As an investor with a keen interest and curiosity for start-ups and early-stage companies in the fin-tech and software domain, Okay immediately got my attention. 

Having previous experiences within online shopping and online banking, I have long watched these two industries mature. As such, I was on the hunt for a service that could handle the large number of transactions I was seeing every day, as well as one that could keep up with the latest PSD2 SCA compliance regulations rolling out across Europe. 

It became clear to me that Okay worked hard to develop a unique technology that could handle the secure identification and authentication of users and transactions I was looking for. I quickly recognised that this would make Okay a perfect fit for meeting compliance standards and solving threats that come from online hacking.

In the early stages of Okay's company life cycle, they were a step ahead having already figured out their unique, patent-protected technology. However, they were missing some key elements, including a good brand name, a strong market profile, and a clearly defined market strategy. 

After fine-tuning their professional management team, diversified in its experiences, skills, and expertise, Okay filled in the gaps and successfully managed to match their state-of-the-art, intuitive, good-looking cloud service product with an affordable and scalable solution, while gaining market visibility. 

With the continual increase of business transactions being online, there will also be an increase of hackers with dishonest motives. This situation makes our collective consumer need for safe and secure solutions a top priority. In this respect, it is good to know that Okay also has a biometric solution that will add increased security to their SCA process and make a better user experience when authenticating.

But this is not the case for everyone, as some marketplace players will be slow to implement the new PSD2/SCA compliance regulations, either because it is to their disadvantage or because they don't have the proper tools in place. This means that Okay, with their PSD2/SCA solution, are looking at a great market opportunity.

Most people rely on the integrity of their banks and financial institutions to make sure their online transactions are being processed safely and securely. As a consumer myself, I also enjoy doing my business online. So I personally and professionally understand how important it is for the payment industry to build trust with its users.

Here in Norway, we have a widely used and trusted solution for SCA: Bank ID. Bank ID offers solutions for all platforms and is used by both private and public organisations. Across industries, it is a competitive advantage to get a strong foothold in the marketplace with as many users as possible. After all, users attract users, and in Norway, Bank ID has become the dominant player. 

With Okay's PSD2/SCA compliant solution, I will not be surprised to see them become the preferred choice for banks and financial institutions across Europe, Asia, and perhaps one day the world. The sheer volume of online transactions makes the market potential for safe and secure solutions a huge one. Okay, with a core technology that handles large volumes of transactions safely and securely, has the opportunity to become a significant player. Especially since its user-friendly solution comes at a very affordable cost. Needless to say, I love looking back at Okay’s origin story, but am very much looking forward to seeing what Okay can achieve in the upcoming years.

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Okay protects the SCA process by encapsulating it with security mechanisms embedded in the app to protect from attacks, such as innovative malware, in a PSD2 compliant way. It offers:

1. Strong compliant security with secured dynamic linking and separate, secure execution environment
2. Multiple factor authentication: inherence with biometrics, knowledge factor with secret PIN or OTP by SDK and of course possession factor with smartphones 
3. Easy integration with your existing app, access management system and ACS

Contact us today to see how Okay is protecting users affordably and securely.