Inter-consortia battles in mobile payments standardisation

Mobile payments can be seen as an innovation service offered by key players from the financial and mobile communication industries. Many believe that standards ensure the success of mobile payments. However, actors with heterogeneous interests cause the complexity in standards-setting process and, therefore, the absence of standards for mobile payments. Various groups have been formed to generate standardised solutions for mobile payments. This paper describes and analyses the role of these groups and how they influence the development of mobile payments. Five consortia are explored in min-case analysis. They are the Mobile Payment Forum, the Mobey Forum, Simpay, PayCircle, and the European Committee for Banking Standards. The existence of these consortia has instigated inter-consortia competition. As a result, there are three types of mobile payments developments identified: bank-account based, telecommunications companies billing-based, and credit-card based. The implications of the developments are discussed with the help of interpretive theory.