In the last 15 years, technology has evolved and has transformed the world around us. In the financial services industry, “Open Banking,” which refers to the use of open APIs enabling third-party developers to build applications and services around a financial institution, is seeing rapid growth globally.
According to a recent study from Juniper Research*, the sector is set to grow by 2,800% in the next five years, with Western Europe accounting for the vast majority and the UK being the leader in this area.
Among other countries such as Finland and Netherlands, Sweden has built a mature open banking ecosystem. It is home of some companies which lead the growth of the sector with Klarna being one of the most advanced companies in the area. Founded in 2005 in Stockholm, Klarna makes it easier for people to shop online providing payment solutions for 90 million active consumers across 250,000 merchants in 17 countries. With its solutions, its consumers can shop now and pay later, so they can get what they need today. Klarna’s offering to consumers and retailers include payments, social shopping, and personal finances. As the company acquired SOFORT in 2014, the Klarna Group was formed. It is backed by investors such as Sequoia Capital, Silver Lake, Bestseller Group, Dragoneer, Permira, Visa, Ant Group and Atomico.
Founded in 2008, Trustly is a global online banking payments leader which provides a digital account-to-account platform linking prominent merchants with consumers directly from their online banking accounts.
Led by Johan Tjärnberg, who was appointed as CEO in December 2021, Trustly can handle the entire payment journey, and currently serves 8,000 merchants, connecting them with 525 million consumers and 6,300 banks in over 30 countries. Trustly is especially popular on pay n play casinos.
The company, which has 600 employees across Europe, North America and Latin America, is a licensed Payment Institution under the second payment services directive (PSD2) and operate under the supervision of the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority in Europe. In the US, trustly is state regulated as required to serve target markets.
The company recently announced some meaningful partnerships. The first one, signed in November 2021 with IKEA, will enable IKEA customers to pay for their purchases directly from their online bank account. Trustly offers IKEA access to more than 30 countries through an API integration, initially in Austria and with a possibility to extend to other European countries in the future.
In addition, in December 2021, the company announced that its solution would have been added to brand checkouts across THG plc, the global technology platform company specialising in taking brands direct to consumers.
Shoppers across any of THG’s brands, which include Myprotein and Lookfantastic, can pay directly from their bank account with Trustly. It initially launched in the UK, followed by Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway and Sweden.
Founded in 2012 in Stockholm, Tink provides an open banking platform that enables banks, fintechs and startups to develop data-driven financial services. Through one API, the company allows customers to access aggregated financial data, initiate payments, enrich transactions, verify account ownership and build personal finance management tools. Tink connects to more than 3,400 banks that reach over 250 million bank customers across Europe. Its 500 employees serve more than 300 banks and fintechs in 18 European markets, out of offices in 13 countries.
In June 2021, Tink was acquired by Visa (NYSE: V) for a total financial consideration of 1.8 billion Euros.
Based in Stockholm, Brite is an Open Banking first company, with a platform specifically built to enable the most reliable and compliant way of doing account-to-account payments using the banks dedicated Open Banking APIs.
Instant deposits enable customers to make payments in real time straight from their bank account. They can pay for everything ranging from shopping to playing games, completely hassle-free.
*Open Banking: Key Opportunities, Vendor Strategies & Market Forecasts 2021-2026, Juniper Research