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3 June 2025: Safeguarding Europe’s Financial Future: The Case for European Card Scheme Leadership

By ECPA

3 June 2025, Brussels – Today, the European Card Payment Association (ECPA) publishes a thought-provoking new white paper titled Safeguarding Europe’s Financial Future, analysing the relevance, importance and growth of European Card Schemes (ECSs) in today’s evolving geo-political landscape. The paper reveals that ECSs process over 31.5 billion transactions in 2024 through more than 263 million cards in circulation, underlining the proven foundations of resilience, cost-effectiveness, and market-specific solutions of local schemes, and their essential role and contribution to European sovereignty. It highlights the urgent need to protect Europe’s payment sovereignty amid geopolitical instability and the growing risk of over-reliance on non-European platforms, calling on policymakers to adopt a comprehensive industrial payments strategy, ensure the availability of at least one EU-based payment method at all times, advance open European standards like CPACE, promote regulatory fairness, and foster infrastructure sharing and cross-border interoperability. ECPA Chairman Juan Carlos Martín emphasises that European Card Schemes continue to grow in both transaction volumes and influence, and that safeguarding this sovereignty is critical for Europe’s financial future. The white paper aligns with the European Commission’s strategic autonomy agenda and follows ECB President Christine Lagarde’s recent call for a “March towards independence” from international payment platforms.

The European Card Payment Association (ECPA) is pleased to announce that it has been elected for a third consecutive term to the Board of Advisors of the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC)

By ECPA

The PCI SSC Board of Advisors represents the Council’s Participating Organizations worldwide to ensure global industry involvement in the development of PCI standards and programs. As strategic partners, they are representative of the market and bring geographical and technical insights to the Council. Furthermore, PCI SSC works with organizations around the globe to help secure payment data, and this latest Board of Advisors brings together some of the world’s leading companies from all sectors in the payments space.

Pierre Chassigneux and Oscar Covers from ECPA are among 31 board members to join the PCI Security Standards Council in its efforts to secure payment data globally.

As strategic partners, board members bring industry, geographical and technical insight to PCI SSC plans and projects. The 2021-2022 Board of Advisors includes representatives from the following organizations:

Absa Group Limited, AccorHotels, Amazon.com, Inc., Apple, Inc., Australian Payments Network Limited, Barclays Bank Plc, Center for Internet Security, Cielo S.A., Citigroup, Inc., Enterprise Holdings, Inc., European Association of Payment Providers for Merchants (EPSM), European Card Payment Association (ECPA), European Payment Council AISBL (EPC), First Data Merchant Services, Global Payments Direct, Inc., Google, Inc., Ingenico, JP Morgan Chase, MagicCube, Microsoft, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), PayPal, Inc., Rakuten, Inc. RSA, Schwarz IT GmbH & Co KG, Square, Inc., Stripe, Inc., Target Corporation, Verifone, Inc., Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Pierre Chassigneux welcomed this news by underlining the fact that ECPA has been the Strategic Regional European Member of PCI SSC since March 2016, and commented that “Once again, I’m extremely proud to take part in the PCI SSC Board of Advisors to represent the interests of the European card payment community. In the age of digital payments, cybersecurity and sovereignty have become matters of utmost importance. We must maintain the trust and confidence in card payments by implementing adequate security measures’’.

The Chair of the ECPA Security WG, Oscar Covers, further commented that “In Europe, security, fraud prevention and the development of standards are recognised non-competitive areas where cooperation adds value. For this reason, European banks and payment institutions are increasingly working together to make electronic payments safer and to combat fraud. I am therefore pleased to be able to make a contribution on behalf of ECPA.”

About ECPA (EUROPEAN CARD PAYMENT ASSOCIATION)
Founded in June 2014 as a non-profit international association ECPA represents European card schemes and organisations managing essential functions such as type approval within the European Economic Area (EEA). The association represents the interests of its Members on subjects which impact the use and / or users of payment cards or similar payment instruments, including measures intended to promote the creation of a single European market for card payments (SEPA for Cards).

Contact: David Stephenson, ECPA General Secretary
general-secretary@europeancardpaymentassociation.eu
+ 33 6 72 83 20 58 More : www.europeancardpaymentassociation.eu

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Election of ECPA Board of Directors

By ECPA

The election of the new ECPA Board of Directors for 2021 / 2022 took place on 15th October 2020.

On the same day, the ECPA Board of Directors discussed the European Commission’s Retail Payment Strategy as well as the realities in the payment industry caused by the 2020 pandemic.

The newly elected ECPA Chair, Juan Carlos Martín Guirado, observed that  :

it is encouraging that the European Commission has taken into account some of the recommendations made by ECPA and its members in the recently published Retail Payments Strategy. Most notably the Commission has recognised the importance of “home grown” European specifications for contactless card payments, such as the CPACE specifications which were developed initially under the aegis of ECPA following the EMVCo technical standards. The CPACE specifications are available to card industry players, not only within Europe, but also at a global level. 

Martín Guirado continued to say “Furthermore, through its policy of Business Associate membership ECPA is already aligned with the ambitions stated in the Commission’s Retail Payments Strategy document to assist countries from the West Balkan and the Eastern Neighbourhood in developing innovative and efficient payment systems. This is illustrated by the fact that both the Turkish card scheme BKM / TROY and NSPK / MIR from Russia are already ECPA Business Associates, and other domestic / regional card schemes are expected to join ECPA in the near future”.

The Board noted more generally that the European Commission also stressed the importance of increased acceptance of electronic (card) payments at the point of sale because of Covid-19, and ECPA and its members stand ready to assist.

The fact that the Board Meeting and General Assembly took place “on-line” reminded everyone that a new modus operandi has become the new normal in 2020, and confirmed that the European Card Payment Association has successfully adapted its processes to safely proceed with its mission and responsibilities as a representative body of the card payment industry.

For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, this included working with the European authorities to ensure that card manufacturing centres are designated essential businesses / services.

The ECPA Board wishes to congratulate all the stakeholders that have worked together to maintain the resilience of card payments during what has been a challenging year in the payments industry. This cooperation has successfully sustained a secure environment and, as such, a safe harbour for consumers and merchants alike in these troubled times.

Lastly, ECPA is hopeful that the ECPA International Conference of Regional Card Schemes & Retail Infrastructures which has been organised every year since 2015 in cooperation with the World Bank can be reinstated in 2021 so as to provide payment experts from all five continents with a platform for debate.

NSPK : new ECPA Business Associate

By ECPA

In January 2020, NSPK, the Russian National Payment Card System  joined the European Card Payment Association as a Business Associate.

NSPK is the operator of the MIR national card payment scheme which guarantees the security and continuity of domestic card transactions in Russia. NSPK’s mission is also to ensure the smooth running of transactions made in Russia with cards from international payment schemes and the development of the national system within the framework of the country’s National Payment System Strategy.

More on NSPK …

BKM (Turkey) becomes an ECPA Business Associate

By ECPA

In May 2019 BKM, the Interbank Card Center in Turkey, became a Business Associate in the European Card Payment Association.

Since its establishment in 1990 to handle the clearing & settlement process of all domestic transactions within Turkey, BKM’s services have expanded around the card payments network, namely, switch, payment gateways for foreign transactions, e-commerce, shared POS infrastructures, digital wallets and finally the domestic card scheme in Turkey – TROY.

BKM is also responsible for the definition of the domestic operational regulations on behalf of the card payments industry and manages all type approval processes.

More on BKM …

ECPA Joins PCI Council as Strategic European Regional Member

By ECPA

PARIS, 22 March 2016 –

Joining forces to protect against payment data theft around the world, the PCI SSC and the ECPA have announced today that ECPA
is now a strategic regional member of the PCI Council. Supporting the shared goal of a single, globally unified data security standard,
ECPA will collaborate on future versions of the global PCI Data Security Standard and advocate for the adoption of the PCI Standard by
its members in conformance with European Union regulations.

ECPA and PCI_Press Release_FINAL 160318

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European Card Payment Association A.I.S.B.L.
Aarlenstraat – Rue d’Arlon 82
1040 Brussels, BelgiumT:  +33 (0) 672832058
E: @email us

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