Acceptance Marks
At the moment, there are two valid acceptance marks for electronic cash: the pictograms “electronic cash PIN-Pad” and “girocard”. The technical attachment to the eligibility requirements for participation in the electronic cash system of the German credit services sector (retaling requirements) includes the retailer's obligation to use both the acceptance marks “electronic cash PIN-Pad” and “girocard” simultaneously for newly set up points of sale for the time being. Furthermore, the acceptance marks are printed onto the debit cards of German financial institutions.
The trademark on the acceptance marks (girocard and electronic-cash-PIN-pad) are held for the Central Credit Committee by the EURO Kartensysteme GmbH.
In a transitional period the pictogram “ec electronic cash” is still to be found as an acceptance mark on debit cards of the German credit services sector and on POS-terminals. This mark was used in the transitional period from Eurocheque (payment via certified cheque) to payment via ec-card (card based payment with PIN). After the abolishment of the Eurocheque, the allocation of ec-cards by the German credit services sector was suspended and the trademarks for Eurocheque were sold to Mastercard.
The German banking sector no longer uses the „ec electronic cash“ sign as an official acceptance mark for electronic cash. Newly issued debit cards use the „electronic cash PINPad“ and/or the „girocard“ pictogram. However, the old „ec electronic cash“ sign can still be found on some of the debit cards in circulation. These cards, which were issued before the new pictograms were introduced, remain valid, but will gradually be replaced by the new cards in the course of the regular card exchange. Newly installed electronic-cash-POS terminals also bear the new pictograms.
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