The Swiss EBICS Working Group intends to put forward its ideas,
particularly on order types, in September. This was one of the main
results of the EBICS Working Group meeting held on 28 August. For the
first time since the start of the German-French EBICS cooperation, the
event was held in Switzerland. The reason is that Switzerland is
preparing for its participation in the EBICS community. At the Hotel
Renaissance in Zurich, within walking distance of the Swiss applicant SIX Interbank Clearing,
experts from each of the three countries discussed the current
situation in Switzerland and the planned extension of the new payment
transaction standard.
The debate kicked off in spectacular fashion, again set off by the question
whether Switzerland should adopt Germany's order type model or the French file parameter variant (FUL/FDL) for national usage. Albert Apolloner, head of the
Swiss EBICS Working Group explored
the pros and cons of each solution from a Swiss vantage point. He
concluded in favour of the file parameter variant, which already covers
the basic demands of the Swiss financial market and is deemed more
flexible than the order type model. The German delegates outlined their
solution, whereby each transaction type can be allocated an issuer, for
example Switzerland or a larger bank.
From this discussion, the
idea arose to translate all German transaction types according to the
logic of the file parameter model. The client software developer would
then exclusively implement this logic into their clients' systems, which
would be an interesting prospect for the extension to other markets
like Switzerland, Spain,
Portugal
and other candidates. In order to minimise costs on the part of the
German institutions (familiar three-figure order types are currently
passed on to the late processing stages), a mapping in the bank computer
products could be a feasible solution. The transaction type AZV would
then become "pain.xxx.azv", for example. In combination with the country
code and the so-called "name/value pair", the requirements of each
country and even other characteristics of major market players could be
covered, for example the feature "This file has the specification Credit
Suisse".
Unsurprisingly, the idea was not exactly met with a
storm of enthusiasm on the German side. As a prospective vision for
EBICS harmonisation, however, such a migration is not entirely
inconceivable. During implementation, both models could surely continue
to operate as standard for a transitional period. New markets would
directly settle on the more universal FUL/FDL variant, to their own
advantage.
In the second part of the conference, the issue of
security was broached, in which Germany and France also have different
approaches. Alain Hiltgen (UBS) suggested that there should be a
recommendation in the EBICS Implementation Guide for using security
tokens for retention of keys and certificates.
After lunch, Sabine
Wenzel (SIZ) introduced the Swiss attendees with the EBICS community,
the organisation and the decision-making processes for prospective
expansion. According to the current plan, until the end of November 2014
it will be possible to submit a change request for the 2.6 release (to
be put in effect in 2016). The Swiss Working Group intends to meet again
in September to put forward further ideas, particularly on order types.
Ideally, this can then already be discussed at the next conference of
the international EBICS Working Group in Paris in November.
Conclusion:
A very interesting forum for all EBICS enthusiasts. It left us with the
impression that another player added to the team provides an additional
boost to the further development of EBICS. More to follow.
Carsten Miehling
