The M3 (Mobile Money for Microfinance) project will leverage the channel of DBJ-approved microfinance institutions (MFIs) to provide consumers with the capability to carry out low-cost person-to-person mobile money transfers and payments. Transcel will provide MFIs with facilities to mobile-enable, streamline and integrate lending, borrowing and repayment processes. The National Commercial Bank (NCB) in Jamaica, a principal partner in the M3 project, will provide debit cards linked to M3 accounts, allowing the consumers to access their money through an ATM or a merchant with a POS device.

In the Transcel M3 platform, deployed for the DBJ, all bank integration and financial transactions are implemented within Alaric's transaction processing framework. Alaric's Authentic and Fractals products will perform account opening and transaction validation checks (KYC, AML, OFAC, CFT), manage the balance of those accounts, provide authorisation of mobile transactions and synchronisation with NCB card services switch, and deliver full fraud detection and prevention functions.

In Jamaica, as in many other countries around the world, there is a large unbanked population which has limited access to traditional financial service providers and is typically forced to conduct all transactions in cash. They have to physically store or carry their earnings or remittance receipts, leaving them vulnerable to crime. Lacking access to regulated lines of credit, they are subjected to questionable practices of local money lenders.

"We are committed to bringing more citizens into the formal financial system," said Milverton Reynolds, Managing Director of the DBJ. "The DBJ's role at the heart of this transformative project ensures that many who have been previously excluded will finally have access to modern financial services and will be able to manage their money in a secure, regulated environment. The involvement of a company such as Alaric, whose payments and tranansactional security products are used by some of the largest financial services companies in the world, gives us confidence that the transactions on the M3 platform will be safe and free from fraud. This will pave the way for all parties to confidently embrace the convenience and cost-effectiveness of mobile financial services - with all the spin-off benefits to business, consumers and the economy as a whole."

"Mobile phones have reached such a high level of penetration in Jamaica (115%) that they provide the perfect vehicle to gain access to financial services. The initiative, started by the Development Bank of Jamaica and Transcel, incorporates learnings from other mobile money projects and has been very carefully planned to meet any possible demand," said Mike Alford, CEO at Alaric.

"Transcel is committed to delivering a future-ready mobile transaction hub that meets the security and interoperability requirements of the entire multiplicity of actors in the mobile money eco-system - financial institutions, mobile operators, retailers, and payment networks," said Hugo Daley, Transcel's CEO. "The partnership with Alaric takes us a long way towards a robust, zero-tolerance, fraud prevention platform that serves the needs of emerging e-payments service providers in Jamaica."

Authentic is a modern, ultra high-performance EFT authorisation and routing system managing transactions from all channels across the enterprise from ATM and POS to ecommerce and mobile. Unlike conventional payments processing software, Authentic absorbs change with ease. It combines unrivalled flexibility of deployment with efficiency of processing. Providing the payments engine for global networks and large processors, Authentic has achieved in excess of ten thousand transactions per second in recent benchmark tests.

Fractals is an intelligent fraud detection and prevention framework suitable for PSPs, online merchants, card issuers, acquirers and payments processors. When used 'in-flight', illegal transactions can be detected and stopped before a transaction is completed. Proprietary mathematical models incorporate self-learning allowing the model to automatically adapt to new fraud trends and retain its effectiveness. The Fractals Rules Engine enables fraud analysts to create and deploy powerful fraud detection rules within minutes, delivering substantial reductions in fraud losses. In the rapidly evolving world of electronic payments, Fractals benefits from continuous investment and R&D, ensuring that it remains at the forefront of fraud detection.