The European Card Payment Cooperation (ECPC) has been founded in Belgium

The European Card Payment Cooperation (ECPC) has been founded in Belgium with the objective to create the ecosystem for the CPACE technical specifications in the card payment industry, by bringing together the unique capabilities and skills of the different European payment schemes.

The European Card Payment Cooperation (ECPC) has been recently founded in Brussels, under the Belgian Law for cooperative companies, with the main objective to create the “CPACE ecosystem” in the payment industry by bringing together the unique capabilities and skills of the different European schemes to foster technical innovation independently from other available solutions. It is expected that the activity of the company will contribute to the development of a single market for card payments in Europe.

The ECPC has been conceived as a standardization organization and the key assets are: i) Dual Interface Cards Specifications; ii) Mobile Phone HCE Specifications; iii) Kernel Specifications for Dual Interface Cards and HCE acceptance; iv) Certification Framework, and v) Test cases.  The company is currently working on the CPACE certification procedure.

To this effect, the ECPC will: i) maintain, evolve, and update the CPACE specifications; ii) create, maintain, and update the CPACE certification framework and test cases; iii) license any interested actor in the deployment of any CPACE-based solutions approved by ECPC; and iv) provide implementation support in the different markets.

ECPC Shareholders include Bancontact Payconiq Company (Belgium), Borica-Bcard (Bulgaria), Groupement des Cartes Bancaires “CB” (France), SIBS MB (Portugal), Sistema de Tarjetas y Medios de Pago “STMP” (Spain), and SRC-girocard (Germany).

The Chairman of the Board is Matthias Hönisch, who heads the card business unit of the Association of German Cooperative Banks and currently chairs the girocard managing committee of the German Banking Industry Committee (GBIC).

Matthias Hönisch has commented: “I am very pleased with this initiative because the European schemes using the CPACE specifications will be able to contribute to the development of a European solution of card and mobile payments”.

The C.E.O. is Carmen Carnero, currently Deputy General Manager and Chief Operations Officer of STMP in Spain.

The Treasurer is Philippe Kempeners, currently Scheme Manager at Bancontact Payconiq Company in Belgium.

 

Contact: Carmen Carnero  carmencarnero@sistemapay.es