EUROGIRO

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THE INTERNATIONAL ELECTRONIC PAYMENT NETWORK

Postal Accounting Center – 2 in step with time

Coaching in Senegal3Steady growth in Eurogiro4 while preparing for the future

General User Group5 meeting 2003

Exchange of experiences6Western Union and Eurogiro –7 working together across borders

Definitions on the web7Eurogiro Pension Payments8 Seminar

Turkish PTT joins the TMO8

Deutsche Postbank is the new EURSettlement Service ProviderDeutsche Postbank AG has been selected as the new Settlement ServiceProvider for Euro transactions in EUROGIRO (ESSP).

“We are very proud to have been selected“,announced Deutsche Postbank‘s DirkBerensmann, Board Member for Operationsand IT “We will do everything to ensure asimple and very smooth migration to theservices. For the members there will be as little changes as possible to adjust“.

Deutsche Postbank will be offering the serviceto all EUROGIRO members for a probationaryperiod of one year, from 1 February 2004 to31 January 2005, with the option for the serviceto be prolonged if it proves to be satisfactory.A Selection Committee will evaluate the service,taking into respect the views of the user.

The agreed time schedule and overall frame-work for the change in service providers, asapproved by the EUROGIRO Board, as follows:

June 2003 – September 2003• Members continue with Nordea Bank and

new members implement with NordeaBank

• Deutsche Postbank develops its settlementservice

• New contract between EUROGIRO andDeutsche Postbank

October 2003 – 29 January 2004• Members continue with Nordea Bank as

ESSP. Freeze on implementation of newmembers onto the service

• Testing and training with DeutschePostbank to prepare the migration and thenew service

• Test between Nordea Bank and DeutschePostbank

• Bilateral agreements between DeutschePostbank and ESSP users will be finalised

30 January 2004• “Big Bang“ migration from Nordea Bank

to Deutsche Postbank. Deutsche Postbanktakes over all services from Nordea Bank.

1 April 2004• Nordea terminates its EUROGIRO service

The ESSP strengthens the overall service level of the EUROGIRO parnership signi-ficantly, both for existing members and fornew members, but it is particularly importantthat all members make use of the service toharvest the benefits. The value propositionfrom the account concentration and central €settlement mainly stem from:

• Standardisation and simplicity in set-up• Better liquidity management• Funding costs reduced• Reduced reconciliation costs• Less repairs related to settlement• More automation in processing• Not having to provide account service to

members/or having to in a much more limited degree

• “State of the art“ settlement set-up in thepartnership

Dirk Berensmann, memberof the Board of Directors ofDeutsche Postbank

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Postal Accounting Center – in line withthe futureWho are we? - Latvia Post is a fully state-owned non-profit holding companyestablished on January 2, 1992, supervised by the Ministry of Transport andthe Communications and Public Utilities Commission.

■ At present there are 965 post offices and7500 postal workers all over Latvia. LatviaPost has two daughter companies bothestablished in 1995 – Latvian ElectronicalMail (LEM) and Latvia Post Service Network(LPSN). LEM is responsible for the printingof pension and relief orders, bills, monthlyaccount balance-sheets, advertisements etc.;the second daughter company, Latvia PostService Network was established to realiseand to maintain Latvia Post ComputerNetwork (LPCN) project. LPCN is coveringthe whole of Latvia and it allows not only theautomation of the work of Latvia Post but alsoensures new postal services.

It is expected that during 2003 Latvia Post willgenerate the greatest part of its income from

NEWS / INFORMATION

New Euro Settlement Service ProviderThis issue of the Eurogiro News will provide you with updates onongoing activities within Eurogiro

■ Eurogiro is happy to announce that Deutsche Postbank has been selected as the newSettlement Service Provider for Euro transactions in Eurogiro (ESSP). Along with excellentservice, a ‘seamless migration’ for the Eurogiro members have been key selection criteriaand we are confident that the migration plan developed by Deutsche Postbank in co-operation with Nordea Bank will secure a smooth migration.

Our managing director will take you through the first half of 2003 focusing on the Eurogirodevelopments and activities. There are articles covering the New Members’ Seminar andGeneral User Group Meeting in Munich and I hope that participating members will recognisethe issues dealt with and the good atmosphere reflected in the photos.

We have news from Latvia, coaching in Senegal, TMO plans in Turkey and an update fromWestern Union

I hope you will find the topics interesting – and wish you all an enjoyable read.

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Eurogiro News is a magazine for the promotion of information, ideas and knowledge within the Eurogiro community.

Eurogiro News is published quarterly by:

Eurogiro Network A/SCarl Gustavs Gade 3, 1. tvDK- 2630 TaastrupDenmarkTel.: +45 43 71 27 72Fax: +45 43 71 26 62e-mail: eurogiro@eurogiro.com

Editor-in-Chief: Søren Rose

Subscription enquiries: Kai Thygesen, EditorTel.: +45 43 31 12 47e-mail: kai@eurogiro.comwww.eurogiro.com

No part of this publication may be photocopied or otherwise reproduced without the written consent of EurogiroNetwork A/S

Printed by: Schultz Grafisk

Although Eurogiro Network A/S has madeevery effort to ensure the accuracy of thispublication, neither it nor any contributorcan accept any legal responsibility whatso-ever for consequences that may arise fromerrors or omissions or any opinions oradvice given.

Final editing: August 2003ISSN: 1727-7450

The Eurogiro network is an internationalelectronic payment network and is the onlyelectronic cross-border payment systemwhich covers both postal and bank products.

Eurogiro has 39 member institutions.Although Western Europe is the core area,Eurogiro now spans five continents. The electronic payment system of Eurogirois administered by Eurogiro Network A/S in Copenhagen which also provides the organisational framework for the furtherdevelopment of the co-operation. The com-pany is owned by 15 European members.

Eurogiro Member institutions:

Austria: PSK/BAWAG • Belgium: FinancialPost • Brazil: Empresa Brasileira de Correiose Telègrafos • Canada: National Bank ofCanada • Cape Verde: Correios de Cabo Verde• China: China Post • Croatia: Hrvatska Post •Czech Republic: CSOB a.s. • Denmark:Danske Bank A/S • Estonia: Sampo Pank •Finland: Sampo Bank Plc • France: La Poste •Germany: Deutsche Postbank AG • Greece:Hellenic Post • Hungary: Magyar Posta •Iceland: Iceland Post • Ireland: AN Post •Israel: Israel Postal Authority • Italy: PosteItaliane • Japan: Japan Post, Postal SavingsBusiness Headquarters • Latvia: Latvia Post •Luxembourg: P & T • Morocco: Barid AlMaghrib • Netherlands: ING BankN.V./Postbank N.V. • Portugal: CTT Correios• Romania: Banc Post and Posta Romana •Senegal: La poste • Slovakia: Postova Banka •Slovenia: Postna banka Slovenije d.d. • Spain:BBVA and Correos y Telegrafos • Sweden:Nordea Bank • Switzerland: Swiss PostPostfinance • Tunisia: La Poste • Turkey:General Directorate of Post • United Kingdom:Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank Plc. •USA: Deutsche Bank • Serbia & Montenegro:Postal Savings Bank.

C O M M E N T A R Y

Søren Rose, Editor-in-Chief andDeputy ManagingDirector

Dairis Krumins, Director of PostalAccounting Center, Latvia Post and TijaEzerina, Site and Host Co-ordinator

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provides three kinds of international moneytransfer business – UPU money order,Western Union money transfer and Eurogiromoney order.

In Latvia Post the Eurogiro system is managed by the Postal Accounting Center(PAC). PAC is a branch of Latvia Post thatprovides postal services connected with publicpayments and money orders and it ensures thefunction of Postal Accounting System (PAS).PAC maintains and develops PAS.

PAS is a computerised finance system of settlements in Latvia Post that enables customers to open PAS accounts, receivemoney and perform cash settlements or trans-fers by clearing to other PAS accounts or tocredit institutions in Latvia or foreign coun-tries.

The Postal Accounting System is functioningusing LPCN technical equipment and LatviaPost Computer Network has been created toproceed financial bargains, to provide protec-tion and security of information wherewithPAS can guarantee full security of the customers’ money.

PAS is not only a secure system, but it is alsovery convenient because Latvia Post has largepost office coverage and is therefore availablefor a large number of customers in all ruralregions. One can use these system offeringseven if the post office is not online. PAS ofLatvia Post is the only system of its kind inthe whole Baltic state area.

Future visionsSince its establishment and launch in 1996,the Postal Accounting System has beenupgraded several times and the goal ofupgrades is not only to integrate PAS inter-face but to make it easier to control the flowof money and finances.

One of the projects last year was enforced inco-operation with one of the largest banks inLatvia Hansabanka – now it is possible forPAS customers to route one or severalMaestro debit cards to their accounts. Once amonth customers are mailed or e-mailed a

monthly account balance sheet to controltheir finance actions.

In September 2003 PAS is preparing tolaunch a new product called iPAS (InternetPostal Accounting System) in order to raiseits competitiveness. It will enable clients toperform different clearings – transfers to otherPAS accounts, bill payment, managing of ownaccount – via the Internet.

In further projects Postal Accounting Centerhas planned - to integrate domestic money orders in PAS

in order to evolve the online money transfersystem, which would speed up the receivingof money orders from 3 days to 1 day

- to develop more effective and informativeadvertising campaigns

- to pay attention to employees’ quality ofperformance

- to form a stable and knowledgeableEurogiro team and to find new partners toexpand the Eurogiro business

Dairis Krumins, Director of PostalAccounting Center and Eurogiro GeneralContact

mail processing and delivery services. It isexpected that the amount of parcel sending and the delivery service will increase. As wellas those utilities mentioned above, the following services are also offered:• Press and advertisement delivery• Pension and relief payout• Public payment collection• Domestic and international money transfers

In this coming year Latvia Post plans to investlarge amounts in its infrastructure – therenewal of motor transport, acquisition ofstrongboxes and computer engineering, as well as the acquisition of print devices, telexes,furniture and other inventory. Although theincrease in income over expenditure is not aslarge as in the previous year, nevertheless theincome of Latvia Post is increasing everyyear.

First to go live Latvia Post signed the Eurogiro agreement onMay 8, 2002, becoming the first Baltic stateto be working with the Eurogiro system live.To date (August 2003) Latvia Post has signedbilateral agreements with PostFinance - SwissPost, Deutsche Postbank AG and is now readyto expand its international business.

Since its establishment Latvia Post has systematically developed – offering its customers new services and also evolvingexisting ones. In implementing and acquiringthe Eurogiro system, Latvia Post saw greatopportunities to improve its internationalmoney order service. At present Latvia Post

Latvia Post Postal Accounting Center’sEUROGIRO team

Coaching in SenegalLa Poste in Senegal welcomed Jean-Luc Demierre to Dakar,4th-11th June 2003

■ As the most recent member of Eurogiro, LaPoste was ready to receive coaching sessionsfrom an experienced member, PostFinance,Swiss Post. Previously Jean-Luc Demierrehas been a key person in similar sessions forother new members and was looking forwardto meeting this new African partner. Onarrival in Dakar, General Director, Iba JosephBasse and the contact person Sérigne Gueyewelcomed Jean-Luc, together with approxi-mately 30 employees who were all interestedin hearing more about Eurogiro. “I waspleasantly surprised by the number of em-

ployees who showed such an interest in theEurogiro implementation”, Jean-Luc said.

After the initial presentation, the coachingprogram was adjusted to target 12 key per-sonnel with whom he analysed the currentorganisation of the Senegalese postal finan-cial services. An action plan outlining thevarying steps towards implementation ofEurogiro was conducted and this process wasvery important in highlighting the changesnecessary. The following topics were discussedduring the coaching sessions:

La Poste as sending institution:• Outgoing payments, cash and credits• Centralising of payments into Dakar

Central office• Data in-keying, data storing, value dating,

accounting, liaison account management,ESSP

Jean-Luc Demierre,PostFinance, Swiss Post

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• Handling of queries• Message types and currencies• Agreements with partners

La Poste as receiving institution:• Incoming payments• Choice of out-payment instrument

Steady growth in Eurogiro while preparing for the futureEurogiro continued good growth in the 1st half of 2003 while being engaged in significant development work, whichis expected to fuel strong growth in the future

■ In the first half of 2003 Eurogiro achievednearly 10 million transactions (includingWestern Union). This corresponds to a growthof 17% compared to the first half of 2002.This is quite satisfactory taking into accountthat Eurogiro is facing a major change instrategy and positioning in the market. Frombeing a European focused payment system,Eurogiro is more and more moving in the direc-tion of becoming a global payment provider.

Eurogiro is in the process of implementingsome of these new solutions. The co-operationwith Federal Reserve of the US for a trans-atlantic gateway for credit payments is movingforward according to plans. The basic soft-ware has already been developed and systemtesting is being conducted at the moment.Testing with the pilot countries (Bawag/PSK,Deutsche Postbank, ING/Postbank, SwissPostFinance and Alliance & Leicester Bank) willtake place over the late summer. A limited pro-duction is expected to commence in November.

Eurogiro is also continuing the discussionswith Western Union in a very constructiveand friendly atmosphere and a new 5-yearagreement is expected to replace the existingagreement which expires in November 2003.

The Tele Money Order (TMO) is also sche-duled for a limited production by the end of theyear and it is hoped that an agreement can bereached with UPU to enlarge the geographicalcoverage of the TMO product. The TMO is a2-day cash product intended to be a modernisedversion of the somewhat outdated postal moneyorder.

Finally, Eurogiro is in the end phase of dis-cussions with Swift for a co-operation, whichwill enable Eurogiro to function as a closeduser group within Swift. This will give savingsto existing and new Eurogiro/Swift membersthat will avoid double cost of the technicalplatforms.

A further major development is that DeutschePostbank was awarded the contract to act asEuro settlement provider (ESSP) for theEurogiro community. The change over from theexisting provider: Postgirot in Sweden, willtake place on 1st February 2004 and will to alarge degree be a seamless migration for theparticipants in the ESSP settlement schedule.

Deutsche Postbank was also the host of asuccessful User Group meeting in Munich.The meeting gave participants the opportunityto be updated on the development in Eurogiroand to influence the development in work-shops. The activity level was very highregarding bilateral business discussions. Themeeting also featured very interesting presen-tations from the European Payment Council(Mr. Hartsink), Western Union (Mr. HikmetErsek), Swift (Mr. Harry Newman), FED(Ms. Elizabeth McQuerry, VISA (Mr.Jonathan Valentine and Capco (Mr. JulianWakeham). The meeting next year will beheld in the city of The Beatles: Liverpool, andwill be hosted by Alliance & Leicester Bank.

In spite of the many development projects,Eurogiro continues to direct focus on expandingthe network. To fill the vacuum in the Nordiccountries, Eurogiro is conducting discussionswith 9 organisations in the 4 Nordic countriesand new solutions are expected before the endof the year. There are furthermore discussionswith, among others, banks and postal organisa-tions in the US, India, Greece, Ireland,Balkans, Baltic and Asia.

In the first half of 2003 we were very happyto welcome Bank Slaski from Poland as wellas La Poste in Senegal.

The actions and activities fit very well intothe strategy recently approved by theEurogiro Board. The vision is to see theEurogiro as a solution and co-operation tolink different products, geographical areas,networks, alliance partners and to function asa link between the Postal world and the bankworld. This is illustrated in the figure whereEurogiro acts as a gateway between differentparticipants in the payment market.

The Swift co-operation is an example of atechnological gateway. FED of a geographicalgateway. UPU and Western Union are examplesof product (geographical) alliances/gateways.Eurogiro is furthermore in early discussionswith other major payment providers to see ifa co-operation could be made so thatEurogiro could act as a gateway into Europefor credit payments, as is the case for FEDpayments.

With the business activities alongside the newstrategic activities (Gateway strategy) and thework within EU and EPC, Eurogiro is verystrongly positioned for capturing futureopportunities. However, the turbulent marketenvironment created by stronger competition,and not least by the new EU regulation, putsgreat pressure on all financial institutions, notleast on our members. Today, the combinedforces of postal organisations probably consti-tute the biggest players on the financial marketin Europe within retail business if not in general. We believe that co-operations likeEurogiro are necessary to deal with the signifi-cant challenges and help capture opportunitiesin the market. We are certain that the numerousactivities being performed presently help indoing this and it will lead to acceleratedgrowth in the years to come, thereby furtherenhancing the value proposition for members(banks and postal) and alliance partners.

Thank you to all members and partners forsignificant contributions to our success in the1st half of 2003.

• Issuing the payment instrument• Relation with post offices• Return of payments and queries

The initial testing is planned to be withSwitzerland, hopefully during August, and anoptimistic guess is that live production could

start in September. “Despite some internalchallenges to develop the organisation, I havea feeling that the Senegalese have a greatenthusiasm to make this project work, concludes Jean-Luc.

Henrik Parl, ManagingDirector in EurogiroNetwork A/S

BANK

EUROPEFED

SEPA

SWIFT

UPU/Western

Union

POST

REST OFTHEWORLD

Gateway role of Eurogiro

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■ As always – on the last day of the meeting– the floor was given to speakers fromorganisations operating in the payments market.What is happening in the payments market? –and what does the future look like? JulianWakeham from Capco has been supportingEurogiro in its strategy work by studying themarket and the trends in the EU. It seems thattoday a highly fragmented payments in-frastructure has developed. In particular, theregulators have been/are challenging thetraditional payment continuum. In the shortterm this will lead to a more complex pay-

ments infrastructure. However, some emergingtrends are:- Payment system consolidation and the

emergence of SEPA systems- Additional upgrade of existing services- Accession countries will rapidly develop

new systems for high value, retail and cardpayments

- A number of alternative payment solutionswill emerge (Visa Direct)

- In the long term 3 types of payment systemswill develop: interbank, hub based,point2point

The trends force the service providers to findways to reduce the costs of processing crossborder payments. Mr. Hartsink from theEuropean Payments Council (EPC) presentedsome issues that the EPC is dealing with.First of all, the forming of a Single EuroPayments Area (SEPA). All euroland pay-ments are in future to be regarded as dome-stic payments. In 2002 it was decided thatthere should be no difference between domesticand crossborder card payments. This year thesame applies for credit transfers (till EUR12.500). Looking at cash less cross bordertransactions, as many as 83.2% are card pay-ments, the remainder being credit transfersand cheques. Several initiatives to keep costsdown have been launched: the credeuro - a100% straight through processing (STP)credit transfer, a pan European direct debit, apan European automated clearing house(ACH) which should be a business platformfor the provision of euro retail paymentinstruments and basic related services, madeup of governance rules and payments prac-tices and supported by the necessary technicalplatform(s). The cash payments are costly and safety isdefinitely the main precondition. EPC hasalready adopted some recommendations, e.g.:- Banks to develop joint cards and cash

strategies- Banks to promote electronic products, in

liaison with other stakeholders- Promote Europe wide standardisation of

requirements for equipment- Develop best practices to guide banks in

enhancing cash service operations- Banking industry to study a utility type

wholesale infrastructure for cash handling

Eurogiro is certainly aware of the new trendsand regulations and the company has spentquite some time on analysing futureopportunities. According to the new strategy,Eurogiro aims at being more of a solutionsprovider, i.e. offering the members new busi-ness opportunities by entering into newalliances and at the same time reducing costs.At the User Group, Mr Valentine presentedVisa Direct: a cross border money transferservice for Visa EU banks, which will, forexample, lower costs for banks. In brief, VisaDirect is a bank to bank service and a passthrough: no funds are held.

Mr. Hikmet Ersek from Western Union gavean interesting presentation on Western Unionand their relationship with postal organisa-tions. Additional excellent presentations weremade by Mr. Harry Newman, SWIFT and Mr.Max Flury, Swiss Post, who was covering theEurogiro SWIFT issues.

If you have access to the Eurogiro Intranetyou can find the above mentioned presenta-tions on www.eurogiro.com/ by entering themembers log-in and clicking on ”Documen-tation” in the left hand-side menu and then”Presentations” in the top menu. In additionto these User Group 2003 presentations, youcan also find other User Group presentations,e.g. the alliance with the Federal ReserveBank, the new 2 days cash product, theSWIFT co-operation, Western Union, FATFissues – and all the general Eurogiro topics.

General User Group meeting 2003A look towards the future of payments

At the User Group business is discussed - also in a very relaxed atmosphere…

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■ The participants considered the recent NewMembers’ Seminar in Munich, hosted byDeutsche Postbank, a great success. Themeeting contained a mix of presentationsfrom the Eurogiro members and internallyfrom Eurogiro, together with a discussiongroup and bilateral discussions.

The three participants from the NationalBank of Canada, Alistair Sinclair, RobertCaviola and Eric de Feydeau, gave a jointpresentation on their Eurogiro implementa-tion experiences, which was very wellreceived by the new members who are facingsimilar challenges at the moment in terms offorming a project team, adjusting theorganisation, evaluating and planning.

Timothy Merrel from Deutsche Bank focusedhis presentation on the Eurogiro alliance roleas a gateway for US dollar payments to theUnited States and to the rest of the world.

Deutsche Bank is one of the world’s largestUSD clearers and a committed leader with astrategic focus on commercial payment solu-tions.

The final external presentation focused on thedevelopment scenarios for postal financialservices by Hans Boon, ING Bank in theNetherlands. First he went through theEuropean electronic and physical distributioninfrastructure for personal financial servicesand showed differences in cash versus cash-less payments and concluded by discussingthe development scenarios with vision, stra-tegy, action and structure. Hans Boon hasgreat experience in developing postalorganisations by helping them to develop andimplement a business unit of financial servicesor the set-up of a partnership.

Uwe Holmsgaard, IT Director at EurogiroNetwork gave an update on how to optimise thesystem set-up and covered issues like the latestdevelopments, procedures, contingency andtests. The Eurogiro system has been in pro-duction for more than 11 years and is con-tinuously developed and enhanced with newfunctionality based on the feedback and re-quirements from the members. He also focusedon the different solutions Eurogiro has for theWestern Union interface, of which the latestis an Internet e-banking solution.

The discussion group considered cross borderpayments products and services of eachmember institution present: Here the “old”members shared their experiences with the

new members and ideas were exchangedamong all participants and the discussionscovered some good issues. The results of thediscussions were valuable as input to thenumerous working groups in Eurogiro dealingwith new development.

All participants benefited from the bilateraldiscussions where the members could meet ina more relaxed atmosphere and discuss newagreements. The bilateral agreement discussionwas one of the most valuable sessions at thenew members’ seminar according to the parti-cipants. The main reason for this was thatthere was an opportunity for a new memberto meet several institutions and thus avoid thetime consuming alternative of setting upmeetings, travelling and sending correspon-dence back and forth. Here all initial contactcan be taken and even draft agreements bemade. All participants had an extra opportu-nity to talk with each other and relax at thedinner hosted by Eurogiro.

Exchange of experiencesThe members present expressed great satisfaction from the New Members’ Seminar in Munich May 2003

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■ His presentation focused on WesternUnion’s relationship with postal organisationsand in particular the significant growth inpostal locations. He also revealed the scale ofrevenue increases that postal businesses haveenjoyed since they started working withWestern Union.

Western Union accounts for the majority ofFirst Data Corporation’s $3.2 billion PaymentServices business and, with its PaymentServices affiliates, it completed nearly 240million money transfers globally in 2002.

Western Union has a network of over 150,000agent locations in more than 190 countriesand territories around the world. These loca-tions are primarily well-known financialinstitutions and post offices.

Success storiesTo demonstrate the growth and types of rela-tionship Western Union is developing withpostal organisations, Mr. Ersek presentedcase studies of the work with the Dutch PostBank in the Netherlands, Hrvatska Posta inCroatia and Banc Post and Posta Romana inRomania. Most recently Magyar Posta inHungary joined forces with Western Union.As a result, on 1 July, Western Union MoneyTransfer® services became available at 300post office locations across Hungary.

The Western Union services and systemsleverage the scale, technology and best prac-tices of First Data Corporation’s leadershipposition in the card issuing and merchant pro-cessing industry around the world.

First Data Corporation makes it possible forbusinesses and consumers to move money andinformation with convenience, efficiency andsecurity. More than a competitive advantage,its infrastructure provides endless opportu-nities for the development of integrated services and solutions for postal businesses.

www.firstdata.com • www.westernunion.com

Western Union and Eurogiro – working together across bordersHikmet Ersek, Senior Vice President for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Western Union, addressed delegates at the Eurogiro Conference on 23 May 2003.

Today, there are 86 postal organisations workingwith Western Union. These administrationshave already seen the benefits additionalservices can bring to their business. For them, itis more than just a money transfer service.

“At the end of the day, there are many entitiesthat can provide a money transfer service,”said Mr. Ersek. “The difference with WesternUnion is that we have spent more than 150years creating a service and brand that peo-ple, all over the world, trust for reliability, con-venience and speed. It is the power and thereach of the Western Union brand, more thana money transfer service that brings payingcustomers into our agent locations.”

A safe choiceWith every transaction that is made, WesternUnion aims to meet or exceed the rules andregulations governing international moneytransfers. Western Union strives to have themost advanced regulatory compliance systemin the world. To meet this ambition it activelymonitors and supports its agents to ensurethey meet or exceed its compliance standards.

Innovative joint venture with La Poste

In February 2003, Western Union and LaPoste announced the creation of a jointventure in France: Société Financière dePaiements.

As Mr. Ersek explained at the conference:“The joint venture, Société Financière dePaiements, is mutually beneficial. For LaPoste the joint venture opens the doors toFrance’s money transfer market and thepotential to significantly increase itsrevenue. For Western Union, the relation-ship provides an innovative platform fromwhich we can expand our services in oneof the most significant markets inWestern Europe.”

Definitions on the webInspired at the General User Group Meeting in Munich an easy access todefinitions of often used abbreviations and acronyms has beenimplemented on the Eurogiro web-site

■ Our web-site www.eurogiro.com has beenupdated with such a facility. On the homepage (members log-in is not necessary) youwill find ”Acronyms and Glossary” in theleft-hand menu, and one click here brings youdirectly to the document with often usedabbreviations and their respective definitions.

The document will be updated on a regularlybasis. You are welcome to provide input to thisnew feature by e-mailing kai@eurogiro.com

Eurogiro members still have the opportunityto find all other relevant Eurogiro documen-tation by entering the members’ log-in.

Hikmet Ersek, Western Union

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Subjects to be covered in the next issue:

◆ Eurogiro Pension PaymentsSeminar

◆ Update on urgent cash provider

◆ Promotion activities in Israel

◆ FED going live

◆ TMO in pilot phase

◆ Internal promotion campaign

Please forward ideas, comments,articles etc. to:

Eurogiro Network A/SCarl Gustavs Gade 3, 1. tvDK-2630 TaastrupDenmarkAtt.: Kai Thygesene-mail: kai@eurogiro.com

11 SeptemberEurogiro Pension Payments Seminar,Frankfurt

7 – 9 October, BrusselsPOST-EXPO

20 – 24 October, SingaporeSIBOS

30 – 31 OctoberEurogiro Board Meeting, Paris

Activity CalendarAutumn 2003

Eurogiro Pension Payments SeminarGrowing the pension payments business in Eurogiro

■ Eurogiro is inviting its members to apension “Think Tank Seminar“ on the 11th ofSeptember 2003 in Frankfurt Airport. Thepension business has long been an importantbusiness for many Eurogiro members. Thebusiness suits them very well in their role aspayment handling specialists and the marketfor pension payments is expected to growsteadily in the years to come. The Eurogiropayment service is tailored to provide costefficient exchange of cross border pensionpayments and the Eurogiro membersgenerally provide attractive conditions forreceipt of pension payments.

There are, however, challenges to overcometo win the business and to be profiting fromthe business, and these challenges areincreasing with the introduction of the EUCharging Regulation and the impact on theEuropean Payment industry. The focus will beon the new challenges and on the business ofcross border pension payments with all mainrelated aspects to identify ways to get themost out of the opportunities. Networkingwith specialist colleagues in Eurogiro memberinstitutions will be of key importance as well.

At the Think-Tank meeting members will be • updated on the recent information on

industry conditions & market trends andclarify the opportunities of the growingpension market in Europe and the advan-tages (and limitations of) the Eurogiroservices related to pension payments,herein product offerings and memberexperiences

• given an opportunity to influence theEurogiro service offering and develop-ment for pension payments

• given unique possibilities to create a net-work across the Eurogiro partnershipbetween people within the area of pen-sions and share ideas with counterparts inother Eurogiro member institutions

By attending a focused session on a highpotential growth area with counterparts inEurogiro partner institutions it is likely to be animportant catalyst to enhance business opportu-nities in the member organisations. Registrationby members directly to Eurogiro Network,Kai Thygesen, email: kai@eurogiro.com FAX +45 4371 2662, no admission fee.

Eurogiro Reminder

STP is defined as correct IBAN and BICEurogiro follows the new definition of Straight Through Processing in Europe, with effectfrom 1 July 2003: credits must have correct and validated IBAN and BIC.

EU and the European Central Bank stipulate the use of IBAN and BIC for STP credittransfers. All members must be able to accept and forward transactions with IBAN and BIC.

The European Committee for Banking Standards (ECBS) and the organisation forInternational Standards (ISO) are behind the structure of all bank account numbers:International Bank Account Number – IBANS.W.I.F.T. issues the ISO standardised Bank Identification Code – BIC

MT-100/103 converter to be shut down 1st of November 2003For some time Eurogiro has run a converter that allowed the old 100 message type to beprocessed as the new 103 message type. As of 1st of November 2003 only the 103 messagetype will be accepted according to the general agreements. All necessary changes must beimplemented prior to this date.

Turkish PTT joins the TMO

Why does Turkish PTT want tojoin the new Tele Money Order(TMO) project?

■ “We have commercial and technicalreasons for this. For over 50 years TurkishPTT has been offering normal internationalMoney Order services to its clients. Inaddition, we are planning to offer the WesternUnion urgent cash product in the near future.

The TMO is a product between urgent cashand traditional Money Order and it will be analternative to the traditional Money Order,which is losing its share of the market. TheTMO is sent from sender to beneficiary withintwo days and we do not have to advice the beneficiary as the sender will provide himwith pick-up information. In addition havingtrack and trace functionality the TMO is a

better quality product than the traditionalmoney order. The TMO service is suitable forthe customers who do not expect highurgency with its medium price and speed.

So, from the commercial point of view itshould be very profitable to be able to offerthis product.

From a technical point of view, Turkish PTThas 700 computerised post offices all overTurkey. Money Orders can be sent to thesepost offices electronically whether they aresent via Eurogiro or by e-mail to our exchangeoffice by the issuing countries.

For the above mentioned reasons Turkish PTTexpressed an interestin the implementa-tion of a two dayproduct with highcoverage”.

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