Casino Oct08 P18 9/29/08 11:36 am Page 18
IVOBANK
Ivobank
When information about Ivobank started circulating recently, Casino
International wondered 'Why?' Is there a place for a bank for the
gaming industry, for players to use and enjoy? Will it really make life
easier for online players? Tim Sawyer, Ivobank's Managing Director,
explained that the answers are all 'yes'.
Ivobank’s
Tim Sawyer
W
hen Ivobank launched its services online, still 40 to 50 per cent of cards are turned
in July 2008, it promised secure down at gambling sites because of 7995, because
and fast online payments, around- cards put increased credit risks on etc so that doesn’t
the-clock customer telephone make us superfluous. A good example that’s taking us
support, online live chat and secure outside the gaming area is you want to send money
e-mail and very competitive rates of interest on regularly in Europe, say you own a nice villa in Spain
deposits. Money was, they said, easier to move around and you commute between the two, and you need to
from the holder's account to overseas at no cost, spend money to pay your pool cleaner, you go to
making it very attractive for international money Lloyds Bank currently and they’d say er, Swift, don’t
transfers. do it regularly, do it once a month, £30, 2.7 per cent
Since then, the service has started in Italy, France as an exchange fee. With us, you can make the
and Germany. Casino International had to ask payment, set it up, and once a month we transfer the
though, is there really a need for this service? Tim money from your sterling account or at the time your
Sawyer, MD, thinks so. Euro account straight to the Spanish bank. In that
respect we’re not behind the game, actually we can
Casino International: Is there really a need for do things the traditional banks haven’t even focussed
Ivobank? on because they’re so mass market.
Tim Sawyer: I think there are several needs. We’re
trying to be a global payments business and it’s not CI: So how are you able to do that?
just for the gaming industry; that’s one industry we’re TS: Two ways really, one; we’re taking advantage of
obviously very interested in, and people still find it cross-border payments that are starting up, and
expensive and hard to make payments around the saying right, we’re just going to do it faster than
world. Taking the gaming industry, with Merchant everybody else, and nobody else is doing it. Secondly,
Category Code 7995, that excludes certain because we’re new we’re able to buy the best
countries… in the UK you use your credit card and customer technology. We haven’t got all these legacy
they might charge you a cash deposit, and then systems that don’t talk to each other, it’s very simple;
there’s a worry still about cloning of cards of TK we want to move money from A to B, it might be a
Maxx and others in the press. The thing about casino merchant, it might be a Spanish pool cleaner,
Ivobank is UK regulated banks are as safe as they it might be your mum back in Ireland who wants
probably get, if not the government will step in, so if Christmas presents from you.
you’re a customer, you can use it with confidence, if
you’re a merchant, you’re saying well, I’m paying CI: How would an account benefit an online
quite high interchange acquisition fees, and I still get player?
all these chargebacks – with Ivobank we’re cheaper, TS: Say you’re a Brit, we open your account in British
guaranteed payment and no retentions on the purse, currency, then we’ll say you can open another account.
where you have to put up with a ten-day wait for the If you’re betting a lot in Euros, we’ll say you can keep
money to be released to you. The position is at the your account in Euros, I’ll settle with an account with
moment, and I feel gaming being a good industry, Tim Sawyer Casinos and they’ll send it back to me in
things work but they could work a lot better and Euros, that way I’m not always doing my conversion
that’s what we’re trying to do. costs and being ripped off, or they’ll settle in sterling if
that’s what you want. So if you play at a Polish casino,
CI: Ivobank seems to be superfluous, you offer a we can say do you want a Zloty account at some time,
lot of things you can do with a regular bank… or if your mother’s Polish, you want a Zloty account so
TS: Take the gaming industry, you want to gamble you can send money to her when you feel like it.
18 OCTOBER 2008
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