MBTS-BANK (Moscow, Russia) in collaboration with Compass Plus has successfully completed MasterCard certification for its own in-house processing centre.

On September 12th 2007 MBTS-BANK began to directly operate with the MasterCard payment system as a Principal Member. MBTS-BANK has already began to provide sponsorship and processing services to other banks through its processing centre. In collaboration with Compass Plus, the Bank is conducting a project that includes certification of SMP Bank as their first affiliated member in the MasterCard payment system.

The processing centre, built on TranzWare products, was launched over a year ago. Pavel Slavin, Chief of Bank Card Management, said the following about the Bank’s collaboration with Compass Plus:

The highly acclaimed TranzWare product suite and latest innovations offered by Compass Plus generated significant visitor interest at the International CARDEX & IT SECURITY 2007 exhibition.

Once again Compass Plus participated in this respected exhibition project. The great interest of those present, both in a professional capacity and from a consumer’s point of view, encouraged Compass Plus to demonstrate working examples of ATM technology as well as related innovative services.  

At the stand Compass Plus have showcased  Wincor Nixdorf ProCash 2100xe ATM that is positioned by its distributors (a partner of Compass Plus - INPAS) as a multifunctional self-service point. Exhibition visitors were able to test a new function that enables an ATM to dispense coins, a project realised in Russia for the first time. The ATM had a live connection to Moscow Industrial Bank’s processing centre, which was built on Compass Plus’ TranzWare product base.

The coin dispensing functionality beneficially complements the currency exchange and making payments functions of the ProCash ATM product range. It is remarkable that making payments for various services and currency exchange operations can be carried in a “card-less” mode, which can in turn significantly expand the scope of a bank’s potential customers. The ATM proved a popular attraction with participants and visitors alike, who were interested both on a research level and from a practical point of view.

At the Compass Plus stand also displayed another joint solution – an information-payment terminal, the ITT-522 self-service kiosk by ARS (Automated Retail Systems), which was connected to the TranzWare Online in a test mode through TeleMatika-Service’s  MassPay terminal server. This device not only makes it possible to make cash payments but also allows to gain access and manage personal accounts.

By means of the ITT kiosk, bank customers are able to gain access to the TranzWare eBank module. Users of TranzWare eBank can view and print out account statements, make transfers between accounts (including those with currency exchange), make payments for different services, change card limits, create virtual cards, etc.

Compass Plus’ new developments ignited significant interest of retail bank managers. Amongst the most popular were TranzWare Cash Planning, a system forecasting and managing available cash in ATMs and the multi-functional ATM monitoring solution.

About CARDEX & IT SECURITY:
The International CARDEX & IT SECURITY exhibition and conference ‘Smart Cards and IT security systems’ took place in Moscow for the fourth time running on 19-21st September. The exhibition was moved to the Expocenter Congress Centre, Krasnaya Presnya, Moscow, on the strength of its increased growth in participants over the past 3 years. The move clearly demonstrates that the electronic payments industry continues to develop intensively and generates increasing interest from the banking world.

This year CARDEX & IT SECURITY gathered the world’s leading vendors in the plastic card market and representatives of credit organisations in Russia, Ukraine, countries of the CIS and other regions of the world. Manufacturers and providers of e-payment solution software, ATMs and equipment and services for the plastic card market welcomed the opportunity to meet face-to-face with representatives of banks, colleagues and service users in order to discuss vital questions and debate prospective expansions.

Temirbank (Kazakhstan) completed certification of its in-house processing centre built on Compass Plus TranzWare products in the VISA payment system. The Bank has transferred their ATM and POS terminal network as well as their VISA card authorisation base from its sponsor bank (Halyk Bank) to its own processing centre.

Temirbank ranks as one of the ten largest banks in Kazakhstan and their business strategy is geared towards mass marketing to public sector, first and foremost, towards consumer crediting. The launch of own in-house processing centre will make it possible to substantially increase the efficiency of issuing and managing credits. Now clients of Temirbank can independently abate credit through a network of ATMs with the cash-in function as well as at POS terminals connected to the processing centre.

The development of the payment acceptance network will allow Temirbank to rapidly improve customer service and increase customer base with minimum expenditure. Before the end of the year the Bank is planning to connect over 300 ATMs and 100 payment kiosks to the processing centre.

The Director of Temirbank’s IT Department said the following about Compass Plus’ Tranzware product suite:

“By implementing Compass Plus products, Temirbank sought not only to become a member of the prestigious club of processing centre owners, but also to resolve technological problems which arose in 2006 in connection with the concentration on the retail segment of the financial market. Our choice of supplier proved very successful; not only did we begin card processing within the shortest period of time, but with the aid of Compass Plus we developed a group of specialists in card technologies from novices in this area. The TranzWare system’s interfaces allowed us to set up online interaction between the processing centre and the banking system. The processing centre considerably enlarged the spectrum of service channels for retail customers (ATMs, POS-terminals, information and payment kiosks, mobile and Internet banking). It also gave us a good technological base for the development of Temirbank’s retail business.”

In the beginning of August Compass Plus representatives participated in the IV Annual International Banking Conference “Retail Banking Business in the Caucasus Region” organised by People’s Bank of Georgia in Batumi (Georgia).

On the first day of the conference Compass Plus’ commercial director, Andrei Chirkov did a presentation on the remote banking services based on TranzWare products. The technological solutions from Compass Plus enable bank customers to gain convenient access to all banking services (payments, transfers, currency exchange, etc) via various self-service devices (ATMs, kiosks) as well as via the Internet and telephone banking. This capability allows banks to widen their customer service network, the quality of service and the customer base itself in a quick and relatively inexpensive way as opposed to setting up more bank branches. This topic has generated a lot of interest amongst conference participants.

In her presentation devoted to the development of the card project at Peoples Bank of Georgia, Maya Heladze, the Director of the Plastic Cards Department, highly regarded the role that their own in-house processing centre plays in the development of the Bank’s product range. Since the commercial launch of the Bank’s processing centre in May 2006 the number of cards in circulation has tripled. During the conference the Bank issued 500,000th card and presented the owner of this “milestone” with a Hyundai Tucson. It is also worth noting that the Bank’s card project develops not only by means of volume growth but also by taking on new initiatives such as getting certified for VSDC cards and commencing the issuing of cards under the MasterCard brand.

The conference included a range on fascinating presentations covering not just technological solutions but also other aspects of actively developing retail banking business. The conference once again has proven to be very fruitful and allowed its participants to make many new business contacts.

The Peoples Bank of Georgia has Principal Member status in Visa International and is the largest card issuer in Georgia with over 700,000 cards issued. The Bank has the largest branch network in Georgia (180 branches) and is commissioned to implement and run governmental and social programmes (such as pension schemes, social benefits schemes, etc).