Last week PayPal's General Counsel, John Muller, was a luncheon panelist with Representative Joe Atkins from Minnesota and Marianne Crowe, Vice President at the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston and head of the Mobile Payments Industry Workgroup, to discuss the state of mobile payments and the regulatory environment that they operate within at the National Conference of State Legislatures annual Legislative Summit in Atlanta, Georgia.  The panel discussed the current mobile payments ecosystem, the potential concerns with consumer privacy and security and the regulatory regimes that mobile payments operate within.

Unbeknownst to most people, PayPal and many of our competitors operate as money transmitters - the same types of regulatory classification as a Western Union or a MoneyGram.  While we agree that mobile payments, and all other facets of the payments industry, requires some form of regulation, we believe that the current regulatory model is in need of major updating to reflect the technological changes that have occurred, while continuing to keep consumer protection top of mind.  John discussed how PayPal views regulation and some of our guiding principles that should be considered when looking to update or implement a new or revised regulatory model for internet and mobile payments companies.  He also touched on the myriad ways the company has adapted and changed in the evolving payments ecosystem and our perspective on where we see the industry going in the next couple of years.

With approximately 200 legislators, legislative staff and government relations professionals in attendance for the luncheon discussion we were afforded a rare and valuable opportunity to make sure that security, consumer protection and regulatory certainty and clarity were a part of future debates regarding the future of mobile payments for merchants and consumers.