However, at present the pan-European acceptance of cards issued under a national card scheme is entirely reliant on co-badging with an international card scheme. The Eurosystem acknowledges that, in general, European cardholders are able to pay with one card all over Europe. In addition, such developments could facilitate technical interoperability, provided they are based on common standards and incorporate state-of-the-art technology and innovations. Taking this into account, the SEPA for cards objectives could be better served by supply-side stakeholders investing in current, or possibly new, processing infrastructure. However, to some extent, this has constrained investment in the modernisation of their services and prevented efforts towards achieving a pan-European approach. The Eurosystem takes note of this reasoning and acknowledges that most existing national card schemes actually operate on a relatively low cost basis, which has benefited users in the past. Players from the supply side of the cards market believe the migration towards harmonised standard needs to be market-driven and justified by business case considerations. However, multiple players actively promote their own services based on proprietary standards, thereby hindering progress in this area. To achieve the above objectives, coordination among cards market players is of the utmost importance, in particular in the area of cards standardisation. In a SEPA for cards, a number of impediments would be abolished, including: (i) a lack of interoperability between cards and terminals, (ii) limitations on merchants accepting certain cards, and (iii) cardholders being confused by different payment experiences across Europe. It enumerates measures by cards market participants that are conducive to a SEPA for cards. This report includes the views of cards market participants from the supply side, obtained during a market consultation conducted in late 2017. The Eurosystem therefore decided to analyse the current state of card payments in Europe and review its policies.
Overall, a SEPA for cards has not yet been achieved. However, so far this has not led to a harmonised, competitive and innovative European cards payment area. Since the publication of this report, new legislation and substantial technological progress have reshaped the environment for card payments.
The card industry has made significant efforts to achieve the objectives outlined in the 2014 report Card payments in Europe – a renewed focus on SEPA for cards, which presented the Eurosystem’s views, policies and objectives. Although cards have been the fastest growing means of payment in Europe for some time, some users (cardholders and merchants) have not benefited as much as they could have if a SEPA for cards had been achieved. In contrast, card payments still lack the same degree of market integration and harmonisation of business practices and rules, as well as technical standards. The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) is now a reality for over 500 million citizens using uniform credit transfers and direct debits. The integration of the European retail payments markets has been going on for almost two decades.
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