Hong Kong-based global mobile payment company Smart Transfer has launched a person-to-person payment platform that is says enables international social payments across multiple currencies at no charge to users.
Claiming a world first, Smart Transfers claims person-to person payment services offered by existing platforms are typically restricted to a single country, currency, or proprietary platform, and may involve service fees ranging up to 8% of the transaction amount.
“There is a modern global push towards a digital and cashless society, and we want to fully leverage all digital avenues, such as social media and email addresses, to revolutionise local and cross-border payments,” said Francis Lu, Smart Transfer’s chief executive and co-founder.
“Smart Transfer makes smart use of technology to cut through the clutter and allow consumers to transfer money to any recipient using just a phone number, social media account, or email address.”
{loadposition peter}According to Lu, overseas money transfer methods are typically restricted to bank and wire services but Smart Transfer changes everything by allowing users to send money to recipients via all social media platforms, mobile numbers, email addresses or conduct cashless payments through QR code at partner merchants – and there is no need to know the receiver’s SWIFT codes, bank codes, branch codes or account numbers.
Smart Transfer touts its built-in SmartBot which it says is able to execute transactions according to a user’s instructions.
The company says the chatbot is integrated within Facebook Messenger and Telegram to break down language barriers, leveraging AI-based natural language processing technology to process four different languages – English, Chinese, Japanese and Indonesian.
Smart Transfer is currently supported across Australia, the United States, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Indonesia, and Lu says there are plans to expand its offerings to more than 212 countries and up to 30 currencies by the end of 2017.