Monet Private Limited: Next Gen Mobile Payment Gateway Services

Banks often face a long gestation period in terms of development since the process for developing their own system is complicated and time consuming.They require selecting system software that meets their needs, procuringthe infrastructure, meeting the mobile money (branchless banking) regulations set by the State Bank, implementing them in the system, and lastly, get certifications from international payment schemes. All of this demands huge resources, in terms of both time and capital, to develop and maintain a robust infrastructure. Considering that Pakistan is largely a cash dependent economy, Monet Private Limited was incepted with a vision to establish the nation’s first neutral third party mobile/digital financial services hub.

Monet—one of the fastest growing payment facilitator and mobile financial services provider—offers solutions ranging from Card / Mobile Wallet Issuance, Mobile Point of Sale Acceptance, Payment Gateway, Utility Bill Payments, Merchant Payments and Mobile Banking. Ali Abbas Sikander, CEO, Monet, adds, “We are focused on digitizing payments in different industry verticals.” The company provides complete end-to-end solution where payment initiation and acceptance is just one component. These solutions are also customizablebased on the demands of various industries.

Monet’s multi-channel Mobile Payment Gateway integrates acquiringbanks with different sources of funds such as wallets, cards and bank accounts. The mode of payment is independent of the customer’s cellular platform and provides flexibility to the merchants to accept payments through Card,Mobile Wallet and Account based payments. Through such a solution, the company is facilitating interoperability between all the banks, telcos and merchants.

Monet has also pioneered the first mobile point-of-sale solution in Pakistan, currently live withmajor acquirers in the country. The solution delivers flexible, convenient and economical ways for businesses to expand their selling radius by accepting both in-store and remote payments. The portable and low-cost solution comprises of a mobile card reader that can be connected to any Smartphone and accepts both chip and magnetic stripe cards. The entire solution has been certified by international payment schemes, such as MasterCard, Visa and UnionPay International.By deploying the low cost MPOS solution, underserved merchants receive services like real time discount logic, custom payment flows, front-end as well as back-end integration with their existing system, Instant Payment Notification to customers as well as merchants.

The company has developed its own systems and infrastructure hosted and operated at Monet’sPCI DSS 3.1 certifiedData Centre.Ali Abbas Sikander elaborates, “With our highly capable team having expertise in cards, mobile and payments industry, Monet thrives to remain at the top of the game in providing mobile money solutions.” Monet’s payment system allows banks to not only retain and strengthen their existing merchant relationships but also to enter new industry verticals such as insurance, cash-on-delivery transport, courier services and person-to-government payments, etc.

This Pakistanbased company is currently outlining its expansion strategies in Asian and African regions with the main focus on setting up partnerships with on-soil payment services. It is already catering to electronic and mobile commerce ready segments as well as unbanked and underserved regions ofPakistan in verticals such as banking, telecommunication, Cash-on-Delivery (COD), transport, courier services, health services and government payments (P2G & G2P).Going forward, the company plans to introduce innovative products in the mobile money and digital payments industry.