Irish Payment Services Organisation
{{Short description|Irish company limited by guarantee owned by its member banks}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2015}}
{{Use Irish English|date=July 2015}}
The Irish Payment Services Organisation Limited (IPSO) was established in June 1997.{{Cite web |url=http://mis.ucd.ie/conferences/aacheniosworkshop/banks/Information%20IRIS |title=IRIS — Aachen UCD Workshop on the Shape of Inter-Organisational Information Systems |publisher=UCD School of Business }} IPSO was a company limited by guarantee owned by its member banks.{{Cite news |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/business/payments-system-entry-transparent-1.341069|title=Payments system entry 'transparent'|first=Colm |last=Keena |date=7 December 2001 |newspaper=The Irish Times |quote=IPSO has nine shareholders. They are: AIB; Bank of Ireland; NIB; Ulster Bank; Permanent/TSB; First Active; the EBS; Bank Nationale de Paris; and the Central Bank. }}
Its primary objective was to preserve the integrity and security of the bank payment system in Ireland - the systems used for the settlement of physical cheques as well as ATM transfers and debit and credit card purchases.
History and functions
Domestic cheques had been cleared for almost 150 years by the Dublin Bankers' Clearing Committee, sending only cheques drawn on British banks for clearing in London. However, once it became clear that Ireland would join the Euro and that the United Kingdom would not do so, a formal domestic mechanism was needed to promote Irish payments interoperability and assist in the design of payment systems development, both for legacy paper instruments such as cheques and for electronic transfers such as ATM withdrawals, card payments, and internet payments. In particular IPSO was responsible for implementing rapid, and later real-time, Irish payments clearing in the transition period during which Euro area payments were being modernised.{{Cite journal |url=https://www.academia.edu/10350761 |title=The Irish Clearing System |first=Caroline |last= Bergin Cross |publisher=Commercial Law Practitioner |date=2013 |quote= The Irish Real-Time Interbank Settlement Co Ltd (IRISCo) —the owner of the original Irish Real-time Gross Settlement system (RTGS)— was also originally part of the overall IPSO structure, but this company was wound up following the migration of the Irish banking community to the Eurosystem's TARGET2 RTGS system in February 2007 |via=www.academia.edu}}{{Cite web|url=https://thepaypers.com/payments-general/eba-clearing-irish-payment-services-organisation-launch-step2-irish-service--745492 |date=12 October 2011 |title=EBA Clearing, Irish Payment Services Organisation launch STEP2 Irish service |website=thepaypers.com}}
Ireland's clearing entities — including Irish Paper Clearing Co Ltd (IPCC), which cleared paper payment instruments such as cheques, and the Electronic Funds Transfer clearing system operated by the Irish Retail Electronic Clearing Company (IRECC) — operated under the IPSO umbrella.{{Cite web|url=https://assets.gov.ie/6204/040219135457-648b24bc4c234983a39b3a323f939f1d.pdf |title=Indecon Report on Benchmarking of Ireland's Payments Industry |publisher= Indecon International Economic Consultants |date=December 2018 |via=Department of Finance }}{{Cite web|url=http://www.ipso.ie/section/CompaniesandSchemes |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100418232531/http://www.ipso.ie/section/CompaniesandSchemes |archive-date=18 April 2010 |title=Companies and Schemes |publisher= Irish Payment Services Organisation Limited |date=18 April 2010 |via=web.archive.org}} Each company had its own board of directors.{{Cite web |url=https://www.ccpc.ie/business/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/04/banking-report-exec-summary.pdf |date=September 2005 |title= Competition in the (non-investment) banking sector in Ireland |publisher=Competition and Consumer Protection Commission |quote=The management and operation of all payment systems and payment schemes under the Irish Payment Services Organisation (IPSO) umbrella should be combined into one entity having a single unified Board of Directors}} Each bank that was a member of one or more clearing entity had a right to membership of IPSO.{{Cite book |url=http://www.ecb.int/pub/bluebook/BlueBook01Ireland.pdf |chapter=Ireland|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030607034938/http://www.ecb.int/pub/bluebook/BlueBook01Ireland.pdf |archive-date=7 June 2003 |title=The Blue Book: Payment and securities settlement systems in the European Union |publisher=European Central Bank |date=August 2001 |via=web.archive.org}}
IPSO also provided central programme management for key national and banking-industry policy initiatives such as the National Payments Implementation Programme (the Department of Finance's initiative to move Ireland to universal acceptance of electronic payments and migrate from cash and cheques),{{Cite news |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/business/ipso-chief-aims-to-close-off-ireland-s-paper-trail-1.1001217 |title=Ipso chief aims to close off Ireland's paper trail |date=13 January 2006 |first=Laura |last=Slattery |newspaper=The Irish Times}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.ipso.ie/section/NationalPaymentsImplementationProgramme |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100730050722/http://www.ipso.ie/section/NationalPaymentsImplementationProgramme |archive-date=30 July 2010 |title=National Payments Implementation Programme |publisher=Irish Payment Services Organisation Limited |date=30 July 2010|via=web.archive.org}} Ireland's implementation of SEPA (the Single Euro Payments Area, which enables customers to make cashless Euro payments to any bank account located anywhere in the Eurozone), Chip and PIN card adoption,{{Cite web |url=https://business.aib.ie/AIB-comment-on-ispo |title=AIB's Comment on IPSO |date=21 January 2014 |publisher=AIB Group }} and electronic fraud prevention.{{Cite news |url=https://www.shelflife.ie/the-irish-payment-services-organisation-issues-atm-security-warning-to-retailers/|title=The Irish Payment Services Organisation issues ATM security warning to retailers|date=26 November 2013|publisher =Shelflife Magazine}}
Controversy over competition
In the late 1990s, drawn by the Irish economy's rapid growth, non-domestic banks such as Bank of Scotland, KBC Bank, and National Australia Bank started to enter the Irish banking market through acquisitions as well as organic development.{{cite news |title=Timeline of events in bank's short history |author=Press Association |newspaper=Irish Independent |date=19 August 2010 |url=http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/timeline-of-events-in-banks-short-history-2304138.html |access-date=19 August 2010}}{{Cite news|title=Bank changes name and logo|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/business/bank-changes-name-and-logo-1.238331|access-date=2020-10-16|newspaper=The Irish Times|language=en}} These banks needed access to the clearing organisations to settle payments to and from the bank accounts they opened for Irish customers.{{Cite news |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/business/bank-targets-bigger-rivals-1.1306669 |date=26 Feb 2004 |title=Bank targets bigger rivals |first=John |last=McManus |newspaper=The Irish Times}} Both bankers and the media, most notably the Bank of Scotland, alleged that the IPSO made it difficult for new banks to enter the Irish market by making it slow and expensive to join the clearing organisations.{{Cite news |url=https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/money-clearing-chief-sets-out-his-stall-on-closed-shop-jibes-26015230.html |date=5 February 2004 |first=Cyril |last=Hardiman |title=Money clearing chief sets out his stall on 'closed shop' jibes |newspaper=Irish Independent }} The Irish competition authority, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, began an investigation into Ireland's market for retail banking services.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ccpc.ie/business/research/market-studies/study-banking-profession/|title=Study of the Banking Profession|publisher=Competition and Consumer Protection Commission}}{{Cite web |url=https://www.oecd.org/daf/competition/sectors/39753683.pdf |title=Competition and Regulation in Retail Banking |date=27 October 2008 |publisher=OECD Competition Committee }} This resulted in changes in the structure and governance of IPSO's clearing entities, amendments to banking regulations in Ireland, and voluntary reforms by the existing Irish banks. A parallel and similar complaint was brought against the Belfast Bankers' Clearing Committee, which cleared payments in Northern Ireland.{{Cite news |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/business/competition-commission-to-investigate-four-banks-in-the-north-1.447715|title=Competition Commission to investigate four banks in the North |date=27 May 2005 |first=Dan|last=Keenan|newspaper=The Irish Times}} The United Kingdom's Competition Commission found that banks in Northern Ireland must improve their personal current account services, including by lowering bank charges.{{Cite news |url=https://signon.thomsonreuters.com/?productid=PLCUK&viewproductid=UKPL&lr=0&culture=en-GB&returnto=https%3a%2f%2fuk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com%2fCosi%2fSignOn%3fredirectId%3drt_0f23d41d-f759-4ec3-9c68-d223d75e1c77&tracetoken=0207210609090Asy9I5rMS45hcilRvriGBy7jklPzL75nHUOEVIRP7ohYR4_tp9qmeJylLJxafIqaasUEUPk2jw86Zj2i3NGmtUDNMKu7ME-JO0ESH79cEB_Hcpz7XPqmPqHbFDOKDCXiN_O1nRsXcRdR0RGhB8iS_eM-1Ee19cIAPEpn5jBK8tT1LfVODFT27XaBL5Ljwqbn2LBwHMbTSqs5YYhMf84S3fAEDrgcC_3h8MfEGOv0LZgQtUe9cI4rLJ5dob-J1MiQhfjYkORiFY7FUrfNn9fR9SwQ3ZB9T6Ka9pxy9zKTDWgWINEOwH9I9r1XPmkYSsQwdpiOLIJGUYCvV_sujZkOsjREIbgsTLidFs11Po-pmUAqQXAR_rYb3BrW1KiBG2hV |title=Competition Commission publishes final report into Northern Ireland personal banking market |date=15 May 2007 |publisher=Thomson Reuters }}
Merger into BPFI
IPSO was integrated with the Irish Banking Federation (IBF) in 2014, which became the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI).{{Cite news |url=https://irishfinancialreview.com/2014/09/09/irish-banking-federation-amalgamates-and-expands-reach-to-brussels/ |title=Irish Banking Federation amalgamates and expands reach to Brussels |publisher=The Irish Financial Review |date=9 September 2014 |access-date=2 February 2021 |archive-date=5 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205140242/https://irishfinancialreview.com/2014/09/09/irish-banking-federation-amalgamates-and-expands-reach-to-brussels/ |url-status=dead }}
References
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External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20140625135147/http://www.ipso.ie/ IPSO Website] (archived)
Category:1997 establishments in Ireland
Category:2014 disestablishments in Ireland
Category:Financial services companies of the Republic of Ireland
Category:Payment systems organizations
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