👩‍⚖️ Fair play in fintech?

As we wrote about last week, Horde has reported Norwegian banks' PSD2 handling to both the Financial supervisory Authority and Competition Authority. One of the main concerns is that Vipps have distortive advantages. They are the only provider allowed to carry out customer authentication directly in the app. Last week Vipps answered that they want their competitors to have as good access to the banks' APIs as them. They admit that Vipps couldn't have offered the same service if they depended on the same APIs as their competitors. A clear sign that Vipps has a massive anti-competitive advantage in this case.

Sparebanken Vest is also in Hordes spotlight for not providing a PSD2-API but rather make them utilize a fallback-solution. The reason is that they had to prioritize Anti Money Laundering solutions and GDPR. I would guess Sparebanken Vest as a first-mover on a field like this considering they have a large development department and ventures like Bulder Bank and Folio, which surely must need some Bank-APIs to work. Then again: a bank should never take any security risks on behalf of its customers.

🤷‍♀️ Diversity in finance

This weekend Sbanken experienced a backlash of comments when their  CEO went public, stating there were too few qualified female top management candidates in Bergen. The leaders of DNB in Bergen, Sparebanken Vest and Fana Sparebank, quickly replied that Sbanken's explanation for why they only have one woman in the management group does not add up. I've worked with plenty of outstanding female leaders in banks and fintechs in Bergen over the years! It will certainly be interesting to see how Sbanken handles their diversity issues going on.

🕰 Pay later now

The Swedish payment giant Klarna has updated its app with wishlists and price notifications to more easily find what they want at the right price – before they pay with Klarna. Much like we suggested for Vipps . I still believe there is a vast market opportunity in being the go-to wishlist-provider, especially if you can save for and get gifted towards specific products. Maybe Klarna is going in that direction? Gift now - pay later? 😆

Speaking of delaying payments: Lunar is on fire these days. Last week we talked about them launching joint accounts. This week they announced a «pay later»-solution for all your transactions. No, they are not going head to head with Klarna on e-commerce but giving the option to pay later on your entire financial life.

📱 Pay right away

I've previously spoken critically of QR-codes: Why use QR-codes for payments when NFC-payments are already natively available on your phone in less time? I've also written critically about some of Vipps' new ventures (like their new mobile subscription). However, this week,  Vipps and Kondomeriet launched a creative payment solution leveraging QR-codes on posters to buy products on a billboard. All you need to do to pay is to scan a QR-code, and your delivery address is ready in Vipps. The first really good example I've seen of QR-codes as payment!

🙏 Please don't keep it a secret!

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Marius Hauken, partner  Stacc X