The Swedish-based Swedbank has announced it is winding down its mobile payment service just six months after launching it.
The QR code-based payment system, Bart, failed to attract enough interest amongst consumers, with only 20,000 signing up to use the service on their smartphones.
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Swedbank’s head of mobile payments, Carl Molinero, said: "We have not reached the volume that we wanted, it is a contributing factor. This applies to both the dealer side as the consumer side."
Press officer Anna Sundblad said: "It is true that we will wind Bart down in the spring of 2014. The decision is taken."
Both Sundblad and Molinero declined to say how much the bank had invested in the m-payment service.
In June 2013, Swedbank announced it was rolling Bart out across all Axfood stores in the country.
The Swedish grocery chain had QR code cameras mounted next to all the cash registers, but this partnership was not enough to spur customers to take up Swedbank’s Bart service.
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