I received a press release announcing the intended merger of Danish PBS and Norwegian Nordito (owner of BBS and Teller). This merger will produce the leading player in the world’s leading market, miles ahead of the rest of the globe when it comes to integrated electronic value transactions.

Both PBS and Nordito are bank owned companies that manage and develop e-payment and related e-transaction products.

Payments

Dankort, the Danish debit card that is used for the vast majority of online payments in Denmark, is managed by PBS. Both BBS and PBS are card acquirers and issuers as well as payment terminal operators. BBS also runs the Norwegian clearing house.

But it’s not just in the area of e-payments where these companies lead. Both are very active in e-invoicing and e-identity.

E-invoicing

BBS owns eFaktura that enables consumers to receive, pay and store electronic invoices in their online bank portal. PBS is active in e-invoicing too and owns the billing service provider e-Faktura.

E-identity

For example, BBS Infrastucture (a BBS subsidiary) develops, operates and manages the technical infrastructure of BankID, a Norwegian e-identity scheme. The interesting thing about BankID is that although it is developed by private entities (banks), the e-ID can be used by both private as well as public institutions to authenticate users. This means that users only need to register at their bank and can subsequently use e-services from Norwegian municipalities as well as online merchants and insurers. This is pretty unique. (Hear BankID’s Managing Director Semming Austin speak at the ISSE conference)

In addition, BBS eSecurity offers a wide range of eID services and solutions (come see them at the ISSE conference too)

PBS owns both DanID and NetID, the later of which enables consumers to log in to online services using their online bank login details.

Financial Logistics: tying everything together

These two companies are both clear leaders in the e-services field with each holding multiple positions in the e-transactions value chain. Financial Logistics couples these transactions together enabling e-services that span the entire trade cycle. Think of e-procurement followed by e-invoicing coupled with e-payment with e-authentication at every stage along the way.

BBS and PBS are merging and I expect great things.

Tags: BBS, Financial Logistics, innovation, PBS, The Nordic countries

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