With hardly any laws in place the mobile payments industry is currently in a state of flux. However, the mobile payments industry conundrum is set to herald a new era as a formal Mobile Payments Committee has been formed to monitor the issues the industry battles with constantly.
In a recent interview with VentureBeat, Electronic Transactions Association CEO Jason Oxman announced the formation of the group, which includes all four major US carriers - AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon among its members.
Jackie Moran, Verizon's executive director of federal relations, will lead the committee whose aim is to serve as a means to develop policy and business strategies for the mobile payments industry. Among the number of issues the committee is tackling, the major area of concern is helping participants understand the intricate business relationships necessary to make mobile payment options interoperable.
The committee is also looking forward to help legislators and regulators understand how to develop mobile payments public policy. It will also tutor consumers and merchants about the benefits of mobile payments.
"There are a lot of different pathways to enable consumers to use mobile payments," ETA CEO Jason Oxman told VentureBeat in an interview. "The idea behind the committee is to get all the players around the table, ask everyone to take off their company hats and put on their industry hats, and talk about what issues need to be resolved."
"There's definitely a lot of recognition from the tech side and the payments side of the industry that the two sides are converging," he added.
However, among other key players involved in the mobile payments space, the participation of Square is eagerly awaited. Square recently struck a massive deal with Starbucks and formed the largest mobile payments network in the U.S.
The committee will meet for the first time later this month, according to ETA.
