Spire to Supply Mobile Chip and PIN Tech for Credit Agricole

European point of sale technology provider Spire will be the sole supplier of mobile chip and PIN payment devices for Smart TPE, Credit Agricole's mobile point of sale initiative in France.

The technology has two components—a smartphone application that can be downloaded from the Apple App Store or Google Play, and the Spire Payments Bluetooth-based PosMate mobile point of sale device.

The U.K.-based Spire, which faces competition from Ingenico and VeriFone, recently acquired Thyron to bolster its chip and PIN capabilities. Spire has also built out its payments technology in partnership with Newland Computers.

"Mobile point of sale solutions are becoming vital to a bank's relationship with its customers and the stakes are high as we witness a digitialization of the entire payment value chain. As suppliers of payment solutions, we follow closely our customers' changing expectations with respect to payment devices while maintaining a strong focus on the highest security standards for the protection of merchant data," says Kazem Aminaee, CEO of Spire Payments, in a Nov. 20 press release.