Until now, for debit cards to work outside their country of issue, they currently must carry the Maestro logo of the Mastercard organisation or the v-Pay logo of Visa. The Mastercard/Visa dominance appears now to be under threat. The Euro Alliance of Payment Schemes (EAPS) has agreed to link the debit card schemes of a number of countries from September next.
The agreement will also cover the use of cards in ATM machines. It seems likely that in the longer run, the debit cards of these countries will operate under a single identity.
