How many people read press releases for fun? There can’t be many I’d think. How many people want to read five from one company in a single sitting? That’s got to thin the already small crowd hasn’t it. Five press releases from a single company in one day seems intense but it also tells you they’re active and possibly doing something important. But who will read all that text to find out what’s going on? I will gentle reader, I will, just for you.
Have you heard of mCASH? It’s a Norwegian mobile payment platform that connects all your funding sources (credit card, debit card, loyalty card, etc) in one payment app, and enables you to pay to anyone, anywhere. Well if you hadn’t heard of them before then get prepared for that to change. They’ve just signed some significant deals with major Nordic banking service providers, as well as Nordic retailers and restaurants.
I dove into the press releases and discovered that first off mCASH have signed a strategic partnership with Teller, the largest multi-scheme acquirer in the Nordics. This allows them to provide support for nearly all major credit and debit cards, certainly handy if you want your app to be able to support all available payment options. mCASH enables the customer to charge payments to their debit and credit cards from major schemes such as Visa and MasterCard. This will allow mCASH to charge a client’s card when paying person-to-person, paying in physical stores, paying online, and more.
Next came the announcement of a partnership with Evry, one of the largest Nordic providers of solutions that support core banking services; think deposits, lending, and card and payment services. What’s the significance of this? Well founder and CEO of mCASH, Daniel R. Döderlein says, “We have put together a standard solution for all banks running on EVRY’s infrastructure, effectively rendering mCASH immediately accessible to the majority of banks in the Nordics.” So the mCASH platform is now integrated into EVRY core banking infrastructure, with BN Bank as the first Evry customer to utilize the setup. Apparently BN Bank employees are currently beta testing the mCASH app, things are moving quickly.
I could feel my strength fading but I pressed onto the third press release in which Visma Retail describes itself as the leading provider of point of sale software and hardware solutions in the Nordics and, surprise, they’ve also been busy with mCASH too. This announcement means that merchants will now be able to accept mobile payments using the cash register systems already deployed by Visma. No new hardware required either; all it needs is a routine software update of the Point of Sale terminal.
So that’s connections with banks, major debit and credit card schemes, and retail hardware and software. I still had two press releases to go, what else could there be? Well it turns out that on the same day mCASH also wanted to tell us that Deli De Luca, Norway’s leading chain of high-end convenience stores, had agreed to implement mCASH mobile payment functionality at all its locations in Norway and that’s through their Point Of Sale software vendor Lindbak Retail Systems. So it’s not only Visma that have made mCASH functionality to retailers. Two plus points in one press release there.
My vision was getting blurry, voices on the edge of reason were whispering their mad lies into my mind but still I pressed on. There was still one more press release to cover.
Umoe Restaurants AS, Norway’s largest operator of restaurants, is implementing mCASH mobile payment support across their locations. Who’s that? Well Umoe Restaurants operates franchises such as Burger King, Starbucks and T.G.I Fridays in Norway, Sweden and Denmark as well as Peppes Pizza, the largest pizza restaurant chain in the Nordics. I admit, I’d never heard of Umoe, but Burger King, Starbucks and T.G.I’s, those I certainly have come across before. Henry Karlsen, CIO of Umoe Restaurants explained, “We will test mCASH in Norway at first, if it’s a success we will turn on mCASH functionality in all our restaurants all over the Nordics.”
There it was dear readers, the light at the end of the tunnel, the freedom, the release. It was done, it was over. And what have we learnt? That mCASH sound read to crack open the Nordics, certainly Norway, with their mobile payment app. All the framework now seems to be in place for a simple, straightforward, functional mobile payment service. The next challenge I think will be bringing in the users, getting the app out there and active amongst the general public as they go shopping.
Hopefully that’s at least a week away, now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go wrestle my demons back into their cages.
