EAPS Transaction Volumes Increased 100% Year-on-year
Euro Alliance of Payment Schemes (EAPS) has announced that almost two million European cross-border transactions were undertaken in 2010 using its payment framework. The figure represents an increase of more than 100% compared to the 2009 end of year statistics.
EAPS unites independent European card schemes, banks, acquirers and payment institutions throughout Europe to create a single card payment framework. The alliance enables debit cardholders in one European country to use their domestically issued cards for ATM and point-of-sale (POS) transactions in other European countries, delivering mutually advantageous cross-border connections.
The volume of transactions in 2010 reached 1,957,000 compared to 942,000 transactions in 2009.
Peter Blasche, the chairman of the EAPS board, said: “We are delighted to report that transaction figures have more than doubled in the last year. This important milestone demonstrates that EAPS delivers a European alternative to the global payment systems. There are two key factors that have been instrumental to EAPS’ appeal. Firstly, it is governed by European players that are focused on European issues, such as compliance to the single euro payments area [SEPA]. Secondly, the network is built on existing payment infrastructures which makes EAPS commercially attractive by providing increased market reach without additional infrastructure investment.”