Client: ProCredit Bank Kosovo

Region: Southeastern Europe

About this project

We partnered with ProCredit Bank Kosovo with the goal to introduce the newest available feature for payments in the market: Google Pay. This project focused on enhancing the digital payment experience for users by providing a secure, fast, convenient, and efficient way of doing payments by implementing Google Pay for ProCredit Bank Kosovo’s MasterCard cardholders, allowing them to make online and in-person contactless payments using their mobile devices. This involved integrating Google Pay technology to enable seamless payments via Android phones, tablets, and smartwatches.

Market impact:

According to the European Central Bank study Contactless payments in the euro area “53.8% of all card-based payments in the euro area were contactless in the second half of 2022. In 13 of the then 19 euro area countries, more than half of all card payments were contactless, reflecting strong demand for this technology across the euro area. [1]

The launch of Google Pay to the Kosovo market represents a great opportunity to improve the digital experience when it comes to payments. With Google’s announcement of its launch in Kosovo on June 25th, our main aim was to support the bank in enabling this service for their clients on the same day. ProCredit Bank Kosovo was one of only two banks that successfully offered the service at launch and is now part of the official list of Google. This strategic move positioned the bank as a leader in the market, enhancing their clients’ digital experience by providing early access to this innovative service.

Challenges:

Timing is usually one of the biggest challenges in a project. In this project it was important to be live with this new feature on Google’s launch date, June 25^th, to ensure the bank was among the firsts to launch the service, all technical activities had to be completed by this deadline; this required close project follow-up, extensive support for functional testing to secure Google’s approval, and an efficient management of all related tasks. Despite these challenges, our coordinated efforts with the bank and MasterCard ensured that the goal was successfully achieved.

Our approach:

Leveraging our previous experience with similar implementations for other banks and the existing ProPay solution (NFC wallet) which ProCredit Bank Kosovo had in place, we streamlined the integration process for the bank since the configuration was already in place with MasterCard resulting in a reduced scope of activities with them. This allowed us to respond to this request and enable the service in less than one month.

The process of adding the card to Google Pay starts by downloading the Google Wallet app from the Google Play Store on the client’s Android device. By tapping the “Add a card” button, the user is prompted to enter the card details and complete the verification.  Afterwards, if the NFC (Near Field Communication) is enabled on the device, it can be used for contactless payments, in-store payments, and online purchases.

This solution is made possible by the integration between Google, MasterCard, Quipu Processing Centre, and the bank.

Services provided:

The implementation of this feature is within the scope of our Digital Payment (Tokenization) Services which offer secure and seamless payment solutions to enhance customer transaction experiences. This implementation not only fortified the security of online and in-store transactions but also provided a faster, more convenient payment method for the users.

ProCredit’s Bank review:

“Quipu’s support was crucial for the success of our Google Wallet implementation. Their team was highly responsive, quickly addressing our questions and challenges, which kept our project on schedule. They were also very attentive to our specific needs, customizing their approach to fit our requirements perfectly. Moreover, Quipu’s deep knowledge of the domain ensured a smooth integration. They anticipated potential issues and provided proactive solutions, making the project run efficiently and effectively. Their expertise and dedicated support were key to our project’s success.”

 – Erblina Byci, Head of Digital Channels and Business Support

References:

[1] Contactless payments in the euro area | ECB Data Portal (europa.eu)

Find supported payment methods – Kosovo – Google Wallet Help