The European Payments Council is to issue a Request for Information (RFI) to identify parties interested in becoming a provider of a Standardised Proxy Lookup (SPL) service for pan-European interoperability of person-to-person mobile payments.
The SPL service will allow the exchange of the data necessary to initiate P2P mobile payments by linking a mobile telephone number to an IBAN. The strategy is aimed at overcoming a fragmented scenario characterised by multiple incompatible standards by providing a unified mechanism for P2P relay.
The Market Implementation Working Group (MIWG) of the Mobile Proxy Forum, created in 2016 and consisting of European stakeholders involved in P2P mobile payments, is currently preparing the RFI for approval at the eleventh meeting of the Steering Committee, which will take place on 13 July 2017.
An original deadline of November 2017 for the implementation of the SPL service is no longer considered feasible, the EPC states. The MPL Steering Committee says it will report back in time for its November 2017 meeting with a proposal on the revised and final timeline, the technology approach to be followed and the future governance setup for the management of the SPL service.