European Payments Council Signs MoU with GlobalPlatform on Mobile

The European Payments Council (EPC), the decision-making body of the European payments industry, has signed a memorandum of understanding with GlobalPlatform, the international specification body for smart card infrastructure, to coordinate their work initiatives within the mobile contactless environment and promote interoperability of mobile technologies.

The formal liaison relationship between the EPC and GlobalPlatform will ensure that the mobile contactless technical specifications and use cases of each organization are compatible and adhere to pre-defined common requirements for mobile payments. By synchronizing their activity the organizations will minimize the duplication of effort, have access to member-only work priorities, and capitalize on the market and technical expertise available from both parties. The first priority of the MoU is to verify compliancy between GlobalPlatform's technology and the EPC use cases. Focus will also be placed on the capabilities of the GlobalPlatform Messaging Specification to standardize communication between the different players in the mobile proximity payments chain, such as banks, trusted service managers and mobile network operators. The second objective is to further analyze a possible cooperation on compliance and certification of the secure element that hosts the mobile payment applications.