GSMA and European Payments Council working to bring e-cash by next year

A new partnership has been formed between the GSM association (GSMA) and the European Payments Council with the aim to “accelerate the deployment of services that enable consumers to pay for goods and services in shops, restaurants and other locations using their mobile phones.”
From the Press release:

Both the GSMA and the European Payments Council (EPC) envisage that this cross-industry cooperation will enable banks to deliver better mobile payments services to their customers, supported by mobile operators’ infrastructure. These services will be facilitated by a ‘Trusted Service Manager’, which will support banks and mobile operators in the distribution, configuration and activation of the bank’s payment application on the UICC within users’ NFC handsets. The GSMA, through its Pay-Buy-Mobile initiative, and the EPC will focus initially on defining a contractual framework document detailing the minimum set of requirements for a Trusted Service Manager to interface with banks and mobile operators.

We say: Payment has always been a tricky area for mobile in Europe/US. Japan and South Korea have been leaders in payment solutions and lets hope with the inclusion of participants that include Nokia, Motorola, Visa and MasterCard, finally a European solution will set e-cash free.
Source: Techradar / GSM World GoMo News

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