Novatti Group (ASX:NOV) partnering with UnionPay, Google Pay & Samsung Pay

Novatti Group Limited (ASX:NOV) Managing Director & CEO Peter Cook talks about the company's recently announced partnerships with UnionPay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay.

Melissa Darmawan: Hello. Melissa Darmawan for the Finance News Network. Joining me from Novatti Group (ASX:NOV) is CEO Peter Cook. Peter, nice to meet you.

Peter Cook: Mel, good morning.

Melissa Darmawan: Novatti Group is a leading digital banking and payments company. Can you tell us about the recently announced partnership with Google Pay and Samsung Pay?

Peter Cook: So, Novatti has been methodically building our business with a range of partnerships over actually a long period of time. As we bring these sorts of deals to bear, essentially we can provide more services to our existing customers and in a financial sense gain more share of wallet from those business or consumer customers. And most recently, we did announce that our card issuing services will interoperate with Google Pay and Samsung Pay. And so all of our clients with Google phones can immediately access those mobile payments services.

Melissa Darmawan: And hot on the heels of your partnership with Google Pay and Samsung Pay, you also have an agreement with UnionPay.

Peter Cook: Yes, so UnionPay is essentially China's main payment scheme. I think they're available in 179 countries and regions, and there are about 8.5 billion UnionPay cards out on issue. So, essentially more than one per person on the planet. Absolutely major payment scheme. They've selected us to be a merchant acquiring payment partner in Australia. And, essentially, wherever we've got clients who are accepting our payment services, then we can add on UnionPay. And in fact, we've already integrated, as I was saying, to our chinapayments.com web-based payment service. And we've got many thousands of Chinese consumers in China and in Australia — students, local residents who are paying bills, such as electricity council rates, telephone bills, and so forth. So, we've already got transactions occurring for that.

Melissa Darmawan: Are you seeing growth and innovation in your Visa card programs?

Peter Cook: We announced a year ago that we've got a principal issuing licence from Visa. So now Novatti Group Limited issues Visa cards, which in the past we've seen many banks do, as an example. As we've seen just this growth in cashless payments, we've seen this need for new services. Now, an example is a number of charities have come to us for the use of cards for, say, paying in beneficiaries or paying carers. So, instead of the carer paying for things with cash, and then maybe claiming back from the charity, the charity can issue them a card. It's got funds on it, there are spending controls, and it just improves and automates the process.

So, a new type of service. Fits the post-COVID world. We've got a couple of programs going around paying courier drivers, pick up services for food and groceries. So, a lot of innovation where people are using a card, and whether it be digital on the phone or a plastic card, as the prime tool or method of completing the payment.

Melissa Darmawan: Last question, Peter. Is there anything else you would like to add?

Peter Cook: Look, it truly is an exciting time to be in digital and cashless payments in a post-COVID world. The pandemic has accelerated the conversion of cash to cashless transactions. We are seeing that as people, whether it be consumer shopping from home or businesses making other payments.

In terms of our revenues, we've essentially grown consistently at about 50 per cent per annum revenues for the last three years. And, we are absolutely working to maintain those sorts of rates.

We've got just a very strong year of growth in front of us. That is the board's and management's aim. We've got circa $11 million in the bank, so we are fully funded. We are using some of those funds to drive growth. We are in a great thematic of the conversion of cash to a cashless economy, and we are really exposed for investors with a strong revenue base and a good management team facing into that thematic.

In terms of measurable building blocks, what we're talking about today, global partnerships, I think investors can look at us over time and see that we bring on more and more major partnerships as we drive to take a greater share of wallet from our customers, grow our customers, and in fact improve product margin.

Melissa Darmawan: Peter Cook, nice to meet you. Thanks for the update.

Peter Cook: Mel, FNN, thank you very much.

Source: Finance News Network