Atom Tech gives up pre-paid card licence, to expand wallet biz

Atom Technologies, subsidiary of 63 Moons Technologies group, will disband services of issuing pre-paid card for expanding its wallet business.
The company has already surrendered the license for pre- paid card issuance business but will continue to remain operational in other verticals like merchant aggregation and payment services across various channels like point of sale, ecom/internet, IVR as well as mobile.
Reserve Bank, in a notification issued today, said it has cancelled the certificate of authorisation (COA) of Atom Technologies after the company voluntarily surrendered the licence.
The cancellation took effect from yesterday. Atom had initiated the surrender process in August last year.

In a communication to prepaid account holders on its website, Atom Technologies said it surrendered the COA to RBI due to business restructuring.
"Following the cancellation of the COA, the said company cannot transact the business of pre-paid card issuance," RBI said.

Company MD and CEO Dewang Neralla said the surrender was initiated last year because of business potential of the wallet business.
"We continue our other lines of business of merchant acquiring through POS, Internet, IVR and mobile where we process more than USD 5 billion annualised with more than 100 million transactions annually across more than 50,000 merchants," he said.

Neralla said that in the wake of demonetisation and GST "we feel this will grow manifold as the market has suddenly exploded to cover the entire base of 20 million merchants".
RBI said customers or merchants having a valid claim, if any, on Atom Technologies can approach the company for settlement of claims within two years from the date of cancellation i.E. Up to July 3, 2019.
Atom has asked Pre-Payment Instrument (PPI) holders to redeem their balance and close the account by sending a request.
Atom works as a Payment System Operator (PSO) under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 of RBI.

The Mumbai headquartered company is into providing end- to-end payment services through online as well as offline platforms.
Atom was started in 2006 as a subsidiary of the then Financial Technologies Group, now renamed as 63 Moons Technologies.