SAN CARLOS, Calif.—One consulting group is proposing that a mobile payments council should be formed.
The council would bring together all players in the mobile payments chain to level the playing field and bring more understanding and standards to a space that is evolving quickly.
Crone Consulting LLC said the group would be called the Merchant Financial Institutions Council (MFIC), and Principal Richard Crone compared it to what happened at the advent of Internet bill presentment and payment.
“It is a result of my presentation at the BAI PaymentsConnect Conference in Phoenix,” said Crone. “I received a stack of business cards, maybe over a hundred, from folks who were interested in joining the MFIC. We are still in the formation stage.”
If formed, Crone said the MFIC plans to leverage an “open” common acceptance platform that includes support for retailer and financial institution branded mobile wallets with provisioning of all tenders—bank and merchant private label—“with frictionless activation and redemption of loyalty and offers.”
Crone emphasized that the MFIC would be the catalyst for defining the business models, best practices, standards, accreditation and procedures for:
- Acceptance of financial institution branded mobile wallets by retailers at the physical point of sale.
- Provisioning and acceptance of financial institution issued open-loop credit and debit instruments inside retailer branded apps (e.g., Target, Walmart) and the standalone mobile wallets such as CurrentC, Apple Pay and Google Wallet.
- Provisioning and access to retailers’ closed-loop, private label tenders inside credit union and bank-branded wallets.
Crone said the MFIC is not dissimilar to what occurred when NACHA formed a bill payment council during the advent of Internet bill presentment and payment.
“They invited the financial institutions and billers, and all the stakeholders in the space, to come together and define business models, procedures and best practices,” said Crone. “Everyone wanted to participate because they wanted to make sure their perspectives and approaches were well represented.”
But Crone emphasized the MFIC will not be a negotiating group or collective bargaining unit.
“It will be a collaborative, collegial effort to make sure everyone knows what to do, and what they are getting into before they sign a mobile payments agreement,” explained Crone, pointing out how Apple gave issuers less than five business days to decide whether they would be part of the first wave of Apple Pay enrollees.
While all players in the mobile payments chain are needed to make the council successful, Crone stressed that a “critical mass” of issuers and retailers must be represented.
“And we have secured that critical mass, having secured the verbal commitments from both sides,” said Crone.