InComm Banks on Prepaid Platform to Bolster New M-Wallet Service (May 22, 2014)
A new mobile wallet platform from InComm is capitalizing on the company’s prepaid expertise to offer wallet providers a multitude of features, possibly giving InComm a competitive boost and signaling a shift in the prevailing business model. The Atlanta-based company’s InComm Mobile Platform (IMP) can integrate with multiple wallet platforms to provide capabilities, including processing mobile payments made using prepaid cards at the POS and enables InComm to develop and host mobile applications for client wallet providers, including merchants. The platform already is being used by Canadian telecom provider Rogers in its suretap wallet.
IMP supports NFC transactions and account top-up using credit and debit cards, along with digital gift cards and reporting and analytic services. The platform also relies on InComm’s prepaid card processing platform to support creation of prepaid debit card accounts.
The company’s extensive prepaid services platform should give InComm a leg up in the battle for space in the wallet services market alongside Firethorn Mobile, C-SAM and others, notes Rick Oglesby, senior analyst with Double Diamond Group. “A key differentiator is that the [InComm] platform can be deeply integrated with Incomm’s greater prepaid platform, which should give InComm an advantage with customers already using that platform, as well as providing a more comprehensive offering to new entrants,” he tells Paybefore.
Offering an array of services to mobile wallet providers may become more common as the segment evolves, Oglesby notes. “As the market moves closer to a cohesive digital commerce environment, we’ll see more consolidation toward multifaceted vendors capable of managing the end-to-end experience, versus historically, where we’ve seen more specialization—which is normal for emerging products and technologies.”
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