A first in the local banking sector, Bank One unveiled “pop” on 30 September, as the only digital universal payment solution available in Mauritius. The announcement came just days after the Bank of Mauritius officially launched the MauCAS payment network, which aims to make e-commerce, banking and mobile payments inter-operable. 

The launching of pop is a huge technological leap as digital payments are now both accessible and affordable via a smartphone to anyone having a bank account in Mauritius. Available for download on App Store and Google Play Store, pop offers a delightful user experience to customers and a low-cost acquiring platform to merchants. In a few simple steps, customers will be able to connect their bank accounts to pop and use it to make payments across banks instantly, share bills or pay merchants using a QR code or a phone number at no cost to them. They will also earn rewards for inviting their friends and family to pop and obtain loyalty points when they pay with pop at selected stores.

Mark Watkinson, CEO of Bank One says: “Pop comes from a desire to make financial services accessible to everyone in Mauritius, merchants and customers, in a simple and affordable manner no matter where they bank. I believe that it marks a turning point and sets the base for making Mauritius a cashless society using the MauCAS network and a common set of rules for all operators. With pop, Bank One wants to position itself as a key player in the digital financial services space in Mauritius. We believe that the future will be digitally-led and customer-driven and we want to lead the change.” 

Bhavya Shah, Head of Personal Financial Services adds: “The launching of pop is a key milestone for Bank One and a major achievement for our teams and partners. Instant peer-to-peer transfers and payments to merchants are now a reality in Mauritius! Our objective is to become the first ‘financial supermarket” in Mauritius and to offer enhanced digital financial solutions to our customers via pop with the support of our partners. We have a very exciting roadmap of new features such as loans, insurance and savings accounts. Customers can expect to hear more exciting news from us in the coming months.”  

Merchants, on the other hand, will be able to manage their transactions around the clock in real time and offer a universal digital payment solution to their customers at a fraction of the cost they would normally pay and without any capital investment. To offer a comprehensive and seamless solution to merchants, Bank One has partnered with MiPS, a payment-driven feature-oriented platform offering disruptive processes to companies. “MiPS was initially established to address the transactional needs of merchants forgotten by the financial ecosystem; digital inclusion being the bottom line. The disruptive, innovative and fruitful collaboration between MiPS and pop has given birth to the first next-gen feature-oriented payment system in Mauritius. Pop, together with MiPS, is an amazing contextual innovation!” explains Sébastien Le Blanc, CEO of MiPs. 

Bank One is convinced that pop will facilitate daily payments for individual customers and help companies, from SMEs to large corporates, provide a seamless and cost-efficient digital payment solution to help them grow their commercial activities in stores and online. The bank expects to see more innovations in the marketplace that are bank agnostic and focused on a customers’ lifestyle, use case driven and seeking to embed into customers’ lives seamlessly.