NelsonHall Forecasts Cross Border Payment Process Outsourcing Market will Reach $17.2Bn by 2012

Efstathiou commented, "Cross border payment BPO services currently are delivered by specialized providers, from local delivery centers targeted to specific countries. Increasing regulatory harmonization and business globalization is driving the provisioning of cross border payments services to vendors who can standardize systems, deliver from centralized facilities, and differentiate on business and market intelligence."

Five distinct findings revealed in the NelsonHall research report are:

· Cross border payment service providers deliver increasingly standardized payment execution processes across a wider variety of geographies, enhanced with greater variety of attached data. The key capability for a cross border payments provider is the ability to deliver ubiquitously, with increased attached data, and deliver improved insights on that data. Necessary skills are therefore less payment execution specific than data specific

· Merchant acceptance processing services are the highest growth area in outsourced payments, and most merchants, especially in Europe, are expanding across country borders. Payment services that support customer acquisition, especially travellers, is increasingly important

· Client perception of "best choice" in cross border payments vendors is changing from a best vendor for a target country to best vendor for global delivery. Ubiquity of vendor presence is increasingly important

· Key areas of growth are in card payments, debit transactions, and investment remittances

· Clients are looking for vendors who can deliver standardized systems from centralized facilities coupled with business and market intelligence

· Expansion of geographic scope by existing clients will be a key feature of the cross border payments market in the next year.

NelsonHall's research also supports the conclusion that globalization is leading clients to want improved consistency of payment execution and business intelligence across a wider range of geographies. Clients are outsourcing cross border payment processing services to adapt their operations rapidly to capture earnings opportunities in emerging markets.

The rapid growth in global trade coupled with regulatory harmonization in many regions will drive cross border payments volumes; NelsonHall forecasts that the global cross border payment process outsourcing market will grow at twenty per cent per annum over the next five years to reach $17.2 Bn by 2012. "Banks and enterprises want to address emerging market opportunities, which are very difficult to accomplish using traditional platforms and in-house methods. Vendors need to respond to this opportunity with cost effective payment services that include business intelligence features that help clients build their businesses," said Efstathiou.

NelsonHall's study utilizes a combination of user interviews and vendor research to address topics such as cross border payment processing issues and challenges faced by organizations, organization usage of business intelligence and loyalty program services and the benefits sought from third party provisioned cross border payment services and vendor selection criteria. The report was written specifically for market managers developing strategies to target segments of the cross border payment processing outsourcing market, and executives researching vendor capabilities before making purchasing decisions.

The "Cross Border Payment Process Outsourcing Assessment and Forecast" is available now as part of NelsonHall's Banking Sourcing program. Information about this program is available by contacting the following NelsonHall representatives:

Rob Hughes: rob.hughes@nelson-hall.com or +1 617-520-6699

Paul Connolly: paul.connolly@nelson-hall.com or +44 (0) 870-770-5967