New test solution enables acquiring banks and processors to test their implementation against SEPA specifications

Brussels, 20 November 2013–Clear2Pay, the international technology provider of next generation payment solutions for financial institutions, today announces that its OSCar Acquirer Test Suite has been validated in application of the certification process defined by the Open Standard for Cards (OSCar) Consortium. The certification process was executed by PayCert on behalf of the OSCar Consortium.

OSCar is the international initiative that aims to facilitate and speed up the implementation of the SEPA Cards Standards in the point-of-sale terminal-to-acquirer domain, based on SEPA FAST and EPAS. More specifically, the consortium’s main objectives are to ensure that point-of-sale devices and acquirer systems work together seamlessly.

Prior to going live, acquiring banks and processors need to be formally approved and pass qualification at authorized test laboratories. Clear2Pay’s Oscar Acquirer Test Solution enables acquiring banks in the SEPA zone to verify whether their implementations are conform to the functional SEPA standards. The OSCar certified test solution can be used by acquirers as a benchmark tool during development and to prepare for official validation – thus avoiding costs related to certification failure.

Marie Costers, General Manager Clear2Pay Open Test Solutions, comments: “In our market leading position in payments technology, it goes without saying that we also wish to contribute with our Testing expertise to the adoption of a new market standard in the Eurozone. With the SEPA compliance end date set to February 2014, the solution will prove of great value to banks enabling them to go to market faster with certified implementations. Merchants will benefit from enhanced interoperability in a unified payment area.”

Loys Moulin, OSCar Coordinator adds: “We are pleased that Clear2Pay, an expert provider of test solutions with over 25 years of experience, is supporting OSCar in paving the way to a streamlined payment experience. After the company’s first proof of concept of OSCar demonstrated at Cartes two years ago, this test tool validation is a new milestone in the evolution of the card standard.”

Note: See Clear2Pay at the Cartes Trade Show from 19 to 21 November in Paris, booth 3E018.

About Clear2Pay

Clear2Pay is a payments modernisation company that actively supports many global financial institutions to meet their payments unification goals through its pure SOA Open Payment Framework (OPF). Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, the company facilitates banks and financial organisations in their provision of payments services, whether they be Card, ACH, Branch, Bulk, High Care or International payment transactions. Clear2Pay’s innovative technology helps to reduce transactions processing costs, and to deliver new, compelling payment services in a competitive way. Functions embrace payments origination, reporting, linkage with back-office processing systems, clearing, netting and settlement. In addition the company offers a range of value added payment technology solutions and services such as e-Banking, Open Test Solutions, Open Card Solutions, ChargeBack, Strategic Consultancy and Payments Training through a dedicated Academy. Clients include global and major regional financial institutions such as ING, Banco Santander, Crédit Agricole, BNP Paribas, The Federal Reserve, RBS, Commerzbank, The People’s Bank of China (PBOC), Bank of East Asia, Rabobank, Bank of New York Mellon and Commonwealth Bank. Clear2Pay operates out of Belgium (HQ) and another 22 offices in 14 countries. The company currently employs over 1200 staff. The company was awarded the XCelent Customer Base 2010 award for its undisputed largest payment hub customer base, both live and under implementation and ranks 75th in the Global FinTech100 list. For more information, please visit http://www.clear2pay.com.

About OSCar

The OSCar (Open Standards for Cards) consortium, established at the end of 2010, aims at fostering the implementation of the SEPA Standards in the terminal and from the terminal to the acquirer domain by delivering a common solution based on the SEPA FAST application and the EPAS ISO 20022 acquirer protocol. OSCar will allow payment service providers, vendors, retailers and card schemes to move from theory and put into practice the deliverables of the SEPA Card Standardisation program in the terminal-to-acquirer domain.

The OSCar consortium gathers as of today the following key industry players: Accord Oney Bank, American Express, Auchan, Barclaycard, Carrefour Banque, Cartes Bancaires “CB”, Crédit Agricole Cards & Payments, Cetecom, Clear2pay, Consorzio Bancomat, Credit Mutuel, Die Deutche Kreditwirtschaft, Discover, Elitt, Equens, Fime, Galitt, German Banking Industry Committee (GBIC), I-Zettle, Ingenico, MasterCard Europe, Monext, Paycert, Point International, Poste Italiane, SCD Desjardins, SER2S, SRC, UK Cards Association, UL TS (formerly known as Collis), UnionPay International, VeriFone, Visa Europe, VOEB-ZVD, Wincor Nixdorf. Worldline. For more information: http://www.oscar-project.eu/ For more information:

Contact Clear2Pay

Conny Dorrestijn–VP Corporate Marketing and Analyst Relations
Email: conny.dorrestijn@clear2pay.com
T: +31 651 067201

Steve Lacourt–Head of Marketing Open Test Solutions
Email: steve.lacourt@clear2pay.com
T: +32 2 402 52 00