Europay International was a financial company. It was created by the merger of Eurocard International and Eurocheque International and was headquartered in

Waterloo, Belgium Waterloo (, ; wa, Waterlô) is a municipality in Wallonia, located in the province of Walloon Brabant, Belgium, which in 2011 had a population of 29,706 and an area of . Waterloo lies a short distance south of Brussels, and immediately north-east ...

, on the same premises as EPSS (European Payment Systems Services) and MasterCard EMEA (the MasterCard region comprising Europe, the Middle East and Africa). It merged with MasterCard International to form MasterCard, Inc in 2002. During its existence it was, along with

Visa Visa most commonly refers to: *Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Visa Plus, an interbank network *Travel visa, a document that allows ...

, one of the two credit card processors that dominated the European market. The

EMV EMV is a payment method based on a technical standard for smart payment cards and for payment terminals and automated teller machines which can accept them. EMV stands for " Europay, Mastercard, and Visa", the three companies that created th ...

payment system, now a ''de facto'' standard for

debit Debits and credits in double-entry bookkeeping are entries made in account ledgers to record changes in value resulting from business transactions. A debit entry in an account represents a transfer of value ''to'' that account, and a credit ...

and

credit Credit (from Latin verb ''credit'', meaning "one believes") is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt) ...

cards, was named from Europay, MasterCard, and Visa, the three companies that proposed its usage.

History

In 1993, Europay International SA and MasterCard International announced they would form a single transaction-processing network."BRIEFCASE : Europay and MasterCard Plan to Merge Processing"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' (October 2, 1993) In 1995, it partnered with IBM."Technology"
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' (June 15, 1995) In 2001, Europay International was headquartered in

and owned by a number of European financial institutions, with Mastercard International owning a 12 percent share."McElhatton to keep key role in new MasterCard"
Marilyn Vise, ''

St. Louis Business Journal American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACBJ publishes The Business Journals, which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States, Hemmings Motor News ...

'' (August 19, 2001) Europay, along with

, dominated the European credit card market during its existence. By June 1994, it had issued 100 million cards, representing 56% of Europe's total market, although Visa still led in terms of dollar volume. Until 1994, it was the dominant credit card processor in German-speaking countries and Northern Europe, but after that it lost ground to Visa in the north but gained market share in the south of Europe. By 1996, Europay represented 71% of all European debit cards, and 56% of combined debit and credit cards. In 2000, Europay International was an official sponsor of the

Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament was ...

football competition, meaning that credit cards issued by participating banks could optionally carry the logo of the tournament. After announcing the plan in June 2001,"MasterCard, Europay to Form Shareholder-Owned Global Firm"
Dow Jones Newswires, ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' (June 7, 2001)"MasterCard, Europay agree to merge"
''Philstar Global'' (June 18, 2001) in 2002, Europay International merged with MasterCard International to form MasterCard, Inc. Today the combined company is known as MasterCard Worldwide. In 2002, Europay International held a conference in Dublin, Ireland and noted "card fraud had increased as the use of cards had grown.""Card fraud grows in line with use"
Ella Shanahan, ''

Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

'' (May 17, 2002)

Brands

Europay International"Europay Announces Advanced Multicurrency Smart Card"
''

American Banker ''American Banker'' is a Manhattan-based trade publication covering the financial services industry. Originally a daily newspaper, the print edition ceased publication in 2016, with an online edition continuing to be updated. The first issue of ...

'' (June 7, 1996) was the owner of the following payment brands: Eurocard (charge card),

Eurocheque The Eurocheque was a type of cheque used in Europe that was accepted across national borders and which could be written in a variety of currencies. Eurocheques were originally introduced in 1969 as an alternative to the traveler's cheque and for i ...

(paper-based pan-European cheque system), ec travellers' checque (paper-based European

travelers' check A traveller's cheque is a medium of exchange that can be used in place of hard currency. They can be denominated in one of a number of major world currencies and are preprinted, fixed-amount cheques designed to allow the person signing it to ma ...

s), and Clip (European

e-purse Digital currency (digital money, electronic money or electronic currency) is any currency, money, or money-like asset that is primarily managed, stored or exchanged on digital computer systems, especially over the internet. Types of digital cu ...

based on Common Electronic Purse Specification). It also held the European licenses of MasterCard (credit card) and

Maestro Maestro (; from the Italian '' maestro'' , meaning "master" or "teacher") is an honorific title of respect (plural: maestros or maestri). The term is most commonly used in the context of Western classical music and opera, in line with the ubiqu ...

(online debit card, joint-venture with MasterCard International).

References

{{Authority control Credit card issuer associations Financial services companies of Belgium Waterloo, Belgium 2002 mergers and acquisitions Companies based in Walloon Brabant