MobilePay founding member of new European mobile payment association

Seven leading mobile payment providers have agreed to foster collaboration and international payment through a new association, European Mobile Payment System Association (EMPSA). The EMPSA members combine 25 million registered users, above one million merchant acceptance points and more than 350 partner banks attached.

The association will from the start cover Denmark and Finland (MobilePay), Belgium (Banccontact Payconiq), Germany and Austria (Bluecode), Portugal (SIBS), Sweden (Swish), Norway (VIPPS) and Switzerland (TWINT). More countries and mobile payment systems are expected to join the association over the next months.

Mark Wraa-Hansen, the CEO of MobilePay, is pleased that MobilePay plays a central role in EMPSA as a founding member.

“The rapid growth in mobile payments will lead to an increasing user demand of being able to pay everywhere in Europe with your mobile payment solution, leaving cards and physical wallets behind. EMPSA can be vital in achieving interoperability within a short timeframe,” Mark Wraa-Hansen says. 

First focus area will be cross-border payments
Focus the first year will be on delivering pilot cases on users paying across EMPSA-countries. The seven existing members of EMPSA all have similar set-ups and will expectedly use the QR code to create technical compability.
The new association have not yet been in dialogue with the European Commission but the EU have earlier asked member countries to be active in achieving interoperability.

“We therefore expect that our initiative will be well received and that we will see more mobile payment systems join in the time to come,” Mark Wraa-Hansen says.

Read more about the new organization EMPSA