The European Payments Council has published a white paper on mobile payments, together with a public consultation on the development of mobile payments in the EU.

The consultation period ends on 1 September 2016 and all stakeholders are invited to participate.

According to the paper, mobile phones have achieved full market penetration in Europe and offer a wide range of services, including payments. It says they are “an ideal channel for SEPA payment instruments (credit transfers, direct debits, cards)”.

Greater harmonisation of mobile payments in Europe – still at an early stage – would mean a more uniform and improved consumer and merchant experience in an integrated market. Benefits would be greater convenience, cost-effectiveness, trust, and competitiveness.

This is an updated version of a paper that was first published in 2012. The updated paper includes information about new developments in the market, such as:

• new types of mobile proximity payments (such as those based on Quick Response – QR- code);
• Host Card Emulation (HCE) technology, enabling mobile devices to emulate a contactless card;
• tokenisation (i.e. the usage of payment ‘tokens’ – substitutes – instead of real payer related account data in payment transactions);
• and the new stakeholders which entered the market.