Igenico Announces Terminal-Rental Plan For Finland

Payment-terminal vendor Ingenico said Wednesday it would offer merchants in Finland a "new rental model" that could decrease the cost of terminals that accept smart cards, according to a company statement. The France-based vendor says it hopes to "double its share" of Finland's terminal market. Ingenico will work with Finland-based Screenway Ltd., which sells retail-payment systems and is a subsidiary of Louttokunta Group, a card-payment service firm owned by banks and merchants in Finland. Renting enables merchants to pay fixed monthly fees for terminals and related services instead of making "major investments in equipment," Ingenico says. The program could lead to the deployment of 40,000 terminals that accept chip-and-PIN payments over the next three years, Ingenico says. Finland has at least 4.6 million payment cards in circulation. The vendor did not respond immediately to CardLine Global requests for comment. Ingenico's effort in Finland is "unique ... because the push is coming from the manufacturer," Adil Moussa, an analyst at United States-based Aite Group, tells CardLine Global. "There are variations of this [fixed-pricing] model in the U.S." Ingenico's push represents "a great strategy to deploy contactless terminals faster, with or without the merchant's opinion in the matter," Moussa adds. Still, he notes, banks must issue contactless cards, and backers of the technology must make consumers more aware and accepting of contactless payments. Moussa saw no drawbacks Wednesday to Ingenico's plan, saying the initiative could reduce merchants' costs and ensure they do not get stuck with obsolete terminals. "This can become a model that can be introduced in other countries once the industry sees the result of this strategy," he says.