The possibility to pay for purchases made on Internet using one's online banking application may increase consumers' confidence in electronic payments, something the European associations of on-line merchants are also hoping for.
In this scenario, innovative solutions that can be easily integrated with e-commerce sites undoubtedly represent a key factor.
SIA is making a substantial contribution to the development and spread of new payment methods at pan-European level through technology infrastructures that can be accessed by financial institutions, businesses and PA bodies. More specifically, to support EBA Clearing's MyBank initiative, SIA has created E-Convergence, a platform that permits banks to offer, as of now, Italian and European consumers and merchants this new e-payment tool, thus minimizing the impact on their IT systems and facilitating both activation and operability.
E-Convergence not only enables the processing of e-commerce payments by allowing communication among the various players, it also constitutes the basis to start up other innovative services, such as e-Mandate, which will replace the current paper-format orders for the direct debiting of bills and mobile payments, playing an increasingly central role in the banks' offering of innovative solutions. These new interoperable services at European level will make use of MyBank's centralized directory - managed by SIA on behalf of EBA Clearing - which contains the electronic addresses of all the subscribing banks. In addition, SIA has developed a virtual POS application merchant-side that permits online merchants to accept MyBank in addition to the traditional tools. Purchasers simply click on the icon to start-up the payment by choosing their own bank and connecting directly to their personal home banking application.