Competing E-Purse Systems: A Standard Battle

Electronic purse systems can be an alternative for cash payments as well as PIN payments or credit card payments. For retailers as well as banks, this is attractive for reasons of cost and speed. One common system seems feasible, but in The Netherlands there have been two competing systems for several years. The common banks started with one system, but one of these banks introduced a competing system. This resulted in a costly battle. In the end, the banks decided to return to one system. This case can be seen as a battle between two standards, and standardization theory can be used to analyze it. The challenge for each stakeholder is to make a decision without knowing what the other stakeholders will do. In this case, we take the perspective of the bank that initiated the competing e-purse system.