About us

promote the interoperability of payments acceptance
ensure the development, evolution and use of common standards
protect the interests of its member organizations

Nexo standards
nexo standards enables fast, interoperable and borderless payments acceptance by standardising the exchange of payment acceptance data between merchants, acquirers, payment service providers and other payment stakeholders. nexo’s messaging protocols and specifications adhere to ISO20022 standards, are universally applicable and are freely available globally.
 
 
nexo standards is an open, global association dedicated to removing the barriers present in today’s fragmented global payment acceptance ecosystem. Headquartered in Brussels, its members represent the full spectrum of payments stakeholders, including acceptors, processors, schemes, payment service providers and vendors. 
Our Philosophy: WORKING ON BEHALF OF ALL PAYMENT ACCEPTANCE STAKEHOLDERS

nexo standards has been the very first organization to design and develop payment acceptance messages based on ISO 20022 .
The delivery of universal standard and protocols messages ensure the interoperability of different equipment and payment systems, internationally.

nexo standards was established in 2014, when three historical contributors of payment standards and specifications were merged: EPASOrg, the OSCar consortium and the CIR SEPA-Fast technical working group.

 

nexo standards is at the origin of the entire ISO 20022 standardization process for payments acceptance and its membership base includes,
Acceptors, Processors, Schemes, Payment Service Providers and Vendors.

Nexo Goals

Promote the interoperability of payment acceptance transactions – Through design and development of common payment acceptance protocols; interoperability of components and systems through standardized protocol interfaces; adoption of a universal ISO procedure.

Ensure the development, evolution and use of common standards – Through involvement of all actors of the payment acceptance value chain; adherence to a high level of security, notably through a universal ISO security syntax.

Strengthen the commitment to open, common and universal standards – Through adoption of ISO 20022 as the preferred universal way of developing worldwide standards.

Our Value

INTEROPERABILITY
By bringing together industry experts to develop open and common standards and implementation guidelines.

INNOVATION
By designing innovative and state-of-the-art message formats based on the functional and security requirements of the industry.

SECURITY
By protecting key elements of the transaction value chain through secure cryptographic mechanisms.

UNIVERSALITY
By issuing royalty-free standards leading to an open market for card payments worldwide.

Our Commitments

TO DESIGN
Develop and maintain common payment acceptance standards protocols and specifications based on universal ISO accreditation

TO DELIVER
Common implementation guidelines to ensure full interoperability

TO PROVIDE
Test cases and tools helping implementers to evaluate their compliance with specifications

TO VALIDATE
Implementation thereby ensuring faster approval and deployment to market

TO PROMOTE
The universal use of nexo standards and specifications

TO SUPPORT
Users implementing nexo standards and specifications

"building the future of payment acceptance harmonization
needs a team that together creates
efficient, consistent and interoperable  standards"

Claude Brun, Chairman

nexo organisation

Governance
Mr
Claude
Brun

Chairman
of the Board of Directors
nexo standards

Mr
Jacques
Soussana

Secretary-General
nexo standards

Mr
Jean-Philippe
Joliveau
SIA SPA

TREASURER
nexo standards

Board of Directors

ACCEPTORS

MARKET PAY Yann Leclerc
TOTAL MARKETING SERVICES François Mezzina

VENDORS

SRC GMBH Regine Quentmeier
FRENCHSYS Dolorès Mimran

CARDS SCHEMES

UNIONPAY INTERNATIONAL CO. LTD. Shengliang Yang
EURO KARTENSYSTEME GMBH Karl Matl
GIE CARTES BANCAIRES Blandine Moreau
MASTERCARD Esteban Martin
VISA Agnès Revel

PAYMENT SERVICE PROVIDERS

AMERICAN EXPRESS PAYMENT EUROPE S.L. Jean Diacono
BNP PARIBAS Massimo Cicardo
NATIXIS PAYMENT SOLUTIONS Fabrice Denèle

PROCESSORS

CREDIT AGRICOLE PAYMENT SERVICES Olivier Julou
FISERV Steve Robinson
FIME Arnaud Crouzet
SIA SPA Jean-Philippe Joliveau
GET INVOLVED IN DESIGNING CARD PAYMENT INTEROPERABILITY IN OUR WORKING GROUPS

The Technical Steering Committee determines the Terms of Reference, the composition and the mandate duration of Working Groups.
Once a member of the nexo organization, businesses could get involved in one or as many working groups they wish to.
By getting involved in the working group, they could share their expertise and make sure protocols and specifications enhancement would meet the market needs.
Task Forces are created under the leadership and supervision of the relevant Working Group(s).

technical steering committee

supervising all working groups

Nexo Acquirer protocol

Acceptor-to-acquirer protocol enhancements

nexo Retailer protocol

ECR-to-POI protocol enhancements

nexo TMS protocol

TMS-to-POI protocol enhancements

nexo ATM protocol

ATM protocol enhancements

nexo implementation specification

implementation specifications and test cases

nexo fast specifications

DEVELOPING POI SPECIFICATIONS

Technical support group

MANAGING CHANGE REQUEST AND SUPPORT

Mobile Acceptance

Developing Mobile Acceptance Specifications

Strategic Committee

Propose strategic evolutions of the protocols / specifications

Operational Committee

Advisory committee to the Board

Marketing and Communication

Manage Marketing, Communications & Events

Principal members

AMERICAN EXPRESS PAYMENT EUROPE S.L.
ANT FINANCIAL SERVICES GROUP
BNP Paribas
CAISSE FÉDÉRALE DE CRÉDIT MUTUEL
CREDIT AGRICOLE PAYMENT SERVICES
CRÉDIT MUTUEL ARKEA
DISCOVER FINANCIAL SERVICES
EURO KARTENSYSTEME GMBH
FIME
FISERV
FRENCHSYS
GIE Cartes Bancaires
HPS
JCB INTERNATIONAL (EUROPE) LTD.
MARKET PAY
MASTERCARD
NATIONAL PAYMENT CARD SYSTEM JOINT STOCK COMPANY
NATIXIS PAYMENT SOLUTIONS
NCR
PAN NORDIC CARD ASSOCIATION
POSTE ITALIANE
Saudi Payments
SIA SPA
SRC GmbH
TOTAL MARKETING SERVICES
UNIONPAY INTERNATIONAL CO. LTD.
VERIFONE SYSTEMS FRANCE SAS
VISA
WORLDLINE NV/SA

Associate members

ACCEO SOLUTIONS
Accor
ACI WORLDWIDE
Adyen
AEVI
AMADIS
Auriga Spa
BANQUE EDEL
BARCLAYCARD INTERNATIONAL
CONECS
CTC Advanced GMBH
DIEBOLD NIXDORF
Elavon MERCHANT SERVICES
ELITT
FIS
FLOWBIRD GROUP
GALITT
Girmiti Software Pvt. Ltd.
HITACHI-OMRON TERMINAL SOLUTIONS
INFOMIL
Interac Association
ITECON FINANCIAL IT-SERVICES GMBH
Korala Associates Limited
LAFON
Lyf SAS
LYRA NETWORK
Monext
Moneycore
Nepting
NOVELPAY SP. Z O.O.
OPENWAY EUROPE S.A.
Partelya Consulting
PAYCERT
POSPARTNER GESELLSCHAFT GMBH
PSD Codax Ltd
PW Consultant
REDSYS SERVICIOS DE PROCESAMIENTO SL
SALZBURGER BANKEN SOFTWARE
Schwarz IT KG (SIT)
SOPRA BANKING SOFTWARE
STET
Subway
SUNMI TECHNOLOGY
Thales DIS FRANCE S.A.
UL
VÖB-ZVD PROCESSING GMBH

Observers

AFSOL
BANCONTACT PAYCONIQ COMPANY NV/SA
BBPOS
CCV Group B.V.
FEIG ELECTRONIC GmbH
global payments SPA
LAVEGO AG
LUSIS
YELLO
Zucchetti Switzerland SA
nexo standards: What’s behind the name

nexo standards is the association dedicated to removing the barriers present in today’s fragmented global payment acceptance ecosystem.

It enables fast, borderless and global payments acceptance by standardizing the exchange of data between all payment acceptance stakeholders. nexo is a not-for-profit, open association; its membership represents the full spectrum of payment stakeholders including merchants and other payment acceptors, processors, card schemes, payment service providers and vendors.

An organization inheriting the developments of 3 predecessor organizations

OSCar – Open Standards for Cards

The OSCar project was launched in order to foster the development of SEPAwide POI solutions implementing:

The SEPA-FAST payment application specified by the CIR

The EPAS ISO20022 Acquirer / TMS protocol specified by EPASOrg

Packaged in the OSCar Integration Specification (OIS) as an efficientalternative to the legacy, country or scheme specific, POI payment solutions

 

SEPA-FAST

 SEPA-FAST for SEPA “Financial Application Specification for SCSVolume Compliant Terminals"

The aim of the SEPA-FAST Technical Working Group is to harmonized technical specifications for EMV implementations for any card-based paymentsystem.

Starting in 2007, the SEPA-FAST Technical Working Group working for the European Payments Council (EPC) Cards Working Group as Identified Initiative for the Card-to-Terminal and Cardholder-to-Terminal standardization domains. The Functional Requirements in the European Payments Council(EPC), SEPA Cards Standardization "Volume" are based on the input of the SEPA-FAST Technical Working Group.

EPAS.org

 In 2005, at the initiative and under the coordination of Groupement des Cartes Bancaires (CB)in France, a group of card schemes, acquirers, retailers, and payment solution providers belong ingto the card payment value chain, set up a consortium to address the interaction between electronic payment terminals and other systems in the card transaction ecosystem. That group was the predecessor to what is now EPASOrg.

The consortium started by defining three main protocols to be used in a POI (Point of Interaction) environment: 

The Acquirer protocol, The TMS protocol, The Retailer protocol

By fall 2005, the members of the consortium endorsed a Consortium Agreement,modelled on the framework of an Information Technology for European Advancement (ITEA) European research program. Over the next three years, work continued on the definition of the EPAS protocols, with an iterative revision process enabling state-of-the art technology and security requirements to be incorporated into the specifications.

From its inception, the EPAS initiative has developed its project with a clear aim to enable card payment industry stakeholders to benefit from the extensive expertise of the EPAS consortium and later EPASOrg in the implementation of concrete projects.

 

Why nexo ?
Kurt Gjesten
PAN NORDIC CARD ASSOCIATION
Interview