Icon Solutions

A Message from Lord Pickles and Lord Blunkett, followed by Icon Solutions's best practice article

The ability to listen and learn from one another has always been vital in parliament, in business and in most aspects of daily life. But at this particular moment in time, as national and global events continue to reiterate, it is uncommonly crucial that we forge new channels of communication and reinforce existing ones. The following article from Icon Solutions is an attempt to do just that. We would welcome your thoughts on this or any other Parliamentary Review article.

Rt Hon The Lord David Blunkett

Rt Hon The Lord Eric Pickles

www.iconsolutions.com

1ICON SOLUTIONS |

BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE

Commercial Director

TomKelleher

The Icon team

Icon Solutions was born out of a passion to be different, fight

complexity, celebrate honesty and put customers first. Ben

Hallifax, Darren Capehorn and Tom Kelleher hadn’t seen these

values on display in many of the places they had worked and

wanted to make them the cornerstones of their own business.

They were convinced that with their combined experience in

technology and banking systems and their ability to deliver, they

could bring something new to the digital marketplace. Tom tells

the

Review

more.

Sitting in Starbucks for our first board meeting in 2009, we had a clear vision

of what we wanted to be, but I don’t think we imagined that in ten years’ time

we would have a seat at the ‘top table’ with some of the most established and

respected global fintech organisations.

Over the last decade, we have grown the business by 22 per cent year-on-year.

We have delivered payment solutions that utilise our ground-breaking payments

platform, IPF, together with advisory consultancy and enterprise services, to leading

global financial institutions, including BNP Paribas, Lloyds Banking Group, AXA

Bank Belgium, JP Morgan and HSBC. It’s one thing to get to the ‘top table’ but it’s

another thing stay there. This only makes us more determined to continue building

on our success.

Ten years on

Reflecting on the past ten years, I’m grateful and very proud of what we have

achieved, and it feels like we’re only just starting to get going. There are many

FACTS ABOUT

ICON SOLUTIONS

»Commercial Director:

TomKelleher

»Director of Services:

DarrenCapehorn

»Operations Director:

BenHallifax

»Established in 2009

»Based in Wimbledon

»Services: Payment and

enterprise solutions

»No. of employees: 135

»Icon Solutions operates a

policy of being 100-per-cent

carbon neutral

»The Icon Foundation is a non-

profit foundation supporting

over 20 smaller global charities

»www.iconsolutions.com

Icon Solutions

THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW

Highlighting best practice

2| ICON SOLUTIONS

challenges ahead, but the opportunity

to really make a difference is beginning

to materialise, and that’s exciting for

everyone here.

Our secret formula isn’t complicated,

or indeed even secret. We made a

conscious decision to build Icon on

a set of fundamental values that we

embody in everything we do and in

how we work with our clients. Fighting

complexity is one of them, and we

strive to always find the simplest

solution to a problem. Often, this

approach has been what’s set us apart

from our competitors. We never deliver

unachievable ivory-tower architecture

or an over-specified complex system.

Whether it be assessing payment

systems, producing IT transformation

roadmaps or simply providing subject

matter expertise, we deliver pragmatic

solutions that allow our clients to

be innovative and responsive to the

demands of the future.

These values of course are meaningless

without having the people to live

and breathe them. Whether they are

a solution architect or a payments

expert, we strive to hire the best

people. To deliver simplicity, capable

consultants are needed. Simple is never

easy when working in an inherently

complex environment like payments.

Our team brings a wealth of expertise

from industry, a desire to learn and

a passion for keeping pace with a

market that is constantly evolving.

We also have a youth investment

programme that exposes them to

mission-criticalprojects.

Payments transformation –

when the stars align

Ten years ago, running payments

operations was seen as a tax on being

a bank. Today, all payment service

providers want to own the transaction

and the data, and there’s never been

a better time to be in the payments

technology sector. Banks are under

increasing pressure to transform

their payment systems. While

incremental changes have been made

over the years, there are very few

programmes that can be called truly

transformational. Change will increase

in 2019. Numerous market forces have

aligned the stars in such a way that

we’ve seen payment transformation

skyrocket up banks’ priority lists.

How the stars have aligned:

»Instant payments – instant payments

are reaching critical mass around

the world, and switching from batch

to real-time payment processing

requires an entirely new approach

»Open banking – open banking and

PSD2 is forcing banks to open up

and re-architect their systems to

provide access to third parties

»Platformication – big tech giants

from the east and west are winning

based on a technology platform

approach, and banks are adopting a

similar strategy to compete

»Data economy – transactions are

increasingly commodified, and the

real value in a transaction is the data

around it, which can be used to

deliver more and better services

»Increase in automation and

subscription economy – placing

People at our core

There is no

doubt that

instant

payments are

an expectation,

not an

aspiration

“

3ICON SOLUTIONS |

BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE

even more pressure on the cost of

processing low-value payments.

As a result, I feel banks are at a pivotal

point of inflection as these regulation,

competition and technology changes

put their traditional business models

under even more pressure. If they

want to stay relevant in the industry,

they must accelerate their payments

transformation in order to innovate,

drive new revenue streams and tackle

the market disruptors head-on.

The Icon difference

We started working with BNP Paribas

last year on a visionary transformation

programme for payments. BNP Paribas

wanted to differentiate themselves

as a bank when it came to payments,

but they knew they would have to

radically transform their payments

estate to achieve this. Faced with

challenging timescales, they committed

to delivering a transformation

strategy for their architecture and

technology, and at the heart of this sat

instantpayments.

For a while, instant payment has been

referred to as the new norm. With 43

schemes already live across the globe

and another 15 in planning, there is

no doubt that instant payments are an

expectation, not an aspiration. Banks

need to offer real-time payments to

remain competitive, but the challenge

is that they are burdened with legacy

systems that are not equipped to

handle the demands of year-round

payment processing.

BNP Paribas’ payments transformation

was underpinned by IPF, our state-of-

the-art, cloud-native, flexible payments

platform. We haven’t stretched an

ageing architecture to do things it

wasn’t designed to, and we haven’t

moved existing functionality to a virtual

environment and called it payments

in the cloud. IPF delivers something

unique, embodying the first-hand

payments experience we have and

empowering our customers to

accelerate their transformation while

reducing TCO by between 60 and 75

per cent.

Using IPF enabled BNP Paribas to

successfully deliver instant payments

across four countries and three instant-

payment schemes. As a result of our

involvement, BNP Paribas are making

fundamental progress towards their

goal of significantly reducing the cost

of payment transaction processing

while positioning themselves for

success in an increasingly competitive

payments market and differentiating

themselves. Our payments expertise

and pragmatic approach gave the

bank the confidence they needed

for successful delivery and set the

roadmap for their continued evolution

in the world of payments.

I feel we are exactly where we want to

be – at the forefront of payments, at

a time when customer expectations of

value have changed. Moving money

is simply moving data, and customers

are no longer satisfied to pay for that.

They want value-added services and

new sophisticated technology – and if

they don’t get it, they’ll move provider.

We’re helping banks meet the needs

of their customers at a domestic and

global level.

As a result of

our involvement,

BNP Paribas are

making

fundamental

progress

towards their

goal

“

Transforming the future

www.iconsolutions.com

This article was sponsored by Icon Solutions. The Parliamentary Review is wholly funded by the representatives who write for it. The publication in which this article originally appeared contained the following foreword from Rt Hon Michael Gove.

Rt Hon Michael Gove's Foreword For The Parliamentary Review

By Rt Hon Michael Gove

This year's Parliamentary Review comes at a momentous time for parliament, as we collectively determine the destiny of the United Kingdom.

On October 31, the UK will leave the European Union. The successful implementation of this process is this government's number-one priority.

Three years after a historic referendum vote, we will deliver on the decisive mandate from the British people. Trust in our democracy depends on it. Until that final hour, we will work determinedly and diligently to negotiate a deal, one that abolishes the backstop and upholds the warm and close relationship we share with our friends, allies and neighbours in the EU. But in the event that the EU refuses to meet us at the table, we must be prepared to leave without a deal.

As the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, it is my job to lead on this government's approach, should that scenario happen. Preparing for Brexit is my department's driving mission. But while I am leading this turbocharged effort, the whole of government is committed to this endeavour.

Ministers across Whitehall are working together to ensure that every possibility is considered, every plan is scrutinised and every provision is made. A daily drumbeat of meetings means that we are holding departments accountable, so that preparations are completed on time.

The chancellor has confirmed that all necessary funding will be made available. And we have mobilised thecivil service, assigning 15,000 of our most talented civil servants to manage our exit from the EU.

We will make sure that on November 1, there is as little disruption to national life as possible. Our trade relationships will continue to thrive, thanks to agreements with countries around the world worth £70 billion. Our country will remain secure, thanks to nearly 1,000 new officers posted at our borders. And the 3.2 million EU nationals now living and working among us can remain confident, with absolute certainty, of their right to remain in the UK.

Above all, our goal is to be transparent. Soon, we will launch a public information campaign so that citizens, communities and businesses are ready and reassured about what will happen in the event of “no deal”.

In my first few weeks in this role, I have travelled to ports and tarmacs, borders and bridges, all across the UK –from the seaside of Dover to the rolling green hills of County Armagh. I have heard from business owners and border officials, farmers and hauliers. They are ready to put an end to uncertainty. And they are ready to embrace the opportunities ahead.

Our departure from the EU will be a once in a lifetime chance to chart a new course for the United Kingdom. Preparing for that new course will be a herculean effort. But this country has made astounding efforts before. We can do it again.

Rt Hon Michael Gove
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster