Special Report

February 24, 2005

Over 60 Indonesian bankers have gathered at the workshop "New Payment Technologies: Challenges and Implications" held on February 15 in Shangri-La Hotel, Jakarta, to discuss and debate the business cases for chip cards adoptions and applying new technologies to their business.

The seminar was organized by Banking Production Centre (BPC), a leading international EFT solutions provider and systems integrator, and was designed to address the latest technology developments, trends and innovations in the field of electronic payments and banking cards, with the focus on EMV-migration issues and mobile commerce.

The day assigned for the seminar started with the press conference where BPC representatives Mr. Arief Kusuma, Country Manager, and Mr. Alexey Demidov, COO BPC International, gave insights into the company's business, its international operations, regional achievements and SmartVista suite of software products designed to support a complete range of card and e-business activities of a modern financial institution. The press conference was attended by around 25 regional media, among them The Jakarta Post, Bisnis Indonesia, and many more.

The first seminar session commenced with the opening remarks of Arief Kusuma and Alexey Demidov, who welcomed the attendees, gave a short introduction of BPC and highlighted the role of new payment technologies in the modern banking industry.

Then Dave Cole, specially invited speaker from Great Britain, took the floor and addressed the main drivers behind EMV migration, as well as International Payment Schemes mandates and EMV implications for different sorts of businesses. Dave Cole, Director of consulting company Smart Direction Online Services (SD-OS), is a prominent expert in smart card technologies and EMV-migration issues. For the last few years BPC and SD-OS have been teaming up in providing EMV-consultancy and promoting SmartVista solution to the banks of the Northern Europe.

The second session was opened by Alexey Demidov who made a detailed overview of SmartVista suite of software products focusing on EMV-related features and functions. Alexey also provided a few case studies on BPC's projects aimed at deploying EMV-compliant infrastructure for major Russian and CIS banks. One more presentation delivered by Mr. Demidov was covering the evolution of e-commerce and m-commerce technologies and the relevant SmartVista functionality.

Alexey Demidov was succeeded by Mr. Reza Maspaitella, President & CEO of Valdo International, BPC's partner in Indonesia. In his speech Mr. Maspaitella highlighted a few important issues related to outsourcing of software solutions and integration services. The final part of the workshop was questions and answers session where the audience could freely communicate with the speakers and discuss their individual business cases for the new technology implementation.

Summing up, the workshop was a triumph for BPC that for the past year has been working hard to create real demand for its products and services in Indonesia. The seminar was attended by over 60 banking executives, among them IT Directors and senior managers from the leading national financial institutions such as Bank Negara, Bank Rakyat, Standard Chartered Bank, Bank Permata and many more.

The seminar has witnessed real interest of regional banks in deploying chip infrastructure to support for issuance and acquiring of EMV-compliant cards while creating additional business opportunities by combining several applications on one card. Furthermore, EMV consultancy and outsourcing of services for payment infrastructure modernization are now becoming a high priority for the majority of Indonesian banks facing International Payment Schemes' EMV compliance mandates.

EMV related issues raised during the workshop have generated considerable excitement among the mass media. Further to the editorials on the seminar published in the top Indonesian newspapers the next day, the correspondents from Bisnis Indonesia have conducted a survey among local banking associations covering EMV migration perspectives in the region. The burst of activity in the media and banking circles have repeatedly demonstrated that everybody wants to ride on top of EMV wave when it arrives.

On Wednesday 17 February a selected group of banks that have expressed their interest in learning more about SmartVista suite of products were invited to attend live product demonstrations that took place in BPC Indonesia office.

Active networking with Indonesian banks during the seminar gives serious grounds to be optimistic about the prospects of BPC's solutions in this country. Originally designed to support EMV and to run on modern platforms, built in compliance with the Open Systems approach SmartVista solution is a perfect tool for the local banks to upgrade their payment infrastructure and to support EMV standard. Recognizing the size of the Indonesian market and the potential it has to grow and develop, BPC is further strengthening its local office to provide for effective negotiations with the banks in the region and involvement in the key processing centre modernization bids.