Breaking Boundaries with Instant Payment: A Nordic Adventure : Challenges and Opportunities to Accommodate the Innovation

Abstract: As globalization and interconnection between countries increase, the need for efficient cross-border payments becomes more critical. The Nordics, consisting of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, share many economic and technological advancement similarities. However, cross-border mobile payment is yet to be seen despite having the solutions to do the process locally. This study then aims to answer the current state, challenges, opportunities, and ways to move forward with the innovation of cross-border mobile payments in the Nordics. A literature review and interviews with experts in the industry were performed to gain more insights into the phenomenon. It is found that currently, the interoperability is none. However, despite the absence of interoperability, efforts are being made to place this agenda at the forefront. Furthermore, there are some challenges, including balancing cooperation and competition among actors in the mobile payment space, addressing pricing issues, establishing a solid business case, managing competition between local perspectives and global technology players, mitigating fraud risks, prioritizing national-scale initiatives, and ensuring standardization and information clarity. On the other hand, opportunities were identified in the availability of use cases, the collaborative culture in the Nordics, the gateway to the point-of-sale feature, the international push towards the feature, and the potential of technology bridges to enhance interoperability. Lastly, to move forward with the innovation, it is suggested to create the use-cases and critical mass, focus on the technological hub, put the cross-border payment on regulatory focus, and compare the use-cases and lessons learned from other regions that do similar work.