European mobile payment processing services company payleven recently released its new chip-and-PIN solution on the continent and is following up by beginning to welcome local merchants into its fold, according to Mobile Payments Today.

The news source reports that the company is the first provider in mainland Europe to offer complete solutions for all debit and credit cards as part of its point of sale terminal offerings. With a relatively untapped market for mobile transactions and payment processing services in Europe, payleven stands to command a significant portion of the market, particularly if it can sign up some key merchants.

Interested merchants can register online for the service, which currently works for both iOS and Android devices. Once they sign up, retailers can then acquire the payleven chip-and-PIN reader that connects to smartphones or tablet devices through Bluetooth, the news source reports. Consumers can then download the application through the Apple iTunes store or Google Play and enter their PINs on the small keyboard that accompanies the payleven reader.

"We talk to [potential merchant] companies and it is a natural fit," Alston Zecha, one of the three co-founders and the COO of payleven, told TechCrunch. "Loyalty is one service but it's easy to imagine more. Mobile devices that can be seen as path to location-based services, social services and more. We are not replicating but we are creating something differently."

The company is also hoping to develop a feature device that doesn't require smartphones for its operation, the news source reports. If this is successful, payleven hopes to extend outside of Europe and into developing markets that still broadly use lower-end devices.