SIA Enables the Instant Payments of Banca Poplare di Sondrio
Milan, 24 October 2024 – Banca Popolare di Sondrio launches its new instant payments service aimed at its customers, private and business, thanks to SIA’s “EasyWay” digital platform directly connected to EBA Clearing’s pan-European system for instant payments, RT1.
The innovative functionality allows the entire clientele of the banking group to make instant payments in less than 10 seconds for a maximum amount currently set at €15,000. The service, active 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, is aligned with the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme (payment with immediate and irrevocable credit) of the European Payments Council (EPC).
The “SIA EasyWay” digital platform used by Banca Popolare di Sondrio operates as a “hub” simplifying the integration of instant payments with the internal systems of financial institutions, reducing costs and activation times.
This is made possible through an integrated service between Banca Popolare di Sondrio and SIA which covers the entire value chain of the payment: from the order via all the channels used by banks and payment service providers – for example mobile and internet – to the handling and processing of transactions, right up to network connections to access EBA Clearing’s RT1 infrastructure, the Eurosystem TIPS platform (the launch of which is expected by the end of 2018) and the various European Automated Clearing Houses (ACH).
“We have always paid great attention to the area of payments to offer our customers exceptional services, and so we felt it was appropriate and necessary to propose instant payments to them”, commented Milo Gusmeroli, Deputy General Director and CIO of Banca Popolare di Sondrio. “In creating our service, we called on the collaboration of SIA for a number of reasons, certainly including functional and technological know-how, as well as the guaranteed service levels. All this without forgetting to focus our attention on integration in the core operating systems in question, in addition to the so-called front-end, to improve the user experience of the customer”.
“We are especially proud to have created instant payments for Banca Popolare di Sondrio, supporting their leadership in innovation in a sector undergoing transformation such as that of electronic payments”, said Roberta Gobbi, Director of SIA’s Financial Institutions Division. “Through our digital platform, to date still the most widely used in the Italian bank market, the banking group was able to get the new instant payments service up and running in just three months to all its private and business customers. This represents the beginning of a path of revitalization undertaken by Banca Popolare di Sondrio in the payments area which SIA will support with its technological competences, infrastructures and services”.
Banca Popolare di Sondrio is a joint-stock cooperative company - founded in 1871, with headquarters in Sondrio, Piazza Garibaldi 16, and is the holding company of the banking group of the same name.
The Banca Popolare di Sondrio banking group is composed of the holding company and the following subsidiaries: Banca Popolare di Sondrio (SUISSE) SA, a banking company governed by Swiss law with headquarters in Lugano (Switzerland);
Factorit Spa, operating in advance payment, in collecting trade receivables and relative services with headquarters in Milan;
Banca della Nuova Terra Spa, a company operating in serving and supporting the agricultural and agri-food sectors as well as offering services to families and private individuals, including salary-and-pension-deducted loans, with headquarters in Sondrio;
PrestiNuova Spa, a financial brokerage company operating in synergy with Banca della Nuova Terra in the sector of salary-and-pension-deducted loans, with headquarters in Rome;
Sinergia Seconda Srl, a business property firm, with headquarters in Milan;
Popso Covered Bond Srl, a special purpose company serving the issuance programme of covered bonds, with headquarters in Conegliano near Treviso.
Of its subsidiaries, Pirovano Stelvio Spa, a modern hotel facility at the Stelvio Pass operating in the field of summer skiing, is particularly worthy of mention.
The consolidated balance for the 2017 financial year of the Banca Popolare di Sondrio banking group indicated a net profit of € 159 million (figures approved at the shareholders’ meeting of 28 April 2024), the staff totals 3,249, while the territorial network consists of 363 branches.
SIA is European leader in the design, creation and management of technology infrastructures and services for Financial Institutions, Central Banks, Corporates and the Public Sector, in the areas of payments, cards, network services and capital markets. SIA Group provides its services in over 50 countries, and also operates through its subsidiaries in Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and South Africa. The company also has branches in Belgium and the Netherlands, and representation offices in the UK and Poland.
In 2017, SIA managed 13.1 billion clearing transactions, 6.1 billion card transactions, 3.3 billion payments, 56.2 billion financial transactions and carried 784 terabytes of data on the network.
The Group, which currently has over 3,400 employees, closed 2017 with revenues of €567.2 million. For more information: www.sia.eu