Auka: Transforming Retail Banking with Mobile Payment Products

Digitized payment methods are gaining worldwide attention for all the right reasons. They enable users to pay bills, purchase products and services, and check their account balances online, no matter where they are.
A digitized method of payment is more secure and convenient than the conventional cash payment gateway. It is also a very helpful feature for users in remote areas. Wireless payment gateway systems are so easy to use and adaptable that about thirty percent of smartphone users employ them.
Auka started as mCASH, Norway’s first mobile wallet. mCASH was the first fully-licensed financial services company to run completely on the Google cloud platform. In 2015, Norway’s second largest bank, SpareBank 1, acquired the exclusive branding and usage of mCASH in an attempt to keep up with Norway’s largest bank, DNB and its mobile platform, Vipps.
Auka was formed off the back of this acquisition. In 2016, it was launched internationally to help banks in other regions create and launch their own white-label mobile payment solutions.
Creating New Revenue Streams 
The European PSD2 and GDPR payments and data regulation systems are stimulating bank business. Banks were on the defensive with third parties taking over consumer interface while returns on card payments diminishing.
Auka offers them a new channel for recruiting customers and creating new revenue streams through its proven mobile payments platform. All this is streamlined through Auka’s white-label consumer and merchant apps, which are owned and branded by the issuing banks on a SaaS model.
Auka has the unique experience of building and launching a mobile payments platform including P2P and P2M payment functionality in a region where a solution like this did not previously exist.
Banks in Scandinavia utilize the same underlying formula that powers Tencent’s WeChat Pay and Alipay. Scandinavian banks are the only banks in the world who have monetized and increased their customer share using this model of mobile payments.
Transforming Vision into Reality 
Auka’s Founder, Daniel Döderlein, believed for many years that sending money to peers should be as easy as sending a text message. The introduction of the smartphone made that idea possible.
True to his vision, Daniel started working on a revolutionary payment platform. In 2010, after three years of studying both the proprietary Norwegian and the international payment networks, Daniel completed his design and launched it as mCASH. He had created the first technology of its kind in Scandinavia.
Daniel is an award-winning serial entrepreneur. He founded one of Norway’s first domain and web hosting companies when he was just 17. Today, he has more than twenty years of experience in the fields of IT, media, marketing and mobile.
Daniel is also on the Google Cloud Customer Advisory Board. He has contributed extensively to several IT and telecom startups. This experience has enabled him to develop a vast network in related fields and build market-leading products. Additionally, Daniel regularly speaks at various banking and tech conferences on upcoming banking disruption and mobile payments. He is highly sought-after for his remarkable insight and vision, and has given talks at Google Next in Europe, the Paris Fintech forum, Viva Tech and London Fintech Week.
First Company to Launch a D2C Mobile Wallet 
Auka is one of the first companies to launch a D2C mobile wallet. With an admirable tech experience and ability to create a solution the company has first-hand learning’s of launching a service like this in market.
Auka has a string of firsts to its name. It was the first to develop mobile payment technology in the Nordic countries, the first to launch mobile payments in Norway, and the world’s first regulated financial services company to run 100% on public cloud.
Auka is one of the partners of Google Cloud’s Advisory Board. It has given regional banks the ability to create their own white-label mobile payments options. Its innovative solution has helped them to retain and acquire customers, gain a new channel through which to monetize payments, and also to prevent third-party disruption.
A World of Opportunity 
The regulatory technical standards which guide the implementation of the second payments services directive (PSD2) expire in September 2019.
“Banks in the EU are required to have their open banking systems in place to connect with third-parties by then. They must publish their compliance plans six months prior to this.”
“Additionally, they must have solutions to ward off the onslaught of disruption and competition from thirdparties, fintechs and other banks.”
Auka partners with banks in this transition period to help them strengthen their digital payments channels in this period of regulatory-driven and global banking change
Source :-The 20 Most Innovative FinTech Solution Providers 2018