Monitise Americas
When Lisa Stanton was recruited to head Monitise Americas in 2007, Rhode Island was her logical choice for the company’s North American headquarters. Stanton, a New Hampshire native who previously worked for Citizens Financial Group, had lived in Rhode Island for more than a decade and she knew that within the state were great resources she could tap.
“The reality is, most of what we do requires we go to our clients,” says Stanton, the company’s chief executive officer. “But because I love Rhode Island and I had my eyes on a few potential colleagues here, it just made sense.”
Stanton recruited colleagues from Citizens and Fidelity Investments to join Monitise, a joint venture of Monitise PLC, based in the United Kingdom, and Metavante Corp., a U.S-based provider of Monitise’s mobile-banking services.
The company provides secure mobile banking and payment services. It’s the first company of its kind in the country to provide services to multiple financial institutions and mobile carriers. About 40 financial institutions in the United States currently offer Monitise’s services to their account holders, who in turn use Monitise’s platform to manage their finances using their mobile phones.
The Rhode Island operations are still small – just three of the company’s 12 U.S. employees work out of the Providence office. But locating here has proved a good fit. Stanton says, “We’re pretty fortunate to be in this environment with a lot of experts in the financial service market, and to be so close to Boston.”
Stanton likens Monitise’s technology to the “Intel Inside” for mobile banking, the base of an ecosystem linking financial institutions, payment networks and cell-phone carriers for convenient financial transactions. “Our view is that in order to make this ubiquitous – whether you use a Samsung phone or one of our client banks – it needs to benefit all parties, and that’s how we developed our revenue model,” Stanton says. “Our approach is pretty low-touch. Our turnkey solution is unique to us.”
Stanton says she’s particularly proud of Monitise’s security structure. Monitise uses the inherent security and reliability of ATM and debit-card infrastructure as its primary integration points. Royal Bank of Scotland Group and Lloyds Banking Group, for example, have given the company high ratings for security.
Monitise is constantly innovating to adjust to technological advances and changes in the financial services sector. “Innovation is the name of the game. Companies realize that they need to maintain a certain level of innovation or they will be left behind,” Stanton says.
Monitise is looking to grow its local financial and marketing teams in 2009. “This year is also about client adoption and then, consumer adoption,” she says.
The company is also considering exploring new niches, such as consumers that use remote stored-value cards or those who were denied banking accounts. “Those are the people we believe need the most convenient banking solutions.”