Towards an integrated European market for card, internet and mobile payments

 

Towards an integrated European market for card, internet and mobile payments

Secure, efficient, competitive and innovative electronic payments are crucial if consumers, retailers and companies are to enjoy the full benefits of the Single Market, and increasingly so as the world moves beyond bricks-and-mortar trade towards e-commerce. The way goods and services are purchased in Europe is fundamentally changing. As EU citizens and businesses become increasingly active outside their country of origin, electronic payments that work smoothly across borders significantly facilitate their daily lives. Building on achievements in the field of retail payments, Europe has an opportunity to be at the cutting edge of what ‘making a payment’ could mean in the future, be it with a payment card, on the internet or by using a mobile phone.

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Vodafone and Visa forge NFC partnership

Mobile World Congress: Vodafone and Visa have formed the world’s largest m-commerce partnership to allow consumers to pay for items directly from their handsets.

The mobile wallet proposition, which will be Vodafone branded, is set to launch in more than 30 countries worldwide, spanning five continents. It will launch in the UK in the “coming financial year”.

The Vodafone service follows that of rival Orange, which in May partnered with Barclaycard to launch its mobile payments service Quick Tap. O2 is also set to roll out a wallet service in the coming months, despite the launch being delayed

Users of the Vodafone wallet will be able to pay for goods with Near Field Communications (NFC) enabled SIMs by waving their devices in front of payment terminals to purchase low-value items from the balance in their Visa pre-paid accounts. They will also be able to make high value purchases using a secure password.

Peter Ayliffe, CEO of Visa Europe, says: “Our partnership with Vodafone represents a huge stride forward for mobile payments. Visa’s future of payments initiative is more than just a promise: these services are real, tangible and coming to the mainstream consumer market in the very near future.”

The two brands will also expand the platform to other industries such as transport and utilities companies, so that they can also host their own services such as ticketing and loyalty schemes within the wallet.

Speaking at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao, said it is important mobile operators - and companies from wider industries - “co-operate on standards” for future services such as mobile payments.

He also called on regulators to be more supportive in their approach to help the mobile industry grow.

“We really need to stop this autopilot regulation mentality that is still prevailing in many parts of the world. [The more] our industry gets regulated [the more it] loses resources. Autopilot regulation is a legacy of the past,” he said.

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