ValidSoft to demonstrate SMART at FinovateSpring 2013 in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO, May 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- ValidSoft (www.validsoft.com), a global supplier of advanced telecommunications-based fraud prevention, authentication and transaction verification solutions, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Elephant Talk Communications Corp. (NYSE MKT: ETAK), will demonstrate its award-winning technology in front of an expert audience of over 1,000 people at one of the most highly-respected financial innovation conferences globally.

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FinovateSpring 2013 takes place in San Francisco on May 14 and 15 and aims to showcase the best innovations in financial and banking technology from a mixture of both leading established companies and startups. The event's signature, live demonstration-only format will see over 60 companies each having 7 minutes on stage to demonstrate their latest innovations. The event attracts a high-calibre audience that includes leading financial executives, venture capitalists, press, industry analysts, bloggers, and fintech entrepreneurs looking to foresee future trends and technologies within the financial services and payments industry.

As one of the very few security vendors chosen to participate this year, ValidSoft will be showcasing a unique, low-friction means of securing a mobile wallet application through its SMART™ platform. Its demonstration is on 15 May at around 2pm (PDT) and will be streamed through the Finovate website for those who can't attend.

CEO of ValidSoft, Pat Carroll, comments: "Innovation continues to develop at a rapid pace across all forms of mobile payments, and use of smart-phones for banking and payments is growing at a yearly rate of nearly 53%. (World Payments Report 2012: "Analysts believe the number of payments using mobile devices could grow by 52.7% a year to reach 17bn in 2013".) As a result, the need for a secure and yet frictionless means of verifying and authenticating transactions becomes paramount, both to combat fraud while at the same time safeguarding the privacy of consumers."

"If analyst predictions on the growth of mobile payments are to be realized, banks and mobile payment providers need to take a holistic approach to security and think about including it 'by design', rather than as a point solution. Telecommunications – and specifically a mobile-based solution – is key to combating the threat, and ValidSoft is uniquely positioned to bring the power of mobile-centric technology to the world of mobile banking and payments."

ValidSoft's SMART™ (Secure Mobile Architecture for Real-time Transactions) platform is a telecommunications-based technology which offers multi-factor, multi-layer authentication solutions to secure transactions on mobile devices. It can protect transactions for M-banking, mobile wallets, P2P payments and even micro-merchant applications.

Because of its flexibility, it can be custom designed for both feature and smart-phone technology. It provides the commensurate level of security to control the transactional risk. The technology works in real time and requires no extra hardware or remembering of passwords by users, making the customer-provider experience truly frictionless. ValidSoft's achievement with SMART™ was recognized recently, when it beat off fierce competition from a number of different technologies, to win the 'Jury Vote' award at the Florin Transaction Services Innovation Awards, established by the European Payments Consulting Association (EPCA).

About ValidSoft:

ValidSoft Limited has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Elephant Talk since early 2010 and underpins its mobile/cloud security offering. The company is a market leader in providing solutions to counter electronic fraud relating to a variety of bank, card, internet and telephone channels. ValidSoft's solutions are used to verify the authenticity of both parties to a transaction (Mutual Authentication), the security of the relevant telecommunication channel used (Secure Communications), and the integrity of transactions itself (Transaction Verification) for the mass market, in a highly cost effective and secure manner while being very easy to use. The company counts several leading worldwide service providers and institutions amongst its customers.  ValidSoft is the only security software company in the world that has been granted three European Privacy Seals. Visit: www.validsoft.com.

About Elephant Talk:

Elephant Talk Communications Corp. (NYSE MKT: ETAK), is a leading international provider of mobile proprietary Software Defined Network Architecture (Software DNA™) platforms for the telecommunications industry that empower Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), Enablers (MVNEs) and Aggregators (MVNAs) with a full suite of applications, Full OSS/BSS Systems, Delivery Platforms, Support and Managed Services, on-site, cloud, hybrid and S/PaaS solutions, including Network, Mobile Internet ID Solutions, Secure Remote Access Management, Loyalty Management and Transaction Processing Services, superior Industry Expertise and high quality Customer Service without substantial upfront investment. Elephant Talk counts several of the world's leading Mobile Operators amongst its customers including Vodafone, T-Mobile and Zain, and virtually all business is focused on tier 1 and tier 2 operators worldwide. Visit:  www.elephanttalk.com.

Media Contacts:

Public Relations:
UK: Fishburn Hedges
+44 (0)20 7839 4321
[email protected]

US: Fishburn Hedges
Jessica Morris
+ 1 212 459 6232
[email protected]

Investor Relations:
Steve Gersten
Elephant Talk Communications Corp.
+ 1 813 926 8920
[email protected]  

Peter Salkowski
The Blueshirt Group
+1 415 489 2184
[email protected]

SOURCE ValidSoft