The number of home banking accounts in Germany has been steadily rising in recent years and more and more internet users consider home banking to be a convenient way to process their banking transactions, from home or from the office. giropay, now offered by Pago, is a payment method for German consumers based on the PIN and TAN procedures of the popular home banking process.

The benefits for you, the merchant, are: payments cannot be reversed once they have been executed by the bank, your incoming payments are usually credited to your account within three working days and giropay payments processed online are guaranteed by participating banks for up to 5,000 Euros per purchase transaction.

giropay provides the consumer with home banking facilities directly from within the online shop. Pago introduced a similar payment method in 2003 and this has been continuously improved since then and which works with some 2,000 banks (2004). Pago was awarded an EPCA ECR Payment Excellence Award for the most innovative Payment Processing Solution in 2005.

In contrast to the Pago Online Bank Transfer, the giropay consumer is not connected via a temporary applet on his computer but directly with his home banking bank.

The consumer is presented with pre-filled transfer forms in both payment procedures and he/she must only complete the payment by providing PIN and TAN numbers.

Benefits for merchants include avoiding chargebacks and debit reversals which are the big disadvantage of other payment methods and can have a significant effect on your bottom line.

Pago provides comprehensive know how in implementing online bank transfer systems and practical interfaces which allow convenient implementation of giropay into your shop system.

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The big advantage of giropay is the huge popularity with the increasing numbers of online consumers. Surveys have shown that in 2005 83% of all German consumers trusted the banks most with the execution of their online payment transactions. And the combination of giropay and Pago Online Bank Transfer means that you can already cover about 90% of all home banking institutes, and this figure will continue to rise.

There are similar payment methods in the rest of Europe already and these are becoming more and more popular. As a consequence of the Single European Payment Area (SEPA) vision, giropay could become a standard for online banking payment procedures in the future in total Europe.

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The giropay option is ideal for goods where time is critical, like tickets or last-minute travel. It is also suitable for merchants offering goods and services which must be paid for and delivered immediately online, like online publications, music and film downloads.

In addition to this, the giropay option allows merchants to offer a 24-hour delivery service because secured payment guaranteed by giropay enables immediate delivery.

giropay is also the ideal payment option for telecommunications, mobile or prepaid products and for big ticket items.

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The online consumer will experience giropay payment as easy, fast and as secure as home banking. After filling his shopping cart the consumer selects the giropay payment option. He is shown an SSL encrypted form – either directly by the merchant or from Pago – in which he can enter his bank sort code and account number.

After entering the data the payment transaction is then initialised by the merchant via a special URL provided by Pago. The merchant then redirects the consumer to this URL and thereby to his/her bank’s own giropay page.

A new window opens for the online consumer displaying the giropay login form with his account details – the consumer is connected directly to his bank, without any intermediaries.

The consumer then confirms his bank account details by entering his PIN and is then presented with a pre-filled transfer form which he then confirms with a valid TAN which thereby triggers the payment.

The transfer itself is then executed by the bank and the merchant receives confirmation from Pago which includes a payment guarantee by the consumer’s bank. The merchant can then confirm the transaction and despatch or deliver the goods or services ordered. The payment is then usually credited to the payee account within three business days.

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