Today six banks in Poland announced a cooperation to set the standard for mobile payment in the country. The banks are Alior Bank, Bank Millennium, Bank Zachodniego WBK, BRE Bank (mBank, multibank), ING Bank and PKO Polska Bank. Together these banks have 70 percent of the electronic bank services in the country.

The cooperation is unique in the way that this is one of the first times a group of banks work together to set a standard for mobile payment in a country. Other ventures for example in Spain, Germany, UK and Sweden has involved a number of mobile network operators or a mix of mobile network operators and a bank or two.

PKO Bank Polski’s mobile payment system IKO, already on the market, will be extended to enable integration for more partners and will be the basis for the local standard for mobile payment in the country. The banks will use the same security, processes and methods and integration of partners like merchants and payment service providers,  to perform mobile payment transactions. The participating banks client applications will be developed separate and by cooperating bank.

Mobile payment is still and will be a local matter and I think this is a great move and a good example on how to really go for it.