For a leading financial technology solutions company based in the United Arab Emirates, India as a market is extremely progressive in terms of digital payments. OMA Emirates, with its strategic entry in the Indian subcontinent through MobiSwipe, has plans to extend its services further to the neighbouring countries, says Niranj Sangal, Group Chief Executive Officer , OMA Emirates Group, in conversation with Rashi Aditi Ghosh of Elets News Network (ENN). Excerpts:
Give us an overview of your products and services.
OMA Emirates is a leading financial technology solutions company focusing on Card Personalisation, Payment Issuing Systems and Payment Acquiring Systems. For over 25 years, it has been a preferred partner for payment solution providers in more than 12 countries across the world.
The range of services include EMV (Europay, MasterCard, and Visa) solutions for card issuance for both central and instant issuance, Mobile E-Top Up Solutions, E-Wallet Solutions, Loyalty Applications and NFC (near field communication) and Contactless Solutions. Additionally, OMA Emirates has been successfully providing end-to-end solutions for the oil and gas and telecom industries, as well as unattended solutions for parking and transportation sector.
The company’s portfolio also has advanced loyalty and payment solutions based on contactless vehicle identification. The parking solution system offers quick and easy payment of parking fees with hardware and software that allows payment through credit and debit cards.
Under its new OMA managed services, OMA Emirates provides banks with onsite teams to manage terminal and POS services, Point of Sale (POS) Network Services, ATMs, remote information technology infrastructure and payment solutions. The unique offering has no ownership costs for banks and financial institutions and provides 24/7 skilled onsite or offsite manpower. It is the most cost-effective alternative for banking institutions and allows them to achieve higher customer satisfaction.
OMA Emirates prides itself in being able to offer a wide range of solutions not only for banks and allied banking institutions but also for merchants directly. It’s increasing portfolio of products and solutions integrates the latest technology and ensures that customers gain from the inherent benefits especially in a fast moving and dynamic global economy.
The OMA Emirates this year announced its operations in India and even acquired mPOS solutions company MobiSwipe. Tell us about the project and its progress.
OMA Emirates announced its strategic entry into India in early 2017 with the acquisition of MobiSwipe along with immediate operations in sales, business development, marketing and acquisitions. We have set up OMA Emirates India headquarters in Mumbai and we will steadily expand our presence across India starting with metros and tier one cities and gradually across the country. Our presence in India also enables us to establish ourselves and extend reach to neighbouring markets.
We believe MobiSwipe is a cost effective, highly efficient and convenient solution for payments. It has the flexibility of accepting Magstripe and EMV Chip, credit and debit cards. It is a highly secure solution. MobiSwipe comes along with a pocket sized card reader that allows merchants and businesses to transact with a simple mobile application. We have been deploying the solution directly to merchants in addition to channel partners and banks.
MobiSwipe, as a part of OMA Emirates Mobility offering, has been extremely successful in India and its success here has encouraged OMA to take the solution to other international markets. We recently launched the mPoS in the Indian subcontinent, as well as the Middle East and the North African regions as well. Our vision is to make MobiSwipe the next best solution globally after the PoS.
The Payments market in India is transforming at a fast pace. What are your plans to match the speed of the innovation?
Demonetisation was a learning curve considering it compelled many to look beyond cash payments. There was a steep surge in digital payments along with the introduction and increase in usage of exiting digital payment options. We are in the process of integrating payments acceptance via BharatQR Code, Unified Payments Interface and Contactless cards. We have joined hands with a leading private sector bank in India to provide the new services. With reference to MobiSwipe, we are in the process of developing the mPoS to become compatible for payments made with QR Code, UPI, Samsung Pay and Apple Pay. Simultaneously we would be introducing some very innovate solutions here in India which are a part of OMA Emirates existing portfolio which will certainly add value to existing businesses.
Growing interface of digital payments in banking also elevates the risk of malware attack. What is your take in this regard?
We happen to be a part of a business where in security is of utmost priority. With the increase in digital payments, the risks have also increased. However, we constantly keep ourselves updated and are always ready in case of any malware attacks through regular updates in our systems and software, as per Payment Card Industry (PCI) guidelines. In case of electronic payment channels regular security protocols are followed as per the procedures released by Internet Engineers Task Force. While at an enterprise level, we keep ourselves updated, it is also important that users be aware of the increased risks associated with digital payments and regularly change their passwords, and PIN and refrain from sharing this information with anyone. It is also important that we maintain different passwords for different accounts.
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