The answer could be putting on a good show, as that is what the EPA Asia did during their industry event on 10 October which SACC was invited to, but more important is their keen interest for Swedish Fintech.
Snoop Dog recently became one of the minority shareholders in Klarna the Swedish Fintech which was founded in 2005 and has gone to become the highest valued Fintech in Europe with a value at $5.5 Billion! Commonwealth Bank has also recently invested in Klarna, which once and for all have put Swedish Fintech on the map of Australia.
If we take a closer look at Klarna and also two other Unicorns from Sweden, Bambora which was bought by Ingenico for $1.5 Billion and iZettle bought by PayPal for $2.2 Billion a pattern emerges – Sweden doesn’t just offer outstanding Fintech but we do excel in the niche of Paytech (payments technology). Which is excellent news at this a market with double-digit growth.
This is what the Emerging Payments Associoan Asia had noticed and that in the combination with Sweden leading the way to become the first cashless nation in the world (two things that are closely linked) made the decision to choose “Sweden the Cashless Society” as the destination for the study tour 2019 easy.
The event on the 10 October was not just a summary of the findings the association did during their three-day-long excursion to Sweden, it was also an opportunity to apply the key learning to Asia Pacific settings. This was done during two panels settings where some of Australia’s most profiled payment leaders discussed how “Swish” came to be so successful and comparing that to the Australian equivalent Osko. Also, what “BankID” has meant for Sweden’s uptake of digital payments and how Australia is lacking a digital identity scheme. Robert Book (CGI One) who is an well-known expert on Swish and BankID, participated to explain the journey of how BankID has an uptake of 84% in Sweden and how Swish has grown to in 2018 initiate 397 million payments.
It was also very interesting to hear from the CEO of Minna Technology (Joakim Sjöblom) who shared the experience from Open Banking (Open banking refers to the concept of banks opening up access for their data to third parties, most commonly via open application programming interfaces (APIs)) in Europe and especially two main points he said:
- Open Banking has created a need for Banks to collaborate which has positive impacts for their consumers; and
- Consumers are always willing to share their data if there is a value attached to doing so and most common is the value of convenience or time savings.
Both Joakim and Robert personified what Swedish Fintech is about and why we will see more of this export in the future – they where razor-sharp in the delivery of their message but still very down to earth and approachable, no fluffing around it was said “as it is” and that is why Swedish Paytech is a force to count on now and in the future!
For more information please contact SACC member Camilla Bullock
