Lloyds Bank, Monitise Partner on mPOS Play (June 27, 2013)
June 27, 2013
Lloyds Bank is entering the mobile POS market via a new deal with Monitise plc under which the U.K. bank will sell Monitise’s card acceptance technology to small businesses and micro-merchants. The companies will begin offering “a suite of mobile payments products” beginning this fall, with Monitise’s technology also serving as the basis for a number of broader mobile banking initiatives Lloyds is developing for its clients.
With the new alliance, the firms are setting their sights on a rapidly growing small and micro-business segment in the U.K., which has grown in each of the past 12 years, according to Monitise. “There are more than 3.5 million sole traders in the U.K. who are missing out at the moment because they do not have access to existing mobile payments technology and we want to plug that gap with a service that is low cost and easy to use,” said Aidene Walsh, managing director, cards, transaction banking, Lloyds.
For Monitise, the partnership represents a significant step forward in the U.K. firm’s strategy of competing in a crowded mobile POS market by offering a white-label technology that banks, mobile operators and acquirers can use to offer their customers the ability to accept card payments on a mobile device. The system, dubbed Monitise mPOS, debuted in May.
