Nordic banks mull common payments infrastructure
A group of Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Finnish banks is mulling the establishment of a pan-Nordic payment infrastructure supplemented by common products.
The banks involved are Danske Bank, DNB, Handelsbanken, Nordea, OP Financial Group, SEB and Swedbank.
SEB says the current infrastructures are “highly fragmented along national borders”.
Their plan is to create, within the Nordics, an area for domestic and cross-border payments in multiple currencies (SEK, DKK, NOK and EUR).
Based on open access and common European standards, the infrastructure will “contribute to increased competition” among payment service providers in the region.
The initiative shares the objectives of current domestic infrastructure projects in Norway and Sweden but aims at achieving them on a Nordic scale.
This is just the first stage and there are not a lot of details.
Consultations with relevant stakeholders will take place as appropriate – and no doubt we will hear more about their ambitions later.
