Swedbank is killing off its QR code-based mobile payments service, Bart, after failing to sign up enough retailers and consumers.
Linked to customer debit cards, the Bart app generates QR codes which users scanned at the point-of-sale in participating retailers to make payments.
Swedbank successfully signed up major merchant Axfood to the service, which last year rolled out the technology necessary to accept Bart payments at more than 350 stores.
However, other merchants failed to follow Axfood's lead while consumers also proved uninterested in the service - with just 20,000 registering. Swedbank has now decided to cut its losses and shutter Bart this spring.
Mobile payments head Carl Molinero told Computer Sweden that it had been difficult for the bank to work on a system on its own. It will now concentrate on the Swish mobile payments service it has teamed with other banks on.