Vincent Jansen, Innopay: E-mandates - customers want it, lets not waste an opportunity for innovation

Vincent Jansen is a specialist on e-mandates and senior consultant at Innopay, an independent consulting firm, specialised in payments and related transaction services. The company`s mission is to improve the transaction services industry in close, open collaboration with stakeholders.

First of all, why are e-mandates relevant to SEPA?
That’s simple: the market asks for it. Creditors want to get rid of the paper mandates in which their customers authorize them to debit their accounts for e.g. utility, telecom and content services. The SDD rule book leaves it to the creditor

So, is this why you are organizing this first European e-mandates day in Brussels 15 January?
Yes. We are worried that the community is not seizing this opportunity for innovation for offering truly new services on the basis of the SEPA infrastructure. The good news is that there is serious demand for e-mandates by large billers and the e-commerce sector. Currently we see a few isolated initiatives in different SEPA countries. Therefore we risk fragmentation ‘on top of’ the newly realized SEPA infrastructure. Also we see a limited sense of urgency, while pressure is mounting from the SEPA end-date. Customers want to know what is coming.

This led us to create a learning experience for the wide range of stakeholders in the e-mandates challenges and opportunities. We organize this day for billers, banks, vendors and experts in the field of payments, law and e-identity.

What is the problem in every country building their specific solution?
No problem per se. Although the main philosophy behind SEPA is that it will become easier for merchants and billers to organize their cross-border cash management, based on the same standard infrastructure. Fragmentation does not add to this goal.

The e-mandates day is scoped on accelerating the insights around interoperability of these different e- mandate solutions. Besides e-mandates, we see opportunities for value added services on top of e-mandates, like document signing and archiving. After all, e-mandates are a specific form of digital signing, which bring e-mandates fully in the domain of e-identity.

What is a good e-mandate service?
A good e-mandate solution balances the requirements of two user groups for this service: the end-users and the biller. For end-users it should be easy to use, yet secure, while billers look for operational gains through a smooth adoption by end-users. The interests are lined up when properly designed. Banks and other service providers have a great opportunity here. There is value to be created.

Our goal is not to develop the silver bullet during this day, but we want to bring knowledge and solutions together and help actors with ideas, inspiration and networking. That is why we organise the major part of the e-mandates day in an unconference format. We have some ideas of the ‘trending topics’ but we want to leave room for unexpected input and insights during this special day.

What will you do during this day?
Firstly, there will be four keynote speakers that will set the stage for all delegates. We will start with a large biller, who will explain what they expect from e-mandates. After all, they have the need the industry is trying to fulfil. Next to myself, Hans Graux of time.lex will give views on digital signing from the legal and regulatory perspective. Francis de Roeck of BNP Paribas will represent the view of the European Payment Council, the originator of the SEPA Direct Debit and the related e-mandate.

The second part of the day will be according to the ‘unconference format’, allowing for anyone to bring up a topic of relevance to the audience. The program will be made up spontaneously on the spot, thereby allowing for any participant to host a 45 minutes session. These sessions are ‘advertised’ on the spot at the plenary group. After three rounds of unconference the plenary group convenes again and the essentials of each session are summarized and follow-up actions are noted. More information on this format can be found here

What will delegates take home?
The e-mandates day will help stakeholders better chart their course for the coming 18 months. It would not surprise me when we get a clearer picture on what is happening in the e-mandate field and some form of roadmap. Maybe we’ll even organize another e-mandates day later in the year.