Value proposition

A multi-stakeholder group focused on the definition of SEPA requirements for payment-based services

The European Cards Stakeholders Group (ECSG) is an International Non-Profit Association founded in 2016 and located in Brussels.
The purpose of the ECSG is the definition of SEPA requirements for card-based services.
Its membership is open to any entity active in the market for card related or card-based services in an EEA Member State, and it organises itself as a multi-stakeholder group alongside the following industry sectors over the full value chain of card-based services:
• Retailers;
• Vendors (manufacturers of cards, payment devices, and/or related IT systems);
• Processors (of card transactions);
• Card Schemes and
• Payment Service Providers.
ECSG members must belong to one of these five Sectors.
The main task of the ECSG is to maintain and evolve the ‘SEPA Cards Standardisation Volume’, a set of documents designed to enable card payment standardisation and harmonisation to promote the interoperability of card transactions in a secure environment throughout the SEPA region.
The Volume defines the high-level standardisation requirements. Those requirements are used by the specification providers to write their specifications, which will be used to develop solutions.
Specification providers can submit a request for a conformance label to the Volume Conformance Management Committee of the ECSG.
The strength of the group is its organisation that includes the 5 sectors of the card payment value chain and by being a member, an organisation gets several advantages:
• Valuable information on the developments of standardisation,
• An active contribution in its design,
• The capability to anticipate what its evolution will be
• Through a close interaction with the regulators.