Twelve mobile payment systems to establish the European Mobile Payment Systems Association (EMPSA), uniting millions of mobile payment users, more than one million merchant acceptance points and hundreds of European banks. EMPSA’s vision is to enable seamless mobile payment across Europe by providing roaming solutions among participating domestic payment systems.
The smartphone as a method of payment has been successfully introduced in several European countries, experiencing significant user and usage growth over the last years. Twelve leading mobile payment providers combining millions of users agree to foster collaboration and international payment through an association, which was founded in Zurich, Switzerland. EMPSA covers Belgium (Bancontact Payconiq), Bosnia Herzegovina (BAMCARD), Germany and Austria (Bluecode), Denmark and Finland (MobilePay), Portugal (SIBS/MB WAY), Slovenia (Bankart), Sweden (Swish), Switzerland (TWINT), Norway (VIPPS), Italy (BANCOMAT & Plick) and Poland (BLIK). More countries and mobile payment systems are expected to join the association soon.
The headquarters of the EMPSA is located in Zurich, Switzerland. The association generally fosters collaboration to enable the international use of mobile payments systems and is chaired by Anton Stadelmann Deputy CEO/Member of the Executive Board of TWINT and vice-chaired by Josep Hejj, Chief Strategy Officer of Swish.
“We are convinced that this cooperation among European providers has a lot of potential and will offer new opportunities to our customers and merchants. Achieving interoperability will be the next level for the very successful local mobile payment systems.“, Anton Stadelmann explains.
EMPSA founding team members from left to right: Claus Bunkenborg (MobilePay), Tiago Bianchi de Aguiar (SIBS/ MB WAY), Mark Majgaard Wraa-Hansen (MobilePay), Nathalie Vandepeute (Bancontact Payconiq), Gonçalo Amaro (SIBS/MB WAY), Philippe Kempeners (Bancontact Payconiq), Christian Pirkner (Bluecode), Georg Schardt (Bluecode), Bjorn Skjelbred (VIPPS), Joseph Hajj (Swish), Søren Mose (TWINT), Markus Kilb (TWINT), Anton Stadelmann (TWINT)
The vision behind EMPSA is to unify the payment landscape across European borders and technologies. One of the first EMPSA-initiated projects is the establishment and implementation of a cross-platform framework, connecting all EMPSA members and allowing for effortless payment processing for millions of customers. To underscore the importance of interoperability EMPSA has already set up a working group to establish joint system interoperability. This working group is co-chaired by Christian Pirkner of Bluecode and Bjørn Skjelbred from VIPPS.
Technical interoperability is an important first step. However, besides workflows and APIs it will need a legal and commercial framework how to proceed in case of cross-system transactions, affected by different legislation and business environments. This is topic of the working group which is chaired by Rene Hägeli of TWINT and Peter Neubauer from Bluecode.”
EMPSA
Stauffacherstrasse 41
8004 Zurich, Switzerland
Under the name „European Mobile Payment Systems Association“ (EMPSA) an association exists that is governed by its articles of association, any regulations promulgated herunder and by Articles 60 ff. of the Swiss Civil Code.
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