CashU, a payment service provider with a focus on internet payments in Middle East and North Africa, serves global and regional online merchants with a complete suite of payment solutions.

The Dubai-headquartered company offers custom-built solutions to cater for local culture and the Arabic online buying habits and trends, says Martin Waldenstrom, CEO, in an interview with TradeArabia.

CashU was established in 2002 by Maktoob (now Yahoo) and its management team comprises the region’s most experienced online payment experts with a solid background from regional and international banking, credit card processing, alternative payment solutions and online monetization and marketing industries, he says.

Excerpts from the interview:

What are the key services provided by CashU? Please provide info on the various solutions you offer.

CashU serves online shoppers in all Arabic speaking and surrounding countries with secure, accessible and easy to use payment solutions, giving everyone the possibility to buy online without discriminating on age, income, nationality or banking contacts.

The different products offered by cashU include:

* cashU Prepaid: This provides merchants with a unique reach to millions of potential online buyers in Mena. In a region with a young population, limited access to credit cards and where buying online is still not considered reliable, cashU Prepaid helps both buyers and sellers overcome these obstacles.

* cashU Direct: cashU Direct provides a service for accepting cash and direct bank debit payments in real-time for online and call centre initiated purchases. Whatever the amount is, cashU Direct gives your customers the option to pay easily at a local store, an ATM or internet banking, at payment kiosks, post offices and exchange houses.

* cashEx: this service is currently active in UAE only and it offers a chance to sell online to all cash payers residing in UAE. cashEx will collect payments from customers at their doorstep and will notify merchants using a fully integrated real-time connection.

* CPSP: CPSP brings to merchants a payment platform integrated with the best fraud management tools and already connected to Visa, MasterCard and other payment methods. For the first time in the Middle East anyone can now accept credit card payments at low rates and simple deployment.

What are the main regions you operate in? Do you have collaborations with other international players?

cashU is mainly focused on the Middle East and North Africa region, and is already expanding to broader markets. And in terms of international collaborations, we have strategic alliances with major PSPs and merchants from around the globe.

Security is a major issue for online customers and how do you ensure this? And what efforts are you making to give the required confidence to customers?

cashU is a payment platform that is built upon, and encapsulates the most sophisticated and up to date fraud prevention and AML systems reducing the risks associtated with online payments for both buyers and sellers which all allows for wider, safer and faster consumer participation in e-commerce.

How do you see the growth of e-commerce in the region?

The region’s e-commerce industry is growing at a decent pace and the growing internet penetration is creating a bigger market for e-commerce each day.