The Dutch payment system iDEAL will become the basis of a European payment method. Current owner Currence is transferring the system, which allows payments in web shops to be made directly from one’s own bank account, to the European Payments Initiative (EPI).
The EPI is a partnership of banks and payment institutions from the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Germany. This means that there will be an easy solution for payments in all participating countries.
IDEAL is owned by the three major Dutch banks, ING, Rabobank and ABN AMRO, which had placed the payment method with Currence. Those three banks are submitting iDEAL to the EPI, which also means for Rabobank and ABN AMRO that they will be participating in that initiative. ING was one of the founders.
Standard payment method
Currence CEO Daniël van Delft says he is proud “that the EPI has chosen iDEAL as an appropriate starting point”. In the Netherlands, iDEAL has a market share of 70 percent, but in many countries there is no comparable payment solution, says Van Delft. “There are solutions, but they are fragmented. The parties behind the EPI want to set up a standard.”
With such a standard it is easier to innovate and it is also easier to compete. Parties such as Apple and Google have now achieved considerable success with their payment options, says Van Delft.
Initially, the iDEAL-based standard will be marketed in France and Germany, because there is still little comparable there. Customers in the Netherlands will initially notice little of this. Currence continues to work on the new version of iDEAL, which enables customers to save things as their preferred bank so that they can pay even faster. But it will also be easier for payment processors and webshops to join. In time, all these options will also apply to the EPI.
Van Delft sees iDEAL eventually being absorbed into the EPI, but “it will be a very gradual transition”. ,,IDEAL will not disappear soon.”
Currently, banks from five countries participate in the EPI, such as the major Dutch banks, the French banks BNP Paribas, Société Générale and Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank from Germany and the Belgian bank KBC. “But it is an open system, so other banks and payment processors from other countries can join.”
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