EMPSA Wins P19 Payment Pioneer Award

The award honours achievements that drive Europe’s payment sector forward. EMPSA is awarded the first place of the category “Technology & Crypto”

Vienna/Zurich, February 14, 2022 – On Tuesday, January 25, 2022, payment platform P19 awarded its “Payment Pioneer Award” at its New Year’s Event in Vienna, Austria. The first place in the award’s category “Technology & Crypto” went to the European Payment Systems Association (EMPSA). The Payment Pioneer Award aims to recognize and honour projects and initiatives in the payment sector that are characterized by their innovative business model and disruptive use cases. Factors such as sustainability, innovativeness, and the degree of collaboration involved are considered as well.

The jury consisted of reputable representatives of Austria’s payment sector: Marlene Halikias (Grant Thornton), Georg Hanschitz (Huawei), Max Jürschik (P19), Doris Partel-Niederreiter (T.I.T.digital), Gerald Ruschka (Post AG), Wolfgang Stockner (Bluesource), and Vlado Galevski (Netcetera). Node Venture and Nayax were placed second and third in that category.

Christian Pirkner, EMPSA Chairman and Bluecode CEO, thanks P19 for the award: “It fills us with excitement and optimism that EMPSA’s pioneering achievements and contributions to strengthen interoperability within the European payment landscape are being recognized.se The interoperability of European payment systems will allow Europe to regain its sovereignty over customer data, and the technical, legal and commercial aspects of payment in general.” EMPSA consists of 14 members in 15 European Markets, representing more than 70 Million users, more than one million merchants and hundreds of European Banks. Members are: BAMCARD (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Bankart (Slovenia), BANCOMAT (Italy), Bancontact Payconiq Company (Belgium), BLIK (Poland), BORICA AD (Bulgaria), Bluecode (Austria and Germany), iDEAL (Netherlands), MobilePay (Denmark and Finland), Plick (Italy), SIBS (Portugal), Swish (Sweden), TWINT (Switzerland) und Vipps (Norway). EMPSA strives to give Europeans the freedom to use their domestic mobile payment app anywhere in Europe.

First cross-border live transaction: EMPSA webinar on February 22

On February 22, EMPSA will be hosting a webinar that aims to explain the technical and legal underpinnings of the EMPSA network. The highlight of the webinar: the demonstration of the first live transaction between the Bluecode and Twint mobile payment solutions using the EMPSA platform. Interested parties can sign up for the webinar here.

About EMPSA:

The European Mobile Payment Association (EMPSA) consists of 14 members in 15 European Markets, representing more than 70 million users, more than one million merchants and hundreds of European Banks. Current members include: BAMCARD (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Bankart (Slovenia), BANCOMAT (Italy), Bancontact Payconiq Company (Belgium), BLIK (Poland), BORICA AD (Bulgaria), Bluecode (Austria and Germany), iDEAL (Netherlands), MobilePay (Denmark and Finland), Plick (Italy), SIBS (Portugal), Swish (Sweden), TWINT (Switzerland) und Vipps (Norway).

About P19:

P19 is a platform for all Payment Pioneers. The Payment Pioneers are a network that works to shine a light on payment as an essential area for Austria and Europe as economic powers. The goal is to strengthen Austria’s and Europe’s payment industries by driving collaboration and innovation as well as understanding and using technological advancements as the economic opportunity that they are. As of today, the Payment Pioneers count more than 700 members. More information can be found at www.p19.io.

Press inquiries:
Brendan Philipp
E: press@empsa.org
M: +43 1 803 30 84 16