Finish mobile payments app Pivo has been removed from a planned three-way merger with MobilePay and Vipps after the European Commission raised concerns about the deal.
Last year, MobilePay, Pivo and Vipps - which are all bank owned - set out plans to join forces to create a single payments app with a combined user base of 11 million consumers across Finland, Denmark and Norway.
However, with Danske Bank-owned MobilePay and OP Financial Group-owned Pivo both having sizable customer bases in Finland, the EC's directorate-general for competition raised the alarm.
This has forced Danske Bank and the consortium of lenders behind Vipps to move ahead without OP Financial and Pivo. The revised plan still needs EC approval.
Christian Bornfeld, head, personal customers, Danske Bank, says: "MobilePay in Denmark and Finland will still merge with Vipps. The parties’ ambition to create a mobile payment wallet across borders has not changed.
"Both Danske Bank and the Norwegian banks behind Vipps would have preferred the merger, as planned, to include OP Financial Group and Pivo, but we respect the Commission’s concerns and now hope for a swift approval."
The change means that the new company, called Vipps MobilePay, will now be 27.8% owned by Danske and 72.2% owned by the Norwegian consortium.