The European Payments Council (EPC), representing the European banking industry on payments, has released the
“Mobile Contactless SEPA Card Payments Interoperability Implementation Guidelines” for public consultation. The EPC has requested industry feedback by 17 June 2011. The final version of these guidelines is expected to be published during October 2011. The EPC is committed to advancing a sustainable mobile contactless payments ecosystem through the delivery of implementation guidelines that promote an interoperable and flexible architecture.
The Guidelines offer a description of the mobile contactless payments ecosystem today and the stakeholder involved, and is aimed at providing a clear understanding of the technology available and its deployment within the market.
The EPC believes that the enhanced level of clarity offered by the document will ensure adherence to an adequate level of security measures and appropriate governance by payment service providers, and will enable the quick development and implementation of mobile solutions by:
- Promoting the use of open standards, which will avoid market fragmentation and the deployment of proprietary solutions with limited geographical reach.
- Providing transparency to market participants by clarifying the roles of key stakeholders.
- Stating the position and responsibilities of the EPC in relation to other industry bodies.
- Defining the adequate level of security for the whole mobile contactless payment value chain in order to establish confidence in this environment.
EPC Chair Gerard Hartsink commented: “The EPC Mobile Contactless SEPA Card Payments Interoperability Implementation Guidelines are the EPC’s next step in making SEPA mobile contactless payments a reality. The EPC invites stakeholders to participate in the consultation process and to provide feedback on these guidelines by 17 June 2011.” These guidelines are exclusive to mobile contactless payments using near field communications (NFC) technology. The EPC is also developing implementation guidelines for mobile remote payments to be released at a later stage.
