Press release on cooperation IFSF and EPA

Easy ways for motorists to make electronic payments and cheaper parking systems were promised today following an historic agreement between the International Forecourt Standards Forum and the European Parking Association.  

In the agreement that was signed by Ian A. Brown, President of the IFSF, and Laurence A. Bannerman, Vice-President of the EPA, the two organisations agreed to cooperate to simplify electronic payments for motorists paying for fuel and parking by adopting common standards for equipment connectivity and transaction processing.

This cooperation will create possibilities to expand the international payment standards used in the petroleum retail sector to the parking industry. This reinforces the position of the IFSF payment standards as a well-established common solution that could be used by many industries and which the IFSF expects will be labelled and certified as SEPA-compliant under the forthcoming rules from the European Payments Council.

For the parking industry the co-operation creates important opportunities for the future to:

• Deliver better and unified services for the customers while maintaining security standards.
• Increase clarity for the operators on payment processing protocols and strategic orientation.
• Enable better protection of investments to implement new payment schemes.
• Increase the competition in acquiring parking equipment and components.
• Decrease the competitive barriers from (national) financial institutions and payment schemes towards the parking industry
• Improve the position of parking management suppliers with regard to system integration of technical components

EPA will be recognised as a “Partner Organisation” by IFSF, making the IFSF standards available for operators and equipment suppliers and promoting the use of the standards in products, services and requirement documents.

About IFSF

The International Forecourt Standards Forum (IFSF) is a forum of international oil companies, petroleum retailers and their suppliers with the common objective of harmonising equipment interconnectivity and communication standards for use in the Petroleum Retail business.

IFSF has a long history of successfully developing interconnectivity and payments standards in the petroleum retail sector.

About EPA

The European Parking Association (EPA) is the umbrella organisation of European national parking associations representing the parking sector (private companies and public bodies) running, operating and managing on- and off-street parking facilities and services as well as suppliers that offer products and services related to parking.

The EPA aims to facilitate the cooperation between the professional parking organisations of different European countries, the exchange and mutual support of professional experience among members and may exert influence on measures and resolutions of the European Commission and other relevant international bodies relating to parking and urban mobility.

For further information about the IFSF visit www.ifsf.org or contact IFSF at: admin.manager@ifsf.org or telephone +44 (0) 870 741 8775

For further information about the EPA contact the EPA secretariat at epa@europeanparking.eu or telephone +49 221 257 10 18