Sweden’s popular payments app, Swish, is introducing payment cards to its mobile service, allowing users to Tap-to-Pay with their phones at stores both in Sweden and internationally.
Launched in 2012 as a collaboration among the country’s largest banks, Swish has grown to become Sweden’s leading mobile payment service, boasting 8.6 million users and 300,000 businesses on board.
The new tap-to-pay feature, which will be available on both Visa and Mastercard networks, will first roll out to Android users. Following Apple’s recent decision to open up NFC functionality in Europe, Swish plans to enable payment cards in its app for iOS users as well.
This development mirrors Norway’s Vipps, which recently announced it has launched the world’s first alternative to Apple Pay for iPhone users.
Urban Höglund, CEO of Swish, stated, “We believe that Swish, with our strong user base and brand in Sweden, will play an important role among the other players who offer payment cards in mobile phones.”