IDEMIA will be helping SadaPay provide its customers with modern payment cards. SadaPay is a new digital bank operating out of Pakistan that is entering a pilot phase after receiving approval from the State Bank of Pakistan at the tail end of 2020.
As a digital bank, SadaPay will allow users to make and receive local payments through a mobile app, and will also outfit those customers with a Mastercard debit card. That’s where IDEMIA comes into play. SadaPay has entered IDEMIA’s Global Fintech Accelerator Card Program, which was established in October to support partners that are looking to design and issue their own custom-branded payment cards.
The partnership with IDEMIA will help SadaPay distribute cards at scale and meet the strong early demand for its services. The company will not have any physical branch locations, and will instead take advantage of the low overhead to offer free basic services to its members. That offer is already proving to be popular with people in Pakistan, with SadaPay indicating that it has nearly 200,000 people on its wait list ahead of its official launch.
IDEMIA, meanwhile, maintains a card personalization center in Karachi, and is well prepared to deliver cards to the Pakistani market. The Accelerator Program gives partners access to IDEMIA’s entire card portfolio, which includes metal cards, biometric cards, and cards made from recycled PVC materials. It also includes digital identity technology that can be used to enable other digital payment services.
“With IDEMIA’s knowledge of the local market and capability to rapidly respond to our needs, it allows us to focus on our mission of delivering financial services to the wider public that are simple and inclusive,” said SadaPay Founder and CEO Brandon Timinsky.
IDEMIA and Mastercard recently launched their first biometric card pilot in Asia. The company is hoping that the Accelerator Program will help smaller financial organizations like SadaPay bring next-generation cards to the market more quickly, and encourage the mainstream adoption of biometric payment technology.
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