White Papers 
EFD has a series of white papers offering business insight into the payments industry. Synopses can be viewed (see below) . To order the full text of any white papers, please register by clicking here.
Payments: transforming the DNA of banking into valuable business insight
Banks are beginning to see payments as a unifying core running through their business. As a growing number of transactions are delivered electronically, technology is critical to increasing revenues and controlling risks, making the creation of a robust payments infrastructure pivotal in today’s business environment. A unified payments system also enables banks to get maximum value from the transactional data that, to date, has been largely untapped. This can be an invaluable source of information about customer behaviour – helping to increase retention potential and monitor more effectively for fraudulent activity.
Protecting the Enterprise: Using information intelligently in an integrated and automated fraud and compliance management system
If there is one critical success factor in the financial services industry today, it lies in the ability to draw together and analyze data from across the enterprise about customers and their behaviour. The ability to achieve an enterprise view of activity across all accounts and from al existing fraud management systems helps financial institutions find a lasting solution to the fraud problem that translates into loss of consumer confidence and damage to reputation. Understanding alerts relating to suspected and confirmed fraud, complying with internal controls and external regulation, managing fraud investigations more effectively – integrated fraud management systems provide significant payback by gathering meaningful data that protects the enterprise, reduces the risks associated with top-line growth and improves the management of fraud losses.
Extending customer choice through prepaid cards: how banks can profit from the pay before model
While cash is still king in many economies, consumers, businesses and governments are rapidly embracing new, more convenient, forms of electronic payment. Prepaid cards are suitable for many different payment situations, with the benefits of added security and ease of use. Although prepaid cards are offered by many types of organisation, there are many ways in which banks can participate and take advantage of the prepaid revolution, to expand their consumer base, reach untapped markets and solve the payments problems that continue to irritate.
From multi-factor authentication to industry wide fraud management: making stolen data worthless
Thieves hide with ease among the millions of legitimate financial institution customers. With identity theft affecting more consumers every year, banks must ensure that they are doing everything possible to validate the identities of account applicants and authenticate transactions. However, the criminals move swiftly from one bank to the next, leaving a swathe of chaos and loss in their wake – maybe it’s time for a solution that combats identity theft not only across the individual enterprise, but across the whole banking industry?
Faster Payments – flexible platforms and fraud prevention. Thinking beyond the rush to implementation
The UK’s Faster Payments infrastructure will be operational from November 2007, providing certain types of payment in near real-time. The immediate focus is on installing the technology that provides access to Faster Payments, but banks may not have realised the degree to which this sweeping change in the UK payments industry will impact not only their technology, but their business. Bringing with it new challenges for fraud management, customer service, liquidity management and connectivity, Faster Payments may catch banks unprepared.
Prepaid Cards in the Public Sector - a World of Possibilities
Governments are now also starting to take advantage of prepaid technology. Around the world, schemes are being deployed to simplify the management of many types of payment that governments make to their employees and the citizens of their countries. Prepaid presents a real opportunity to cut the administrative and operational costs involved in the disbursement of benefits, loans, compensation and other entitlements, whilst better serving citizens by providing a more flexible, secure and transparent payment system. This EFD white paper discusses the various uses of prepaid cards for central and local government organizations.| EFD Extending Customer Choice |
| EFD The Potential of Prepaid |
| EFD Prepaid Government |
| EFD Trends in ATM Processing |