GSMA, the global trade body for the mobile industry, and the European Payments Council (EPC) which represents 8,000 banks in the European Union and EEA and Switzerland, are to collaborate in order to accelerate the deployment of mobile services in the single euro payments area (SEPA), supported by the existing mobile infrastructure.

The two parties say that these mobile services will be facilitated by a so-called ‚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’ Near Field Communication (NFC)-enabled handsets.

The GSMA, through its Pay-Buy-Mobile initiative, and the EPC will initially focus on establishing a contractual framework document specifying the minimum set of requirements for a Trusted Service Manager to interface with banks and mobile operators.

The GSMA reported last year that 12 telecom operators around the world will launch NFC-based contactless mobile payments pilot prior to introducing commercial services. The pilots are part of the GSMA’s Pay-Buy-Mobile initiative, which aims to develop a global interoperable mobile payments system.

AT&T, FarEasTone, KTF, Orange, SFR, Softbank and Turkcell are currently running mobile payments trials, while another seven telecoms plan to launch similar trials in the near future.