Wealth & Finance International - Business Awards 2015

Business Awards 2015 6 With cyber-crime becoming an increasingly hot topic, it’s worth noting that Allied Wallet has always placed the security of its customers at the top of its list of priorities. “Our customers want to be able to sleep like a baby at night knowing that they have money in the bank and nobody has access to their accounts or credit cards. This is something we take very seriously because, obviously, we don’t want anyone to be the victim of fraud or losses. “Cyber-crime isn’t going to end; it’s like saying robbing banks is going to stop. It’s always going to be like that and the criminals are just going to get more and more advanced so we have to be constantly ahead of the game to make sure that we eliminate all risk and prevent anybody who shouldn’t be doing from accessing our systems. It really is an ongoing battle.” 2015 has been an exciting year for Allied Wallet. In June, the firm announced a partnership with Saxo Payments, a global transactions service provider, which Khawaja believes will present his company with many exciting oppor- tunities. “This really is a great deal,” he says. “Saxo Payments understand the business and see the future of the business, which is why they teamed up with us. For example, we have customers in India and Brazil, and these are locations in which other banks cannot offer foreign exchange on their local currency. If a consumer from that country wants to buy something from a website in the UK, we are able to bill him in his local currency and simul- taneously pay the merchant in their currency. There is no conversion fee. Furthermore, there’s no extra charge on his credit card for buying something in British Pounds, US Dollars or Euros. These are important services that you will find a lot of banks won’t offer.” As Allied Wallet continue to expand their global footprint, one particularly thriving economy they have their sights set on is India. With India now established as an economic powerhouse, Khawaja believes there are many similar- ities between the region today and China in the mid-2000s. “If you look at what China was like 10 years ago, no- body would want to spend money in that area - now it’s the same with India. People actually think about whether Indians shop online, but they travel a lot and a great number of them have money to spend. We are open to that market and are trying to make these regions more accessible to online payments and able to transact online.” With 2015 almost over, 2016 will mark the official launch of Allied Wallet’s ‘New Generation’ service. Due to be completed in mid-January, the service will provide a highly customisable platform that can be tweaked by the clients themselves on the merchant side. “New Generation is really unique in that you can tweak it yourself to the way you want it,” says Khawaja. “Instead of sending emails to IT and Allied Wallet, our clients will be able to customise the platform themselves so that it meets their exact requirements. Another intriguing aspect of New Generation is that it brings the worlds of social media and online payment solutions together. Within this platform, business owners can interact with their colleagues as well as monitor their different offices across the globe all on the one screen. As Khawaja explains: “Take Starbucks or Costa Coffee for example, or any company that has locations across the world. They can log in, they can optimise access for other locations, and even chat online. It also has a voice activated IP so they can call other locations, all from their own laptop or iPad. Let’s say someone has 50 restaurants around the world, this person can log in and see how much business each location has done up to this minute. You can also see who’s running it at that time and chat to them right away, just like making a call on Skype or Whatsapp.” As a company that is constantly innovating, Khawaja is confident that New Generation is something that is truly unique and believes that it is far beyond the reach of any of their competitors. “The New Generation is ahead of its time. If you took Paypal, Square and Stripe all combined, the New Generation would beat them by another five years. Even the gateway we built 10 years ago is still ahead of any other gateway today. So with this in mind, imagine New Generation.” When asked about the award, Khawaja believes this is a further testament to the success of his company “I have won a lot of awards and it just means that I must be doing the right thing. Because I’m doing good things, I’m being rewarded for it and that’s something I feel good about. I look forward to receiving awards, giving speeches and doing interviews where I can hopefully motivate other people too because I think we all need a bit of a push sometimes.”