A group of European mobile payment system providers forged an alliance designed to enable their services to be accessed by customers roaming into other countries in the region.

The European Mobile Payments Systems Association (EMPSA) comprises seven companies with a combined user base of close to 25 million, more than 1 million points of acceptance, and the backing of 350 banks which support the individual payment systems. It will be headquartered in Zurich.

Soren Mose, chairman of Sweden-based TWINT (pictured), heads the consortium, which also includes the Bancontact Payconiq Company in Belgium; Blucode (Germany and Austria); MobilePay (Finland and Denmark); SIBS (Portugal); Swish (Sweden); and VIPPS (Norway).

In a statement, Mose explained EMPSA members’ customers want to be “able to use the tried-and-tested” mobile payment services internationally.

EMPSA’s medium-term goal is to “make it possible for users to use all the individual systems in each of the member countries”, with a working group to explore technical issues around interoperability already established, TWINT stated.

In a related statement, SIBS noted cross-border access to the mobile payment systems offers “a major competitive advantage in the current scenario of digital economy’s globalisation”.