Mercantile Bank of Michigan to Let Customers Use Mobile Devices to Send Real-Time Payments From Their Bank Accounts to an Email or Mobile Number NORCROSS, Ga., Nov. 3, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- S1 Corporation (Nasdaq:SONE), a leading global provider of financial services and payments software solutions, today announced an agreement with PayPal to deliver a new personal payments service that allows consumers and businesses to make easy, fast and secure payments from their bank accounts to PayPal users around the world using their mobile phones. Mercantile Bank of Michigan, a customer of S1, is the first financial institution to sign up for the new offering and expects to go live with the mobile personal payments service early next year.
"S1's continued innovation in mobile banking and integration with the PayPal network will give us a competitive edge to support a channel that is essential to our customers and strategic to our bank's future," said John Schulte, senior vice president and CIO for Mercantile Bank of Michigan. "We see tremendous value for our customers in expanding our mobile banking functionality to include person to person payments with PayPal."
The S1 and PayPal alliance enables banking customers to quickly send money to PayPal customers from their mobile device by entering the recipient's email address or mobile phone number. In order to complete the transaction, the sender just needs to have a bank account with a participating financial institution and the receiver needs to have a PayPal account.
If the receiver does not have a PayPal account, he or she will be prompted to create one before funds can be transferred into his or her account. There are no other enrollment requirements. The sender will receive a real-time status alert of whether the funds sent have been claimed, effectively providing full insight into the transaction. Financial institutions working with S1 can tailor pricing for this new offering to maximize fee-based opportunities.
"S1 is the first company to announce their intention to utilize the PayPal platform to deliver personal payments for banks across the mobile channel," said Dan Schatt, senior director and head of financial innovations, PayPal. "This new relationship creates terrific opportunities for banks to offer valuable, differentiated services to their customers, and is a great example of how collaboration with financial services technology providers like S1 can help fuel a major expansion of the reach and use of mobile personal payments."
"This deal reflects the growing functionality of the mobile channel and is a strong signal to banks of where customer expectations are headed," said Bob Egan, global head of research and chief analyst at TowerGroup, a market research firm based in Needham, MA. "Given the near-ubiquity of mobile devices and fast adoption of smart phones in particular, we can expect an increasing convergence of trusted banking relationships, personal payments and mobile."
Schulte added that instant and easy access to making secure payments on the go has an endless array of uses that offer consumers flexibility in handling day to day needs. "Any spur of the moment need for making a quick payment when you are on the go is a great opportunity to use the mobile channel, and it eliminates the hassle of finding an ATM or dealing with checks. Paying the babysitter, splitting the restaurant tab, getting money to the kids, or collecting funds for a group gift are just a few examples. All the recipient needs is an email address or cell phone number," he said.
"The strategic alliance with PayPal is just one example of S1's commitment to advance its strategy of 'universal money movement,' enabling banking customers to make payments and move money anytime, anywhere and through any channel worldwide," said Jan Kruger, S1 Division President. "By working with PayPal to offer an easy way to pay almost anyone from anywhere through a mobile device, we help banks forge deeper relationships with their customers through an incredibly useful new service."
About S1 Corporation
Leading banks, credit unions, retailers, and processors need technology that adapts to the complex and challenging needs of their businesses. These organizations want solutions that can respond quickly to changes in the marketplace and help grow their businesses. For more than 20 years, S1 Corporation (Nasdaq:SONE) has been a leader in developing software products that offer flexibility and reliability. Over 3,000 organizations worldwide depend on S1 for payments, online banking, mobile banking, voice banking, branch banking and lending solutions that deliver a competitive advantage. More information is available at www.s1.com.
About Mercantile Bank of Michigan
Based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Mercantile Bank Corporation is the bank holding company for Mercantile Bank of Michigan. Founded in 1997 to provide banking services to businesses, individuals, and governmental units, the Bank differentiates itself on the basis of service quality and its banking staff expertise. Mercantile has seven full-service banking offices in Grand Rapids, Holland, and Lansing, Michigan. Mercantile Bank of Michigan's common stock is listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "MBWM". More information about the company can be found at www.mercbank.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These statements include statements with respect to our financial condition, results of operations and business. The words "believes," "expects," "may," "will," "should," "projects," "contemplates," "anticipates," "forecasts," "intends" or similar terminology identify forward-looking statements. These statements are based on our beliefs as well as assumptions made using information currently available to us. Because these statements reflect our current views concerning future events, they involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Therefore, actual results may differ significantly from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. The risk factors included in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (and available on our web site at www.s1.com or the SEC's web site at www.sec.gov) provide examples of risks, uncertainties and events that may cause our actual results to differ materially from the expectations we describe in our forward-looking statements. Except as provided by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement.
CONTACT: S1 Corporation
404.923.6865
David.Fontaine@s1.com
