The major Dutch banks – ING, ABN Amro and Rabobank – have turned over ownership of their iDeal online payment system to Currence, the company which operates the Pin and Chipknip direct debit systems.

This means the system they developed can now be used by other banks. Fortis is already on board and SNS has said it plans to stop using the MSN-based ‘Bill’ payment system and use iDeal instead.
Currence told De Telegraaf that Friesland Bank and Van Lanschot Bankiers have also shown an interest in the system – which would give it 95% of the banking market. Currence expects to process more than 50 million iDeal transactions a year by 2012.