Enhancing services - and locking out the fraudster

Nick Gordon, sales director, housing division, Civica With housing providers facing demands for more tenant-focused services alongside cost efficiencies, they are modernising business systems with innovations such as card-based and e-payment systems. However, card payment companies have changed the rules on electronic payment transactions this year. How are electronic payment systems helping tenants and housing providers? These systems simplify and speed up tenants purchasing of services while the housing provider streamlines its back office transactions and reduces the risk of system fraud. How are the regulations on card payments changing this year? From July 1, 2012, MasterCard introduced a mandate for the use of PA-DSS approved payment applications, with Visa scheduling their change for December 31 this year. These changes ensure that the payment application will not compromise the customers own Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS) system compliance. Merchants and agents have to use payment applications that are PA-DSS v2.0 validated and listed on the PCI SSC Compliant applications website. The PA-DSS security standard (introduced by the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC)) applies to payment applications payment software that is sold, licensed, or distributed by a software supplier to customers for handling card payments. Wont these changes add to the complexity of housing associations ICT systems? The uplift in standards has an implication for housing providers of further outlay on ICT for tenant services, particularly so for providers still engaged in modernising business processes. A practical answer to overcoming this hurdle, and making future payment system fully up-to-date, is to partner with ICT providers that can deliver fully compliant end-to-end payment software products. How will partnering with ICT providers work? Forward-looking ICT suppliers are able to reduce risk and simplify electronic payments with secure payment systems as a managed or hosted service. This reduces the level of resources that housing associations need to maintain these systems; the technology supplier hosts all the information in purpose built secure data centres. Expert ICT providers can also lock down other processing tasks for housing providers by also integrating them with their hosted income management and payment software modules as well. The new breed of hosted payment systems can combine vigilance with efficiency to address the perennial issue of fraud. Ends