Fivory, the digital wallet made in France

The application shows consumers the retail outlets in the vicinity, lets them select some as favourite stores, lists current promotional offers and can add them to their profile. The application can add their loyalty cards, and it is also a mobile means of payment in store, using either NFC or QR codes. At checkout, the promotion added to the wallet is automatically taken into account.
For the retailer, Fivory offers a platform for managing its promotional and advertising campaigns. Retailers can also access their customers data and are the owners thereof. Fivory also pays a commission on payments, at a similar rate to Visa and Mastercard.
Fivory is available to everyone, not just Crédit Mutuel customers. Consumers can register up to 5 payment cards and/or their bank details. An NFC sticker is supplied to allow iPhone owners to pay by NFC. Fivory was launched in Boulogne Billancourt on 14 May and has over 100 partner retailers, including Pizza Hut, Yves Rocher, Total or even independent retailers. In 2015 Fivory will be rolled out in Canada, Germany, Spain and Italy

Echangeur has monitored the development of the digital wallet concept for over 3 years and often points up the inaction of financial institution in this respect and their potential disintermediation by Techtitans like Google, Apple or even Paypal.
The Crédit Mutuel has hit hard with Fivory, which was conceived as a start-up rather than an internal project subject to major organizational constraints. The Fivory start-up employs nearly a hundred staff and has a lab to test future contactless interaction technologies like Bluetooth Low Energy or light.
Crédit Mutuel’s approach through its subsidiary demonstrates that banks are finally making progress in this field, all the more so as Fivory has clearly identified the stumbling block for a good many retailers, namely the fact of owning customer data rather than Paypal or Google owning it.
Fivory thus intends to become the cross-channel intermediary for the connected consumer. The initial feedback has been very positive, but it remains to be seen whether adoption of the system will reach a critical threshold. How will competing banks like Société Générale and BNP Paribas react? As they too are working on a similar ecosystem but with a policy of insourced innovation that may curb the flexibility such a project requires!