[Openid-specs-fapi] European Payments Initiative

[Anders Rundgren]

https://www.epicompany.eu/epi-company-announces-acquisitions-additional-shareholders-and-the-coming-launch-of-its-new-instant-payment-solution/

    "The EPI product will be a multi-faceted digital wallet solution and an instant,
      account-to-account payment means under one brand, unified across European countries"

It seems that EPI have finally realized that building on wallets integrated in the banks' mobile bank apps 1) doesn't scale 2) defies branding 3) represent a major hassle for consumers.

What is clear is that the two leading Open Banking concepts will be the only payment APIs, not relying on standardized wallets.  These APIs do also not support P2P payments in a meaningful way.   AFAICT, "Premium APIs" or VRP, cannot compensate for the lack of a standardized payment wallet.

Personally, I have NOT given up the idea of an Open Banking counterpart to EPI, Apple Pay, etc.  By using "Deterministic CBOR" and serializable HTTP requests, you can achieve full end-to-end security at no cost at all (except for the integration in banks NB).  TPPs will still do their thing, but will be limited to merchant support.  Public lookup services would be the major addition, permitting systems to evolve in a controlled, but still flexible way.

Anders