An industry-wide task force comprised of major mobile network operators and credit card schemes, banking representatives, payment processors and Google has launched a Mobile Payments Committee, with the intention of paving the way for the full-scale commercial application of mobile payment processing options, according to Finextra.

Made up of a who's who of industry powers - including AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, Wells Fargo, Capital One, Isis, Panasonic and Verifone - the task force will be operating under the umbrella of the Electronics Transactions Association. Heading the committee is Jackie Moran, executive director of federal relations for Verizon.

"There are a lot of different pathways to enable consumers to use mobile payments," Jason Oxman, CEO of ETA, told VentureBeat. "The idea behind the committee is to get all the players around the table, ask everyone to take off their company hats and put on their industry hats, and talk about what issues need to be resolved. There's definitely a lot of recognition from the tech side and the payments side of the industry that the two sides are converging."

Industry players, business owners and consumers alike are beginning to realise the untapped potential of the nascent contactless payment processing market. Part of the burgeoning development includes overcoming several issues that have prevented widespread adoption thus far. Some of these obstacles include helping participants figure out the complex business relationships that go into the effective functioning of mobile payments, educating legislators on developing mobile payments public policy and educating customers and merchants on the numerous benefits of the technology.

According to Finextra, the committee will be meeting on a monthly basis, with the first official get together scheduled for late August.