According to equensWorldline, the SPL service is available to be used, and the first provider has integrated the service already into its mobile payment solution.
The new interoperability solution is based on the SPL scheme managed by the European Payments Council (EPC), said the company, which was selected by the Mobile Proxy Forum as the preferred SPL service provider.
The Mobile Proxy Forum is a working group, which was launched following the request of the Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB), to create pan-European interoperability for P2P mobile solutions.
equensWorldline claims that its SPL service replaces the need for manual exchange of payment details. As a result, SPL can be a convenient, safe and accurate alternative to transfer payment information, said the company.
The new solution connects the lookup services available in various markets to enable the use of the beneficiary’s mobile phone number for retrieving the correct IBAN.
Furthermore, the company claimed the SPL service, which avoids the creation of an additional central IBAN database, to be an intelligent routing network among connected P2P payment providers. Owing to this, payment providers can increase efficiency in their processing with the risk of end users inputting incorrect IBANs avoided.
The Worldline subsidiary said that the SPL service has been designed to facilitate future extensions, including the support of additional aliases like e-mail addresses, the support of merchant payments (B2C), and addition of value-added services like the transfer of e-receipts for consumer purchases.
equensWorldline CEO Michael Steinbach said: “Even with SEPA, we still see a fragmentation of the P2P payment solutions market in Europe. Each country has or is developing its own domestic solutions.
“Therefore, it is becoming increasingly important to create a user-friendly pan-European payment ecosystem, in which cross-border payments are just as smooth as domestic payments.
“By enhancing the user experience for mobile initiated credit transfers, the SPL service will play an important role in the success of the new Payment Initiation Services based on PSD2 and Instant Payment Services.”
