With digital wallets being the hub of value for banks, retailers, and consumers alike, and the lynchpin of mobile payments innovation, both FreedomPay and Microsoft will collaborate with the region's burgeoning tech-savvy and creative population to kick start the innovative development of digital wallet applications. Digital Wallet Foundry takes place March 18-22, 2013 at the ultra-hip Modern Jago building in London's East End.

"In the past, the payments business was very transactional. Today, social and mobile connectivity means the payments business is an information business," commented Colin Kerr, industry solutions director, worldwide financial services at Microsoft. "The heart of this is the digital wallet, and Microsoft has identified FreedomPay with its SEEK Commerce Platform as a strategic partner aligned closely with the Microsoft go to market strategy for innovative payment and mobile wallet solutions on Windows Azure and Windows Phone."

At this event developers, designers and industry thought leaders from the world's leading banks and mobile operators are coming together to collaborate on everything from envisioning, defining wallet strategies and business planning, to coding and agile project development. At the event, developers will be tasked to develop 'proof of concept' demonstrations within the 5-day, hack-a-thon style event. The week will conclude with awards and recognition for products conceived and developed during the week.

Developers will have access to the full suite of APIs that drive the powerful SEEK Commerce Platform built on the Microsoft platform. These APIs allows developers to perform traditional and mobile payments, tokenization and tokenized payments, Point-To-Point Encrypted (P2PE) transactions, incentives, loyalty and data as a service transactions.

"The scope and pace of social and technological change is challenging the global banking industry to build new consumer touch points to service their customers," noted Tom Durovsik, CEO at FreedomPay, Inc. "Today, connectivity, convergence and communication have become generational buzz words in an attempt to reach customers anytime, anywhere and on any device. The FreedomPay Commerce Platform, in conjunction with Windows Azure cloud computing technology addresses the global enterprise and financial institution solution requirements."