Money APIs Power The New Wall Street

Kyle Kelly, June 4th, 2012

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From billion dollar companies to the neighborhood coffee shops, merchants of all sizes are seeking new ways to offer secure and affordable mobile payments systems that expand their ability to conduct business. The PayPal API got its start this way, first with online auctions, then with thousands of websites and individuals. It’s now one of over 150 payment APIs, many of which exist outside of traditional finance.

According to a study, 87% of the U.S. adult population has a mobile phone, and 44% of those phones are Internet-enabled. 84% percent of smartphone users have accessed the Internet on their phone in the past week. That translates into a sizeable mobile wallet market.

The growing list of public “money APIs”, are at every step of the transaction process. They process payments, deliver funds, add point of sale functionality to any app.

PayAnywhere, a leader in mobile point of sale solutions, just announced the addition of two new Android software developer kits(SDKs) that allow developers to easily embed credit card point of sale functionality into apps for Android devices.

The Basic and Advanced Android SDKs give instructions on how to start the transaction and call, initialize, and customize the library. Receiving information back from the library is also detailed in the API documentation.

Other “money APIs” making an impact:

• PayPal API – gateway platform for sending receiving online payments
• Dwolla API – send payments or integrate a point of sale system, GRID application acts as your identity to the end user, low payment system fees.
• LevelUp API - users can set up their own QR code that allows them to pay various merchants via scanning the QR code as point of sale.
• Google Payment Express enables merchants to accept Google Wallet on the mobile web. It is a cloud-based method of accessing and storing.
• Mastercard API – enable payments , offer deals, enable transfer money through the MasterCard network.
• Visa API – lets users purchase goods and services without sharing credit card information with the seller.

Are Apple’s iWallet and Facebook getting ready to make a splash on the New Wall Street too?