First Data Corp. said Thursday it will work with mFoundry, a California company, in the push to promote commerce with cellphones.
MFoundry has developed Spotlight, a platform that allows people to conduct banking transactions and make payments over their cellphones.
Greenwood Village-based First Data is the leading processor of credit- and debit-card transactions, with expertise in stored-value cards.
The initial focus is to allow people to do banking transactions via their cellphones, said Dominic Morea, senior vice president of product and business development at First Data.
The bigger game, however, is to usher in a world where cellphones replace wallets bulging with credit and debit cards, not to mention cash.
“It is building infrastructure to bridge the two worlds of consumers and their financial institutions,” Morea said.
First Data is agnostic about what mobile carriers it will partner with or the technology used to make payments. The relationship with mFoundry is nonexclusive, Morea said.
Given its long-standing relationship with thousands of banks and merchants, First Data can help determine what technology retailers will use to accept payments.
Incoming First Data chief executive Michael Capellas, who in his previous jobs headed computer maker Compaq and high-speed data network MCI, said he wants First Data to be front and center in the next wave of e-commerce.
First Data in May said it would invest in Vivotech, an emerging leader in the development of contactless payment systems.
The systems allow payment by simply waving a magnetic card or other device near a reader. The company is also a leader in stored-value cards, another payment method that cellphones could employ to handle transactions.
The race for mobile payments, including money transfers, has heated up in recent months.
First Data spinoff Western Union took a hit in June when Verizon said it would team with Obopay Inc. to allow people to transfer money and make payments via their cellphones.
Staff writer Aldo Svaldi can be reached at 303-954-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com.
