Girocard

girocard

Operating area	Germany
Members	2,000
ATMs	54,000

Girocard is an interbank network and debit card service connecting virtually all German ATMs and banks. It is based on standards and agreements developed by the German Banking Industry Committee.

German Girocards are usually co-branded with MasterCard's Maestro/Cirrus or VISA's V PAY logo, allowing cardholders to use them in other European countries. As another co-badging option, combined Girocard/JCB cards were introduced in 2016.

Originally, German banks formed an interbank network connecting virtually all German ATMs. The network used Eurocheque guarantee cards as ATM cards and did not have a name or trademark of its own. In 1991, the electronic cash debit card service was introduced using the same cards, replacing the Geldkarte ATM and POS scheme on the territory of East Germany. The cards used for all three payment methods were simply known as Eurocheque card (German Euroscheck-Karte).

When the Eurocheque system was disbanded at the end of 2001, the cards could no longer use the Eurocheque brand. However, German banks continued to use the EC logo, which was simply re-interpreted as "electronic cash". Consequently, the cards were colloquially known as EC card (German EC-Karte). However, the ATM network still did not have a trade name and was generically called "Deutsches Geldautomaten-System".

In 2007, the German Banking Industry Committee introduced "Girocard" as a common name for electronic cash and the German ATM network. Girocard purports to be SEPA-compliant, even though cards are only issued and accepted within Germany.

The Girocard network is used for point-of-sale payments within Germany. Two principal processing methods can be used: chip-and-pin guaranteed Girocard payment and chip-and-signature non-guaranteed Electronic Direct Debit (ELV, Elektronisches Lastschriftverfahren).

...
Wikipedia