Pocketbook and Bond announced the beginning of cooperation, the purpose of which is to provide small and medium-sized businesses with the opportunity to introduce digital wallets.
By adding the Bond financial platform to the white-label solution, which provides branded banking options for small and medium-sized businesses, Pocketbook allows its customers to accept payments directly from their digital wallets. This is stated in the press release, which was published on March 9.
Brian Krampler, co-founder and CEO of Pocketbook, said that after many years of working in the banking sector at BBVA and SMB neobank Azlo, he was able to study in detail the needs and wishes of representatives of small and medium-sized businesses. The head of the company noted that based on this experience, an understanding has been formed that consumers need not only an infrastructure that is as accessible as possible and provides the possibility of accelerated payment processing but also some other tools.
In the fourth quarter of 2022, an increase in the number of buyers who use smartphones as digital wallets when paying for goods was recorded in the world. Credit and debit cards are still the most popular payment methods. But this leadership may be shaken shortly due to the active growth in demand for digital wallets.
The growing popularity of virtual wallets in the foreseeable future will provoke active competition among developers of relevant products. Wally Mlynarski, head of products and trading services at Bank of America, said that sellers are at the forefront regarding the purchase itself, so adding digital wallets as an alternative payment method to online checks is becoming increasingly simple.
Currently, the most active use of virtual wallets is observed in Asia. Every fifth resident of this region uses the appropriate technology when making purchases. The active use of digital wallets is a trend with growth dynamics.
As part of the partnership, Pocketbook digital wallets will use Bond accounts and ACH Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). This solution will allow small and medium-sized enterprises to send and receive payments from any account, reduce transaction costs, and provide an alternative to card payments.
Bond General Counsel Jonathan Grayson said that digital wallets do not provide for any restrictions related to the specifics of financial transactions in certain industries.
As we have reported earlier, Viber Messenger launches in-app digital wallet.
Serhii Mikhailov
Serhii’s track record of study and work spans six years at the Faculty of Philology and eight years in the media, during which he has developed a deep understanding of various aspects of the industry and honed his writing skills; his areas of expertise include fintech, payments, cryptocurrency, and financial services, and he is constantly keeping a close eye on the latest developments and innovations in these fields, as he believes that they will have a significant impact on the future direction of the economy as a whole.