Earthport Plc’s Earthport Direct global payments service for small to medium enterprises (SMEs) picked up the award for Best Alternative Payments Programme at The Card and Payments Awards 2011. Earthport Direct provides a self-service on-demand payments channel which allows businesses to make low value payments to their overseas suppliers and customers, paid for on a per-transaction basis. Earthport was selected from a shortlist of category finalists which also included: Barclays Bank for Barclays Mobile Banking; HSBC Merchant Services for Rise of the machines – using new technology to open an untapped market; Moneybookers for Moneybookers.com and Ukash for Ukash, a global e-money network.
The awards ceremony at Londons Grosvenor House Hotel was attended by 1370 representatives of the best-known brands in card and payments. Earthports guests included businesses that have been using Earthport Direct for some time, banks which provide the accounts through which the service operates and banks using Earthports services on a white-label basis.
Paul Thomas, executive director of sales and marketing at Earthport Plc expressed his delight at winning the award: “This is a great accolade and recognition from our industry peers that Earthport is breaking new ground by providing a genuine alternative to credit cards, cash remittances and traditional payment methods for small-to-medium businesses. We are very proud of winning this prestigious award so soon after the development of Earthport Direct. Our aim is to help SMEs to expand their overseas trade, secure in the knowledge that they can make and receive payments cost-effectively and without the hassle and cost which they often experience.
I would also like to thank our team and our partners for all their hard work in developing the service and bringing it to the SME marketplace so successfully.
D.C.