Amsterdam, October 28, 2008. Currence and Germany’s ZKA are to recognise each other’s security certificates for POS terminals. ZKA (Zentraler Kreditausschuss) is the German organisation responsible for certifying POS terminals used with the German variant of PIN, Girocard. The standards which ZKA requires terminals to satisfy are very similar to those of Currence.

In the single European payment market which is being formed, cross-border recognition of national security certificates for POS terminals is crucial. In Europal, the Common Approval Scheme (CAS) is working to harmonise security standards. Anticipating the results of this work, ZKA and Currence have decided to recognise each other’s security certificates without waiting for the completion of the CAS.

The contract between ZKA and Currence means that terminal suppliers that have already been approved in one country will now not have to go through the whole certification procedure again in the other country. A greatly simplified procedure, in which only the requirements specific to the brand will be tested, will suffice. With this advance, Currence is making a significant contribution to the harmonisation of the European payment system and also saving terminal suppliers many thousands of euros in addition to drastically cutting the time taken to get a terminal approved.