CARMEL, Calif., Oct. 06, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Innovative Payment Solutions, Inc. (OTCQB: IPSI) (“Innovative,” “IPSI” or the “Company”), a California-based fintech company focused on building a 21st century universal digital payment platform, IPSIPay, issues a letter to shareholders from Chairman and Chief Executive Officer William Corbett:
Dear Valued Innovative Payment Solutions Shareholders:
I took over as CEO of IPSI in 2019 with a mandate to reorganize the Company, turn it around and build a modern-day, full-service, digital payments company. The turnaround progresses, and the path for IPSI’s mission to make banking services more available to the unbanked, utilizing state-of-the art technology, has been mapped. We have raised $8 million dollars and are deploying that capital to execute on our vision.
As of September 2021, we are now able to provide individuals and businesses with the ability to easily, quickly and efficiently send and receive digital payments and services to Mexico using our proprietary digital-wallet services.
MARKET DEVELOPMENTS
We maintain focus on two main customer sets: consumers and business. On the consumer side, our initial target market is the population of unbanked and underbanked individuals who, while working hard in the United States to support their families, incur significant expenses to remit part of their earnings to relatives living in Mexico, India and the Philippines.
The size of this addressable market is significant. According to Business Insider Intelligence, global annual remittance volume this year is estimated at $714 billion, with the fastest growing segment of the remittance market being digital transfers - our core competency. Business Insider Intelligence also reported that digital remittances as a percentage of total remittances have grown from 10% in 2014 to an estimated staggering 52% in 2023. According to a report on tradingeconomics.com, remittances in Mexico -- our initial market entry point -- have grown at a 7% compound rate since 2012, and since 2018, remittances have increased 50% to an estimated $43 billion in 2020 with Q2-21 running at an annual run-rate of $50 billion.
On the business customer side, we expect to provide efficiency by empowering payments to our clients’ employees directly through our e-wallet services, thereby eliminating the paperwork and considerable bookkeeping expense related to issuing checks. This, in turn, will benefit the employees by eliminating the inconvenience and high costs associated with cashing physical checks, providing access to our neobank, a fully digital App, and access their funds with a VISA debit card. Additionally, this will reduce the costs associated with payment processing and accelerate the receipt of payments from businesses to their workers, where these payments may otherwise take days to settle. As an example, large agricultural employers with significant amounts of migrants would benefit from our e-wallet and neobank services. Also, churches would be a big beneficiary of our technology, using our e-wallet to promote and process donations and, where appropriate, send remittances internationally.
The core of our digital banking services provide savings to those unbanked and underbanked individuals who incur significant costs, both in terms of money and time. Our mission is to provide a digital bridge among family members as well as employers and employees.
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENTS
In support of our unified mission, we acquired a majority stake in the operating payments App and business, Beyond Wallet (www.beyondwallet.com). This strategic acquisition achieved two key goals for the company: 1) Beyond Wallet immediately opened global markets to IPSI because of Beyond Wallet’s established App and payment rails and 2) Beyond Wallet accelerated speed-to-market, by augmenting digital transaction services including remittances, with the issuance of VISA debit cards, including four companion cards for family members. Customers may now essentially pay for goods and services anywhere a VISA debit card is accepted directly from IPSI’s Beyond Wallet App, which can be downloaded on the web, Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
In parallel with the acquisition of Beyond Wallet, we continued to develop and reinforce technology and partnerships powering our core IPSIPay App. Like Beyond Wallet, the IPSIPay App, which will be launched in early November, providing customers with remittances, and will be followed up by the issuance of virtual and physical VISA debit cards.
Our investment in these digital wallet services, partnerships and rails has enabled IPSI to pivot from kiosks as an essential part of our launch strategy, to kiosks as part of an overall integrated marketing strategy.
In late 2020, we discussed launching kiosks with the objective of effectively and efficiently assisting the unbanked and underbanked in sending remittances. As a result, we focused on a targeted rollout with the objective of gaining traction in this market. However, we were able to secure certain partnerships which seamlessly replaced the functionality and network that was provided through our kiosk strategy, bringing the added benefits of technology, local market expertise and marketing support into our key markets of Mexico, India and the Philippines. As a result of partnerships and advanced technology, we are able to establish that network with less of a focus on kiosks. While pivoting from our original strategy, kiosks will play a role in the Company’s efforts to build out its network and provide access to its customers. We expect to begin rolling out kiosks for certain applications towards the end of the year.
PARTNERSHIP UPDATES
We are currently in discussions with multiple partners that could lead to the expansion of our remittance distribution capabilities in five of the nine largest international destinations beyond where we have previously announced, excluding China. Partnering with companies that have local expertise, licenses and infrastructure allows us to operate more independently while increasing our service and product set in accordance with local market governance. If successful, these partnerships could have bi-directional remittance rails to Mexico, the Philippines, India, the UK, and the European Union. We are currently submitting an application for an EMI (Electronic Money Institution) license in both the UK and the European Union which, if approved, would take approximately 90 days to process. Our rails to these various countries could, over time, include value-added services, such as VISA debit cards, bill pay, "buy now pay later", micro loans, and cash advances against employment income.
We will continue to look to invest in companies, teams and technologies that empower our core product set from a service, customer acquisition and regulatory standpoint.
MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS UPDATES
Our ability to manage communications across multiple stakeholders in multiple countries has been greatly enhanced in the second and third quarters of 2021. We have centralized communications internally and externally via the extension of our agreement with our Latin America-based Public Relations company Publicize, and a new relationship with CORE IR for domestic and international investor relations. In association with the unified communications strategy we have also reengineered and launched two web sites; www.ipsipay.com and www.beyondwallet.com, and all associated Google Play and Apple App Store pages.
With the rolling launch of both IPSIPay and Beyond Wallet, we have accelerated our marketing and acquisition strategy. The core element of this strategy is leveraging support provided by the aforementioned partnerships across regional church groups, agricultural employers and not-for-profit entities that see our products as core to their missions of empowering their constituents. These partners will provide varying levels of support including on-site activations for product testing and training, co-branded marketing and co-branded PR. This dramatically reduces our direct marketing expense while providing ample data for development and implementation of an integrated media strategy. The first of these partnerships may be in market mid-Q4 2021.
2021 has been a transformational year for Innovative Payment Solutions. In this short period of time, we have launched a digital payment solutions App, established partnerships that have expanded our markets and improved our technology. We have strengthened our management team with the addition of an experienced President and Chief Financial Officer. Lastly, we raised capital with over $7 million in cash on our balance sheet as of the end of Q2 providing the funds needed to execute on our strategy. With a strong product offering, a solid management team and a well-funded balance sheet, all the pieces are now in place to drive the Company forward. We are proud of the progress we have made and are excited about the future.
Thank you for your continued support with best wishes,
William D. Corbett, Chairman and CEO
About Innovative Payment Solutions, Inc
Innovative Payment Solutions, Inc. strives to offer cutting edge digital payment solutions for consumers and service providers. Innovative Payment Solutions Inc.’s ecosystem will span multiple devices such as self-service kiosks, mobile applications and POS terminals offering alternative payment methods to meet the needs of consumers and service providers (investor.ipsipay.com).
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “can,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate, “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” or “will” or the or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology and include statements regarding the annual meeting and information regarding the planned ecosystem. These forward-looking statements are based on expectations and assumptions as of the date of the press release and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations and assumptions from those set forth or implied by any forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, among others, our ability to accelerate and expand the late-stage development of our digital platform, our ability to roll out later this summer of our all-in-one solution as planned, our ability to launch our kiosks rollout program in Southern California as previously planned before COVID-19, our ability to position the Company for future profitability, the duration and scope of the COVID-19 outbreak worldwide, including the impact to the economy in California and Mexico, and the other factors discussed in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, and the Company’s subsequent filings with the SEC, including subsequent periodic reports on Forms 10-Q and 8-K. The information in this release is provided only as of the date of this release, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release on account of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law.
For investor inquiries please call (866) 477-4729 or email investors@ipsipay.com.
