Research Discussion Papers, Bank of Finland
No 19/2000:
Evolution of Retail Payments in Finland in the 1990s
Jussi Snellman
Abstract: During the 1990s the availability of location-specific
retail payment services in Finland declined substantially, but at the same
time there was a surge of development of self-service methods. These new
methods, which make use eg of mobile phones and the Internet, dramatically
increased the availability of payment services that are not tied to
location. More traditional forms of payment still exist; for example, the
use of cash remains significant. In Europe there are marked differences
between countries with respect to the use of different payment methods.
Generally, the use of cashless payment instruments has increased during the
last ten years, but it seems that payment patterns are still not converging
to similar structures. The development of the Finnish retail payment system
has long roots, and several factors – eg the salary bank arrangement of the
1960s and the severe banking crisis of the early 1990s – have influenced
the development of the current Finnish payment system. In the retail
payments area, new technologies are developing rapidly. The success of new
forms of payment (based eg on mobile phones) in gaining general acceptance
may depend on changes in the nature of consumption. If customer demand
increasingly shifts toward virtual goods and services, the demand for new
types of payment methods such as electronic money may increase
substantially.
Keywords: retail payments; electronification; ATMs; Internet banking; (follow links to similar papers)
31 pages, December 13, 2000
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