DNB Reivents Vipps Mobile Payment Service
February 13, 2024
By: Mike Dautner
Reports indicating that over 100 Norwegian banks are set to take a stake in the Vipps P2P mobile payment app created by DNB are coming in, and it has a few implications attached.
This is reportedly due to a bid to block competition from other Scandinavian platforms and companies like Facebook, Google, and Apple.
DNB, the SpareBank 1 alliance, and other independent savings banks which are co-owners of Frende Forsikring have signed a letter of intent to collectively acquire a 48 percent stake in the mobile payment service.
DNB will acquire 52 percent controlling interest in Vipps, which will then be repurposed as an autonomous joint venture. As per this agreement, the SpareBank 1 alliance will own 25 percent, the independent savings banks 12 percent, the Eika alliance at 10 percent and the Sparebanken at one percent.
SpareBank 1 will be made to transfer mobile payment service mCASH, which delivers similar services as Vipps over to the new company.
Rune Bjerke, group chief executive of DNB and incoming chairman of the board of Vipps, says: “Over the course of 2017, Vipps will be available in far more places than we have seen up until now. This alliance will make us better equipped to win the race against Nordic and international market participants.”
Vipps boast nearly 2.15 million individual users in the country as well as over 30,000 corporate customers.
“Several market participants are competing to launch their own mobile payment solutions,” says Finn Haugan, CEO of SpareBank 1. “A lot of people find this confusing, whether they are making payments or on the receiving end. Even though we have taken a firm market position in a short amount of time through our mCASH initiative, many of our customers have expressed a preference for one solution: a single strong and distinct provider.”
