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The Euro Alliance of Payment Schemes, a Belgium-based organization designed to facilitate cross-border debit transactions in Europe, hopes to have 180,000 ATMs, 1.2 million point-of-sale terminals and 130 million cards in its network by the end of 2009, according to Oliver Hommel, the organization's vice chairman. He made the comments Wednesday at the Cartes & Identification show in Paris. The alliance includes six members: Eufiserv S.C., a Brussels-based pan-European ATM system; Italy-based CO.GE.BAN, which operates Pago Bancomat and Bancomat; Germany-based European Payment Card Solution GmbH, which operates ATM network operator Deutsches Geldautomatensystem and the country's electronic cash system; Spain-based card payment scheme Euro 6000; United Kingdom-based ATM organization Link Interchange Network Ltd.; and Portugal's Sociedade Interbancaria de Servios S.A., which operates Multibanco. The alliance formed last year as a response to the emerging Single Euro Payments Area, a mandate that calls for a cross-border card payments system instead of national debit programs. "National schemes still account for most payments in the Euro Zone," Hommel said during a presentation. Compliance with SEPA could come through various forms, he said. First, national debit brands could "migrate" to international schemes, which in Hommel's view would "mean less competition" in the European card market. Second, national and international brands could co-brand their cards, but that would mean "two competitive brands on one card," he said. Another option is the approach taken by Hommel's group: An alliance of national schemes. So far, the Euro Alliance includes some 25,000 ATMs, he said, with rollouts of point-of-sale terminals underway. The scheme so far has seen a "very low level of chargebacks" for its card transactions—0.014%—Hommel said. And from January through September, the scheme handled some 1.2 million transactions conducted with German-issued cards, he added. The scheme aims to become "the largest acceptance network in Europe" by 2015, Hommel said. To help reach that goal, the alliance hopes to launch a service that would enable consumers to add value to their mobile phones by using their debit cards at ATMs, though Hommel did not give a specific schedule. Alliance officials also are talking with China-based card network China UnionPay, Japan-based card firm JCB and United States-based Discover Financial Services about "cooperation" on card acceptance, he added. The alliance also hopes to expand its branding by putting its logos on terminals and cards. "The goal is to have the EAPS logo next to (logos for the national brands) at the (point-of-sale) terminals," Hommel says. Putting the alliance logo on cards will have to wait until consumers receive new cards as part of the normal replacement cycle. Hommel expects the first cards that will carry the alliance logo to reach consumers in 2009, although there is no mandate to include the logo, he added.
