Finland to get multi-bank P2P mobile payments platform

Finnish consumers will be able to make P2P mobile payments using a mobile phone number from March 2017 through Siirto, a new platform unveiled by ATM operator Automatia — a company owned by three of the country’s banks including OP Bank Group, Nordea Bank and Danske Bank.

AutomatiaThe service, built in collaboration with the banks and software and services provider Tieto on behalf of Automatia, is the country’s “first real-time multi-banking platform for mobile payments,” according to Tieto.

“The interface allows any licensed payment service provider within the financial ecosystem to offer a multi-bank payment service for customers via one application,” Tieto says.

Replacing cash

“With the real-time payment service, banks and other payment services providers can bring new services to the Finnish market, enabling consumers’ real-time money transfers from mobile-to-mobile between different banks.

“The new, real-time mobile payment platform will be able to replace cash in the near future and will provide an alternative to card payments in online and physical stores.”

“Siirto will only require end-users to have a mobile phone number for sending or receiving money — all transfers will occur in real time on the user’s bank account,” the company adds. “The new platform will work across all the payment service providers that are associated with Automatia.

Payment history

“Similar multi-banking and real-time services, like Swish in Sweden, have been greatly successful among consumers. The first Finnish banks are expected to launch their own mobile payment services based on Automatia’s Siirto platform in March 2017.”

“We are creating Finnish payment service history, and enabling consumers to transfer money between the various banks in seconds,” says Marko Vilo, managing director of Automatia. “This will dramatically change consumers’ payment behaviour.”

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