Seven European providers of mobile payment services – including the Austrian-Swiss Bluecode – have founded the European Mobile Payment Systems Association (EMPSA) based in Zurich. The goal is to set common standards and counterbalance US payment services such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, MasterCard and Visa.
The founding members include Bluecode Twint (Switzerland), Swish (Sweden), Vipps (Norway), MobilePay (Finland, Denmark), Bancontact Payconiq (Belgium) and Sibs / MB Way (Portugal). „EMPSA is the key initiative to create our own standards and a competitive, interoperable framework for Europe and regain lost ground in the European payments area,“ said Bluecode CEO Christian Pirkner today in a release.
25 million users
The seven European payment providers currently have around 25 million registered users and more than one million acceptance points in the retail, hospitality and hotel sectors. The alliance must persuade even more banks, dealers and customers in Europe to survive against the US giants.
The seven EMPSA members use a visual payment method that works by scanning a barcode or QR code on their smartphone. The common system interoperability is to be established rapidly, for which a working group has been set up. An exact time when this should be possible, was not announced for the time being.
Advantage: No customer data
The advantage over credit card payments and Apple Pay as well as Google Pay sees Bluecode boss Pirkner in the data protection. Bluecode collects according to own data no customer data and offers anonymity in the sense of the basic data protection regulation (DSVGO). For a payment with Bluecode, a once-valid QR code is scanned in an app on the mobile phone display at the cash desk.
The amount paid will then be debited from the linked bank account. For the user, the app is free, the company is financed by transaction fees. The Bluecode fees are currently comparable with bankomat fees, according to the company, but will sink later.
