A European Payments Council (EPC) podcast highlights trends expected to shape the future of payments in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) and beyond, covered in the July 2015 edition of the EPC Newsletter.

Following a Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB) meeting in June 2015, chaired by the European Central Bank (ECB), in which it discussed instant payments in euro, person-to-person (P2P) mobile payments, technical standards related to payment cards and e-invoicing payment issues.

During this meeting the EPC presented its report to the ERPB, outlining its recommendations on instant payments, as well as three conditions that must be met before any further steps can be taken. The ERPB welcomed the EPC's report as “an important step towards achieving pan-European instant payments in euro.” As a result, the EPC will prepare a proposal for the design of a SEPA credit transfer instant scheme in euro, which could be adhered to by European payment service providers on a voluntary basis.

In addition, in response to recommendations from a report provided by the ERPB working group on P2P mobile payments, the members of the ERPB subsequently agreed to “endorse the vision of allowing any person to initiate a pan-european P2P mobile payment safely and securely using a simple method with information the counterparty is prepared to share in order to make a payment.”

To listen to the podcast click here.