I’ve been studying with interest the European Commission’s proposed new legislative package for payments and digital commerce in general. Clarifying position with regards to mobile commerce and alternative payment systems is part of a trend we see around the world where players had so far been operating in a relatively fluid state with mobile payment services subject to reactive governance controls. This causes compliance confusion alongside both technical and strategic uncertainties.
And it will probably get worse before it gets better as no one is certain of the shape market convergence will take, how regulators around the world will react and what effect this will have on services.
Of course there is another way of looking at this. End user confidence (and therefore adoption) of new payment platforms and digital purchasing models will be dependent on the regulatory environment and many of the key issues regulators and policy makers are focusing on, including security, identity, choice, ease of use and fair pricing.
So could regulation and policy be used as a future indicator of successful business models rather than just as a compliance responsibility? And if so, how many organisations fail to look for and harness the opportunities that these standards and supervisory guidance could be highlighting for us?
If you analyse diverse and recent trends, throw some original thinking into the mix, take a hard look at what is happening now in mobile payments and what the end-user experience could ultimately look like then wouldn’t this give you an edge when forming your strategy or future proofing your technology?
I think so and I’ll be exploring this in more detail at www.mobilepayments-rri.com in November.