The Peppermint Innovation Ltd (ASX: PIL) share price is surging higher today. Today the company emerged from the trading halt it entered on Monday.

At the time of writing, shares in the ASX mobile banking payments provider are up 17.65%. In earlier trade on Wednesday, Peppermint Innovation shares posted gains of more than 23%.

So, what's piquing investor interest?

What's this about an electronic money issuer license?

The Peppermint Innovation share price is leaping higher today after the company reported the Central Bank of the Philippines, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, had granted it a license to operate as an electronic money issuer (EMI).

The EMI licence allows Peppermint to deliver e-wallet services through its Bizmoto mobile app. This will enable any Filipino to use its Bizmoto platform to receive digital money and access digital services.

According to the release, some 39 million Filipinos are transacting digitally.

The company said it plans to reach out to farmers, fishermen and entrepreneurs, along with Filipinos living on day-to-day pay cheques. Via Bizmoto they'll have faster digital access to their salaries, pensions, and any other payments they're entitled to.

Commenting on the EMI license, Peppermint Innovation CEO Chris Kain said, "We always said one of our operational objectives was to obtain an EMI licence and we've now achieved that milestone."

According to Kain:

The issuance of an EMI licence for Peppermint will, ultimately, deliver significant value to the company and to the communities we operate in. Clearly, the digital revolution is with us and the Bizmoto platform can now facilitate any e-money transaction and service open-loop e-wallet accounts, providing Filipinos with a convenient and secure way to receive digital money and services.

The Peppermint Innovation share price could also be getting a lift from projections by the Central Bank of the Philippines. The bank forecasts that 50% of all retail transactions in the Philippines will be digital by 2023. Further, the central bank believes that 70% of Filipino adults will have formal accounts by next year.

Peppermint Innovation share price snapshot

The Peppermint Innovation share price is up 85% in 2022. That compares to a 4% year-to-date loss posted by the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO).

Peppermint Innovation is a microcap ASX share subject to big share price swings. It has a market cap of $34 million.

The post Here's why the Peppermint Innovation share price is flying higher today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The Peppermint Innovation Limited (ASX: PIL) share price has fallen 14.7% today, despite good news from the company. This morning, the financial technology company announced it has signed an agreement with the Philippines' largest micro-financial services provider.  

The agreement will allow users of Peppermint's Bizmoto product to withdraw and deposit money at 2,500 shops in the Philippines.

At the time of writing, the Peppermint share price is 2.9 cents, down from Friday's closing price of 3.4 cents. Let's look closer at why the Peppermint share price is falling today. 

Peppermint's agreement with Cebuana Lhuillier

The agreement announced today will allow users of Peppermint's Bizmoto platform to withdraw and deposit money in any one of Cebuana Lhullier's 2,500 storefronts.

Bizmoto is a Philippines-based fintech product for micro-business owners and entrepreneurs. It allows users to receive and manage payments securely and easily.

According to Peppermint, Cebuana Lhuillier is the Philippines' largest and leading micro-financial services provider.

Under the agreement, Cebuana Lhuillier will earn a fee when Bizmoto agents deposit money to the platform at one of its shops.

Peppermint also takes a fee when users perform transactions on the platform.

Today's news from Peppermint comes just weeks after the company made a deal with the Bank of Philippines (BPI).

The agreement with BPI will see users able to transfer money from the bank onto the Bizmoto platform.

Commentary from management

Peppermint managing director and CEO Chris Kain said the latest agreement increased the platform's convenience and accessibility.

It is yet another 'brick in the road' as we build out our bizmoto ecosystem, further integrating our bizmoto platform into the established Philippines' payments industry as we seek interoperability across the digital payments landscape throughout the Philippines.

Peppermint aims to continue to align itself with strategic and established partners across the Philippines' payments landscape to ensure the bizmoto platform and ecosystem of services is convenient and accessible to as many Filipino people as possible.

 Peppermint share price snapshot 

The Peppermint share price is currently in a unique position. Until late February of this year, the company's shares had been frozen for nearly 18 months.

Peppermint has been listed on the ASX since 2008, with its highest closing price occurring in October 2009, when it closed at 37 cents. When it was frozen, the Peppermint Innovation share price was a comparatively measly 1 cent.

Since it started trading once more in February, Peppermint Innovation share price has risen and fallen a number of times. Though, it is currently right where it started a few months ago.

The company has a market capitalisation of around $54 million, with approximately 1.5 billion shares outstanding.

The post Why the Peppermint (ASX:PIL) share price is falling today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The Peppermint Innovation Ltd (ASX: PIL) share price is surging 13% higher today after signing an Application Programming Interface (API) agreement with major Filipino bank Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI).

The API agreement means BPI will start offering Peppermint's bizmoto platform, an ecommerce and BPay-esque service, to its four million account holders.

Landmark agreement in key market

Peppermint's service allows its customers to pay bills, conduct e-commerce, delivery and logistics, and mobile financial tasks through a mobile wallet. Customers can then top up and transact remotely. 

Peppermint will undertake a direct marketing campaign as part of the deal, promoting the bizmoto services. The agreement has a 'go live' date for the second half of this year.

Peppermint's Managing Director and CEO, Chris Kain, said that forming an agreement with BPI was a landmark in the company's expansion into the South-East Asian market.

"This is a significant agreement for Peppermint Innovation, and it's a privilege to be able to do business with the Bank of the Philippine Islands, who were the first bank in the Philippines and South East Asia," he said.

"BPI is such a respected institution in the Philippines and Peppermint's proven capability and track record of working with other banking entities has positioned us well to do business with BPI. As soon as we can, we will execute targeted awareness and marketing campaigns in partnership with BPI to their over four million customer account holders.

"To put that in context, we currently have over 50,000 bizmoto agents so we have the potential to market and explain how our bizmoto platform works to almost 80 times the number of current registered agents.

"This is yet another step forward on our path to building out our range of bizmoto ecosystem of services across the Philippines and to tackling the problem of providing inclusive financial services to the people of the Philippines."

Peppermint share price on sharp yearly incline

The Peppermint share price has risen more than 230% this year-to-date, with investors also realising the brand's potential to capture the lucrative emerging 'buy now, pay later' market across southern Asia. 

While Peppermint's bizmoto platform is currently based around mobile remittance — allowing customers to set up their own mobile businesses — the company has the potential to transition towards an end-to-end banking service.

This is the second major announcement for Peppermint this month, after the company revealed its micro-insurance product BizmoProtect on 3 March. 

At the time of writing, the Peppermint share price is swapping hands for 4.1 cents.

The post Peppermint (ASX:PIL) share price surges 13% on 'significant' Asia deal appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Peppermint Innovation Ltd (ASX: PIL) shares are bouncing around today after the company provided an update regarding the launch of a new insurance offering.

In early trade, the Peppermint share price surged by around 13% to 2.6 cents only to then retreat. At the time of writing, Peppermint shares are trading at 2.3 cents, flat for the day so far, amidst a wider market selloff. 

Let's take a look at what the mobile banking app developer announced.

Peppermint offers new micro-insurance product

The Peppermint share price has been up and down today after the technology company announced it has entered into an agreement with Cebuana Lhuillier Insurance Solutions (Cebuana) in the Phillippines. Peppermint is now offering Filipino consumers access to life and accident insurance products.

Under the agreement, Cebuana will provide the insurance products and services to Peppermint. Peppermint will provide marketing and sales services as well as collect premiums and be responsible for compliance.

Using Peppermint's bizmoto app technology, customers will have access to three different micro-insurance products to purchase on a monthly or annual basis.

Every policy covers emergency services associated with coronavirus.

CEO comments

Peppermint managing director and CEO Chris Kain said: 

Offering accessible and affordable insurance products is an extremely important part of Peppermint's overall vision to deliver financial inclusion and social good to the Filipino people…

The aim of bizmoProtect is to deliver affordable and accessible accident and life insurance to Filipino people via our established bizmoto agent network using our new and improved bizmoto mobile App…

bizmoProtect represents the first product to be launched within our targeted financial services business sector and means that our bizmoto ecosystem is now live across all of the four key targeted business sectors of mobile payments, e-commerce, delivery and logistics and financial services.

Peppermint will receive a 5% or 10% service fee for all premiums collected and a 60% share of product mark up.

Peppermint share price snapshot

Peppermint Innovation services the Philippines market and is focused on the commercialisation and further development of its mobile banking, delivery and logistics, e-commerce and finance technologies.

The Peppermint share price has fallen by more than 20% over the past month. This comes following an explosion in the price of Peppermint shares in late January when the company resumed trading on the ASX after an extended halt.

Based on the current share price, Peppermint has a market capitalisation of around $37.4 million and there are presently 1.4 billion shares outstanding.

The post Why the Peppermint (ASX:PIL) share price is bouncing today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Peppermint Innovation Ltd (ASX: PIL) shares are up an eye-catching 227% today. The Peppermint share price opened at 3.3 cents this morning and is currently trading at 3.6 cents. Earlier in the day, Peppermint shares were as high as 4.3 cents, which represented a 291% gain.

Now although this looks like a stunningly good move today that you might think has made several millionaires, the story is a little more nuanced than it first appears. Firstly, it's important to note that today is the first day in quite a while that this company's shares have been actually available for trading. The stock has been in a hiatus for a long time, around 1½ years to be precise.

Peppermint shares were last traded on the ASX back in October 2019. Since then, they have been in the deep freeze. Prior to its trading halt, the company had a rather painful history. The Peppermint share price had its zenith way back in October 2009 when it reached a high of 37 cents, but has been in a downward spiral ever since.

In fact, between October 2009 and October 2019, Peppermint shares lost 97.3% of their value. Even after today's moves, that loss is still sitting at around 90%.

The company's shares closed at 1.1 cents a share back in 2019 and are now at 3.6 cents after the resumption of trading. That's why we are seeing this seemingly-massive jump today. 

What is Peppermint Innovation?

Peppermint Innovation operates a mobile banking platform that facilitates payments and remittance. It can be used by other clients to offer services in this ilk. Currently, apps that run through Peppermint's platform include Bizmoto, UCBP and Bank of Mataki. These apps are mostly based in the Philippines.

According to the company, Peppermint was suspended from the ASX in 2019 "due to a disclaimer of opinion in Peppermint's annual financial report for the financial year ended 30 June 2019". However, in a letter to the ASX seeking reinstatement, Peppermint's chair Anthony Kain claimed that "Peppermint has continued to build its platform and business" regardless.

The company has since performed a capital raise of $2 million and delivered a quarterly update for the quarter ending 31 December 2020. In that update, Peppermint reported cash receipts of $540,000 for the quarter and $2.9 million for the 2020 calendar year. That was up from $1.65 million for 2019.

In the same update, Peppermint's CEO Chris Kain stated the following:

I am very excited for what the next 12 months holds for Peppermint Innovation… We saw our business expand significantly, achieving a 76% increase in overall cash receipts in CY '20 on CY '19… The next 12 months will be extremely exciting for Peppermint as we continue to evolve the bizmoto platform and seek further opportunities for our established and proven mobile banking platform.

Judging by the rather successful Peppermint share price performance today, it seems investors agree.

The post Up 230%! What's going on with the Peppermint Innovation (ASX:PIL) share price? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.