EURO Kartensysteme

What it does

Bank-owned joint venture of the German banking industry that acts as the operational scheme manager for girocard, Germany's domestic debit card scheme. EURO Kartensysteme runs product management and product development, scheme administration and sales, marketing and communication, and operational security standards and fraud prevention for girocard, and is the German banking industry's neutral competence centre for Mastercard licence management. Die Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft sets the girocard system's rules and strategy as its governance authority; EURO Kartensysteme implements them, licensing and administering the scheme rather than contracting merchants itself.