logo
12 Years Ago: The First nexo Standards Transaction, a Milestone for European Payments: By Arnaud Crouzet

12 Years Ago: The First nexo Standards Transaction, a Milestone for European Payments: By Arnaud Crouzet

Finextraa day ago

On June 5, 2013, a major step was taken towards the harmonization of card payments in Europe. I had the privilege of executing the very first live transaction based on the protocols and standards that would become nexo standards, in an Auchan store in Faches-Thumesnil, France, for a symbolic amount of €1.
This pioneering moment, realized in partnership with Ingenico and Crédit Mutuel-CIC, under the umbrella of the OSCar consortium, marked the first operational implementation of a universal card payment solution built on SEPA standards.
--> First SEPA card transaction – June 5, 2013 – France, using the French CB brand
From a Merchant's Vision: Solving Fragmentation in Payments
In 2012, I joined the OSCar consortium as the first merchant. Our goal was clear: overcome the fragmentation that plagued international merchants, who had to maintain different payment solutions for each country, leading to operational complexity and significant costs.
At the time, the lack of harmonization across card schemes forced merchants to adapt to local protocols, resulting in fragmented acceptance, complex technical setups, and high maintenance costs. For large retailers like Auchan, a standardized, pan-European solution promised major operational efficiencies.
The OSCar initiative, backed by key players such as American Express, Visa Europe, Mastercard Europe, GIE CB, Consorzio Bancomat, Ingenico, Verifone, Atos Worldline, and others, aimed to create this breakthrough by combining:
SEPA-FAST payment application (common terminal application)
payment application (common terminal application) EPAS ISO 20022 Acquirer protocol (standardized POS-to-acquirer communication)
From France to Europe: Proving Cross-Border Interoperability
Just three months after the first French transaction, the solution was successfully replicated in the Jumbo Paõ de Açucar store in Amoreiras, Lisbon.
This second live pilot confirmed the cross-border capabilities of the solution — no local adaptation was required. A single, unified payment application and protocol could now be deployed across different European countries, in line with the SEPA Cards Framework objectives set by the European Payments Council (EPC).
The pilot demonstrated:
No impact on customer experience: payment remained seamless at checkout.
on customer experience: payment remained seamless at checkout. Significant simplification of the technical architecture for merchants.
of the technical architecture for merchants. Interoperability across multiple domestic and international card schemes without cobadging constraints.
across multiple domestic and international card schemes without cobadging constraints. New opportunities for card issuers to extend their acceptance reach.
--> SEPA card transaction – September 30, 2013 – Portugal, using Visa and Mastercard brands
A Turning Point for the Entire Payment Ecosystem
This milestone had profound implications for all stakeholders:
Stakeholder
Benefit
Merchants
Simplified acceptance infrastructure, lower costs, faster innovation, cross-border reach
Banks / Acquirers
Standardized acquiring infrastructure, reduced integration costs, pan-European services
Domestic Card Schemes
Extended acceptance without dependency on international brands (e.g., no mandatory cobadging).
nexo standards also help domestic schemes to accelerate the deployment of new functionalities, thanks to the native integration of features already available internationally. For example, contactless acceptance and PIN Online have been supported in nexo protocols since the beginning, whereas some countries took over 10 years to roll them out.
International Schemes
Opportunity to simplify multi-country deployment, foster open competition
Solution Providers
Ability to offer standardized, scalable, SEPA-compliant solutions.
Reduced development and maintenance costs, easier multi-country deployments. A single solution deployable anywhere, for everyone.
Consumers
Faster, consistent, and secure payment experiences across Europe
The open, universal, and standardized approach also allowed merchants and acquirers to anticipate regulatory evolutions, notably around interchange fee regulations, brand choice obligations, and the broader European card payments harmonization agenda.
In particular, brand choice — mandated under PSD2 and its Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) — is natively supported by nexo protocols.
Merchants and consumers can select their preferred payment brand on co-badged cards. nexo integrates and configures brand selection flows in full compliance with regulatory obligations and with guidelines from the European Payments Stakeholders Group (EPSG), as specified in the SEPA Cards Standardisation Volume (Book).
Furthermore, brand choice is not only a European requirement: nexo standards enable merchants globally to address similar needs wherever brand selection is expected or mandated.
nexo Standards: From a Vision to a Global Reality
Following these first pilots, the initiative evolved rapidly:
EPASOrg transitioned to become nexo standards in 2014 .
transitioned to become . The initial protocols were refined, expanded, and formalized into a globally recognized suite of ISO 20022-based standards.
nexo protocols have since been adopted by major players across Europe and beyond — not only for card payments but also supporting mobile and QR Code-based payments. They are now evolving to incorporate Instant Payments, and will likely move to integrate the Digital Euro in the future.
Key Milestones:
Year
Evolution
2013
First live transaction (France), Cross-border validation (Portugal)
2014
Formal launch of nexo standards
2016
Publication of nexo Retailer Protocol for POS-to-ECR communication based on ISO20022
2018
Increased adoption in major payment infrastructures
2021
nexo standards began exploratory work on mobile acceptance and SoftPOS integration.
2022
Launch of nexo QR Code initiatives for dynamic merchant-presented QR acceptance
2024
Extension toward Instant Payment use cases
2025
Preparatory study on Digital Euro
nexo standards now used by leading retailers, acquirers, and solution providers globally
nexo standards protocols are now referenced in European regulatory frameworks and recognized by major payment organizations, reinforcing their position as a global standard for card and payment acceptance interoperability.
Looking Ahead: The Open Standard for the Future of Payments
Today, nexo standards is an established, open, flexible, and scalable framework. The standards are used in diverse environments, from traditional POS to SoftPOS and e-commerce acceptance. Initiatives are also exploring Instant Payment use cases based on nexo frameworks. It supports:
Interoperability across multiple payment types and acceptance environments — including in-store, e-commerce, SoftPOS, cards, mobile, and QR codes.
Work is actively underway to integrate Instant Payments use cases .
Discussions are also progressing toward the adoption of nexo standards for the future Digital Euro , already recognized by the European Central Bank (ECB) as a key technical framework.
across multiple payment types and acceptance environments — including in-store, e-commerce, SoftPOS, cards, mobile, and QR codes. Work is actively underway to . Discussions are also progressing toward the adoption of nexo standards for the , already recognized by the European Central Bank (ECB) as a key technical framework. Future-proofing with ISO 20022 compliance, worldwide migration to this modern structure providing flexibility for new and future services (cards, Instant Payment, CBDC, e-Invoicing, …).
with ISO 20022 compliance, worldwide migration to this modern structure providing flexibility for new and future services (cards, Instant Payment, CBDC, e-Invoicing, …). Innovation through standardized, open APIs and cloud-native architectures (in progress)
through standardized, open APIs and cloud-native architectures (in progress) Global reach with deployments in Europe, Africa, Americas, Middle East, Australia and Asia
By providing a common language for the industry, nexo standards empowers all players — merchants, banks, payment schemes, and technology providers — to build a more connected, efficient, and secure payments ecosystem.
Twelve years on, the journey continues — driving payments toward a more open, interoperable, and innovative world.
What started with a symbolic €1 transaction has grown into a global movement shaping the future of harmonized, secure, and innovative payments worldwide.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Sir David Murray's biggest Rangers regret is giving keys to Craig Whyte
Sir David Murray's biggest Rangers regret is giving keys to Craig Whyte

Daily Record

time34 minutes ago

  • Daily Record

Sir David Murray's biggest Rangers regret is giving keys to Craig Whyte

The former Rangers chairman will release his autobiography on July 3. Regrets? Sir David Murray has a few. Selling up after 23 years as chairman of Rangers isn't one of them - but giving the keys to Craig Whyte most certainly is. ‌ Millionaire metals tycoon Murray was the man who bankrolled an era of glitter and gold at Ibrox. Over the course of his two-decade run as Rangers owner and chairman, he estimates that sums close to £80million were invested by himself and his businesses. ‌ That hefty wedge of notes brought an array of international stars to Govan and with it a haul of trophies. Fifteen league crowns, 20 domestic cup wins and a European final. These were the best of times to be a Rangers fan. And yet Murray now stands accused of being the person responsible for setting the club on a course to wrack and ruin. The man who famously vowed to spend a tenner for every fiver slapped down by Celtic has been left with the legacy of being remembered chiefly for the EBT gamble that has cost the club so dearly. When he bought Rangers from Lawrence Marlborough for £6m in 1988, the Ibrox outfit had a spending power that allowed it to compete with the richest clubs in England and across Europe. But by the time mysterious Scottish businessman Whyte offered to take the club off his hands for a solitary pound coin, Murray's Rangers were struggling to keep up with city neighbours Celtic, never mind competing with the continent's biggest clubs. Faced with difficulties in his metals empire, a global economic recession and a disastrous early Champions League exit at the hands of Lithuanian minnows FBK Kaunus, Rangers were already operating under close scrutiny from their bankers at Lloyds Banking Group. ‌ Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. With an investigation brewing into the controversial £47million EBT tax scheme Murray had deployed in order to continue signing big names, he decided the time had come to escape the suffocating pressures of the Ibrox boardroom too. But by handing the keys to the club to Whyte in May 2011, he had sealed the club's fate. Within nine months the club's operating company would lurch into administration and then liquidation. ‌ What's followed has been decade and a half of torture for a Rangers faithful forced to watch as Celtic have lifted 13 of the last 14 league titles. The club continues to battle against the fallout from that astonishing collapse to this very day. Now in his new book Mettle - which is being serialised in today's Daily Record - Sir David apologies for the role he played in the demise of the Ibrox institution. ‌ He writes: 'More than a decade after the event, the question I still frequently get asked is: 'Do you regret selling Rangers?' The answer is always: ' time was up.' 'Honestly, 23 years was too long. We had enjoyed the greatest success in the club's entire history but it was time for change. But do I regret the sale to Craig Whyte? Absolutely. I apologise. It was a huge error of judgement in the middle of a financial crisis. Looking back, I had made a huge mistake.' During discussions with Murray, Whyte gave assurances he had the cash to not only wipe out the club's debts but also further funds to upgrade Walter Smith's squad and Ibrox itself. ‌ As it turns our, this Walter Mitty character had neither. It was the Daily Record that revealed he had struck a deal to mortgage off future season-ticket sales with finance firm Ticketus just to raise the readies required to complete the transaction - a fact that was kept from Murray, along with the fact Whyte had previously been barred from acting as a company director. The former chairman later claimed he'd been duped by White - a line he sticks to in the book, ‌ 'As it happened, Rangers went into administration in 2012 after failing to pay a multimillion pound HMRC tax and VAT bill,' Murray, now 73, explains. On the Rangers tax case he is clear that the factual amounts charged by HMRC assisted in restricting others parties in acquiring the club. They chose to gross up the payments through the trusts, increasing a non grossed up claim of £23.5 million to £37 million. Interest of £10.4million was then applied. ‌ A penalty of £23.5 million was then added which is virtually the maximum allowed with HMRC citing the illegal nature of the schemes. In effect, a base claim of £23.5 million became more than £70 million. The penalty was appealed by the liquidators then ultimately withdrawn in full by HMRC, who belatedly agreed the allegation of illegality was unfounded. He added: "Administrators described their 'widespread' concern at the Ticketus arrangement, where the club were paid money upfront for season tickets sold for multiple seasons to help cashflow. ‌ 'I deeply regretted and still regret selling the club to Whyte. And I freely admit that if the information had been available to me at the time I would not have gone through with it. My decision was taken in good faith. There is only so much information out there. 'After someone has been disqualified for seven years it is not that easy to carry out checks. But I was in a situation where we had been endeavouring to sell the club for four years. We had received proof of funds. We had a legal document confirming he was going to spend money on players, eventually, once he had paid back the loan. ‌ 'He met the criteria that were in his offer document. What we wanted to do was get debt out of the club. 'The phrase 'debt-ridden club' was being used a lot. Whyte made a statement that the club was never in better financial state when he took it over. I thought: 'I hope to God I have done the right thing. I've passed it on. This is a guy saying he is going to spend money on players, on health and safety and do Ibrox up.' 'That was a legal offer document which you were entitled to feel would be honoured. I know others had doubts. Paul Murray was keen to buy the club. I had nothing but respect for him. He's a Rangers fan and wanted what was best for the club. ‌ 'But at that time he was not able to make a satisfactory offer. He wanted debt left in and the tax case put to one side. There have always been suggestions that I was under ferocious pressure from the bank to do the deal but that was not the case. 'The bank wanted their money back, of course, and I had made it clear that I wanted out of Rangers. At that time we were going into recession and people were not exactly queueing up to buy football clubs. Lloyds wanted out of the football industry. 'I wanted out but if we had known about the Ticketus issue we would never have done the deal. If I could turn back the clock, I would.' ‌ Whyte would later be cleared at a High Court trial of buying the by fraudulent means. But Murray remains unhappy about the way the case was handled. Looking back on his first interactions with the Motherwell -born businessman, he said "Whyte seemed quite affable and plausible. I remember someone asking at the time: 'Does this pass the sniff test?' and yes it did. He was Scottish, supposedly a Rangers supporter, he had the money and of course there was a Stock Exchange document there. ‌ 'If you can't believe that, then what the hell can you believe? A journalist asked me at the time if our due diligence should have been more thorough. It's easy to look back and say: 'Yes, of course it should' but anyone typing Whyte's name into Google back in 2011 would have found one article from years before. Nothing else. 'It seemed strange. There was even a rumour that everything about him had been removed from the internet. I've no idea how true that was. What Whyte had that other potential bids did not was the backing of a reputable legal firm. 'The fact he was clearing money into their clients' account and the fact that they confirmed they had sufficient funds to complete the transaction that was being negotiated goes a long way to being positive confirmation. ‌ 'So many aspects of the Whyte trial still rankle with me today. For starters, I believe it should have taken place in Edinburgh or another town. 'I've had it recently confirmed that prior to the trial, it was stated that anyone with knowledge of the case, with shares, bonds or a season ticket at Ibrox at the time of the indictment could not be a juror. ‌ 'Now Donald Findlay [Whyte's defence lawyer and former Gers vice-chairman] was a prominent season ticket holder, shareholder and club director. I understand that as a defence counsel, he wasn't subject to the same strict criteria as those on the jury. 'But I wish he had been, and it still doesn't sit well with me to this day.' The bitterness felt by the Rangers faithful shows no sign of relenting either. ‌ Murray understands that - but he hopes they will take on board the situation he and the club found themselves in as the world economy suffered its biggest downturn since the Great Depression. Against the financial crisis, the businessman was faced with a life-threatening medial procedure to fix an aortic aneurysm, something he reveals in the book for the first time. ‌ 'It has now been 14 years since I relinquished control of the club and there is no doubt that my legacy was tarnished,' he writes. 'The first 15 or 16 years of my tenure were outstanding from both a sporting point of view and a business perspective but the final few years were tricky and took a lot out of me. 'When we were in that tight period I ploughed a lot of money into the club. I worked out that our company had put just short of £80million into Rangers during my time at the club. Others, including Dave King, invested seriously as well. 'But ultimately, when the crash came, I took the fall. No one else. I was captain of the ship. It was undoubtedly a low point in the club's history and even now, more than a decade later, I still feel responsible. ‌ 'It's still difficult to believe that it got as far as it did but I will never try to hide. Thankfully for the fans, Rangers have survived and across the past few years have remained competitive, even reaching another European final. 'I hope, in hindsight, Rangers fans will understand that there were a number of key factors going on in business and my life that they were simply not aware of at the time. I was caught in the perfect storm of a bank collapsing, a shocking result in Europe against Kaunas that cost us millions, a club essentially in financial difficulty and a medical condition that I couldn't announce publicly but put my life sharply into focus.' Preorder on Amazon HERE

Apple reveals complex system of App Store fees to avoid EU fine of 500 million euro
Apple reveals complex system of App Store fees to avoid EU fine of 500 million euro

NBC News

time3 hours ago

  • NBC News

Apple reveals complex system of App Store fees to avoid EU fine of 500 million euro

Apple Thursday made changes to its App Store European policies, saying it believes the new rules will help the company avoid a fine of 500 million euro ($585 million) from the EU for violating the Digital Markets Act. The new policies are a complicated system of fees and programs for app makers, with some developers now paying three separate fees for one download. Apple also is going to introduce a new set of rules for all app developers in Europe, which includes a fee called the 'core technology commission' of 5% on all digital purchases made outside the App Store. The changes Apple announced are not a complete departure from the company's previous policy that drew the European Commission's attention in the first place. Apple said it did not want to make the changes but was forced to by the European Commission's regulations, which threatened fines of up to 50 million euros per day. Apple said it believed its plan is in compliance with the DMA and that it will avoid fines. 'The European Commission is requiring Apple to make a series of additional changes to the App Store,' an Apple spokesperson said in a statement. 'We disagree with this outcome and plan to appeal.' A spokesperson for the European Commission did not say that Apple was no longer subject to the fine. He said in a statement that the EC is looking at Apple's new terms to see if the company is in compliance. 'As part of this assessment the Commission considers it particularly important to obtain the views of market operators and interested third parties before deciding on next steps,' the spokesperson said in a statement. The saga in Brussels is the latest example of Apple fiercely defending its App Store policies, a key source of profit for the iPhone maker through fees of between 15% and 30% on downloads through its App Store. It also shows that Apple is continuing to claim it is owed a commission when iPhone apps link to websites for digital purchases overseas despite a recent court ruling that barred the practice in the U.S. Steering rules no longer in effect in U.S. Under the Digital Markets Act, Apple was required to allow app developers more choices for how they distribute and promote their apps. In particular, developers are no longer prohibited from telling their users about cheaper alternatives to Apple's App Store, a practice called 'steering' by regulators. In early 2024, Apple announced its changes, including a 50 cent fee on off-platform app downloads. Critics, including Sweden's Spotify, pushed back on Apple's proposed changes, saying that the tech firm chose an approach that violated the spirit of the rules, and that its fees and commissions challenge the viability of the alternative billing system. The European Commission investigated for a year, and it said on Thursday that it would again seek feedback from Apple's critics. 'From the beginning, Apple has been clear that they didn't like the idea of abiding by the DMA,' Spotify said last year. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, whose company successfully changed Apple's steering rules in the U.S. earlier this year, accused Apple of ' malicious compliance ' in its approach to the DMA. 'Apple's new Digital Markets Act malicious compliance scheme is blatantly unlawful in both Europe and the United States and makes a mockery of fair competition in digital markets,' Sweeney posted on social media on Thursday. 'Apps with competing payments are not only taxed but commercially crippled in the App Store.' The European Commission announced the 500 million euro fine in April. The commission at the time said that the tech company might still be able to make changes to avoid the fine. Apple's restrictions on steering in the United States were tossed earlier this year, following a court order in the long-running Epic Games case. A judge in California found that Apple had purposely misled the court about its steering concessions in the United States and instructed it to immediately stop asking charging a fee or commission on for external downloads. The order is currently in effect in the United States as it is being appealed and has already shifted the economics of app development. As a result, companies like Amazon and Spotify in the U.S. can direct customers to their own websites and avoid Apple's 15% to 30% commission.

Celtic listed as one of Europe's elite clubs in ‘financial stability' rankings
Celtic listed as one of Europe's elite clubs in ‘financial stability' rankings

Scottish Sun

time5 hours ago

  • Scottish Sun

Celtic listed as one of Europe's elite clubs in ‘financial stability' rankings

Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) CELTIC have been ranked among the European elite when it comes to financial stability, a study has found. The Premiership champions announced a profit of £44million in their most recent financial year and continue to benefit from a successful player trading model. Sign up for the Celtic newsletter Sign up 4 Celtic have been included in the top ten of a study of most financially stable clubs Credit: SNS 4 17.02.2025 Celtic and Bayern Munich pressers ………………… GV Allianz Arena Credit: Kenny Ramsay In recent years, Celtic have raked in £50m combined for the sales of Kieran Tierney and Jota (ironically, both players are now back at the club). Revenue dipped slightly in 2024 but with profits rising, it's seen the Hoops make the top ten in a list of Europe's most financially sustainable clubs. The research, undertaken by football business experts Off The Pitch, puts Celtic inside the top ten of clubs across Europe. Notably, teams from Europe's so-called Big Five leagues make up only just over half of the spots in the top ten. And only two of them were league champions this past season. Indeed, two of the sides in the top ten don't even in their respective country's top flights. Serie A winners Napoli top the rankings but behind them are two Scandinavian clubs. Silkeborg of Denmark are in second with Molde of Norway are listed third. Premier League giants Manchester City occupy fourth spot. But in fifth are French Ligue 2 side Clermont Foot. The diggers move in as Celtic Park pitch is dug up Their weighted score is equal to that of Bundesliga powerhouse Bayern Munich but how they achieve that ranking couldn't be more different (more on that later). Just ahead of Celtic are Italian outfit Fiorentina, with Elche of Spain's second division in ninth and AGF Aarhus of Denmark rounding out the top ten. Fiorentina pip Celtic in large part thanks to their much greater equity margin (63.6 percent compared to 47.4 percent). Equity margin essentially refers to the difference between a club's revenue and its expenses. Against the other clubs in the top ten, Celtic scored just above average in the EBITDA margin category. This metric measures indicates how efficiently a company manages itself and how it controls its operating expenses relative to its revenue. Celtic's margin is 15.3 percent, which was higher than every other club apart from Man City (17.3 percent) and Napoli (30.6 percent). 4 Return on assets (ROA) was the other metric that clubs were measured on. This is essentially a measurement of the probability of the club's in relation to its assets. ROA would therefore include money made from player sales and Celtic's rating here is 9.3 percent. Bayern, Man City and Fiorentina all scored LOWER than the Parkhead club in this regard (6.3, 5 and 2.5 percent). Elche and Napoli had comparable ratings to Celtic (12.7 and 17 percent) but the Scandinavian clubs and Clermont Foot topped this metric with Aarhus, Molde and Silkeborg scoring 18.2, 20.7 and 28.6 percent, and the French outfit way ahead on 62.6 percent. Silkeborg have the highest equity margin percentage with 70.1 and despite a 0.9 percent EBITDA margin, their overall score is 23.1. Napoli top the list with a weighted score of 26.2, ranking well across all of the categories. 4 The top ten of Europe's most financially stable clubs Credit: OFF THE PITCH Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store