ABOUT EAPS

EAPS, the Euro Alliance of Payment Schemes, offers a European alternative to the global card schemes.  EAPS unites the networks of independent European card schemes, banks, acquirers and payment institutions throughout Europe, to create a single European card payment framework. 

EAPS is organized as a not-for-profit initiative which increases competition within the payments sector by enabling its participants - card schemes, acquirers and individual payment institutions - to develop mutually advantageous cross-border connections with each other.  The result is that through EAPS, debit cardholders in one European country can use their cards for ATM and POS transactions in other European countries. 

From a commercial perspective, EAPS offers participants greater profits as a result of increased transaction volumes.  The majority of card payments throughout Europe are made using European scheme branded debit cards with limited reach.  Through bilateral agreements with other EAPS participants, card schemes and banks are able to extend the reach of domestically issued debit cards for transactions across Europe (through partner networks). Individual acquirers benefit from the opportunity to accept a growing number of EAPS cards within Europe, through existing ATM and POS infrastructures, even if those cards are not co-branded with the global card schemes.  EAPS therefore offers a simple, accessible and extremely cost-effective business development model.  There are no co-branding restrictions on EAPS cards and EAPS is SEPA-compliant.  

The founding participants of EAPS are the following independent European card schemes:
- Consorzio BANCOMAT (Italy)
- EUFISERV (Europe)
- EURO 6000 (Spain)
- LINK (UK)
- SIBS / MULTIBANCO (Portugal)
- Zentralar Kreditausschuss / girocard (Germany)