New payment technologies seem to be springing up left right and centre … Swish is another innovative payment platform which I encountered recently. About two years ago six Swedish banks launched Swish. Swish is a mobile app that lets people use their mobile phones to make payments and transfer payments to someone else’s banks. The money gets sent in real-time between the bank accounts and consumers subscribe to the service via their bank.

Fig. 1 – Screenshot of Swish

“Payments. Anytime. Anywhere.” is Swish’s motto. I can see how Swish’s mobile point of sale functionality competes directly with the likes of Square, iZettle and Klarna. The biggest difference between Swish and iZettle is that for the later retailers need to have a card reader to accept payments. With Swish this isn’t strictly necessary, provided you’ve authenticated your account details via the Swish app (see step 3 in Fig. 2 below).

Fig. 2 – Swish Mobile POS

Other competitors in Swish space are Whywallet and Seamless. With Seamless for example, consumer payments are encrypted and secured through one’s PIN code. As a result – similar to Swish – there’s no longer a need for a user to enter her bank or credit card details when paying (see Fig. 3 below).

Fig. 3 – Onboarding process for Seamless’ SEQR mobile wallet

Main learning point: Even by just looking at the number of competitors in the payments space, it’s easy to see how payment experiences will become ultra seamless in just a few years’ time. With its focus on simplifying payments as much as possible, Swish is no exception in this respect.

Related links for further learning:

1. http://ecommercenews.eu/swedish-banks-want-use-swish-ecommerce/
2. https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/61536/swish-payments-obtains-visa-membership-ahead-of-european-pilot
3. http://www.paymentscardsandmobile.com/swish-mobile-payments-amazing-success/
4. http://www.windowscentral.com/send-and-receive-funds-easily-swish-windows-phone
5. http://swishme.com/mobile-pos/
6. https://www.seqr.com/nl/en/faq/