The European Payments Council (EPC), the decision-making and coordination body of the European banking industry in relation to payments and GSMA, representing the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry, have released a paper 'TSM Service Management Requirements and Specifications' in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) for public consultation.

The consultation open to all interested market participants marks an important breakthrough in cross-industry cooperation between payment services providers and mobile network operators aimed at empowering over 500 million European consumers to make SEPA payments using their mobile phone.

The consultation now launched by the EPC and GSMA will eventually lead to shared solutions supporting the establishment of commercial relationships between banks, mobile network operators and Trusted Service Managers (TSM) thus promoting mobile contactless payments across SEPA. In addition, the agreement on TSM specifications allows interested parties to develop services in the role of a TSM.

TSMs will facilitate the distribution, configuration and activation of the bank’s payment application on the Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC, also known as a SIM card) within bank customers’ Near Field Communications1 (NFC) handsets (their mobile phone).

Dag-Inge Flatraaker, chair of the EPC M-Channel Group, said: “The requirements developed by EPC and GSMA will have a major impact enabling the mobile as a channel for payments in SEPA. This initiative paves the way for more efficient commercial launches of mobile contactless payments and contributes to interoperability and freedom of choice for the different stakeholders.”

Alex Sinclair, chief technology officer and chief strategy officer of GSMA, said: “This is a significant move as it is the first time that mobile operators and banks have worked together at the international level on a common vision for contactless payments.”