First Data, SK C&C Start Partnership

SK C&C of South Korea said Thursday that it is teaming up with First Data Corp. to provide SK's Trusted Service Manager offerings.

In mobile payments systems, the Trusted Service Manager helps make the process of downloading payment accounts to mobile phones efficient and secure. SK C&C, a unit of SK Group, is eager to tap the overseas mobile commerce market to improve its profits.

SK C&C will offer Trusted Service Manager services and electronic wallet applications, while First Data will handle marketing and sales.

SK C&C said the two companies expect to begin offering the mobile payment service in the U.S., Canada and Mexico in early 2011.

First Data, of Atlanta, is a unit of the New York private equity company Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.

"The mobile payment market is growing rapidly in the wake of smartphone boom worldwide," SK C&C's chief executive, Kim Shin-bae, said in a press release.

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