First Data, Roam Launch EMV Mobile Card Readers in India

First Data India is leveraging Roam's mobile platform to launch its own branded chip-and-PIN mobile card reader in the country.

The mobile point of sale product, RP750, is a standalone device with a PIN pad that enables Indian merchants to accept card payments on the go. Roam, a unit of Ingenico, offers a cloud-based white-label service to vendors that want to get a mobile point of sale product to market quickly.

"MPOS is big in India as it represents for many a way to offer cheaper payment terminals with more services using a mobile connection in a country where landline and payment infrastructures are very poor," said Ismael Lavergne, business development director of mobile solutions in the Asia Pacific at Ingenico, in an interview. "India is very underdeveloped in terms of card payment infrastructures and they are going for a disruptive play to catch up ."

First Data has also recently partnered with Mahindra Comviva, a mobile technology provider, to deploy a mobile point of sale product in India.

Mahindra Comviva is part of the project, Lavergne said. "First Data is the acquirer, Roam/Ingenico is providing the hardware and…Comviva is doing the integration," he said.

First Data, which is based in Atlanta, has also been moving into Brazil. The company partnered with Bancoob, the banking arm of the credit union cooperative system SiCoob, to bring a new electronic payment offering to the South American country. First Data also plans to offer its Clover tablet-based point of sale system in Brazil next year.