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News

Review by Nicolas Raffin, President of the Smart Payment Association - 27 jan 2016

Smart payment association - article blog

 

...The European Commission’s revised Directive on Payment Services (PSD2) gave the industry its first clear legal definition of ‘strong authentication’. Marking a significant step forward, PSD2 confirms the need for strong identity, providing a proportional security response for managing payment risk levels...

 

Dear Colleagues,

 

In this review you’ll find a roundup of the latest news from the Smart Payment Association (SPA), together with details of the KEY industry events we are supporting and will be attending over the coming months.

 

But let’s begin with a quick review of 2015 - a year that saw regulatory bodies and the industry come together to develop a common legal framework for secure payments in the traditional, emerging and virtual payment arenas.

 

The European Commission’s revised Directive on Payment Services (PSD2) gave the industry its first clear legal definition of ‘strong authentication’. Marking a significant step forward, PSD2 confirms the need for strong identity, providing a proportional security response for managing payment risk levels. Read the SPA's Position here:

 

PSD2 - An SPA's Position - 27 Jan 16

 

The year also witnessed the tightening of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations, along with the release of version 7 of the Volume Book of Requirements (the SEPA core card standard) by the European Payments Council- Card Sector Group (EPC-CSG).

 

Meanwhile, EMVCo released a new specification of security requirements for mobile handsets that mandates the Open Mobile API - a development by the SIMalliance that the SPA introduced to EMVCo.

 

EMVCo also supported the EPC-CSG in developing specifications to make card payments compliant with interchange regulations, a process SPA collaborated closely with and continues to support.

 

Taken together these developments complete the legal framework for retail payments, providing SPA members, and the wider industry, with a platform to confidently develop certified solutions for the benefit of issuers, merchants and consumers.

 

Throughout 2015 the SPA was active in helping to shape the direction of the industry, playing a key role in enabling the creation of standards that provide much needed clarity and interoperability.

 

As a founding member of the newly created European Card Stakeholders Group (ECSG) organization – which replaces the EPC-CSG, and as Spokesperson of the Vendor Sector we were excited to support this important initiative.

 

Supervised by the European Central Bank (ECB), the European Commission (EC) and the Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB), the ECSG is now responsible of defining SEPA card payment specifications and granting the labels for compliance of specifications implementations with the Volume Book of Requirements.

 

As Chair of the Task Force to specify the SEPA functional and security requirements for emergent and remote payments (Internet + Mobile) and Convenor of the Expert Team on Card Innovative Payments, SPA is happy to continue working on innovative technologies including Host Card Emulation (HCE), mobile wallet, biometrics for payment, tokenization, instant payments and blockchain. You can read the published papers SPA issued on these topics in 2015 here.

 

So what lies ahead for 2016?

 

If last year was all about agreeing and confirming legal frameworks, then the industry focus for the coming year will be defining technical standards and delivering solutions.

 

This will see the SPA submitting contributions to technical standards to complete the legal frameworks agreed in 2015. We’ll also be actively contributing to the ECSG expert teams to draft version 7.5 of the Volume Book of Requirements.

 

Once again, the SPA will play a key role consulting, guiding and supporting the direction of the industry and shaping the future of payment technology.

 

As we look forward to the exciting opportunities on the horizon this year, the SPA will continue to provide published papers, along with conference speakers, delivering critical insights on topical issues that impact the payment market.

 

We wish you a happy and successful year.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Nicolas Raffin
President of the SPA