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

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

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 card usually consists of the bank's name, a card number, the cardholder's name, and an expiration date, on either ...

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 euros. , there were 41 members in SEPA, consisting of the 27 member states of the European Union ...

to rival Visa 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 union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

but failed and was abandoned sometime after 2013.

History

The

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

-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 lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, Bancomat/PagoBancomat in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, Multibanco in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

, EURO 6000 in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, 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 Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and EUFISERV, an ATM system operated internationally by the European Savings Banks Group. Though not allying itself with EAPS, the

European Central Bank The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central component of the 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)#International ...

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 '' maestro'' , meaning " master" or "teacher," plural: maestros or maestri) is an honorific title of respect, sometimes abbreviated Mo. The term is most commonly used in the context of Western classical music and oper ...

and Visa/

V Pay V Pay is a Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) debit card for use in Europe, issued by Visa Inc., Visa Europe. It uses the EMV Smart card, chip and Personal identification number, PIN system and can be co-branded with various national debit card sc ...

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. (formerly UniCredito Italiano S.p.A.) is an Italian multinational banking group headquartered in Milan. It is a systemically important bank (according to the list provided by the Financial Stability Board in 2022) and the world' ...

Société Générale Société Générale S.A. (), colloquially known in English-speaking countries as SocGen (), is a French multinational universal bank and financial services company founded in 1864. It is registered in downtown Paris and headquartered nearby i ...

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' 199 ...

and

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...

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

ING Bank ING Group N.V. () 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 banking, private ban ...

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 The Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft (shortly known as Commerzbank AG or Commerzbank ) is a European Financial institution, banking institution headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. It offers services to private and entrepreneurial c ...

- was discussing an alternative interbank network based on the German Girocard network joined by the French Carte Bancaire 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 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 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

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History

References

See also