EPAS
Encyclopedia
EPAS is a non-commercial cooperation initiative launched in Europe
which aims at developing a series of data protocols to be applied in a point of interaction
(POI) environment.
The project intends to address the three following protocols :
The main objectives common to the three protocols are:
Today's situation is the following one :
The goal of the EPAS project is therefore the issuance of technical specifications and the development of open software for three major protocols to be used in a Point of Interaction environment. The protocols enable a POI to communicate with external devices and hosts. An additional aim of the project is to validate - through demonstrators - the technical feasibility of the three protocols developed in the framework of the project.
The project is to be considered as a cornerstone of another initiative ("ERIDANE") initiated at the European level with several partners belonging to the EPAS Consortium. The aim of the ERIDANE project is to achieve a common set of standards for hardware and software components to be used in point-of-sales retail environments. As such, EPAS complements adequately the work carried out by the ERIDANE project which essentially focuses on the inner structure of a POI terminal used at retailers' point of sales locations.
With the development of specifications, the project intends to issue a new generation of open standards to be internationally deployed by equipment manufacturers, with a strong support from the banking and card payment industries as well as retailers, solutions providers and users.
The consortium is made of large industrial organisations, small and medium enterprise
s, card payment organisations, solution providers, retailers and users, as well as an academic institution, all having an in-depth expertise in the activities to be carried out in the framework of the project.
The partnership is composed of organisations belonging to Austria
, France
, Germany
, Italy
, Belgium
, The Netherlands, Luxembourg
, Spain
, Portugal
, the United Kingdom
and Nordic countries
.
One of the objective of the European Commission in contributing to the building of the European Union is the creation of a Single European Market ensuring a free circulation of goods and persons as it is the case today for most national – domestic – markets in Europe. In order to anticipate undue legislation, partners in the consortium have come together to develop and disseminate a set of data protocols which would complement the business standards needed to achieve the necessary Single European Payments Area Standards.
The development of standards to create a large internal market of financial services has, however, been largely endorsed, not only by the banking industry, but also by solution providers, manufacturers, retailers and users.
The EPAS project foresees the development and provision of the missing links mentioned above in the creation of a unified market of electronic payments services by 2010.
The EPAS project intends to bring a major benefit to the POS market by eliminating existing barriers and by allowing applications to be developed and used for both national and international markets reducing to a large extent the investments to be carried out by all actors involved.
The EPAS project aims at addressing such technical bottlenecks by delivering state-of-the-art data protocols in order to ensure a smooth process of POS transactions in a forthcoming Europe-wide domestic market.
The EPAS project will be conducted in line with the strategic objectives of the EPC (European Payments Council
).
The participating organisations are :
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
which aims at developing a series of data protocols to be applied in a point of interaction
Point of interaction
A point of interaction is a component in point of sale equipment that enables a consumer to use a card to make a purchase at a retailer...
(POI) environment.
The project intends to address the three following protocols :
- a terminal management protocol;
- a retailer application protocol;
- an acquirer protocol.
The main objectives common to the three protocols are:
- protocol interoperability : each protocol is designed in such a way as to be independent of the external device and the POI;
- independence of the system architecture and the integration level of the POI within the retailer application protocol;
- independence of the communication support and low level protocols : each protocol is independent of the network connection and will address both wire and wireless connections.
Context
A current barrier to the development of the POI market is due to the existing fragmented market for this type of equipment, especially in Europe, where each country has adopted its own requirements and rules in terms of security and functions to be implemented in POI devices.Today's situation is the following one :
- card accepting devices from one country cannot be replaced by similar devices of another country due to different – incompatible - protocols for download, key managementKey managementKey management is the provisions made in a cryptography system design that are related to generation, exchange, storage, safeguarding, use, vetting, and replacement of keys. It includes cryptographic protocol design, key servers, user procedures, and other relevant protocols.Key management concerns...
, communication with cash registers requiring specific software modules for each country of operation; - card accepting devices from one country cannot process transactions issued by acquirers from another country due to the incompatibility of the protocols between the two countries;
- different proprietary implementation of existing ISOInternational Organization for StandardizationThe International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO, is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial...
protocols in Europe hampers the development of central acquiring activities in Europe.
The goal of the EPAS project is therefore the issuance of technical specifications and the development of open software for three major protocols to be used in a Point of Interaction environment. The protocols enable a POI to communicate with external devices and hosts. An additional aim of the project is to validate - through demonstrators - the technical feasibility of the three protocols developed in the framework of the project.
The project is to be considered as a cornerstone of another initiative ("ERIDANE") initiated at the European level with several partners belonging to the EPAS Consortium. The aim of the ERIDANE project is to achieve a common set of standards for hardware and software components to be used in point-of-sales retail environments. As such, EPAS complements adequately the work carried out by the ERIDANE project which essentially focuses on the inner structure of a POI terminal used at retailers' point of sales locations.
With the development of specifications, the project intends to issue a new generation of open standards to be internationally deployed by equipment manufacturers, with a strong support from the banking and card payment industries as well as retailers, solutions providers and users.
The consortium is made of large industrial organisations, small and medium enterprise
Small and medium enterprise
Small and medium enterprises or small and medium-sized enterprises are companies whose headcount or turnover falls below certain limits.The abbreviation "SME" occurs commonly...
s, card payment organisations, solution providers, retailers and users, as well as an academic institution, all having an in-depth expertise in the activities to be carried out in the framework of the project.
The partnership is composed of organisations belonging to Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, The Netherlands, Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Nordic countries
Nordic countries
The Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland...
.
Objectives of EPAS
The outcome of the EPAS initiative will enable to achieve interoperability by :- giving to manufacturers a technological advance vis-à-vis their non-European competitors ;
- ensuring the interoperability of protocols at a European level ;
- improving the security level of the protocols.
One of the objective of the European Commission in contributing to the building of the European Union is the creation of a Single European Market ensuring a free circulation of goods and persons as it is the case today for most national – domestic – markets in Europe. In order to anticipate undue legislation, partners in the consortium have come together to develop and disseminate a set of data protocols which would complement the business standards needed to achieve the necessary Single European Payments Area Standards.
The development of standards to create a large internal market of financial services has, however, been largely endorsed, not only by the banking industry, but also by solution providers, manufacturers, retailers and users.
The EPAS project foresees the development and provision of the missing links mentioned above in the creation of a unified market of electronic payments services by 2010.
The EPAS project intends to bring a major benefit to the POS market by eliminating existing barriers and by allowing applications to be developed and used for both national and international markets reducing to a large extent the investments to be carried out by all actors involved.
The EPAS project aims at addressing such technical bottlenecks by delivering state-of-the-art data protocols in order to ensure a smooth process of POS transactions in a forthcoming Europe-wide domestic market.
Project Development
The proposed initiative will be structured along the three following main phases :- Phase I : development of technical specifications and issuance of standards (2006 - mid-2007)
- Phase II : development of software and provision of test tools (2007 – 2008)
- Phase III : construction of demonstrators (2008)
The EPAS project will be conducted in line with the strategic objectives of the EPC (European Payments Council
European Payments Council
The European Payments Council was founded in 2002. It calls itself "the decision-making and coordination body of the European banking industry in relation to payments". The main task of the EPC is the development of the Single Euro Payment Area. The 74 members are banks and banking associations....
).
Participants
The EPAS Consortium is composed of 23 organisations, each of them actively involved in its respective domain of expertise (card payment schemes, manufacturers, service companies, software developers, retailers).The participating organisations are :
- Thales e-Transaction (FR)
- IngenicoIngenicoIngenico S.A. is a worldwide company, whose business is to provide the technology involved in secure electronic transactions. Its traditional business is based around the manufacture of point of sale payment terminals, but it now also includes complete payment solutions and related services.It...
(FR) - VeriFoneVeriFoneVeriFone is a company that makes point-of-sale equipment. It was founded and incorporated in Hawaii in 1981, and named itself after its first product, the name standing for Verification telephone....
(US) - The Logic Group (UK)
- MoneyLine (FR)
- Lyra Network (FR)
- Atos Worldline (DE)
- Wincor NixdorfWincor NixdorfWincor Nixdorf is a German corporation that provides retail and retail banking hardware, software, and services. Wincor Nixdorf is engaged primarily in the sale, manufacture, installation and service of self-service transaction systems , retail banking equipment, lottery terminals, postal...
(ES) - GIE – Groupement des Cartes Bancaires "CB" (FR) (Co-ordinator)
- Banksys (BE)
- Security Research and Consulting (SRC) GmbH (DE)
- Equens SE(NL)
- Sermepa (ES)
- Cetrel (LU)
- Total (FR)
- Quercia (IT)
- University of Applied Sciences, Cologne (DE)
- Integri (BE)
- PAN Nordic Card Association (PNC) (SE)
- GALITT (FR)
- BP (GB)
- RSC Commercial Services (DE)
- Europay Austria Zahlungsverkehrssysteme GmbH (AT)
- SIBS (PT), Thales e-Transactions España (ES)
Links to the participating companies
- Atos Worldline: http://www.atosorigin.com/en-us
- Banksys: http://www.banksys.com/bkscomwt/EN/index.jsp
- BP: http://www.bp.com/home.do?categoryId=1
- Cetrel: http://www.cetrel.lu/
- Europay Austria Zahlungsverkehrssysteme GmbH: http://www.europay.at/
- Fachhochschule Köln: http://www.inf.fh-koeln.de/~ktds/profil/
- GALITT: http://www.galitt.com/
- GROUPEMENT DES CARTES BANCAIRES (Co-ordinator) : http://www.cartes-bancaires.com/
- ingenico: http://www.ingenico.com/
- Integri: http://www.integri.com/
- Equens: http://www.equens.com/
- Lyra Network: http://www.lyra-network.com/en/en_index.htm
- Moneyline: http://www.moneyline.fr/fr/
- PAN Nordic Card Association: http://www.pan-nordic.org/
- RSC Commercial Services: http://www.retail-sc.com/
- Sermepa: http://www.sermepa.es/espanol/index.htm
- SIBS: http://www.sibs.pt/
- SRC: http://www.src-gmbh.de/
- THALES e-Transactions: http://www.thales-e-transactions.com/
- The Logic Group: http://www.the-logic-group.com
- Total: http://www.total.com/
- VeriFone: http://www.verifone.com
- Wincor Nixdorf: http://www.wincor-nixdorf.com/internet/index.html
See also
- EFTPOSEFTPOSEFTPOS is the general term used for debit card based systems used for processing transactions through terminals at points of sale. In Australia and New Zealand it is also the brand name of the specific system used for such payments...
- Open Payment InitiativeOpen Payment InitiativeThe Open Payment Initiative, or O.P.I. for short, was launched to standardize the application interface between the EPOS application and any cashless payments solution installed on the EFT/PoS terminal. The specification for this interface focused mainly on international and cross-industry aspects...
- Wire transferWire transferWire transfer or credit transfer is a method of electronic funds transfer from one person or institution to another. A wire transfer can be made from one bank account to another bank account or through a transfer of cash at a cash office...
- Electronic funds transferElectronic funds transferElectronic funds transfer is the electronic exchange or transfer of money from one account to another, either within a single financial institution or across multiple institutions, through computer-based systems....
- ERIDANE
Sources
- “Standardisierungsarbeiten im europäischen Zahlungsverkehr - Chancen für SEPA” SRC - Security Research & Consulting GmbH, Bonn - Wiesbaden, Germany, 2006, p. 5, 11 (PDF-transparencies)
- William Vanobberghen, „Le Projet EPAS - Sécurité, protection des personnes et des donnée: de nouvelles technologies et des standards pour fiabiliser le contrôle et l’identification“, Groupement des Cartes Bancaires, 27. June 2006 (PPT-transparencies)
- Hans-Rainer Frank, „SEPA aus Sicht eines europäischen Tankstellenbetreibers“, Arbeitskreis ePayment, Brussels, 11.May 2006, p. 11 (PDF-transparencies)
- GROUPEMENT DES CARTES BANCAIRES, „EUROPEAN STANDARDISATION FOR ELECTRONIC PAYMENTS“,
Used to be at: http://www.cartes-bancaires.com/en/dossiers/standard.html (dead link as of Okt 2011) - „EPC�Card Fraud Prevention �& Security Activities“,Cédric Sarazin – Chairman Card Fraud Prevention TF 19. December 2007, FPEG Meeting - Brussels, http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/fpeg/docs/sarazin_en.ppt