2016: A year of positive change for TAS Group

2016 was a year of renewals and successes for TAS Group. Not only for the solutions offered to the market but also for the transformation and strategic relaunch of the Group through the change of governance, finalized in August, which opens up new investments and new markets to face a future of great changes.

Last year opened with a sharp rise for the e-Money division of TAS Group. Due to a strong increase in online and mobile transactions, more and more customers chose TAS solutions for 3DSecure and tokenization to protect the sensitive data of their clients and meet the PCI requirements. TAS Group invested in the dematerialization of banking processes, developing cl SecurPIN for digital PIN management. The solution has been adopted by BNL, the first institute in Italy to enable a completely electronic model for PIN codes. Q1 was also a period full of wins for bank branch solutions: following the successes with Intesa SanPaolo and Phoenix, CSE chose TAS ATM management because of its advanced features for the latest generation of ATMs and ability to adapt additional technology at the pace of the bank.

March was a month of research, too. Through extensive study activities conducted with long-term partner CeTIF on the impact of T2S on liquidity management, TAS Group completed the release of a new module: Aquarius for Intraday Liquidity. To extend the knowledge sharing to the financial services industry, TAS Capital Markets and Treasury team conducted a series of international webinars, in collaboration with Bobsguide and GT News, to illustrate the BCBS reporting requirements for banks to implement tools to monitor intraday liquidity by January 2017. TAS Group collaborated further with CeTIF in the area of SEPA payments to publish the final report on research results, outstanding points and opportunities introduced by PSD2.

In April, TAS celebrated their first international year award: the prestigious American magazine CIO Review ranks TAS Group among the 20 most promising Fintech companies worldwide for 2016 based on the technological quality of TAS solutions and ability to innovate. IDC Financial Insights recognized the same qualities and in September by reconfirming TAS Group among the top 100 global service provider for the financial sector for the eighth year in a row. In addition, BAI and American Banker rank TAS among the TOP 100 vendor in FINTECH FORWARD 2016.

Between May and June the boost to foreign markets paid off with the acquisition of two new important references: KENEX in Africa (Kenya Commerce Exchange Service Bureau), who chose TAS FINPlatform to streamline their infrastructure for access to SWIFTNet for its 110 bank customers, and dwpbank, the leading German financial service provider for securities settlement services, which, with more than 1,500 member banks, chose TAS Aquarius as its central system of liquidity management. The Aquarius entry into the German Treasury and Post-Trading services market has attracted the interest of numerous institutional and commercial stakeholders during EBAday 2016 held in Milan. TAS Group was a main sponsor of the event, which exceeded expectations of visitors.

Continuing investment in innovation led to the launch of EasyBranch - the new TAS Group venture dedicated to the Branch Transformation - which debuted in London during ATMIA (ATM Industry Association) this past June. EasyBranch is a suite of scalable and flexible solutions for the ATM channel that accelerates the ability of the banks in the transformation processes of their branches.

In August, the changeover in management of the Group was finalized with the acquisition of the company by relevant investors, including the Chairman Dario Pardi and the Managing Director Valentino Bravi, which guarantee fund resources and renewed commitment to the strategic position in established markets and new target markets.

During September and November, TAS Group participated in numerous international events. At Oracle's Open World in San Francisco, the TAS extendERP Offering, based on a strategic partnership with Oracle, was positively received. TAS solutions also made a strong presence at SIBOS in Geneva, followed by Salone dei Pagamenti ABI in Milan and TRUSTECH in Cannes. At the latter two events, TAS Group introduced EasySelf, an EasyBranch mini-ATM solution spanning both software and hardware that meets the automation needs of branches, reducing costs and risks in cash management for banks and retailers. EasySelf was a finalists in the SESAME Awards, Trustech's annual international competition for the most innovative solutions in the payments industry.

In November, TASNCH Holding became OWL, the new international holding company owning a majority of TAS Group's share capital. The name is inspired by the mythological Minerva owl reproduced on ancient Greek coins. This symbol conveys the historical roots of the company in the payments and exchange transactions industries and alludes to the ability to see and foresee the evolution of the market through innovation and experimentation.

TAS Group also introduces their new logo at the Salone dei Pagamenti ABI. 'A FinTech Start-Up with 30 years of history' campaign highlights the Group's years of experience and forward strategy based on three pillars: Internationalization growth of their foreign portfolio; Digital Software Factory with committed focus on quality and technologies for digital transformation; and Broadening of the offering to new customer segments for a more strategic position in light of European and non-European regulators breaking down constraints to unlock competitiveness for the benefit of end users.

December put TAS Group on the shortlist of Payment Hub Vendors with enhanced developments of the TAS Network Gateway solution for Instant Payments. Broadening the functional coverage of the traditional technological connectivity perimeter offered by the product helps banks overcome extensive limitations of their legacy systems to embrace the 24x7x365 logic, required to interface central market infrastructures, which will go live by the end of 2017.

This is only a small selection summarizing the many successes of TAS Group in 2016. It's no surprise that TAS stock registered a record performance on the Italian Stock Exchange, closing the year in the top of the list of stocks with highest earnings gains at an increase of 242%.

For a complete list visit the TAS Media Room. And watch for continued innovation throughout 2017!