SEPA Vision for Cards

EPC Deliverables in the Area of Cards

SEPA Cards Framework

The European Payments Council's (EPC's) SEPA Cards Framework (SCF; see links below), outlines high level principles and rules that when implemented by the card industry, will deliver a consistent user experience to both cardholders and merchants when making or accepting euro payments or cash withdrawals. The SCF recognises the EMV standard for SEPA-wide acceptance of card payments. EMV is an industry standard to implement chip and personal identification number (PIN) security for card transactions to combat fraud. An important indicator on the progress in this area is the number of cards, points of sale (POS) and automated teller machines (ATMs) in the market that use chip and PIN for the authorisation of a card payment. More specifically, the percentage of EMV-compliant cards, POS and ATMs in SEPA is monitored. Migration to EMV in Europe is essentially complete: at the end of 2011 (estimates), 87.2 percent of cards, 94.2 percent of POS and 96.7 percent of ATMs in SEPA were EMV-compliant. According to the European Central Bank SEPA Indicators (see links below), EMV transactions in the euro area (as a percentage of total transactions at POS terminals) reached 82.1 percent in June 2012 (latest data available).

SEPA cards standardisation programme

The objectives of a SEPA for cards will be achieved through the use of harmonised, interoperable and free standards, which are openly available to all parties within the card payment value chain. The work of the EPC and the Cards Stakeholders Group (CSG) supports this vision. Created in 2009, the CSG is a multi-stakeholder body representing retailers, vendors, processors, card schemes and the EPC. The dialogue taking place in the CSG therefore, ensures the strong co-management of the processes related to the identification of common standards requirements and implementation of best practices compliant with such requirements, which will promote interoperability and foster competition in the SEPA for cards. The CSG focuses on a cards standardisation programme that will create a better, safer, secure, more cost efficient and functionally richer card services environment, whatever the card product or scheme may be. Specifically, the initiative aims at removing technical obstacles which prevent a consistent customer payment card experience across SEPA. The CSG encourages process efficiency throughout the card supply chain and, last but not least, adherence to the highest level of card payment security. The CSG develops and maintains the SEPA Cards Standardisation Volume - Book of Requirements (Cards Standardisation Volume). This document defines a standard set of requirements to ensure an interoperable and scalable card and terminal infrastructure across SEPA, based on open and free standards. For latest information on the evolution of the Cards Standardisation Volume refer to the article, entitled: 'Innovation in Progress: Harmonised SEPA Cards Standardisation Requirements Expected to be Ready for Market Implementation by the Start of 2014' published in the January 2013 edition of the EPC Newsletter (see links below).

Card fraud prevention

Card fraud prevention is a top priority of the EPC. The EPC committed to migrate all SEPA cards and terminals to chip and personal identification number (PIN), based on the global EMV standards, by the end of 2010. With migration nearly complete, the focus now is on identifying and promoting measures to fight card fraud in a mature chip and PIN environment. In December 2010, the EPC approved the resolution 'Preventing Card Fraud in a Mature EMV Environment' (see below). This resolution sets the conditions for further increased security of card payments, based on the EMV chip only option and in the area of online payments with cards.