The European Payments Council (EPC) and the GSMA have published a joint paper that defines a minimum set of requirements for a Trusted Service Manger (TSM) acting as the interface between a bank and a mobile operator in a SIM-based NFC service.

‘Mobile Contactless Payments Service Management Roles — Requirements and Specifications’ outlines the role of the TSM and specifies the requirements a TSM must meet in order to distribute, configure and activate a bank’s payment application on a customers’ NFC SIM. The paper also describes the provision and lifecycle management of banks’ mobile contactless payment applications when integrated with a mobile phone.

“This joint project will boost commercial relationships between issuing banks, the mobile network operators and TSMs, resulting in the expedited deployment of mobile contactless payments in SEPA and around the world,” say the EPC and GSMA. “In addition, the agreement on TSM specifications allows interested parties to develop services in the role of a TSM.”

“Building a common architecture for mobile contactless payments is a key objective of the EPC’s initiatives for mobile payments in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA),” explains Dag-Inge Flatraaker, chair of the EPC M-Channel Working Group. “The implementation of interoperable and user-friendly mobile payment solutions makes it even easier for bank customers across 32 SEPA countries to access state-of-the-art SEPA payment services.”

“This is an important step forward as it is the first time that mobile operators and banks have worked together on a common vision which will ease the way for contactless payments,” adds Alex Sinclair, chief technical officer and chief strategy officer for the GSMA.

Readers can download the full white paper from the EPC’s website.

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