equensWorldline extends partnership with the European Payment Council

By Megha Bhattacharya

equensWorldline SE, a subsidiary of Worldline, and the European Payment Council (EPC) which manages the SEPA Proxy Lookup (SPL) scheme are extending their partnership to provide the central SPL service that supports the interoperability between existing European mobile Person-to-Person (P2P) payment services.

Michael Steinbach, CEO equensWorldline SE, emphasises the importance of such a proxy service for the European payment landscape. “With the usage of such a central proxy lookup service, the user experience and security of person-to-person payments significantly improves. Furthermore, it will strongly support the usage of request-to-pay messages to improve the conversion rate for beneficiaries.”

The SPL service has been introduced in 2019 to improve the user experience for Person-to-Person money transfers across Europe. Customers can use their mobile device to transfer money from their payment account to another individual’s account across Europe without manually exchanging payment information, such as IBAN. This service supports the interoperability between the different existing domestic mobile payment schemes and provides the option to retrieve the necessary payment details like IBAN and beneficiary name, by using well-known aliases like a mobile phone number.

According to Etienne Goosse, Director General of the EPC, harmonisation, competition and innovation in Europe are key to develop a dynamic pan-European payment ecosystem. “The EPC has established the SPL scheme to facilitate European cross-border P2P payments. In this process, equensWorldline has been a reliable and innovative partner during the service implementation and participated actively in the continuous improvement of the service.”