Therefore a clear vision and a clear commitment is needed for the realisation of harmonisation and standardisation in retail payments across Europe. 4  BIS Review 86/2008  How do cards and SEPA go together? The SEPA project includes a particular challenge.
Card payments represent an essential part of retail payments, which make the standardistation and the creation of card schemes are important element of the SEPA project. Over the last few years, volumes of cashless payments in the European Union (EU27) have increased by 7% per year.