Ernst Verbeek, Managing Director, Trionis
Abstract
Although the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) will bring about consolidation in the payments industry in Europe in general, this does not apply to the number of payment schemes. There are nearly as many payment card schemes as there are countries in Europe. But it is not a foregone conclusion that these are likely to disappear and be replaced by two or three pan-European schemes. Some card schemes will undoubtedly disappear, but at the same time there are many contenders, both new and existing, with the will and the resources to become meaningful players in the European payments landscape. Their proliferation is being reinforced by a tendency of both the card issuer and the card acquirer sides to broaden the portfolio of brands on offer to cardholders and merchants, respectively. At the same time, card payment schemes will undergo a paradigm shift as non-card payment instruments converge with card payment systems to create hybrid networks.
Keywords
card payment schemes, domestic debit, SEPA, payments innovation, China UnionPay, EAPS, EUFISERV, Monnet, PayFair, American Express, JCB, PayPal
Ernst Verbeek is Managing Director of Trionis, the new name of the company that was separated from the EUFISERV scheme to become a brand-neutral interbank switch processor for POS and ATM transactions, jointly owned by a dozen European banks and processors. Prior to that he worked for First Data, where he has been responsible for First Data’s operations in Western Europe, including Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Benelux, France, Spain and Portugal. During 2006, Mr Verbeek oversaw the completion of the acquisition of Gesellschaft für Zahlungssysteme mbH (GZS), Germany’s leading processor of cashless card-based payment transactions, and the integration of this significant business into First Data’s EMEA organisation. He also had responsibility for TeleCash, a leading POS terminal and network services provider in Germany, and for First Data’s acquisition of APSS, later renamed First Data Austria. He joined First Data in 2004, from the American payment specialists Certegy, where he was responsible for the company’s European operations, with clients in Ireland, France, Spain, UK and Turkey. Before joining Certegy, Mr. Verbeek worked for American Express in the UK, Spain and Bahrain, and for Experian in the Netherlands and Spain. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the London School of Economics and an MBA from INSEAD in France.
If you wish to read the full text of the article you will need to
subscribe.