EMPSA: Bluecode CEO Christian Pirkner Elected as Chairman

As pan-European platform, EMPSA aims to enable interoperability between European payment systems to drive Europe’s innovation and sovereignty in the payment sector

Zurich, February 10, 2022 – On Monday, January 31, Blue Code International AG CEO, Christian Pirkner, was elected Chairman of the European Mobile Payment Systems Association (EMPSA). He is the second chairman elected after Anton Stadelmann (Twint). “I appreciate the trust that is given to me with this election, and I thank my colleagues for their support. After two years of intensive work, we are getting very close to achieving our vision: to give every European the option to pay with their domestic payment app wherever they are in Europe,” comments Pirkner. Additionally, Kim Kristoffersen (Mobile Pay) and René Hägeli (Twint) have been elected to the EMPSA board as representatives of their respective companies.

The goal of EMPSA is to connect European payment systems and make them interoperable in order to establish a comprehensive European mobile payment network. EMPSA was founded in 2019 by seven European mobile payment providers, with the goal to enable every European to use their domestic payment app anywhere in Europe. Today, EMPSA consists of 14 mobile payment providers in 15 different markets, comprising more than 70 million consumers, more than one million merchants, and several hundred European banks. “The interoperability of European payment systems will strengthen Europe as an economic power, because a sovereign and independent European payment system can react to pressure from overseas more resiliently and more agile. Not just European banks will benefit from this innovation, but especially merchants and consumers,” concludes Pirkner.

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

On February 22, EMPSA will be hosting a webinar that will 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).

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