Small and medium businesses in West Midlands to be hit and livelihoods affected
The Financial Services Authority has announced that banks are guilty of mis-selling specialist insurance products designed to protect small firms taking out loans against rising interest rates. This is believed to have a severe impact on a number of small businesses in West Midlands. The FSA has been investigating the length of time the mis-selling took place for and has been talking to some 100 businesses.
Dan Wagner, tech entrepreneur and CEO of Powa Technologies has been campaigning for more support for smaller companies. He said, “It is a tragedy that small companies have been taken advantage of. Loans and bad debts are often the one single reason that small companies go out of business. We need to have more responsible lending and products that surround those loans to help small businesses in West Midlands to survive and grow in difficult market conditions.”
This week Dan Wagner launched mPowa, a new payment system that will enable small and medium companies in the UK to accept credit and debit card payments through their mobile phones. It will help SMEs currently struggling with the effects of chasing debt as it will enable them to accept payments instantly as opposed to waiting for invoice payments.
mPowa is a service that includes a mobile phone app and a reader which connects to a smartphone or mobile device either by plugging into its headphone socket or via Bluetooth. It enables customers to make payments on the go using their card in a way never before seen in Britain.
The mobile app is free to download on iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows and Blackberry devices and functions as the control centre that accepts the payment. It monitors payments made by card as well as cash and cheque, as well as processing each transaction securely. The reader, when connected to a mobile phone, is used to swipe the magnetic strip of the card, or for the chip and pin device, the card is inserted and the customer is prompted to enter their PIN code. mPowa will enable businesses, including sole traders, to take payments immediately without waiting for invoices to be issued and paid.
Because many firms are currently unable to accept card payments due to the cost of devices, mPowa will function as a way of shortening the payment process from what can be months, to a matter of minutes.
“We created mPowa as a response to an age-old problem that needed a solution – a universal payment system that will enable anyone to accept money from customers without excessive costs or waiting times. Whether you are a large enterprise looking to mobilise your sales team, a market trader, or a local plumber who wants to accept payment on the spot, even from customers who don’t have cash to hand, this is a unique offering that will have a huge impact right across the country,” stated Wagner.
Both the mobile app and reader are free and the only cost associated with using mPowa is the small 25p or 0.25% fee charged for each credit or debit card payment processed, making it accessible to all businesses. And because it accommodates existing banking relationships, there’s no need for a business to change its banking details to use the service.
A web-based Merchant Dashboard account management system enables users to fully monitor payments in addition to the mobile app. Meanwhile, receipts can be sent by email or SMS.
Dan continued, “I am always speaking to businesses that squander valuable time chasing late payments because they were unable to take the money upfront in the first place. This problem is crippling companies who are already struggling in this difficult economic climate and many are having to close their doors because of this. mPowa will be an invaluable service for accepting payments whether the point of sale is the doorstep or the shop floor.”
