The amalgamation of technology and business has made unprecedented changes in the way we do business. The phrase “Time is Money” has never been more appropriate and we’re stepping towards a time where almost every mundane and time consuming, yet important, tasks will be automated and digitized. A decade prior, we couldn’t have comprehended the thought of making payments without using actual cash or routing through banks, but gradually, we have taken progressive steps towards a touch-free payment mechanism that has simplified life beyond cognition.

Following are some of the major breakthroughs in the history of mobile payments:

In the subsequent years, E-commerce and shopping have become the new normal. Even though the number of online sales, products and services has exploded, it should be noted that nothing fundamental has undergone groundbreaking changes. This modern method of facilitating payment transactions based on the new-age payment channels and technologies is predicted to take the payment industry to the next level.

Asia driving global mobile payments:

Instant payment systems are transforming banking and retail, and these new technologies can offer a huge competitive advantage to organizations. Instant payments greatly increase the pace and efficiency at which payments are made and received by acting as a service enhancement in all payment scenarios. Especially with the rapid rise of e-commerce, this technology has been offering a huge competitive advantage to organizations. When a payer dispatches payment instructions, it normally takes 1 business day for the recipient to actually re-use the transferred amount of money, but with instant payments, the transaction is completed and verified in a matter of seconds, all in real-time, 24x365. This allows funds to be available to be used by the recipient immediately.

On a global scale, the mobile payments market was valued at $1139.43 billion USD in 2019 and is expected to reach a value of USD 4690.65 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 26.93% over the forecast period of 2020–2025. This trend is expected to continue for many subsequent years due to changing lifestyles, daily commerce and rapid growth in online retailing.

Usually, the attention has always been on many of Europe’s leading nations for statistics, but several Eastern European countries are quietly making their mark with breakthroughs in digital innovation and conversion. A research of over 28,000 businesses on mobile payments in Europe has shown a progressive mindset and willingness to innovate across Eastern European markets.

Foreseeing this opportunity, many governments are now encouraging banks to create better infrastructure to enable safe and secure digital payments and are helping countries in the union adapt these methods.

Our contribution:

A leading IT company reached out to GeekyAnts for the Front End development of an Instant Payment Platform , the very first for their country. The app idea was approved by the government and was in the President’s mind for almost a year. Their vision was to involve as many consumers as possible in the payment ecosystem and provide fast, convenient and safe payment solutions. This platform would, in the future, become one of the first mobile applications that enabled instant payments in their country.

The proposed system allowed completing settlements on mutual payment transactions between individuals, businesses and government agencies 24*7* 365 mode in a time frame of 5–10 seconds. Innovative technologies like QR, NFC etc. were used at ATMs, POS terminals and cash registers for payments, cash withdrawals, money transfers etc. Mobile numbers, e-mail addresses, FIN code of ID card, TIN with simplified identification methods were also provided so that users can make payments conveniently. To serve this purpose, a centralized database was created in the system, through which users were identified.

The tech stack used in this project included Flutter and REST APIs. GeekyAnts has been exploring Flutter since its first release in its alpha stage & this experience has helped us in bringing this project to fruition in the most efficient way possible.

Flutter is a recent launch by Google & is a mobile UI framework that can be used to develop amazing Android and iOS applications with a single codebase. By inserting Flutter into their app on the WebView component, developers can easily visualize web content in the app. This also makes navigation in apps much easier. Representational State Transfer (REST) is an approach for communications purpose which is often used in various web services development. The architectural style of REST leverages lesser use of bandwidth to make an application much more suitable for the internet.

The aforementioned system is also integrated into the government payment portals and banks. As a result, it is possible to make real-time payments for more than 550 types of services provided by the Government Payment Portal. Users can also make payments in real-time through their bank accounts, the bank’s electronic banking services or payment terminals to businesses and individuals. This helps users to avoid penalties due to delay in payments to government agencies, utility bills etc. In addition to this, interbank service fee rates for payments made through this system are lower than other systems in place. Thus the applicable service fees are lower than the tariffs set for other payment systems as the payments are made directly through bank accounts. This stimulates non-cash payments by reducing the service fee paid by the business entity.

We achieved these results together…

It was a great responsibility to ensure that the app performs well in the market, as it was the one to lead through a great change in the payments market. Once the app is released, we are sure that it will make lives easier for a lot of people. The client was very impressed by the team’s work and their ability to create fixes to problems quickly. We wish it all the success in the world and feel immensely lucky to be a part of this venture.