Case Study: How iDEAL Came To Conquer Dutch Online Payments

In late 2005, the big three Dutch banks launched iDEAL — an alternative payment system that lets Dutch online shoppers authorize online payments from their current account through their bank's online banking site. Because of its clear advantages over existing systems, the banks' success in driving both consumer and merchant adoption, and a clear business case, iDEAL has become extremely successful in the Netherlands, evidenced by the fact that 45% of Dutch Net users have used it in the past year. We think that online banking transfer systems like iDEAL have the potential to succeed beyond the Netherlands.