Payment solutions
The flexible girocard network service provider with own host software
As a leading full-service payment provider for 25 years, epay offers its extensive solutions portfolio on all channels.
epay|transact Elektronische Zahlungssysteme GmbH is a technical network operator approved by the German Banking Industry Committee and a PCI-certified payment institution that has been approved by BAFIN. With 25 years of experience in the industry, epay stands for secure and electronic financial transactions, enabling you to flexibly access solutions in the ever-changing payment and financial services industry.
epay host software
To enable girocard network services epay developed our own host software. The epay host software and the POS terminals connected to epay are approved by the German Banking Industry Committee based on the industry standards.
As a technical network operator epay Host communicates directly with the girocard-issuing banks. The girocard-issuing banks are the central banking associations and authorization entry-points, which are also called Head-ends. For more information you can check here.
epay Host is located between the Head-ends and the terminal to process girocard transactions, as illustrated below.
About girocard
girocard is a product of the German Banking Industry Committee (GBIC) and uses the high security standards of the GBIC: maximum security is guaranteed via secure chip and PIN procedure.
With more than 100 million issued cards, girocard is the most common debit card in Germany. It allows cardholders to withdraw cash at around 60,000 ATMs nationwide and to pay cashlessly at about 977,000 terminals in Germany alone.
Statistics
girocard shows significant growth over the last year and is expanding its use even further. This increasing trend is shown by the current statistics of 2021:
girocard contactless
girocard contactless is the successful model of the German banking industry and an indispensable part of our everyday lives.
The advantages of girocard contactless for merchants:
- For the merchants who already offer girocard contactless, no additional effort is needed after the contactless function has been activated by epay once at the POS terminal
- High trust in the well-known girocard and thus also in the integrated contactless feature
- Faster payment without PIN entry up to 50€
- Hygienic, as there is no physical contact to the POS-Terminal
- Higher customer convenience through more choices of payment forms: contactless payment via girocard
- High security standards by usage of worldwide NFC (Near Field Communication) standard
Regulatory requirements
The German Banking Industry Committee (GBIC) defines standardized rules, called Technical Annex (TA), for the German payments sector. These rules are given to all certified Network Service Providers (NSP) like epay, and mandatory for the operation of girocard POS terminals. The last of these rules is TA 7.2.
In order to comply with the new TA 7.2 regulations, terminals must be adjusted accordingly. Starting from 01.01.2022 only TA 7.2 compliant terminals will be introduced to the market. To activate the available new functions of the card payments, the software upgrade for the existing terminals will be based on new TA 7.2 regulations. The terminals which do not support the software upgrade must be replaced by 01.01.2025 at the latest.