Ken Hart, CEO & Founder at Snowdrop Solutions, and Nicola Dalmazzo, Head of Southern Europe and EMEA Financial Services at Google Maps Platform, recently attended Money2020 Europe, the world’s biggest fintech event that drives innovation in payments and financial services, where they joined a fireside chat with Mandy Lamb, Manager Director for UK/Ireland at Visa. They discussed the potential of geospatial technology in making the financial services industry more secure and efficient.
Following this appearance, we kept up the momentum of this collaboration and hosted a webinar with David Rubin, Global Head of Data Partnerships at Visa. This webinar focused on how each transaction can be associated with valuable information about the merchant, location, and more, benefiting both consumers and banks.
Here are some key points discussed:
- Snowdrop has had a long-standing partnership with Google Maps Platform, spanning nearly a decade. In recent years, we created the Merchant Reconciliation System API (MRS ™), an effective solution that enhances user experiences by efficiently cleaning up messy transaction data. Furthermore, our collaboration with Visa has facilitated the expansion of this solution across Europe.
- MRS API and Google Integration: We’ve built a straightforward API on top of Google Cloud and Google Maps, known as Merchant Reconciliation System. This API takes messy transaction information, cleans it up, and utilises Google Maps technology to accurately identify the merchant. The result is a clean merchant's name, logo, category, location, website, contact details, and even imagery.
- Collaboration for Enhanced Information: David Rubin highlighted the importance of collaboration among three entities to offer an extra layer of information to cardholders. The primary goal is to eliminate transaction confusion and provide clear and comprehensive information for consumers.
- Data Privacy: It's crucial to note that no personal information is shared with Snowdrop/Visa or Google. The focus is solely on providing improved transaction details.
Benefits: Cost Savings and Increased Engagement
The utilisation of the MRS API brings significant cost savings for digital and traditional banks and financial institutions. As well as increased customer engagement and boost user experience, on the consumer side. It is a mutually beneficial situation for both banks and consumers.
How does the Merchant Reconciliation System API work?
The Merchant Reconciliation System API simplifies and enhances the consumer experience in banking. When provided with the MCC (merchant category code) of a transaction along with partial merchant details such as the merchant name, address, and postcode obtained from the point of sale, MRS promptly cleans it up and responds with a accurate merchant name, merchant logo, location in Google Maps, category, etc.
Consumer Expectations
With the increasing use of smartphones for banking and financial transactions, consumers now expect richer and more engaging experiences.
According to a recent Oxford Economics survey, helping customers recognise and understand their transactions ranks number two in the geospatial services use cases. This underscores the growing demand from UK consumers for intuitive services that leverage location data.
By having access to more detailed information about their transactions, cardholders can track their spending more accurately, identify areas where they may be overspending, and better manage their finances. This information can also be helpful for budgeting, expense tracking, and reconciling credit card statements, as well as fighting potential online fraud.
Future Developments: What's coming next?
The transparency provided by transaction data enrichment fosters increased consumer confidence, establishing a solid foundation for banks and financial institutions to deliver more engaging services to their customers. Some of these services include:
- Global Transaction Clearance: MRS aims to expand its capabilities to clear transactions worldwide using Google Maps infrastructure.
- Enhanced Services: MRS plans to provide additional services such as recommendations, rewards, cashback, and loyalty programs.
- Spending Insights: Using MRS as a basis, banks can provide additional information to help users better understand and enhance their consumption habits (for example, shopping at more sustainable establishments).
In conclusion, the collaboration between Snowdrop, Visa, and Google Maps has revolutionised the way consumers interact with banking and financial transactions. To stay informed about the latest developments and future updates, we invite you to follow us on LinkedIn.
Additionally, for a more in-depth understanding of this exciting three-way collaboration, click on the following link to access our comprehensive report.
Discover how these cutting-edge technologies are shaping the future of the banking industry and empowering consumers with seamless and intuitive experiences. Join us on this journey of innovation and transformation.
Get in touch
If you would like to learn more about how we can help you harness the power of enriched payment data, contact us today. Our goal is to help our clients harness the power of transaction data enrichment to improve their services, mitigate risk and remain competitive in the current market.
