OP Financial Group enlists Token to develop new payment solutions
Fintech inovation in Finland
OP Financial Group has partnered with Token, a Silicon Valley-based crypto-payment software provider.
Token says the agreement will enable the Finnish bank “to innovate in the European open banking market and generate new revenue streams via future payment solutions”.
Steve Kirsch, the fintech’s founder and CEO, explains: “Token is developing a global open banking ecosystem based on an open and secure payments and information API. Through our platform, OP Financial Group will have access to a fully operational API banking infrastructure which, when combined with the transformative attributes of programmable money, has the power to change the way the world transacts.”
Masa Peura, director new business, OP Financial Group, says the partnership will help the bank “to get an early foothold in a new era for payments”.
But in the short-term, “we are investigating interesting market opportunities with Token that put us in the driving seat and prepare us for the enactment of PSD2”, Peura adds.
Kristian Luoma, head of OP Lab (the banking group’s programme that works with fintech start-ups), comments that the project “allows us to deliver better experiences to our customers faster than we could ourselves”.
Also, working with Token “exemplifies OP’s new way of working with start-ups in general”.
OP Financial Group has a long history of tech innovation and early adoption: it was the first financial services provider in Europe – and only second in the world – to introduce online banking services.
