Worldline makes its POS terminals compatible with Payconiq

Payconiq, the merger of ING and KBC's mobile wallets deployed in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg (following the acquisition of Digicah), has just signed an important new partnership with Worldline. The payment services company has made its terminals compatible with the Payconiq payment solution, thus becoming involved in the democratization of mobile payment.

FACTS

• Luxembourg customers of the Payconiq mobile payment service will now be able to use their solution to pay for their purchases in most traditional physical stores in their country.

• Worldline payment terminals, by becoming compatible with Payconiq, will be able to display a QR Code on their screen to allow users of the application to pay via Payconiq.

• No additional infrastructure is required to make Worldline terminals compatible.

• Payconiq currently has 200,000 users in Luxembourg.

CHALLENGES

• Democratize its solution: Worldline is responsible for nearly 80% of the payment terminals currently deployed in Luxembourg. Its partnership with Payconiq means that the mobile payment application is now accepted by the majority of the country's businesses.

• Payconiq is currently used by 62% of consumers in Luxembourg. The application is mainly used to make payments between individuals (63% of transactions) and to pay bills (24% of transactions). Payconiq payments at retail locations previously accounted for only 13% of the FinTech's transactions.

• Combining innovation with tradition: To deploy its solution in physical stores, Payconiq has been trying for several years to impose its Beacon payment device. This is a huge task, as the historical players still dominate the market and efforts to disseminate alternative solutions are coming up against both competition and the problem of interoperability and market harmonization.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• The European mobile payment market is still far from being democratized. While Paylib is still trying to establish itself in France and remains confident about the future of mobile payments in the country, Bizum's success in Spain has given it European ambitions. And the new partnership signed between Payconiq and Worldline opens up vast new local prospects for the FinTech, enabling it to reach critical mass in a market with great potential.

• While EPI is still on the European agenda for the time being, the Benelux countries are stepping up their ambitions to democratize electronic payments. A decision by the Federal Minister of Finance has just validated the obligation for all Belgian businesses to offer at least one electronic payment method to their customers as of July 1, 2022.

• This decision is part of an action plan to fight fraud and comes at the right time for Payconiq.