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Finland 2026

Market Overview
Payment Organisations Automatia (ATM network); Finnish Bankers Association.

Finance Finland (FFI).
Domestic Payment Brand No domestic card brand.
Market Structure Sophisticated market with a high level of card use. However, numbers of ATMs and cash withdrawals continued to decline.

Cards with combined debit/credit functions for domestic and international use respectively. As at end-2024, 90.13% of all cards were contactless cards.

The Finnish banks divested from interbank organisation Luottokunta. Prior to that, Luottokunta’s issuer and acquirer business was transferred back to the individual Finnish banks.

NETS, the Pan-Nordic processor, acquired Luottokunta in August 2012. In 2020, NETS was acquired by Italian processor NEXI.

In June 2015, Nordea Group sold its merchant acquiring business to the acquirer unit Teller of NETS, its card processor.

Emerging Open Banking payment ecosystem.
Notable Market Trends Contactless rollout: cards and POS terminals, MPOS terminals, mobile wallet Pivo, immediate payment service Siirto, Vipps.

Due to the lingering effect of the pandemic, there was a 15% rise in both the number of remote payment transactions and remote payment value in 2025.
Major Card Issuers Nordea, Pohjola Bank, Danske Bank, Savings Banks.
Major Card Acquirers Nordea, Pohjola Bank, Danske Bank.
Major Card Processors NETS (Nexi Group), Worldline.

Key Statistics 2024
Population 5.62 million, with 2.52 bank cards per capita
Cards  Cards with debit function: 9.18 million

Cards with delayed debit/credit function: 4.9 million

Total: 14.46 million
Card Payments Debit: 2.19 billion; value €58.60 billion

Credit/delayed debit: 253.80 million; value €15.01 billion

Total: 2.45 billion; value €73.82 billion
POS Terminals 160,239
POS Payments All cards: 1.94 billion; value: €53.86 billion
ATMs 1,610
ATM Withdrawals All cards 50.47 million; value: €6.81 billion
Digital A2A Payments Credit transfers: 1.29 billion, value: €3.63 trillion
– thereof instant payments: 60.65 million, value: €68.30 billion
Note: In 2014, the Bank of Finland adopted the new ECB statistical method.
Note: Italic forecast figures for 2025F are estimated in the market context based on 2024 figures.
Source: ECB, Bank of Finland (Suomen Pankki), Federation of Finnish Financial Services.

Introduction – Payments in Finland

Finland is a parliamentary republic with the framework of a representative democracy. The 200-member unicameral Parliament of Finland exercises supreme legislative authority in the country.

Finland’s economy is largely dependent on the services sector, which comprises roughly two-thirds of GDP, and is known to be one of Europe’s early adopters when it comes to payment technology, including contactless and mobile payments.

Finland has made significant progress in reducing cash usage, encouraging electronic alternatives wherever possible. Cheques are virtually non-existent in usage due to the proliferation of online bank transfers, debit card payments, and other non-cash form factors. Finland’s €4.6 billion mobile commerce market is expanding faster than overall e-commerce and is set to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 12.9% to 2023, to a become a €7.2 billion market.

Most notably during 2024, the use of delayed debit/credit cards increased in comparison to traditional credit and debit cards – possibly due to Finnish consumers being familiar with instalment payments and using such cards to manage payments during economic uncertainty. Digital means of payment have become more widespread; purchases are increasingly made online and mobile payment has already replaced card payment to some extent. The COVID-19 pandemic has strengthened the transition in the payments landscape. Due to the protracted pandemic, most of the changes will probably be permanent.

Another development is the increasing use of biometric ID and verification for payments – Finland is ahead of most countries in Europe in rolling out biometric initiatives as a result of the widespread use of the BankID scheme.

The adoption of the revised Payment Services Directive, PSD2, and disruptive technologies have set the stage for digital payments for the digital economy in Finland. They have accelerated digital payment transformation and mobile payment services, as well as cardless IBAN-based payments directly from bank accounts.

In the last decade, Finnish consumers have embraced mobile devices such as tablets, smartphones and Internet of Things (IoT). This change significantly impacts their shopping experience. Consumers have become increasingly connected and they have started to purchase anywhere, at any time, from any device.

In addition, new consumer demands are a game changer. Finnish consumers like digital banking apps with access to all their accounts at different banks in one single app, with the option to make payments directly from their bank account of choice. Additionally, they appreciate more banking services and payment services added to their mobile banking app. Consumer adoption of digital payments in Finland is driven by minimal cost, secure payments, and a high level of user convenience.

Driven by the development of social media and mobile devices, the emergence of permanently connected consumers has impacted their interactions with brands but also their expectations of how to shop using the increasing number of touch points between consumers and merchants, e.g.:

The ongoing rollout of a mature online and mobile communication infrastructure is an enabler for digital card payment transformation and for Open Banking payments in Finland.

In a few years from now, mobile banking apps and mobile payment apps are expected to combine account management, digital payment services, personal finance management and value-added digital services from location finders to digital vouchers.

Cash payments, card payments and cardless payments directly from bank accounts (A2A payments) remain all relevant for Finnish merchants and heavily used by Finnish consumers.

This country profile provides a brief introduction into two competing payment ecosystems in Finland:

Legal Framework for Payment Services

The legal framework for European payment services is a joint project undertaken by the European Commission as the regulator, the European Central Bank (ECB) as the Euro System, and the European Payments Council (EPC) with the objective of standardising payments in Europe and to remove existing barriers, promote cross-border competition between payment services, strengthen the European internal market and drive the digital payment transformation.

Based on its vision, the EU Commission has therefore created a unique legal framework for cashless B2C and B2B payments that supersedes pre-existing national legislation and is binding for financial service providers and payment service providers throughout the EU.

Finland has largely transposed this legal framework into their national payment legislation.

Historically, there has been a de facto national regulation of all Finnish payment schemes with high technical barriers to ensure and defend payment security.

With the implementation of the payment services directive, all payment services in Finland are based on the unique legal framework for payment services of the European Commission effective in the European Economic Area (EEA).

In addition, the respective rules and regulations of the domestic card scheme and the international card schemes continue to be applied by the card payment service providers (e.g. EMV, PCI, RTS SCA, and SEPA Cards Framework), respectively.

Legal Framework relevant for Payment Services in Finland

The revised Payment Services Directive, PSD2, had established a legal and regulatory framework for payment services providers, enforcing several protections for their clients such as safeguarding of funds; and required them to execute processes in accordance with banking regulations, such as KYC and AML. It has already resulted in significant progress regarding the integration of the European retail payments markets.

Following the alignment with the EEA region, the legal framework for payment services in Finland includes the directives and regulations of the European Commission (EC), the ECB, and/or the national central bank (NCB) of the individual country.

All card payment service providers and all cardless payment service providers of the Open Banking payment ecosystem must apply for the European legal framework including:

Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2)
PSD2 is the key directive for borderless banking and payment services in Europe.
Among others, PSD2 regulates digital payment services and payment service providers such as payment institutions, e-money institutions, payment initiation service providers and account information service providers. PSD2 formulates the Open Banking Mandate for regulated access to payment accounts.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – effective from May 2018
GDPR establishes a regulatory framework for customer control of their data through consent mechanisms, the right to be forgotten and the right to retrieve all personal data for re-use at other service providers of choice, thereby preventing a ‘lock-in’ situation.

E-Money Directive (EMD)
The EMD sets out the rules on the business and supervision of e-money institutions.

Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD)
The AMLD6 aims to improve the harmonisation of the criminal liability of money laundering and terrorist financing across the EU27.

Customer Rights Directive (CRD)
CRD gives consumers the same strong rights across the EU. It aligns and harmonises national consumer rules, for example on the information consumers need to be given before they purchase something, and their right to cancel online purchases, wherever they shop in the EU.

EU Price Regulation for cross-border payments
In 2001, Regulation (EC) No 2560/2001, followed in 2009 by Regulation (EC) No 924/2009, fixed uniform underlying conditions for processing cross-border payments in euro, and the fees for intra-EU cross-border payments in euro were aligned with those for domestic payments in euro.

SEPA End-Date Regulation
SEPA payment instruments replaced domestic A2A bank payment instrument formats for euro payments.

Card Interchange Fee Regulation (IFR)
The IFR caps interchange fees for payments with consumer cards, effective from 9 December 2015. It increases transparency on fees thus permitting retailers to know the level of fees paid when accepting cards.

Domestic bank service laws
Complementary to EC directives and EC regulations.

Characteristics of the PSD2 Outlook: PSD3 and PSR

The adoption of PSD2 has formalised the relationship between banks and trusted payment providers (TPPs) by establishing the Open Banking Mandate providing open access to customer account data and the payments infrastructure. This is expected to stimulate the FinTech market to develop new integrated services models for both consumer and business customers.

This regulation is a reaction to the growing demand from customers as mobile and internet applications have become widely adopted driving expectations in how services should be delivered across all industries. Other market segments have adopted Open Banking APIs to respond to this demand and shown that innovative applications can grow business and change customer behaviour.

PSD2 has a significant impact on the European payments industry. According to the EC, the revised Payment Services Directive brings several new important elements and improvements to the EU payment market e.g.:

In 2022, the regulator started a PSD2 review process, which will end up in a revised PSD2 dubbed PSD3. While consultations are currently ongoing, the revisions are expected to address the achievements of the PSD2 and evaluate the need for a revised standard.

Proposed EC Revisions to the EU Payment Services Regulation – PSD3 and PSR 

In June 2023, the European Commission (EC) has published its proposed revisions to EU payment services legislation, as well as a proposal on Open Finance/data access in the financial services sector beyond Open Banking/payment accounts in the form of a new Open Finance framework called “FIDA”.

Essentially, the EC is proposing that PSD2 would be split into two different instruments. These will ensure consumers can continue to make electronic payments and transactions safely and securely in the EU, domestically or cross-border, in euro and non-euro. Whilst safeguarding their rights, it also aims to provide greater choice of payment service providers on the market:

The objective of the regulation is to enhance harmonisation of the rules and enforcement across the various EU Member States. In addition, the EC proposed to merge the E-Money Directive (EMD2) with the proposed PSD3 and PSR texts, so as to have one coherent regime for both payment services and e-money services, and thereby ensure a level-playing field between PIs and EMIs.

PSD3 also amends the Settlement Finality Directive (SFD) in order to allow non-bank PSPs (e.g. PIs and EMIs) to participate directly in SFD-designated payment systems. Fintechs will be given access to all EU payment systems, with appropriate safeguards, and giving them a right to have a bank account. That way, those non-bank PSPs would no longer need to rely on banks in order to execute payment transactions.

A system to check IBANs and a platform to enable payment service providers to share fraud-related information are two proposals around consumer protection, including an extension to all credit transfers of IBAN/name-matching verification services. These have been proposed by the Commission for instant payments in Euro. All consumers should benefit from them, for both regular and instant credit transfers.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) is given once again a number of mandates under PSD3 and the PSR to prepare draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) and draft implementing technical standards (ITS), ultimately to be adopted by the EC, as well as guidelines, and to continue maintaining the register.

In 2024, significant progress was made in updating PSD2. In April 2024, the European Parliament adopted the European Commission’s proposals for PSD3 and PSR at first reading. While the exact timelines for enforcement are not yet confirmed, it is anticipated that the finalised versions of PSD3 and PSR may become available by late 2024 or early 2025.

In 2025, the EU made substantial progress toward finalising PSD3 and PSR, marking the next major phase in the evolution of Europe’s payment services framework. In June 2025, the Council of the EU reached agreement on compromise texts for both legislative instruments, subsequently endorsed by COREPER (the Committee of Permanent Representatives), enabling the start of trilogue negotiations with the European Parliament and the European Commission.

These negotiations aim to align positions on key issues, including liability for payment fraud, direct access of non-bank payment service providers to payment systems, and strengthened consumer protection. Final adoption and publication of the legislative package are expected by late 2025, after which the PSR will apply directly across all EU Member States, while PSD3 will require national transposition within approximately 12–18 months. This means the new framework could come into practical effect during 2026–2027.

The 2025 developments reaffirm the EU’s objective to harmonise payment regulation, enhance security and consumer rights, and create a more competitive and innovative payments landscape across the single market.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a legal framework that sets guidelines for the collection and processing of personal information from individuals who live in the European Union (EU). Since the Regulation applies regardless of where websites are based, it must be heeded by all sites that attract European visitors, even if they don’t specifically market goods or services to EU residents.

Adopted in April 2016, the Regulation came into full effect in May 2018, after a two-year transition period. The GDPR replaces the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC and is designed to:

The GDPR mandates that EU visitors to all websites must be given a number of data disclosures. Sites must also take steps to facilitate such EU consumer rights as timely notification in the event of personal data being breached (breach notification). Among others, the GDPR mandates the user’s right to access its data and the right to be forgotten. In addition, the conditions for consent have been strengthened, and companies are no longer able to use long, illegible terms and conditions full of legalese. Also, it must be as easy to withdraw consent as it is to give it.

eIDAS regulation and Digital ID Trends

The electronic Identification, Authentication, and Trust Services regulation (eIDAS) is a set of EU standards and regulations for electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the European Single Market. It was established in the EU Regulation as of 23 July 2014, relating to electronic identification, and repeals directive 1999/93/EC from December 1999. It entered into force on 17 September 2014 and applies from 1 July 2016 except for certain articles, listed under its Article 52.

In June 2021, the European Commission proposed an update to eIDAS that will enable every European to have a set of digital identity credentials recognised anywhere in the EU. In May 2024, Regulation (EU) 2024/1183 entered into force, formally establishing the European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet under the revised eIDAS 2.0 framework. The regulation requires all EU Member States to provide at least one interoperable digital identity wallet within 24 months of the adoption of the implementing acts, placing the expected rollout across the EU by late 2026.

Throughout 2025, the European Commission has continued to issue implementing regulations defining the wallet’s technical architecture, certification procedures, and security requirements. The framework embeds privacy-by-design, data minimisation, and user consent principles, ensuring data remains under user control and stored locally on the user’s device.

Pilot projects launched between 2023 and 2025 have been finalising testing across Member States to validate interoperability, usability, and cross-border functionality. From 2026 onward, public and private entities that require strong electronic identification will be expected to recognise and accept the EUDI Wallet for secure authentication and digital transactions across the EU.

Many digital ID schemes operate based on super-secure passwords and/or mobile apps confirmed by a second factor, either passwords or one-time token or biometric factors such as fingerprints.

Digital ID in Europe has been proliferating rapidly in recent years. To date, both the nature of these schemes and their application have varied widely – for example, BankIDs in the Nordics being used to support instant payments and the delivery of harmonised government services.

eID platform initiative – In May 2017, a group of European companies including banks, vehicle manufacturers and technology providers signed a “corresponding declaration of intent” to establish a joint, pan-industry platform that will let their customers use a so-called “master key” for registration and identification when accessing online services across a range of sectors including government, aviation and retail.

Biometric Authentication Services

As a form of digital identity, biometric factors have been gaining ground across Europe in recent years, especially since the EU mandated their use for national ID cards and passports from August 2021.

In the payments industry, European banks and other account servicing payment service providers (ASPSPs) have started to support new biometrics technology companies that will develop client identification and authentication systems. They will be dedicated to the research and development of software for the digital verification and authentication of personal identity, through facial, voice, image or document recognition, or fingerprint reading.

With the EU regulator’s decision to mandate Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) as part of the revised payment services directive, PSD2, biometric authentications look set to grow further in importance as part of the payments landscape.

Companies such as Sweden’s Fingerprints (for online payment ID) and the UK’s Fingopay (for physical payments) have pioneered their use in P2P and P2B transactions, while some national ID schemes such as BankID in the Nordics and nemID now include biometric factors alongside PIN in their log-in processes.

Fingerprints (Sweden): Continues to lead development of biometric sensors, especially for fingerprint-enabled payment cards and mobile devices in Europe, supporting both remote (online) payment ID and card-based transactions since 2025.​

Fingopay (UK): Specialises in vein recognition systems for physical payments, with deployments in retail, hospitality, and transport, pioneering biometric authentication for point-of-sale transactions and peer-to-peer (P2P) settings.​

National ID Schemes: Nordic BankID services (Sweden, Norway) and Denmark’s NemID (transitioning to MitID) now commonly offer biometric log-in options—such as face and fingerprint authentication—alongside traditional PIN/password, used for identification in financial, public, and private sector services.

Biometric Authentication in European Payments

Additional Trends and Initiatives for 2025

Mastercard Identity Check – Mastercard launched Identity Check in October 2016, pioneering biometric authentication for online card payments across much of Europe.​ 3D Secure (EMV 3DS) is the framework enabling these secure authentications, often using SMS codes, push approvals, or biometrics (fingerprint/face).​

Since 2024, Mastercard has expanded Identity Attribute Verification services, integrating them with new European Digital Identity Wallet pilot programs. This supports not only consumer-to-merchant payments but also richer identity checks (age, address), further reducing friction without compromising security.​

Today, 2-factor authentication for Mastercard payments may use one-time codes, fingerprint/face recognition in mobile apps, and sometimes dedicated hardware or behavioural biometrics, complying with PSD2’s Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) mandate.​

Mastercard Identity Check (EMV 3-D Secure) is supported in all European Economic Area (EEA) countries, the United Kingdom, and most other European markets, along with global acceptance in North America, APAC, and Latin America through Mastercard’s international network.​

For Europe specifically, this means Mastercard Identity Check is available in at least 30 countries (all EEA states plus the UK, Switzerland, and several others). The number continues to grow with compliance expansion and global merchant adoption.

Banking Sector

Bank of Finland (Suomen Pankki) is the national central bank and supervises the Finnish banking system together with Kilpailuvirasto (KIVI), the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA). The legal framework in which Finnish financial institutions and companies operate is based on European Union directives and Finnish banking laws.

Although Finland’s banks generally survived the credit crunch in good shape, the Finnish economy contracted by nearly 8% in 2009 – the biggest fall in the euro zone – while unemployment hit 9% and the budget deficit reached 4.5% in 2010. In 2019, the Finnish economy grew by 1.3%, and the Bank of Finland’s initial growth forecasts for 2020 stood at 1.5%. However, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic caused a decline of -2.3%. Finland recorded GDP growth of 3.6% in 2021 and is estimated to have a slower growth rate of 2.6% in 2022, bolstered by private consumption and export growth, swiftly bouncing back to pre-pandemic levels on the back of a considerable strengthening of global demand. Economic growth would, however, be overshadowed by the prolongation of the pandemic, supply bottlenecks and higher inflation. By 2022, real GDP growth slowed to 1.6% due to increased private consumption partly due to rising prices. In 2023, the economy experienced a contraction of 1% and slid into recession due to high inflation, tighter financing conditions and weak performance of export markets. In 2024, the economy contracted further by 0.13% due to weak domestic demand and a drop in investment, especially in the construction sector.

As of 2020, inflation was 0.4%, rising to 2.2% in 2021 amid rising commodity prices and growing consumer demand. Inflation worsened on average to 7.2% on the back of the effect of geo-political tension on energy prices. By 2023, inflation slightly softened to 6% as energy prices stabilised. Inflation eased further to 1.6% in 2024 on the back of decline in energy prices and utility costs as well as normalisation in food and commodity prices. This easing was also fuelled by low demand-side inflation pressures in the economy.

On 4 November 2014, the European Central Bank (ECB), via the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), assumed the responsibility of supervising the financial stability of banks operating within the euro zone. However, while the ECB has final supervisory authority over all banks operating within the euro zone, it will only directly supervise those banks classified as ‘significant’ under the terms of the SSM (by July-2025, 114 significant banking groups have been recognised). All other ‘less significant’ banks continue to be supervised by FIN-FSA.

Structure

The Finnish banking system has undergone substantial consolidation in recent years and is now highly concentrated. The structural changes in the banking sector had a significant impact on the sector’s results and key figure comparisons in 2020–2024.

At the end of 2024, there was a total of 177 credit institutions if group structures are ignored, eight fewer than by end-2023, due to mergers within banking groups. Most Finnish credit institutions belong in a banking group or amalgamation. Not all of them are in the retail business. Calculated by group with foreign branches excluded, there were 12 Finnish banking groups or amalgamations at the end of 2024. Finnish banking groups had 735 offices across Finland in 2024, which is 18 fewer than in 2023, mainly due to customer service migrating to digital channels and increased automation.

In 2018, Nordea Group, relocated to Finland from Sweden, and its Finnish operations include the Nordea Mortgage Group, and Nordea Finance Finland. Except for Nordea, OP Financial Group, and Municipality Finance (MuniFin), all the other credit institutions in Finland are under the direct supervision of the FIN-FSA.

In 2024, the largest Finnish banking group by market share was Nordea Group.

The second largest banking group at year-end 2024 was OP Financial Group, including all Nordea branches in other countries. In March 2016, the Nordea annual general meeting approved the plan to merge its Nordic subsidiaries into the Swedish parent bank, turning them into branches. The merger was carried out on 2 January 2017. Since the beginning of 2017, Nordea has operated as a branch in Finland. The main responsibility for the supervision of all the Nordea branches now lies with the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, removing them from under the direct supervision of the ECB. In Finland the merger process included the setting up of Nordea Mortgage Bank, which issues mortgage-backed covered bonds. Nordea Mortgage Bank was included as part of Nordea Bank for the purposes of this yearbook. In 2018, Nordea moved its headquarters from Sweden to Finland, making it Finland’s largest bank in terms of its balance sheet. The process also involved the founding of Nordea Mortgage Bank Plc, which issues mortgage-backed covered bonds.

In late 2017, Danske Bank Finland Plc became Danske Bank’s branch in Finland. The process also involved the founding of Danske Mortgage Bank Plc, which issues mortgage-backed covered bonds. Danske Bank and Municipality Finance are nearly equal in terms of their market shares in lending. Municipality Finance is under the direct supervision of the ECB, but Danske Bank’s supervision now lies with the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority, with the exception of Danske Mortgage Bank, which is a Finnish subsidiary. Danske Bank’s operations in the Baltic Region were merged with those of Nordea in 2018 (see Luminor Bank).

There has been a significant increase in the number of foreign (mostly Nordic) banks operating in Finland. In 2023, there were 31 branches of foreign banks in Finland, up from 11 foreign banks in 2006. Among others, foreign banks active in Finland include SEB (S), DNB Bank (N), Citibank Europe (IRL), Crédit Agricole (FR) and BNP Paribas Fortis (B).

In October 2021, Svenska Handelsbanken announced its decision to exit the Finnish and Danish markets. As of 2021, Handelsbanken had 27 branches in Finland.

1 - Finnish Banking Key Statistics 2024
BankOwnership/DetailsTotal Assets €bnMarket Share
Nordea BankNordea Group (SF)623.3668.85%
OP Corporate Bank OP Financial Group (SF)161.1717.80%
MuniFin (Municipality Finance)Municipalities (SF): 53%, Keva (SF): 31%, state: 16%53.095.86%
Savings Banks Group23 local savings banks (SF)13.891.53%
Aktia BankAktia and Savings Group, investors (SF)11.901.31%
S-Pankki GroupS-Group+SOK Corporation: (SF)13.251.46%
POP Bank Group28 cooperative POP banks6.260.69%
Danske Mortgage BankDanske Group (DK)5.920.65%
AlandsbankenCrosskey Banking Solutions (SF)4.920.54%
other banksvarious11.641.29%
Finnish banks total905.40100.00%
Source: Finance Finland.

Nordea Bank Finland has market shares of close to a third in retail deposits and consumer lending, higher than in other markets where it operates. Merita Bank, Finland’s largest, merged with Sweden’s Nordbanken to form Nordea, subsequently acquiring Unidanmark in Denmark and Christiania in Norway, creating a Pan-Nordic financial services group. At end-2023, Nordea Finland had around 70 branches and 3.1 million household customers, along with 240,000 corporate customers.

At the end of 2017, Nordea’s Open Banking platform was launched when Finnish customer data was made available to third party developers. Nordea was one of the first banks in Europe to see the opportunities offered by PSD2 regulations which require banks to open up to third parties to offer services to account holders. Since the launch of Open Banking, more than 4,500 developers have registered to test Nordea’s APIs.

OP Corporate Bank (previously Pohjola Bank) – had 278 branches and more than 2.1 million customer-owners in 2024. OP Financial Group claims to be Finland’s biggest financial services business, with more than 1.7 million mobile service customers. It has evolved to its present status over the past seven years, since OP Bank Group became the holding company of the biggest group of co-operative banks in 2003. In 2005, the group bought control of Pohjola, Finland’s second-biggest non-life insurer; its name changed to OP-Pohjola Group in 2007, with OKO Bank becoming Pohjola Bank in March 2008. The bank has market shares of around one-third of retail loans and deposits, a declared policy of expanding into the Baltics and is evaluating opportunities in Russia. K-Group, the Kesko retailing conglomerate, also launched banking services in cooperation with OP-Pohjola Group. The bank was also active in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania as of end-2020.

OP Financial Group is made up of 93 independent OP cooperative banks and OP Cooperative which they own, including its subsidiaries and closely related companies as of end-2024. In April 2016, OP Pohjola Bank was rebranded as OP Corporate Bank, and Op-Pohjola Group became OP Finance Group.

In 2024, OP reported a total of 2.115 million owner-customers, from 2.094 million in 2023. The number of banking customers totalled 3.8 million, with retail banking customers comprising 3.4 million and corporate banking 400,000.

In October 2021, OP Corporate Bank’s Baltic subsidiaries in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania merged into their parent company OP Corporate Bank through a cross-border subsidiary merger.

Danske Bank – Danske Bank, pursuing its strategy of expanding throughout the Nordic region, completed the acquisition of Sampo Bank group for €4 billion early in 2007. In 2024, Danske Bank had 19 branches, one million retail customers (mainly mortgage) and 90,000 corporate customers in Finland.

The Sampo Bank deal followed some earlier transactions: state-owned Postipankki was combined with Finnish Export Credit Ltd to form Leonia Group and subsequently merged with Sampo, the leading Finnish insurer, during 2000. Leonia became Sampo Bank in spring 2001; and was subsequently rebranded Danske Bank effective 15 November 2012. Sampo Group has continued as an insurer after the sale of Sampo Bank.

Municipality Finance (MuniFin) is the third-largest credit institution in Finland and the only one specialised in the financing and financial risk management of the Finnish public sector. Its lending is offered exclusively to Finnish municipalities, their majority-owned companies, and non-profit housing companies. MuniFin is 100% owned by the Finnish public sector, the municipalities, the government of Finland and Keva, a public sector pension fund.

Savings Banks Group – is the oldest banking group in Finland consisting of 23 local savings banks, the Central Banks of Savings Banks Finland (CBSBF), SP Mortgage Bank (SPMB) and their central institution Union Co-op together with certain other product and service companies from the amalgamation of Savings Banks. The Group operates 130 branch offices across Finland servicing around 470,000 customers. Savings Banks Group is a part of the European Savings Bank network (EBSG). ESBG’s members comprise 885 savings banks in 21 countries.

Aktia Bank is owned by Finnish Aktia and savings bank foundations, institutions, and private individuals. Aktia has about 266,000 private customers, including 24,000 corporate and institutional customers, and operates nearly 30 branches as of end-2024. With its partners, savings banks, and local cooperative banks, Aktia operates an extensive network of almost 400 branch offices for certain finance services. Following an agreement with Automatia, customers are served by a network of 1,700 ATMs.

In August 2021, Aktia Bank initiated merger procedures aiming at merging the wholly owned subsidiary Aktia Wealth Management with Aktia Bank. At the same time, Aktia initiated merger procedures between its two subsidiaries. The mergers were executed on 1 January 2022.

Supermarket chain S-Group comprises the 19 regional cooperatives, six local cooperatives and SOK Corporation along with its subsidiaries. S-Group is structured as a co-op with 2,036 outlets and had over 2.65 million members as at end-2024, including its operations in Estonia and Russia. At the same time, its S-Pankki had a total of 3.4 million customers. As of March 2022, SOK decided to close all business operations in Russia.

Non-banks moved into Finnish banking for the first time in 2007, when S-Group, a major cooperative chain of supermarkets, department stores and service stations, launched its subsidiary, S-Bank Ltd (S-Pankki).

S-Pankki said it would offer banking services through more than 1,800 S-Group service points, the densest network in Finland. In 2013, S-Pankki, the bank of retailer S-Group bought FIM, a fund management company, and has merged with Tapiola Bank to form a restructured new S-Pankki in May 2014. S-Pankki has been the first so called supermarket bank in Finland. In October 2021, the owners of S-Bank concluded a corporate transaction that had been first announced in June, and in which SOK Corporation and the regional cooperatives of the S Group acquired the shares held by LocalTapiola General, LocalTapiola Life, the LocalTapiola regional companies and the Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Company in S-Pankki Plc, the parent company of the S-Pankki Group. As a result of the transaction, the S Group now owns all of S-Pankki’s shares.

S-Bank’s strategic objective is to achieve a million active customers, meaning customers who consider S-Bank as their main bank. In 2024, the number of active customers grew to 747,000 customers in 2024 from 660,000 customers at the end of 2023.

In March 2022, S-Bank introduced incoming SEPA instant transfers that allow the bank’s customers to receive incoming payments as SEPA instant transfers.

Ålandsbanken has six branch offices across Finland and three in Sweden, and the number of retail and private banking customers is about 100,000. In Finland, Bank of Åland is a full-service bank focused on private banking and premium banking. The Swedish branch, Ålandsbanken Sverige, has private banking, payments consulting and asset management as its main business areas and employs more than 800 staff.

POP Pankki (POP Bank) is an amalgamation of 18 cooperative member banks of POP Bank Alliance Coop that use the marketing name POP Bank, Bonum Bank Ltd, which is the central credit institution of POP Banks and a subsidiary of POP Bank and Alliance Coop, and Finnish P&C Insurance Ltd, which uses the auxiliary business name POP Insurance. As of 2024, the group has over 253,800 customers, 72 branches and service points and an ATM network of around 1,700 points through the OTTO brand.

Three major mergers were completed within the amalgamation as part of the POP Bank Group’s structural development in 2020. As a result of the mergers, stronger banks were created in Ostrobothnia and central Finland, and new demand for their services has emerged over a short period of time. The merger development is expected to continue in the coming years.

LocalTapiola launched operations officially in January 2013, and as of 2024 had 1.6 million owner-customers. In addition to LocalTapiola General and the regional companies, the Group comprises of LocalTapiola Life, LocalTapiola Asset Management and LocalTapiola Real Estate Asset Management. LocalTapiola’s network of regional companies consists of 19 regional mutual insurance companies. Banking services to LocalTapiola’s customers were provided by S-Pankki. LocalTapiola exited its stake in S-Pankki in 2021.

Nordea Group – a Nordic Key Player 

Sampo, the Finnish insurance group, sold its Sampo Bank to Danske, the proceeds of the sale being invested by Sampo into Nordea. In September 2013, the Swedish state sold its remaining 7% stake in Nordea for $3.4 billion. In May 2021, Sampo Bank sold 162 million shares in Nordea Bank Finland, equivalent to 4% of the bank’s share capital, and reducing its holding to 11.9%. In April 2022, Sampo completed its exit from Nordea through a disposal of €1.8 billion of shares.

With very high levels of personal computer and mobile phone ownership, Finland is a leader in mobile and internet banking. Nordea, as Merita, launched its Netbank on-line banking service in Finland as long ago as 1996. Having been introduced into Sweden during 1999, the service (previously known as Solo) was extended into Denmark during Q1 2001 and to Norway following Nordea’s acquisition of Christiania.

In 2023, Nordea Group had nearly 10 million retail customers, 600,000 SMEs, and more than 2,000 large corporate and institutional customers.

The typical trend in use of different payment types across the Nordic region is captured by Nordea’s group payment transaction figures for households up to end-2014 in Table 2. Nordea provided no subsequent updates, but has subsequently made a commitment to digital transformation, launching an AI-enabled chatbot for customers, as well as digital banking and digital savings apps. The latter has picked up over 400,000 customers since its launch in 2018.

As Table 3 shows, after rapid growth Nordea’s credit cards issued in Finland exceeded debit cards for the first time in 2008 – an unusual phenomenon in the Nordic markets. Nordea no longer provides a country-specific breakdown of card numbers, but across Finland, Sweden, and Denmark as of 2021, it had a combined 7.5 million cards in issue, with an estimated 1.3 million credit cards and 1.1 million debit cards in Finland respectively. Nordea claims to have around 30% market share in payment card transaction volume in Finland.

Nordea’s operations outside Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden remain comparatively small, though they grew rapidly up to 2008. It launched operations in the Baltic States, Poland and Russia, where it acquired 75% of JSB Orgresbank for €246 million in 2006. Through organic growth in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Nordea had built up a base of 300,000 customers and 65 branches in the Baltics by end-2009, but further expansion there has been curtailed in response to the economic downturn. In 2015, Nordea reported 36 branches and 446,000 customers in the Baltics, and 18 branches and 35,000 customers in Russia, mainly in St Petersburg and Moscow.

In Q1 2017, Nordea sold its retail lending portfolio in Russia to SovCombank (RUS). In March 2014, Nordea sold Nordea Bank Polski to PKO Bank Polski (PL). Bank Nordea had 138 branches and 668,000 customers in Poland at end-2013.

In July 2018, Nordea signed a deal to acquire Gjensidige Bank, a Norway-based online bank, for NOK 5.5 billion (€578 million). In September 2018, Nordea said that it had extended its Open Banking platform to Sweden to allow developers to build apps to offer financial solutions for Swedish and Finnish customers.

One Nordea – In 2015, the Nordea group prepared to merge the Finnish, Norwegian and Danish subsidiaries into the Swedish parent company and turn them into branches. In March 2016, the Nordea annual general meeting approved the plan. Effective from January 2017, Nordea Group converted its subsidiary banks in Denmark, Finland and Norway into branches of Nordea Bank AB. The merger enabled maintaining the ‘One Bank’ operating model and delivering digital banking services for its clients.

In 2018, Nordea moved its headquarters from Sweden back to Finland, making it Finland’s largest bank in terms of its balance sheet. The process also involved the founding of Nordea Mortgage Bank Plc, which issues mortgage-backed covered bonds.

Nordea in the Baltic region – In September 2016, DNB Bank (N) and Nordea Bank (S) entered an agreement to combine their operations in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to create a leading bank in the Baltics with strong Nordic roots. Nordea and DNB’s Baltic operations had €8 billion and €5 billion in assets respectively, with over 70 branches in the Baltics. In September 2017, DNB and Nordea received unconditional clearance from the European Commission. The transaction closed in Q4 2017. After the successful closing of the transaction, a new bank and financial services provider was established in the Baltic region: Luminor Bank.

In September 2018, DNB and Nordea agreed to sell a 60% stake in Luminor to the Blackstone private equity consortium for €1 billion. Luminor, the third-biggest bank in the Baltic region, was formed by the 2016 decision to merge Nordea’s and DNB’s operations in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The sale was completed in October 2019.

In 2019, following the sale of its stake in Luminor, Nordea signed a forward sale agreement with Blackstone to sell its remaining 20% stake in Luminor Bank. In December 2021, Blackstone acquired 8.45 of Luminor from Nordea. In September 2022, Blackstone acquired Nordea’s remaining 11.6% interest. As a result, Blackstone now owns 80.05% of Luminor, and DNB will continue to own the remaining 19.95%.

Nordea in Russia – In accordance with its strategy, Nordea is focusing on its business in the Nordic region and in March 2021 decided to wind down its operations in Russia, initiating a voluntary liquidation process, which was approved by the Central Bank of Russia on 16 April 2021. The voluntary liquidation process of JSC Nordea Bank was completed in April 2022.

Digital Challenger Banks 

A number of digital challenger banks have entered Finland, e.g. N26, Revolut and TransferWise. They already have a clear Open Banking strategy in place.

In parallel, many Finnish banks co-operate and partner with trusted digital payment providers and FinTechs to prepare for the Open Banking ecosystem, enrich their digital banking services, and to offer additional mobile banking app features.

In 2011, Holvi was launched as a digital banking service for freelancers and entrepreneurs in Finland. Holvi is a financial service that operates with its own license as a payment institution. The Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA) authorises Holvi to operate in within the European Economic Area (EEA). In 2018, Holvi was acquired by BBVA but in February 2021 Holvi was sold to Keru FinTech Investments, with Keru becoming the sole owner. Holvi currently serves more than 35,000 small business owner customers in Finland.

In 2005, Finnish FinTech firm Ferratum launched in Helsinki and had around 480,000 active customers across Europe, North and South America and Asia. Ferratum operated a data-based global financial platform for real-time scoring, lending and banking services. Ferratum’s Mobile Bank, launched in 2016, was a smartphone-based platform offering real-time digital payments and transfers within a single app. As of June 2021, Ferratum adopted a new strategy and changed its name to Multitude.

Digital Banking

All Finnish retail banks offer online banking services and mobile banking apps to their clients. Services available include balance and transaction reporting and payment initiation. Finland is a leader in internet banking and mobile banking apps. Services available include balance and transaction reporting and both domestic and cross‑border payment initiation. Domestic and cross‑border sweeping facilities are also offered. 95% of all Finnish people were online banking users in 2024, making Finland the fourth largest market for online banking in Europe after Iceland, Norway, and Denmark.

The growth of internet and mobile banking means that whilst electronic banking is growing, the number of Finnish branches and bank employees is gradually declining.

The Bank of Finland updated its strategy in 2020 as part of the broader Vision 2030 project. A major part of the new strategy is the “Breakthrough of the Digital Economy”. The Bank of Finland states that economic recovery will be driven by digitalisation. As price pressures grow, payment methods fragment and supervision of the financial markets becomes increasingly challenging for central banks and other regulatory authorities. The models and structures of financial intermediation are changing, and the industry is seeing the presence of new digital actors.

For example, digital banks with no network of branches now account for a continually growing share of the aggregate stock of Finnish household consumer credit. At the same time, the importance of operators outside the banking sector is increasing in the area of financial intermediation.

Finnish banks are focused on online banking and mobile banking apps. The number of online banking agreements signed by households and companies exceeded 7.2 million at end-2021, according to Suomen Pankki. Mobile banking apps with added mobile money transfer services include MobilePay and PayPal. In March 2018, Danske Bank (DK) invited Finnish banks to join MobilePay.

Among individual banks, Nordea had 2.1 million active internet banking customers in Finland, equivalent to nearly 40% of the population, at end-2021. Cardholders of Nordea’s VISA cards can perform account transfers online from a VISA account to a bank account.

Nordea’s Open Banking platform was launched at the end of 2017. In December 2018, Nordea released an API which enables corporate customers to download their accounts and transactional data into their own systems, marking the first commercially viable product to emerge from the bank’s foray into Open Banking. The Instant reporting API is the first offering from Nordea that moves beyond legal requirements in PSD2, providing customers with fresh real-time account data each time they log in to their own inhouse file-based systems. The API was initially available in Sweden and Finland, with roll out to Danish and Norwegian accounts in 2019.

In 2020, Nordea launched its new netbank platform in Finland, and an account aggregation service in its mobile app in the first quarter of 2021. Its mobile bank app now has more than one billion log-ins annually and enables customers to apply for a mortgage via the app and receive a digital loan promise within minutes. Savings product sales through digital channels now correspond to 65% of all retail savings. On the corporate side, the new netbank is available to over 50% of customers.

During 2020, OP Bank introduced several digital services, including a digital investment advice service and the OP Multi-Bank service for viewing account information from different banks in one channel. OP was the first bank in Finland to provide corporate customers with the opportunity to make real-time mass payments in the form of SEPA instant credit transfers.

In 2024, OP Financial Group’s mobile channel served around 1.7 million active users. There were 708 million 669 million OP Mobile log-ins in 2024, up from 669 million in 2023.

In February 2021, OP launched a new SMS account transaction notification service for its customers. In March 2021, OP introduced the Apple Pay service to its customers in Finland. In 2022, OP introduced Google Pay to its customers.

In February 2020, Google Pay was made available to Aktia Bank’s customers. The mobile payments service offering was expanded at the beginning of 2020 when Google Pay, Fitbit Pay, and Garmin Pay supplemented the previously launched Apple Pay. At the start of 2020, Aktia launched a solution for digital signatures that made digital transactions, product applications, easy.

As of 2024, the number of POP Pankki’s mobile bank users was around 75% of the total number of online and mobile bank users. Nearly half of all mobile bank users used the app daily, and it has become the main tool for taking care of daily banking within a short period of time.

Due to the ending of the transition period for the PSD2, the requirements for more secure identification have become stricter. The POP Banks have communicated actively with their customers concerning the adoption of the POP Avain identification application, and the number of users increased by nearly 80% during 2020. Towards the end of 2020, biometric identification was introduced as an additional feature in POP Avain. The use of digital services has been made easier for customers by introducing digital signatures more extensively throughout the product portfolio.

Account Aggregation Services – In January 2018, Danske Bank said it would embrace the Open Banking era, revamping its mobile app to let Nordic customers view data from their accounts with other providers. From April 2018, Swedish customers were able to gather payment and bank details of all the banks that they use and see it within the app. Denmark, Norway, and Finland followed later in 2018.

As of mid-2025, 19 banks and payment providers in Finland had enabled or are preparing to launch account aggregation services for customers. Over 52 bank APIs had been launched and there were 21 API aggregators in operation.

About Open API Standards

In June 2017, The Berlin Group, the European payments interoperability coalition of banks and payment processors with membership comprising bank backed ACHs and industry bodies, announced it would push a single standard for API access to bank accounts (XS2A) compliant with the PSD2 regulation.

The Berlin Group says its NextGenPSD2 Initiative provides a harmonised API standard for accessing bank accounts. Built as an ‘Access to Account Framework’, The Berlin Group says the standard offers operational rules and implementation guidelines with detailed data definitions, message modelling and information flows based on RESTful API methodology.

As of the beginning of 2021, the Berlin Group NextGenPSD2 was implemented in all EU countries, in several non-EU countries in Europe and countries outside Europe who are focused on maintaining reachability and compatibility with the European market. Around 80% of European banks and hundreds of third-party providers (TPPs) have implemented the Berlin Group NextGenPSD2 Framework. In 2021, the group was migrated to the Open Finance task force to explore use cases of Open Banking schemes and Open Finance schemes.

Among others, European Open API sets include Open Banking UK, Swiss Corporate API, and STET Open API (F, B).

There are several important updates and recent details to add regarding Open API standards and Open Banking in Europe and Belgium. As of 2024, the Berlin Group, along with other standardisation initiatives, has significantly advanced Open API and Open Finance frameworks, resulting in broader industry adoption and interoperability.​

Berlin Group and OpenFinance API Framework

European Open API Sets and Industry Expansion

These developments mark a transition from PSD2-driven access to a much wider Open Finance landscape, with almost universal bank API implementation, extensive support for business and consumer account types, and expanding services enabling secure, data-driven payments and financial innovations across Belgium and greater Europe.

PSD2 and the Open Banking Mandate

The adoption of the revised Payment Services Directive, PSD2, has set the stage for Open Banking in Europe, a European Open Banking Mandate with significant impact on the financial services industry. PSD2 challenges for banks and FinTechs include Open Banking, Open APIs, and the rollout of digital payment services and mobile apps.

PSD2 lowers the barriers for market entry to third-party service providers, FinTechs, and it opens up doors for innovative players to offer services that currently do not exist, e.g. account information services, third-party personal finance management, digital identity and KYC.

PSD2 is going to change the European payment and banking landscape and ultimately the position and role of banks in the ecosystem. FinTechs drive the change with the banking industry seeking the right strategy.

Post-PSD2, the key question for the financial service industry will be how to grant authorised access for their FinTech partners to bank account information, for instance secure access to account balance, payment data, credit risk and others.

For banks, the impact of the PSD2 is that they are no longer the only ones that have access to the bank customer information. Bank customers will now decide who they want to grant access to their payment information. Alongside this initiative, with new services based on access to bank accounts (XS2A), banks may lose the direct connection to their customers. To maintain their position in the new PSD2 reality, banks will need to adapt their business and operational models.

In October 2019, the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority published its supervision release on the deadline for the migration to strong customer authentication (SCA) for e-commerce card-based payments. Electronic SCA involves the use of means of electronic identification that provide a substantial or high level of confidence in the claimed or asserted identity of a person and fulfil certain technical specifications and standards.

The FSA required that all of its supervised entities that are party to card-based payments in e-commerce have a realistic migration plan. The FSA will also monitor the progress of the migration and required that all of its supervised entities comply with the SCA requirements by the end of the migration period, i.e. by 31 December 2020. However, as of 2024, several exemptions had been granted in some European countries to give domestic banks more time to prepare for implementation.

By mid-2025, notable challenges for the Finnish banking industry include:

In July 2022, Finnish online payment company Paytrail and Mastercard announced that their collaboration was enabling more than 1 million Open Banking payments every month, led by Aiia, a Mastercard company. Since 2019, Paytrail and Aiia have been collaborating to accelerate Open Banking powered payments in the e-commerce checkout flow, Paytrail enables e-commerce for more than 20,000 merchants and online shoppers.

Payment Services

In Finland, the law on payment services adopted the EU payment services directive (PSD) and the EU interchange fee regulation (IFR). Finland also adopted the new PSD2 – effective from January 2018.

In 2025, the more than 300 different payment services offered in Europe can be grouped into:

Card Brands and Card Types

At present, there is no national debit card scheme in Finland, and all retail banks issue debit cards and credit cards with one of the Mastercard or VISA brands. VISA is the dominant card scheme in Finland.

Business Eurocard is Finland’s leading corporate card both by card numbers and expenditure, with a customer base comprising a total of over 20,000 companies in Finland. All Business EuroCard cards are co-branded Mastercard.

Cards with Mastercard on the front were first issued during 1999. These included standard, gold and affinity programmes launched by Merita Nordbanken (Nordea), among them an affinity card with leading ice hockey club IFK Helsinki. Leonia Bank and SEB-Kort launched Mastercard cards during 2000, while Merita’s development of its affinity and co-branded programme included a card with Neste, Finland’s leading petrol chain.

Historically, all Finnish banks had issued domestic Pankkikortti debit cards, many co-badged VISA Electron for international use. The Finnish banks have replaced all Pankkikortti cards with VISA Electron, VISA Debit, or Debit Mastercard cards. The EMV migration of bank cards is de facto complete, since end-2011.

Finnish card products like consumer cards, commercial cards and purchasing cards range from classic cards to gold cards and platinum cards. Additional card features (e.g. picture cards, bonus points, PIN selection at ATMs and card control by SMS notification and other in-app controls like geo blocking) are used to attract cardholders. Also, individual picture cards and collector cards are issued on demand.

From July 2023, banks and other card issuers will no longer issue Maestro cards. Instead, they will need to issue Debit Mastercards. Maestro was launched in 1991, and it was the world’s first debit card that could be used via an online network. About 400 million Maestro cards are in circulation worldwide, mainly across Europe. However, Maestro is not enabled for the demands of e-commerce and cannot be used for online or in-app payments, hence the decision to phase it out in favour of Mastercard Debit products.

In mid-2021, Nordea announced it will no longer issue VISA Electron cards and will instead issue VISA Debit cards. VISA announced that Electron cards will be phased out globally in 2024. The features of the VISA Debit card have been modified to match the features of the VISA Electron card.

Cards with combined payment functions – They are a characteristic feature of the Finnish card market. The original model combined Pankkikortti debit cards with VISA branding for use outside Finland. During 2008, Luottokunta worked with the Finnish banks to replace these cards with new credit/debit combination cards, which allow cardholders travelling outside Finland to pay for purchases or withdraw cash either by credit or debit transactions. Both Nordea and Pohjola began to issue credit/debit combination cards in late 2008 and issuance of Pankkikortti/VISA debit cards has ceased.

Debit cards issued are VISA Debit and Debit Mastercard cards. There are no V PAY cards in issue.

Credit Cards issued are cards branded VISA, Mastercard, American Express or Diners. There are no JCB cards in issue.

Prepaid Cards – Handelsbanken (S) was first in Finland to issue prepaid VISA Electron cards. By end-2012, more Finnish banks issued prepaid cards – e.g. a prepaid Mastercard card from Aktia Bank.

The UK e-money institution, Prepaid Financial Services (PFS), began offering prepaid Mastercard cards in Finland in 2015. In June 2016, The Finnish Government’s central purchasing body, Hansel Ltd, selected PFS to manage its first prepaid card programme for the Criminal Sanctions Agency (CSA), the organisation responsible for the Finnish prison system.

Co-branded cards – In Finland, several co-branded card products are in circulation. Co-branded cards are based on the international card brands Mastercard, VISA, American Express or Diners.

Finnish banks issuing co-branded cards together with their non-bank partners include Nordea Bank, Danske Bank, SEB Kort and a few others. Co-branded card products include e.g. the FinnAir Plus VISA card from Danske and the FinnAir Plus Mastercard from Nordea.

Contactless Cards and form-factors

From 2014, most Finnish banks issue contactless cards with PayPass or payWave function. In addition, they have field tested NFC stickers, mobile SIM SE NFC payments, and mobile HCE NFC payments.

In January 2012, Luottokunta launched the VISA Electron Lunch Card with contactless payWave function. It was the first contactless chip & PIN card in Finland. According to Luottokunta, over 15,000 restaurants nationwide accept the Lunch Card as payment. Luottokunta transferred its business to Eurocard in 2012. Luottokunta was sold to Nets Holding in 2012.  As of 2013 Luottokunta Oy changed its name to Nets.

In October 2012, Pohjola Bank launched a contactless VISA Debit card with payWave function. As of end of 2023, more than 90% of Finnish payment cards were enabled for contactless payments. FinTech start-up iAxept also launched a contactless e-commerce checkout solution in 2019.

In early 2021, two of Finland’s biggest transport operators announced the launch of open-loop contactless payments on selected ferries, trams, and buses in Helsinki and Tampere. In 2023, Suomen Pankki reported that the growth of contactless payment was sustained in 2023, and electronic card payments using the contactless feature of a payment card accounted for 61% of all card payment transactions compared to 60% in 2022. The total number and value of contactless payments rose 10.97% and 14.71% respectively from 2022 to 1.43 billion and €22.84 billion in 2023.

According to Suomen Pankki, Finnish payment cards were mainly used in contactless payments in July-September 2024. The number of contactless payments is growing rapidly, but contactless payments tend to be small in comparison with other types of card payments. The customers of Finnish banks and payment institutions paid with a contactless payment a total of 420 million times, representing a growth of 6% year-on-year. The most common type of card payment was contactless payment, accounting for 63% of the number of payments. The proportion of contactless payments in July-September 2024 was the highest in the history of the statistics.

Nordic processor NETS, part of Nexi Group (I), reported that the share of contactless card payments in Finland increased to 74.28% in 2022.

Predefined contactless limits in Finland – Contactless payments of purchase amounts below a predefined contactless limit are without PIN or signature and without transaction receipt. In Finland, the contactless limit for payments without PIN/signature was set to €50 for cards branded PayPass or payWave, and for international cards carrying the PayPass or PayWave function effective January 2020, a move which was expected to further increase the popularity of contactless payments. The contactless limit remained unchanged in 2020 and 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic and even till 2024.

Interchange Fee Arrangements

International and Intra European Non-EEA Interchange Fees are set by the members of the international card schemes to be applied in case of cross-border transactions or foreign cards used in Finland, respectively. As of early 2025, Finland’s interchange fee landscape for consumer card transactions reflects both ongoing EU fee regulation and a distinctive development for Mastercard-branded debit cards.

EU-Regulated Interchange Fee Caps

Mastercard Debit Card: January 2025 Update

Visa Debit Card Interchange

Background and Unique Finnish Situation

Summary Table

Card Type Standard Cap Finland (Jan 2025, Mastercard) Finland (2025, Visa)
Debit – Contactless 0.20% 0.75% 0.20%
Debit – Chip & PIN 0.20% 0.75% 0.20%
Credit (All channels) 0.30% 0.30% 0.30%

Merchants and acquirers in Finland must now account for higher interchange costs on Mastercard debit transactions, while Visa remains at the regulated EU level. This unique change underscores Finland’s evolving card fee environment in 2025.

American Express – As a result of the EU regulation of interchange fees (IFR), American Express elected to exit all of its bank licensing arrangements in the European Union. This means that they have terminated all licenses with its existing EU partners, stopped issuing new cards and are in the final stages of the process of closing down all operations directly related to bank licensing. Over the course of 2019, American Express credit cards issued under independent operator agreements were rendered invalid in all countries of the European Union. Various banks that have up to now had exclusive licensing contracts with American Express have already responded accordingly and provided their clients with the opportunity to switch to other card brands.

From 2020, American Express Payments Europe is now the sole issuer and acquirer of American Express cards in Europe, including Finland. However, American Express Payments Europe continues its local sales partner arrangements with local acquirers enabling the use of American Express cards at ATMs and POS terminals.

E-Money 

In Finland, the law on e-money services has adopted the e-money directive of the EU (EMD).

As of 31 December 2024, there were 13 e-money institutions resident in Finland (2023: 12, 2022: 10, 2021: 1, 2020: 1, 2019: 1, 2018: 0, 2017: 1, 2016: 1, 2015: 1, 2014: 1, 2013: 1, 2012: 2, 2011: 2). However, numerous foreign e-money institutions from the EEA region are active in Finland, primarily the UK. They provided notification of operating in Finland under the EU passport system.

The Finnish electronic purse AVANT service ceased in July 2006. Electronic money schemes are available in Finland in the form of reloadable prepaid cards.

Prepaid Products – paysafecard (Austria) entered Finland and launched its prepaid product, paysafecard.

Digital Account-to-Account Payment Services 

In the Yearbooks, account-based payment services are classified as IBAN-based payment services in SCT/SDD format offered by banks or by independent payment initiation service providers (PISP).

Credit transfers (SCT) are used for high value corporate and low value retail transactions. They can be paper-based or automated. Electronic credit transfers are used by the government and companies for salary, supplier and benefit payments. The migration to the SCT scheme is complete, since 2011.

Companies can use the ‘reference giro’ system to link their billing systems to the payment system using a pre-printed reference number that identifies the bill, the payer and the payee. Reference giros are processed as SEPA credit transfers (SCT).

High‑value and urgent credit transfers are cleared and settled via TARGET2‑Suomen Pankki in real time. High‑value and urgent credit transfers can also be cleared via POPS.

Immediate Payments – A special express transfer that enables funds to be transferred in real time is available for time‑critical interbank transfers. Express transfers are processed via POPS.

Both the European Commission and the Eurosystem have focused on the development of retail payments. One of the objectives is to promote the instant credit transfer (SCT Inst) scheme. Based on the decision taken by the Governing Council of the ECB in summer 2020, all payment service providers (PSPs) which are reachable in TARGET2 and adhere to the SEPA Inst scheme should also become reachable in the TIPS service (TARGET Instant Payment Settlement).

At the end of 2023, a total of 23 Nordic banks and ancillary systems used the Bank of Finland’s TARGET2-Suomen Pankki component. The average daily number of payments settled via the TARGET2-Suomen Pankki component in 2022 was 4,350, with a total value of around €49 billion. The number of daily payments was up by 21%, and its value by 20%, compared to 2021. In 2023, the average daily value of payments settled by the bank of Finland’s participants in the T2 system (and in TARGET2 up to 119 March 2023) was approximately €81 billion. The TARGET2 payment system, which was launched in Finland in 2008, was replaced on March 2023 with the new T2 system. The new system provides enhanced liquidity management tools for banks and includes ISO20022 payment messaging standards that enable a higher level of automation.

The first Finnish banks joined the Eurosystem TIPS instant payment service at the end of 2021. The EBA Clearing RT1 system, which is the main system for settling Finnish banks’ instant payments, also migrated its liquidity management to TIPS in December 2021

As of 2021, 60.65 million instant payments were made for a total value of €68.30 billion, compared to 50.49 million and €18.46 billion respectively in 2020.

Direct debits had been used for low-value recurring payments such as utility bills. On 1 February 2014, SEPA direct debits (SDD), in addition to services such as direct invoicing and e-invoicing, replaced all previous direct debit schemes in Finland.

Instead, direct invoicing is offered by all banks. An e-invoice is delivered to the bank by the invoicing company and is then forwarded electronically to the customer and then debited to the payer’s account according to an order given to the bank by the payer. Direct invoicing allows the payer to check invoice information before approving the interbank payment.

Cross-border SEPA direct debits are cleared via the EBA’s STEP2 system.

MyBank in Finland – In June 2012, EBA Clearing Service launched its MyBank service. MyBank is the SEPA Credit Transfer solution for payments on the internet, allowing users to choose their personal bank for purchases, even when shopping cross-border. Also, MyBank offers direct debit and e-mandate services. The supporting Finnish banks included Nordea Bank Finland, Pohjola Pankki, and Aktia Bank. Since its launch, MyBank usage has declined as SEPA instant payment services gain in popularity (see below).

Immediate payment service Siirto – In November 2016, OP Bank, Nordea and Danske Bank launched a mobile, multi-bank, real-time payment platform, Siirto, managed by Automatia that operates the shared ATM network in Finland. Siirto will only require end-users to have a mobile phone number for sending or receiving money both online and phone-to-phone, with all transfers occurring immediately on the user’s bank account.

The PSD2-ready platform offers an open-API interface to connect any licensed payment service provider to the service. Siirto is similar to the successful Swish platform in Sweden (see Sweden profile).

In 2024, OP Bank reported that the number of Siirto mobile payment users reached 1.25 million on OP’s mobile channels, up from 1.22 million in 2023. Siirto had a total of 1.5 million users in Finland in 2024.

Instant payments (SCTINST) is the IBAN-based immediate payment scheme in Europe, officially launched in November 2017. It makes funds immediately available to the beneficiary – compliant with existing SCT infrastructure. The regulators will require all banks to offer Instant Payments from 2018.

Among others, the characteristics of SCTINST include an initial maximum of €15,000 with the funds made available on the beneficiary’s account in less than ten seconds, 24/7/365 real-time processing, and immediate refunds in the case that the SCTINST payment was not successful. From July 2020, the maximum amount for instant payments is €100,000.

Chaired by the ECB, in 2014, the Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB) identified the need for a pan-European instant euro payment solution. In April 2016, EBA Clearing started the SCTINST project with more than 40 large European banks involved. In November 2016, the European Payments Council (EPC) published the SCTINST scheme and SCTINST rule books version 1.0 while the ERPB provided the governance model. In November 2017, EBA Clearing completed the pan-European instant payments infrastructure, RT1.

SEPA credit transfers and direct debits can be settled on a same-day or next-day basis. In 2020, about 50% of all IBAN-based payments in Europe were processed intra-day, or even immediately inside of the same bank group. Potential first use cases for SCTINST in Finland may include P2P, mobile banking apps, online payments, and B2B.

As of June 2025, 2,765 banks from 36 European countries had registered for the SCTINST scheme. This represents 78% of all SCT scheme participants.

As in many European countries, bank transfers have been adopted for online payments, enabling consumers to pay direct from their bank account as an alternative service to payment cards.

SEPA credit transfers and direct debits can be settled on a same-day or next-day basis. Potential use cases for SCTINST payments in Finland include P2P, mobile banking apps, online payments, and B2B.

Foreign payment initiation service providers (PISPs) offering cross-border online credit transfers in the country include Inpay (DK) and Klarna’s SOFORT (D).

In 2022, FIN-FSA reported 62 PISPs licensed in Finland. Authorised in another EEA member state, cross-border PISPs have provided notification of operating in Finland under the EU passport system.

ePassi – In December 2018, Norway’s Vipps and Finland’s ePassi adopted Alipay’s QR-code standard to enable interoperability for the 4 million users of their mobile wallets. Under the agreement, consumers were able to use their home app to scan the QR-code of the partner scheme from 2019. Merchant partners were also able to accept QR-code payments from their domestic customers and also use the same unmodified system to welcome the payments of visitors from other Nordic countries as well as Chinese tourists.

Vipps is the most popular payment app in Norway used by over 80% of the Norwegian population, while ePassi has the widest QR-code compatible mobile payment network in the Nordics, with over 25,000 merchants accepting its payments already. Through the merger with BankID in 2018, Vipps is now also offering a highly successful federated eID used by over 90% of the population.

ePassi has expanded into corporate benefit and mobile wallet solutions and has signed a number of partnerships with international players, including Alipay and WeChat Pay. ePassi has offered Alipay since 2016 as the first Nordic acquirer, and also offers QR-code payments in other European countries including Sweden, Iceland, Estonia and Spain.

In June 2019, Alipay and six European mobile wallets (Bluecode, ePassi, Momo Pocket, Pagaqui, Pivo, Vipps) signed a collaboration deal to promote QR code-based digital payment interoperability for travellers both in Europe and from China. The companies are working towards adopting a unified QR code, which will allow users of the six participating European digital wallets to make QR code-based payments with their home apps at local merchants in 10 European countries where those apps are accepted. At the same time, merchants that already accept mobile payments via the six apps in their respective domestic markets will also be able to easily accept payments made by customers of the other countries covered by the collaboration. The collaboration is the first of its kind in Europe and will bring together the six mobile wallet partners’ users, which are more than 5 million in total, and around 190,000 merchants in Europe, as well as a fast-growing number of travellers from China.

In September 2019, ePassi received a €41.5 million investment from investors Bregal Milestone and Risto Siilasmaa’s First Fellow Partners via an equity funded transaction. The transaction was expected to complete during Q4 2019 and is subject to approval by regulatory authorities.

In March 2020, ePassi acquired its Swedish counterpart ActiWay. ePassi said the acquisition will strengthen its position as a leading Nordic mobile payment platform for employee benefits. The acquisition grows ePassi Group’s user base to over 1 million active users in total and increases ePassi Group’s revenue to approximately €150 million.

In 2021, ePassi acquired Sodexo BRS of Sweden and Eazybreak of Finland. As of 2024, ePassi had more than 1.7 million users and was accepted by more than 80,000 merchants.

Vipps, MobilePay and Pivo – In June 2021, the Norwegian mobile payment service Vipps, owned by a consortium of Norwegian banks, and Finland’s Pivo, owned by OP Financial Group, announced they would merge with Danske Bank’s MobilePay service. The ambition was to create Europe’s best and most comprehensive digital wallet.

The Norwegian banks behind Vipps were set to own 65% of the new parent company, with Danske Bank owning 25% and OP Financial Group owning 10%. The merged business was set to build the common technology platform starting from Vipps’ platform, to run fully in the public cloud.

In September 2022, following a dialogue with the EC’s Directorate-General for Competition, the owner banks behind the planned merger of the three mobile payment providers reached the decision that OP Financial Group in Finland would not be a co-owner and that Pivo will not be part of the merger. The EC expressed concerns about both MobilePay and Pivo being part of the merger since this would result in the merger of two sizeable players in Finland. The EC’s view was that the merger would thus adversely affect competition in the mobile payment space in Finland. The planned merger, as amended, was filed to the EC, and approved in October 2022. MobilePay in Denmark and Finland will still merge with Vipps.

The new joint company based on Vipps and MobilePay will have almost 11 million users and more than 400,000 physical shops and webshops as customers who combined carry out about 900 million transactions each year. The name of the new company is Vipps MobilePay AS. By the end of 2023, Vipps MobilePay had 12 million users, and 1.24 billion transactions in Norway, Denmark, and Finland.

In connection with OP Financial Group withdrawing from the agreement, the ownership ratio between Danske Bank and the Norwegian banks will remain the same. This means that instead of an ownership share of 25%, Danske Bank will have an ownership share of 27.8%, while the consortium of banks behind Vipps will have an ownership share of 72.2% instead of 65%.

Advanced Payment Services

In the Yearbooks, advanced payment services are classified as online wallets, e-wallets, and/or mobile wallets with any type of payment service chosen by the wallet user to complete the payment.

In selected Finnish online shops, the wallets PayPal, Skrill and Payson Checkout are offered as payment means.

PayPal – PayPal is available in Finland. As of end-2024, PayPal reported 434 million active customer accounts globally, up 2.1% from 426 million in 2023. This consisted of 398 million customer active accounts and 36 million merchant active accounts across approximately 200 markets. PayPal’s total payment volume increased to $1.68 trillion (up from $1.53 in 2023) and customer engagement grew to an average of 60.6 transactions per active account, driving 3% growth in transactions per active account at the end of 2024.

During 2020, with consumers worldwide embracing digital wallet capabilities, the company launched several related services including QR Code Checkout, Buy Now Pay Later, Crypto purchasing and Xoom direct transfers to bank accounts and debit cards.

In June 2018, PayPal continued its shopping spree with a $400 million cash deal to acquire e-commerce platform Hyperwallet. The acquisition followed deals to buy Venmo, Xoom, Sweden’s iZettle (renamed Zettle) for $2.2 billion and AI-based merchant marketing outfit Jetlore, as Paypal bids to extend its reach to all corners of the payments market.

In May 2022, PayPal Ventures invested in Modulr, an embedded payments platform for digital businesses, as part of a $108 million Series C funding round led by General Atlantic, Blenheim Chalcot, Frog Capital, and Highland Europe. Modulr delivers payments infrastructure for over 200 top-tier customers, including Revolut, Wagestream, Sage and BrightPay, and processes an annualised transaction value of more than £100 billion.

In 2023, PayPal was exploring the sale of Xoom, its international money transfer subsidiary, in a bid to cut costs and focus on high-growth business areas – as of November 2025, PayPal had not completed the sale. Also, Stax Payments – an all-in-one payment provider for businesses – announced its partnership with PayPal in July 2023. This partnership will allow PayPal’s users to easily make payments with more than 20,000 merchants of Stax through a fast checkout process as well as new payment options such as Buy-now-pay-later solutions.

In 2023, PayPal launched its own US dollar-denominated stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD), which is fully backed by US dollar deposits, short-term US treasuries, and similar cash equivalents and designed for digital payments and Web3. Eligible US PayPal customers who purchase PayPal USD will be able to transfer the token to external wallets, send person-to-person payments, fund purchases at checkouts supported by PayPal, and convert cryptocurrency holdings to and from PayPal USD.

In January 2024, PayPal launched AI-powered features to drive personalised offerings for both merchants and customers based on the data it possesses. These features include Smart Receipts (for merchants) which predicts what shoppers may want to buy next from the merchant. The merchant can then offer personalised recommendations, and cashback offers on this receipt. A major feature for users is CashPass which will use give users personalised cashback offers based on an AI analysis of their spending activity.

In March 2024, PayPal launched a complete suite of payment processing tools for online small businesses in the UK, Canada, and across more than 20 European markets. The PayPal Complete Payments package enables small businesses to accept an expanded range of payment instruments including PayPal, buy now pay later, Apple Pay, Google Pay, credit and debit cards, and alternative payment methods from around the world. By April 2024, PayPal added new features to its complete payments solution for small businesses to enable small businesses to accept a range of payments including PayPal, Venmo and PayPal Pay Later products. PayPal also gave small businesses access to four new features to help them drive payment acceptance and enhance how they run their business, and this will include Apple Pay as a checkout option.

In 2025, PayPal significantly enhanced its offerings for small businesses by introducing PayPal Open, a unified commerce platform that consolidates all of PayPal’s merchant solutions into a single interface. This platform provides small businesses with access to a comprehensive suite of tools, including payment processing, financial services, and AI-driven insights, all designed to streamline operations and foster growth.

Amazon Pay – was introduced in 2007. The payment service enables Amazon customers to checkout at participating third-party merchant sites using their Amazon credentials.​

Launch Date: Amazon Pay first launched in August 2007 as “Pay with Amazon,” later expanding globally and adding features for third-party merchant acceptance.​

Functionality: All active Amazon customers can use their Amazon credentials for checkout at partnered merchants—Amazon Pay is available in 18 countries as of October 2024.​

Global Usage: Over 50 million customers have used Amazon Pay for purchases worldwide, with a large share coming from Amazon Prime members, but recent statistics indicate over 3.2 billion transactions processed in 2025 and 600,000+ merchants accepting Amazon Pay as of June 2025.​

Prime Share: More than half of Amazon Pay users are Amazon Prime Members, matching your note on demographics.​

Market Impact: By the end of 2025, Amazon Pay accounts for approximately 6% of the global online payment market, processing an estimated $85 billion in payments.​

Expansion: Amazon Pay experienced 20% growth in mobile usage and 13% total transaction growth from 2024 to 2025.​

Merchant Share: SMEs comprise around 70% of all merchants using Amazon Pay.

Alipay – In January 2017, Finnair became the first airline in the world to trial the acceptance of Alipay payments. Finnair partnered with Finnish e-payment platform ePassi to offer Alipay as an official payment method onboard flights connecting Shanghai and Helsinki.

In September 2017, Alipay, the world’s largest online and mobile payment platform operated by Ant Financial Services Group, announced that it had signed agreements with Finpro (Finland), Svensk Handel (Sweden) and the Scandinavian Tourist Board, enabling merchants across the Nordic region to accept payment via Alipay and reach Chinese customers.

Digital Payment Services

In the Yearbooks, digital payment services are classified as card-based payment services using EMV tokenisation security on the internet combined with HCE NFC technology in the case of contactless payments at POS terminals.

In 2016, Aktia Bank launched its Aktia Wallet allowing for card payments stored under the MasterPass brand. In September 2017, Nordea announced it would support transactions using Masterpass.

As of mid-2025, the Click to Pay online payment checkout service was not yet available in Finland. Click to Pay replaced the previous MasterPass and VISA Checkout services respectively. Click to Pay is a joint service between Mastercard, VISA, Discover, and American Express, enabling consumers to make secure one-click payments without having to enter card details or passwords online.

Contactless payments on cards using Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, or Google Pay (previously Android Pay) made by foreign users at contactless POS terminals in Finland are processed as payments on contactless cards.

Global contactless transaction values will reach $10 trillion by 2027, up from $4.6 trillion in 2022, with contactless mobile and wearable payments expected to grow by 221% and contactless card payments by 119% over the same period.

Contactless ticketing spend will increase by more than 440% globally between 2022 and 2027, with growing prominence and support for OEM pay solutions, such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay being a key enabler for mobile NFC ticketing across many markets.

Overall growth in contactless transaction values will be catalysed by growing mobile payments adoption, with 99% of all smartphones capable of making contactless payments by 2027, up from 94% today, and average transaction values for Apple Pay reaching $28.20 and $33.40 for Google Pay.

Apple Pay has become one of the world’s most used digital payment methods. Its user base increased from 521.4 million to 535.8 million in 2022 and now sits at 785 million users worldwide at end 2024.

This payment method is also available in over 85% of US merchants and 60% of stores globally.

As of August 2024, the estimated total Apple Pay in-store sales now sit at $268 billion, up from $213 billion last year.

As of 2023, Apple Pay processed 14.2% of all online consumer payments and 5.6% of all in-store purchases globally, global transaction volume (2025 estimate) is $7.6 trillion.

In the US its Apple Pay users are measured as ~63.9 million (2025 forecast), with in-store U.S. retail sales via Apple Pay sitting at ~$268 billion (as of August 2024).

Putting it all together, Apple Pay is increasingly becoming an effective customer acquisition and retention feature for Apple. In June 2022, Apple Pay added Apple Pay Later, its buy-now-pay-later service, allowing users to split purchases into four equal instalments with no interest or fees. Initially launched in the US, the service is expected to roll out to other countries during 2023. In 2023, Apple launched its Card savings account from Goldman Sachs with a 4.15% annual percentage yield. Apple Wallet users can set up and manage a savings account directly from Apple Card in Wallet, with no fees, no minimum deposits, and no minimum balance requirements.

In September 2017, Apple launched Apple Pay in Finland. In 2025, Apple Pay was supported by 67 banks and payment providers in Finland.

Google Pay current data shows around 820 million active users across 45 global markets.

In January 2022, it was reported that the company was planning to transform Google Pay into a “comprehensive digital wallet”, following the app’s reported slow growth and the shutdown of Plex. In April, it was reported that Google was planning to revive the “Google Wallet” branding in a new app or interface and integrated with Google Pay. Google officially announced Google Wallet on May 11, 2022, at the 2022 Google I/O keynote. The app began rolling out on Android smartphones on July 18, replacing the 2018 app and co-existing with the 2020 Google Pay app in the US. While the app name itself was changed from Google Pay to Google Wallet, the service name of actually paying for things online or in-store remains “Google Pay.”.

In the US, Google Pay has over 165 million users.  Also, Google Pay is used on nearly 800,000 websites as a secure payment gateway. Roughly 20% of all mobile purchases are made using this digital payment processor. Google Pay ranks 3rd among mobile payment methods globally. In Russia, it has an online usage distribution of 35.18% and has recorded approximately 1,281,838 transactions online. Available in 19 countries, 30% of Google Pay’s active users are millennials. It is one of Canada’s top 5 online payment apps and is the primary mobile payment method for 2,193 businesses worldwide. In India, Google Pay boasts 67 million active users and holds 36.10% of the mobile application market. Its widespread adoption and significant market share highlight its growing importance in the global digital payment landscape.

In 2018, Google launched Google Pay in Finland supported by Mastercard, VISA and 59 Finnish and foreign digital banks that support Apple Pay in Finland as of 2025.

Samsung Pay is available in 29 countries worldwide and has an estimated 150 million users. Samsung Pay works with a broad range of Samsung Galaxy phones, including the latest Galaxy S22 and newer models, as well as many previous models like the Galaxy S8.

Samsung claims that its system will work with almost all point-of-sale systems: NFC, magnetic stripe and EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) terminals for chip-based cards. In June 2022, Samsung Pay was renamed to Samsung Wallet in the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Along with the renaming came new features such as the ability to store digital assets and digital keys within the Wallet app.

Samsung Wallet became available in Finland in 2022 and by 2025, it is supported by nine banks and payment providers.

Overview of Cashless Payments

For many years, card payments have been the dominant payment instrument in Finland. Accounting for 64.82% of all cashless payments compared to 55.85% across the EU, card payments are the dominating cashless payments instrument by number.

Credit transfers (34.84%) are the dominant cashless payment instrument by value.

Direct debits have shown no growth since 2005 and accounted for only 0.12% in 2014. On 1 February 2014, cross-border SEPA direct debits (SDD) and direct invoicing services replaced all previous direct debit schemes in Finland. Thus, domestic direct debits have been phased, since February 2014.

Cheque use in Finland is marginal and declining (0.000%). It is limited due to high processing costs and the withdrawal of the cheque guarantee. Cheques are typically used for high-value commercial payments.

In 2024, there were 671.3 cashless payments per capita composed of 436.7 card payments and 234.7 credit transfers.

2 - Cashless Payment Transactions in Finland
(millions)202020212022202320242025FGR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Payment cards1,796.51,893.12,135.92,340.72,454.52,570.94.86%26.06%4.74%
Cheques issued0.00.00.00.00.00.00.00%-71.43%-22.16%
Credit transfers1,086.21,179.41,163.31,219.21,319.11,376.38.20%23.64%4.34%
Direct debits---------
Total2,883.33,073.83,330.33,595.13,786.63,947.15.33%25.62%4.67%
Total card payments per capita324.8341.6384.4419.7436.7457.44.05%23.84%4.37%
Total cheques issued per capita0.00.00.00.00.00.0-0.77%-71.93%-22.44%
Total credit transfers per capita196.4212.8209.3218.6234.7244.87.36%21.45%3.96%
Total direct debits per capita---------
Total cashless payments per capita521.2554.5593.7638.3671.3702.25.18%22.99%4.23%
Note: from 2014, domestic direct debits were replaced by e-invoice and credit transfers.
Note: the small amount of cheque payments appear as zero due to rounding (2021 = 2,000).
Source: ECB.

Exchange Rates

Finland joined the euro system and adopted the euro as its currency on 1 January 2002. The exchange rate of the Finnish mark (FIM) against the euro was irrevocably fixed at 5,94573 FIM per €1.00.

Market Infrastructure

According to the Bank of Finland, the popularity of card payments primarily reflects technological advances, but the growth in card payments has also been boosted by impaired access to cash. The signing of card payment vouchers is already history, the rapidity of PIN authentication and retailer point-of-sale terminals has increased, and the widespread use of contactless proximity payments is advancing at a brisk pace. At the same time, the number of cash dispensers has decreased. Mobile payment methods are likely to become general in Finland in the next few years as new services enter the market.

P27 – Finland is a member of the P27 payments project, which aims to establish the first integrated region for domestic and cross-border payments across multiple currencies in the Nordic and Scandinavian regions. P27 is an initiative from Danske Bank, Nordea, Swedbank, Handelsbanken, SEB and OP to serve the region’s 27 million people, creating the world’s first integrated domestic and cross-border real-time payments platform, a vital step for trade between Nordic countries.

In February 2018, the major Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Finnish banks banded together to explore the possibility of establishing a pan-Nordic payment infrastructure supplemented by common products, with the aim of making it possible to clear immediate payments and settle accounts within seconds, regardless of currency. The P27 project – so-called for the 27 million people who live in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland – will build on the success of the mobile bank payment apps of the Nordic banks like Swish in Sweden, Norway’s Vipps and MobilePay in Denmark.

The collaboration reflects an effort to stay ahead of global technology giants like Apple and Samsung as customers no longer rely exclusively on their banks for financial services. The difference between P27 and the payment apps Nordic banks already offer is the cross-border nature of the project.

To facilitate this, P27 acquired the Swedish clearing house Bankgirot in October 2020. Bankgirot manages transactions of a total value of approximately SEK 73 billion per day. In July 2021, P27 Nordic Payments secured merger approval from the EU Commission to establish its pan-Nordic payments platform.

In June 2022, P27 announced that 13 banks connected to Swedish mobile payments system Swish were set to test on P27 by the end of 2022. Banks connected to Swish, which is used by more than 90% of the Swedish population, are at the front of P27’s drive toward processing the platform’s first transactions. The current timeline called for SEK instant preparations to be finalised during H2 2022, followed by SEK batch preparations to be finalised by early 2023.

In April 2023, the P27 Nordic Payments Platform withdrew the initiative and its clearing house license application from the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority due to new requirements and new regulations that challenged its operating model.

Nordic KYC Utility (now Invidem) – In June 2018, six Nordic banks decided to explore the possible establishment of a Nordic Know Your Customer (KYC) infrastructure. The banks – DNB Bank, Danske Bank, Nordea Bank, Svenska Handelsbanken, Swedbank and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB) established a joint venture, Nordic KYC Utility, with a focus on developing a secure and cost-effective Nordic KYC infrastructure. Swedbank has since become another bank involved in the project.

The company will be owned and controlled by the founding banks. However, the plan is that the company will also offer its services to third parties. The initiative will contribute to ensuring a healthy financial environment, prevent financial crime and to protect customers and society.

In July 2019, Nordic KYC Utility received regulatory approvals in accordance with EU merger control rules, and has now established itself as a joint venture company named Invidem, with each bank involved holding an equal share. In April 2020, Invidem signed long-term technology deals with Econompass and iMeta Technologies for automated KYC data-gathering and KYC information management ahead of Invidem’s commercial launch in 2021.

In September 2021, Invidem officially launched its service. In April 2022, Invidem entered into an agreement with its first non-owner client, and its seventh client, Swedish fund management company Indecap Founder.

In April 2023, Invidem announced that it was winding down after the regulatory and technological development in recent years changed the prerequisites for the business and made the task more complex than was anticipated.

TUPAS ID was launched in 2003. It is the strong digital authentication method created by the Finance Finland (FFI). TUPAS identification is a de facto standard for digital identification in Finland used by all major Finnish banks. In addition, TUPAS is used also by Finnish government to log into Kansaneläkelaitos and Finnish Tax Administration site vero.fi.  TUPAS in Finland has 4.7 3.8 million users, an 87% penetration.

TUPAS is based on the Finnish law on strong electronic identification and digital signatures. The law requires strong identification methods to include at least two of the three following identification methods.

In the Tupas service, banks identify their customers with strong identification1 by using their own registers. The TUPAS ID service allows e-service providers to identify their consumer customers using strong electronic identification. The service is also used for electronic signatures. Commonly the identification is done using a password and a list of single-use passcodes or a passcode device.

The amended Finnish law on strong electronic authentication, Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority’s (FICORA), is in force as of 1 May 2017. The transitional period was originally set to September 2019, after which the current Tupas ID service would no longer meet legal requirements for strong electronic authentication. However, as of 2020 all Finnish banks continued to provide the service until it was fully replaced by strong customer authentication (SCA) in 2021.

SEPA Transition of Finnish Payment Systems

It should be noted that the Finnish payment system has been based on a high level of co-operation and formerly interbank agreements between the Finnish banks. One special aspect of the Finnish model is that the technical infrastructure for the Finnish ATM network continues to be based on a cooperative understanding in the banking sector which also includes the Finnish retailers in the POS network area.

Finnish banks planned to re-engineer their domestic payments system in the process of changing over to SEPA. The new SEPA-based system will comprise credit transfers, card payments and direct debits. According to the Finnish Federation of Financial Services (FFI), this would mean replacement of 31 national payment procedures by one operating according to uniform rules and common standards.

Finnish banks have already implemented the SEPA payment instruments (SCT, SDD). From November 2011, Finnish companies had to send all credit transfer data to the bank in SEPA format, and the bank account numbers had to be in the international format, IBAN. In early 2014, the next major SEPA change was completed by replacing domestic direct debiting by e-invoicing and autogiro payments.

The domestic Pankkikortti debit cards were phased-out by end-2012 and replaced by Debit Mastercard and VISA Debit cards (see Appendix for background).

Finland has adopted a symmetrical rounding policy to eliminate 1c and 2c coins. When consumers get change in cash at shops, the amount of that change will be rounded to the nearest 5c coin to reduce the need for 1c and 2c coins. Other EU member states applying a symmetrical rounding policy include Belgium, Denmark, Hungary, Ireland, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Finance Finland (FFI)

From May 2017, the Federation of Finnish Financial Services (FFI) is known as Finance Finland. The association’s English abbreviation, FFI, stays the same.

Finance Finland (FFI) represents the interests of banks, insurers, finance houses, securities dealers, fund management companies and financial employers. Its members also include providers of statutory insurance lines, which account for much of Finnish social security.

The Federation is actively involved in European lobbying through the umbrella organisations European Banking Federation (EBF), Insurance Europe, and European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA). FFI is funded by member fees.

Finance Finland (FFI) was founded in early 2007, when the Finnish Bankers’ Association, the Federation of Finnish Insurance Companies, the Finnish Finance Houses Association and the Employers’ Association of Finnish Financial Institutions joined forces. The Finnish Association of Securities Dealers followed and joined the Federation in early 2009. The Finnish Association of Mutual Funds has been a member since 1 September 2009.

PATU – Electronic banking standards have been agreed between the banks in concert with the Federation of Finnish Financial Services. A security standard called PATU has also been established for the secure transfer of data between banks and their clients. However, following the introduction of SEPA, the PATU security standard has been gradually replaced with the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) standard.

TUPAS ID – The Federation of Finnish Financial Services operates the TUPAS identification service. TUPAS enables banks and other financial institutions to identify companies and individuals using electronic banking services. In 2019, there were more than 150 million TUPAS identifications. However, the TUPAS ID specifications ceased to comply with the requirements of the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority’s (FICORA) regulation 72 on electronic ID and trust services as of 1 October 2019, although banks continued to use the service until it was fully replaced with SCA in 2020.

Finvoice is an electronic invoicing standard among 12 banks in Finland, which facilitates intercompany invoicing. In 2019, there were more than 270,100 e-invoice agreements in place, and more than 245 million e-invoices sent.

In February 2019, Finland’s parliament accepted a proposal of a law regarding electronic invoicing. The law was due to come into force on the 1st of April 2019 and would apply the EU set period of transitory period in line with the EU Directive 2014/55. This new law mandates all public procurement entities to have the ability to receive and process European Union standard electronic invoices as of 1 April 2019. The obligation was due to come into force for central procurement and central governmental entities and a year later (1st of April 2020) for other Public procurement entities. With effect from April 2019 onwards, public administrations would accept only those electronic invoices with data content that corresponds with the semantic data model of the EU. The recent Finnish law also states that all private traders will have to be able to guarantee their ability to send electronic invoices in line with the European Standard. This part of the law was due to come into force on the 1st of April 2020.

However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the disruption to business and trade, the Finnish treasury released a statement in March 2020 in which they postponed the deadline to 1 April 2021, after which economic operators and service providers have the obligation to exchange, validate and process e-invoices aligned on the European standard on e-invoicing.

NETS in Finland

In August 2012, NETS agreed to acquire Luottokunta, the Finnish interbank payment processor, which was rebranded NETS Oy in January 2013. NETS Oy continues operation as a separate entity in the NETS Group. In 2014, NETS acquired the Finnish PSP PayTrail.

NETS continued to be the largest card processor in Finland, through NETS Oy, and in the Nordic region and one of the three largest processors in Europe. NETS bought the Finnish card processor Luottokunta in 2012. In 2020, NETS processed more than 40 million payment cards for more than 240 banks, over 300,000 merchants. In addition, NETS managed 500,000 terminals and all Nordic payment modules for online shopping are connected to their card platform. Measured in terms of authorisations and card transactions, the number of transactions in 2020 amounted to around 7.7 billion on the entire NETS platform – the group also manages over 9.1 million digital identities.

NETS said to have a 30%-35% share of the card processing market in the Nordic region. The national debit card systems in Denmark and Norway, Dankort and BankAxept, accounted for more than half of all payment card transactions processed.

In June 2015, NETS Group acquired Nordea Merchant Acquiring – the section of Nordea’s payment business dealing with acquiring of international payment cards in the Nordic and Baltic regions – for a price of €230 million on an enterprise value basis. NETS Group now offers acquirer services, operating under the Teller brand, for around 240,000 merchants across the Nordic and Baltic region.

In February 2016, NETS claimed that more than 200 banks across northern Europe’s Nordic and Baltic regions are now able to deploy token-based secure mobile payments to their customers. NETS use Carta’s Token Processing Appliance (TPA), a secure turnkey tokenisation platform which supports both HCE NFC and SIM SE NFC payments.

In June 2017, NETS announced the roll out of a managed service for banks across the Nordics that aims to protect consumers by preventing potentially fraudulent online transactions. The service is designed to mitigate two high growth instances of online fraud: ‘too good to be true’ clickbait offers and unsolicited direct debits. The system works by continuously analysing data collected from card disputes to proactively identify and block transaction requests between consumers and fraudulent merchants. NETS apply human verification at every stage of the process to mitigate against ‘false positives’, in order to protect the end-user’s smooth service experience.

NETS launched the service in Norway in 2016 with 100 clients to investigate whether card disputes would decrease under these conditions. Over 31,000 potentially fraudulent transactions totalling €1.89 million were declined, and card disputes fell by approximately 20%.

In November 2018, NETS partnered with Finnish FinTech Mash to provide an omni-channel ‘pay later’ option to shoppers across Scandinavia. The service allowed consumers to forego payment at the time of purchase by simply selecting the Mash option from a NETS enabled terminal for instant on-boarding and credit approval. Within 14 days, the consumers received an invoice to pay the balance in full or choose to convert the payment into a monthly instalment plan. The service, which emulated a similar digital credit facility from Stockholm-based Klarna, was initially planned to be made available in Finland and Sweden followed by a roll out in Denmark and Norway.

NETS Background – In January 2010, PBS (DK) completed its proposed merger with Nordito, the Norwegian holding company which owns BBS and Teller (see also Denmark and Norway profile). The merged company, headquartered in Copenhagen, is called NETS – Northern European Transaction Services. Nordea, DNB Bank and Danske Bank were the major shareholders of NETS up to mid-2014.

The core operation of NETS is processing Dankort in Denmark and BankAxept, the debit card scheme, in Norway. NETS gave undertakings to stakeholders in both schemes that the national infrastructures would be maintained and run at least as effectively as in their unmerged state. Nonetheless, substantial revenue and cost synergies were expected for the merged NETS.

In November 2011, Nordea Group expanded its card processing deal with NETS to include Finland. NETS was responsible for processing all payment transactions using payment cards for Nordea’s Nordic customers in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland amounting to more than 100,000 merchants with more than 425 million annual transactions.

In March 2014, the private equity investors Advent International, Bain Capital Private Equity and Danish pension fund ATP signed an agreement to acquire 100% of the share capital of NETS from the existing shareholders, a group of 186 primarily Danish and Norwegian banks, for $3.1 billion.

In September 2016, NETS applied for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in a partial share sale valued at $2.36 billion. In September 2017, NETS agreed a $5.3 billion bid from private equity investor Hellman & Friedman (US). Effective 2 February 2018, NETS was delisted from Nasdaq Copenhagen. As at 7 February 2018, indirectly through Evergood 5, H&F Corporate Investors VIII controlled 65.57% of the total share capital and 93.87% of the total voting rights in NETS (including treasury shares), respectively. Under Danish law, the remaining minority shareholders were requested to transfer their shares in NETS to Evergood 5 (94.1%).

In June 2018, NETS and German-based acquirer and merchant service provider Concardis Payment Group agreed their merger structured as a share exchange which saw Concardis Group’s private equity shareholders, Advent International and Bain Capital, contribute their shares in return for NETS shares. Concardis was valued at €700 million in a transaction with Bain and Advent in January 2018. Concardis Payment Group included Italian Mercury Processing Services International.

Also, in June 2018, NETS expanded into Poland through a €73 million acquisition of online payment providers Dotpay/eCard. In August 2019, Mastercard entered into an agreement to purchase the Real-time Payments Platform (RPP) from NETS for $3.2 billion. This follows Mastercard’s decision to enter the P27 consortium in the Nordics (see above).

In January 2020, NETS acquired Finnish software developer Poplatek and payment terminal service provider Poplapay to boost its payment terminal service capabilities. Poplatek and Poplapay have a combined annual revenue of around €5 million. In August 2020, NETS followed that with the October 2020 acquisition of PeP, one of Poland’s five major card processors.

In November 2020, Italian processor Nexi confirmed its intention deal to buy NETS for €7.8 billion, with the signing of a merger deal taking place in June 2021. The merger of Nexi and NETS creates Europe’s largest payments firm by volume and number of customers.

In January 2021, NETS acquired e-commerce firm Checkout Finland through its Paytrail subsidiary, its latest move in the accelerating payments consolidation wave. Checkout Finland, part of the OP Financial Group, provides online and physical retail stores with payment services. It also operates a mobile payments channel. The company has around 8,000 customers and €12 million in revenue for 2020.

More details about NETS Group and its activities in the Nordic region are provided in the Denmark and Norway profiles of the Yearbooks.

Card Issuers – Overview

Finnish banks issue credit cards, charge cards, debit cards and prepaid cards in combination with bank accounts. Addressing the specific needs of personal banking and business banking, the card portfolio is composed of consumer cards, business cards and corporate cards.

Dedicated card products are offered for the individual client segments: families, millennials, students, affluent clients, small business clients, corporate clients and even basic account clients. The credit cards offered range from classic cards to gold cards and platinum cards.

Most Finnish banks issue debit cards (Debit Mastercard, VISA Debit) and credit cards (Mastercard, VISA). Danske Bank had been the American Express card issuer while SEB Kort is the issuer of Diners and Eurocard cards.

Leading issuers are Nordea, OP Corporate Bank, Danske Bank, S-Pankki, and the savings banks. Other issuers include Aktia, Handelsbanken, SEB Kort, Tapiola Bank and other smaller local banks. In January 2014, SEB Kort acquired Eurocard Oy and its EuroCard card portfolio from NETS Oy. American Express Payments Europe now issues American Express cards on its own. Table 3 illustrates the card brands accepted by the leading issuers in Finland as of mid-2025.

3 - Leading Card Issuers in Finland
Domestic IssuersIssued Card BrandsOwned by
Nordea Bank FinlandMastercard, VISA; VISA Debit; Debit MastercardNordea Group (SF)
OP Corporate BankMastercard, VISA; VISA Debit; Debit MastercardOP Financial Group (S/F)
Danske BankMastercard, VISA; Debit Mastercard, VISA DebitDanske Group (DK)
S-PankkiMastercard, VISA; VISA Debit; Debit MastercardS-Group+SOK Corporation (SF)
Local savings banksVISA; VISA DebitSavings Banks Group (S/F)
POP PankkiVISA; VISA DebitCooperative POP Group (S/F)
Aktia BankMastercard, VISA; VISA DebitAktia and Savings Group, Investors (S/F)
SEB Kort FinlandMastercard, Diners, EuroCardSEB Group (S)
American ExpressAmerican ExpressAmerican Express (US)
Consumer Finance IssuersIssued Card BrandsOwned by
HandelsbankenMastercardSvenska Handelsbanken (S)
Resursbank FinlandMastercardResursconcernen (DK)
Santander Consumer FinanceVISASantander Group (E)
Source: PCM research

Outlook – By mid-2025, Finnish card issuers face the following notable challenges:

Card Processors and PSPs

In Europe, the payment processing industry is composed of card processors, ATM/POS network hub processors, e-/m-payment service processors (PSPs), and specialised processors (e.g. CSM processors, TSM services).

In Finland, card issuer processing services range from technical issuer processing, including card printing, to full cardholder processing services. They include all types of cards and card technologies allowing for card use in multi-channels (i.e. at ATMs, POS terminals, on the internet and in-store mobile payments in the future).

Acquirer processing services in the country range from technical acquirer processing, including POS terminal services, to full merchant processing services. Usually, ATM/POS network processing is part of acquirer processing while payments on the internet are routed by specialised e-/m-payment service processors (PSPs) to the card acquirers and independent payment service providers (e.g. FinTechs like PayPal), respectively.

The leading card processors in Finland are NETS Oy (see above), EquensWorldline (B), and TietoEVRY (S). Another notable processor is Bambora (owner: Worldline (F)).

EquensWorldline (previously Equens), the pan-European payments processor, entered the Finnish market in June 2008 when it announced an agreement to manage SEPA payments and regular cross-border payments for OP-Pohjola Group. In September 2013, Pohjola Bank selected Equens as its new card processing partner. Both parties signed a long-term contract for card services. With the agreement Pohjola Bank also entrusted its debit and VISA Electron card processing to Equens.

TietoEVRY – In October 2017, EVRY has entered into a processing agreement to deliver the entire value chain for card payments to the Finnish Aktia Bank. As part of the agreement, EVRY will deliver virtual debit and credit cards for Aktia’s digital wallet solution, Aktia Wallet. EVRY will deliver everything from physical debit and credit cards to digital card payments and related services, such as card administration, authorisation processing, transaction monitoring and security solutions that detect and prevent fraud. EVRY’s card solutions are in use at over 100 card issuers in Scandinavia and the UK.

Through the agreement EVRY will support Aktia’s focus on virtual payment cards on smartphones. With Aktia’s digital wallet solution, Aktia Wallet, the bank’s customers are able to make digital payments across a range of devices and channels – online, in-app and contactless in shops.

In June 2019, Tieto and EVRY announced their merger, creating one of the most competitive digital services and software companies in the Nordics. With combined revenue of close to €3 billion, the combined company, TietoEVRY, is well positioned to create digital advantages for the Nordic region. The merger was completed in December 2019.

Online Payment Service Processors (PSPs) 

Online payment service processors (PSPs) are specialised technical processors for all kind of secure online payments and mobile payments. Some of them also offer virtual PSP platform services (VPSP) for bank acquirers who want to take advantage of a kind of ‘internet network processor’.

Online shops of merchants are directly connected by an API interface or a hosted payment page either to the internet payment gateway of a bank acquirer, or they are connected to multi-acquirers through a PSP.

PSPs usually partner with more than one card acquirer and payment initiation service providers. Core services offered by PSPs may include payment gateways to card acquirers and other online payment service providers, online payment processing, risk management services, and collection services for merchants.

Security technologies applied to ensure secure online card payments include EMV tokenisation and strong 3D-Secure (MCSC, VbV, SafeKey) combined with one-time tokens. For card-less payment services, the security technologies applied include userID/password combined with one-time tokens and online banking access with one-time TAN.

NETS Oy remains a major provider of payments, financing, and delivery solutions for Finnish online retailers in 2025. Following strategic acquisitions, NETS Group has expanded its footprint in Finland by integrating key local players such as Poplatek, Poplapay, and e-commerce specialist Paytrail, which now serves tens of thousands of Finnish businesses and is the country’s largest online payment company.​

Other leading PSPs active in Finland include:

Since Swedbank acquired PayEx in 2015, the company has continued to operate in Finland as a deposit-protected branch, adapting to competitive market changes and rapid technological development. Its profitability outlook faces challenges, but the PayEx brand remains part of Swedbank’s portfolio in the Nordic region.

Finnish PSPs process e-payments with cards (Mastercard, Debit Mastercard, Maestro, VISA, VISA Debit, AmEx, Diners and JCB), online credit transfers (e.g. Solo, netBank), digital wallets like PayPal, and prepaid products issued by e-money institutions.

Like other countries, not only the domestic PSPs and acquirers, but also cross-border acquirers and foreign PSPs, are actively servicing Finnish online merchants:

Enterpay is a Finnish FinTech start-up founded in 2013 that specialises in developing payment solutions for B2B e-commerce. In August 2017, Collector Bank added a B2B invoice powered by Enterpay to its payment method selection in Finland.

Acquiring and Acceptance 

In Europe, most acquirers offer multi-channel card acceptance and value-added merchant services at POS terminals, mobile MPOS terminals and online shops. The leading acquirers usually act on a European level and offer their services cross-border.

Additionally, innovative acquirers also offer the acceptance of card-less payment services based on partner agreements with the issuer of those payment services (e.g. account-based payments, wallets, prepaid products).

Most acquirers either operate their own acquirer systems and ATM/POS/MPOS network service hubs, or they use the processing services of external processors. In order to service online merchants in Europe, they may operate their own PSP processing platforms or they co-operate with one or more specialised online payment service processors (PSPs).

From 2009, European acquirers compete in their home markets, cross-border on a European level, and cross-channel at POS terminals and servicing online merchants. From 2016, innovative acquirers started to offer omni-channel and multi-payment acceptance.

By mid-2025, omni-channel acceptance includes the ability to service all channels (i.e. POS/MPOS terminals, mobile in-store, online shops, in-app), and to accept multiple payment means in all of these channels. Multi-payment services demanded by merchants include cards, IBAN-based payments (SCT, SDD), online wallets, digital wallets, prepaid products, and immediate payments.

Outlook – By mid-2025, Finnish acquirers face the following notable challenges:

Historically, all banks in Finland have acquired domestic debit cards (Pankkikortti) while Luottokunta was the acquirer for international cards. Since 2012, Luottokunta (now: NETS Oy) is no longer the leading acquirer in Finland keeping just the processing business. The Finnish banks in-sourced the acquirer business of Luottokunta before selling it to NETS Group. From 2011, the major Finnish banks are active again as acquirers in Finland.

In June 2015, Nordea Group sold its Merchant Acquiring to NETS Group (DK) – the section of Nordea’s payment business dealing with acquiring of international payment cards in the Nordic and Baltic regions.

In 2024, the leading acquirers were Teller (the acquiring arm of NETS Group and a JCB acquirer), OP Corporate Bank and Danske Bank. Other acquirers include S-Pankki for the savings banks, and cross-border acquirer Bambora (S). American Express acquires its own transactions in Finland through its subsidiary SMT, a Finnish company purchased by AmEx in 2016.

In October 2021, Worldline acquired Handelsbanken’s card acquiring activities in the Nordic region, as part of its wider European consolidation strategy. Handelsbanken is a large card acquirer in the Nordic region with around 550 million transactions acquired per year, representing a payment volume of c. €20 billion. The company also serves over 20,000 merchants.

SEB Kort is the Diners, Discover, and Eurocard acquirer. In January 2019, Diners Club International, a part of the Discover Global Network signed an agreement with NETS, a leading acquirer, to help expand Discover Global Network acceptance in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. Table 7 illustrates the card brands accepted by the leading domestic acquirers as of mid-2025.

4 - Leading Acquirers in Finland
Domestic AcquirersAcceptance Brands offeredOwned by
TellerMastercard,VISA, JCB; UnionPay
VISA Debit, Electron, V PAY, Debit Mastercard 		NETS Group (DK)
OP Corporate BankMastercard, VISA; JCB; Debit Mastercard,
VISA Debit, Electron, V PAY		OP- Financial Group (S/F)
Danske Bank Mastercard, VISA; Debit Mastercard,
VISA Debit, Electron, V PAY		Danske Bank Group (DK)
Aktia BankMastercard, VISA; Debit Mastercard,
VISA Debit, Electron, V PAY		Aktia and Savings Group, Investors (S/F)
Savings BanksMastercard, VISA; Debit Mastercard,
VISA Debit, Electron, V PAY		Savings Banks Group (S/F)
Cooperative banksMastercard, VISA; Debit Mastercard,
VISA Debit, Electron, V PAY		POP Bank Group (S/F)
WorldlineMastercard, VISA; Debit Mastercard,
VISA Debit, Electron, V PAY		Worldline (F)
American ExpressAmerican ExpressAmerican Express (US)
SEB Kort FinlandDiners, Discover; EuroCardSEB Group (S)
Note: NETS absorbed the acquiring business of NORDEA Group in 2015.
Note: Worldline acquired Handelsbanken acquiring activities in 2021.
Source: PCM research

Bambora – In May 2015, the Bambora Group (S) launched its new brand and platform as a Nordic-based payment service group. Bambora was created by combining the payments companies Euroline, (previously the acquirer unit of Swedish SEB Bank), KeyCorp, Samport, MPS, DK Online and ePay, all acquired by Nordic Capital between May 2014 and April 2015 with the ambition to form a leading player within the payment service sector.

In 2016, Bambora claimed to service 110,000 customers and processes a transactions value of €55 billion per year, of which more than 70% are online and mobile.

In July 2017, Ingenico Group (F) acquired Bambora from Nordic Capital for $1.74 billion, expanding the PSP unit Ingenico ePayments and the acquirer unit Ingenico Payment Services into the Nordic region.

During 2020, Bambora became part of Worldline following its acquisition of Ingenico. Bambora serves around 126,000 merchants in 65 countries and has registered 27% yearly organic growth since 2015.

Payment Institutions

As of 31 December 2024, there were 63 payment institutions resident in Finland (2023: 65, 2022: 58, 2021: 19, 2020: 18, 2019:16, 2018: 18, 2017: 15, 2016: 13, 2015:13, 2014: 9, 2013: 7, 2012: 5, 2011: 5). Authorised in another EEA member state, additionally, more than 488 cross-border payment institutions provided notification of operating in Finland under the EU passport system. Most of the institutions report payment services taking the form of remittance business.

ATM Terminal Infrastructure 

Automatia operates and develops the nationwide Finnish shared ATM and deposit ATM network branded OTTO. All banks in Finland are customers of Automatia, which is owned by Nordea, Danske Bank and OP-Pohjola.

In June 2009, these three big banks gave undertakings on non-discriminatory pricing to Finland’s Competition Authority. Several non-bank ATM operators were poised to enter the market, arresting the decline in ATMs and ATM use (see ATM Market Regulation in the Appendix section).

In 2015, the FIN-FSA revised its guidelines for cash withdrawal service fees, prompting negotiations between S Group and Nokas CMS for establishing a competing ATM network. In 2017, Nokas CMS began the process of introducing competing ATMs onto the Finnish market; in 2018 the Financial Supervisory Authority decided to maintain its earlier guidance that the charge levied on customers for cash withdrawals in euros made in another EU country must be the same as that levied on customers when using Automatia’s Otto ATMs. Moreover, the Financial Supervisory Authority recommended that the service charge levied for cash withdrawals made in Finland using different operators’ ATMs should be no more than the service charge levied when using Otto. The decision enabled Nokas to continue installation of the ATMs.

The Automatia network consisted of over 1,300 ATMs at the end of 2022 (2016: 1,390), while other service providers, Eurocash Finland and Change Group, operated a total of 140 (2016: 70). The market share of other ATM service providers remained low due to higher withdrawal costs.

In February 2020, global cash-handling company Loomis entered into an agreement to acquire Automatia from present owners Danske Bank, Nordea, and OP Financial Group for €42 million.

Alongside basic cash dispensing ATMs in Finland are 217 Giro ATMs, which can be used to make credit transfer payments (though not to withdraw cash). Numbers of Giro ATMs have declined as, generally, have cash dispensing ATMs.

Finnish ATM terminals are open for debit cards (Debit Mastercard, Maestro, Cirrus, VISA Debit, Electron, Plus, and V PAY) and credit cards (Mastercard, VISA, American Express, Diners, JCB and UnionPay). ATMs serve cardholders in English, Swedish or in Finnish. The EMV migration of ATM terminals has been complete since 2008.

In Finland, the use of cash has decreased steadily over the past decade, and the value of cash withdrawals was declining at an average annual rate of 6% before the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, authorities at the time urged consumers to avoid cash payments and use contactless payments instead. In 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic further strengthened the decline in the use of cash and the transition in payment habits.

In 2022, according to Finance Finland Payment Survey analysis, mobile payment surpassed cash in popularity for the first time with about 7% of the respondents reporting mobile payment as their most common payment method and 6% reported cash. Debit cards have maintained their status as the single most popular payment method (73% of respondents).

In March 2022, Bank of Finland proposed a legislative initiative for securing the sufficient level of cash services, taking into account the availability of cash, the acceptability of cash as a payment instrument and the possibility to deposit cash.

In June 2025, Finland advanced its legislative framework on cash services following the Bank of Finland’s 2022 proposal to safeguard access to cash. The new legislation, adopted by the Finnish Government, obliges banks and cash-service providers to ensure that essential cash services, such as withdrawals and deposits, remain reasonably available across the country. The law seeks to secure the continuity of cash as a means of payment, particularly for consumers and regions where digital alternatives are limited, while recognising that overall demand for cash is steadily declining. It forms part of Finland’s broader payments policy aimed at maintaining payment system resilience and consumer choice, ensuring that cash remains a viable, functional option alongside increasingly dominant electronic and mobile payment methods.

According to the ECB, in 2024, there were 1,610 ATMs (-4.00% from 2023) and 50.47 million cash withdrawals (-7.29%) with a total value of €6.81 billion (-5.34% from 2023). There were 2,612.4 withdrawals per ATM per month, and the ATV per cash withdrawal amounted to €134.86.

5 - ATMs and Cash Withdrawals in Finland
202020212022202320242025FGR 23/24CAGR 5Y
ATMs with cash function1,7371,7181,6961,6771,6101,546-4.00%-1.67%
Ø Number of TXs per ATM per month3,090.42,678.12,858.12,705.42,612.42,434.8-3.44%-9.38%
Number of cash withdrawals (m)64.4255.2158.1754.4450.4745.16-7.29%-10.89%
- on domestic cards (m)63.5254.4257.0653.7349.9044.50-7.13%-10.82%
- on foreign cards (m)0.890.801.100.710.570.66-19.78%-15.67%
Value of cash withdrawals (€bn)7.906.697.757.196.816.27-5.34%-8.33%
- on domestic cards (€bn)7.746.567.517.066.706.15-5.10%-8.24%
- on foreign cards (€bn)0.160.130.240.130.110.12-18.21%-13.00%
ATV per cash withdrawal€122.58€121.23€133.17€132.07€134.86€138.792.11%2.87%
# ATM Terminals per 1m capita - Finland314.1310.0305.2300.7286.4275.0-4.74%-2.01%
# ATM Terminals per 1m capita - EU27 685.3678.8642.2642.2642.2605.60.00%-5.70%
Source: ECB, Finance Finland.

Pan-Baltic ATM network – Nordea and Danske Bank announced plans in August 2006 to develop a network of 400 ATMs in the Baltic States – 200 in Lithuania, 100 in Estonia and 100 in Latvia. Operation of the ATM network processing was outsourced to First Data Baltics (2017: owned by Worldline), which owns processing facilities in the region (see Estonia profile).

Cash-advance Services in Finland – Competition for ATMs 

In an Open Banking ecosystem, the dominant role of ATMs for cash withdrawal services may decline as more cash-advance and cash handling services are offered at retail outlets in Europe.

Cash in-Store – In parallel with ATM cash withdrawals on cards, Finnish banks consider supporting cash-advance services on cards at POS terminals in retail outlets (see below).

POS Terminal Infrastructure

The POS network in Finland is operated by NETS Oy. The EMV migration of POS terminals achieved 95.6% at end-2011 and is complete, since end-2012. Begun in 2012, the rollout of contactless POS terminals continued.

Accepted card brands at Finnish POS terminals are debit cards (Debit Mastercard, Maestro, VISA Debit, Electron and V PAY), and credit cards (Mastercard, VISA, American Express, Diners, Discover and JCB). Also, selected merchants accept UnionPay cards.

For 2024, the total number of POS terminals in Finland was 160,239 POS terminals (+0.29% from 2023). In 2024, the Bank of Finland reported 1.94 billion POS payments (+2.52%) with a total value of €53.86 billion (-0.08% vs 2023). There were 1,010.6 payments per POS terminal per month, and the ATV per POS payment accounted for €27.75. Figures from 2014 have been restated in order to include the missing card payments at POS terminals located in Finland that are processed by foreign acquirers, e.g. Teller.

6 - POS Terminals in Finland
202020212022202320242025FGR 23/24CAGR 5Y
POS terminals135,984138,721144,892159,781160,239160,6980.29%-0.01%
Ø Number of TXs per POS per month 993.7 1,006.4 1,027.1 988.6 1,010.6 1,033.02.23%1.82%
Number of POS payments (m)1621.471675.311785.741895.431943.161,992.112.52%1.81%
- on domestic cards (m)1,583.501,636.401,729.341,837.891,884.881,933.072.56%1.78%
- on foreign cards (m)37.9738.9156.4057.5458.2859.031.29%2.70%
Value of POS payments (€bn)45.9649.0250.4653.9053.8655.21-0.08%2.49%
- on domestic cards (€bn)44.9047.9048.6152.2252.3053.680.14%2.64%
- on foreign cards (€bn)1.061.121.851.671.561.53-6.86%-2.12%
ATV per POS payment (domestic)€28.35€29.27€28.11€28.42€27.75€27.77-2.36%0.85%
# POS Terminals per 1m capita - Finland24,587.125,033.126,074.328,647.928,507.728,589.4-0.49%-0.37%
# POS Terminals per 1m capita - EU2731,503.734,817.044,815.544,815.544,815.548,528.80.00%8.29%
Source: ECB, Finance Finland.

MPOS Terminals – Mobile merchants (i.e. no fixed outlet) have started to use their smartphone and tablet PCs as a kind of mini-POS+ECR device with added chip reader dongle. In late 2012, Square clones such as iZettle, Sumup, Miura and others have launched their MPOS services in Europe. Swedish iZettle is expected to support the Nordic banks. From June 2013, NETS Group offers MPOS terminals for small merchants in the Nordic region.

Also, Finnish merchants can initiate MOTO-like card payments on their smartphones and tablets by downloading a payment app.

In May 2014, Nordea selected iZettle to be its provider of mobile point of sale (MPOS) solution in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. In July 2015, Spire Payments launched its contactless MPOS terminals services in Finland. In October 2017, SumUp launched its MPOS terminal service in the county. Small business owners can take card payments with their smartphone and the SumUp Air card reader without any monthly fees or contractual obligations. In September 2018, PayPal completed the acquisition of iZettle for approximately $2.2 billion.

Holvi – In March 2016, Spanish bank BBVA acquired Finnish digital current account start-up, Holvi. Founded in Helsinki in 2011, Holvi offers a current account combined with Mastercard business cards for small business owners. Holvi enables users to set up their own online store and provides aspirant entrepreneurs with a simple invoicing and money management tool. Holvi is a licensed payment institution, which in the past has used Nordea Finland as its main banking partner.

Zervant – In June 2016, Finnish e-invoicing start-up Zervant, the e-invoice solution provider founded in 2010, struck a white-label deal with ING Bank Belgium. Zervant claimed over 100,000 users in its core markets of Sweden, Finland, Germany, France, and the UK.

The deal enables ING Belgium to acquire the rights to rebrand Zervant’s invoicing software, which is used by SME businesses throughout Europe, for the use as ING invoice solutions. During the first phase, ING Belgium will have the rights to sell the tool in Belgium, with a potential opening to other entities in the ING Bank group.

In 2022, Zervant claimed to serve 20,000 business customers across seven European countries – France, Germany, the UK, Belgium, Austria, Finland, and Sweden. In January 2022, Ageras Group (founded by the same founders of Zervant) acquired Zervant. As of 2024, Zervant claimed to serve more than 300,000 small businesses across Europe and the USA.

SmartPOS Terminals – In 2018, POS terminal vendors launched innovative new types of POS terminals. Named SmartPOS terminals, they combine the electronic cash register functionality (ECR) used by merchants in outlets with a contactless POS payment terminal and merchant services in the cloud. For the very first time, the so far separated ECR devices and POS terminals are integrated in just one checkout solution device. From late 2018, SmartPOS terminal vendors like Castles, Clover, Ingenico, Jusp. Handpoint, PAX, Poynt, Spire Payments, Verifone, Worldline, and others have launched their SmartPOS devices and services in Europe. It is believed that the Finnish SME merchants will embrace SmartPOS terminals.

Remote Payments on the Internet – Cards & More

In 2021, Finland was the most mature digital economy in the EU with an avid online shopping population, with 28% of Finnish consumers increasing their use of online shopping during the year. In 2024, the total value of Finnish e-commerce was €5.40 billion, an increase of 5.88% compared to 2023. This reflects a recovery from the declines recorded as a backlash from the record growth during the pandemic.

Remote card payments continued to gain ground in 2023, according to the Bank of Finland. In 2023, the number of card payments initiated on a computer or mobile device increased by 22.7%, and their total volume grew 26.7% year on year. Of these payment transactions, 90% were made on e-commerce platforms. A total of 371 million card payments were initiated on a computer or mobile device, with an aggregate value of €14.5 billion.

Internet Use – In 2024, 98% of Finns used the internet and 81% of internet users purchased in online shops in the last 12 months. According to the Finnish Commerce Federation, in e-commerce, the most popular payment methods are bank transfers, Visa and Mastercard. Tokenisation-based payment methods are less used in Finland compared to other Nordic countries. In 2021, 64% of shipments were from national traders and 36% from EU and non-EU traders (19.4% EU, 9.4% China, 7.2% rest of the world). Compared to that, in 2019, the respective numbers were 58% and 42%. This means that a major share of the overall growth of e-commerce has come from national sales. In 2021 the growth rate of domestic e-commerce was 16.8% and international e-commerce only 2.8%. By 2022, the growth of domestic e-commerce, which had continued for more than 10 years, stopped while purchases from other EU countries, especially from Germany and the Nordic countries, increased. Overall, Finns’ online purchases decreased by about 6% from 2021 due to the easing of restrictions that accompanied the pandemic. The value of digital purchases made by consumers in Finland decreased for the first time since 2010, by around 6% from 2021 as a result of increased cautiousness about rising costs and the demand for in-store purchasing post-pandemic.

Reflecting the trend in domestic e-commerce, B2C e-commerce revenue increased in 2024 by 5.88% to €5.40 billion. The average B2C e-commerce expenditure per capita accounted for €960.7 while it was €1,191.8 per online buyer.

Online shopping in Finland grew by 4% in 2024, reversing a two-year decline, according to a study by the Finnish Commerce Federation. Purchases from domestic retailers increased by just 2%, while spending on foreign e-commerce rose by 9%. International retailers now account for over 37% of Finnish online purchases, and it has been growing for three years. Finns spent nearly €5.4 billion on online shopping in 2024, with health and beauty products seeing the largest increase.

Posti – the main Finnish postal service delivering mail and parcels – estimates that parcel volumes in Finland will double by 2030 due to e-commerce growth. Finnish e-commerce has growth potential: a Finn orders on average 15 parcels per year, with the number being roughly double in Germany and triple in the United States.

7 - Internet Use in Finland
#202020212022202320242025FGR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Households with internet access54%96%97%98%97%97%97%0.59%3.56%0.70%
Last internet use (individuals, 12 months)74%97%97%98%98%98%99%0.00%3.16%0.62%
Internet users who bought online51%78%81%81%81%81%80%0.00%4.91%0.96%
Last online purchase (individuals, 12 month)38%76%79%79%79%79%79%0.00%8.22%1.59%
Last online purchase (individuals, 3 month)25%60%62%62%62%62%64%0.00%12.73%2.42%
Mobile subscribers per 100 inhabitants100.2%128.8%129.2%128.7%127.0%126.0%125.3%-0.79%-2.70%-0.55%
B2C e-commerce revenue (€bn)1.365.235.705.405.105.405.605.88%29.81%5.36%
Annual B2C eCommerce growth rate/year25.7%9.0%-5.3%-5.6%5.9%3.7%−−−
Ø B2C e-Commerce amount per capita €259.2€945.6€1,028.6€971.8€914.4€960.7€996.285.06%27.51%4.98%
Ø B2C e-Commerce amount per online buyer€504.8€1,206.9€1,263.0€1,205.5€1,134.3€1,191.8€1,248.505.06%21.55%3.98%
Sources: Eurostat, eCommerce Europe, ITU.

Cards on the Internet (CNP) – All cards with international brands are accepted in Finnish online shops as long as the merchant has signed an acceptance contract accordingly. Also, the Finnish banks issue prepaid cards and virtual cards for internet use only. 3D-Secure technology is applied for most payments with cards online. Further, web-based mail order services for merchant-initiated payments and Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) are offered.

The e-Payment Mix in Finland – According to Nexi, as of 2023, when it comes to online shopping, Finnish consumers favour online banking payments. Online banking is the dominant payment method in Finland. 57% of Finns prefer this method, followed by mobile payment methods (30%), with cards (30%) invoices (2%), and Other methods (3%). The small share of card payments can be explained partly by the habit of paying by bank. PayPal was recently used by 20% of Finnish consumers who were surveyed.

Remote Payments on the Mobile Internet – Since 2009, online buyers with a high affinity for smartphones have started the use of their mobile phones for shopping on the mobile internet. Mobile online shops can be accessed by mobile internet, by mobile app, or by scanning a 2D QR-code displayed in a newspaper or at a bus station. Thus, remote mobile phone payments are executed either by using the e-payment page of the mobile online shop or by using payment apps of a PSP or an acquirer.

Also, merchants can download a payment app from their acquirer in order to initiate MOTO payments with cards and/or online direct debits. Leading Finnish merchants are testing their own mobile apps including loyalty functions (e.g. e-vouchers, discounts, outlet finder, QR-code scanning) and an IBAN-based direct debit payment function.

Finland’s €4.6 billion mobile commerce market is expanding faster than overall e-commerce and is set to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 12.9% to 2023, to a become a €7.2 billion market. Mobile commerce is preferred by younger Finns. Smartphones are the primary device for online shopping among millennials and Generation Z, while desktops are preferred by the older generation.

Mobile commerce takes 45% of completed e-commerce transactions in Finland. Browsers are preferred to apps at present, accounting for 56% of sales. Mobile commerce’s share of overall e-commerce rose from 27% in 2016 to 45% by 2019. Finland’s Commerce Association encourages domestic merchants to provide shopping apps, warning failure to offer apps might make it hard to compete with international merchants.

EPI – In July 2020, a group of 16 major Eurozone banks announced the start of the implementation phase of a new unified payment scheme, the European Payment Initiative (EPI).

In 2021, the 31 founding bank groups from seven European countries and two third-party acquirers had included:

In March 2022, EPI gave up on its effort to build a rival to Mastercard and VISA in Europe after more than half its members left. However, 13 shareholders confirmed on February 25th that they remain convinced of the strategic value of a unified payment solution, leveraging instant payments and want to go ahead. Therefore, the EPI interim company is now adapting its scope and objectives to this new dimension excluding cards.

The remaining shareholders of EPI include Banco Santander, Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband, Groupe BPCE, ING Bank, KBC Bank, La Banque Postale, NETS (NEXI), Société Générale and Worldline.

In April 2023, the European Payments Initiative acquired the Dutch payment scheme iDeal and, the mobile payments app, Payconiq, both supported by a host of Belgian and Dutch banks.

In July 2024, EPI launched its mobile-first wallet and instant account-to-account payment solution, Wero, for customers of German Sparkassen and Volksbanken, Raiffeisenbanken.

Since its launch in July 2024, Wero has expanded its availability across Europe. By June 2025, the service had been introduced in Germany, France, and Belgium, with plans to extend to Luxembourg in June 2026 and the Netherlands in 2027. The wallet has gained significant traction, reaching approximately 70 million users by mid-2025, with 43 million active users across the three initial countries.

The ambition of EPI is to create a unified pan-European payment solution leveraging Instant Payments, SCTINST, offering a card for consumers and merchants across Europe, a digital wallet, and P2P payments.

The solution aims to become a new standard payment service for European consumers and merchants in all types of transactions including in-store, online, cash withdrawal and “peer-to-peer” in addition to existing international payment scheme solutions.

EPI’s objective is to offer a digital payment solution that can be used anywhere in Europe and to supersede the fragmented landscape of domestic payment services that currently still exists. In doing so, EPI founders are responding to merchant and consumer communities that have been calling for payment initiatives to take a more pan-European approach.

EPI will first and foremost benefit European citizens, and it will also bring tangible benefits to European merchants, by offering them a seamless, competitive, and unified pan-European payment service solution that is also available to all European consumers.

The beginning of the implementation phase is expected to materialise through the creation of an interim company in Brussels, Belgium, which will set out clear deliverables including the completion of the technical and operational roadmap and initiating the implementation work. The accomplishments of this interim company will be evaluated by each bank before moving on to the EPI’s final corporate structure.

Wero – In September 2023, EPI selected ‘Wero’ as the commercial name for its forthcoming digital wallet solution. The Wero digital wallet will be rolled out in phases, initially to support account-to-account based instant P2P and consumer-to-business payments, followed by online and mobile shopping payments and then point-of-sale payments. EPI aims to launch Wero by mid-2024 in Belgium, France, and Germany, followed by the Netherlands and aims to extend to other countries in the years to come.

In December 2023, EPI completed its first instant A2A payment transaction in a proof-of-concept between customers from German Sparkasse Elbe-Elster and French Banque Populaire and Caisse d’Epargne (Groupe BPCE). The inaugural transaction, worth 10 euros, was sent from a German account to a French account using SCTINST and the EPI’s digital wallet.

As of September 2025, Wero has rapidly expanded its user base, reaching 43.5 million registered users across Germany, France, and Belgium. In Germany alone, approximately 1.3 million users are utilizing the service through Sparkassen banks. The platform has processed over €7.5 billion in transactions, underscoring its growing adoption.

Mobile Payments Overview

In 2024, 126% of Finns have subscribed to a mobile phone. Many Finns own more than one mobile phone, and over 85% own a smartphone (up from 45% in 2012 and 79% in 2017).

Since 2008, the next generation of mobile services and payments has started, pushed by the online buyers’ high affinity to smartphones and tablets and, also, by new disruptive technologies (1D-barcodes, QR-code, Bluetooth BLE and Near Field Communication NFC).

Mobile initiatives in Finland are field testing and using new technologies either as initiating form factors to bridge to online shops on the internet (1D-barcodes, QR-code, NFC) or to enable contactless access to the retail POS outlet (1D-barcodes, QR-code, BLE, Bluetooth Low Energy, NFC Stickers, Mobile NFC Phones) e.g.:

According to the Bank of Finland, during 2022, more card payments were initiated using a mobile device. In 2022, about 58% of online bank users reported that they usually pay their invoices on a mobile phone compared to 37% in 2021. The aggregate value of card payments initiated by a mobile application almost tripled from 2020 to stand at €2.7 billion in 2021. According to a 2021 consumer survey, 48% of Finns already use mobile payments in some situations. Nearly one-third of mobile payment users stated that they had increased their use of payment applications during the past year.

The m-Payment Mix in Finland – There are no official m-payment statistics, but PSP information indicates that the domestic m-payment mix is similar to the e-payment mix (see Remote Payments on the Internet section).

Mobile Payment Initiatives

In 2025, the various European mobile payment initiatives can be grouped into

SMS Payments – M-parking is one example of SMS payment services in operation in Finland. By 2021, it was estimated that 24% of Finns pay for their parking using smartphones, according to NETS.

Vipps, MobilePay and Pivo – In June 2021, the Norwegian mobile payment service Vipps, owned by a consortium of Norwegian banks, and Finland’s Pivo, owned by OP Financial Group, announced they would merge with Danske Bank’s MobilePay service. The ambition was to create Europe’s best and most comprehensive digital wallet.

The Norwegian banks behind Vipps were set to own 65% of the new parent company, with Danske Bank owning 25% and OP Financial Group owning 10%. The merged business was set to build the common technology platform starting from Vipps’ platform, to run fully in the public cloud.

In September 2022, following a dialogue with the EC’s Directorate-General for Competition, the owner banks behind the planned merger of the three mobile payment providers reached the decision that OP Financial Group in Finland would not be a co-owner and that Pivo will not be part of the merger. The EC expressed concerns about both MobilePay and Pivo being part of the merger since this would result in the merger of two sizeable players in Finland. The EC’s view was that the merger would thus adversely affect competition in the mobile payment space in Finland. The planned merger, as amended, was filed to the EC, and approved in October 2022. MobilePay in Denmark and Finland will still merge with Vipps.

The new joint company based on Vipps and MobilePay will have almost 11 million users and more than 400,000 physical shops and webshops as customers who combined carry out about 900 million transactions each year. The name of the new company is Vipps MobilePay AS. By the end of 2023, Vipps MobilePay had 12 million users, and 1.24 billion transactions in Norway, Denmark, and Finland.

In connection with OP Financial Group withdrawing from the agreement, the ownership ratio between Danske Bank and the Norwegian banks will remain the same. This means that instead of an ownership share of 25%, Danske Bank will have an ownership share of 27.8%, while the consortium of banks behind Vipps will have an ownership share of 72.2% instead of 65%.

Central Bank Digital Currencies, Cryptocurrency Products 

In 2024, the Finnish payment ecosystem was composed of traditional cash payments, digital cryptocurrency products of independent payment service providers and research and development of central bank digital currencies, CBDC. The regulation of cryptocurrencies is becoming increasingly relevant as independent cryptocurrency products have grown more prevalent, posing challenges for regulators and national central banks.

In July 2023, the European Union introduced the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, which aims to standardize cryptocurrency regulation across member states, including Luxembourg. This regulation addresses various aspects of crypto assets, such as market integrity, consumer protection, and financial stability, while also promoting innovation in the sector. Under MiCA, crypto-asset service providers will have specific obligations to protect users’ wallets and mitigate investment risks.

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) – The Digital Cash Challenge 

Central bank digital currency (CBDC), also called digital fiat currency or digital base money, is a digital currency issued by a national central bank (NCB), rather than by a commercial bank. It is also a liability of the NCB and denominated in the sovereign currency, as is the case with physical banknotes and coins.

All CBDCs are under the authority of the respective national central bank, and they are part of the domestic cash payment ecosystem. Rather than a new currency, CBDC is a form of central bank electronic money that could be used by households and businesses to make payments. In addition, most CBDC implementations will likely not use or need any sort of distributed ledger such as a blockchain.

Unlike “retail CBDC,” which is generally designed as a central bank liability universally accessible to individuals and businesses within a jurisdiction’s financial system, “wholesale CBDC” refers to a digitized central bank liability designed for sizable (generally interbank) transactions, and for which access is limited to certain financial institutions.

National Central Banks (NCBs) have been providing trusted money to the public for hundreds of years as part of their public policy objectives. Trusted money is a public good. It offers a common unit of account, store of value and medium of exchange for the sale of goods and services and settlement of financial transactions. Providing cash for public use is an important tool for central banks. Yet the world is changing.

Even before COVID-19, cash use for payments was declining fast and convenient digital payments have grown enormously in volume and diversity. To evolve and pursue their public policy objectives in a digital world, central banks are actively researching the pros and cons of offering a digital currency to the public, a “general purpose” CBDC.

Central banks’ interest in CBDC has increased as a potential means of delivering their public policy objectives. Profound, ongoing changes across finance, technology and society, as well as the recent COVID-19 crisis, provided additional impetus for the research of, and experimentation related to, CBDCs.

CBDC is a national digital currency issued by the central bank that is expected to replace or coexist with fiat money and hold the same value. Mobile money, on the other hand, utilises existing commercial banking-based accounting to manage customer wallet balances based on an exchange with cash or lines of credit and loans.

CBDC is a direct liability on the central bank as it is the main issuer of the currency, whereas digital money is the liability of commercial banks and other authorised financial institutions using funds on account. Although some implementation approaches propose that CBDC can be implemented in either an indirect or hybrid form, its liability remains on the respective national central bank.

Background on CBDC Evolution

In October 2020, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the Federal Reserve, Sveriges Riksbank, the Swiss National Bank and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) published a report, Central bank digital currencies: foundational principles and core features, identifying the foundational principles necessary for any publicly available CBDC to help central banks meet their public policy objectives.

The report focused on a publicly available “general purpose” CBDC (a digital payment instrument, denominated in the national unit of account, that is a direct liability of the central bank).

A “wholesale” CBDC, restricted to financial institutions, is also an active area of exploration, notes the report, for central banks but one that carries different opportunities, challenges, and risks. The report explored the use cases for, and challenges and opportunities arising from, the possible issuance of a general purpose CBDC.

In September 2021, the same seven central banks and the BIS followed up with the publication of a new set of reports exploring the potential of retail CBDCs, including policy options and practical implementation issues. While none of the central banks has yet decided to proceed with a retail CBDC, they recognise such an instrument would have wide-ranging implications. Delivering on the future needs of consumers would require systems that encourage innovation, choice and competition among a diverse mix of intermediaries.

BIS reported that a 2021 survey of central banks found that “86% are actively researching the potential for CBDCs, 60% were experimenting with the technology and 14% were deploying pilot projects.

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) is piloting a ‘digital yuan’, known as e-CNY, in various cities, often in association with major sporting events, such as the Winter Olympics.

The ECB published a paper on the potential of a “digital euro” in October 2020, exploring the “benefits and risks” of such an initiative. It completed a public consultation in January 2021 and a series of focus groups in December 2021. Its investigation stage is expected to continue until October 2023, after which the ECB “will decide whether to start developing a digital euro.”

The US Federal Reserve reported in February 2022 that while it has made no decisions about “whether to pursue or implement” a CBDC, it was “exploring the potential benefits and risks of CBDCs from a variety of angles and was inviting public feedback on discussion papers.

The Bank of Japan said in October 2020 that it had no plans for a CBDC and was committed to maintain the cash system as long as there was public demand for it. It nevertheless intended to explore technical feasibility through a proof of concept, consider institutional arrangements and coordinate approaches with domestic and international stakeholders. In 2023, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) has announced that it will begin a pilot for its digital yen with commercial financial institutions. In February 2023, Bank of Japan has embarked on a CBDC trial.

In June 2023, the BIS and BoE said they completed a CBDC pilot project involving CBDCs jointly run by the Bank of England (BoE) and the Bank of International Settlements (BIS). Project Rosalind was designed to explore how a “universal and extensible API layer” could connect central bank and private sector infrastructures and enable retail CBDC payments. The project also sought to develop a number of retail-CBDC use cases.

According to the BIS and BoE, the project has successfully demonstrated that “a well-designed API layer could work with different private sector applications and central bank ledger designs and that a set of simple and standardised API functionalities could support a diverse range of use cases”.

In all, the project led to the development of 33 API functionalities and examined 30 retail CBDC cases including peer-to-peer transfers, retail payments for goods and services and small-value business transactions.

While CBDCs are still in experimental phases across major economies, 2024 has seen increased momentum towards real-world implementation, with several countries, notably China and the ECB, moving closer to full-scale rollouts. Public-private collaboration, technological innovation, and privacy concerns remain central to future CBDC development. Central banks worldwide continue to balance innovation with maintaining public trust and financial stability in this rapidly evolving space.

Global Status of CBDCs 

Most National Central Banks (NCBs) are involved in different stages of a CBDC project. Especially, the NCBs have different views on which kind of CBDC they would intend to launch as a digital currency:

As of 2023, the global CBDC status reveals that four central banks – Nigeria (e-Naira), Eastern Caribbean (D-Cash), Jamaica (JAM-DEX), and the Bahamas (Sand Dollar) – have introduced a domestic CBDC scheme.

Six countries have launched a CBDC pilot: France, Canada, China, India, Saudi Arabia, and Ghana.

The NCBs of most other countries are involved in either a CBDC proof-of-concept phase – including Norway, Hungary, and Sweden – or they are still in a CBDC research stage.

So far, Ecuador is the only country that has cancelled its CBDC ambitions, Dinero electronico.

CBDC, the European Union and the Digital Euro

In July 2021, the Estonian Central Bank released a report about its experiment with the ECB and the central banks of Spain, Germany, Italy, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, and the Netherlands to assess the functionality of the digital euro. The project was able to conduct 300,000 transactions per second, with an average rate of less than two seconds per transaction.

In June 2023, the European Commission (EC) has published its legislative proposal establishing the legal framework for a possible digital euro, stressing that the CBDC would be a compliment to, not replacement for, cash.

A digital euro would be available alongside existing national and international private means of payment, such as cards or applications. It would work like a digital wallet, with people and businesses able to pay with it anytime and anywhere in the euro area.

The digital euro would be available for payments both online and offline. While online transactions would offer the same level of data privacy as existing digital means of payments, offline payments would essentially be like paying with cash – with nobody able to see what people are paying for.

The digital euro would be distributed by banks and other payment service providers, with basic services provided to people free of charge. Merchants would be required to accept the digital currency unless they are cash-only firms.

The EC’s proposal still needs to be adopted by the European Parliament and the European Council before the European Central Bank decides whether to roll out a digital euro. Notably, the European Central Bank (ECB) is involved in the preparation phase, which will run until 2025. During this time, technical experimentation and legal discussions are ongoing before any formal rollout decisions can be made​.

As of 2025, the digital euro remains in development but has advanced beyond its early investigation stage. The European Central Bank (ECB) concluded its two-year investigation phase in October 2023 and entered a two-year preparation phase that runs until October 2025. During this stage, the ECB is refining the design, engaging market participants, testing prototypes, and drafting a comprehensive rulebook.

In 2024, the ECB published two progress reports (in June and December) and a third on in July 2025, detailing technical work, design choices (e.g. offline use, calibration, holding limits) and collaboration with stakeholders. The most recent report included further refinement of the rulebook, more user research, and expanded experimentation. The ECB launched an innovation platform that invited private and public sector actors (banking, fintech, merchants) to test ideas, use cases, conditional payments, and prototype features. Around 70 market participants are reported to have been engaged.

On the legal side, the European Commission’s draft regulation for a digital euro is still under negotiation by the European Parliament and Council. Adoption of this regulation is essential before the ECB can issue the digital euro. ECB leaders, including Christine Lagarde, have called on lawmakers to accelerate this legislative process. By October 2025, the ECB has indicated a second phase of the preparation for the Digital Euro. By then, the ECB will have prepared an outreach plan, procurement standards, and technology providers.

CBDC and Finland

As the use of cash has decreased, the Euro system has considered whether the central bank should also start issuing a digital means of payment. The Euro system launched in 2020 work on a euro area CBDC. A digital euro would complement euro banknotes and coins. The Bank of Finland is participating in the Euro system work on a CBDC that started in early 2020.

According to the Bank of Finland, a digital euro would not be a new currency but a digital form of the euro. If the central bank were to provide a retail payment system alongside current systems, it would increase the resilience of the financial system. If one system were to fail, there would be a back-up system to provide operational continuity. One of the benefits of a digital euro is that central bank money could be used for making not only interbank payments but also other electronic payments. Thus far the Euro system has provided central bank money in two forms: in cash to the public and as a deposit facility to banks.

In August 2022, the Bank of Finland stated that a digital euro could facilitate pan-European services to consumers.

Pros and Cons of CBDCs

According to research by the Bank of England, BIS, and by several other central banks, the benefits of CBDCs include supporting increased innovation in the payment system with:

Possible challenges related to use of CBDCs could include:

The ECB commissioned multiple exploratory reports on the feasibility of a digital euro in 2020 and 2021. The ECB’s working paper suggests a two-tier system for a “general purpose” CBDC. In July 2021, the ECB announced that it would launch a 24-month investigation phase for the digital euro project, which aims to address key issues regarding the design and distribution of a digital euro. The investigation phase will include focus groups, prototyping and conceptual work. In February 2022, the European Commission announced that it will propose a bill that would serve as the legal foundation for the issuance of a digital euro by the ECB. In May 2022, Christine Lagarde stated that she would be willing to back the digital Euro. By June 2023, the ECB and European Commission had significantly advanced their legislative and technical work, moving closer to launching a pilot phase for the digital euro in 2024. The pilot phase is expected to assess the practical implementation of the digital euro, following the completion of the current investigation period​.

The working paper states that the use of CBDC for retail payments is the primary use-case for the development of a digital Euro. The paper also rejects the motivation of using CBDC as a store of value, which would involve consumers switching deposits from commercial banks into CBDC. The working paper also recommends that a CBDC should be interest-bearing, with attractive interest rates offered for smaller sums suitable for payments and lower rates available for larger amounts.

Cryptocurrencies EU

The regulation of crypto assets and related services across Europe is not standardised and is highly fragmented. While no nation has outright banned usage of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and others, regulators have not formed a consensus over how to legislate such a quickly fluctuating market, where new cryptocurrencies emerge faster than regulators can catch up to.

The current approach across Europe is to adapt existing legislations to encompass cryptocurrencies, however, this is unlikely to be efficient as consumer and business usage changes.

In the European Union, the fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD5) covers certain crypto assets under the term “virtual currencies”, but it does not provide a harmonised approach. As a result, each Member State has created its own regulatory regime for transactions related to “virtual currencies” or crypto assets.

In response, the European Commission proposed the Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCA) regulation in 2020 as part of the Digital Finance Strategy, with MiCA expected to come into force in 2022 and will be directly applicable in all Member States after an 18-month transition period. MiCA will result in a harmonised set of rules for products and services and legal certainty related to crypto assets throughout the European Union in 2024. This would enable a larger number of investors to be active in this area and to use distributed ledger technology (DLT).

MiCA is to apply to all persons who want to issue crypto assets or provide services related to crypto assets in the EU.

The MiCA proposal is intended to lay down uniform rules on transparency and disclosure requirements for the issuance, offer to the public and the admission to trading of crypto assets. In addition, there are rules on the authorisation and supervision of crypto asset service providers and their issuers.

The main focus lies with the issuers of asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens. The Regulation intends to regulate the operation, organisation and governance of issuers of asset referenced tokens and e-money tokens and crypto asset service providers. There will also be investor protection rules for the issuance, trading, exchange and custody of crypto assets. In addition, measures to prevent market abuse are to be included in the Regulation to ensure the integrity of the crypto assets markets.

In June 2022, the EU Council President and European Parliament reached agreement on MiCA regulation, ruling that crypto asset service providers will require authorisation to operate in the EU, not including NFTs or media-related digital assets.

Under the agreement, the regulatory framework will protect investors and consumers, while ensuring financial stability and enabling innovation and growth. The regulations will help protect consumers from fraud and scams, as crypto asset service providers will be liable if they lose assets and fail to protect investors’ wallets. The European Banking Authority (EBA) will form a public register of non-compliant crypto asset providers.

The regulation will also implement restrictions on stablecoins, with stablecoin issuers to be supervised by the EBA and their “holders will be offered a claim at any time and free of charge.”

Unregulated Cryptocurrency Products – Background 

Regulators and national central banks are challenged by unregulated independent cryptocurrency products. Whereas CBDCs are under the authority of the central bank, almost all cryptocurrencies are decentralised, and not controlled or managed by any central authority.

Obviously, financial market authorities and the national central banks are not in favour of unregulated cryptocurrency products, and they see them as a systematic risk for the financial system. Their intention to regulate the respective cryptocurrency exchange platforms has gained momentum.

Cryptocurrencies, originally designed as a store of value, are digital assets, developed and maintained on decentralised blockchains, and they can be used as a medium of exchange or payment method. Bitcoin and Ethereum are the most popular forms of cryptocurrencies worldwide used by consumers and businesses for transactions.

As of 2022, over 400 million people worldwide used cryptocurrencies, with merchants and businesses in more sectors accepting it as a form of payment. The major payment schemes VISA and Mastercard, PayPal and along with a growing number of financial institutions, have launched services allowing consumers to purchase or use cryptocurrencies for a range of applications.

According to a 2022 Deloitte survey, around two-thirds (64%) of surveyed merchants indicated that their customers have significant interest in using digital currencies for payments, and 83% expect consumer interest in digital currencies for payments to increase or significantly increase over the next 12 months.

In addition, merchants are motivated by the prospect of enabling immediate access to funds (40% of respondents), taking advantage of blockchain-based innovations in decentralised digital finance (39%), and allowing in-house management of the revenue cycle/treasury/finance department (39%).

Over half (54%) of large retailers (with revenues of $500 million and up) have invested more than $1 million on enabling digital currency payments, while only 6% of small retailers (with revenues of under $10 million) did so.

A 2022 survey from Checkout.com found a sharp rise in people wanting to use cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, with 40% of 18-35-year-old consumers citing their desire to experiment with using crypto as a payment method, up from less than 30% in 2021. Meanwhile, over 80% of businesses say offering crypto has attracted new customers, led to a decrease in chargebacks, while just over 60% have seen higher authorisation rates accepting crypto payments.

A recent report by Triple-A for 2024–2025 reports estimate cryptocurrency ownership in Europe has climbed to approximately 50 million people, up from around 30 million in 2023. Crypto adoption in Europe grew to 8.9% of the adult population in 2025, driven by greater institutional access, major regulatory changes (like MiCA), and clearer frameworks for exchanges and wallet providers. This keeps Europe’s ownership rate ahead of previous years, though still trailing regions like Asia and the Americas in terms of total share and growth rate.

Stablecoins

Stablecoins are a type of asset-backed cryptocurrency, whose value is typically pegged to the value of an underlying asset such as USD, GBP, or commodities like gold. Stablecoins are partially backed by real assets, and they are designed to have a value pegged to real-world assets, therefore avoiding the extreme volatility that affects cryptocurrencies.

Stablecoins offer the potential benefits of cryptocurrencies, like transparency, security, immutability, and decentralised control, while maintaining the guarantees and stability that come with using fiat currency. Stablecoins have potential to be used in cross-border payments, providing a secure, online environment for peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions to take place without needing decentralised cryptocurrencies or to pay fees to convert money into local currencies.

As of mid-2025, there were more than 200 stablecoins globally, comprising a market that’s worth approximately $230 billion.

A survey of central banks in January 2021 found that two-thirds of respondents are actively researching the potential impact of stablecoins on financial stability. However, some regulators in the US and China, consider stablecoins as a potential serious risk to financial systems. The risk is especially high with centralised coins, such as those backed by fiat and issued by private organisations, as economic power would be disproportionately concentrated on a single entity.

The widespread use of stablecoins in payment platforms could also pose a systemic risk, in relation to the validation and confirmation of stablecoin transactions which could interfere with payment systems. If stablecoin users couldn’t access money in their e-wallets and businesses couldn’t receive payments, economic activity would be greatly disrupted. However, these risks have not deterred major institutions like JP Morgan and VISA to explore stablecoin use cases via partnerships and internal R&D.

Tether As of mid-2025, Tether remains the largest stablecoin globally, holding a market share of over 60%. This dominance is driven by its massive liquidity, broad adoption across exchanges and blockchains, and large reserve holdings, especially in U.S. Treasuries. Its nearest competitors include USD Coin (USDC), Binance USD (BUSD), and decentralized stablecoins like DAI, although Tether’s market share far exceeds them. Recent reports have shown Tether’s involvement in major financial markets and even Bitcoin mining, further reinforcing its stronghold on the crypto landscape.

Regarding Facebook’s Diem (formerly Libra) project, it was officially abandoned. Diem’s assets were sold off to Silvergate Capital in early 2022, marking the end of the initiative that once aimed to create a globally accessible digital currency. Regulatory pressures and internal challenges led to the dissolution of the project.

Market Size and Dynamics

Cards in Issue

Specific to the Finnish card business is the issuance of VISA Debit/credit cards with two payment functions combined on one plastic card. Thus, the number of payment functions on cards in Finland is higher than the total cards number in circulation. VISA is the dominant card scheme in Finland.

As at end-2024, 64.85% of the card base had a debit function, and 35.15% of the card base had a credit and/or delayed debit function. Of the total, 4.57 million were combination cards, i.e. cards with a debit function combined either with a delayed debit or a credit function.

In 2013, Luottokunta disclosed that Mastercard and EuroCard/Mastercard credit cards and VISA and EuroCard/Mastercard debit cards were issued with EMV offline function while Electron and Maestro debit cards were issued with EMV online function.

Based on ECB figures, there were 14.46 million bank cards in Finland (+2.03%) by end-2024 accounting for 2.52 cards per capita, up by 0.28% from 2023. Of the total, there were 13.0 million contactless cards (90.13%).

8 - Cards Issued in Finland
(000s)202020212022202320242025FGR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Cards with a cash function10,202.510,412.413,665.113,638.413,596.314,520.4-0.31%38.93%6.80%
Cards with a payment function10,297.410,519.813,667.614,005.614,154.315,194.01.06%42.53%7.35%
Cards with a debit function8,926.78,836.08,967.59,094.89,179.39,301.90.93%6.86%1.34%
Cards with a credit and/or delayed debit function4,716.94,704.84,700.14,910.84,975.14,909.91.31%5.97%1.17%
Total Cards10,300.310,519.814,086.214,180.614,468.015,194.02.03%45.63%7.81%
- thereof contactless cards9,000.010,300.013,084.513,114.513,040.615,194.0-0.56%48.19%8.18%
Payment cards per capita - Finland1.861.902.462.512.522.700.28%40.02%6.96%
Payment cards per capita - EU271.661.721.781.781.781.820.00%13.63%2.59%
Note: Finnish cards have more than one payment function, e.g. a domestic debit card function and a credit card function abroad.
Source: ECB.

Card Fraud

Card fraud is one of the most fascinating aspects of the payments industry, not least because it is relentless and mutating. EMV implementation and 3D-Secure, combined with Strong Customer Authentication (SCA), have done much to reduce domestic losses from lost and stolen cards in Europe. However, the war against fraud losses and the changing face of fraud continues to be a threat for the payments industry, including Finland.

The global card fraud challenges are Card-Not-Present fraud (CNP), cross-border fraud and counterfeiting on non-EMV cards. CNP fraud accounted for 80% of the total value of card fraud losses in 2020. From 2017, a new payment fraud category are fraud losses on contactless card payments. International card fraud continues to be smaller in scale than domestic card abuse but is proportionately far more common. And of course, fraudulent cross-border transactions on cards continue to grow on all purchase channels.

Losses from card fraud on the internet and cross-border fraud on domestic cards have grown significantly. Following EMV implementation, card fraud has moved increasing to countries where POS terminals or online shops have not yet been migrated to EMV and SCA, respectively, and to cross-border fraud with compromised cards.

The breakdown of card fraud losses by method of compromise already indicates the importance of distinguishing between domestic and cross-border fraud losses. The method of compromise covers the means by which fraudsters obtain payment cards or card details. Notable methods of compromise in a complex payment world are CNP fraud based on theft of card credentials and card lost and stolen fraud followed by growing ID fraud and by cross-counterfeit fraud.

The main method of compromise responsible for losses in many European countries is now the theft of card credentials. A high proportion of these card fraud losses are caused by the growth in e-commerce, and still the lack of use of strong customer authentication methods such as 3D-Secure.

In a post data-breach world, identity information, payment credentials, account credentials and responses to security questions are widely available for purchase in bulk. Complete fraud exploits and zero-day attacks are also easily available on the black market for outright purchase or as a hosted / fully managed service.

In the digital payments world and having the changing face of fraud in mind, there are significant challenges for card issuing banks, payment service providers and their supporting processors.

According to ECB figures published in August 2020, the value of fraud in Finland as a share of card transaction value was 0.022% in 2018. From an issuing perspective, CNP comprised 72% of card fraud value, followed by POS terminals at 16% and ATMs at 12%. According to ECB figures for H1 2023, the value of card fraud as a share of transaction value in Finland was 0.015% (EU/EEA average: 0.031%) and 0.003% (EU/EEA average: 0.015%) by volume. A significant update on Fraud numbers across Europe is expected from the ECB in 2026.

From an acquiring perspective, CNP fraud comprised 78%, followed by POS terminals at 13% and ATMs at 9%.

According to Statistics Finland, in 2022, incidents of payment fraud escalated to 10,700, compared to 6,103 in 2021. In 2022, Statistics Finland reported that the number of recorded means of payment frauds grew by 85% in January to September 2022. No update was provided for 2023.

In 2024, Finance Finland reported that banks blocked more than €44 million’s worth of fraud-related payments.

Card fraud in Finland increased notably in 2024, with fraudulent payment activity and losses rising compared to previous years. However, the proportion of fraudulent card payments relative to total transactions remains low.

Key Statistics and Trends (2024–2025)

As most POS card transactions are authorised online-to-issuer, acquirer fraud rates in Finland are under control except for offline vending machines, e-commerce, and a few other hotspots. Obviously, EMV implementation has contributed significantly to declining fraud rates.

Finnish banks are pushing 3D-Secure, offering PIN-change services at ATMs and SMS notifications to inform cardholders about the use of their credit card. The increasing numbers of chip technology cards, contactless cards, and display cards have led to improved safety of payment transactions. Credit card fraud prevention measures taken have been pushing 3D-Secure, updating banks’ fraud prevention systems and real-time-scoring, and implementing more rule-based fraud control mechanisms.

Card Use 

According to the Bank of Finland, the dominance of debit card payments is similarly evident in the card payment statistics. Debit card payments amounted to 89.42% by number and 79.38% by value.

In 2024, there were 2.45 billion card payments (+4.86%) with the total value €73.82 billion (+3.99% from 2023). The ATV per card payment accounted for €30.08, and there were on average 173.4 payments per card per year. Cross-border payments with Finnish cards amounted to 1,862.55 million payments (+65.32%) with a total value of €55.51 billion (+60.25%).

Included in the card payments total in 2024 were 483.73 million remote payments on cards in online shops (+15.26%) with a total value of €18.46 billion (+15.51% from 2023). Remote payments accounted for 19.71% of the total card payments (up 15.2%) and for 25.00% by value (up by 15.5% over 2023).

9 - Payments with Finnish Cards
202020212022202320242025FGR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Cards with a payment function10,297,42610,519,78413,667,56914,005,61814,154,33615,194,0401.06%42.53%7.35%
Ø payments per card per year174.5180.0156.3167.1173.4167.63.76%-11.56%-2.43%
Ø payment value per card per year€5,069.7€5,419.4€4,656.3€5,068.6€5,215.7€5,083.02.90%-4.34%-0.88%
Payments (m)1,796.521,893.142,135.992,340.732,454.502,547.074.86%26.06%4.74%
- thereof remote payments (m)182.48221.24302.54419.67483.73520.6515.26%285.63%30.99%
- thereof POS payments (m)1,614.041,671.901,796.361,921.061,970.772,026.432.59%8.19%1.59%
- thereof cross-border payments (m)120.55126.001,002.541,126.641,862.553,079.1665.32%1043.95%62.81%
- with debit cards (m)1,650.051,740.501,923.082,086.302,194.792,285.755.20%22.51%4.14%
- with credit and/or delayed debit cards (m)146.46152.64212.91246.49253.80261.332.97%63.17%10.29%
Value of payments (€bn)52.2057.0163.6470.9973.8277.233.99%36.35%6.40%
- thereof remote payments value (€bn)6.227.8511.4515.9818.4619.8915.51%286.47%31.05%
- thereof POS payments (€bn)45.9949.1650.7655.0155.3757.340.65%12.16%2.32%
- thereof cross-border payments (€bn)4.114.6130.3934.6455.5188.9560.25%788.58%54.79%
- with debit cards (€bn)44.4248.5352.1556.2258.6061.704.23%29.39%5.29%
- with credit and/or delayed debit cards (€bn)7.798.4911.4914.5115.0115.533.45%69.58%11.14%
ATV per card payment€29.06€30.11€29.79€30.33€30.08€30.32-0.83%8.16%1.58%
Source: ECB.

Contactless Payments – In 2024, there were 1,571.40 million payments with contactless cards (2023: 1,435.78, 2022: 1,294.39, 2021: 1,114, 2020: 1,012, 2019: 913.41, 2018: 631.52, 2017: 376.05 million, 2016: 162.5 million, 2015: 29.14 million, 2014: 3.55 million) with a total value of €27.50 billion (2023: €22.80, 2022: €19.91 billion, 2021: €16.93 billion, 2020: €14.83 billion, 2019: €10.88 billion, 2018: €5.71 billion, 2017: €3.26 billion, 2016: €1.36 billion, 2015: €0.23 billion, 2014: €0.03 billion).

According to the Bank of Finland, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated changes in the use of payment methods. Nearly half of Finns reduced their use of cash during the pandemic, and most believe that their use of cash has decreased permanently. Contactless and mobile payments as well as online shopping had already grown in popularity, but due to the pandemic people began to use them more widely. Around 93% of Finnish consumers already used contactless payment, and almost one in three people increased their use of contactless during the pandemic.

Cash withdrawals with Finnish cards – According to Bank of Finland, the number and value of ATM transactions continuously have declined year-over-year from 2008.

In 2024, there were 13.59 million cards with a cash function in circulation and 51.74 million cash withdrawals on cards (-7.28%) compared with 2.45 billion payments on all cards. The withdrawals value on cards amounted to €6.99 billion (-5.39% from 2023). The ATV per cash withdrawal on cards was €135.09, and there were 3.8 withdrawals per card per year, down from 4.1 in 2023.

10 - Cash Withdrawals with Finnish Cards
202020212022202320242025FGR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Cards with a cash function10,202,51010,412,40713,665,08113,638,42813,596,33514,520,389-0.31%38.93%6.80%
Ø withdrawals per card per year6.45.34.34.13.83.2-6.99%-59.73%-16.63%
Ø Total cash withdrawals value per card per year€783.5€650.2€572.9€541.7€514.1€440.8-5.10%-53.76%-14.30%
Number of cash withdrawals (m)65.0655.6559.0955.8051.7446.04-7.28%-44.05%-10.97%
- thereof withdrawals domestic (m)63.5254.4257.0653.7349.9044.50-7.13%-43.60%-10.82%
- thereof withdrawals abroad (m)1.541.242.032.071.841.54-11.25%-54.15%-14.44%
Value of ATM cash withdrawals (€bn)7.996.777.837.396.996.40-5.39%-35.76%-8.47%
- thereof values domestic (€bn)7.746.567.517.066.706.15-5.10%-34.96%-8.24%
- thereof values abroad (€bn)0.250.210.320.330.290.25-11.62%-49.94%-12.92%
ATV per cash withdrawal on cards€122.87€121.65€132.47€132.38€135.09€139.022.04%14.83%2.80%
Total cash withdrawals per capita11.810.010.610.09.38.3-7.28%-44.41%-11.08%
Total cash withdrawals value per capita€1,445.3€1,221.7€1,408.7€1,329.4€1,257.8€1,151.7-5.39%-36.17%-8.59%
Source: ECB.

Card Use per Capita

In 2024, card payments per capita were 435.6 (+4.15% from 2023), up from 173.6 in 2006, the fifth highest level in Europe after Iceland and the other Nordic countries. According to the Bank of Finland, there were 390.5 debit card payments per capita (4.39% over 2023) and 45.2 delayed debit/credit card payments per capita, up 2.17% from 2023.

11 - Card Payments Per Capita in Finland
202020212022202320242025FGR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Debit card payments per capita298.3314.1346.1374.1390.5406.74.39%28.96%5.22%
Debit card value per capita€8,031.1€8,756.8€9,384.7€10,080.1€10,425.4€10,976.73.42%36.72%6.46%
Credit/Delayed debit card payments per capita 26.5 27.5 38.3 44.2 45.2 46.52.17%57.12%9.46%
Credit/Delayed debit card value per capita€1,408.0€1,531.2€2,067.7€2,601.9€2,671.0€2,763.22.65%64.07%10.41%
Total bank card payments 324.8 341.6 384.4 418.3 435.6 453.14.15%31.40%5.61%
Total bank card value€9,439.0€10,288.0€11,452.4€12,682.1€13,096.4€13,740.03.27%41.53%7.19%
Source: ECB.

Debit Card Use 

According to the Bank of Finland, the debit function is the most intensively used card payment function, with an average of 239.1 payments per debit card per year in 2024 compared with 51.0 per credit and charge card per year.

In Finland, card payments on debit functions have shown a compound annual growth rate of 4.14% between 2020 and 2024. In 2024, there were 2.19 billion debit card payments (+5.20%) with a total value of €58.60 billion (+4.23% from 2023). The ATV per debit card payment accounted for €26.95.

12 - Payments with Finnish Debit Cards
202020212022202320242025FGR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Cards with debit function8,926,6948,836,0438,967,4649,094,8479,179,2619,301,8740.93%6.86%1.34%
Ø payments per debit card per year184.8197.0214.5229.4239.1245.74.23%14.65%2.77%
Ø payments value per card per year€4,975.8€5,491.8€5,815.5€6,181.6€6,384.0€6,633.03.27%21.09%3.90%
Payments (m)1,650.051,740.501,923.082,086.302,194.792,285.755.20%22.51%4.14%
Value of payments (€bn)44.4248.5352.1556.2258.6061.704.23%29.39%5.29%
ATV per debit card payment€26.92€27.88€27.12€26.95€26.70€26.99-0.92%5.62%1.10%
Note: specific to Finland, there are VISA cards with two payment functions on one card, i.e. combined debit/credit functions.
Source: ECB.

Delayed Debit/Credit Card Use 

Card payments on delayed debit/credit functions have shown a compound annual growth rate of 10.29% between 2020 and 2024.

In 2024, there were 253.80 million dd/cc card payments (+2.97%) with a total value of €15.01 billion (+3.45% on 2023). The ATV per dd/cc card payment was €59.15, and there were on average 51.0 payments per dd/cc card per year.

13 - Payments with Finnish Delayed Debit/Credit Cards
202020212022202320242025FGR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Cards with delayed debit/credit function4,716,9134,704,8194,700,1054,910,7714,975,0754,909,9291.31%5.97%1.17%
Ø payments per dd/cc card per year31.132.445.350.251.053.21.63%53.98%9.02%
Ø payments value per card per year€1,650.9€1,803.5€2,444.6€2,955.2€3,017.7€3,163.42.12%60.03%9.86%
Payments (m)146.46152.64212.91246.49253.80261.332.97%63.17%10.29%
Value of payments (€bn)7.798.4911.4914.5115.0115.533.45%69.58%11.14%
ATV per dd/credit card payment€53.17€55.59€53.97€58.87€59.15€59.430.47%3.93%0.77%
Note: specific to Finland, there are VISA cards with two payment functions on one card, i.e. combined debit/credit functions.
Source: ECB.

E-Money Use 

In 2019, there were 0.2 million e-money payments in Finland, compared to 0.4 million in 2018. As of 2024, there was an increase in the number of Finnish-domiciled e-money institutions to 13, according to ECB.

Leading Card Issuer Details

Nordea Bank Finland had an estimated 1.5 million credit cards and 1.1 million debit cards in issue as at end-2021, giving total estimated cards of 2.6 million. After showing growth since 2005, credit card numbers declined in 2012 for the first time, in 2014, and slightly from 2016. Nordea issues VISA Debit, VISA Electron, VISA and Mastercard cards.

Nordea enhanced a long-standing cooperation agreement with the Finnish retailing group Stockmann in 2007, when Mastercard branding was added to Stockmann’s Loyal Customer Card programme. The same arrangement was extended to Stockmann’s operations in Estonia and Latvia. Stockmann has a total of 1.6 million Loyal Customers in Finland, the Baltic countries and Russia. The total number of Stockmann credit accounts in Finland and Estonia is over 600,000; as part of the deal, consumer outstandings of €65 million were transferred from Stockmann to Nordea. The new programmes were launched in April 2008 and helped drive the growth in Nordea credit cards during the year.

The roots of this cooperation go back to 1998 and the launch of a combination card which was both a Stockmann account card and the bank card of Merita Bank, Nordea’s predecessor. The Stockmann Mastercard is also available as a combination debit/credit card linked to a Nordea bank account.

The other of Nordea’s main co-branded programmes, also Mastercard-branded, is with Finnair. Launched in 2004, this programme replaced a co-brand Finnair previously linked with American Express. Nordea is not Finnair’s sole partner, as Sampo Bank and Finnair launched Finnair Plus VISA and Finnair Plus VISA Gold cards in 2006. Payments with these cards accrue Finnair Plus points for cardholders and were the first co-branding cards offered with the VISA brand in Finland. Nordea also issues the TUOHI Mastercard including PriceGuard insurance. The card is also available in the Nordea digital wallet.

Nordea acquired the credit card company K-Luotto from Kesko, the Finnish retailer, in 2003. K-Luotto provided credit card services for Kesko subsidiary K-Plus, which manages Plussa, the largest customer loyalty programme in Finland.

OP Corporate Bank (Pohjola Bank) had around 3 million debit cards and credit cards in issue in 2021. It claimed to issue over 40% of the VISA cards in issue in Finland, and an estimated 300,000-plus Mastercard cards.

In April 2007, OP-Pohjola Group and K-Group, the Kesko retailing conglomerate, agreed on long-term cooperation in cards, payment transfers, cash services and consumer credit, including development of K-Group’s Plussa loyalty programme, with the aim of developing new products and services for customers of both groups. Pohjola also said the partners aimed to consolidate the role of the K-Plussa Mastercard as a payment method.

In November 2020, OP announced it would pilot the use of contactless biometric fingerprint cards supplied by TietoEVRY. According to the bank, over 60% of POS terminal transactions made with OP cards are contactless, and customers are willing to use biometric verification.

Danske Bank (Sampo) issues contactless debit cards branded Debit Mastercard, VISA Debit or Electron and contactless credit cards branded Mastercard, or VISA. Also, Danske issues both contactless Debit Mastercard cards and contactless Mastercard cards incorporating K-Plussa loyalty points.

The K-Plussa customer loyalty system had a total of nearly 3,000 outlets, 40 cooperation partners, about 3.4 million customers in 2.6 million Finnish households as of end-2024, after gaining new customers during the year. Plussa cards are offered as primary card, secondary card, K-Plussa bank cards, and Plussa Traveller’s card.

S-Pankki offers the loyalty programme of retailer S-Group, S-bonus card (S-Etukortti), as a co-branded, annual fee-free VISA Debit/credit combination card, VISA Debit card, or VISA Credit card. S-Pankki also issued a Mastercard credit card, and it had 2.1 million issued as at end-2017. However, its card portfolio has since switched to VISA. From November 2012, contactless S-bonus VISA cards have been issued, which offer 0.5% cashback on all purchases.

In 2018, Danske Bank and S-Pankki offered all Finns the possibility to pay for their shopping and collect Bonus using a smartphone. S-Group and S-Pankii enable payments with Danske’s MobilePay at all S-Group’s grocery shops in Finland. Users will be able to connect their S-Etukortti card details to MobilePay to make payments, as well as collect bonus points, and receive electronic cash and warranty receipts.

In 2019, S-Pankki and VISA renewed their cooperation agreements. Finns have 2.3 million S-Etukortti VISA cards and every tenth purchase made in Finland is paid for with an S-Bank card.

During 2024, S-Pankki reported that the value of purchases made with S-Etukortti VISA cards grew by 12.2% and the number of transactions increased by 14.4%. The figure was a record high and also exceeded the levels preceding the pandemic in 2019. At the end of 2021, S-Bank’s payment cards were used in 23.2% of all Bonus purchases made at S Group’s stores.

Savings Banks Group – The Finnish savings banks issue VISA Debit cards and VISA credit cards.

POP Pankki issues contactless VISA credit cards and contactless debit cards branded VISA Debit or VISA Electron.

Aktia Bank issues contactless VISA Debit cards, contactless credit cards branded Mastercard or VISA, prepaid cards, NFC stickers branded Mastercard, and the digital Aktia MasterPass wallet. Aktia Wallet allows for payments on Aktia cards branded Mastercard or VISA stored in the MasterPass wallet, excluding prepaid cards.

Consumer Credit Card Issuers

In addition to retail banking operations, the following major Nordic banks operate as finance houses in Finland: Handelsbanken Finance, Nordea Finance Finland, Pohjola Bank, Danske Bank and SEB Leasing.

Banco Santander – Of the major international consumer finance providers, GE Money established itself in Finland in 1998. According to GE, it grew into Finland’s second largest auto-financing company, with a strong position in unsecured lending. In June 2008, Banco Santander agreed to acquire GE Money’s units in Germany, Finland and Austria, as well as its card units in the UK and Ireland and its auto finance unit in the UK. These transactions were completed in Q4 2008 and Q1 2009. The deal added to Santander Consumer Finance’s presence in the Nordic region. Santander issues VISA cards.

Resurs Bank – In April 2014, Resurs Bank bought Finaref Nordic from Crédit Agricole PF. Resurs Bank is active in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. Resurs Bank issues Mastercard cards.

Crédit Agricole Consumer Finance had been present in the Finnish market through consumer finance subsidiary Finaref Nordic.

Appendix

Pankkikortti Debit Cards – phased-out by end-2012

Historically, Finnish banks operated the ‘Pankkikortti’ domestic debit card scheme, with transactions cleared between the banks and no interchange arrangements in force. Internet payments with domestic Pankkikortti debit cards were not possible.

Under the SEPA migration plan agreed by the Finnish banks, Pankkikortti bank cards were to cease to be acceptable by end-2010. All VISA, VISA Electron and Mastercard cards issued by Finnish banks were already SEPA-compliant.

In 2007, following intervention by the Finnish Competition Authority (FCA), the banks abandoned their plans to drop the ‘Pankkikortti’ system on the basis of a jointly agreed migration plan. Instead, they agreed to make independent decisions about offering SEPA-compliant payment cards, with each deciding individually on the timetable.

The FCA said it was concerned “that the low-cost payment cards will be replaced by more expensive international cards, and the expenses accrued will be paid by the retailers and in the long run by the consumers.”

The FCA added that “contrary to what has been suggested, the payment card system is SEPA-compatible, even if it were only de facto used by a single member state. The payment card system shall comply with standards which enable its provision in the entire SEPA-region, however.”

Finnish banks therefore remained free to offer ‘Pankkikortti’ cards to clients despite the SEPA-regulation up to 2010 at least. The FCA says it would intervene if the banks “create unjustified impediments for the use of the national payment card.” However, Pankkikortti cards were phased-out by end-2012 and replaced by Debit Mastercard and VISA Debit cards.

Digital & Card Payment Yearbooks