The requirements contained in the SEPA Cards Standardization Volume are the result of extensive dialogue and consensus-making efforts from all participating stakeholders of the different sectors that compose the ECSG.

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The Volume constitutes a strong de-facto reference for the card based payments industry in Europe as a whole, establishing a solid bridge for interoperability amidst the increasing diversity of players, competition and innovations.

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Within that context, it must be understood that conformance with the requirements established in the Volume is of a voluntary nature and the Volume does not constitute part of any regulation.

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The process how to prove conformance with the Volume is defined in Book 5 of the Volume. According to that the ECSG has established a formal mechanism by which specification providers that so desire can request a conformance stamp or, as it is known in the ECSG world, a “label”.  In that case, the submitter will self-declare its conformance to the relevant sections of the volume by duly filling in a labelling request document that consists mainly of two parts. 

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On the one side, the adherence to the applicable requirements depending on the nature and scope of the specification being submitted for “labelling” and on the other a check-list of adherence to other provisions such as in relation to the adequate maintenance of the specifications, their governance, Intellectual Property, interoperability, etc.

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The ECSG-label demonstrates that the label-requesting party has performed the right procedures and filled in the right forms.

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The Volume Conformance Management Committee is a dedicated multi-sector committee reporting directly to the ECSG Board.  Its responsibility is to operate, maintain and evolve the labelling processes in general based on Book 5 of the Volume and in particular to grant and publish the labels. All labels  are valid for three years.