P27 Nordic Payments Platform has signed an agreement to acquire the Swedish company Bankgirocentralen BGC AB (Bankgirot).
Bankgirot, Sweden’s only clearing house for mass payments, has a central role in the Swedish payment system and handles transactions of a total value of approximately SEK 73 billion per day.
This includes its real-time payment service BiR, that enables the Swedish real time payment system Swish.
Lars Sjögren, CEO of P27 Nordic Payments Platform, said the P27’s acquisition of Bankgirot is “a very important step in our ambition to build a solid Nordic clearing infrastructure”.
Sjögren explained: “This will enable the Nordics to take the lead in building the world’s first integrated cross-border and cross-currency payments region, facilitating the needs of banks, consumers and society at large.”
Magnus Sternbrink, chair of the Board of Bankgirot, added: “We are happy that we could reach this signing today. P27 and Bankgirot would together be able to uphold stability in the current payment infrastructure, as well as create synergies and efficiency in the contemplated transformation to the new Nordic system platform.”
