Utiba Announces Strategic Partnership With CREDENCIAL ARGENTINA

Utiba, a leading provider of mobile financial services solutions, and Credencial Argentina, a financial payment solutions company, have partnered to provide enhanced mobile financial services in the Americas region. The partnership with Credencial Argentina gives Utiba's customers the ability to issue a card, both physical and virtual, that expands the use and acceptance of Utiba's mobile wallet at ATM machines, retail points of sale (POS) and for online purchases. These card products can be debit, credit and prepaid.

Utiba's customers financial institutions, mobile network operators and payment service providers will benefit from increased end user adoption and usage, increased transaction revenues and an enhanced user experience. In the Americas region, Utiba's customers are located in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras, and Peru, with additional countries in deployment. Utiba expects to have broad regional coverage in the Americas by the end of 2013, serving a potential market of over 600 million mobile and internet users and a population of over 900 million people.

Converging Payments

The relationship with Credencial Argentina is another integral piece of UA's Converging Payments Strategy which was launched earlier 2012 with the announcement of the company's participation in MasterCard's Mobile Money Partnership. UA's strategy calls for the expansion of mobile financial services beyond a basic tool of financial inclusion for the "unbanked," a population estimated by the World Bank at 2.5 billion people worldwide. Partnerships with companies like MasterCard, Validsoft, and now Credencial Argentina, permit UA to extend the acceptance of the mobile wallet and create more sophisticated mobile financial services, both of which increase mobile wallet adoption and transaction rates.

"Issuing a companion card linked to the mobile wallet expands the payment network to include existing points of sale (POS), ATMs and other outlets. This helps our customers to provide their end users with an existing payment ecosystem and acceptance network while building out their own agent networks. Our relationship with Credencial Argentina is designed to give our customers the shortest possible time-to-revenue and growth," noted Utiba regional CEO Henryk Dabrowski.

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