Discount's payments app will gain access to 2 million customers in the largest food chain in the country • Competition in the field will not leave the "beat" of the workers alone at the top
The chairmen and CEOs of Shufersal and Discount
Photography:
Sivan Farage
The CEO of the Discount Group, Uri Levin, and the CEO of Shufersal, Yitzhak Aberkhan, announced yesterday a strategic cooperation agreement, under which PayBox will become an independent company, owned by Discount and Shufersal, which will hold 50.1% and 49.9%, respectively.
Discount bought the franchise to use the mobile payments app, Facebook, in 2017, after Hapoalim launched "Beat" a year earlier and near the launch of Leumi's (Pepper Pay) pay.
The big banks have launched the payment applications as part of the new technological options that the Bank of Israel has made, with a real lag behind other countries in the world.
The EMV standard for payments came into use in Europe years ago, and although Israel is a world power in payment technologies and fintech in general, only recently has the standard come into use in Israel.
Therefore, although the rate of penetration of smartphones into the country, as well as smartphones, is among the highest in the world, we could not use one of the most useful options they offer - the payment apps.
This competitive market is about to be joined by the giant Apple, with its payment app - Apple Pay, and it's pretty clear that after that we'll see Google Pay and Samsung Pay here as well.
But the next challenge in the field, too, will be that of the regulator and not of technology: to oblige all parties to cooperate in the open wallet.
Bank Hapoalim have been claiming for years that they are in favor of an open wallet, and have not even considered the possibility of launching an app for their account holders only.
This is contrary to the idea.
Indeed, most users of "Bit" do not have an account with Bank Hapoalim, and they use the app using their various credit cards, which perform the clearing - an action that the bank does not engage in at all in this framework.
But in the transition to a "wallet" - making purchases by attaching the phone, or watch, to a device at the point of sale - not everyone agrees to accept their competitors' means of payment.
This is why "Bit" has announced the issuance of "Bitcard" - a kind of non-bank credit card, which will bypass the refusals to receive payment by touch through "Bit".
Sources at Bank Hapoalim told Israel Today that the bank would be happy to withdraw its intention to issue the card, the clearing in which ICC was chosen to perform, if all parties agree, or are obliged, to cooperate with any authorized party in the field.
Meanwhile, as mentioned, Discount is expanding its competition in the field with its cooperation with Shufersal, the largest sales floor in the country with 2 million customers.
Discount has about 1.5 million customers on Facebook and it is now authorized to accommodate the members of Shufersal's credit club and thus expand significantly.
Yitzhak Aberkhan, CEO of Shufersal, said yesterday at the launch: "Today we bring a dramatic and innovative message to the consumer public in Israel, who can enjoy a combination of the world of benefits in the consumer-retail sector, ongoing financial wallet and other banking activities." .
