OREANDA-NEWS. Wa! and Fivory, the two electronic wallets developed respectively by BNP Paribas and Carrefour, and Crédit Mutuel, Auchan, Mastercard, Oney and Total, are pooling their expertise around a single secure, multiservice, app-based mobile payment solution.

Building on the achievements of the two separate projects to date, this new initiative will speed up the development of an ecosystem of top-rank players in this field.

A revolution is now underway in the retailing sector, which has been strongly impacted by the predominance of the smartphone and the popularity of social networks.

Sharing the same vision, both Fivory and Wa! were designed to meet the specific needs arising from the new consumer behaviour by digitising both payments and the various stages of the purchasing journey, regardless of which distribution channel is used. Going forward, the new unified app will enable the customer to pay, with just a single movement, for his/her purchases both in-store and on the Internet, with the guarantee of still being able to claim their usual personal loyalty benefits plus coupons, special offers, etc., and also to make use of new mobile payment services, including peer to peer money transfers and an invoice settlement facility.

The intention underlying the decision to merge Fivory and Wa! is to be able to offer all players in this ecosystem a single innovative solution which capitalises on their separate achievements and unites the various partners.

A new brand name is scheduled to be released by the end of the year and the new app is expected to be available in early 2017.