iSignthis strikes licensing deal with payments giant UnionPay

Regulatory technology company iSignthis Ltd (ASX: ISX) has announced that its Australian subsidiary iSignthis eMoney Pty Ltd has entered into a “card not present/online agreement” with UnionPay International (UPI), to act as a card acquirer of China UnionPay (CUP) issued cards.

The two companies will collaborate in their mutual plans of developing a smoother payments process, however iSignthis must still complete full membership requirements, including technical integration and certification before offering the service to merchants.

The deal allows iSignthis eMoney to contract, process, acquire and settle directly with merchants using its ISXPay service.

ISXPay provides online businesses a full range of gateway, risk management, risk avoidance and processing services for card transactions and alternative payment methods.

CUP cards story

CUP cards are being issued by banks outside of China, including Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa, with CUP being the largest card issuer in the world.

Most recent transaction data suggest that CUP has rapidly become a popular card in Australia with transaction volume for UnionPay growing by 28.8% year-on-year to US$14.95 trillion (A$20 trillion).

For its own annual performance, iSignthis says its revenue in the 2018 financial year was 363% greater compared to the previous year while quarterly revenue was 167% greater.

Meanwhile, cash receipts increased to A$2.63 million, which represents a 67.4% increase versus the March quarter of A$1.57 million.

Funds secured

Today’s news comes a day after iSignthis secured a placement of almost 69 million ordinary shares in the company at a price of A$0.145 per share, raising A$10 million before costs.

The capital injection was earmarked for iSignthis to further develop the direction of digital product range, aimed at any online business that has transactions taking place on their platforms, and more importantly, anti-money laundering regulated entities.

iSignthis recently applied to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority for authority to carry on banking business as a provider of a Purchased Payment Facility (PPF Provider) under the Banking Act 1959.

The $10 million capital raising includes the capital requirements iSignthis anticipates will be required to satisfy the minimum prudential Tier 1 capital requirements for licensing iSignthis eMoney as a PPF Provider, a special class of Authorised Deposit-taking Institution (ADI) that are authorised to undertake a limited range of banking activities.