News from the Wire

Nordic Initiative, nexo standards partner to Improve Nordic payment systems

Wednesday, May 21, 2025 — 16:31:38 (UTC)

Stockholm, May 21, 2025—The Nordic Initiative has established a strategic partnership with nexo standards to transform payment systems across the Nordic Tier 1 consumer-facing industries. This collaboration aims to develop standardized payment solutions to benefit businesses and consumers throughout the region.

The partnership unites major Tier 1 members of The Nordic Initiative, across industries and Nordic borders, to create payment solutions that enhance merchant flexibility while improving customer experience.

"This collaboration demonstrates our commitment to creating better solutions for the consumers while providing significant benefits to all of our members", says Iren Tranvaag, CEO of Nordic Initiative.

Why nexo standards? As different strategic paths were explored, the Nordic Initiative concluded that nexo standards provides an ideal foundation for fostering cooperation, healthy competition, and innovation. With its robust global membership base, nexo standards brings together key players across the payments ecosystem.

“This partnership enables us to help shape global developments through the newly established Merchant Advisory Council (MAC), where the Nordic Initiative will play a central role in defining the future of payment systems. The collaboration also represents a step toward a stronger European coalition, as the platform welcomes all suppliers who adhere to the specifications”, Tranvaag comments.

Cost-Efficient and Flexible “The partnership prioritizes interoperability - creating merchant systems that work seamlessly together regardless of provider. This approach ensures service interfaces can integrate with various systems without restrictions, giving merchants greater operational flexibility. This will contribute to a more robust and cost-effective critical infrastructure that benefits society as a whole, while simplifying collaboration across national borders”, says Erik Marcus Torkildsen, Manager Identification & Payments at Rema 1000, part of the leading Nordic and Baltic retail company Reitan Retail.

“Adopting shared standards will make it easier for retailers to integrate new payment service providers or partner with best-in-class vendors greatly minimizing implementation costs and service disruptions. This will make interoperability easier, foster innovation and overcome the challenges posed by proprietary systems”, comments Jean-Philippe Joliveau, Chairman of the Board of Directors at nexo standards.

“This is exciting. We will explore how various services can be integrated into the unified merchant solution - covering services like buy-now-pay-later, account-to-account transfer and loyalty programs”, says Kai Lindström, Vice President S Group in Finland.

Consumers will benefit from more consistent payment experiences across different retailers. The standardization will streamline transactions while enabling merchants to implement new payment options more efficiently.

Learn more about The Nordic Initiative and nexo standards.

- ENDS -

For more information Iren Tranvåg, Nordic Initiative: iren.tranvaag@nordicinitiative.com +47 906 07 558

Erik Torkildsen, Rema 1000: erik.torkildsen@rema.no, + 47 934 64 701

Kai Lindström, S Group: kai.lindstrom@sok.fi, +358 40 658 5724

Lars Erik Fjørtoft, PWC: lars.fjortoft@pwc.com, +47 974 74 469

nexo standards: nexo-standards@iseepr.co.uk

About Nordic Initiative The Nordic Initiative serves as the meeting point, coordinator, and facilitator, fostering collaboration among high achievers within Nordic Tier 1 companies across industries and borders. Its ambition is to pioneer innovative, customer-centric solutions, driving sustainable growth, and setting new benchmarks for excellence in the Nordic retail landscape.

About nexo standards nexo standards is the association dedicated to removing the barriers present in today’s fragmented global payment acceptance ecosystem. It enables fast, borderless and global payments acceptance by standardizing the exchange of data between all payment acceptance stakeholders. The nexo specifications and messaging protocols adhere to ISO 20022 standards, are universally applicable and fully open. nexo standards is a not-for-profit, open association; its membership represents the full spectrum of payment stakeholders including merchants and other payment acceptors, processors, card schemes, payment service providers and vendors.

Notice to readers: These are archived articles. Contact information, links and other details may be out of date. We regret any inconvenience.

Source: Company press release.

Categories: Partnership