Double Win for Vocalink at the 2017 Payments Awards

Vocalink, a Mastercard company, was last night awarded with two prestigious awards - The Overall Winner and the Payments Infrastructure of the Year Award, for its leading technology and expertise, and in recognition for a milestone year that saw Vocalink’s solutions transform the way people and businesses move money across the globe.

2017 saw Vocalink deliver ground-breaking immediate payments solutions both in the US and Thailand as well as enabling access to the UK payments industry through their payments gateway solution PayPort. The business also saw the launch of the new image based cheque clearing system, creating a robust and more efficient system in the UK.

RTP ^® in the US: This week, Vocalink announced the launch of RTP^® (Real-Time Payments) in the US on behalf of The Clearing House; one of the most comprehensive real-time payment systems ever created globally that is expected to transform the U.S. payments landscape. Set to empower consumers and businesses to send and receive immediate payments domestically, financial processes that used to take days can now be concluded in seconds. Two banks – U.S. Bank and BNY Mellon – have completed the first live transactions. At its core, the technology behind The Clearing House’s RTP system is an evolution of Vocalink’s highly successful and reliable systems developed for the U.K., Singapore and Thailand. These real-time solutions sit at the centre of the global payments infrastructure and have been designed to ‘run on their own rails’, working alongside and between conventional settlement systems. The TCH system operates 24/7 to process credit transfers, requests for payment, requests for information, confirmation messages, returned and rejected payments and system and service related messages. It also integrates support for multiple transaction channels, including online and mobile.

PromptPay in Thailand: Earlier this year, Vocalink had unprecedented success with the launch of PromptPay in Thailand that went live on the 21 January 2017. Created for Thailand’s main interbank payments provider, already 36.2 million Thai citizens have signed up to PromptPay (more than half the population) with 47.3 million payments already made and 23 banks signed up. Billions of Thai Baht flow through the PromptPay service, of which over a quarter has been the transfer of benefit payments from the government to people. At present the system is handling in excess of 35,000 transactions per day. The launch of real-time payments is a breakthrough for Thailand and part of a government-led strategy to bring 21st century banking services to all communities in Thailand. PromptPay will accelerate adoption of mobile payments, address financial inclusion and support the expansion of Thailand’s burgeoning digital economy. At the same time, it will reduce Thailand’s reliance on a physical banking infrastructure and cash. For the banks, the provision of an adaptor has greatly reduced the cost of entry to real-time payments.

Paul Stoddart, CEO, Vocalink, a Mastercard company:

“We are delighted to have been recognised by the industry for what has been a milestone year for Vocalink. Working with The Clearing House, RTP^® is a best-in-class, functionally rich system capable of meeting the demands of today’s U.S. economy while building a system robust enough and flexible enough for further innovation. In Thailand, PromptPay has been an outstanding success that is now revolutionising payments for the country’s 60m population offering them access to instant payments via mobile, online and ATM channels for the first time. At home, we have supported the up and coming challenger banks, such as Starling Bank and financial institutions through our payment gateway product PayPort, which helps to facilitate a level playing field between established financial institutions and challengers, enabling immediate payments for all kinds of Payment Service Providers (PSPs).”

Vocalink, a Mastercard company was also recognised for the successful project delivery of all of its innovative world-class payment solutions in the back-drop of ambitious timescales and the need to resolve a range of significant challenges, such as different messaging standards and banking practices, with new innovations and creative solutions - including the new cheque clearing system that was launched last month.

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About Vocalink

A Mastercard company, Vocalink designs, builds and operates industry-leading bank account-based payment systems. Our technologies power the UK’s real-time payments, settlements and direct debit systems, as well as the UK’s network of over 70,000 ATMs. In 2016, we processed over 90 percent of salaries, more than 70 percent of household bills and almost all state benefits in the UK. In addition, our proven real-time bank account-based payment solutions provide more payment choice to customers in Singapore, Thailand and the United States. For payment news and insight from Vocalink visit CONNECT - http://connect.Vocalink.com/

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Contact information

Seven Consultancy
Emma Harvey
emma@seven-consultancy.com
or
Vocalink
Ellie Fixter
Senior Content and PR Manager
ellie.fixter@vocalink.com