Director of Cards and Payments at Eika Kredittbank Karl-Richard Floer explains: "We are convinced that smartphones will be an important bearer of future payment solutions, and we have chosen to work with Nets to introduce a mobile wallet to our customers. Eika Kredittbank is one of the players with the most extensive experience in Norway when it comes to a payment solution using smartphones and contactless card payment.
"Nets' strength is their ability to handle transactions and payment infrastructure, and it is positioned close to the end-user throughout the Nordic region. Nets is a tried-and-tested business partner to us in payment solutions, so it seems only natural for us to work with Nets to develop our mobile wallet," Floer continues.
"Nets already plays a leading role in the Nordic region and northern Europe when it comes to new electronic types of payment, and we want to build on this in the years ahead. We guarantee that payments are processed securely and efficiently, irrespective of whether they are performed on the Internet, in a payment terminal or via a smartphone. Eika is one of the largest banking groups in Norway, and we look forward to engaging in an exciting, innovative cooperation to create value for their customers," according to Freddy Haraldsen, CEO of Nets Norway AS.
Aiming for a pilot in 2014
Eika Kredittbank is part of the Eika financial services group and is owned by 75 local banks in Norway with almost one million customers. This makes it the third-largest banking group in Norway. Eika has been working on implementing contactless payment solutions since 2010.
"The parties will describe how to bring bank and credit cards into the smartphone. Together, we will begin this work by creating our future payment solutions for use on the smartphone. Eika's intention is to build a mobile wallet for our local banks of a quality that puts their card at the front of the wallet in the future payments landscape. We expect to have a pilot project ready in the market during 2014," according to Floer.
An open, flexible solution
The intended solution to be introduced will give access to a mobile wallet to enable contactless payments to be made using payment cards or membership/loyalty cards stored in the mobile wallet. Thus, users will not need to carry a physical wallet but will be able to pay using a smartphone, and will still have the benefit of all their existing customer loyalty concepts. Nets has developed a generic mobile solution that will be open to all Nordic issuers who require access to secure, efficient handling of means of payment using smartphones. It will also enable issuers to create and design a differentiated version to suit their customers' needs. "Eika will phase the mobile wallet in gradually. This is a new solution; the traffic will not automatically follow. So we need to develop an attractive solution that helps to build value into using a smartphone for paying; our well-run loyalty concepts and advantage programmes will be incorporated into the mobile wallet," Karl-Richard Floer explains.
For further information, please contact
Stein-Arne Tjore, Nets Communications Manager, tel. +47 91 53 98 46
Sigurd Ulven, Director of Corporate Communication, Eika Gruppen, tel. +47 90 72 18 98
