Through a partnership with Portland-based mobile financial services firm Tyfone, OnPoint Community Credit Union today announced the launch of the iCashé Mobile Wallet program. iCashé Mobile Wallet provides OnPoint members with a simple and fun way to purchase gift cards on their mobile phones and send to anyone instantly by text message or email. OnPoint is the first credit union in the nation to offer the iCashé Mobile Wallet program to members.

Gift card recipients can use their cards in-store or online via their smart phone or with a printed copy of the confirmation email. More than 50 national retailers and restaurants are now offering the mobile gift cards for purchase, with local retail options expected to be added in the future. Current participating retailers include, American Airlines, Nike, K-Mart, Land’s End, Barnes & Noble, Overstock.com, REI and more.

“iCashé Mobile Wallet is the latest example of how OnPoint is offering the best technology and convenience services to its members,” said Rob Stuart, OnPoint Community Credit Union president and CEO. “We are happy to have a local company, Tyfone as our partner. Their commitment to providing secure and innovative mobile programs is remarkable.”

More information about Tyfone’s iCashé solution can be found at: www.iCashe.com.

About OnPoint Community Credit Union

OnPoint Community Credit Union is the largest credit union in Oregon, serving more than 226,000 members and with assets of $2.9 billion. Founded in 1932, OnPoint Community Credit Union’s membership is available to anyone who lives or works in one of 13 Oregon (Benton, Clackamas, Columbia, Crook, Deschutes, Jefferson, Lane, Linn, Marion, Multnomah, Polk, Washington and Yamhill) and two Washington counties (Skamania and Clark). More information is available at www.onpointcu.com or 503-228-7077 or 800-527-3932.

About Tyfone
Founded in 2004, Tyfone’s corporate headquarters are in Portland, Oregon, and its Asia-Pacific headquarters are in Bangalore, India. Tyfone connects money and mobility via a highly secure, scalable and flexible mobile financial services solution tailored to meet the evolving needs of consumers, financial institutions, mobile network operators, transportation companies and retailers. Operating in any standard memory card slot, Tyfone’s u4ia® platform and its companion SideTap™ memory card comprise the world’s first patented, neutral, and comprehensive memory card-based payments solution for mobile contactless payments. Tyfone and its partners enable a suite of services including Mobile Banking, Mobile Identity Management, Mobile Remote Payments, Mobile Retail Services and Mobile Contactless Payments. For more information visit www.tyfone.com.

Tyfone, iCashé, SideSafe, SideTap and u4ia are trademarks of Tyfone, Inc. All others names are the property of their respective owners.

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Tyfone (www.tyfone.com) announced today the availability of iCashé™, a new mobile wallet and eCommerce engine that for the first time delivers purchasing power through any mobile banking application. Built entirely on top of Tyfone’s award-winning u4ia® mobile financial services platform, iCashé is the industry’s only service to blend comprehensive mobile banking features with convenient consumer purchasing, gifting and loyalty programs. With the option of adding Tyfone’s SideTap™ microSD secure element technology, iCashé also provides contactless NFC payments and the highest level of secure identity management.

“While financial institutions recognize the need to provide mobile banking, the watch and wait approach many have taken towards mobile wallet services sets the stage for disintermediation by others including Google and ISIS,” said Andy Schmidt, research director at TowerGroup, a Corporate Executive Board company. “Combining mobile wallet with mobile banking gives banks – and merchants – the opportunity to avoid this disintermediation.”

The first iCashé feature to debut is a highly convenient commerce service available through a mobile banking application that allows people to purchase, send and redeem merchant gift cards from over 100 different name brand merchants including: Barnes & Noble, Fandango and Zappos.com. With iCashé, gift cards can be purchased and stored on a person’s mobile phone for personal use, or sent to anyone in the United States via email or text message. iCashé requires a person to be logged into a trusted mobile banking app, making purchasing highly efficient, secure and as easy as checking an account balance.

“iCashé is the first wallet service that allows people to use mobile banking for commerce,” said Siva Narendra, Tyfone’s president of North America. “A bank ATM card has limited value if a person can only use it to check balances or transfer funds; the same is true for a mobile banking application. By providing consumers a mobile application that combines banking with commerce capabilities, we’re not only putting the value and utility of a real wallet into a mobile app, we’re strengthening the bond between consumers and financial institutions. If banks give their customers something of value, it’s fair for them to make money from it. iCashé is the first service giving financial institutions revenue generating opportunities from mobile banking.”

Though Tyfone has built an award-winning and fully-featured mobile banking solution, there is no requirement for banks and other financial institutions to use Tyfone Mobile Banking in order to offer iCashé to their customers. Any financial institution can offer customers using electronic and mobile banking convenient commerce services built on top of iCashé, and all financial institutions using iCashé will immediately enjoy a new revenue stream based on incremental transaction fees from iCashé purchases.

“OnPoint Community Credit Union members who use Tyfone’s leading edge mobile banking service find great utility from it and have a greater volume of banking transactions,” said Jim Armstrong, OnPoint’s senior vice president of technology. “Giving people the ability to make purchases through OnPoint’s mobile banking app is a logical technology evolution.  Once the retail NFC infrastructure is in place, our mobile banking members using Tyfone’s iCashé will likewise be ready to make contactless payments through our banking app.”

Tyfone’s patented contactless payments technology lets people customize a secure digital wallet, just as they do with the wallet in their purse or pocket today. Tyfone’s SideTap microSD memory cards allow most phones on the market today to be enabled with contactless NFC payments. Tyfone’s secure ID management meets or exceeds the security and authentication requirements for corporate mobile banking and high value transactions; and for consumers, financial institutions can extend superior security technology engineered for mobile handsets to also include tablets and personal computers through the use of Tyfone’s SideTap or SideSafe™ microSD cards.

More information about Tyfone’s iCashé solution can be found at: www.iCashe.com.

About Tyfone
Founded in 2004, Tyfone’s corporate headquarters are in Portland, Oregon, and its Asia-Pacific headquarters are in Bangalore, India. Tyfone connects money and mobility via a highly secure, scalable and flexible mobile financial services solution tailored to meet the evolving needs of consumers, financial institutions, mobile network operators, transportation companies and retailers. Operating in any standard memory card slot, Tyfone’s u4ia® platform and its companion SideTap™ memory card comprise the world’s first patented, neutral, and comprehensive memory card-based payments solution for mobile contactless payments. Tyfone and its partners enable a suite of services including Mobile Banking, Mobile Identity Management, Mobile Remote Payments, Mobile Retail Services and Mobile Contactless Payments. For more information visit www.tyfone.com.

Tyfone, iCashé, SideSafe, SideTap and u4ia are trademarks of Tyfone, Inc. All others names are the property of their respective owners.

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Tyfone (www.tyfone.com), a mobile financial solutions provider, will be showcasing its mobile financial services technologies at the upcoming Pepcom MobileFocus® event in San Diego, California, October 11. 

Tyfone technologies are based on the u4ia® (pronounced “euphoria”) platform that represents the 4 U´s of the mobile channel – universal, ubiquitous, unique and unison. The u4ia Mobile Transaction software platform is a neutral infrastructure for cloud computing based mobile services. It enables consumers to access information via the access mode of their choice (SMS, mobile Web and App) in one platform and has the flexibility to securely mobilize any existing data source.

The mobile financial services technologies that run on u4ia include:

• iCashe: Tyfone’s patent-pending mobile wallet that generates 3% transaction revenue for banks and credit unions.
• SideTap™: Tyfone’s patented SideTap microSD product can be added to mobile devices to enable secure element functionality and contactless payments via NFC.
• Secure ID Management/SideSafe™: Tyfone’s u4ia platform along with SideSafe allows for true multi-factor authentication, making possible an unlimited number of applications that necessitate Secure ID and Authentication.
• Tyfone Mobile Banking: Tyfone´s highly-secure, multi-access mobile banking service solution (SMS, WAP, App).

Tyfone will have important news at CTIA and is providing the following resources for media:

• A table at Pepcom’s MobileFocus® media event – held Tuesday, October 11 from 7:00 to 10:00 P.M. at the San Diego Marriott Marquis and Marina, 333 West Harbor Drive, near the San Diego Convention Center. Press registration information for MobileFocus is available at http://www.pepcom.com.
• Online press kit available at http://tyfone.mobilitypr.com.
• Media availability of Co-founder and President North America, Dr. Siva G. Narendra, and CFO, Don Bloodworth.

To receive news under embargo or arrange meetings with Tyfone executives at CTIA WIRELESS, contact Tyfone media contacts:

• John Sidline (On site at CTIA):  +1-503-989-5474 (mobile, can receive text messages)
• Holly Woolard (On site at CTIA): +1-503-360-7144 (mobile, can receive text messages)
• Melissa Burns (On site at CTIA): +1-208-850-5939 (mobile, can receive text messages)
• All Tyfone media contacts can be reached by email at tyfone@mobilitypr.com.

About Tyfone

Founded in 2004, Tyfone’s corporate headquarters are in Portland, Oregon, and its Asia-Pacific headquarters are in Bangalore, India. Tyfone connects money and mobility via a highly secure, scalable and flexible mobile financial services solution tailored to meet the evolving needs of consumers, financial institutions, mobile network operators, transportation companies and retailers. Operating in any standard memory card slot, Tyfone’s u4ia® platform and its companion SideTap™ memory card comprise the world’s first patented, neutral, and comprehensive memory card-based payments solution for mobile contactless payments. Tyfone and its partners enable a suite of services including Mobile Banking, Mobile Identity Management, Mobile Remote Payments, Mobile Retail Services and Mobile Contactless Payments. For more information visit www.tyfone.com.

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Tyfone (www.tyfone.com) announced today an agreement with AboMem Technology Corp. (www.abomem.com.tw), Taiwan’s premier memory products manufacturing company, to manufacture, distribute and service Tyfone’s SideTap™ microSD NFC products. This partnership also includes a widespread distribution of SideTap microSD cards to consumers throughout The People’s Republic of China via AboMem’s extensive distribution network.

Tyfone’s patented SideTap microSD product can be added to mobile devices for enabling secure element functionality with NFC connectivity. SideTap is a unique feature of Tyfone’s groundbreaking u4ia® platform that provides end-to-end mobile financial services solutions from informational services and commerce to secure identity and contactless payments via NFC.

“A necessary element required for the success of add-on NFC and secure element capabilities is the ability to scale to meet demand,” said Nick Holland, senior analyst with the Yankee Group. “This announcement demonstrates that Tyfone will be equipped with the manufacturing capabilities that will be critical for matching incoming demand for NFC hardware as the floodgates are opened.”

“AboMem has partnered with Tyfone because of its commitment, innovation, superior technology and patent portfolio for enabling mobile commerce,” said Aaron Yang, chairman of AboMem. “AboMem has seen Tyfone evolve SideTap from the prototype phase into a market-ready solution, and is excited to take our relationship to the next level and look forward to achieving success in China and the rest of the world.”

This agreement leverages AboMem’s established manufacturing and distribution infrastructure with Tyfone’s design and manufacturing know-how to achieve wide-scale adoption of an add-on secure element solution.

“Tyfone’s partnership with AboMem in China enables Tyfone to scale its business with a recognized leader in manufacturing memory products, and unleash its established distribution supply chain,” said Prabhakar Tadepalli, Tyfone’s president of Asia Pacific and chief operating officer. “The support AboMem has provided Tyfone over the past several years for our vision for mobile commerce has been invaluable, and we look forward to our partnership and the opportunity to serve the world’s largest consumer market.”

Companies wishing to deploy SideTap microSD secure element solutions will be able to purchase directly from AboMem, a recognized manufacturer, while working with Tyfone on TSM software integration for identity provisioning and implementation of mobility services.

For more information on Tyfone’s SideTap microSD solution, please visit: www.tyfone.com/product-contactless-payment.

About AboMem
AboMem Technology Corporation specializes in designing, manufacturing and marketing portable memory products and various test devices of memory products. To provide users in suitable storage device, AboMem’s developed products include Linear Flash Card, SRAM Card, IDE Card, Multi Media Card, SD and MoBe USB Drive.

AboMem has the strongest capability in memory storage device to support both OEM and ODM style for customers. That is why internationally well-known customers seeking to create customer-designed products select AboMem. Since its establishment AboMem has been not only capable to supply specialized memory storage device compliance with customer’s requirement but also continuously enhance performance and innovation in quality, price and service to meet the world standard. For more information visit www.abomem.com.tw.

About Tyfone
Founded in 2004, Tyfone’s corporate headquarters are in Portland, Oregon, and its Asia-Pacific headquarters are in Bangalore, India. Tyfone connects money and mobility via a highly secure, scalable and flexible mobile financial services solution tailored to meet the evolving needs of consumers, financial institutions, mobile network operators, transportation companies and retailers. Operating in any standard memory card slot, Tyfone’s u4ia® platform and its companion SideTap™ memory card comprise the world’s first patented, neutral, and comprehensive memory card-based payments solution for mobile contactless payments. Tyfone and its partners enable a suite of services including Mobile Banking, Mobile Identity Management, Mobile Remote Payments, Mobile Retail Services and Mobile Contactless Payments. For more information visit www.tyfone.com.

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Tyfone (www.tyfone.com), a mobile financial solutions provider, will be exhibiting at the Symitar Educational Conference (SEC) held in San Diego, Calif., September 20-22, 2011. Tyfone’s mobile banking solutions integrate seamlessly with the Symitar Episys core. Tyfone will be showcasing its secure mobile banking technology, its unique revenue generation Mobile Wallet Service called iCashé and introducing SideSafe – its Secure Mobile Authentication solution at the event.

Symitar hosts annual education conference and technology expos with the ultimate goal of providing credit union professionals with a forum to learn about how Symitar’s products and services can help them reach their distinct service, operational, performance and growth goals.

Tyfone’s u4ia® platform, in addition to comprehensive mobile banking, enables an average 3% transaction fee revenue generation through iCashé mobile wallet services. u4ia platform also provides enhanced strong ID authentication with SideSafe microSD with a seamless migration path to secure NFC contactless payments with SideTap. Only Tyfone’s solution provides a single platform to provide end-to-end secure digital wallet and payment services by the credit union to its members.

“Tyfone’s mobile wallet services provide direct Symitar Episys core integrated mobile banking, commerce services, enhanced strong ID authentication mobile security and NFC contactless payment technology,” said Mark Miyamoto, Tyfone’s director of mobile banking. “Not only does Tyfone provide mobile banking solutions that are able to be deployed quickly by credit unions but also gives revenue through iCashé and a roadmap to the future of mobile commerce. As the lines between mobile banking and digital wallet services begin to blur, Tyfone is well positioned to bridge the gap with an extremely secure and integrated service offering that can help credit unions serve their members’ needs.”

Tyfone’s multimode mobile banking solution (SMS, mobile Web, App) already offers a complete range of features delivered to credit union members. In addition to the standard mobile banking features such as account balance, account history, fund transfers, branch / ATM location lookup and bill pay, Tyfone offers financial institutions the ability to offer mobile banking to 100% of its membership,  mobile enrollment and management, account aggregation, mobile remote deposit capture (mRDC), and more. With the implementation of Tyfone’s iCashé Mobile Wallet Services, credit unions can now generate, on average, 3% transaction revenue that provides an enhanced member experience with lower overall cost of deployment.

For more information about Tyfone’s integration with the Symitar Episys core and Tyfone’s mobile banking solutions, please visit www.tyfone.com or Booth 626 the SEC.

Tyfone will be holding a special promotion for Symitar conference goers and has extended the promotion to those unable to attend the event. Visit www.tyfone.com/win100 for more information.

About Symitar

Symitar, a Jack Henry Company, is the leading provider of core processing solutions for credit unions of all sizes, now supporting more than 650 credit unions – including six corporate credit unions and approximately 30 percent of the credit unions with assets exceeding $1 billion – with enterprise-wide automation.

Symitar’s credit union solutions encompass two functionally distinct core systems; approximately 50 integrated complementary products and services; in-house and outsourced operating alternatives; contemporary technology; and the infrastructure necessary to support each client as a single point of contact, support, and accountability.

About Tyfone

Founded in 2004, Tyfone’s corporate headquarters are in Portland, Oregon, and its Asia-Pacific headquarters are in Bangalore, India. Tyfone connects money and mobility via a highly secure, scalable and flexible mobile financial services solution tailored to meet the evolving needs of consumers, financial institutions, mobile network operators, transportation companies and retailers. Operating in any standard memory card slot, Tyfone’s u4ia® platform and its companion SideTap™ memory card comprise the world’s first patented, neutral, and comprehensive memory card-based payments solution for mobile contactless payments. Tyfone and its partners enable a suite of services including Mobile Banking, Mobile Identity Management, Mobile Remote Payments, Mobile Retail Services and Mobile Contactless Payments. For more information visit www.tyfone.com.

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CoVantage Credit Union (CVCU), serving 17 counties in Wisconsin and Michigan, has chosen Tyfone to provide its comprehensive suite of mobile wallet services so that it may better serve CVCU members with their every day mobile financial services needs. Tyfone’s mobile wallet services include Symitar Episys core integrated mobile banking, enhanced strong ID authentication mobile security and NFC contactless payment technology. This comprehensive mobile wallet includes a neutral secure element in a memory card so the user experience is dictated by the Credit Union without disintermediation by the mobile industry.

CoVantage, with 9 branches located throughout north central Wisconsin and upper Michigan, and over $900M in assets, has been ranked among the top credit unions in the nation for the value in services provided to their 64,000 members. CoVantage takes a proactive, yet methodical approach in utilizing technology to enhance the efficiency of its internal operations and member services making it a leading credit union in the Wisconsin and northwest Michigan area.

“After careful consideration, CoVantage chose Tyfone because of its unique and innovative perspective on the mobile channel which is reflected in its current features as well as its future road map of features,” said Robert Van Abel, CIO of CoVantage. “Tyfone’s Episys core integration gives CVCU the ability to offer unique features such as account aggregation and the ability for non-online bankers to participate in mobile banking, providing significant value for both CoVantage and its members.  Additionally, Tyfone ‘s mobile financial services include a seamless road map for enhanced security and NFC contactless payments, which coincide with CoVantage’s long term mobile strategy.”

Tyfone’s robust u4ia® platform in addition to mobile banking, enables secure NFC contactless payments and enhanced strong ID authentication, providing end-to-end secure digital wallet and payment services by the Credit Union and for Credit Union members. Tyfone mobile banking features its financial institution customer’s brands throughout the entire deployed solution.

“Tyfone’s financial institution customers tell us that consistent branding and cohesive operations are top priorities in selecting a mobile banking vendor,” said Mark Miyamoto, director of mobile banking at Tyfone. “By integrating mobile banking with digital wallet services, Tyfone is enhancing convenience and enabling more mobile money features for CoVantage members. To help strengthen relationships with its members, Tyfone’s fully integrated mobile money solution features the CoVantange brand from mobile banking services through to the digital wallet, providing CoVantage invaluable brand recognition with every purchase.”

Integrated with the Symitar Episys core, Tyfone’s mobile banking solution offers credit unions the ability to provide more value to its members by delivering relevant mobile data efficiently and intuitively.  In addition to standard features such as balance, history, transfer, and bill pay, Tyfone‘s multi-mode mobile banking (SMS, App, Web) will allow CVCU to offer several industry first features — account aggregation, rate watch, Regulation D counter, bill pay and an array of customizable alerts.

To learn more about Tyfone Mobile Banking visit http://www.tyfone.com.

About CoVantage Credit Union

CoVantage Credit Union is a $900 million financial institution headquartered in Antigo, Wisconsin. The member-owned financial cooperative serves 64,000 members through 10 offices located in central Wisconsin and upper Michigan.

About Tyfone

Founded in 2004, Tyfone’s corporate headquarters are in Portland, Oregon, and its Asia-Pacific headquarters are in Bangalore, India. Tyfone connects money and mobility via a highly secure, scalable and flexible mobile financial services solution tailored to meet the evolving needs of consumers, financial institutions, mobile network operators, transportation companies and retailers. Operating in any standard memory card slot, Tyfone’s u4ia® platform and its companion SideTap™ memory card comprise the world’s first patented, neutral, and comprehensive memory card-based payments solution for mobile contactless payments. Tyfone and its partners enable a suite of services including Mobile Banking, Mobile Identity Management, Mobile Remote Payments, Mobile Retail Services and Mobile Contactless Payments. For more information visit www.tyfone.com.

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Tyfone (www.tyfone.com), a mobile financial solutions provider, today announced the issuance of a seminal patent for over the network provisioning of add-on smartcard secure elements.

This new patent covers programming of smartcard circuitry in add-on electronic transaction cards in response to communication received over a network. This includes programming the electronic transaction card to operate as credit, debit, or stored value cards. Communication over a “network” includes wired, wireless, or cellular networks.

The patent, US 7,954,717, entitled “Provisioning Electronic Transaction Card in Mobile Device” has an effective filing date of February 22, 2005 and was issued on June 7, 2011.

Enabling electronic devices to leverage NFC communication standards for completing highly secure contactless transactions necessitates the use of a secure element, such as a smartcard. Plastic cards with smartcard secure elements for financial transactions are generally provisioned with identities before delivery to the user. Mobile devices using secure elements can benefit from the ability to provision multiple user identities and remote over-the-air management of identities into the secure element.

“We recognized early on the benefits of supporting over-the-air and over-the-wire programming of add-on secure elements in electronic devices, especially for financial transactions,” said Dr. Siva Narendra, president at Tyfone-North America. “The issuance of this patent is evidence of Tyfone’s thought leadership with respect to technologies that Trusted Service Managers (TSMs) will require to scale and manage mobile handsets for use in secure ID and NFC applications. We are excited to be bringing solutions to the market during a time of tremendous global interest.”

This patent addresses the use of add-on cards that may include smartcard circuitry. Technologies covered encompass the use of wired or wireless networks for provisioning transactional identities and information into a smartcard in an add-on slot of mobile devices. One application of this technology can be found on the company’s SideTapTM MicroSD cards; other examples may include add-on form factors such as SIM cards or mobile device sleeves. This technology enables programming of add-on cards in intelligent electronic devices used by plastic credit, debit and pre-paid card manufacturers, and personalization bureaus either within their secure facilities or in an instant personalization environment such as kiosks.

Tyfone’s secure technology used in SideTap cards along with its u4ia® mobile financial services platform enables a customizable digital wallet for any device that is capable of secure mobile banking, mobile ID and NFC payments services. Consumers appreciate the ability to tailor their mobile digital wallet, just as they do with the wallet in their purse or pocket today. Technologies covered in this patent address management of a consumer’s mobile digital wallet remotely over a network.

About Tyfone
Founded in 2004, Tyfone’s corporate headquarters are in Portland, Oregon, and its Asia-Pacific headquarters are in Bangalore, India. Tyfone connects money and mobility via a highly secure, scalable and flexible mobile financial services solution tailored to meet the evolving needs of consumers, financial institutions, mobile network operators, transportation companies, and retailers. Operating in any standard memory card slot, Tyfone’s u4ia® platform and its companion SideTap™ memory card comprise the world’s first patented, neutral, and comprehensive memory card-based payments solution for mobile contactless payments. Tyfone and its partners enable a suite of services including Mobile Banking, Mobile Identity Management, Mobile Remote Payments, Mobile Retail Services, and Mobile Contactless Payments. For more information visit www.tyfone.com.

Some names and brands mentioned may be claimed as the property of others. u4ia, Tyfone, and SideTap are trademarks of Tyfone, Inc.

Tyfone (www.tyfone.com), a mobile financial solutions provider, today announced the expansion of the Tyfone team with strategic new hires. These newest additions to the Tyfone management lineup will be charged with expanding and marketing the NFC contactless payment and mobile banking offerings of Tyfone.

“With the close of our Series B funding last year and with bringing on board new customers, Tyfone is investing not only in the development of innovative NFC contactless payments technology but also in the talent that continues to drive Tyfone to be a leader in the mobile financial services industry,” says Don Bloodworth, chief financial officer of Tyfone. “Particularly with mobile financial services gaining ground this year, we look forward to this expanded team bringing a fresh perspective to this emerging market.”

Todd Nuzum, Vice President of Technology

Tyfone named Todd Nuzum to the new role of vice president of technology. Todd brings more than 25 years of experience in technology research and development. Before joining Tyfone in 2010, Todd spent 13 years as a business systems architect at First Data, one of the world’s largest providers of merchant processing services. At First Data, Todd and his team created a wide range of applications including self-services, customer services, collections, authorization networks, automated clearing house processing and fraud processing.

Most recently Todd’s role at First Data included the implementation of a wide range of industry standard contactless payment solutions, including Global Platform compliant application development, authorization, fulfillment and point of sale systems. Todd holds several patents in payment processes and graduated from Midland University with Mathematics and Computer Science degrees.

Mark Miyamoto, Director of Sales

Mark Miyamoto brings over 16 years of sales and management experience from various industries to the Tyfone roster. As director of sales, Mark is responsible for product development and sales of Tyfone’s mobile banking services in North America. Prior to joining Tyfone, Mark was director of sales at Mshift. He was responsible for the development of direct and channel sales strategies nationwide and was instrumental in the 1st mobile banking deployment in the USA in 2001. Prior to that, Mark was responsible for North American sales of the energy forecasting/risk analysis application at Henwood Energy (now Ventyx, Inc.).

Aparna Battula, Director of Engineering

Tyfone has also expanded its team overseas at the Asia-Pacific headquarters with the addition of Aparna Battula as director of engineering. Aparna brings more than 16 years of experience to the Tyfone team with an emphasis in technical management and software design. Prior to assuming this role, Aparna was a technical services manager with Ness Technologies in Bangalore where she managed a cross-functional team and streamlined key business activities within the company. Aparna has held roles as senior software engineer at Chordiant Software Inc., in San Jose, California and software engineer for Highland Technologies Inc. in Lanham, Maryland, where she was responsible for database administration.

Mahendran Kathiresan, Director of Global Alliances

Also joining Tyfone in the Asia-Pacific office will be Mahendran Kathiresan, serving as director of global alliances. Previously as the India business development head at Infineon Technologies in Bangalore, Mahendran was responsible for chipcards and security market strategies with a focus on emerging applications like 3G, UID,  ePassport, transportation and mobile banking.

Prior to that, Mahendran worked with Philips Semiconductors in their Mobile and Personal ID division as business development manager where he established a joint lab for RFID between Intel and Philips.  Mahendran also worked at Schlumberger steering the smartcard operated payphones project based on CDMA, and played an important role in establishing the CDMA based payphone network with Tata Teleservices Hyderabad in South India.

“The addition of Todd, Mark, Aparna and Mahendran to the Tyfone family marks a significant milestone in company history as we expand the company and further focus our attention on growing our mobile banking, ID and NFC businesses,” added Bloodworth.

For more information about the complete Tyfone team please visit: http://www.tyfone.com

About Tyfone

Tyfone connects money and mobility via a highly secure, scalable and flexible Mobile Financial Services (MFS) infrastructure that is tailored to meet the evolving needs of mobile network operators, transportation agencies, retailers and financial institutions. With its complete MFS platform and global alliance partners, Tyfone is uniquely qualified to deliver issuer-centric turnkey solutions with fully-integrated contactless payments capabilities. To discover why Tyfone is becoming the partner of choice for MFS technologies to many of the world’s leading organizations, visit www.tyfone.com.

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Star One Credit Union, the ninth largest credit union in the US with more than $5 billion in assets, has signed an agreement with mobile financial solutions provider, Tyfone (www.tyfone.com), to deliver next generation mobile banking services to it members.

“As the Silicon Valley’s largest, member-owned financial institution, Star One prides itself in offering valuable, progressive financial solutions, and a consistent user experience to its members,” said Margarete Mucker, vice president of remote services at Star One. “After careful evaluation, we determined that Tyfone not only meets the mobile banking requirements we were looking for, but also has the technology, vision and culture to provide our members comprehensive mobile financial services well into the future. Tyfone’s platform is of great value to Star One and our members. We chose Tyfone not only because of their robust banking solution but also due to their NFC contactless payment, corporate banking and secure identification capabilities.”

Tyfone’s direct integration to Star One’s Fiserv XP2 core has additional benefits.  Mobile bankers will experience rapid responses, and the direct access to core data offers flexibility for additional features. With this agreement, Tyfone brings the latest in progressive mobile banking services to Star One members, allowing Star One to offer standard mobile banking features as well as several industry first features — account aggregation, rate watch, Regulation D counter, mobile remote deposit capture (mRDC), bill pay, and an array of customizable alerts.

“Star One is the ninth largest credit union out of more than 7,500 in the US, making it also one of the top 100 financial institutions in the country,” said Mark Miyamoto, director of sales at Tyfone. “Star One’s success is a credit to its mission of delivering valuable financial services to its members and Tyfone looks forward to helping Star One carry forth this commitment in the mobile environment.”

Mobile banking is nearing an inflection point where basic mobile banking functions alone are insufficient. Tyfone multi-mode mobile banking for any device (SMS, App, Web) is based on its u4ia® mobile financial services platform that in addition enables NFC contactless payments and strong ID authentication, providing comprehensive digital wallet and payment services for Credit Unions.

“Our strategy has been to bring comprehensive mobile financial services to the market and we are happy to see innovative credit unions like Star One select Tyfone.” added Miyamoto.

About Tyfone

Tyfone connects money and mobility via a highly secure, scalable and flexible Mobile Financial Services (MFS) infrastructure that is tailored to meet the evolving needs of mobile network operators, transportation agencies, retailers and financial institutions. With its complete MFS platform and global alliance partners, Tyfone is uniquely qualified to deliver issuer-centric turnkey solutions with fully-integrated contactless payments capabilities. To discover why Tyfone is becoming the partner of choice for MFS technologies to many of the world’s leading organizations, visit www.tyfone.com.

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Tyfone (www.tyfone.com), a mobile financial solutions provider, today unveiled its next generation solution with industry-first features designed to make the mobile banking experience complete for consumers. Building on a vision that the mobile platform is far more than a channel of access, Tyfone, with leading-edge banks and credit unions as its partners, is defining the complete consumer experience on a handset. Tyfone Mobile Banking™ is built on top of the company’s u4ia® mobile financial services platform that also enables contactless payments using near field communications (NFC) and strong authentication ID management, providing banks with a multi-faceted roadmap for offering comprehensive digital wallet and payment services.

“At Tyfone we firmly believe that mobile will quickly become the platform of choice for banking customers as mobile banking services provide more value than either online or in-person banking,” said Mark Miyamoto, Tyfone’s director of mobile banking product development. “The proliferation of smartphones and low cost data plans enable financial institutions the ability to convert a costlier ‘serviced’ banker into an efficient, low cost ‘self-service’ mobile banker, offering more strategic value and cost efficiencies to the financial institution. As the lines between mobile banking and digital wallet services begin to blur, Tyfone with its mobile financial services platform is well positioned to bridge the gap with an extremely secure and integrated service offering.”

Tyfone’s multimode mobile banking solution already offers a complete range of features delivered to banking customers via mobile application, mobile websites or text messaging. In addition to the standard mobile banking features such as checking balance, account history review, fund transfers, branch and ATM location lookup, and bill pay, Tyfone offers financial institutions a best-in-class solution:

Industry-First Mobile Banking Features

Mobile banking for non-online bankers: Every other mobile banking solution is essentially an extension of online banking. To ensure all members can take advantage of mobile banking, a key new feature of Tyfone Mobile Banking is its ability to offer mobile banking to 100 percent of a bank or credit union’s customer base, and not limit mobile banking only to those customers subscribed to online banking services.

Account aggregation: Another key feature unique to Tyfone is the ability to aggregate accounts so a user can view and manage multiple accounts with just a single login. This account aggregation feature allows a customer to see multiple accounts, (i.e., personal, business and jointly held accounts), in a single mobile banking session. While other mobile banking services require a unique login to manage each respective account, Tyfone Mobile Banking enables a more efficient and easier user experience.

Secure ID management: Tyfone’s secure ID management is prepared to meet and exceed the security and authentication requirements for corporate mobile banking and high value transactions. These higher standards are achieved with Tyfone’s unique ability to offer true Multi Factor Authentication (MFA).

NFC Contactless Payments: Tyfone’s patented contactless payments technology enables institutions to strategically position themselves by offering a customizable and transferable digital wallet. Customers will appreciate the ability to customize their secure digital wallet, just as they do with the wallet in their purse or pocket today. Tyfone’s SideTap™ microSD memory cards enable most phones on the market today to be NFC enabled.

Other Enhanced Mobile Banking Features

Mobile remote deposit capture: End-users of Tyfone Mobile Banking can also use mobile remote deposit capture (mRDC), allowing them to use a mobile phone’s onboard camera to photograph a check and remotely deposit the funds using the mobile banking service.

Tyfone paid close attention to the end-user experience as well as the need to reduce or limit a financial institution’s need to invest more to offer mobile services. Tyfone Mobile Banking reduces a bank’s overhead costs with a self-service sign-up, allowing customers to download the app or visit the mobile website, enter their account information and be up and running in just minutes. Tyfone’s patented technologies also enable financial institutions to think beyond mobile banking and begin planning for integrated digital wallet, NFC payments and secure ID services.

“Of the several vendors OnPoint evaluated for our mobile banking solution, Tyfone was the only one with a long term vision for mobile payments and we felt that they provided the best roadmap to the future,” said Jim Armstrong, senior vice president of technology at OnPoint Community Credit Union, one of the Pacific Northwest’s largest credit unions. “Tyfone’s software developers are incredibly fast movers, quickly developing for OnPoint a seamless interface to Fiserv’s XP2 core system and Digital Insight’s online banking module that included a single sign-on feature. Tyfone is a great partner and at the top of my list of vendors to work with at the credit union.”

For more information about Tyfone Mobile Banking visit: http://www.tyfone.com/product-mobile-banking.html.

About Tyfone
Tyfone connects money and mobility via a highly secure, scalable and flexible Mobile Financial Services (MFS) infrastructure that is tailored to meet the evolving needs of mobile network operators, transportation agencies, retailers and financial institutions. With its complete MFS platform and global alliance partners, Tyfone is uniquely qualified to deliver issuer-centric turnkey solutions with fully-integrated contactless payments capabilities. To discover why Tyfone is becoming the partner of choice for MFS technologies to many of the world’s leading organizations, visit www.tyfone.com.

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