The subsidiaries of CB-Investment, FrenchSys and Elitt were founded to facilitate the acceptance of multi-scheme payments in France and to provide expertise and testing services to ensure the quality of card payments in France. They work for banks, card systems and providers who are active in the area of card payments.

Thanks to a cooperation with SRC, the German specialist for card and security payments based in Bonn, they worked as part of the jointly founded European Payment Experts Consortium (EPEC) on a project that enables the German girocard system to be accepted by all French retailers, which are equipped with a standard FRV6 terminal supported by all French acquirers.

Based on the work of Elitt, FrenchSys and SRC, LAVEGO AG, one of the leading technical network operators of the GiroCard system, has developed a gateway that enables French acquirers to be connected to the GiroCard system.

As part of a project launched this summer, these players demonstrated live GiroCard card transactions at a French retailer using a standard FRV6 terminal. These transactions were carried out in production mode using real cards, a real merchant account with a French acquirer and full settlement of the transactions.

Matthias Hönisch, Head of the Cards Division at the Federal Association of German Volksbanken and Raiffeisen Banks (BVR), who currently chairs the Committee of the German Banking Industry, which manages the GiroCard system, explained: “Having made a real transaction with my German girocard at a standard French terminal and at a merchant, I am very happy about this first step towards a better connection between card systems in Europe. We hope that the system will be further developed and extended to many merchants and acquirers in France, but also to other national systems, in order to eventually create a more integrated European market for digital payments. ”

Jean-Daniel Gries, President of FrenchSys, added: “FrenchSys, together with Elitt, is very proud to have made this first GiroCard transaction possible on a standard French terminal. This is the result of FrenchSys' continued investment in multi-scheme acceptance to help acquirers and retailers optimize their acceptance and acquiring business. The new FRv6 functionalities are proving to be extremely effective for accepting all card systems on a single terminal application, with all the necessary innovations that FRv6 brings, such as single-tap payments that enable contactless payments over €50, with online PIN verification, support for the European CPace core, and cryptographic features for mutual authentication. ”

About EPEC

EPEC combines the expertise of three European experts in payment specifications, testing and standardization, who also combine the requirements of two of the largest payment markets in Europe. EPEC members are: FrenchSys (www.frenchsys.com), Elitt (www.elitt.com) and SRC (www.src-gmbh.de).

About girocard

The “girocard” brand combines the “girocard” electronic payment system and the “German ATM system”. With more than 100 million cards issued, the girocard is the most common debit card in Germany. It enables cardholders to make cashless payments at more than 1.1 million POS terminals and withdraw cash from around 55,000 ATMs across Germany.

About LAVEGO

The LAVEGO team has been working in the area of cashless payments since 1992 and 20 years ago specialized in serving technically demanding niche markets such as gas stations and unattended terminals in vending machines - with its own software development. LAVEGO is a girocard network operator, a payment institution governed by BaFin and the Deutsche Bundesbank, audited PCI-DSS and KRITIS (critical infrastructures in Germany).

media contacts

FrenchSys contact: Cédric Sarazin, contact@frenchsys.com

Elitt contact: Jean-Pierre Dubord, communication@elitt.com

Contact SRC: Gerd Cimiotti, info@src-gmbh.de

LAVEGO contact person: Florian Gohlke, info@lavego.de

Contact girocard: EURO Card Systems, Oliver Hommel, empfang@eurokartensysteme.de