21 January 2014

EPC publishes updated mobile wallet payments white paper following stakeholder review

With mobile devices having achieved near full market penetration and increasingly rich functionality, they are an ideal channel for SEPA payment instruments. Creating ease, convenience and trust for end-customers is regarded as critical for the further development of mobile payments (m-payments).

Since a mobile wallet may be considered a key tool to address these challenges, the European Payments Council (EPC) has decided to devote a white paper to this concept in relation to m-payments. This document outlines among other things, how trust in, (and availability of), a wide range of easy to use services offered with mobile wallets may be seen as a facilitator for m-payments. In July 2013 the EPC issued a first draft of the white paper on mobile wallet payments to seek comments from all interested parties and received feedback from 18 different stakeholders. Subsequent to careful analysis of the contributions received, the EPC has now published a final version of the white paper.

The EPC, working together with all stakeholders active in the m-payments ecosystem, is willing to contribute to the development of a reliable and secure ecosystem for the initiation and receipt of SEPA payments by the mobile phone. The intention is to help establish an ecosystem, which could enable all payers and payees to make and receive m-payments across SEPA, and create a secure environment for the multiple stakeholders active in the field. The EPC white paper on mobile wallet payments outlines, among other things, how trust in and availability of a wide range of easy to use services offered with mobile wallets may be seen as a facilitator for m-payments. This white paper endeavours to:

• Inform stakeholders about the EPC’s commitment to m-payments in SEPA and the potential of the mobile channel to build on SEPA payment instruments. (Note that the concepts described in the white paper may also be applied to non SEPA areas.)
• Inform on the new convenient, homogenous and seamless services access and new business opportunities enabled by the usage of a mobile wallet to perform m-payment transactions.
• Provide examples of the usage of a mobile wallet for m-payments.
• Outline the mobile wallet ecosystem and the different existing models for mobile wallets.

The white paper has been written in a non-technical style to inform payment service providers, their customers and all the stakeholders involved in the payments value chain about the EPC's views on the usage of mobile wallets as an enabler for m-payments in SEPA.

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White Paper

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