Operators behind Danish mobile payment venture Paii have decided to sell the service to Swipp, the country’s second most popular mobile payments service, which is owned by a consortium of Danish banks.

Paii’s chairman Flemming Jenson explained the decision, saying that the operators – TDC, Telenor, Telia and 3 – have “come to the conclusion that payments are not telecommunications companies’ core business in the same way as it is for the banks”.

Swipp plans to launch a new app in 2015 which will merge the best technology from both services and offer online, offline and P2P payments.

Martin Andersen, managing director of Swipp – owned by leading Nordic banks Nordea, the country’s Association of Regional Banks, as well as its Association of Local Banks and Nykredit – said that “by combining our knowledge, experience and skills from both banks and telecommunications companies, we get a unique position to expand mobile payments in Denmark. Traders have access to a larger customer base and the consumer gets far more opportunities to pay by phone.”

“The combination with Paii makes it much faster to develop a customised and user-friendly mobile payment solution that can be integrated directly into the cash registers in retail chains,” he added.

The leader in the Danish m-payment market is Danske Bank’s MobilePay, with Swipp at number two and Paii coming in third.

Swipp’s next move is similarly aggressive — it wants to acquire MobilePay in the next two years, according to local business paper Børsen Finans.