Cartes Bancaires, a key player in SEPA e-rsb, the new enhanced network Upgrade for SNCF ticket machines Eurosmart celebrated its 10th anniversary Cards and government: savings ahaid! Single Euro Payment Area: deadline 2010! SEPA, EU institutions set the pace European systems: each to their own! Visa and MasterCard Europe, new service offerings in Europe EPC: roadmap for 2008 JCB: the Global Payment Brand with a difference 2004, positive results

Are the MasterCard and Visa networks ready for the Single European Payment Area? Their European spokespersons go into the details of governance, new products and the challenges that lie ahead.     © DR Marc Temmerman, Visa Europe "On 1st July 2004, Visa EU formed Visa Europe Limited, an independent payment systems organisation in which all European members of Visa International have been made shareholders. The latest service offerings include the possibility for issuers to use the Visa Flag card as a pre-authorised card, prepaid card, revolving credit card, contact-free card standards, and our new V-Pay European debit card, an always'Chip and PIN' debit product platform. V-Pay will be our contribution to a secure European SEPA-compliant card infrastructure. The remaining obstacles facing the SEPA are of an operational and technical nature, such as the multitude of national standards and specifications. The diverging legal conditions among countries is still a hurdle as well. The electronic payment industry will have to work with governments to overcome these. If they do not take action fairly soon, the European Commission and the ECB could well intervene."   © DR Etienne Goosse, MasterCard Europe "MasterCard Europe is a pioneer in European interoperability. Since May 2004, the SEPA licence allows a bank group to operate all our brands (MasterCard, Maestro, etc.) within the European Economic Area. We believe that our solutions make it possible to achieve the SEPA's goals within the required timeframes and at a lesser cost. This is borne out by the UK banks' switch to Maestro from the national debit brand Switch. New products for the European market include MoneySend (person-to-person card payment), PayPass (fast payment using "contact free" technology), and prepaid or preauthorised cards. For us, the obstacles facing the SEPA come under three headings: legal and regulatory differences, disparate standards, and non-compliance with the requirements for economic balance. Our longer-term challenge is to replace cash with cards to increase the European economy's efficiency and security. Back to top of page

– A CB card to replace cheques – Courts accept CB bankcard – SICB renovation is underway!     – Each European country has its own form of bank card – First EMV cards in the Netherlands – Eufiserv network serving the SEPA