By entering into these partnerships, they are among the first banks in the Netherlands to take active steps towards offering eMandates to businesses and consumers. eMandates are the electronic version of direct-debit mandates and will eventually replace the traditional paper process. Consumers can use eMandates to online authorise companies via their online bank environment to debit their account using secure methods. The introduction of the eMandates product meets the growing market demand for conducting business online as much as possible, as well as being in line with the digitisation trend in payments and identification.

In order to facilitate eMandates, Equens developed a future-proof commerce transactions routing platform as part of its strategy to support as many different channels as possible (including Point-of-Sale, web and mobile). The platform Equens developed for eMandate transactions will soon also be equipped to process other types of transaction flows, such as iDEAL payments and digital identity transactions.

The cooperating Dutch banks have agreed on the standard to be used for eMandates, in order to accelerate and facilitate the collection and management of direct-debit mandates for consumers and businesses in a secure manner. By mid-2015, consumers will be able to issue the first eMandates, via a user-friendly process that works similar to iDEAL payments.

Marlies van Elst, General Manager Marketing & Sales: "The world of payments is rapidly changing. We are aware of the complexity faced by financial institutions due to the arrival of new technologies and payment products. With our new, future-proof routing platform, we are helping our clients to effectively respond to new trends and developments. Our platform is equipped to process a variety of European solutions and payment schemes, including eMandates, iDEAL, e-ID and MyBank."