Nordea teams up with Vipps payment solution in Norway

Nordic financial services group Nordea has entered a cooperation agreement with Vipps, a mobile payment solution developed by Norway's biggest bank DNB, broadcaster TV2 reported Wednesday.

"It will be a lot easier for the customers," said Rune Garborg, head of Vipps. "This makes us even stronger in meeting the international competition for mobile payment in the future."

As a partner bank, Nordea Norway shall distribute Vipps to its customers, but it has no ownership in the Vipps company.

"We believe that one strong and clear mobile payment provider will provide the best and easiest payment solution for Norwegian consumers," said Snorre Storset, CEO of Nordea Norway in a press release.

Vipps was launched by DNB in spring 2015, but is now a separate company after DNB and over 100 other Norwegian banks started collaboration at the beginning of this year.

Vipps has 2.6 million users today, which accounts for 49 percent of the total Norwegian population. About 8 percent of the users are Nordea customers.

The number of daily transactions in Vipps is between 300,000 and 400,000 on ordinary days.

Up until now Nordea and Copenhagen-based Danske Bank have collaborated with Vipps' competitor Mobilepay, a service that has a dominant position in Denmark.

Danske Bank said it has now chosen to shut down the Mobilepay service in Norway.