Leo van Hove was so kind to notice, during my holiday, that Contopronto, a Norwegian issuer of mobile wallets, has been granted a license as electronic money issuer. Contopronto will also expand its business into Europe, from their London base.
Meanwhile, Ben Putter informed me that Paypal is preparing to introduce PayPal (Europe) Ltd., a company incorporated in the United Kingdom, as the service provider for PayPal customers in the European Union. It is anticipated that PayPal (Europe) Ltd. will begin operating in February 2004, subject to receiving authorisation from the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the UK. As a consequence European customers will have to sign up with Paypal Europe or end their affiliation with Paypal.