Knab’s expansion of Back-Office Processing partnership reduces complexity and promotes growth

In a rapidly evolving market that can be complicated to traverse effectively, having a stable, well-positioned partner is key to reducing complexity and empowering development. In a recent press release, the extension of the partnership between Knab and Worldline was announced, cementing the relationship as positive and forward-thinking.

In addition to the existing instant payments back-office service, Worldline will now facilitate back-office processing for handling SEPA Batch and multi-currency payments over a seven-year contract. "Having such a trustworthy and recognised partner is key," says Ronald van der Horst, Product Owner Online Payments at Knab. "It makes processes much easier knowing that professional and effective support and discussion are always there."

This reliability in performance, stability and communication has been reflected throughout the ongoing relationship, fostering a positive, forward-thinking and closely aligned collaboration that supports and empowers Knab's development and growth.

Ronald van der Horst,

Product Owner Online Payments at Knab

Reducing complexity and supporting innovation

Staying relevant in the financial market with such a broad range of changes, such as the benefits of open banking, open finance and digital currencies, is a significant challenge. It's also becoming increasingly crucial for collaboration through meaningful partnerships to be at the forefront of business decisions.

Increasingly, financial institutions have to balance customer value and demands with new and emerging processes and technologies and the added regulation and complexity that comes with them. As a result, making critical business decisions and taking the time for a thorough market assessment can be difficult. As Ronald suggests, standardisation through outsourcing to a single trusted partner can help cut this complexity.

"Outsourcing to a single vendor removes several overheads and simplifies work for a number of our operational departments. It means we can be more efficient – if there are issues or major changes that need to be made, for instance, rulebook changes, then we only need to align with a single partner and not multiple for different services."

Recognising market needs

Worldline has supported Knab in some of its most pressing market needs by providing the instant payments service. The needs and wishes of customers are changing in the digital world; therefore, Knab must remain at the forefront of innovation and product offerings. "This is why we engage in meaningful partnerships," says Ronald. "We need to ensure that we can adapt to changing needs and the evolving market. By partnering, some of the burdens that come with being a SEPA bank have been removed, enabling us to focus on developing differentiators and adding value for our customers."

By furthering the partnership, Knab is placing itself in an excellent spot to meet customer demand both now and in the future. Offering specialised banking services or developing products that provide added value requires resources - something that outsourcing services can free up and streamline.

Why Worldline?

When selecting a partner to outsource critical services to, it's essential to choose the right partnership for many reasons. "For Knab, Worldline is the perfect partner as we develop our offerings," says Ronald. "They are a trusted partner that knows banking in the Netherlands like no other – this market knowledge and a broad range of experience makes it easy for us to work closely in collaboration with them to identify the areas in which we can best benefit from their future-proof solutions."

With Worldline, things are less complex. Offering multiple services and inter-connected solutions makes them flexible and a reliable banking partner. Beyond practical aspects, cultural fit and shared vision is also key to the success of many partnerships and collaborations in the financial world and beyond.

“Key to our decision has been the close cultural fit between Worldline and Knab," says Ronald. "This is important as it makes everything smoother, from communication and implementation to support, general discussion and incident handling. Worldline knows what they can offer and ensure we know what we can count on them for, without approaching it from a sales perspective. This has been truly valued throughout the entire relationship."

Learn more about our Payments Processing Back-Office solution

So, where are we today?

The FSB will publish in November 2022 an update on its planned framework for monitoring progress toward the G20 targets for cross-border payments. The targets have been set to motivate progress along the roadmap. In terms of concrete progress, Victoria suggested that results can be difficult to quantify, stating that:

"The targets themselves come into effect in 2027, but clearly we need to be working now in order to meet them, so right now, I can’t provide any quantitative feel for how far along the track we are.”

However, in terms of the overall roadmap, Victoria noted that progress toward future goals has been evident, with positivity on the horizon.

“The Bank of International Settlement published a new progress report today, with several actions completed. These actions alone are not enough, although we see real tangible success. Next steps will be moving to ISO20022, increased access to systems and industry cooperation. ISO20022 is crucial to progress, as is interoperability.”

In an audience poll, transparency was voted as the audience’s most critical point to address, further highlighting this aspect. Additionally, Chris Jameson suggested several additional areas where attention is needed.

"Equally important, I think, is the stability, safety and security, and resiliency of the financial systems and payments infrastructure we all leverage today. Compliance and sanctions screening are essential to achieving that. Still, they're also very, very fractious and cause a lot of pain points for commercial banks and the underlying users of the payment."

Throughout the Sibos discussion, the importance of strong coordination, commitment and accountability was reinforced by all three speakers. In their parting words, all three indicated that these will be critical to success.

“Building collaboration should be the key focus for us all, which needs global economic interoperability,"suggested Chris. "So, we have to have interoperability between the various systems, the tools, the schemes, the banks and commercial banks. Without that, we will not get there."

This view was supplemented by Ritu Jutla, who suggested that: "We've talked about other means to address the challenges, but until we break that (collaboration) barrier, I think it will be, you know, a significant challenge to move as far forward as we need to without that global view. And that harmonisation effort."

This final note on harmonisation was echoed once again by a second audience poll. In it, the audience responded that the biggest barrier to improving cross-border payments was harmonisation of regulatory and supervisory frameworks. This must come through taking shared responsibility and the momentum that comes from international cooperation and interoperability.

From our side, Worldline is highly committed to contribute to the G20 targets by migrating Clearing & Settlement Mechanisms (CSMs) from batch to instant, by providing SWIFT gpi services to banks and corporates, and actively contributing to existing and future cross-border industry initiatives like International Payments Frameworks.