Swedish company Seamless announced its new mobile payment solution called SEQR. The product uses simple QR codes placed at the point of sale to relay information to a customer's smartphone and request payment.

"There are two really interesting things here," said Peter Fredell, Seamless' CEO. "We bypass the credit card companies completely, meaning that retailers no longer need to pay their high fees. Also, the fact that we make use of existing hardware means that the system can be implemented in new retail chains very quickly and without any investment costs for the retailer."

According to the company's announcement, the SEQR product requires the consumer to scan a QR code at a SEQR-enabled POS terminal using a smartphone. The Seamless transaction platform identifies the POS using the QR code and responds to the smartphone with the items to be purchased and the amount owed. At that point, the customer can pay directly with the smartphone from a linked bank account.

Seamless said the transaction actually takes half the time of a standard card payment.

Fredell said the SEQR technology is simple and easy to implement and requires nothing more than a QR code sticker at each cash register.

According to Fredell, the company's platform already handles more than 2.4 billion transactions annually in 26 countries.

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