A lot is being made about the new (about to be accepted) EU electronic money directives. The fact that other organisations (read "mobile operators") can now potentially start issuing electronic money with lighter compliance and less reserves (Euro 350 thousand). (Read more here) is of interest.The question is, is this really removing the regulatory barrier? Have the COREPER solved the problem that mobile operators have with the deployment of mobile payment solutions ? While this is definitely an interesting proposition, it does not solve the biggest hurdle: open access to clearing and settlement.
Mobile payment solutions that are not provided with acceptable access to clearing and settlement streams are like very small islands in a massive sea of payments. Without an elegant way of routing payment transactions to and from the rest of the payment world, very little progress will be made. E-money schemes are interesting propositions in some way, but in the end (and if properly analised) they are effective ring-fencing mechanisms that will keep these transactions away from the rest of the payment world.