Vipps and Klarna Partner to Enable Contactless Payments for Millions Across the Nordics

Vipps MobilePay has integrated the Klarna Card into its contactless payment feature, allowing users across the Nordics to "tap" at terminals using the Klarna ecosystem. This move signals a significant consolidation of alternative payment methods and traditional card schemes, leveraging the EU-mandated opening of iPhone NFC chips to challenge dominant mobile wallets.

What was announced

Vipps MobilePay is expanding its "tapping" functionality by allowing users to add and use the Klarna Card for contactless payments. This feature, which utilizes the iPhone’s NFC chip, was first launched by Vipps in Norway in December 2024 and subsequently in Sweden a year later. Since its inception, more than 2 million users across the Nordic region have activated the tapping feature within the Vipps and MobilePay apps.

The integration allows Klarna Cardholders to choose between paying the full amount immediately or utilizing "pay later" options at the point of sale. Once activated within the Vipps wallet, the card can be used at over 150 million merchants globally that accept Visa. To incentivize adoption in the Swedish market, Vipps is offering 100 SEK in cashback for each of the first three tap payments made using a Klarna Card.

This development follows a 2025 rollout that allowed Klarna Card payments for online businesses via Vipps and MobilePay in Norway, Denmark, and Finland. The current update brings this capability to physical payment terminals across all served geographies, including Sweden. The technical foundation for this service relies on the 2024 EU regulatory requirement that forced Apple to grant third-party developers access to the iPhone's NFC chip, a move that saw Vipps become the first provider globally to launch contactless payments on the device.

"Tapping with your mobile at the payment terminal is one of the fastest-growing ways to pay in the Nordics. For our users, it is a clear advantage to be able to use different cards when they pay, depending on what they are buying. By adding the Klarna Card, users get another way to pay with Vipps,"

Ida Ryde, Country Manager in Sweden at Vipps MobilePay.

The companies involved

Vipps MobilePay is a dominant force in the Nordic payment landscape, formed through the merger of Norway’s Vipps and the MobilePay platform which served Denmark and Finland. The entity has become a central infrastructure for peer-to-peer transfers and retail payments in the region. Its recent technical milestones are largely tied to its early adoption of open NFC access on iOS devices, positioning it as a direct competitor to established digital wallets like Apple Pay.

Klarna is one of the world’s most prominent fintech firms, widely recognized for pioneering the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) model. While it has historically focused on e-commerce integrations, the Klarna Card represents its push into physical retail and everyday spending. The company has a massive footprint in the fintech sector, with its services integrated into thousands of global merchants. By partnering with regional leaders like Vipps MobilePay, Klarna extends its reach beyond its own app, embedding its flexible payment options into the primary digital wallets used by Nordic consumers for daily transactions and cross-border transfers.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has extensively tracked Klarna’s expansion across the European market, including its recent efforts to scale flexible payment solutions. We previously covered how Solidgate and Klarna Partner to Scale Flexible Payments Across Europe, as well as the company's localized efforts such as when Klarna and Alza.at Partner to Launch Flexible Payments for Austrian Shoppers. Additionally, our reporting has touched on the broader BNPL sector’s integration into specialized industries, noted in Flex Dental Solutions Launches BNPL and Surcharging to Boost Practice Revenue. While Vipps MobilePay has a smaller footprint in our historical data, the convergence of these two entities highlights a maturing Nordic fintech ecosystem.

What this means

This integration is a clear indicator that the "wallet wars" in Europe are entering a new phase of interoperability. By bringing Klarna’s credit and BNPL capabilities into the Vipps ecosystem, the companies are effectively bypassing the need for users to choose between a specialized lending app and a general-purpose payment wallet. This puts significant pressure on traditional banks and Apple Pay, which have long relied on ecosystem lock-in. The move also validates the EU’s regulatory stance on NFC access; without that intervention, third-party wallets would remain relegated to QR codes or online-only transactions, struggling to compete for the high-frequency "tap" at the physical point of sale.