European Payments Council teams with telcos on mobile payment initiative

The European Payments Council (EPC) says it will work with GSMA - an international trade group of mobile operators - to accelerate the deployment of mobile payment services in the single euro payments area (Sepa).

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European Payments Council teams with telcos on mobile payment initiative

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The EPC - which represents 8000 banks - says the cross-industry cooperation will enable banks to deliver better mobile payments services to customers, supported by the existing mobile infrastructure.

The partners say new mobile services will be facilitated by a so-called 'trusted service manager', an entity that would provide a single point of contact for mobile service providers and which would also manage the distribution, configuration and activation of mobile services on NFC-enabled handsets.

The GSMA says it will initially team with the EPC to define "a contractual framework document detailing the minimum set of requirements for a trusted service manager to interface with banks and mobile operators".

Commenting on the alliance, EPC chairman, Gerard Hartsink, says: "We are convinced that this cross industry cooperation between GSMA and EPC is the best way forward for efficiently enabling the mobile as a channel for initiation of payments in Sepa, and this cooperation model could also be a model for other parts of the world."

The GSMA said last year that 12 telcos around the world will trial NFC-based contactless mobile payment technology as a precursor to the launch of commercial services. The pilots are part of the GSMA's Pay-Buy-Mobile initiative, which aims to develop a global interoperable mobile payments system.

In today's statement, the GSMA says seven mobile operators - AT&T, FarEasTone, KTF, Orange, SFR, Softbank and Turkcell - are currently piloting the mobile technology and a further seven plan to begin trials in the near future.

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