Vipps, MobilePay and Pivo to merge and launch single digital wallet across Scandinavia
Bank-owned Nordic mobile payment providers Vipps in Norway, MobilePay in Denmark and Pivo in Finland are to merge and will create a single digital wallet that consumers can use in all three countries, as well as for cross-border payments. digital wallet Scandinavia
The consortium of Norwegian banks behind Vipps has entered into an agreement with MobilePay owner Danske Bank and Finland’s OP Financial Group — which owns Pivo — to establish the shared payments platform that “will lead to users and stores getting more and better solutions at a faster pace”.
“The ambition is to create Europe’s best and most comprehensive digital wallet,” MobilePay says.
“Serving 11 million users and over 330,000 shops and web shops, the company will be one of the largest bank-owned mobile payment providers in Europe.
The new company will be headquartered in Oslo and subject to regulation by the Norwegian authorities. There will be no redundancies as a result of the merger, with the combnined company employing over 500 staff across Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Lithuania.
The merger will create one of the largest bank-owned mobile wallets in Europe, with instititutions behind Vipps owning a majority 65% stake. MobilePay owner Danske Bank will hold a 25% stake and OP Financial Group, the backer of Pivo, will maintain a 10% interst.
Glenn Söderholm, head of personal & business customers in Danske Bank, says: “It is very expensive to compete with global competitors in this space and in order to continue to develop the most attractive solutions for our customers, MobilePay must be part of something bigger to gain scale and pool investments for further innovation.”
Under the plan, Vipps – the most up-to-date technology technology platform, running on public cloud and independent of its bank owners – will provide the technical backbone and be expanded to meet Danish and Finnish requirements.
“This will create a much stronger starting point for providing customers — both end users and merchants — with more and even better solutions at an even faster pace,” says Claus Bunkenborg, CEO of MobilePay. “We have the clear ambition of enabling private users to use the joint wallet for cross-border payments between the Nordic countries.”
As part of the process of merging the three Nordic companies, Vipps will de-merge from BankID and BankAxept in Norway. digital wallet Scandinavia
