First Data International, NCS Partner for Mobile Payment Services

The joint service offering, named Crandy, provides an easy, 'ready-to-use' solution for anyone wishing to offer or accept mobile payments. This solution currently serves 360,000 consumers in four European countries; and provides merchants with a simple, fast, secure and inexpensive mobile payment system for handling micro-payments.

The service enables consumers to make cashless micro-payments anytime, anywhere, for on-street, mobile and Internet transactions (including person-to-person payments), using their mobile handsets. To activate the service and set-up a payment account, consumers simply call a number from their mobile device. Their mobile number becomes the payment account identifier. Once the account is activated, consumers can purchase a service, product or transfer money, via a mobile text message or interactive voice response (IVR), which authorizes payment.

"First Data is proud to offer innovative mobile payment services to our banking and merchant customers around the world," said Francisco Lorca, Managing Director, First Data International. "The partnership with NCS further positions First Data as a leading provider of mobile payments services. We look forward to bringing our combined knowledge and expertise to this growing market."

Crandy provides the following key benefits to merchants and consumers:

• On-street ticketing and vending merchants gain incremental revenue as consumers choose the convenience of a mobile payment option over cash.
• Merchant and consumer transaction costs are reduced through a more efficient transaction routing system. Consumers are not charged a fee by their mobile operator to make a purchase and merchants pay lower fees.
• Banks and other issuers can also offer services to merchants and consumers through a "white-labeled" agreement, while the technology and processing are provided through a managed service.

Rolf Krause, founder and CEO of NCS, said: "The First Data International partnership represents a key milestone for NCS. Together we offer the right mix of capabilities to extend mobile payment solutions services to merchants and banks worldwide."