U.K.-based Proxama PLC, a global mobile marketing, loyalty and payments company, today unveiled details of its new end-to-end mobile proximity marketing and payments proposition following the acquisition of Aconite Technology last year.
Proxama’s new Digital Payments Division will be led by the team from Aconite as the combination of the two companies brings what it calls a true end-to-end model to the payments market for the first time. It will enable card issuers and financial institutions to implement services such as tokenization and mobile near field communication payments in this new domain quickly and easily, with support for everything from handset app help to risk and credential management, as well as handling back-end processing of mobile transactions, according to a press release.
According to Juniper Research, there will be 516 million mobile users of NFC services by the end of 2019, up from 101 million in 2014. With this proposition, and confronted by the looming EMV mandate in October 2015, Proxama believes customers can maximize the opportunity by transitioning from a traditional card issuing model to full in-house support for tokenization and mobile payments without any major internal changes. For card issuers with magnetic stripe cards, the company believes this proposition also provides a secure and low-cost route to migrate to EMV chip-and-PIN cards and provide a platform for contactless mobile NFC payment systems such as Apple Pay.
“We are redefining what mobile proximity commerce means by encompassing all the elements of the consumer-merchant dynamic; from when a consumer enters a store to choosing their goods and the final point of transaction,” said Neil Garner, founder of Proxama. “The impact of services such as Apple Pay has transformed NFC and it is clear that the appetite for mobile contactless payments will continue to grow. To stay relevant and evolve with the market, companies need to ensure they have the right services in place to meet this demand. Our proposition isn’t a one-off solution that satisfies today’s market needs but a one-stop shop that identifies and addresses tomorrow’s market demand for mobile contactless payments.”
Proxama acquired Aconite Technology in December 2014 following a history that dates back to 2008. The two companies first collaborated to demonstrate how to remotely manage NFC mobile phone applications.
