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Citing a lack of understanding about the fate of card schemes under the emerging cross-border payments scheme in Europe, financial authorities there have "welcomed" a seven-page primer about the scheme from a banking group. The group, the European Payments Council, says it seeks to clarify card rules under the Single Euro Payments Area, commonly known as SEPA. The European Commission this week praised the clarifications from the council, which represents about 8,000 banks in Europe and released a question-and-answer statement about SEPA concerns. SEPA, designed to create a common European payments zone from 31 national payment schemes, became a reality earlier this year when banks began making cross-border credit transfers. By 2010, countries with domestic debit card schemes must make those domestic programs compatible with SEPA or replace them with an international brand. The European Commission, in a response to the banking group's statement, says SEPA mandates that cards are "technically and commercially capable of being accepted everywhere in SEPA territory." That means, the commission adds, that "an efficient national [card] scheme will be able to become [SEPA]-compliant provided that, among other requirements, it is technically and commercially capable of admitting banks from other SEPA countries."
