BPC Banking Technologies
Encyclopedia
BPC Banking Technologies is an IT solution provider specializing in card management and e-payment solutions for the global banking industry. It claims to have more than 60 customers worldwide (as of March 2009). The company’s key offering is the SmartVista Suite – an industry acclaimed set of software products, catering for every aspect of business related to transaction processing and card management, including such value-added services as co-brand cards, loyalty and affinity schemes. The Gartner
white paper "MarketScope for Multiregional Card Management Software" ranked the company Strong Positive in July 2008.
BPC SmartVista Suite claims to be a fully functional, hot-pluggable, Open Systems solution (based on UNIX/ Linux platforms with Oracle as the backend), incorporating EMV and e-commerce with full hardware independence. The installed base of BPC transaction processing and card management solutions currently supports more than 12,000 automated teller machines, 70,000 points of sale, 22 million cards and five million transactions per day across 12 time zones.
IBM in its white paper claims that "SmartVista i" (A derivative solution for IBM i series servers) is a result of extensive collaboration between BPC and IBM experts from Russia, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.A.
BPC on its website claims that it would be able to deal with magnetic stripe card
s, both debit and credit, or EMV compliant chip cards. The basic functionality it states would include card issuing and management, merchant and terminal management, acquirer and issuer side authorization processing, transaction clearing and settlement, dispute resolution, interfaces to external card schemes, and banking systems. Products from the suite include the following -
1. SmartVista Front-End System for all on-line real-time interactions and activities required to provide fast and error-free authorization processing at both the issuer and acquirer sides.
2. SmartVista Back-Office System for off-line clearing and settlement with counter parties and payment networks; customer, card and merchant management; to interface with the core banking and other IT systems; and comprehensive reporting, both within the organization and for external parties.
3. SmartVista CardGen for magnetic and smart chip (EMV) card personalisation providing direct interfaces to card production equipment and offering the facilities for embossing data preparation, chip personalization data preparation, card security management procedures, etc.
4. SmartVista i-Card system for the complex cardholders servicing via Internet. The access to the system is performed with the use of the bank card number and a special identification code (PIC-code), which is provided to the customer at the bank branch.
5. SmartVista i-Pay provides Internet acquiring of international payment cards with the use of modern technologies and security standards for Internet payments. The system is designed for Internet merchants that trade their goods and services over the Internet. SmartVista iPay is certified by Visa and MasterCard for Internet acquiring.
6. SmartVista Fraud Prevention and Monitoring Module provides a set of mechanisms, from transaction filtering to user-defined rules technology and neural network based monitoring, to help organisations reduce losses due to lost, stolen, counterfeit or skimmed, never received and other types of card fraud.
7. SmartVista MediaExtension Module is a system providing multi channel online support of cardholders via Internet and self-service devices with the use of modern media technologies
Head office for international operations is located in Amsterdam, Regional Offices in USA, Singapore, UK, MEA, Research and Development Office in Moscow. In addition the company is represented through corporate business partners in different regions and has strong alliance relationships with industry leaders.
Gartner
Gartner, Inc. is an information technology research and advisory firm headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, United States. It was known as GartnerGroup until 2001....
white paper "MarketScope for Multiregional Card Management Software" ranked the company Strong Positive in July 2008.
Strengthening of roots
BPC’s evolution of its solution offering goes way back to the mid-90s, a time of extensive growth in the East European emerging banking sector. Confronted with fierce competition from the mature markets, financial organizations needed to transform their processes and to invest heavily in modern IT infrastructure, to stay ahead. As the importance of IT to the business was growing, the choice of a solution that would deliver the required business impact at a minimum long-term cost was becoming a strategic priority.BPC SmartVista Suite claims to be a fully functional, hot-pluggable, Open Systems solution (based on UNIX/ Linux platforms with Oracle as the backend), incorporating EMV and e-commerce with full hardware independence. The installed base of BPC transaction processing and card management solutions currently supports more than 12,000 automated teller machines, 70,000 points of sale, 22 million cards and five million transactions per day across 12 time zones.
IBM in its white paper claims that "SmartVista i" (A derivative solution for IBM i series servers) is a result of extensive collaboration between BPC and IBM experts from Russia, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.A.
Products and services
SmartVista Suite is designed to support every aspect of business related to plastic card, smart chip card and electronic payment processing.BPC on its website claims that it would be able to deal with magnetic stripe card
Magnetic stripe card
A magnetic stripe card is a type of card capable of storing data by modifying the magnetism of tiny iron-based magnetic particles on a band of magnetic material on the card...
s, both debit and credit, or EMV compliant chip cards. The basic functionality it states would include card issuing and management, merchant and terminal management, acquirer and issuer side authorization processing, transaction clearing and settlement, dispute resolution, interfaces to external card schemes, and banking systems. Products from the suite include the following -
1. SmartVista Front-End System for all on-line real-time interactions and activities required to provide fast and error-free authorization processing at both the issuer and acquirer sides.
2. SmartVista Back-Office System for off-line clearing and settlement with counter parties and payment networks; customer, card and merchant management; to interface with the core banking and other IT systems; and comprehensive reporting, both within the organization and for external parties.
3. SmartVista CardGen for magnetic and smart chip (EMV) card personalisation providing direct interfaces to card production equipment and offering the facilities for embossing data preparation, chip personalization data preparation, card security management procedures, etc.
4. SmartVista i-Card system for the complex cardholders servicing via Internet. The access to the system is performed with the use of the bank card number and a special identification code (PIC-code), which is provided to the customer at the bank branch.
5. SmartVista i-Pay provides Internet acquiring of international payment cards with the use of modern technologies and security standards for Internet payments. The system is designed for Internet merchants that trade their goods and services over the Internet. SmartVista iPay is certified by Visa and MasterCard for Internet acquiring.
6. SmartVista Fraud Prevention and Monitoring Module provides a set of mechanisms, from transaction filtering to user-defined rules technology and neural network based monitoring, to help organisations reduce losses due to lost, stolen, counterfeit or skimmed, never received and other types of card fraud.
7. SmartVista MediaExtension Module is a system providing multi channel online support of cardholders via Internet and self-service devices with the use of modern media technologies
Gartner Inc Rating
BPC’s SmartVista solution for transaction processing and card management received a “Strong Positive” rating in the leading analytical report “MarketScope for Multiregional Card Management Software, 2008” fulfilled by Gartner Inc. in July 2008.Offices Worldwide
BPC has branches and subsidiaries operating throughout Europe, in Asia Pacific, MEA and the Americas.Head office for international operations is located in Amsterdam, Regional Offices in USA, Singapore, UK, MEA, Research and Development Office in Moscow. In addition the company is represented through corporate business partners in different regions and has strong alliance relationships with industry leaders.