Clear2Pay assists British Transport Organisation ITSO with set up of Certification Centre in the United Kingdom

 

Brussels, 25 August 2011 – Clear2Pay, the international technology provider of next generation payment solutions for financial institutions, today announces that it is supporting ITSO,  the government-backed, not-for-profit organisation which defines and develops the UK-wide technical specification for smart ticketing, with the implementation of a Certification Centre in the United Kingdom. Clear2Pay will also provide further consultancy services to ITSO and deliver Integri Test Solutions to their vendor community.

ITSO has relied on Clear2Pay’s test technology and knowledge and used the company’s in-house laboratory to certify the ITSO vendor community since 2003. Under the terms of the new contract, Clear2Pay facilitates knowledge transfer so that ITSO can operate its own testing and certification centre. This centre, operational since July, enables  ITSO Members and third party vendors to certify transport smart cards and devices against the prevailing specifications. Building on years of ITSO expertise, Clear2Pay will continue to provide Test Tools and Services to vendors, helping them to perform a straightforward pre-certification of their equipment.

The UK’s Department for Transport’s Smart and Integrated Ticketing Strategy sets a vision for British passengers to travel with tickets stored on smart cards or mobile devices. This paperless public transport infrastructure is expected to deliver many benefits for UK travelers, such as faster boarding times, reduced queuing, and increased public transport use, among other things.

The British Government is committed to delivering, with operators and public sector bodies, the infrastructure to enable most public transport journeys to be undertaken using smart ticketing by December 2014. ITSO, which is part funded by the Government, plays a very important part in achieving this vision. A growing number of ITSO-compliant smart ticketing schemes are in operation or development across England, and the Scottish and Welsh national schemes are already ITSO-compliant. With ITSO now shifting to a higher gear, the need for a UK Certification Centre is imperative.

Michael Leach, Chief Executive Officer at ITSO, states: “ITSO and its supplier community have been very well served by Clear2Pay in Belgium, but it is time to bring these services in-house so that we can have a closer relationship with our expanding transport service community and help them and the Government achieve their goals.”.

Marie Costers, Head of the Test Tools Competence Centre at Clear2Pay, comments: “It is simply great to work with a company which plays such a vital role in the public transport industry. ITSO has been working with Clear2Pay’s Technology and Test Services since many years. Today, we are absolutely thrilled to be instrumental in facilitating the UK infrastructure that offers seamless travel services to British citizens.”

Clear2Pay is a payments modernisation company that actively supports many global financial institutions to meet their payments unification goals through its pure SOA Open Payment Framework (OPF).  Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, the company facilitates banks and financial organisations in their provision of payments services, whether they be Card, ACH, Branch, Bulk, High Care or International payment transactions. Clear2Pay's innovative technology helps to reduce transactions processing costs, and to deliver new, compelling payment services in a competitive way. Functions embrace payments origination, reporting, linkage with back-office processing systems, clearing, netting and settlement. In addition the company offers a range of value added payment technology solutions and services such as e-Banking, the Integri Open Test Platform, ChargeBack, Strategic Consultancy and Payments Training through a dedicated Academy. Clients include global and major regional financial institutions such as ING, Banco Santander, Crédit Agricole, VISA, MasterCard, BNP Paribas, The Federal Reserve, NETS (Denmark), The People Bank of China (PBOC), Bank of East Asia, Rabobank, The Co-operative Financial Services and Commonwealth Bank. Clear2Pay operates out of Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, United Kingdom, United States, Australia, China, Malaysia and Singapore and currently employs over 700 staff. Recently, the company was awarded the XCelent Customer Base 2010 award for its undisputed largest payment hub customer base, both live and under implementation. For more information, please visit www.clear2pay.com