FINLAND

Source: IMF, International Financial Statistics, July 2021.

• The Finnish central bank is Suomen Pankki (www.suomenpankki.fi).
• The Suomen Pankki is a member of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) and operates certain activities, such as issuing currency, under the authority of the European Central Bank (ECB –www.ecb.europa.eu).

Bank supervision 

• In November 2014, the ECB, via the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), assumed responsibility for supervising the financial stability of banks operating within the euro zone. However, while the ECB has final supervisory authority over all banks operating within the euro zone, it will only directly supervise those banks classified as ‘significant’ under the terms of the SSM (115 significant banking groups have been recognized to date). ‘Less significant’ banks will continue to be supervised by the national supervisory authority, i.e. Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finanssivalvonta –www.finanssivalvonta.fi).

• Fixed item-based fees are applied on payments between residents and non-residents.

• Credit transfers are used by companies to pay salaries and suppliers, and to make tax and treasury payments.
• SEPA credit transfers are settled via STEP2.
• All Finnish banks participate in the SEPA credit transfer scheme.
• High-value and urgent domestic and cross-border (within the euro zone) credit transfers can be settled in real time via TARGET2-Suomen Pankki.
• High-value, domestic and urgent ‘express transfers’ can also be processed via POPS.
• High-value and urgent cross-border credit transfers can also be settled with end-of-day value via the Euro Banking Association's EURO1 system. Four banks in Finland participate directly in EURO1.
• High-value cross-border credit transfers in domestic and other currencies can be processed via SWIFT, correspondent banking and bank branch networks.
• The European Payment Council’s SCT Inst scheme enables the transfer of funds to another account in less than ten seconds. The maximum threshold value is EUR 100,000, although there is no upper limit for transfers within Finnland. There are five Finnish participants.
• EBA Clearing and Italy’s SIA Group have developed and implemented a pan-European platform for instant EUR payments called RT1. It is fully compliant with the SCT Insts scheme and is in line with the ISO 20022 global messaging standards for instant payments. There are six participants from Finland.
• EBA Clearing has launched a pan-European request to pay (R2P) infrastructure solution with the support of 27 payment service providers from 11 countries. The new 24/7 service is compatible with the SCT and SCT Inst schemes and allows payees to take the initiative to request a specific payment from the payer.
• TIPS is a pan-European service for the settlement of instant payments in central bank money. The service enables payment service providers and ACHs with access to TARGET2 to offer fund transfers 24/7, 365 days a year. TIPS is aligned with SCT Insts. It is primarily focused on EUR payments but is technically capable of settling payments denominated in other currencies. There are no Finnish participants to date.

• Direct debits are used for regular payments, such as utility bills.
• There are a number of alternative domestic direct debit schemes in Finland, including direct invoicing, e-invoicing and SEPA direct debits.
• Direct invoicing allows the payer to verify payment information before the payment is made.
• E-invoicing, offered by banks, enables clients to send electronic invoices directly to their corporate and consumer customers.
• SEPA direct debits are settled on a same-day basis via STEP2. There are eight participants in the Core SDD scheme and one in the B2B SDD scheme.

• The cheque is rarely used in Finland. In 2020, just EUR 21 million in cheque payments was processed, down from EUR 56 million in 2019 and EUR 283 million in 2018.
• Cheques are primarily used for high-value business payments.
• Cheques are processed by POPS and settled via TARGET2-Suomen Pankki.
• Cheque payments above a bilaterally agreed settlement threshold are settled directly via TARGET2-Suomen Pankki.

• Card payments, particularly debit card payments, are increasingly popular, especially for retail transactions. There were 1,746 million debit card transactions in 2020, compared to 161 million credit card transactions.
• Payments with Finnish payment cards decreased slightly in 2020, to 1.9 billion, compared to 2019. The total value of card payments increased by 3.5%, to EUR 56.0 billion, from EUR 54.1 billion over the same period.
• There were 9.9 million payment cards in circulation at the end of 2019.
• Contactless card technology is available in Finland. Contactless payments accounted for 55% of the total volume of card payments in 2020.
• Most payments are processed by Nets.
• All cards are SEPA-compliant with EMV chips.

• There were 1,751 ATMs in Finland at the end of 2019.
• All ATMs and POS terminals are EMV-compliant.

• There are a number of electronic wallet schemes in Finland. E-purse cards are issued by some public transport operators as well as phone and retail companies.
• International pre-paid cards are available.
• Mobile payment schemes such as MobilePay and Siirto are available.
• A total of 168 million remote payments were made in2020, 36% more than in 2019. Total value grew 23% to EUR 6.8 billion.

• BNP Paribas provides a comprehensive range of trade finance and supply chain management solutions to the key exporting companies in the Nordics, enabling them to mitigate their payment risk, secure commercial contracts and enhance their working capital needs. Through the bank's trade centre for the Nordics, BNP Paribas provides a single entry point for its customers to manage all their trade finance needs including advice on local guarantee wording.

• The EU has trade agreements in place with over 30 countries.
• The EU is currently in free trade negotiations with a number of countries, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Australia, Indonesia, Mercosur (the Southern Common Market), Uruguay, and the USA. The EU and the UK are currently negotiating their future trading relationship following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

SSources: IMF, International Financial Statistics and World DataBank, August 2020.