European regulators have found that their lack of involvement in the mobile payments area might have negatively affected the development of the market. They are trying to reverse that and are currently showing more interest now that the market is expect to take off within a few years and might affect a large portion of European consumers.
The region lacks a “concrete European framework” for systems enabling customers to make purchases using their mobile phones, according to a European Commission document obtained by Bloomberg News that seeks views on future regulation for the industry.
“As a consequence, the largest and most promising global m-payment initiatives are currently launched outside Europe,” according to the document. “Apple, Google and Visa have all announced major efforts to enter the m-payment business.”
Without measures tackling issues such as interoperability, security and collaboration between companies, the European market risks being “fragmented,” according to the EU document.
Emerging payments was not part of the original SEPA initiatives which cover card, direct debit, and credit transfer. But regulators and EPC the industry association are taking actions to correct that.
Read more about the story here: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-1…sa-invest.html
