DNKEY Danske Bank AVS (PK)

By Dominic Chopping

STOCKHOLM--A group of Nordic banks agreed on Tuesday to buy Swedish clearing house Bankgirocentralen BGC AB.

The P27 Nordic Payments Platform, a joint initiative formed by Danske Bank AS, Svenska Handelsbanken AB, Nordea Bank Abp, OP Financial Group, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB and Swedbank AB, has agreed to buy Bankgirot as it seeks to create a common payment platform in the Nordics.

Bankgirot is a Swedish clearing system used for account-to-account payments and handles transactions of around 73 billion Swedish kronor ($8.2 billion) daily, including through its real-time payment service BiR that enables Sweden's instant payment system Swish.

Bankgirot was established in 1959 by Swedish banks and enables services including Swish, Autogiro--a direct-debit service--and electronic invoicing. It is currently owned by Danske Bank, Handelsbanken, Lansforsakringar Bank, Nordea, SEB, Skandiabanken and Swedbank.

"P27's acquisition of Bankgirot is a very important step in our ambition to build a solid Nordic clearing infrastructure," said P27 Chief Executive Lars Sjogren. "This will enable the Nordics to take the lead in building the world's first integrated cross-border and cross-currency payments region, facilitating the needs of banks, consumers and society at large."

P27 expects the Bankgirot acquisition to be completed in the first quarter of 2021.

No financial details were disclosed.

Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 06, 2020 10:37 ET (14:37 GMT)

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