The expansion into Italy is an important step in the company's ambitions to build a global and ubiquitous mobile business platform capable of serving a diverse portfolio of merchants anywhere on the planet. Elisabetta De Bernardi, former Executive Director with Morgan Stanley in Italy, has been appointed as the CEO.

MPayMe believes the Italian market represents a significant business opportunity for ZNAP™. According to research house Euromonitor, mobile and online commerce has seen massive growth in Italy. Internet channels have seen double digit increases in sales revenues since 2009. There are 55.1m 3g subscriptions in Italy, representing 90.5% of the population and Italians own 22 million smartphones.

Strong sales and use of mobile devices have forced merchants to rethink their strategies to meet consumer demand for new payment and service channels.

The innovative ZNAP™ mobile business platform will allow Italian merchants of all types to optimise transactions and increase share of wallet through multi-channel mobile payments with value added solutions such as loyalty, business intelligence, geo-location, offer marketing and much more.

Elisabetta De Bernardi, Italian CEO at MPayMe, the company behind ZNAP™ said, "There has never been a better time to enter the Italian market. There is an enormous interest and demand for mobile services in Italy. Banks, operators and major brands are announcing plans to roll out mobile payment services."

"ZNAP™ however is different. Merchants need very little investment to get up and running with our platform and our wide ranging functionality and global footprint sets ZNAP™ apart from other players that are nearly always limited in scope. ZNAP™ has the power to revolutionise how we do business. It is simple to use and, for merchants, powerful and affordable to adopt."

Alessandro Gadotti, Group CEO of MPayMe, the company behind ZNAP™ said, "Italy is ready for ZNAP™ and with Elisabetta leading the way, we are ready for Italy. We look forward to forging new partnerships and alliances to bring the benefits of ZNAP™ to merchants and consumers across the country."