Paii, the mobile payments joint venture created by Danish mobile network operators TDC, Telenor, Telia and 3, has been sold to Swipp, a mobile payments service owned by a consortium of more than 60 banks, after Paii came to the conclusion that the telcos are not as well placed as banks to take the platform forward.

“With Paii, we have built a company with strong skills and developed a technical platform with unique functionalities that have proved attractive to banks,” says Paii chairman Jensen Flemming. “At the same time, we have [as] owners come to the conclusion that the payments are not telecommunications companies’ core business in the same way as it is for the banks.”

The decision to sell Paii marks a sea change in the carriers’ attitude to their role in mobile payments. “We have decided that payment or collecting payment or making payment is not any longer a bank service”, Peter Bredgaard, CEO of Paii, bullishly told us in March when the service went live.

The solutions will now be merged to create a single mobile service for in-store and online payments as well as money transfers that will be launched through an upgrade to the Swipp mobile app in early 2015.

“By combining our knowledge, experience and skills from both banks and telecommunications companies, we get a unique position to expand mobile payments in Denmark,” says Martin Andersen, managing director of Swipp. “Traders have access to a larger customer base and the consumer gets far more opportunities to pay by phone.

“In addition, the combination with Paii is much faster to develop a customised and user-friendly mobile payment solution that can be integrated directly into the cash registers in retail chains.”

“With the acquisition of Paii, we will create the future mobile payment solution,” Andersen adds. “Swipp will be available to all Danes, regardless of which bank the customer is in, and our joint solution will make it easier for both consumers and traders to use the phone as a payment method online and in physical stores.”