Modern technologies under the partnership of banks and mobile carriers

Implementation of mobile payments in the single euro payments area (Sepa) will be facilitated due to the partnership of the European Payments Council (EPC) and GSMA, an international trade group of mobile operators.

8000 banks participating in EPC will be enabled to provide mobile payments services to customers with the support of the existing mobile infrastructure.

There are plans to create 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.

"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," comments Gerard Hartsink, EPC chairman.

As per the GSMA 7 mobile carriers are already conducting a pilot test of NFC-based contactless mobile payment technology. Among them there is AT&T, FarEasTone, KTF, Orange, SFR, Softbank and Turkcell. In the near future 7 other operators are going to join the move.