OP Financial Group has partnered with Token, a Silicon Valley-based crypto-payment software provider.

Token says the agreement will enable the Finnish bank “to innovate in the European open banking market and generate new revenue streams via future payment solutions”.

OP Financial Group, the Finnish banking group, has partnered with Token, a Silicon Valley-based crypto-payment software provider, to integrate the fintech’s technology into its services.

The agreement will enable the bank “to innovate in the European open banking market and generate new revenue streams via future payment solutions”, according to Token.

Steve Kirsch, the fintech’s founder and CEO, explains: “Token is developing a global open banking ecosystem based on an open and secure payments and information API.

“Through our platform, OP Financial Group will have access to a fully operational API banking infrastructure which, when combined with the transformative attributes of programmable money, has the power to change the way the world transacts.”

Masa Peura, director new business at OP Financial Group, says the partnership will help the bank “to get an early foothold in a new era for payments”.

But in the short-term, “we are investigating interesting market opportunities with Token that put us in the driving seat and prepare us for the enactment of PSD2”, Peura adds.

The partnership with Token also falls in line with OP’s new way of working with start-ups in general, says Kristian Luoma, head of OP Lab, the banking group’s programme that works with fintech start-ups.

“We are looking for interesting use cases that we can build together quickly. We prefer to test and learn in small increments with promising start-ups in order to innovate faster,” Luoma explains.

“Working with Token allows us to deliver better experiences to our customers faster than we could ourselves.”