Podcast: How to Win Over Apple Pay In-Store & What Comes Next for Pan-European Interoperability
A conversation with Rune Garborg, CEO of Vipps Mobilepay about their NFC wallet, and their role in a broader pan-european collaboration as part of the EuroPA alliance. “In payments, you’re choosing between water and water.” If wallets are commoditized, what creates a competitive advantage? In our latest podcast, Rune Garborg explains why the future of […]
Executive Interview with Rune Garborg, CEO, Vipps MobilePay: “We need to create a real FOMO beyond payments”
Flagship Advisory Partners’ Executive Interview Series provides readers with exclusive insights from thought leaders in the payments and fintech industry. This edition spotlights Vipps MobilePay, a leading payment method in Norway, Denmark, and Finland. Flagship Advisory Partners met with Rune Garborg, CEO of Vipps MobilePay, in Oslo to discuss the rollout of its NFC wallet, […]
Podcast: The Battle Between Local and International Card Schemes in Europe
Local card schemes like Girocard, Bancomat, Dankort, BankAxept, and Carte Bancaires are losing ground fast to Visa and Mastercard – but is that decline inevitable? In this episode, Elisabeth Magnor talks with Flagship partner Yuriy Kostenko about what the data really shows, why domestic schemes have fallen behind on innovation, how PSPs and merchants actually […]
Why European APMs Need More Than Apple’s NFC to Win In-Store Payments
European alternative payment methods (APMs) have a long history of failed attempts to succeed at the physical point of sale (POS). In contrast, Apple Pay has achieved tremendous success. Apple’s tight control over the iPhone’s NFC chip has fueled iOS’s dominance in contactless payments (see Figure 1) while blocking APMs from delivering a comparable user […]
Podcast: Financial Health of Public Fintechs
Joel van Arsdale, Managing Partner, and Rom Mascetti, Principal at Flagship Advisory Partners, sat down with Elisabeth Magnor, Senior Manager, at Flagship Advisory Partners to unpack the real story behind public fintech growth and to reveal new research across 50 listed fintechs. From revenue efficiency to the rise of SaaS-with-payments, cash flow health, and what […]
European Local Card Schemes: Pace of Market Share Losses Declines
Europe’s local card schemes are stepping up their digital game. From enabling online payments and mobile wallets to embedding loyalty and cashback programs, domestic networks are closing the gap with global schemes. Merchants are finding more value in these schemes as costs rise elsewhere, while sovereignty and resilience remain key themes. Innovation, cost efficiency, and […]
Unlocking SMB Success: the ‘One Click’ Digital Marketing Opportunity
Every morning, small business owners open their laptops to a familiar headache. Their sales data lives in one system, their customer lists in another, and their marketing campaigns scattered across multiple platforms. To launch even the simplest promotion, they must stitch together emails, social ads, and reports from tools that don’t talk to each other. […]
SoftPOS Creeping Slowly Towards Potential?
SoftPOS, also known as “tap-to-pay” and “pin-on-glass,” has been touted for years as the future of face-to-face payments, with the promise of transforming how businesses accept payments by eliminating the need for payment hardware. Ten-plus years since the technology was first created, the question remains: Has SoftPOS truly arrived, or is it still awaiting its […]
A Guide to Payment Orchestration: Navigating In-Person and Online Payment Complexity
Apple Opening Up iOS NFC in Europe – Will it Change the Game for In-Store Payments?
Gaining access to the physical POS (‘Point-of-Sale’) has been a pain point for local wallets and APMs (‘Alternative Payment Methods’) in several European markets. Apple Pay, Google Pay, and contactless cards have excellent customer experiences and broad acceptance, and APMs have struggled to match these card-centric form factors in terms of ease of use. European […]