EUFISERV ATM Scheme Says It's Ready for SEPA

Since it began in 1990, the scheme has been owned and managed by EUFISERV – a combined scheme and processing business. At the end of last year, prior to the announcement of the agreement between EUFISERV and First Data Corp., the EUFISERV Scheme was “spun-off” from EUFISERV into a new company – EUFISERV Payments. The new company’s shareholders are major European banks and bank owned organisations.

Currently the EUFISERV ATM Scheme provides access to cash to over 67 million cardholders. EUFISERV branded cards are issued by over 600 participating European banks and are accepted at 68,000 branded EUFISERV ATMs across Europe. It is the only European scheme in operation today.

Since the spin-off from EUFISERV, the new company has carried out a thorough overhaul of the necessary governance arrangements and scheme rules. EUFISERV Payments and the EUFISERV Scheme are now fully SEPA compliant. The scheme is completely independent of processors, including Trionis – the new name for the former EUFISERV processing business.

Wolfgang Adamiok, Chairman of EUFISERV Payments and Head of Card Strategies at the German Savings Banks Association, commented: “We have worked hard to do what is required for SEPA. This work assures continuity of service to our participating banks, as well of course, to cardholders. EUFISERV Payments and its shareholders fully support the SEPA project and are proud to announce their contribution to its success. We trust that other schemes will follow our lead and separate scheme management functions from processing; otherwise we will not have a level playing field.

John Ormerod, General Manager of EUFISERV Payments, added: “As well as cooperating with other schemes and alliances for mutual acceptance, the EUFISERV Scheme – as a SEPA-compliant scheme – is open to banks and other financial institutions to join directly as members. We can offer new members an attractive proposition for their ATM business as well as service to their cardholders.”