Mobile Payments in the EU: Overview, Legal Framework and Infrastructure and Challenges

Sancho Guibert, Assistant General Counsel, Citibank, Spain

The mobile payment revolution has started in our society and is already changing our ordinary lives by merging one of the oldest economic tools –money— with one of the most popular technological device invented in our current millennial era –smartphones—, as the emerging mobile payment applications are already easing consumers’ quality of life significantly by providing the capability to shop and purchase goods and services without carrying cash, cheque books or even plastic cards. The corner stone of this revolution is the transition from plastic cards to cards integrated in smartphones, wearable devices, or even embedded in our personal biometric prints, as now customers expect banking transactions to be instantly available on digital and mobile devices so that they can access their money and make payments whenever and however suits them.

Sancho Guibert has been In house counsel of Citibank for 17 years plus with multiple tenures at the corporate and investment bank, private bank and currently at the consumer bank where he acted as Secretary of the Board of Directors of Citibank Spain unti

Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citigroup provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial produc