MobilePay is a

mobile payment Mobile payment, also referred to as mobile money, mobile money transfer and mobile wallet, is any of various payment processing services operated under financial regulations and performed from or via a mobile device. Instead of paying with cas ...

application used in Denmark and Finland. The service allows payments by means of a

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

application and was first introduced in 2013 by

Danske Bank Danske Bank A/S (, ) is a Danish multinational banking and financial services corporation. Headquartered in Copenhagen, it is the largest bank in Denmark and a major retail bank in the northern European region with over 5 million retail custome ...

. It was introduced to Finland later in the same year and since 2017 it has been used by all banks in Denmark. As of 2022, MobilePay had more than 4.4 million users in Denmark (total population: 5.8 million) and more than 2 million users in Finland (total population: 5.5 million). In 2022, MobilePay merged with

Vipps Vipps is a Norwegian mobile payment application designed for smartphones developed by DNB ASA, DNB. Vipps was released May 30, 2015 and, having reached 1 million users by November 5, 2015, Vipps became Norway's largest payment application. Altho ...

of Norway to form Vipps MobilePay, but they maintain their separate brand names in each country. MobilePay is a member of the

European Mobile Payment Systems Association The European Mobile Payment Systems Association (EMPSA) is an association that aims to foster collaboration and to enable the use of different mobile payments systems internationally. EMPSA is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland and chaired by S� ...

Function

MobilePay is an application for phones with operating systems

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

and Android. MobilePay is a digital wallet covering all payment needs. Payments can be made to friends, smaller physical shops, supermarkets and larger chains, recurring payments, ecommerce and mcommerce and donations. By downloading this application, users are required to connect a credit card and account information to their mobile number. Money transfers are performed by entering a mobile phone number which is registered in the system. The funds are then transferred to this account, while the amount is deducted from the sender's credit card. There are no fees for private MobilePay accounts.

Security

The application is protected by a user-selected four-digit

PIN code A personal identification number (PIN; sometimes redundantly a PIN code or PIN number) is a numeric (sometimes alpha-numeric) passcode used in the process of authenticating a user accessing a system. The PIN has been the key to facilitating the ...

or a fingerprint. Initially, the login id was either the CPR-number (national id number) or the more secure NemID, but since 2023 either NemID or the similar MitID (using CPR-number is no longer possible).

Requirements in Denmark and Finland

Users must be resident in Denmark, have an Android or iPhone smartphone with a Danish phone number, a Danish CPR-number, a Danish bank account with a card, and be at least 13 years old. Private people can only have one MobilePay account. Companies and people doing business can have a business account, which has fees (around DKK 0.30-0.80 per transaction). Users in Finland must be at least 15 years old, have a mobile phone with a Finnish phone number, a Finnish Personal Identity Code, a permanent address in the European Economic Area and a working email address. Means for strong authentication are also required, for example banking credentials, an ID card or the mobile certificate.

History

Payment via mobile phones first became popular in Denmark, when DSB and the other traffic operators in the

Copenhagen metropolitan area The Copenhagen metropolitan area or Metropolitan Copenhagen (, , literally "The Capital Area") is a large commuter belt (the area in which it is practical to commute to work) surrounding Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. It includes Copenha ...

launched ticketing via

SMS Short Message Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile phones exchange short text messages, t ...

in January 2009, which worked as an extension of a similar system in

Funen Funen (, ), is the third-largest List of islands of Denmark, island of Denmark, after Zealand and North Jutlandic Island, Vendsyssel-Thy, with an area of . It is the List of islands by area, 165th-largest island in the world. It is located in th ...

. In 2012, the banks in Denmark started a joint project for a new system. Danske Bank chose to discontinue the cooperation at the end of 2012, quoting among other reasons that the joint system would not be usable outside of Denmark. Originally, Danske Bank intended to offer MobilePay free of charge until the end of 2013, but then decided to let the system remain free of charge for private users even after this date. On 7 May 2013, Danske Bank launched MobilePay, which by the end of 2013 had been installed 877.000 times.Tal & fakta
The cooperation between the other banks was named Swipp and was launched on June 13, 2013.Banker klar med konkurrent til MobilePay
In February 2017, Swipp closed and all Danish banks transferred to using MobilePay.

Expansion beyond Denmark and merger with Vipps

MobilePay was introduced in Finland in December 2013, in Norway in August 2015 and in Greenland in August 2020. In January 2018, MobilePay discontinued all services in Norway. Mobile pay is not available in the Faroe Islands (an autonomous part of the Danish Realm, like Greenland). In June 2021, it was announced that MobilePay, the Norwegian service

and the Finnish service were planning on merging into one company and one technology, however keeping their separate brand names. In 2022, it was announced that following a review by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

's Directorate-General for Competition, Finnish service Pivo would not be part of the merger. The new company is named Vipps MobilePay. As of 2022, MobilePay had more than 4.4 million users in Denmark and more than 2 million users in Finland, whereas Vipps of Norway had 4.2 million users. In comparison, each of these three countries have 5.4–5.8 million inhabitants.

References