Banks and retailers in France are taking a collaborative approach to digital payments.
Two of the country’s big banks, BNP Paribas and Credit Mutuel, announced plans to work with a group of retailers to launch a mobile app next year. Each bank will merge its existing digital wallet to create a new offering – a single mobile payment solution that will enable customers to pay for things in stores and online, as well as earn rewards and transfer money.
BNP Paribas and Credit Mutuel will own a 40 percent stake in the venture, which also includes retailers Auchan and Carrefour and credit card company Mastercard, but the hope is that over time more players will be interested in joining the alliance, Reuters reported.
“This structure leaves room for one or two big retailers or large industrials that could enter the capital of the company,” Thierry Laborde, BNP Paribas’ deputy chief operating officer and head of domestic markets, told Reuters.
Here are the numbers:
20,000 | The number of French retailers that will initially accept the new digital wallet
40% | The stake both BNP Paribas and Credit Mutuel have in the digital wallet venture
-1% | The percentage of mobile payment services used out of the total number of payments customers make at retailers
13% | The number of U.S. adults that have digital wallets enabled on their mobile devices, as of last year
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