Test in the Works for European Card
Cardline Global | Tuesday, July 14, 2009


The Belgian retailing chain Colruyt Group plans to begin testing a new European payment card in October, according to a payments executive.

Dominque Buysschaert, the chief executive of European Payment Solutions, a Belgian processor, said last week that Colruyt would begin accepting the Payfair debit card at about five stores.

European Payment is one of the companies developing the Payfair network, which is one of several European efforts to create a card company that would compete with Visa Inc. and MasterCard as the region moves toward a common payments market.

Buysschaert said the Colruyt test could eventually expand to 10 stores, and that he expects the Payfair card to be offered outside Belgium sometime next year.

However, Belgian banks have been reluctant to offer the cards, and the Payfair cards involved in the Colruyt test will be issued by the retailer, Buysschaert said.

A second European card network could debut in October. Several major French and German banking companies are said to be backing the Monnet debit card, and said last week that they expect to create a company then that would focus on building a payments network.  See "Is Monnet Painting Visa and MasterCard into a Corner?

 

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