Until August 2011, the association was known as the Central Credit Committee[2] (German: Zentraler Kreditausschuss / ZKA) when it adopted a new name (after almost eighty years).
The Central Credit Committee resolves "common statements" (decided unanimously) representing the view of the German banking industry on a topic.
The statements are published thereby influencing decisions of other institutions like the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, the Bundesbank or decision-making bodies of the European Union.
Banking institutions that are members of one of the associations in the ZKA are naturally bound to join these.
These drive the development of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) and the ZKA is supervising the EPC working groups by creating their own ZKA working groups mirroring the structure of the EPC.