A number of payments startups at FinovateEurope 2011 may represent interesting partnership opportunities for banks.

Celent analysts regularly attend Finovate events, which showcase the latest and most interesting financial services technology startups. In this report, Innovative Payments Startups: Bank Friends or Foes?, Celent provides an overview of Finovate’s first European event and examines six payments companies and their offerings: BOKU, eWise, Ixaris, LiqPAY.com, Rêv Worldwide, and SecureKey.

Payments offerings discussed in this report reflect many of the retail payment trends observed by Celent, including continued innovation of online payments, new schemes, open platforms, P2P payments, and the varied use of mobile devices. They also serve as a reminder that entrants and technology players are at the forefront of payments innovation.

So where does that leave the banks? “Banks have little to fear from this particular group of payment innovators,” says Zilvinas Bareisis, Senior Analyst with Celent’s Banking Group and author of the report. “To the contrary, some of these companies represent excellent partnership opportunities for the most agile banks to bring innovations to the payments market.”