French payments services operator Worldline and Norway-based Open Banking enabler Neonomics have signed a commercial partnership to expand their Open Banking offerings in Europe. Worldline plans to expand its account-to-account payments and data aggregation coverage to the Nordics through Neonomics, including Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland.

As explained in the press release, Neonomics will benefit from Worldline´s Open Banking network in Europe. Worldline and Neonomics aim to reach approximately 3,500 banks in 22 countries across Europe. Through the partnership with Neonomics, Worldline's Open Banking data and payments infrastructure extends to banks in the entire Nordic region.

In addition, Neonomics will extend their coverage to several additional core European markets in line with addressing existing customer needs and regulatory approval prior to integration. Worldline’s updated service portfolio Powered by c. 18,000 employees in more than 40 countries, Worldline provides its clients with in-store and online commercial acquiring, payment transaction processing, and other digital services.

Worldline’s reach enables use cases such as credit insight, account-based payments, and green banking, allowing third-party providers to quickly and effectively create a value proposition for their customers. As a result of the recent partnership with Neonomics, Worldline will also offer its merchants, banks, and acquirers in the entire Nordic region access to aggregated financial data and account-to-account payments. By employing Neonomics' API, Worldline will shorten its time to market for its products and solutions.

Embedded payments in the Nordics According to an article from Nordic Fintech Magazine quoting a Worldpay study, there are two primary drivers of embedded finance and thus embedded payments: the spread of digitalisation and the desire to enhance control over the customer experience. Furthermore, the Covid pandemic sped up the evolution of embedded finance when businesses were forced to make decisions about how to accept payments and retain customers. Moreover, according to Deloitte’s Data Ethics Consumer Research Report, the 25% of the Danish population say they’re willing to share their data and 22% of Swedes say they’re willing to share their data.

Deloitte pointed at a significant different compared to 15% in Germany, and 19% in Italy. The drive to advance digitisation in the Nordic banking system has taken another step forward through a plan headed by P27 Nordic Payments to create future digital infrastructure and platforms. Partnerships such as the one between Neonomics and Worldline are building on the favorable infrastructure environment in the area.

Michael Steinbach, Head of Global Business Line Financial Services at Worldline explained, in relation to the recent agreement, that Neonomics benefits from a robust unified bank API platform, with a technical set-up that supports Worldline’s need to work with partners that can offer secure services in the current regulatory environment. By working together, the two companies are quoted as aiming to make Open Banking ‘an even more pan-European offering that helps to streamline payments and enables access to banking account data. ’ .