Swish’s Visa membership complements the provider’s MasterCard membership, which was secured in January 2015. As a licensed financial institution with full Visa and MasterCard membership, Swish will now be able to acquire merchant accounts and process Visa and MasterCard transactions for merchants across Europe, beginning with an mPOS pilot to be launched in Malta later this year.

The mPOS provider’s agreements with Visa and MasterCard will reduce its direct acquiring costs and accelerate the merchant boarding process, providing Swish with a strong competitive position for creating new business in Europe. Without the need for an external acquiring bank to acquire merchant accounts, Swish is uniquely positioned to partner with non-bank organisations such as Telecommunications Companies, Payment Service Providers, Mobile Network Operators and others looking to deploy an end-to-end mobile commerce platform.

“We are absolutely delighted to have reached this stage of our project. Nonetheless, this is just the start, and the organisation is now fully committed to go live with its first acquiring project in Malta in the very near future.” commented Steve Grech, CEO of Swish Payments.

The Swish mPOS platform includes card readers, Android and iOS supported mobile applications, a full-featured payment gateway, and various web portals tailored to the needs of merchants, including large-scale enterprises and SMEs. Swish also provides transaction and merchant boarding APIs which enable full integration into any external system, such as existing POS systems or mobile applications. Looking ahead, Swish will continue providing mPOS merchant services to its growing European client base, while pursuing partnerships with providers interested in its white label mPOS solution.