The authority does not intend to stand on the road to Nordea and OP’s mobile payment platform. MobilePay considers the decision to be special and surprising.
Perttu Kröger, Country Manager of MobilePay, says he was surprised by KKV’s Tuesday solution. MobilePay, Alma Media
- KKV approved the expansion of Nordea and OP joint venture.
- The companies launch their own mobile payment solution.
- The new platform does not directly compete with the market leader MobilePay.
Earlier this week, the FCA (KKV) announced that it would show the green light to expand the activities of Nordea and OP’s transfer company, which companies announced in December 2023.
In the acquisition, Nordea and OP are aiming to create a wide range of bank -based mobile payments in Finland. According to KKV, the acquisition does not cause competition problems in Finland.
Peculiar and surprising
The new joint venture will be significant in Finland with the combined market share of its owners. According to the Bank of Finland, Nordea and OP’s combined consumer market share in Finland is almost 70 %.
MobilePay Country Manager in Finland Perttu Kröger tells Iltalehti that KKV was in contact with the company to gain more understanding of the payment market in Finland.
– We find the KKV solution special and surprising in relation to previous sector decisions on the release of competition, as it can give the joint venture an exclusive interest in accounting and further strengthens the position of the largest banks operating in Finland as a gatekeeper in infrastructure in Finland.
Kröger points out that the European Commission has already begun to dismantle Apple’s position in the payment market, prescribing a technology giant, among other things, to open its products to enable NFC chip nearby charges in solutions that compete with Apple Pay.
“We would have liked KKV to see an insight that would have even more directly in line with the European Commission’s guidelines, that is, also released the payment of account -based payment to all market participants,” Kröger says.
New MobilePay features
According to Kröger, the Nordea and OP transfer platform will not be directly competing with the MobilePay application. MobilePay has over 2.8 million users in Finland and is constantly increasing.
“We will launch a number of new features for our users in 2025, such as nearby payments in the stone shop,” Kröger reveals.
According to Kröger, the competition setting is in the payment of account -based payment.
– Based on the information available, the functionality of the transfer is a payment -related infrastructure layer that domestic consumers can currently use only through Nordea and OP mobile applications.
“We hope that KKV’s decision does not lead to a situation where only account banks or their group companies operating in Finland have the effective position to compete on an account -based payment service market equally,” he says.
Soon MobilePay can also pay for iPhone’s nearby payment at Finnish stone shops like Apple Pay. Pictured is MobilePay’s Norwegian sister application Vipps.
“Finland is not an island”
According to Kröger, healthy competition often also gives a good back to increase local investments. He hopes that the KKV solution can open up new opportunities for cooperation between different actors.
– Finland is not an island. From our point of view, Nordic and European cooperation plays a key role in today’s world. We cannot build the infrastructure of society from a Finnish perspective alone.
– We are happy to continue the discussion with Finnish banks to enable payment -based payment, but we also have our own solutions.
This is about it
Director of Nordea’s Personal Customer Business Jani Eloranta as well as OP’s everyday economic services manager Masa deer They tell Iltalehti that they are very pleased with the information on the approval of the authorities on Tuesday.
– We consider it very important that we are able to develop domestic solutions for a smoother payment together.
According to Nordea and OP, the new service does not compete directly against individual players or mobile payment applications, but the goal is to combine different payment methods together and to simplify the customer experience.
– We do not develop a separate payment application, but through joint venture services, different operators can provide consumers with telephone number of payment solutions in their own applications.
For example, new solutions will allow for easier sending and receiving existing e-invoices, paying between consumers, payment in stores and online payment with a phone number.
The acquisition also includes a separate decision to decide, after which the company will start operations.