Nordic digital payments specialist Nets A/S and JCB International Co., Ltd. (JCB), the international operations subsidiary of Japan’s international cards business JCB Co., Ltd have agreed a partnership agreement, which allows Nets to use J/Speedy, JCB’s contactless technology, for Dankort payments with smartphones.
Dankort is Denmark’s national debit card, first issued in 1983 and now usually combined with a Visa card to function as a credit card abroad
Nets said that when Dankort launches on the mobile this autumn “it will thus be based on an international, well-proven technology from JCB, an international payments scheme originating from Japan.
“JCB has many years of experience facilitating contactless mobile payments as Japan was among the first countries in the world to adopt mobile payments and make it a part of daily life. This also marks an important milestone for JCB as it aims to accelerate its mobile payment implementation globally using host card emulation (HCE) technology.”
Nets believes that by 2020 up to half of all payments at the point-of-sale (PoS) in Denmark may be initialised from a smartphone and that there will be more than 3m Dankort on mobile phones.
“We are very pleased with this long-term partnership with JCB that will help retain Dankort as the most cost-effective and convenient means of payment for Danish merchants and consumers,” said Jeppe Juul-Andersen, senior vice president in Nets, who oversees Dankort.
“With this new partnership, Dankort will be powered by strong technology from JCB. The first step in the partnership will be to base Dankort on the mobile phone on JCB’s technology but there is also a solid base for further developments. A second phase will include international interoperability using JCB’s global network.”