What started as a vision has resulted in global pending patents that facilitate a secure platform for rendering any future e-Commerce, credit, debit or stored value payment transaction without the risk of sharing card numbers and personal records, unlike the current execution process that normally directs data unknown computer systems. ViA brings 100% security to the e-world and gives a better future not only to our children, but also shares it with those who need support.

ViA is based on a revolutionary security method supported by several pending world patents which will FULLY protect the consumers from unauthorized use of their credit, debit or stored value card numbers and personal data.

With this technology the consumer can conduct a transaction - on the Internet, mobile phone or directly with an e-Merchant - and personal details such as card number/name, etc... are uniquely encrypted in several layers visible only to the authorized processor. ViA enables instant settlements and clearing of transactions, results in less cost, less time and more to spend for the consumer.

The Founder

The ViA group was founded by Swedish innovator and serial entrepreneur Lars Olof Kanngard who decided to make U.A.E his new home in 1998.

The founder Mr. Lars Olof Känngård, born in Sweden in 1956, self-employed entrepreneur who has built new corporate enterprises and trends for the last 30 years with a focus on Telecommunication, IT, value added services and transaction based solutions. Resident of Dubai since 1998, he also operates McGordons LLC.  Lars Olof Känngård is the single largest shareholder of ViA Holdings. Lars Olof Känngård started to work with development of stored value solution way back in 1995 when Albert Weintraub initiated the concept around e-lysium. It all started to solve the need of moving pre-paid long distance accounts from one carrier to another carrier and soon where the portfolio of gadget are as colorful as a painters palette. In 2004, e-lysium came alive via a joint venture with Central National Bank and Trust Company of Enid, Oklahoma ("CNB") under the name of CNB e-lysium LLC, who operates MyLana, MeCash and The Home Depot in the US. Parallel to other activities, up to 2004, Lars Olof Känngård was aspiring to great extent to get local investors to grasp the concept of stored value and the need for monetary solutions which can handle Micro transactions. This is when the ViA concept gained momentu and Lars decided do it as a virtual solution, with instant accessibility, no waiting or looking into the mail for account statement and information was collated that needed to conduct transactions and bring a new generation intelligent POS (Point of Sales) terminal to the market.

The internet has opened up vast new avenues for communication and is revolutionizing commercial transactions; it is rendering redundant many previous business systems and processes. And, likewise, individuals have found the internet to be a convenient and money- saving way to manage their household affairs – including shopping for products and services.

But the creation of an open “workspace” has given room to operate for unscrupulous and criminal elements – card and identity fraud has become an international problem. Until now, the criminals have kept ahead of all new technology designed to combat them.

At another level, the new eCommerce has bypassed a vast sector of the population – those who are “unbanked”. Literally millions of workers, and their dependants, have an income which is below the level required to participate in the official banking system. They have no bank account, no credit facilities and restricted opportunity to participate in, and benefit from the new world of eCommerce. To transfer funds in support of their families, they find themselves reliant on informal systems which can be disproportionately costly, and which in any case are being progressively closed down by governments looking to eliminate unofficial money transfers.

In addition, there is a class of merchant who is being left behind. The small scale vendor and service provider find it increasingly difficult to compete with the mass marketers (e.g. he is often outside from the credit card system) and faces the security risk of carrying large sums of cash.

New ViA solves these unrelated problems and by improving end-to-end security, also giving the least advantaged workers cheaper transactions/transfers, and small merchants the opportunity to immediately benefit from more customers.

Now, there is a solution where anyone can use their card and make purchases - on the internet or on a normal mobile phone - and no one can see the card number or any personal data. A new generation of merchants will now be able to accept any type of card and, once the system verifies the cardholder, process the transaction by way of the mobile phone, or any other such device. The system then responds with a verification code for the merchant.

How to bring millions of new users into Banking

Around the world, millions of workers and their families are excluded from the traditional banking system, either because bank charges are too high or because banks set a minimum deposit level – it leaves this huge population unbanked.

Typically, they can only transfer funds to their families, (often in other countries), through the informal market. It is this informal market that many governments wish to close down, or at least regulate and monitor.

ViA provides these workers, through their employer, a Stored Value Card (SVC) on which is deposited their income. They have a ‘bank’ account number in a pooled account with a national bank. Now, the worker can use the ViA SVC in the market place, avoiding the high bank costs associated with a classical account and card program.

The ViA Card has other advantages

• It allows the card holder to transfer cash to family members to any part of the world, with utmost security, protected by the same encryption methodology, and at a lower cost than through current money transfer services.
• The employer can add other encrypted data to the card, such as employee details, biometric passwords for workplace entry, level of health insurance coverage, etc.
• A partner bank can begin to form a growing relationship with individuals at a very low cost .
• Governments and banking authorities have the confidence of knowing that, through the ViA system, previously untracked money movements are now more transparent.

There are other purposes for which the ViA Card is perfect

• Parents and guardians can issue a ViA SVC to their children and specify its usage.
• Occasional travellers without access to credit facilities would be able to load a card with funds specifically for that trip.

STS – Secure Transaction String ™ The STS Method brings 100% security to the eSociety by securing the use of any credit, debit or stored value transaction. There are 3 elements to the operation: The transaction is handled by a  key pad or POS terminal The key pad encrypts all the necessary transaction data into 3 individually encrypted layers which can only be decrypted by only the authorized party who processes the transaction. NO card number or personal data is disclosed by the card holder, without being 100% protected The ViA GMN™ builds a cluster of eHubs to handle and distributes the transactions to and from the proper issuer.

SCT - Secure Card Transaction is an innovative methodology and a secure way of conducting transactions. SCT encrypts the entire transaction data at smart card level. A highly secure transaction data is generated by SCT that is transmitted over the processing platform making it theoretically impossible for fraud to occur.

The ViA Merchant™ concept is part of the ViA GMN™ solution and targets a new group of eMerchants, where a simple ViA POS Terminal, allows the merchant to accept credit, debit or stored value cards.

The merchant simply inserts the card into the ViA KeyPad™, the card holder enters his or her Pin Code, and jointly they enter the transaction amount. The terminal instantly creates an STS Record, which the merchant sends by his or her mobile phone in an SMS message or via MMS message and soon thereafter receives a verification message back. The whole exercise does not take more than a few seconds and neither card number nor personal data have been communicated without 100% protection. If the card issuer is directly linked on the internet to the ViA GMN™ network, no intermediary is involved and there is no costly commissions.

The ViA Intranet™ solution is an internet-based intranet solution for small and medium sized operations and for different user groups. This ‘in-house’ solution is accessible from any computer, where news, information, documents,  company advertisements and internal forums can be disseminated to and for ViA Card holders. The ViA Intranet™ solution was designed and deployed in Sweden in 2004, and today serves prestigious customers who handle all their workforce planning, scheduling working hours, stores opening hours and vacation data. The iNote message system is a tailor made message system, where management can distribute simple text messages to a designated employee or a group of employees and monitor the readership.

Viatel Sweden AB What was started in the early 1980’s as a pioneering development to design and deploy both Voice systems and Value Added Services, has become a market leader in Sweden. Viatel provides payment solutions for prestigious customers, such as IKEA, Bonier, Kinnevik, and Nordbanken.