A BNP Paribas payment area on ViVaTech 2022
In the BNP Paribas space at Vivatech, on Friday 17 June, all payment sector entrepreneurs supported by the Group were present to pitch their concepts and convince the public that their solutions could respond to and/or anticipate changes in the sector. In France, 17% of 18–29-year-olds make purchases on social networks; 20% use their smartphones to pay for their purchases; 40% are adept at split payments, also known as “Buy Now, Pay Later” (BNPL), and 25% are online banking customers. Detailed at Vivatech by Caroline Veyret-Prudhon, from the Foresight Unit L’échangeur of BNP Paribas Personal Finance, this 2022 study on youth’s behaviour highlights the extent of the transformation of payment practices in France and around the world. Customers want to pay online, quickly, simply and securely, confirming a fundamental trend: the gradual reduction in the use of cash to pay for purchases.
Finding innovative solutions in collaboration with Fintechs
Convinced that strengthening payment services means strengthening the banking relationship, BNP Paribas is keen to support these transformations and provide solutions that facilitate access to financial services for all. With technological (smartphone, immediacy) and regulatory (DSP2, open banking, etc.) developments, expectations are changing and the Group is adapting its offers. Solutions may be developed internally, but also detected within a fintech that has already taken up the subject, when the technology is more disruptive and relies on very specific innovations. BNP Paribas is pragmatic in its collaborative strategies, which range from supporting very promising start-ups (business advice, technical assistance, partnership agreements, financial investment, white label integration, etc.) to buying out the most mature ones. Some of them, present at Vivatech, unveiled the added value of their solutions for the various business lines of BNP Paribas.
Making life easier for consumers
Fintech Lyf, in which BNP Paribas is one of the main shareholders, offers a mobile application that offers added value around payments. With friends, in a restaurant, at the checkout of a shop... the key is the QR code that appears on your smartphone and enables you to make contactless payments alone, with several people, without queuing & tapping the card machine and in complete security.
Contactless payment with bank cards and smartphones enables new uses as it means that approval and proof of a service purchase can be dematerialised- this is the concept of open payment. In partnership with AEP Ticket Solution, which specialises in electronic ticketing for public transport, BNP Paribas simplifies payment when using public transport. This system has been introduced on certain lines of the Aix Marseille Provence metropolitan area, where users can take the bus and pay using an ordinary bank card or a digital wallet. Thanks to its size and experience, BNP Paribas with its Axepta solutions, is providing essential support to the start-up, enabling it to “handle banking flows and contractual aspects with transport network operators, something we just couldn’t do alone. BNP Paribas brings us the expertise that we don’t have”, acknowledges Laurent Viala, AEP Ticket Solution’s international projects director, between two presentations of its innovation at Vivatech.
Split payments, a simple, inclusive and convincing solution
If innovation is essential, useful innovation is even better. In 2022, BNP Paribas completed the acquisition of FLOA, the market leader in split payments. “Our technology allows retailers, whether online or in-store, to offer payment facilities to their customers in a very simple way. It’s a fully digital solution that BNP Paribas needed in order to enhance its service offering” Kevin Calabro, FLOA’s business development manager, explains. This payment method enables you to spread payments according to the “buy now, pay later” principle.
Also presented at Vivatech, the Spanish start-up Payflow has developed an application aimed at company employees. The idea? Giving users the possibility to receive instantly a part of their salary corresponding to the time already worked. This helps employees to manage their payments themselves without having to wait until the end of the month. “It’s a way of accessing your salary on demand, instantly and securely,” says Benoit Menardo, its co-founder. The start-up, which is already present in six countries in South America and Europe, raised nine million dollars in 2020 and counts BNP Paribas Cardif, the Group’s insurance subsidiary, among its investors.
Accelerating and simplifying the digital transformation of companies
Innovation in the payments sector also affects professionals. A direction for development represented by several start-ups at Vivatech. BNP Paribas launches for example a new offer for companies in partnership with the start-up Expensya, present at Vivatech : a 100% digital solution to manage business expenses, fully integrated with the BNP Paribas Corporate Card offer. Expensya’s app scans expense receipts and edits expense reports directly, reducing the time spent on entering and managing expense reports by 80%. “This application is in line with the trends of our time: it simplifies company processes and makes life easier for employees, by offering them the possibility to automate as many administrative tasks as possible, thanks to new technologies”, comments Karim Jouini, CEO of Expensya. This new solution will be marketed in France through the BNP Paribas network from September.
- Facilitating payments and enriching our range of payment methods for merchants is the other area of development. For a business customer or even for a private customer, paying for a large shopping basket, either online or in a shop, is not always possible with a credit/debit card because, for example, the card is capped. Thanks to the emergence of SEPA instant transfers and the PSD2 directive on open banking, BNP Paribas now offers a system for paying for these large purchases by bank transfer. Instanea’s offer, developed with a leading technology partner Token, which specialises in open banking, enables automatic connection via API to customers’ banks and merchants across Europe.
- But beware of fraud! How do you know that the account to which you are making a transfer is reliable? Do you pay your supplier or your employee to the right bank account or to a fake one? BNP Paribas allied with the Fintech SIS ID to offer a complete and intuitive solution for corporates. It combines interbank services, like account checking, based on a collaborative platform. It created a unique repository shared by more than 15,000 companies to collectively reduce risk exposure. The data of third parties is thus certified via a private blockchain and made available to SIS ID clients, either via call APIs or by secured website.
When companies offer white label payment solutions
While BNPL’s offers are primarily deployed for private customers, the startup HOKODO addresses e-commerce or industrial players for their professional customers. Its algorithm enables it to check in real time, for example, the creditworthiness of small and medium-sized customers at the shop checkout, in order to offer and grant (or not) a split payment method. BNPL is also offered on B2B e-commerce sites, in sectors as diverse as building materials, freight and logistics, furniture and food. This solution, combined with our factoring offers, highlights the advantages for a start-up of being backed by a banking partner of the size of BNP Paribas, enabling it to offer a complete BNPL/invoice purchase service to large groups.
The latest sign of a trend towards white labels in payments is the VISA-ALL payment card created for the Accor hotel group. It enables you to accumulate points on certain purchases, which can be used in one of the chain’s hotels participating in the All programme.
These are all concrete and innovative solutions that are reinventing payment for professionals and individuals alike, and will be highlighted at the 2022 edition of Vivatech
At your fingertips
Consumers and professionals alike want to pay simply and quickly. And that’s the whole point of the BNP Paribas biometric card, which incorporates a fingerprint reader instead of the traditional code. A solution that means users no longer have to enter their code for purchases over 50 euros.
To know more
French habits on mobile payments: tested in 2021, approved in 2022
Practices that are becoming commonplace
- 58% of French consumers say they are aware of and use mobile payment in shops
- 61% are dematerialising their loyalty cards (+5 points versus 2021)
Innovations that are beginning to find their audience - 47% of French consumers say they have already used a menu consultation, ordering or payment solution at a restaurant (+8 points compared to 2021)
- 42% send money to friends (+5 points compared to 2021)
- 40% create or participate in online money pots (+4 points vs. 2021)
- Keen on novelties and often early adopters, 40% of 16–24-year-olds have already paid a tip via QR code.
OpinionWay survey for Lyf published in April 2022
Photos credits : Gorodenkoff ; WaveBreakMediaMicro ; Hedgehog94