Cartes bancaires

Set up in 1984, to establish in France an interbank card payment and cash withdrawal system, Groupement des Cartes Bancaires "CB" is at the heart of the The CB payment scheme involves four stakeholders: the cardholder, the merchant (or ATM), the cardholder’s bank (issuer) and the merchant’s bank or ATM bank (acquirer).

On a day-to-day basis, CB cardholders have access to a secure, tried-and-tested system, the seeming simplicity of which belies considerable complexity.
A bankcard transaction involves several steps that range from the payment order given to purchase goods or a service, through to clearance and settlement (transfer of amounts between banks), as well as the transaction authorisation.
This apparent simplicity of the transaction and its instantaneous nature actually mask a highly technical and complex reality involving the use of particularly efficient and sophisticated systems.
The entire system relies on an advanced banking and electronic payment infrastructure. It is kept constantly in the forefront of technology through major investments by the various banking establishments forming the CB system.
It is these investments that guarantee the quality of service for cardholder and merchant alike: network response time, availability, etcetera.
This open-ended system is in fact constantly upgrading to adapt to new needs of users, technological progress and its members’ developing requirements (1)

The Groupement des Cartes Bancaires CB issues a series of type approvals in card issuing, acceptance and acquiring, for payment systems that have been tested by ELITT and that have been certified. The CB Type Approval allows the manufacturers to sell their products on the "CB" market.

(1) - Source: Groupements des Cartes Bancaires "CB"