The Euro Alliance of Payment Schemes (EAPS) was an international alliance of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an bank and

interbank network An interbank network, also known as an ATM consortium or ATM network, is a computer network that enables ATM cards issued by a financial institution that is a member of the network to be used to perform ATM transactions through ATMs that belo ...

s that had aimed to creating a pan-European

debit card A debit card, also known as a check card or bank card is a payment card that can be used in place of cash to make purchases. The term '' plastic card'' includes the above and as an identity document. These are similar to a credit card, but ...

system in the

Single Euro Payments Area The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) is a payment-integration initiative of the European Union for simplification of bank transfers denominated in euro. , there were 36 members in SEPA, consisting of the 27 member states of the European Union ...

to rival

Visa Visa most commonly refers to: *Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Visa Plus, an interbank network *Travel visa, a document that allows ...

and Mastercard using existing country specific systems. It was launched in 2007 with the support of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

but failed and was abandoned sometime after 2013.

History

The

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

-based consortium, formally announced in July 2007, included such members as Electronic Cash in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, Bancomat/PagoBancomat in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Multibanco Multibanco is a portuguese interbank network. It is the largest interbank network in Portugal owned and operated by SIBS (Sociedade Interbancária de Serviços S.A.), that links the ATMs of 27 banks in Portugal, totaling 12,700 machines as of Dece ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, EURO 6000 in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, LINK in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

and EUFISERV, an ATM system operated internationally by the

European Savings Banks Group The European Savings and Retail Banking Group is a European banking association representing around two dozen members from 20 countries (EU and non-EU), comprising approximately 1000 individual savings and retail banks. These institutions operat ...

. Though not allying itself with EAPS, the

European Central Bank The European Central Bank (ECB) is the prime component of the monetary Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's Big Four (banking)#Intern ...

spoke in February 2007 in favor of the work being done by EAPS as "the first step towards a consolidation of card schemes, leading to a European card scheme". Prior to the implementation of the EAPS alliance, only MasterCard/

Maestro Maestro (; from the Italian ''wikt:maestro#Italian, maestro'' , meaning "wikt:master, master" or "teacher") is an honorific title of respect (plural: maestros or maestri). The term is most commonly used in the context of Western classical music ...

and

V Pay V Pay is a Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) debit card for use in Europe, issued by Visa Europe. It uses the EMV chip and PIN system and may be co-branded with various national debit card schemes such as the German Girocard or Italy's PagoBan ...

debit cards could be used abroad in Europe. EAPS was first initiated particularly to challenge MasterCard's hold on international debit payments. According to European Card Review in 2007, EAPS was expected to play a less pivotal role in spreading the

initiative than larger schemes such as the "Falkensteiner Group" which they believed to include

UniCredit UniCredit S.p.A. is an international banking group headquartered in Milan. It is Italy's only systemically important bank (according to the list provided by the Financial Stability Board in 2022) and the world's 34th largest by assets. It was for ...

Société Générale Société Générale S.A. (), colloquially known in English as SocGen (), is a French-based multinational financial services company founded in 1864, registered in downtown Paris and headquartered nearby in La Défense. Société Générale ...

ING Ing, ING or ing may refer to: Art and media * '' ...ing'', a 2003 Korean film * i.n.g, a Taiwanese girl group * The Ing, a race of dark creatures in the 2004 video game '' Metroid Prime 2: Echoes'' * "Ing", the first song on The Roches' 1992 ...

and

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...

, but was nevertheless capable of a "marginal" role. The "Falkensteiner Runde" (''Falkensteiner Circle'') - according to the Lafferty Group to consist of

ABN AMRO ABN or abn may refer to: Companies * ABN AMRO Group, a Dutch bank group * ABN AMRO, sometimes referred to as "ABN" in shorthand, is a Dutch state-owned bank * Algemene Bank Nederland, a now-defunct Dutch bank Radio, news and television organizat ...

, Allianz Dresdner,

ING Bank The ING Group ( nl, ING Groep) is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Amsterdam. Its primary businesses are retail banking, direct banking, commercial banking, investment banking, wholesale bankin ...

Rabobank Rabobank (; full name: ''Coöperatieve Rabobank U.A.'') is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Utrecht, Netherlands. The group comprises 89 local Dutch Rabobanks (2019), a central organisation (Raboban ...

and

Commerzbank Commerzbank AG () is a major German bank operating as a universal bank, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. In the 2019 financial year, the bank was the second largest in Germany by the total value of its balance sheet. Founded in 1870 in Hambur ...

- was discussing an alternative interbank network based on the German

Girocard girocard is an interbank network and debit card service connecting virtually all German ATMs and banks. It is based on standards and agreements developed by the German Banking Industry Committee. German girocards are usually co-branded with Mast ...

network joined by the French

Carte Bancaire ''Groupement des cartes bancaires CB'' ("CB Bank card Group"), also known as simply CB, is France's national interbank network, with over 46,000 ATMs and over 1 million EFTPOS acceptance points. ''Carte Bleue'' Visa is a brand often associated ...

network. About the same time in early 2007 another initiative was formed in the "PayFair" company in Brussels to implement the European Payment Scheme. This effort was building an infrastructure from scratch focussing at first to rebuild the POS (i.e. non-bank) infrastructure in Belgium and Netherlands as of 2008 and expanded to Germany during 2010 via "easycash" terminals. Founded in 2008, the "Monnet Project" was unveiled in Frankfurt in 2009 listing the same members as reported earlier on the Falkensteiner Circle. Later reports cite these three elements - Monnet Project, PayFair scheme, EAPS council - as the driving forces behind SEPA-centric alternatives for debit card networks."A grand scheme"
, Interview with EAPS board chairman Ugo Bechis, by Ronan McCaughey, 1. January 2010 Meanwhile, the EAPS announced the bilateral cooperation of ATM interbank networks, namely the German Girocard acceptance at Italian Bancomat ATMs, Italian Bancomat card acceptance at German Girocard ATMs and German Girocard acceptance at UK LINK ATMs. Independently the European savings banks had created the pan-European

EUFISERV EUFISERV (European Savings Banks Financial Services) is a European interbank network connecting the Automatic teller machine, ATMs of savings banks in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, P ...

network to mutually accept debit cards at their ATMs - Eufiserv was a founder of the EAPS council. On May 5, 2010 the Monnet Project held a meeting in Madrid to endorse a European Card Project. From the 30 banks that were attending it occurred that 12 banks from 8 countries volunteered to join a consortium phase to detail the technical requirements and to prepare treaties on the foundation of a new bankcard payment company."Infobrief SEPA – Euro-Zahlungsverkehr - Nr.12"
May 2010 The ECB welcomed these steps pointing to the

China UnionPay UnionPay (), also known as China UnionPay () or by its abbreviation, CUP or UPI internationally, is a Chinese state-owned financial services corporation headquartered in Shanghai, China. It provides bank card services and a major card scheme ...

example that a new bankcard brand can quickly gain acceptance with China UnionPay being accepted in 29 European countries plus 60 more countries worldwide)"SEPA for cards: more than a symbol of SEPA’s success"
Speech by Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at the Monnet Symposium organised by The Monnet Project, Madrid, 5 May 2010 It was predicted that by 2010 the results of the consortium phase would lead into a definite decision to build a new bankcard infrastructure, this was not to be the case."PROJET MONNET - Une vingtaine de banques européennes prévoient de créer un nouveau système de cartes bancaires en Europe"
press release, 6. May 2010 The project failed and was abandoned at some time after this.

References

{{reflist

History

References

See also