ibs news
IBS Journal July – August 2015
Saxo Payments signs first clients for new cross-border transfer service
Underpinned by Oracle FSS’s Flexcube core banking system, Saxo Payments has launched its cross-border transfer service and has announced First Data as the initial client. Several other clients have promptly followed, including Valitor, Tuxedo Money Solutions and Allied Wallet, and more will be announced over the next couple of months, says Saxo Payments CEO, Anders la Cour. Saxo Payments was set up in 2013 as a
subsidiary of Saxo Bank to take to market FX and payments services. It is registered as a payment institution. Its recently unveiled Saxo Payments Banking Marketplace is touted as a secure web-based platform for real-time cross-border payments at low cost and with competitive FX rates. While la Cour declines to name the correspond- ent banks that support the service, he says they are all tier one players. Saxo Payments is able to take the
service into any part of the world, says la Cour, although the focus for 2015 will be on Europe. The next geographical priori- ties have not yet been decided. While the
Anders la Cour, Saxo Payments
per transaction charge is a fraction of that of traditional cross-border options, a lot of the value is in the real-time aspect, he says. Even if the payment is not to a Marketplace participant, it should be with the receiv- er the next day. He feels it will benefit any business but that the most impact will be on SMEs, with a low cost of transaction par- ticularly important for low-value payments. There was no previous relationship with First Data but the two companies
began discussions four or five months ago. The roll-out is now being planned, says la Cour. First Data will provide the real-time cross-border capabilities to its merchants, with the expectation that sup- pliers to those clients will also open Saxo Payments accounts to facilitate reduced transfer fees, thereby helping to build out the network. La Cour feels that the offering is appli-
cable to a wide profile of participants, including card acquirers, alternative pay- ment providers such as those offering e-wallets, and prepaid card providers. There are companies matching each of these pro- files among those that have already signed up, he adds. The Flexcube platform was set up from
scratch by Oracle FSS for Saxo Payments and a key need was the ability to sup- port a high volume of global transactions, says la Cour. This is based on perceived future demand. ‘There is a huge shift in the demand from businesses of all kinds, even small companies, due to the evolution of e-commerce,’ says la Cour.
Misys lures Paris from SAP for key senior role
Misys has made a high-profile appointment, luring Simon Paris from SAP to become president and chief sales officer. His new remit is described as managing ‘the entire go-to-market organisation, including sales, marketing, pre-sales and partners’. During his eight years at SAP, Paris was global head of financial services before becom- ing president for Industry Cloud. He was widely credited with stabilising the financial services business and resolving some of the delivery issues within SAP’s large core banking system projects. Prior to SAP, he was a couple of years with McKinsey, before moving to Netdecisions and then Infor Global Solutions. Paris’ predecessor at Misys was Frank
Brienzi, who moved from Oracle in July 2013, where he had been president and general manager of the financial services global business unit for over three years.
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He left Misys in May 2015 and is now CEO at Dallas-based energy trading and risk management systems provider, Allegro. Among Paris’ challenges will be the
need to kick-start new-name sales across Misys’ core banking and treasury and capital markets suites, with these having tailed off in recent years. In particular, the market will be watching to see whether Paris can finally move the supplier’s flag- ship core banking system, Fusionbanking ( Bankfusion, as was), into the mainstream. Last year, this enigmatic Java-based sys- tem’s haul comprised the notable win at the UK’s Student Loans Company, plus others at Bank of Belize (which also took the digital banking component, Essence), and one off-the-record win at a lending specialist in Southern Europe. Since then, Yoma Bank in Myanmar and the Portuguese postal service, CTT Correios de Portugal,
© IBS Intelligence 2015
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Simon Paris, Misys
have also signed, both for Fusionbanking plus Essence. The latter taker selected the platform for its planned postal bank (see front page).
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