Through an arrangement announced Monday by the Euro Alliance of Payment Schemes, people with girocard debit cards issued in Germany can now use them at the 63,000 automated teller machines connected to the U.K.'s Link electronic funds transfer network.
Germany's Central Credit Committee operates the girocard network in Germany. Both Link and the Central Credit Committee are founding members of EAPS, which offers a European alternative to international card networks such as Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc.
Cards issued by financial companies that participate in EAPS were responsible for generating more than 9 million ATM and point of sale purchases in 2009, according to Ugo Bechis, EAPS' chairman and head of Sepa Payments at UBI Banca of Italy.
European Union regulators established Sepa — the Single Euro Payments Area initiative — to help facilitate cross-border payments within euro countries.
