The „Mobile Wallet Collaboration” was launched by the partners in Porto (Portugal) on 10 June 2019. The Bluecode mobile payment system, which more than 100 banks in Germany and Austria already rely on, is one of the technical service providers that ensures that the mobile payments of the participating partners are processed correctly between retailers, banks and end customers.
The aim of the cooperation is to create the technical basis for cross-border payments by the users of the various national solutions. At the beginning, the new initiative will cover the ten European countries Austria, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Slovenia.
The basis of the QR code is the Contactless Gateway Code Protocol (CGCP), which Alipay already uses in many countries. Bluecode is legally and technically able to issue these CGCP codes for its European acquiring banks and to process them within Europe. All data of European partner banks and users remain in Europe.
At the same time, the QR code is compatible with travelling Alipay users from China, who represent a fast-growing, attractive customer base in Europe with high purchasing power. Alipay currently has over one billion users with its Asian-based e-wallet partners.
Christian Pirkner, CEO of Blue Code International AG, comments: “From the very first moment, we have pursued the vision of supporting European banks, retailers and end customers with a widely accepted mobile payment solution and with interoperability of mobile payments across Europe. The Mobile Wallet Collaboration is an important step for the Europe-wide harmonization of optical payment solutions.
As a European mobile payment provider, we support the cooperation of the participating partners, as we can expand the national solutions with a common technical format and thus greatly increase the availability for end customers and merchants.
The use of a uniform QR code format also offers the perspective of making European solutions available beyond Europe‘s borders. At the same time, we offer our partners the security that payments from European customers will be processed legally and commercially in accordance with European laws“.
Eric Jing, Chairman and CEO of Ant Financial, the Alibaba subsidiary behind Alipay, adds: “We are honoured to contribute to a smart lifestyle and promote the digital experience in Europe. At the same time, we are connecting more retailers with more Chinese tourists”. The „Mobile Wallet Collaboration” is to be extended to other European mobile payment providers and other countries in the future.
