Westpac trials small business payment app

Westpac is piloting a new mobile payment app for small businesses which allows them to process credit card payments without the use of an eftpos machine.

Mobile PayWay allows merchants to process MasterCard and Visa payments in real time on iPhones and has been designed for small businesses and sole traders. For example, tradespeople and personal trainers can process credit card payments on-the-spot without having to pass the credit card through a processing facility.

The app was designed and developed in-house at Westpac and has been driven by demand from customers due to a growing use of mobile technology - a recent Westpac survey revealed 70 per cent of respondents rely heavily on technology to run their business.

“We’ve seen the demand from our customers for anything mobile is enormous, so through our mobile banking applications and through our customer research, [we found] our customers want to be able to do business using their smartphone on the go. This was an unmet need that we saw,” Axel Boye-Moller, head of mortgages, cards and merchants, told Computerworld Australia.

“It’s an acceptance solution so [it is] targeted specifically for smaller merchants that typically don’t have access to card acceptance facilities today. So for us, it’s really around opening up a new market and bringing card acceptance to a new segment with all the benefits in terms of convenience and cashflow management that that entails.”

Features of the app include authorising credit card payments on-the-spot, a viewable list of the previous 20 transactions and a refund facility for the previous 20 transactions.

The app does not store credit card details in the app or on the phone.

While the app is free to download, Westpac is charging a fee of 2.75 per cent of the total transaction and an extra 30 cents per transaction.

The app has now been in development for several months and is currently being trialled – any business user can download the app and take part in the trial. Boye-Moller said the trial is expected to be carried out for a few months, with Westpac to evaluate it later this year.

While Boye-Moller would not reveal what other apps Westpac has in development at the moment, he stated the bank was developing several payment apps for businesses and consumers.

Follow Stephanie McDonald on Twitter: @stephmcdonald0

Follow Computerworld Australia on Twitter: @ComputerworldAU

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