German payment service Paydirekt wants to expand in Europe

Paydirekt, the online payment service of the German banks, wants to expand its service in Europe. The planned expansion isn’t something that will happen very soon, but in the medium term the payment solution, which started as a PayPal rival, should be available for customers outside of Germany.

“The road is going into that direction”, says Joachim Schmalzl, executive member of the German Savings Bank Association. This German umbrella organization, funded by the regional savings banks associations together with the national banks, announced Paydirekt in November last year.

Paydirekt was officially launched during Deutschen Sparkassentag last week. All German savings banks confirmed their participation, which means 15 million customers with online-enabled checking accounts can use the system immediately and pay their online purchases conveniently, securely and directly from their checking account.

In December, the participating banks announced they were very happy with the success of online payment method. Paydirekt was very well received by the customers and the organization recorded 150,000 registrations after just six weeks.

About Paydirekt

The payment solution was put into market as a competitor to Paypal, after many banks in Germany complained about the dominance of the American payment company. Foreign consumers were already able to use Paydirekt, provided they have a bank account with online access at one of the participating banks. But now there are plans to expand the Paydirekt services to other European countries.