12th January2017 – Token, Inc., a new crypto-payment network and API ecosystem thatenables European banks to monetise their investment in PSD2, today announced astrategic partnership with VirtusaPolaris, a global provider of information technology (IT)consulting and outsourcing services.
Under the terms of the partnership,VirtusaPolaris will both resell Token’s programmable money network to banks andfinancial service providers and provide Token with systems integration support.VirtusaPolaris will also work on developing its own suite of services thatleverage Token’s underlying smart tokenisation technology.
“The Token network enables banks totransact with programmable money, which makes it incredibly versatile,”comments Steve Kirsch, founder and CEO, Token. “VirtusaPolaris has understoodthis potential and moved quickly to partner with us. It’s great news for us;not only do we now have a partner that can help us show banks how they canmonetise PSD2, we also have a co-developer with a wealth of experience andengineering skills for new services and propositions. Token already has trialsunderway with a number of major banks, so things are starting to move quicklyfor us now.”
“The opportunities for banks offeredby programmable money are remarkable and Token’s network and API ecosystem isthe most comprehensive proposition we’ve seen,” comments Stephen Holmes, Headof Technology, FinTech Labs at VirtusaPolaris. “Using the Token network toestablish banks’ compliance with PSD2 is a smart starting point, but that’sreally just the beginning. Token enables any kind of value-based transaction,from a low value domestic purchase to a vast international bank-to-bank moneytransfer, to be conducted securely, instantly and without reliance on thirdparties. We’re hugely excited by this partnership, which builds upon our recentlaunch of our OpenBanking API Accelerator.”
VirtusaPolaris’ OpenBanking APIAccelerator provides banks with an ability to securely and rapidly enhancetheir digital offerings using an ecosystem of third party applications, likeToken, together with other connectors and services designed to kick-start theirAPI journey and enable them to build next generation digital products andservices.
Banks use Token’s network to issueand redeem payment authorisations as smart tokens which can be programmed withany number of terms and conditions in accordance with the instructions of theaccount holder. This enables each smart token to be uniquely specifiedaccording to the transaction it represents. They can also execute API calloutsto external web services, enabling value added services to be integrated injust the same manner. Sensitive card or account data never leaves the bank’ssystems, masked or otherwise, vastly reducing the bank’s securityvulnerabilities.
Token’s programmable money networkreverses the fortunes of Europe’s banks in the digital age and empowers them tolead the market in digital transactions. It puts banks in sole control of theentire digital payments chain so they no longer have to relinquish front-endcontrol of their customer relationships to digital payment-enabling partners.Token’s platform also enables banks to issue value added services and retainownership of the resultant customer profiling data. These advantages benefitbanks by eliminating the widely-documented threat of disintermediation, whileproviding a model that both increases margins and reduces time-to-revenue fornew digital services.
