EAST gains representation from the Ukraine

March 15, 2012 - PRLog -- While EAST is focussed on the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), EMA will participate as a non-SEPA member.

The Association was formed on 19th March 1999 by Ukrainian banks that were members of the Europay International Payment System, for market development and for the coordination of payment cards from the Maestro and MasterCard brands.  On 11th November 2004 the Association was renamed the Ukrainian Interbank Payment Systems Member Association “EMA” and mainly cooperates with international payment card schemes members.

EMA and its Payment Cards Security Forum, which was formed on 10th  April 2001,  helps to prevent payment card fraud through member cooperation and via a real-time card fraud information Interbank Exchange System, ”Exchange-online”, which was introduced in 2002. It represents the interests of EMA members at national bodies in the Ukraine (the National Bank, the Government and the Parliament) and closely interacts with the Ministry of Internal Affairs on card fraud cases. EMA runs educational campaigns and conferences relating to card holders and businesses, and provides training for bank employees or civil servants with responsibilities that relate to payment card payments and their security.

EAST has national representation from the following 26 European countries:  Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom.  EAST is still seeking national representative members from:  Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovenia.

Canada, Russia and the Ukraine are represented at EAST as non-SEPA members and EAST is seeking to establish links with parties in any country, able to share national incident and loss statistics for ATM related fraud and physical attacks.  Interested parties should email info@eas-team.eu in the first instance.
   
ENDS

(Background data on EAST follows)

For further information please contact the EAST Coordinator, Lachlan Gunn:
Email coordinator@eas-team.eu or visit http://www.european-atm-security.eu

ABOUT EAST
Founded in 2004, EAST is a ‘not-for-profit’ organisation whose members are committed to gathering information from, and disseminating EAST reports to ATM deployers and networks within their countries/regions. While the main focus of EAST is on ATMs, the group also focuses on all payment terminals that have a direct impact on crime perpetrated at ATM locations.

Our mission is to gather and provide information to the European ATM industry and to facilitate effective representation of ATM related security issues at relevant European central institutions, through a pan-European co-ordination of ATM security resources.
EAST has set up a framework network structure to improve co-operation with industry, law enforcement, and in particular Europol, in order to achieve awareness and better results in the fight against organised cross-border crime.  Regular research polls are conducted through the EAST website.  More information can be found at http://www.european-atm-security.eu

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The European ATM Security Team (EAST) is a ‘not-for-profit’ organisation that gathers information from, and shares outputs with, ATM deployers and networks. While the main focus is on ATMs, EAST also covers ATM related crime at all payment terminals.