CASE STUDY: AcceptEmail - SEPA E-MANDATES

Direct Debit in the Netherlands

Direct Debit is popular in The Netherlands, with over 1.3 billion transactions annually, on a population of 17 million. Mandates are generated via internet by tapping a radio button, via phone with a voice log and on paper with a form and handwritten signature. Officially only the paper mandate is legal, the others have been tolerated by a/o the banks for many years. With the advent of SEPA this toleration ends in order to comply with European legislation. Yet paper is no option for many Dutch companies, due to the high handling costs, non-fit into existing processes, long turn-around times and fear of increased customer churn. Companies are convinced the cost of collection will increase.

The planning of the Dutch banks is to release an e-mandate service earliest 2nd half of 2015. This is too late, since most companies are now working on making their systems and processes SEPA-ready and have to make decisions and take action on mandates too.

Re-using existing proven technology

Many larger companies in The Netherlands utilize the AcceptEmail service for their initial billing, bounced direct debits, reminders and promises-to-pay. Customers in insurance, publications and energy requested AcceptEmail to add a new product to the existing service platform for e-mandates. We analysed the SEPA rulebook, the fit with the current value proposition, the necessary investments and the potential market with help of an experienced consultancy firm. We decided to develop the e-Mandate service, whereby the fact that this is a customer-driven development based on a market demand also played an important role. We were able to re-use our existing and proven technology in electronic bill presentment and payment in developing AcceptEmail Mandates.

AcceptEmail Mandates

The service is built on the same principles we believe strongly in for our e-billing service:

•  No registration whatsoever is necessary by the debtor, making the service low-entry. No client software required; Software as a Service on our mission critical, highly secured and certified (ISO 27001-2) platform.
• Consumer preferred communication channels – e-mail, online, mobile. We use our dynamic status indicator and the AcceptEmail banner as a server-hosted, secure banner based on Smartpix technology. The AcceptEmail banner carries the essential transaction data and provides both debtor and creditor with the real-time status of the mandate.
• Re-use existing online banking credentials as mentioned in the SEPA Rulebook to authenticate the debtor and enable him to digitally sign the mandate. An online transfer of one cent is used to derive and verify the debtors’ name and his (IBAN) account number.

Market Introduction

The service was put live on May 1st 2013 and functions well according expectations from day one. We are in the process of implementing the first customers, whereby we ensure that the data integration part with the creditors (traditionally one of our strengths) is made hassle-free.
The first customers have already contributed in several service improvements such as:

• Re-use the unique transaction code of the one cent payment as MRI and report this back to the creditor. This releases the creditor from the burden of creating an MRI in their systems.
• Instead of the one cent, make the first payment (down payment, period, subscription) according to the contract, so that the creditor does not have to wait for the first payment and avoids potential flaws with the First and Recurring direct debit

Banks have requested to be informed of any mandates provided. We cater for this in two ways; either by sending the banks the full Mandate Acceptance Reports in XML or in signed PDF or by generating a code that explains the core characteristics of the mandate. So whether this is a one-off or recurring direct debit, fixed or open amount, etc. This code is made available to the banks within existing free text description fields.

Expansion into SEPA region

AcceptEmail Mandates is prepared to go international right from the start. We aim for market introductions in the UK, Germany, Belgium and Spain later this year. We are open for partnering internationally with software vendors, system integrators, fulfilment companies and financial institutions.

 About Peter Kwakernaak, CEO, AcceptEmail

Peter Kwakernaak is CEO of AcceptEmail since 2008. AcceptEmail provides an electronic bill presentment and payment service via e-mail and mobile for business to consumer and business to small business. Before AcceptEmail, Peter founded and held management functions in various companies on the edge of IT and banking. Peter was Chief Commercial Officer of NetEconomy, a Dutch software company providing solutions in risk and compliancy for AML and fraud detection for financial institutions.

 COMPANY PROFILE

AcceptEmail provides a comprehensive B2C e-billing & payment service (SaaS) based on e-mail and mobile media. AcceptEmail is suitable for initial invoices, reminders, promises-to-pay, bounced direct debits and issuing SEPA direct debit mandates. The service is used by large - and medium size companies in utilities, telecom, insurance, retail, publishing, travel and government.