SEQR

SEQR Partners with Optimal Payments to Launch in the UK

July 9, 2014         By: Kevin Xu

SEQR (pronounced “secure”), a leading mobile wallet and mobile payment offering based out of Sweden is set to launch in the United Kingdom.

SEQR uses a combination of NFC and QR codes, and the backend handling of transactions is based on technologies created by its parent company, Seamless.

Like other mobile payment competitors, merchants who use SEQR are promised lower transaction fees (up to 50 percent), loyalty rewards programs, and now a closed-loop prepaid account for customers to use towards shopping at their stores.

Consumers can also carry out person-to-person payments through the app.

Seamless is partnering with Optimal Payments, a global payment provider, to move mobile transactions in the UK. The United Kingdom will also be the first country to gain access to SEQR’s prepaid merchant service.

The UK is facing some conflict in mobile payment adoption, since signs point to friction between consumers and merchants.

According to MasterCard, an estimated 5.7 million transactions happen through mobile payments every day.

The friction comes from merchants unwilling to support these new payment methods by upgrading or integrating mobile payment services.

In the UK, financial institutions are certainly driving mobile payments; with the launch of the national person-to-person mobile payment service Paym.

SEQR has hit the UK market at just the right time, but the challenge will be to onboard merchants, and to compete with the other mobile payment heavy-hitters.