The United Kingdom will likely be adding a new smartphone friendly transaction service.
According to a recent announcement, the United Kingdom may soon be adding a brand new mobile payments platform to its offerings and will involved every major bank in the country.
When this comes together, it could be an important example for how financial institutions can collaborate.
The British banks will be working together for this mobile payments platform and may help to provide an example of how other financial institutions around the world can work together in order to make this type of transaction more widespread and to help to provide a more universal experience.
This type of partnership among banks can help to make mobile payments a lot more widespread.
The mobile payments service will be called Zapp and it was initially launched by VocaLink. That company is the collectively owned ATM and transaction network by the British banks. This will simply expand on the type of smartphone transaction service that is available in a similar way that other types of transactions have already been spread.
The Zapp mobile payments service will allow consumers to link their smartphone numbers to their bank accounts. This way, it will let these shoppers use their devices to send money in several different ways and for many different purposes. For example, it will allow everything from paying bills over smartphones to making peer to peer funds transfers.
The announcement revealed that the mobile payments platform has received funding from VocaLink worth £16 million, so far, and that it will still require an additional £100 million in order to bring it up to the ability to launch in 2014, as is intended.
Many different mobile payments platforms are currently launching all over the world, including in the United Kingdom. However, this will be among the first of its kind in terms of collaboration across all major banks in the country. The transactions have been very slow to take off, but it could be just this type of service that may make the difference to convince both businesses and consumers to adopt this cashless form of payment.
SumUp wins funding to expand mobile payments services
A mobile payments startup based in Berlin, Germany, has received the financial backing of large companies like Groupon and American Express recently. SumUp is a relatively new startup company that currently operates in 11 European countries and has helped expand mobile payments throughout the region. Consumers have been growing more comfortable with the idea of mobile commerce and have been demanding new services that are more comprehensive and more convenient for their needs.
Company may be able to establish stronger foothold in Europe
SumUp has announced that it has raised several million dollars in funding from companies that are interested in its approach to mobile payments. The funding is expected to help SumUp expand the services it offers throughout Europe. While mobile commerce has managed to establish a strong foothold in Europe, it is still considered a young sector that faces significant challenges that can derail growth and progress. Appropriate levels of funding could help mobile payments overcome these challenges and find better traction throughout the world.
Large companies currently dominating mobile commerce field
SumUp is not the only mobile payments firm operating in Europe. Several larger companies, such as PayPal, have begun to muscle into the mobile commerce sector in the region, all looking to establish some rapport with consumers and make them more comfortable with the concept of making mobile payments. Whether SumUp will be able to compete with these larger companies is uncertain, but the firm may be able to beat out smaller competitors that exist in the market.
UK consumers show great deal of love for mobile payments
Thus far, consumers in the United Kingdom have been the most willing to embrace mobile commerce. The country already has a robust mobile payments infrastructure. Several companies in the UK have embraced mobile payments, creating a highly competitive environment that has been unaccommodating to smaller companies that are not backed by significant funding. Fortunately for SumUp, both Groupon and American Express have considerable faith in the company.
