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MasterCard RPPS takes the friction out of commerce |
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| W. Roy Dunbar explains how MasterCard technology oils electronic transactions |
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Noting that the electronic payments industry is experiencing phenomenal growth and that "lots of headroom" remains, W. Roy Dunbar, president, Global Technology and Operations, MasterCard Worldwide, assured symposium attendees that the cutting-edge technology supporting the MasterCard RPPS network will easily accommodate any level of growth while reliably delivering astonishingly accurate performance.
Dunbar characterized the costs and inefficiencies associated with cash and check transactions as friction that slows commerce. That unsatisfactory quality will ultimately marginalize those antiquated forms of payment in favor of the nearly friction-free electronic solutions that are being developed today. "Our goal, collectively," he said to attendees, "is to do all we can to eliminate the friction that holds the industry back." Reliability well beyond Six Sigma With consumers demanding reliability, Dunbar noted that MasterCard processing operations use the Six Sigma measure of quality— striving for no more than 3.4 errors per million transactions. "When it comes to settlement for MasterCard RPPS, I don't know how to compute the sigma rating, because in a year, we will process hundreds of millions of transactions, and we haven't made an error around settlement in I-don't-know-how-many years," he said. "We have an exceedingly reliable system." Hallmark reliability, however, is just the beginning of the MasterCard RPPS solution. Providing a single connection that reaches thousands of billers, the network delivers extraordinary efficiency. It also provides exceptional content, with detailed biller information easily accessible via the biller directory. Multiple payment cycles, in effect, further accelerate the already phenomenal speed of electronic payment delivery from MasterCard RPPS and allow customers to receive and post payments when it's most convenient for them. "And because we're MasterCard," Dunbar noted, "we guarantee the funds." Built-in intelligence Equally important to friction-free commerce is "the increasing intelligence" being built into the MasterCard RPPS network. That intelligence enables MasterCard RPPS to process a transaction in 60 to 120 minutes, providing to the originator critical payment information that can help reduce customer inquiries. The built-in intelligence also helps lower the number of missed payments that are caused not by system error, but by external conditions such as changing account numbers. "We're taking the pain of that sort of change out," he said, noting the PNC portfolio conversion (see page 13). A patent-pending MasterCard RPPS solution will automatically pick up those sorts of changes and complete the transaction correctly. Of course, the MasterCard RPPS network is protected by dauntingly robust security. "Please be reassured that security is phenomenally important to MasterCard. It's something that we deal with across our card business, and it's something we deal with in MasterCard RPPS," Dunbar said. "This is a very important part of what we do. So you and your consumers should know that you have a partner with MasterCard in this particular area." Network of choice After underscoring the reliability, speed, quality, efficiency, and intelligence of the MasterCard RPPS network, Dunbar spoke to its flexibility: "We want to do business the way that you do business. . . . Whichever way you choose, it can be just one connection," he said. "We really want to be your network of choice." Adding that MasterCard RPPS understands the types of challenges that face our mutual customers, he pointed out that in addition to the solutions already in place, MasterCard RPPS was readying several new ones in the wings. "We have a mentality of partnership and collaboration," said Dunbar. Our focus, he added, is on delivering solutions that best serve our customers' business goals. 
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