Norway's banks have signed a declaration of intent to merge the payment systems Vipps, BankAxept and BankID Norge, according to a report by news agency ANB-NTB (Avisenes Nyhetsbyra-Norsk Telegrambyra). The aim is to have the merged entity up and running by 01 August, and there are plans to compete on the international market, too. The deal will require competition authority approval.
DNB CEO Rune Bjerke said Norwegian banks have an infrastructure to be proud of, but lack the clout to develop further. They have been asleep for 20 years but cannot afford to doze any longer, in the face of rivalry from global giants.
Vipps has garnered about 2.7 million users within two years to become Norway’s most popular payments app, and there are about 50,000 merchants accepting it. Vipps is owned by 105 Norwegian banks and has 110 banks as distribution partners.
Bank Axept is Norway’s national payments system, and eight out of ten payments in the country are done via BankAxept card. It accounted for more than 1.6 billion transactions in 2016. Banks own the system and have issued more than 8 million BankAxept cards, which can be used at over 100,000 merchants. Earlier this year, it brought in contactless payments. In 2017, turnover will be about NOK 300 million.
The BankID identification service is used by 3.7 million Norwegians, and more than 1 million of them use it on their mobile phone. Its revenue this year is estimated at about NOK 130 million. BankID is owned by the Norwegian banks.
