Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I open up my Swish App (owned/operated by big Swedish banks), enter my friends phone number (either manually or via my contacts) and then enter the amount and a message, totally free and significantly more convenient than cash, which I basically never carry.

I can even pay the kids selling strawberries by the roadside via Swish.

Then again, Sweden is in the forefront of the cashless society at the moment, for better or worse.



Let me expand on that, Swish is currently free for sending a transaction between two persons.

Accepting Swish-payments for merchants, companies, organizations and associations is not free however. The last time I checked (a couple of months back) - Swish was more expensive than handling credit cards in general.


Is Swish an open system that any bank can join, or is it a way for the incumbents to keep new banks out of the market?


Any bank can join.. if they meet the requirements.

https://www.bankgirot.se/en/about-bankgirot/participant-requ...

There are plenty of legal regulations to wade through to join, but it's not impossible and the requirements are publicly available.


And plenty of institutional red tape added by "BiR", but sure, not impossible. Just not something your regular startup would pull through.


Is this app free software?


No, the Swish application is proprietary software.

The application is however a gratis download from the AppStore / Google Play store.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: