European Mobile Payment Service Providers Aim For Cross-Border Network

Seven mobile payment service providers in mainly smaller European countries plan to join forces to create a cross-border network open to millions of users, the European Mobile Payment Systems Association (EMPSA) said on Tuesday.

The plan would link 25 million registered users, Zurich-based EMPSA said, adding it expects more countries and mobile payment systems to sign up for the project in the coming months.

The payment services that have signed up so far include Denmark’s MobilePay, Portugal’s SIBS/MB WAY and Sweden’s Swish, EMPSA said.

“With this cross-border cooperation we want to meet the wish of our users to be able to use their local mobile payment system internationally,” Soren Mose, chairman of EMPSA, said in a statement.

The association already connects more than 350 banks.

The other payment services that signed up to the project are

Bancontact Payconiq Company (Belgium), Bluecode (Austria and Germany), TWINT (Switzerland) and VIPPS (Norway).

Most of the payment services are owned by banks in their respective countries.―Reuters