The Nordics’ P27 project has the world watching

[This is an update, now with the video, of the original news post from the conference day, 2 December.]

“First of all, it’s about real-time everywhere. We already experienced that locally in different variations in the different countries. The aim of P 27 is to enable the same also cross-border and cross-currency. But it’s also about improving the stability, the security in the payment network,” said Anna Maria Nyström, head of customer relations management for P27 Nordic Payments.

The Treasury 360° Helsinki panel saw her joined by Fredrik Christofferson of Handelsbanken’s Strategy Payments and Nomentia’s Karl-Henrik Sundberg. Moderator was Beatrice Wassing, head of transaction banking sales and implementation with Handelsbanken.

The project is named after the 27 million inhabitants of the Nordic countries who will have their payment framework integrated by the solution. Sweden will be first to go, starting with batch payments. Hopes are for a regulatory approval early in 2021.

“This is very unique and we are getting so many questions from from all over the place – on the vision, on what we are set out here to accomplish and also how we have been able to move this forward in such a relatively short time. It is about the way that we are doing it in the Nordics: how we come together, how the banks come together, and how we are collaborating on doing something which will bring good for everyone”, said Anna Maria Nyström.

“That is, I think, something special. That is also being recognized and, I think, actually something we should be proud of.”

Karl-Henrik Sundberg of cash-management solutions provider Nomentia emphasised that P27 is an ambitious project, covering many aspects and affecting different players in many different ways.

“I think this is what we need in the Nordics. It will, in a sense, simplify and harmonize the payments within the region and reduce cash management complexity. So we are going from, let’s say, nine different clearing houses to one and more standards, and less legacy formats. And even though I think P27 would really speed up this change – going from legacy to modern formats – I think the exciting thing here is the new services that can be built on top of the platform. I think that is yet to be seen what those are. But that’s the exciting thing,” said Karl-Henrik Sundberg.

Fredrik Christopherson confirmed the positive outlook:

“We have a lot of corporate customers with Nordic presence that demand more standardized ways of handling payments. Today, you have to make quite substantial adjustments to be able to function in each country when it comes to payments: many different solutions, many different standards and so on.”

News from the Treasury 360° Helsinki conference is gathered here.

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