TWINT

What does it do?

TWINT is primarily a smartphone app available for iOS as well as Android. This app allows users to register, load, manage or transfer money and pay via the physical register or online channels. In addition to payment options, TWINT also helps users manage loyalty cards and discounts. TWINT is also a complete wallet for your mobile.

Who's behind it?

The client for the TWINT app is TWINT AG. It is a 100% subsidiary of PostFinance and wants to establish the Swiss standard for a digital wallet. Despite having a well-known parent company, the TWINT solution is purposely open and designed to include other banks and partners. The system is developed separately from PostFinance’s systems and is structured and runs as a stand-alone solution. AdNovum supports TWINT in all IT matters related to its “CIO as a Service” initiative – from requirements engineering to software development and integration all the way to complete 24 / 7 operation.

How does it work?

The TWINT functionality uses a variety of system components, both on internal and third-party systems. The mobile app communicates with the TWINT back end via a JSON-based REST interface. A handshake between the mobile and the beacon via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) matches the customer with the point of sales. Both ends verify it via the TWINT back end.

The back end in turn links various internal and external systems using various interfaces: Merchants (or their cash register system), for example, communicate with TWINT via a SOAP-based merchant interface. Banks also use a specific interface to communicate directly.

Other components use the same architecture and to some extent the same interfaces to use the necessary services. For example web applications such as the merchant portal and the administration console as well as the TWINT merchant application developed specifically for merchants where the cash register is not networked.

Where is it going?

TWINT is still new and has a full backlog of ideas. In the coming months the system will gradually be upgraded into a full wallet. The app will offer users targeted promotions which they can take advantage of immediately. The TWINT back end has been and is continuously being updated with other components such as a data warehouse, CMS and a business analytics engine.

Simon Zweifel

Simon Zweifel, MSc ETH in Computer Science, has been with AdNovum since 2005. As a technical project manager he has managed several larger banking and e-government projects. He became the program manager for TWINT in autumn of 2014. He coordinates the overall planning and all development activity for the large project. His private life revolves around his young family, which always keeps him on his toes.