Electronic cash

All of Germany's providers registered with the Central Credit Committee are connected in the working group Arbeitskreis der electronic cash-Netzbetreiber.

In 2010, only CardTech and Lavego remain from the 2006 list (as well as the six top companies), with AGES, BCB Processing, CardProcess, Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche BP, Douglas Informatik & Service, Elavon, ESSO Deutschland, ICP International Cash Processing GmbH, Postbank, and Shell also offering services now.

The Technical attachment to the eligibility requirements for participation in the electronic cash system of the German credit services sector (retailing requirements)[4] includes the retailer's obligation to accept both of these acceptance marks at newly set up points of sale for the time being.

The trademarks on these two acceptance marks are held for the Central Credit Committee by the EURO Kartensysteme GmbH.

The most important element is the so-called security module, without which the terminal can only be used for electronic direct debit (EDD) transactions.

All card terminals working with the electronic cash system have to be certified by the ZKA (the German Central Credit Committee) in order to take part in cashless payment transactions.

In addition, since the year 2000, more and more banks have started to add the EMV chip to newly issued cards.

The new chip is capable of processing data like a small computer and can respond to requests without the entire contents being read.

[5] Paying at a POS terminal (point of sale) works as follows: Online authorization validates the card against the list of blocked account numbers and checks the given PIN.

The authorization as well as the validation regarding sufficient funds and the daily limit is carried out by the headquarters of the institute from which the card is issued.

The electronic direct debit (EDD) system offers no such guarantee and thus exposes the retailer to a default risk.