gertrude tumpel - gugerell : sepa for cards – more than a symbol of sepa ’ s success speech by ms gertrude tumpel - gugerell, member of the executive board of the european central bank ( ecb ), at the monnet symposium organised by the monnet project, madrid, 5 may 2010. * * * ladies and gentlemen, introduction 5 may is a historic date for european integration. 61 years ago today, the treaty of london on the establishment of the council of europe was signed. the council of europe in strasbourg is one of the oldest international organisations dedicated to facilitating european integration, with the focus on democracy and the rule of law. the council of europe created two symbols which were adopted by the european economic community in 1985 and are today used by the european union : the flag of europe and the european anthem. the flag of europe has become the principal symbol of the european union. the circle and the number twelve – which is the number of stars positioned in a circle on the flag – has numerous associations with unity, such as the 12 hours on a clock, 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac and 12 semitones in an octave. unity is also a crucial factor in the success of one of the biggest economic projects the european union has ever seen : the establishment of one single euro payments area – sepa. with the united efforts of the european banking community, the legislators and the central banking community, sepa made a successful start with the introduction of the sepa credit transfer more than two years ago and the sepa direct debit last year. of course, sepa is far from complete. the migration to sepa credit transfers and sepa direct debits will take some time. i am confident, however, that with the setting of a realistic but ambitious end date, the pace of the migration will increase considerably. for this reason, i have no concerns regarding the success of a sepa for credit transfers or direct debits. however, sepa is built on a third column too : sepa for cards. cards are the most commonly used payment instrument in the european union, accounting for almost four out of ten transactions in 2008. without the success of sepa for cards, the project will not be complete. very often sepa for cards is associated with the establishment of an additional european card scheme. but sepa for cards is about much more than that : it is about business rules and technical standards too

new zealand and south africa. in europe, strong public intervention is not envisaged for the time being. it is up to the epc and individual card schemes to create the business rules which are needed for a smooth functioning of sepa for cards. sepa for cards – technical standards business rules are only half the battle for a sepa for cards, as technical standards are needed too. last december the epc published an updated version of the sepa cards standardisation volume. this “ book of requirements ”, as it is now called, builds on the sepa cards framework. the objective of the document is to lay the foundations for the harmonisation of standards in sepa. it provides the basis for the sepa standards that are needed so that “ any sepa card could technically work at any sepa terminal ”. the ecb welcomes the epc ’ s commitment to ensure that the book of requirements continues to develop in close dialogue with stakeholders in the sepa cards market, who are represented in the epc cards stakeholders group established last year. the evolution of the book of requirements will also facilitate and guide the market adoption of the detailed standards that various market initiatives have developed or are developing. this is an important step towards interoperability, security and market access. without it, there is a risk that technical fragmentation would remain or even be reintroduced in europe – something that none of us wants. another prerequisite for sepa for cards is a certification framework that inspires trust, ensures an appropriate and equivalent level of security for cards and terminals, and provides processing relates to the authorisation of card transactions, as well as their subsequent clearing and settlement. “ one - stop shopping ” for manufacturers of cards and terminals. card scheme providers have made significant progress over the past year, and are cooperating in the common approval scheme ( cas ) initiative, and i am looking forward to seeing a clear epc position, especially on governance aspects, in this field. governance is in fact one of the key components in the sepa for cards project : setting requirements and promoting standards is important, without a doubt. but, from a european perspective, it is strategically necessary for europe to take a more coordinated approach towards global standard - setting bodies, such as iso or emvco, and that europe starts to speak with one voice. giving the epc, acting on behalf of the european payments industry, a say in these bodies would be a very good way to achieve this aim.