Customer Need
The MOL Group is updating and unifying its portfolio of payment terminals while centralizing the processing of all electronic payments. This greatly simplifies transaction processing across its network of 1,900 service stations. The Switchio product is delivered to the client as Software as a Service. An integral part of the new system is the Ingenico Tetra hardware platform for both indoor and outdoor POS. Switchio supports several thousand hardware terminals and processes millions of electronic transactions monthly.
Sterling Bank, headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, aimed to significantly penetrate the market with contactless bank cards and attract high-value clients. The upcoming modernization of Lagos’ public transport presented the perfect opportunity for the bank to participate and become the operator of new bus routes.
The city is referred to as a megacity of the future, with a population of around 15.5 million today. High-quality urban transport is thus a critical point for its development and brings enormous commercial potential. The bank’s primary goal was to launch new, modern bus lines and eliminate fare payment issues. There were frequent cases of cash theft and ticket fraud.
The solution was to introduce cashless fare payments using EMV payment cards issued by the bank. The model for this was the system currently operated in the British capital. Sterling Bank needed experienced partners with the necessary know-how to swiftly implement and ensure smooth operation of a similar system in Lagos.
After a thorough analysis of potential suppliers, the bank chose our company and invited us to implement a solution where passengers use a contactless EMV payment card to identify themselves directly on board, with fares charged using a Check-in/Check-out model.
Switchio Solution
The implementation project began in November 2017, and the acceptance protocol was signed four months later in March 2018.
1,000 contactless payment terminals were delivered for installation into vehicle validators, each equipped with a suite of terminal applications developed in-house by MONET+. These applications currently support the acceptance of contactless EMV cards and contribute to the routing and security of individual transactions.
As a service, we provided several specific system components and modules from our shared Switchio infrastructure.
Key Solution Components
Providing, among other things, network management and terminal control functionalities.
Responsible for transaction processing, terminal key management, and storage of detailed transaction data.
A module ensuring communication between terminals and central systems.
Designed for processing transactions in offline mode.
A module where payment transactions are aggregated under the card number (PAN) and sent for settlement.
A feature used to minimize losses from invalid or blocked bank cards.
A module providing inspectors with special devices that can read bank cards and transform the PAN into a token.
A module offering detailed reporting on used cards and terminals.
"I believe choosing the MONET+ team was the best decision we made in this project. My colleagues and I at the bank know that without a team like MONET+, the implementation would have been extremely difficult for us."