As we prepare for our upcoming NextGen Nordics conference on the 25th of April in Stockholm, we are publishing a series of ‘Sneak peeks’, which will take a dive into some of the topics and speakers covered at the event.
To kick things off, we’ve compiled the five biggest stories to hit the Nordic payments space since NextGen Nordics 2022.
Swedish banks to commence testing of P27
After two years of preparation, in June 2022, the banks connected to Swedish mobile payments system Swish, announced they would be ready to test the P27 platform by the end of 2022.
Backed by Danske Bank, Handelsbanken, Nordea, OP Financial Group, SEB, and Swedbank, P27's lofty ambition is to create one common state of the art payment platform in the Nordic countries.
NextGen Nordics will offer a heavy focus on P27, with three separate panels led by the group. You can expect to gain a clearer understanding of how the transition is progressing and where it aims to be in the future.
Silicon Valley Bank expands to Sweden
In September 2022, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) UK announced it would continue its Nordic expansion with the establishment of a representative office in Stockholm, adding a second Nordic base to its office in Denmark.
SVB UK noted that their expansion into Sweden builds on its Nordic presence and will further accelerate plans to deploy capital through debt financing in Sweden’s innovation businesses, as well as venture capital and private equity funds. The move comes after SVB UK completed its subsidiary process.
Vipps and MobilePay get EC approval for merger
The European Commission (EC) approved a merger between Nordic mobile payments players MobilePay and Vipps after a third partner, Pivo, pulled out of the process.
The Finnish mobile payments app Pivo was removed from the planned three-way merger after the EC raised competition concerns. The commission then gave the green light for Danske Bank-owned MobilePay and Vipps, which is backed by a consortium of Norwegian lenders, to merge.
The combined company launched on the 1st of November 2022, and during December 2022 passed the milestone of one billion transactions.
Cashless Denmark records a year without bank robberies
As a testament to the success of the transition to a cashless society across the Nordics, Denmark announced that 2022 was the country’s first year to experience zero bank robberies.
In 2000, Denmark saw 221 bank robberies, according to the country's finance workers’ union, Finansforbundet. Since 2017, there have been fewer than 10 a year, until 2022 when the number fell to zero.
Finansforbundet deputy chairman Steen Lund Olsen hailed the milestone: "It is nothing short of fantastic. Because it is an absolutely extreme strain on the affected employees every time it happens."
Lunar raises €35 million despite tough economic conditions
In a show of Nordic innovation, Danish neobank Lunar raised €35 million to invest in and develop it business to continue their Nordic expansion and expedite its path to profitability.
The bank’s plans to acquire Norwegian Bank, Instabank, failed in September last year, due to the August raise proving insufficient to cover “capital needed to meet the capital requirements and obtain the approved from the Norwegian FSA.”
Lunar had offered €132 million in March 2022 to purchase Instabank, in efforts to increase Lunar’s footprint in Norway and open the door to the Finnish market.
Register here for NextGen Nordics 2023. If you would like to find out more about sponsoring the event, please email events@finextra.com.