European Banks have joined forces to build cross-border mobile payment networks in response to competition from Apple and others

People in northern Europe are used to living without wallets. In Stockholm, you can buy a newspaper from a street bum with a credit card; In Copenhagen, the Danish capital, you can pay for a small espresso with mobile payments. In Helsinki, a smartphone is all you need to get to shopping.

The European Mobile Payment System Association, based in Zurich, has joined forces with European banks to create a cross-border mobile payment network in Denmark, Finland, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Portugal, Sweden, Norway, More than 350 banks in developed countries such as Switzerland are within them.

Mobile payment service providers majority-owned by seven Banks are building a pan-european cross-border mobile payment network as traditional Banks seek to cope with growing competition from global tech giants such as fintech and apple, media reports said.

MobilePay, owned by Danish bank, said the association was intended to pave the way for cross-border transactions by up to 25m users. MobilePay operates in Denmark and Finland.



Other participating companies include Banccontact Payconiq of Belgium, Bluecode of Germany and Austria, SIBS of Portugal, Swish of Sweden, VIPPS of Norway and TWINT of Switzerland.

Mark Wraa-Hansen, MobilePay’s chief executive, said in a statement: “The rapid growth of mobile payments means that users across Europe increasingly need to be able to use your mobile payment solutions to make payments anywhere in Europe. Instead of bringing a bank card and a physical wallet. In the future we will see more mobile payment systems join. “

MobilePay is one of the largest mobile payment platforms in the Danish market.