American Express said as part of their agreement, it will merge its digital payments platform, Serve, with Payfone’s mobile authorization and payment services.
The card maker also added that working together, Serve and Payfone will empower the consumers to make purchases from online merchants using their mobile phone number at checkout.
According to the American Express, consumers will be able to link their mobile numbers to a variety of payment methods including their pre-or-postpaid mobile operator account, as well as via a customer’s Serve account.
American Express group president of enterprise growth Dan Schulman said that this alliance brings together Serve’s unified online, mobile and real-world functionality with Payfone’s advanced mobile authorization and payment services to deliver a seamless payment solution. The alliance is an important next step for the international roll out of Serve.
Payfone co-founder and CEO Rodger Desai said that over 5 billion people worldwide currently have mobile phones, however less than 2 billion have credit cards.
"It’s our goal to make the mobile phone number the new accepted way to pay. We look forward to working with American Express and our mobile operator partners in defining and driving the mobile payments industry," Desai said.
