...) thanks to the provision of added value services to meet the new technical, regulatory and data protection requirements imposed by the challenges of digital technology. Therefore, TAS France is certified ISO 9001, ISO 27001 (information security), HDS (health data protection) and PCI-DSS (credit card data protection), resulting in a superior level of certification in terms of quality of service and data protection. In addition, a SOC (Security Operation Centre) prevents, identifies and tracks cyber-attacks and anomalies detected on the network, which could cause a risk to the company's business continuity. Francesco de Simoni, General Manager of TAS France, commented: "Until now, TAS Group's cloud service offerings were not grouped under a single name. Given the growing demand for services in this area and the quality of TAS Group's offer, we decided to communicate our value proposition more clearly ". Download the press release

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.”

Download the press release

We are proud to announce that the companies TAS SpA and Global Payments SpA have obtained the UNI CEI EN ISO / IEC 27001: 2017 (information security management system) certification, following audits carried out between April and May this year. On this occasion, Mantica srl, the TAS Group company specialized in Machine Learning, also passed the audit with flying colours and obtained the UNI EN ISO 9001: 2015 certification for its quality management system. These latest achievements are added to the already acquired ISO 9001: 2015 certifications by TAS SpA, Global Payments and TAS France, the latter became ISO 27001: 2017 certified already in 2019. We have always invested in the safety of our solutions. This is why we believe the new ISO 27001 certification is fundamental and strategic in a historical moment in which information security issues are crucial in protecting the integrity and security of data in all its forms and guaranteeing the privacy and protection of information, both for the company and our customers. The extension of the ISO 9001 certification also to Mantica for the field of application "Design and provision of specialist consulting services for data analysis, data science, machine learning, including the supply, development, installation and support of dedicated software tools” strengthens TAS's capacity in the AI ​/ML sector, where we are distinguishing ourselves with cutting-edge solutions for the Banking sector. ISO 27001 TAS S.p.A Certification ISO 27001 Global Payments Certification  ISO 27001 TAS France certification

While the imminent deadline of the T2-T2S Consolidation project together with the SWIFT CBPR+ Project, have absorbed time and resources at the bank’s side, the impact they will have on Intraday liquidity management is also likely to be heavily felt. When BCBS248 was introduced back in 2013, it brought with it a new set of best practices for the monitoring and measuring of intraday liquidity, throwing the topic into sharp focus. Key improvements introduced included a better distribution of payment outflows as well as the re-design of all processes around data acquisition, reconciliation and bilateral agreements with respective correspondent banks. In other words, it was only relatively recently that banks have started assessing their intraday liquidity exposure and adjusted their internal workflows to maintain and optimise their Intraday liquidity buffers.

The first major step that introduced disruption to the bank’s data management was switching from EOD batch processes towards an intraday approach. Whilst real-time and intraday management were long known within RTGS systems, it changed Correspondent Banking relationships considerably, where the banks were used to receiving EOD statements on a daily/weekly basis.

A second major turning point was assessing what systems and what obligations were to be considered for the metrics calculations, generally linked to any ancillary system activity as well as fiscal related payments and CLS. While BCBS248 addresses the basic guidelines to be taken into consideration when calculating metrics, at a general level, much of the implementation is left to the individual bank’s interpretation. The ECB’s current developments and the systems centralisation processes (T2, T2S and TIPS), have opened new user interpretations with regards to what payments flows to include in the metrics calculation. Some banks have opted to include all ECB systems as a whole in their intraday buffer calculations. Other banks report only the RTGS activities and consider all other systems as ‘’ancillaries’’ that work independently for closing their position on the LVPS at the end of day (e.g. EURO1/T2S) without creating intraday liquidity exposures on the RTGS side.

The Basel Committee has been very clear in stating that metrics reporting should be performed on a LVPS system on a system and currency basis. Other LVPSs can be included in the same report provided that liquidity bridges exist with the main LVPS; where ancillary systems are concerned, there’s no need to report them individually as they settle on the LVPS during the selected operational windows.

One of the trends that has being observed during the assessments conducted in the pre T2-T2S Consolidation phase, is that banks are keen to move most of the retail payments towards clearing and/or IP services, reducing the liquidity impacts on the LVPS. As a result, a significant portion of liquidity will no longer be settled in the LVPS, but managed on separate systems/accounts.

With this upcoming new situation, we will be seeing the migration of a big chunk of liquidity toward non-LVPS related systems that are out of scope for the current BCBS248 scenarios.

Instant Payments, as we know, are independent from clearing and settlement mechanisms and don’t close their position on any existing LVPS. That means that they settle continuously and independently; in case of liquidity shortages or surpluses, it is possible to move funds in and out and measure them accordingly in the metrics calculations of the respective LVPS system (backed by collateralised capacity, typically held at the Central Bank).

The participation in the ECB Instant Payment System, TIPS, will become mandatory for all TARGET2 actors from November 2021, to encourage the usage of the platform and driving the change toward alternative and more cost-effective means of payment. Additionally, TIPS will become the main hub for all funding and defunding activities across all IP schemas, making liquidity available at any time through automated processes.

However, from a BCBS248 perspective, it will still be possible to measure funding and defunding transfers made from/to the RTGS system to/from the dedicated cash account in TIPS.

That said, IP statistics indicate a strong growth trend (one that varies across jurisdictions) mostly driven by individual banks expanding their product offerings as well as an acceleration in the digitalisation processes in the Covid era.

IP volumes are getting higher and will most likely replace the normal ACHs in the retail sector. This is not only driven by cost and efficiency benefits, but also to ensure settlement finality for high value payments. In TIPS all retail payments are eligible for settlement in central bank money, regardless of the amount. The general perception is that we will experience a gradual shift from an intraday liquidity monitoring approach towards a fully automated real-time control; liquidity exposures won’t stop overnight but will keep on running 24/7 in different currencies and systems as a result of interoperability initiatives across the globe.

Likewise, SEPA itself has started the migration process towards a Continuous Gross Settlement schema; banks will now be able to settle SEPA payments on a real-time basis but still outside the LVPS settlement windows. Banks have been used to knowing exactly at what time during the day to expect each settlement, while in a continuous gross settlement environment, batches will be settled on separate technical accounts where liquidity needs to be available at selected ‘’intervals’’ if needed.

Tracking what used to be considered as a ‘’timed obligation’’ on an intraday basis is now opening different views and interpretations. Unless formally stated as part of a regulatory update, the reporting of IP activities and SEPA Continuous Gross Settlement will be both left out of the liquidity metrics as they run independently of the LVPS without creating daily exposures.

Whilst SEPA real-time settlement is still subject to the Bank’s input, IPs will be operating outside normal business hours; the current Intraday throughput takes into consideration the standard day window going from 8:00 to 18:00; whilst banks should now get familiar with measuring liquidity on a 24-hour basis.

The ISO20022 migration facilitates the management of data since a single format (both for payments and for SCT/SCT-Inst) will ensure standardisation across the individual infrastructures. However, the key activities will be focused on implementing fully automated processes and integration supported by a robust infrastructure, (especially for re-balancing liquidity, alerting, and managing payments outflows). Investments should focus on expanding the data repository capacity and on interfacing each system to gather the data going in and out on a real-time basis and displaying it on user-friendly dashboards.

Re-designing the technology strategy will definitely play a key role as well as working together with the Risk Department to assess how payment behaviour will change from an intraday to a 24/7 perspective. With timed obligations and retail payments soon to be out of the LVPS picture, we will be seeing a gradual evolution of both Treasury and Risk, where liquidity will no longer be a monitoring task but rather play a strategic role.

At this stage banks should consider the following as immediate priorities:

Retail payments: these will be split between ACHs and IPs. Banks need to assess the funding activities on separate technical accounts. ECB cash accounts (TIPS) will be supported by CB collateral. However, all liquidity needs to be backed by fully automated processes
Engage in open dialogue with local regulators to assess if and how to report the IP activities in their intraday liquidity metrics calculations on a stand-alone basis as well as how to include the obligations settled on technical accounts
With the imminent Consolidation coming up, considering that TIPS will become the ‘’central connector’’ for all IP CSMs, are regulators expecting separate reports for each ECB system (RTGS+CLM, T2S and TIPS)?
Skilled staff and migration of competencies. With a gradual reduction in manual activities, staff will be required to learn how to leverage new technologies such as AI/ML/Predicative Analytics, and take advantage of powerful new tools that will likely be game changers for liquidity management optimization.
The T2-T2S Consolidation project is nevertheless a challenge that will mark the beginning of new standardised practises as well as a chance to review existing technology and systems, not to be missed.

Author: Alessandra Riccardi, Business Analyst CMT of TAS

Author: Alessandra Riccardi (Business Analyst Capital Markets & Treasury - Tas Group)

While the imminent deadline of the T2-T2S Consolidation project together with the SWIFT CBPR+ Project, have absorbed time and resources at the bank’s side, the impact they will have on Intraday liquidity management is also likely to be heavily felt. When BCBS248 was introduced back in 2013, it brought with it a new set of best practices for the monitoring and measuring of intraday liquidity, throwing the topic into sharp focus. Key improvements introduced included a better distribution of payment outflows as well as the re-design of all processes around data acquisition, reconciliation and bilateral agreements with respective correspondent banks. In other words, it was only relatively recently that banks have started assessing their intraday liquidity exposure and adjusted their internal workflows to maintain and optimise their Intraday liquidity buffers.

The first major step that introduced disruption to the bank’s data management was switching from EOD batch processes towards an intraday approach. Whilst real-time and intraday management were long known within RTGS systems, it changed Correspondent Banking relationships considerably, where the banks were used to receiving EOD statements on a daily/weekly basis.

A second major turning point was assessing what systems and what obligations were to be considered for the metrics calculations, generally linked to any ancillary system activity as well as fiscal related payments and CLS. While BCBS248 addresses the basic guidelines to be taken into consideration when calculating metrics, at a general level, much of the implementation is left to the individual bank’s interpretation. The ECB’s current developments and the systems centralisation processes (T2, T2S and TIPS), have opened new user interpretations with regards to what payments flows to include in the metrics calculation. Some banks have opted to include all ECB systems as a whole in their intraday buffer calculations. Other banks report only the RTGS activities and consider all other systems as ‘’ancillaries’’ that work independently for closing their position on the LVPS at the end of day (e.g. EURO1/T2S) without creating intraday liquidity exposures on the RTGS side.

The Basel Committee has been very clear in stating that metrics reporting should be performed on a LVPS system on a system and currency basis. Other LVPSs can be included in the same report provided that liquidity bridges exist with the main LVPS; where ancillary systems are concerned, there’s no need to report them individually as they settle on the LVPS during the selected operational windows.

One of the trends that has being observed during the assessments conducted in the pre T2-T2S Consolidation phase, is that banks are keen to move most of the retail payments towards clearing and/or IP services, reducing the liquidity impacts on the LVPS. As a result, a significant portion of liquidity will no longer be settled in the LVPS, but managed on separate systems/accounts.

With this upcoming new situation, we will be seeing the migration of a big chunk of liquidity toward non-LVPS related systems that are out of scope for the current BCBS248 scenarios.

Instant Payments, as we know, are independent from clearing and settlement mechanisms and don’t close their position on any existing LVPS. That means that they settle continuously and independently; in case of liquidity shortages or surpluses, it is possible to move funds in and out and measure them accordingly in the metrics calculations of the respective LVPS system (backed by collateralised capacity, typically held at the Central Bank).

The participation in the ECB Instant Payment System, TIPS, will become mandatory for all TARGET2 actors from November 2021, to encourage the usage of the platform and driving the change toward alternative and more cost-effective means of payment. Additionally, TIPS will become the main hub for all funding and defunding activities across all IP schemas, making liquidity available at any time through automated processes.

However, from a BCBS248 perspective,  it will still be possible to measure funding and defunding transfers made from/to the RTGS system to/from the dedicated cash account in TIPS.

That said, IP statistics indicate a strong growth trend (one that varies across jurisdictions) mostly driven by individual banks expanding their product offerings as well as an acceleration in the digitalisation processes in the Covid era.

IP volumes are getting higher and will most likely replace the normal ACHs in the retail sector. This is not only driven by cost and efficiency benefits, but also to ensure settlement finality for high value payments. In TIPS all retail payments are eligible for settlement in central bank money, regardless of the amount. The general perception is that we will experience a gradual shift from an intraday liquidity monitoring approach towards a fully automated real-time control; liquidity exposures won’t stop overnight but will keep on running 24/7 in different currencies and systems as a result of interoperability initiatives across the globe.

Likewise, SEPA itself has started the migration process towards a Continuous Gross Settlement schema; banks will now be able to settle SEPA payments on a real-time basis but still outside the LVPS settlement windows. Banks have been used to knowing exactly at what time during the day to expect each settlement, while in a continuous gross settlement environment, batches will be settled on separate technical accounts where liquidity needs to be available at selected ‘’intervals’’ if needed.

Tracking what used to be considered as a ‘’timed obligation’’ on an intraday basis is now opening different views and interpretations. Unless formally stated as part of a regulatory update, the reporting of IP activities and SEPA Continuous Gross Settlement will be both left out of the liquidity metrics as they run independently of the LVPS without creating daily exposures.

Whilst SEPA real-time settlement is still subject to the Bank’s input, IPs will be operating outside normal business hours; the current Intraday throughput takes into consideration the standard day window going from 8:00 to 18:00; whilst banks should now get familiar with measuring liquidity on a 24-hour basis.

The ISO20022 migration facilitates the management of data since a single format (both for payments and for SCT/SCT-Inst) will ensure standardisation across the individual infrastructures. However, the key activities will be focused on implementing fully automated processes and integration supported by a robust infrastructure, (especially for re-balancing liquidity, alerting, and managing payments outflows). Investments should focus on expanding the data repository capacity and on interfacing each system to gather the data going in and out on a real-time basis and displaying it on user-friendly dashboards.

Re-designing the technology strategy will definitely play a key role as well as working together with the Risk Department to assess how payment behaviour will change from an intraday to a 24/7 perspective. With timed obligations and retail payments soon to be out of the LVPS picture, we will be seeing a gradual evolution of both Treasury and Risk, where liquidity will no longer be a monitoring task but rather play a strategic role.

At this stage banks should consider the following as immediate priorities:

• Retail payments: these will be split between ACHs and IPs. Banks need to assess the funding activities on separate technical accounts. ECB cash accounts (TIPS) will be supported by CB collateral. However, all liquidity needs to be backed by fully automated processes

• Engage in open dialogue with local regulators to assess if and how to report the IP activities in their intraday liquidity metrics calculations on a stand-alone basis as well as how to include the obligations settled on technical accounts
• With the imminent Consolidation coming up, considering that TIPS will become the ‘’central connector’’ for all IP CSMs, are regulators expecting separate reports for each ECB system (RTGS+CLM, T2S and TIPS)?

Skilled staff and migration of competencies. With a gradual reduction in manual activities, staff will be required to learn how to leverage new technologies such as AI/ML/Predicative Analytics, and take advantage of powerful new tools that will likely be game changers for liquidity management optimization.

The T2-T2S Consolidation project is nevertheless a challenge that will mark the beginning of new standardised practises as well as a chance to review existing technology and systems, not to be missed.

Discover how TAS Group is helping banks with T2-T2S Consolidation and managing Intraday Liquidity

Download the article

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.

Sophia-Antipolis, France, 9 April 2021 -  In February 2021, Université Côte d'Azur-CNRS Electronics, Antennas and Telecommunications laboratory (LEAT) and TAS Group formed a partnership to test performance and explore prospects for a large-scale deployment of blockchain used to secure and authenticate data for the activation of smart contracts. These new technologies could, for example, revolutionize the way in which claims between connected vehicles are managed in the coming years. A blockchain use case studied at the LEAT laboratory of Université Côte d'Azur, part of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) Today, in the event of a road accident, the insurer consolidates data resulting from a report filled in by hand by the protagonists. This data may be, intentionally or not, incomplete or even false. In the future, a device installed in the vehicle could send data automatically collected on the vehicle (identity and vital functions of the driver, speed, positioning of the vehicles, etc.) to a blockchain. A Smart Contract could then process this data in a completely decentralized, more objective, fairer and more secure manner. The claims for loss and follow-up provided by the insurance company could be triggered automatically based on this data. This use case is the one selected by LEAT for its Smart IoT for Mobility project led by Prof. Verdier, in partnership with Renault Software Labs and Symag (BNP Paribas subsidiary). Started in 2017, it can now count on TAS Group technology to move on to a larger-scale testing phase. Why TAS Group? Through the partnership, TAS Group provides LEAT with a cloud service platform for containerized applications and brings its expertise in application cloudification to the laboratory. LEAT's exploratory work will thus be brought to the Cloud while adapting and respecting the different types of process. This will allow researchers to benefit from a network test architecture to study the behaviour of models developed in their laboratory and very realistically simulate the deployment of their applications. The containerization of the blockchain will allow the use of micro-services to facilitate the deployment and orchestration of the architecture. The solution will also allow the adoption of agile methods based on "DevOps" principles. What is blockchain? A blockchain is like a database in which the information entered is neither editable nor deleted, and is publicly readable and cryptographically secure. Blockchain is based on the principle of collective trust. By entrusting the validation of a transaction to a multiplicity of computers rather than to a human, a fallible trusted third party, the risk of error, fraud or corruption is eliminated. What are Smart Contracts? Smart Contracts are the natural evolution of blockchain. These "smart contracts" are computer programs stored in a blockchain, designed to automatically execute a set of predefined instructions, based on data from the blockchain. They are automatically executed and self-enforcing contracts. They are governed, without possible dispute, by the explicit terms and conditions set out therein, without one or more people, often qualified as trusted third parties, having to intervene to establish their authenticity and trigger the execution. In the case of vehicle insurance contracts, this new generation of contracts could replace traditional contracts in the future. Download the press release

Today the Board of Directors of TAS approved the 2020 consolidated financial statements of the Group. All economic and financial indicators on the rise : total revenues and core revenues respectively at 61.7 million euros and 60.9 million euros. Consolidated net profit up to 8.8 million euros compared to 5.9 million in the previous year. Dario Pardi, chairman of TAS Group, expressed satisfaction and pride for the excellent results achieved in a particularly demanding and challenging year, in which TAS courageously invested in an increase in human resources, demonstrating the Group's consolidated financial capacity. The three main lines of development in 2020 were: the consolidation of strategic collaborations, the inorganic growth with the acquisition of Infraxis AG , a leading player in the world of digital payments in the Swiss and German markets and the important investments in the Group’s platforms and services. Talking about investments, CEO Valentino Bravi underlined the important share of more than 10% of revenues destined in 2020 for the innovation of solutions, which made it possible to progress in the development of the Global Payments Platform offered both on-premise or in PaaS (Platform as a Service) mode, in the completion of the  Aquarius platform for the ESMIG project for the new Target services of the European Central Bank, and in the strengthening of the PaaS delivery model related to the payment and e-money product suites. Read the full press release in the Investor section.