Boku launches M1ST payments network

Boku said M1ST, also known as Mobile First, featured more than 330 mobile payment methods, including mobile wallets, direct carrier billing and real-time payments schemes - reaching 5.7bn mobile payment accounts in 90 countries.

The AIM-listed firm claim that people in Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East were generally bypassing credit cards, and moving from cash to mobile payments like GoPay, Paga, PicPay and UPI.

However, Boku highlighted that mobile payment acceptance for global merchants was "highly complex", but stated that M1ST would solve "a number of these challenges" and allow merchants to easily accept mobile payments, globally, and at scale.

Chief executive Jon Prideaux said: "We've seen a fundamental shift of consumer purchasing power from west to east, from established to emerging markets, and from credit cards to mobile payments.

"We've spent the past decade delivering new customers to our merchants through mobile payments. Now that mobile payments have overtaken credit cards globally, merchant acceptance has moved from a competitive advantage to a strategic imperative."

As of 1020 BST, Boku shares were up 0.76% at 198.0p.