03.07. Detalle

The INNOBANK project aims to market validate new competitive services with a view to implement an intelligent new office branch thanks to new technologies, which may enable enhanced, more secure and user-freedom oriented bank services at the main banking partners in the creation and deployment of new financial services.

The INNOBANK project aims to market validate new competitive services with a view to implement an intelligent new office branch thanks to new technologies, which may enable enhanced, more secure and user-freedom oriented bank services at the main banking partners in the creation and deployment of new financial services.

The main objective of INNOBANK market validation phase is therefore to carry out under real market conditions a full market validation of new banking services with a view to evaluating the possibility of future deployment by the INNOBANK banking partners across Europe.

The INNOBANK new services are based on the integration of an array of new but mature enough technologies and procedures, including among them:

• Intelligent paper-free office services. The introduction of new technologies may make possible to create new competitive services, such as electronic invoicing-based factoring and confirming services as well as to handle documents electronically, improving security and diminishing paper files.
• Wireless technologies, implementing secure access to banking systems. This may consist in an upper level of security for any service that requires strong authentication of end-users, such as access through Wireless LANs.
• More secure cash management in the ATM: new procedures, solutions and technologies may be applied to allow the deployment of ATMs in non-secure locations (such as railway stations) and open to non traditional bank clients.
• As well as embedded biometrics technologies in order to obtain a reliable, user-friendly way of identification and authentication that may be used by the bank employees and also financial services to be used by means of mobile terminals.

Foreseen INNOBANK market validation activities through pilots involving users in real life conditions will be focussed on the following elements:

• Demonstration/Pilots of the proposed services in two Member States (Intelligent paper-free office services in Spain under the lead and responsibility of La Caixa, and Wireless and ATMs in non-secure locations in Belgium under the lead and responsibility of FORTIS).
• Dissemination of the new services. Dissemination among the banking sector is assured by the collaboration of the European Savings Bank Group.
• Feedback documented by the project from the user population, thanks to the definition and review of user requirements.
• Drafting of a deployment and exploitation plan of the tested services.
• Full business plan outlining main works to be carried out, timing and corresponding financing for the tested services.

During the market validation phase of INNOBANK project, the security and privacy policies of the present Member States will also be studied and a checklist of privacy and security issues will be followed in the pilots to be implemented. This task will be an innovation in Europe because no service as important as banking has as yet tried a security and privacy policy fulfilling legal requirements of many countries (and EC). The project will take into account the legal status on privacy and security in target countries (and others) and relevant EC directives (data protection, authentication and security in financial transaction). The results of this activity will pave the way for a potential future deployment of INNOBANK secure and user-freedom oriented services in other Member States.

The strategic objective of this market validation is to validate a set of new services and technologies, which may become the solution for future scenarios of finance and additional services in a highly competitive international market (i.e. enlarged Europe, USA, and Japan). In this sense, the results of the project may help obtain a set of innovative banking services to conceptually prototype an intelligent new branch office, combining the foreseen secure and user-freedom oriented services. This new branch concept will be based on key socioeconomic and technology trends, monitored during the project thanks to market analysis and review activities.

The project is in the main stream of the present and planned business activities of the banking proposers whose suggested workplan is focussed on evaluating the possibility of future deployment.

Finally, if the services are successfully validated, initial deployment physically affecting branches would begin in partners’ branches extending latter to other Member States. The study of the security and privacy policies will help deploy INNOBANK services in Member States different than the ones present in the consortium.

Description of the services from the users’ point of view

The INNOBANK project aims to create, deploy and commercially validate new financial e-Services that once integrated will provide the building blocks for an intelligent new office branch concept thanks to new ICT technologies. The new services will be addressed to both bank employees and customers.

The main services to be validated will be the following:

• Intelligent paper-free services. From Financial Entity point of view these new services mean a new way of relationship with corporate customers and increase and complete the financial services and products that offer to them, particularly SMEs. For both, customers and financial entities, these solutions put them in top technological position, integrating them in their common management activities. Banks will be able to offer enterprise customers, under an ASP business model, a technological platform to allow them sending, receiving and archiving electronically their invoices which are also digitally certified. These value added services will help to complete Banks service offerings for enterprises and will also allow financial entities to cost-efficiently cross-sell complementary financial products. Benefits apply for all participants in this solution:
  • Handle documents electronically, improving security and diminishing paper files
  • Cost reduction:

— In administrative management
— In paper reduction management in both financial entities and customers: Customer do not use paper for sending its invoices and financial entity has electronic access to information needed for other financial services, factoring and confirming, …
— In technological investments

• • Easy management decisions
  • Better knowledge of financial customers
• Wireless Branch.The bank employee, while in the bank office, may be able to access banking services through wireless networks (such as WLANs) with an upper level of security for any service that requires strong authentication of end-users. This project may exploit present devices with better secure banking services, implementing secure access to banking process. Actually, all branches have data cables to support the link between the PC’s and the banks servers. Since all PC’s are physically linked to a defined network cable, all desks in a branch need a desktop PC. The account managers don’t have a dedicated desk for their customer appointments; therefore they lose a lot of time to login to the network if they change desks. The wireless-project will lead to an important cost reduction. Banks will need less PC’s and won’t have any cost linked to the physical network cabling.
• Deployment of ATMs in a non-secure environment. The new services to be tried will also demand the physical deployment of today inexistent cash-terminals in non-secure environment (i.e., high-traffic locations such as railway stations in Brussels) using ink-dye cassettes in order to secure the terminal. This pilot case will serve as input for a national business case for off-premise installations in the Benelux. In the long term, it will not anymore be necessary that the machine be secured by the so-called STR (Secured Technical Room) as it could then be integrated into a simple technical room. If properly installed and managed, some major cash-handling daily operations may be securely delivered by self-service devices at those ATMs:
  • ATMS will be open to regular and non-traditional clients (i.e., foreigners)
  • Cash payment services at branch: Some customer cash withdrawal transactions may be diverted to ATM. These evolutions also offer considerable opportunities for the development of an off-premise network of Bank ATM’s. The off-premise market doesn’t exist in some European member countries (i.e., Belgium) for the moment and the opening of all Selfbank-terminals put pressure on the banks to take the commercially most interesting locations now.
• Biometric authentication and identification. The bank employee may be authenticated and/or identified in a friendly way. The authentication/identification technologies will be biometrics based. The devices will be tried in order to fulfil banking security requirements (anti fraud), user rights (stated by privacy and security policies) and simplicity (user-friendly devices). The identification must have a high percentage of success. The combination of both identification and authentication procedures offers increased convenience, a high level of security appropriate for business processes and, at the same time, guarantees highest user comfort, cost savings and security of investment. The project will be geared to secure a high degree of employee acceptance and ease of use as well as its technical (integration of physical data in the access databases) and operational feasibility.

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Participantes

Contacto

Ms. Pilar Franquet
La Caixa
Av. Diagonal, 621-629 - 08028, Barcelona (Spain)
Tfno.: +34 934047674
Fax: +34 93 404 6803
E-mail: mpfranquet@lacaixa.es
Web: http://www.lacaixa.es/