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If you cant beat them ..... cooperate.

This looks like the latest installment in the trend to avoid disintermediation.

Interestign to see what MasterCard would have done in the UK now they own both the card rails and the Direct Debit rails - which would they prefer PayPay to promote?

This looks like a good idea -  to keep the SEPA scheme relevant by offering instant transfers before the Fintechs disintermediate the processes and fragment the market.

But the 18 month timescale to launch looks ambitious given the history of the original SEPA project.

Some would argue that it is already behind the curve, but I guess there is still focus on driving volume and mass adoption of normal SEPA CT.

However, SCT Inst (needs a better name) could open up many new opportunities for both pan-European and normal European payments, so let’s hope the SEPA lessons have been learnt.

10% is a major milestone, and in some hotspots such as TFL and fast food contactless payments are now commonplace.

However we still see a wide regional variation of the use of contactless in the UK, and specifically this seems to be directly proportional to the distance from London.

In our survey last year, we found that over 70% of UK consumers still do not have a contactless card, so no chance of expressing any “preference” to use it.

As recently as September my son was issued with a new “Student Account ” debit card that was not contactless enabled - by the same bank that is spending millions on advertising Apple Pay !

Until banks get serious about universally issuing contactless enabled cards, growing from 10% will be even more of a challenge!

Agreed that contactless payments are now mainstream (even if it is just for those lucky cardholders issued with the right cards), and NFC/HCE is probably now in a similar roll out phase.

Will 2016 be the year of true (i.e. non-NFC/HCE) mobile payments?

As for Blockchain, is it a new tool in the box or a new type of deckchair on the Titanic? – are the big players too big to sink?

I am sure Walmart did a lot of consumer testing before deciding to launch with this QR code based approach.

The benefit it brings to Walmart is that it can run on almost all existing smartphones, independant of brand or carrier, and does not an upgrade to the latest device. The app also puts Walmart in control of their own UX rather than Apple, Samsung or Google.

As a side benefit, QR codes are also much cheaper and easier to deploy than payment terminals, and the consumer effectively brings their own payment device. 

Thanks for the update Steve,

This looks dangerously like there is a chance of common sense prevailing, and that practical and usable solutions could fall within the new rules.

PSD2 promises to facilitate a whole new level of innovation, so it is good to see that consumers are being considered and usability is being balanced with absolute security.

The one thing Apple Pay has done is to bring Mobile Payments into the spotlight.

I was on record a few years ago as saying that NFC Payments was “a solution looking for a problem”, but I now believe that Apple will make Apple Pay successful.

Apple’s focus on consumer experience rather than building the technology behind NFC/HCE/TSM/etc. solutions, its huge installed base of loyal customers, plus the TFL adoption and mass roll-out of contactless terminals in the UK almost guarantee success.

Darren is right to say that Zapp has been a long time in the making, and has to now try and recapture the momentum of the early promise.

Thanks to the many Fintech innovators and the energy they have, the world of payments is a much different place to when Zapp was conceived.

Open and flexible Vs Propriatary and stylish.

I see both options continuing while we are still in the land grab phase of mbile payments. Apple will continue doing wat it does best, and Google have now proven they will not give up easily. 

Thanks for a great summary Martin.

Monitise - A great name, but poor execution

Will the US become the King Canute of payments?

Surely this game is over, EMV Chip & PIN is the de-facto standard for the rest of the world, and there are plenty of experts available to help out with any implementation issues.