At Payment Magnates, We appreciate the innovation that is constantly expanding payment opportunities for e-merchants. On the other hand, we try to examine these opportunities with a critical eye because we know that a merchant’s payment choices should be made carefully and following rigorous investigation. We bring you the ideas and opinions of payment companies in order to help you with your investigation and understanding of the industry as a whole.
We have interviewed Edgar Schnorpfeil, COO Payment & Banking of net mobile AG, on various topics, including that of mobile payment solutions, which is currently one of the fastest growing innovations in the industry
Payment Magnates: What is net-m privatbank 1891 AG?
Edgar Schnorpfeil: In 2011 net mobile AG (net-m) took over the majority of Bankverein Werther AG, which today operates under the name net-m privatbank 1891 AG and now is a 100% subsidiary of net mobile AG. The Acquisition of net-m privatbank 1891 AG has contributed to the increase of business opportunities for the net mobile Group. Since then it has been possible to offer regulated banking services to existing and new net mobile customers. The ownership of net-m privatbank 1891 AG enables us to enter into new business areas and consequently strengthens our “Payment & Banking” business segment.
PM: You mention on your website that you provide one API for all payment schemes. How does this work?
ES: API stands for Application Programming Interface. Our one API approach allows our m-/e-commerce merchants to implement one single technical interface to the net-m payment platform that provides a variety of payment options to the end-users. Furthermore net-m takes care of all functional requirements, so that the development effort on merchant side is lower in comparison to other solutions.
PM: Do you open merchant accounts with acquiring banks? If so please elaborate
ES: As an acquirer, our net-m privatbank 1891 AG itself can offer acquiring contracts for merchants all over Europe. If a customer has its registered office outside of Europe we are able to offer acquiring contracts through partners at excellent commercial conditions.
PM: What are typical rates for your e-wallet?
ES: Based on our banking license, our existing payment platform, our development capacities and our partnerships with credit card companies we are able to develop customer specific e-wallet solutions. Such solutions can come in combination with a smartphone payment app and/or physical credit card and/or NFC sticker. Therefore the question about rates cannot be answered in short.
PM: As a provider of mobile payment services, how do you see mobile Payments in the in the future?
ES: Mobile payment comes in different flavors. Already today net-m is very strong in direct operator billing. This means that we realize technical interfaces between mobile operator’s billing systems and merchants for digital goods. This way we enable companies like Google and Facebook and many smaller ones to charge for their digital goods like apps, games, ebooks, music, etc. through the end-user’s phone bill. Through net-m privatbank we also hold a strong position as an acquiring bank in the rather new field of mobile point of sale (mPOS) credit card acceptance.
Recently there is much talk and activity around mobile phone based contactless payment at the point of sale. According to a GFK study around 56 % of German customers consider such payment solutions to be appealing. Gartner’s “Mobile Payment, Worldwide, 2009-2016” forecasts a market volume of almost 620 billion dollars by 2016. Our mother company NTT DOCOMO, INC. has been very successful in the field of NFC based mobile payments since 2003. net mobile AG is very well positioned to support European mobile operators or other companies to realize any mobile payment concept.
PM: You offer an all-in-one PSP integration solution. Does this mean that it could be a strategic mistake for merchants to focus on mobile payments only?
ES: We believe that it is very important for merchants and end-users to have a wide range of payment options. The net-m commerce solution provides with a single API a variety of payment options including direct operator billing, credit card acceptance, paysafecard acceptance and others. On top of this our merchant payment page comes with optimal rendering; this means that the payment page perfectly fits any screen that the end-user might be using whether it is his PC or smartphone or tablet device. Also we pay great attention to design the payment flow as smooth as possible
