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Cross-border debit card transactions in Europe received a boost Thursday with the connection of German and Italian ATM networks under the Euro Alliance of Payment Schemes, a Belgium-based organization designed to facilitate such transactions in Europe. Italy-based Consorzio Bancomat and Germany-based Zentraler Kreditausschuss will enable their cardholders to withdrawal cash from the two networks' ATMs. Together, the two organizations deploy at least 60,000 ATMs, a spokesperson for the Belgian group, commonly known as EAPS, tells CardLine Global. "EAPS does not charge any fees to cardholders," the spokesperson adds. "The fees which apply will be set in agreement between the card issuer and the cardholder [according to] the terms and conditions of the card." Additional information on fees was unavailable. The Italian and German organizations soon will facilitate cross-border card acceptance at payment terminals, but EAPS gave no date, and immediate comment from the two groups was unavailable. EAPS, launched in 2007, includes nearly 200,000 ATMs and 2.2 million payment terminals. EAPS members have issued some 222 million cards, the Belgian group says. The group and at least two others in Europe want to build European-centered electronic-payment networks that would compete more directly with MasterCard Worldwide and Visa Europe as much of the continent moves to a common market for payments.
