The Hub In-branch

A financial services proposition.

Digital technologies are changing the way we pay for things and therefore the underlying issuance and payment ecosystem. A wide range of new EMV form factors, including mobile smartphones, are increasing the number of payment mechanism in the market. As a result the requirement to personalise and issue these EMV form factors will increase and the removal of cash accelerate.

In addition, ‘over-the-air’ technologies have created a change in requirements to meet the PCI DSS security compliance rules for EMV, where these rules might have focussed on the physical environment and the payment terminal, now also required for 'over-the-air' data transfer. 

The Hub in-branch 4P solution:

Using The Hub in-branch solution a customer can walk out of a branch with a new or updated personalised EMV card issued from an unattended payment terminal (UPT) or attended counter service. All he has to do is submit or "state know your customer" (KYC) personal details and wait a further 1 minutefor the terminal to process and vend a card. This is known as in-market instant issuance and compares to a potential 14 days wait to receive the same card from a more traditional Bureau service who centralise the process and physically fulfil. 

This solution is achievable by deploying The Hub platform and a select set of EMV pre-accredited software applications. The Hub platform can remotely and securely manage card issuance, payment, products and promotions activity with all networked (fixed or over the air) programmable devices. It also manages both encrypted and unencrypted data processing from a globally recognised and 24/7 secure data hosting centre inclusive of the necessary HSM secure cryptoprocessor.

The Hub has software product categories built around '4Ps' personalisation, products, promotion and payment. We believe these are the key components of successful online multi-channel commerce. Each software product category has a wide range of software services available to it from open source technology and a global repository of prebuilt components. This scalable and flexible open source approach facilitates customisation and/or integration with other platforms. 

The Hub platform, products and services are predominantly sold under what is referred to as a PaaS (standing for Platform as a Service) offer. This reflects the fact that we have pre-existing software (and often integrated hardware) solutions available to be deployed immediately. Although customisation is nearly always required it is thought that up to 80% of the set up costs can be removed and speed to market is  increased.

The Hub in-branch added value options:

• The Hub platform manages attended and/or unattended terminals for in-market EMV card issuance and personalisation. 
• New EMV form factors e.g. smartphones, chip-embedded paper or wristbands can all be personalised in-branch.
• The Hub platform can remotely download and manage multi-applications to the form factor chip enabling many added value options (e.g. My accounts, savings, credit cards, loans, insurance, travel, bill payment) all via The Hub in-branch solution.
• The Hub platform currently supports other multi-channel solutions in-transit, in-retail, in-hospitality and on campus as well as in-branch. These are all locations that could also provide financial services via the Hub platform and partners.

The Hub in-branch benefits:

In-market instant issuance is cheaper than centralised bureau issuance, especially on shorter runs. It is more likely to sell as it is more convenient being in-market and deliverable on demand. Ultimately, it is providing better customer service offering instant issuance with other applications, all of which can be remotely managed by The Hub platform.