The European Central Bank is working on a plan to allow consumers to transfer money using their phone numbers or email addresses rather than a complicated bank account number, a senior bank official said.

In an interview with RTL Nieuws broadcast on Monday, ECB executive board member Yves Mersch said the system would let a consumer link, for instance, her telephone number to her International Bank Account Number, or IBAN.

Under the system, "to send payment over your telephone from one country to another, you go onto your contact list, you take the name of a person, and you would immediately also get his IBAN", Mersch said.

The ECB has recently set up a steering committee with major European banks to work on the plan, he said. Mersch said that it was not clear when the system would be ready, but the ECB would be able to provide a time frame by the end of summer.

The chief obstacles to the idea are legal, not technical, he added. - Reuters