Tech giant IBM has teamed up with a Toronto-based fintech company Dream Payments, with the goal of transforming the way mobile payments are made within financial institutions.
Financial institutions often lag when it comes to bringing new products to market as a result of conservative cultures, legacy systems and strict regulation in the sector.
But there is a definite need to implement new mobile and digital payment solutions for small and medium-sized business customers, and this is exactly where Dream Payments focuses.
Its technology connects banks, acquirers, retailers and value-added apps, helping it deliver services that meet the demands of today’s mobile merchants.
Read more: Bank of America, FitPay partner to speed up wearable payments
New platform
As a core part of the partnership, IBM and Dream will roll out Dream Payments Cloud to US-based financial companies.
This is a scalable platform that provides businesses with secure mobile and digital payment services that help them go to market faster and improve customer experiences.
The platform, which is delivered through IBM Cloud, means that these smaller businesses don’t need to invest in expensive, lengthy IT projects to build these services in-house.
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Leveraging mobile payments
Dream executives have explained that “financial institutions can leverage Dream Payments’ offering to rapidly launch solutions that work with emerging payment technologies like mobile wallets, CHIP cards and contactless payments”.
The firm turned to IBM because it wanted to work with a partner capable of helping it deploy its cloud offering with a high level of control and security.
It’s also been able to accelerate its cloud infrastructure deployment from three months to days, by avoiding the complexity and cost of managing data centers.
“The combination of IBM’s banking and financial services expertise along with IBM Cloud has allowed Dream Payments to build and scale its cloud infrastructure, right down to bare metal hardware access, to maintain bank grade security, PCI compliance and data sovereignty,” said Chad Whittaker, CIO of Dream Payments.
Meanwhile, Frank Attaie, vice president of financial services at IBM Canada, commented: “Financial service leaders and fintechs recognize the need for digital reinvention to compete and win in the banking market.
“IBM provides clients the global cloud footprint and unified architecture they need to navigate regulatory and compliance demands while improving the customer experience.”
Five weeks to go: For more on how and why financial services companies are applying IoT technologies, attend our Internet of Banking and Payments event at Canary Wharf, London on 21-23 November 2017.
