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American Express and Payfone Announce Strategic Alliance to Power Global Mobile Checkout

^{Published on 2011-04-13 05:11:22 - Market Wire}
 

NEW YORK--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--American Express (NYSE:AXP), and Payfone ([ www.payfone.com ]), a leading mobile payment processing service, today announced a strategic alliance to create and power a new global mobile checkout service. As part of the agreement, Payfone will combine its advanced mobile authorization and payment services with American Expressa™ recently launched digital payments platform, Serve.

"This alliance brings together Servea™s unified online, mobile and real-world functionality with Payfonea™s advanced mobile authorization and payment services to deliver a seamless payment solution"

Working together, Serve and Payfone will provide consumers with the ability to make purchases from online merchants using their mobile phone number at checkout. Consumers will be able to link their mobile numbers to a variety of payment methods including their pre-or-postpaid mobile operator account, as well as via a customera™s Serve account.

aThis alliance brings together Servea™s unified online, mobile and real-world functionality with Payfonea™s advanced mobile authorization and payment services to deliver a seamless payment solution,a said Dan Schulman, Group President, Enterprise Growth, American Express. aThe alliance is an important next step for the international roll out of Serve. We look forward to working with Payfone as we evolve the Serve platform to provide the most advanced payment solutions for buyers and sellers, while setting new standards in security, simplicity and reliability.a

Payfone is unique in leveraging the existing assets of mobile operators, such as the global SS7 signaling network for directly connected payment authorization and processing. This approach distinguishes Payfone from other competitors.

Payfonea™s unique IP focuses on driving merchanta™s sales conversion and revenue yield while managing fraud using new factors of authentication that are inherent in the mobile operator networks. For consumers, it means greater choice in payment methods and the most frictionless user experience, across any device.

aThis relationship will be a defining force in the industry. By teaming up with American Expressa™ new digital payments platform, Serve, we are not only delivering greater choice to consumers and merchants, with one of the most comprehensive and advanced e-wallets in the industry, we are also enabling mobile operators to participate in the transaction flow and benefit from an entirely new revenue source,a said Rodger Desai, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Payfone. aOver 5 billion people worldwide currently have mobile phones, however less than 2 billion have credit cards. Ita™s our goal to make the mobile phone number the new accepted way to pay. We look forward to working with American Express and our mobile operator partners in defining and driving the mobile payments industry.

About American Express

American Express is a global services company, providing customers with access to products, insights and experiences that enrich lives and build business success. Learn more at [ www.americanexpress.com ] and connect with us on [ www.facebook.com/americanexpress ], [ www.twitter.com/americanexpress ] and [ www.youtube.com/americanexpress ].

American Express recently launched Serve, a next generation payments platform designed to deliver emerging payments and services to address the changing ways consumers interact and exchange money -- with one another -- as well as merchants. Learn more at [ www.serve.com ] and connect with us on [ www.facebook.com/paywithserve ] and [ www.twitter.com/serve ].

About Payfone

Payfone authorizes and processes mobile payment transactions for the worlda™s best known application stores and merchants. Payfonea™s unique ability to leverage the mobile operator network to directly authorize and process payments drives higher sales conversion and revenue yield for merchants and mobile operators, while managing fraud and revenue leakage. As a result, consumers benefit with a wide choice in payment methods and the best user experience. Additional information is available at [ www.payfone.com ].

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements

This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements contain words such as abelieve,a aexpect,a aanticipate,a aoptimistic,a aintend,a aplan,a aaim,a awill,a amay,a ashould,a acould,a awould,a alikely,a and similar expressions. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they are made. Neither Payfone nor American Express undertakes any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements, include, but are not limited to, the willingness of consumers to use mobile payments technologies instead of competing payment products and their satisfaction with the operability, fee structure and other features of Payfonea™s and Servea™s products; and the success of Payfone in developing relationships with telecommunication carriers, both in and outside the U.S., and the integration of Serve as a payment method for their mobile customers.

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