Christian Bamberger, COO & CIO PAY.ON: "mPOS offers retailers complete flexibility for their payments"

As an expert for global payment solutions, Christian Bamberger is responsible for product development, technology operation and security within PAY.ON. Previously, he was a manager at one of the leading Austrian ISP and IT service providers responsible for data processing centres and operations. Christian Bamberger studied telecommunications technology at the University of Applied Sciences in Salzburg.The Paypers caught up with Christian Bamberger to discuss

Until recently, PAY.ON was known as a global processor for payment providers and was involved mainly in the online space. Why have you decided to enter the mobile payments market with a mPOS solution?
Christian Bamberger: PAY.ON provides a wide variety of solutions for the global processing of online payments, including MOTO and m-commerce solutions, among other things. It is therefore a logical step to further develop our Platform-as-a-Service PaySourcing offering into mobile payments. The result is payment coverage for any field of application, including multichannel processing, the associated comprehensive reporting, sophisticated risk management and profound business intelligence. With PAY.ON, customers have access to all the professional instruments they need to be successful in their own market, as well as to expand their business into other segments – seamlessly and from a single source.

Your latest chip and PIN solution was developed in partnership with payworks. What exactly is their contribution in terms of technology and how does the solution actually work?
Christian Bamberger: mPOS and m-commerce are services that unite the strengths of PAY.ON and payworks. The result is a state-of-the-art solution that meets all criteria and requirements – absolute reliability, high performance, the highest security and innovative technology. The seamless interaction of the application and subsequent global processing with all desired payment partners worldwide is one of our striking advantages compared to solutions offered by other providers.

In your opinion, what are the advantages of a mobile POS solution compared to a traditional POS terminal?
Christian Bamberger: mPOS offers retailers complete flexibility for their payments – it is operational regardless of time and place and available as quickly as a mobile contract. The solution can be deployed on existing hardware – smartphones and tablets – and is compatible with existing systems such as restaurant software and booking systems. Mobile deployment is also possible at trade fairs and in taxis. In the process, PCI fulfilment via a certified, self-contained workflow is guaranteed. The risk of fraud is therefore reduced to virtually zero. As bills are sent directly via email, the customer email addresses gathered can also be used for marketing campaigns.

Security has always been a top concern for consumers, especially when it comes to making payments via mobile devices. How do they authenticate themselves during the payment process? Where is the data stored and how is it protected?
Christian Bamberger: mPOS uses end-to-end certification. The card data, all sensitive data in fact, is encrypted by the application in the end device, which then transports them via a secure connection to PAY.ON, where they are decrypted in a secure environment for further processing. As such, no data is saved on the mobile end-device. Even concerns about losing customer trust through mobile payments are unfounded, because the payment process takes place before the customer’s eyes, something that actually strengthens customer trust.

Is there an approval process that merchants need to undergo in order to process payments with your mPOS solution and are there any fees that they need to pay for this?
Christian Bamberger: No, there are no additional costs or need for action from our side. Retailer on-boarding is conducted by our PSP customers who offer mobile payment, with the market-established steps and conditions. As for the on-boarding process, PSPs also receive a new service here with PAY.ON, a service that is specially aligned to mobile payment and can link countless retailers in a short time.

mPOS also impresses in other respects: in contrast to other providers, we operate our own HMSs to encrypt the POS communication. Customers are therefore not restricted to one acquirer, but can select those that guarantee the best connection.

Where is your chip and PIN solution currently available and what plans do you have for the future in order to extend its availability?
Christian Bamberger: We can’t reveal our customers due to the white-label promise. However, there are currently more than 10,000 retailers connected across our platform via mobile payment. In Germany alone, four out of six mPOS projects are equipped with PAY.ON/payworks technology.

You have got quite some competition in the mobile payments market. Could you please specify some features that set your mPOS solution apart from other similar mobile POS services providers?
Christian Bamberger: Competition is necessary for progress, increasing quality and reducing prices, something that can only be a benefit for retailers. In contrast to new developments from other companies, PAY.ON services are always based on an existing, Fully developed platform and are therefore fully equipped with global connections to over 250 payment providers from the word go. The only thing our customers have to worry about, therefore, is running their business.

Furthermore: due to the white-label nature of the PAY.ON service, it is not possible to provide outsiders with a categorisation of which provider offers are original and which are based on PAY.ON technology.

It should be stressed that PAY.ON is significantly involved, both nationally and internationally, in the development of the mobile payment market via its mPOS customers.

What are some of the main obstacles you have encountered so far?
Christian Bamberger: At the beginning, the various needs and requirements of the providers to be involved had to be adapted to the processes and integrated into the solution. This created a typical chicken-and-egg scenario: banks demand a completed system for verification; retailers need the banks to provide mobile payments as a payment service. All these problems have now been resolved. Our strategically important and timely development with all partners, including payworks, has therefore paid off.

In your opinion, will mobile POS replace traditional POS terminals in the future or will we see an online-offline convergence in the retail ecosystem?
Christian Bamberger: There are parallels that can be drawn, such as smartphones and cameras. Despite substitution, the smartphone will not force the camera in itself out of the market. This situation is also conceivable for mobile payment. New technology ensures increased competition and will therefore also lead to a redistribution of the market share between the new mobile payment providers and traditional POS terminal providers.

For more information about PAY.ON, please check out a detailed profile of this company in our dedicated, industry-specific online companies database.