SIA Group’s Perago has partnered with Swish Payments Ltd to launch a new m-commerce initiative in South Africa and Europe.
According to the deal, Perago will enable the Swish Payments’ mobile app and card reader to help merchants convert their smartphones or tablets into M-POS terminals to accept debit and credit card payments on the go.
“The deal with SIA is a critical component of our offer as it allows us to count on an established processing infrastructure. It also allows us to focus our efforts on the business and enhance the Swish value proposition for our customers,” said Stephen Grech, CEO of Swish Payments Ltd.
Swish Payments is a mobile commerce provider owned by leading South African payment service provider Setcom Payment Solutions. Swish will use Perago’s gateway for payment switching to all international circuits in conjunction with a PCI-compliant Acquirer Independent solution for transaction authorisation and clearing. The platform will provide seamless integration with multiple acquirers in multiple countries, powering payments across any regions.
“In addition to our proven experience in creating advanced systems for central banks, RTGS in particular, starting today Perago opens up its infrastructures to new services such as payment card transaction management. With this in mind, our agreement with Swish Payments represents an important milestone for SIA Group as this is the first card processing agreement in Africa, and it allows us to expand our portfolio with the integrated offer of the parent company SIA,” said Claudio Ceresani, CEO of Perago.
Swish Payments will be launching the new mobile POS solution in Africa and in 20 other European countries starting later this year. According to its forecasts, Swish expects to reach about 400,000 merchant subscribers by the end of 2016.