Foreign actors such as ‘Apple Pay’ are at full speed ahead into the Norwegian payment market.The Consumer Inspectorate believes in the greatest possible freedom of choice.
“We deal with Apple Pay and Ali Pay as with everyone else, and check that they comply with the Financial Agreement Act and directives. In addition, we look at the marketing,” said Jo Gjedrem, Director of the Consumer Agency.
He expects that large foreign actors who settle in Europe have looked at the regulations and adapted their products to it. The relationship with payment services is well regulated in the EU, and thus also in Norway. The supervisory job is to check that the rules are followed.
Competition
In the Norwegian payment market there was a boom, and many solutions became available some years ago.Today, everyone is gathered about the Vipps payment
system,where you can pay directly to friends. Mobile payment has been awaited, and now Apple Pay is on its way to this market.
The head of department in the Consumer Inspectorate believes that the consumer wants the greatest possible freedom of choice.
“From the consumer’s point of view, it’s positive if you use the services without depending on which data platform you are on, or what kind of phone you have,” he said.
There is great competition between the Norwegian and foreign payment operators.
Norsk Vipps does not have mobile payment in store. Instead, you can use Apple Pay to pay with your mobile in some stores. The mobile is placed on the ATM in the same way as contactless payment with the credit card. However, Apple Pay can only be used with Apple products, such as iPhone. At the same time, only a small number of Norwegian banks allow their cards to be registered in Apple Pay. On the other hand,Apple Pay does not allow you to use Vipps in their system.
Most Norwegian banks have gathered about Vipps. So far, only the banks Nordea,
Sbank and Santander either have, or will soon open their cards to support using Apple Pay.
Nordea chief in Norway, Snorre Storset, believes that Norwegians can use Apple Pay by 2020 to pay everywhere.
“The difference is that you do not have to bring the card, you only need the phone and can hold it in front of the machine, so you pay automatically,” he said.
He did not want to comment on Norwegian bankers who have chosen to stay away.
Great development
The next major development will be payment via payment agents or third parties.The Norwegian legislation, which follows EU rules, will be in place shortly.
“Today, only you and the bank can see in your account and make dispositions. You give an order to the bank and the bank can do something about your account. The new law opens to a third party. You can enter into an agreement with, for example, Vipps,and Vipps can pay from your account independently of the bank,’’ explained Gjedrem, pointing out that it will certainly be a new establishment, and exciting things will be going on in the future.
“We at the Consumer Inspectorate are positive to innovation and development as long as the basic consumer rights are taken care of. It’s great that things are easy and fast, but it must be safe,’’ he added.
© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today
