BankAxept and Visa announce new recommended industry standard for improved payment choice in stores

In Norway, banks issue co-badged payment cards, typically with BankAxept and Visa. Most merchants have pre-set their terminals to select one of the two brands, but customers can override the merchant’s preferred choice if they wish - usually by pressing the yellow button on the terminal. In a guidance from October 2024, Norway’s Financial Supervisory Authority highlighted that the ‘yellow button’ solution has weaknesses, which today’s announced new solution addresses.

“Through dialogue, we have jointly developed a recommended new industry standard that complies with the current regulation, allowing merchants to pre-set the payment terminal to automatically select a specific payment brand, which customers can then choose to override. We hope and believe this will bring much-needed stability for actors in the in-store payment value chain,” says Øyvind Westby Brekke, CEO of Stø, the company behind BankAxept.

“We’re pleased to have reached this agreement with BankAxept on a recommended new industry standard in Norway for payment choice in stores. By introducing clearer terminal information and improving the user journey, we make it far easier for customers to switch between payment schemes - significantly strengthening Norwegian consumers’ ability to exercise their right to choose how they pay,” says Bente Irene Josefsen, Country Manager for Visa in Norway.

Making Merchant Choice and Consumer Options Visible
For both BankAxept and Visa, it has been important to make the merchant’s preferred payment brand and the customer’s choice more transparent and understandable, while ensuring payments can be completed simply and efficiently without unnecessary friction.

The recommended user journeys involve using the payment terminal screen to display and guide customers who wish to override the merchant’s choice. If the customer does not want to choose anything other than the merchant’s preferred brand, the process remains unchanged - the customer simply taps the card. 

Both BankAxept and Visa support the recommended new solution, which safeguards both merchants and consumers right to choose and promotes healthy competition among acquirers, terminal providers, and card schemes. A shared interpretation of the law fosters equal rules and competitive conditions. 

BankAxept and Visa are present on most common bank cards in Norway - around 7.2 million cards in total - but not all. The parties hope and believe other card schemes will also support the new solution.

Principles of the new recommended new industry standard:

• Merchants may pre-set the terminal to automatically select a specific payment brand, which the customer can then override
• Simple and efficient user journey with minimal friction
• Improved transparency and parity regarding payment choice 

Visa and BankAxept are now working on detailed illustrations for the market.