Reference Model Of Card Transactions In The Accounting And Information Environment

The accelerating pace of life in which we have less and less time requires facilitated payment process. Payment card industry is a solution which offers simplicity and security in daily life to all participants in the process of payment. From the perspective of end-user, such payment is far safer, there is no need to carry cash, every transaction is recorded, and the payment process is faster. Retailers reduce pay desk operations, there is no need to cash out, there is no manipulation with a greater amount of cash, no change return, etc. Credit card companies, as a third participant in the payment card business, achieve profit by means of fees, membership fees, commissions and interest on credit services. The spread of banking networks and increased availability led to the quick expansion of such a payment. Today in Croatia there is virtually no adult without one or more cards. With regard to the market trends and increased competition, credit card companies try to impose their solutions and optimize their operation in order to accelerate business processes and reduce the operating costs. Reference models represent a good foundation where the most common business practice related to credit card transactions can be seen, which allows banks to adapt reference model to their needs. This paper describes the place and role of business process reference models in the creation of card transactions and also in the transformation and improvement of the organization’s business processes. Reference models of business processes formalize the structure and semantics of the organization’s procedural aspects or area of interest. Being the generalized abstraction, reference models are not directly applicable to specific cases, but represent a good basis for building and implementing a model that fits the specific case. Since this is a complex enterprise, development and implementation of reference models require appropriate approach based on a standard design process. The paper includes research results concerning the business process reference model design procedure suitable for the credit card business.