De Volksbank is the fourth largest bank in the Netherlands, and will be one of the first Dutch banks to offer instant payments to its clients which are supported by the Instant Payments Back-Office Processing service of equensWorldline. The contract will initially be for five years.

De Volksbank is a Dutch holding which has four distinctively positioned customer-oriented bank brands: ASN Bank, BLG Wonen, RegioBank and SNS. The bank announced last December that equensWorldline had been selected as their instant payments Clearing & Settlement Mechanism partner. De Volksbank has now additionally chosen the Instant Payments Back-Office Processing service from equensWorldline.

De Volksbank will use a software version (software-as-a-service [SaaS] model) for their instant payments service. The instant payments service is part of the extensive and modular Back-Office Processing product portfolio of equensWorldline, which also handles other payment types such as SEPA, high-value and multi-currency payments. This modular EPC and PSD2 compliant portfolio can be used by any bank, large or small.

"With the rapidly changing customer demands and an accelerating digitalization of the payments arena, going along with the development into a global end-to-end real-time and technically standardized payments world, banks are now seriously investigating the introduction of a new business and operational model for their payments processing business", explains Michael Steinbach, CEO of equensWorldline SE. "Because of the massive investment needs for establishing an end-to-end real-time infrastructure, sourcing models for payments processing become a viable solution for banks of all size, lowering costs, reducing complexity and freeing up resources. We are very proud that de Volksbank chose equensWorldline to be their preferred provider for processing instant payments transactions on a five-year contract basis."

"We selected the Instant Payments Back-Office Processing service, because equensWorldline offers outstanding value for money, a fast time to market and has a track record in offering demanding and critical services", added Terry Smit, Manager Payments & Savings at de Volksbank. "Next to the simple and transparent price structure, we value the modular and future-proof concept of services. With this flexibility we can focus on items where we really can make a difference to our clients.”