As a medium of exchange, money is the universal consideration for the purchase of raw materials, goods, services and information. This makes payment transactions an essential element of our economy. The reliable processing of payment transactions is based on the use of trustworthy components and systems.

For example, it is taken for granted that access to the account is only possible for authorised persons. The scope and content of a transaction may not be changed across all systems involved and must remain confidential. Technically and organisationally, there must be protection against any kind of misuse by third parties in each of the systems involved and on all data transmission routes. A complex task that requires extensive agreements between the customer, account-holding institutions and payment transaction providers.

Account access must be secured with identity-verifying technologies and procedures. Chip cards are specified, card reading systems are matched to them, the read information is transmitted to acceptance systems and validated, disposition limits are checked, transactions are released and booked in banking systems, transmitted to clearing systems, forwarded to the recipient institution’s banking system, and credited to the recipient account. Such transactions occur in the case of credit transfers, direct debits, standing orders, credit card payments and cash withdrawals. Every day. Many millions of times.

Since its foundation SRC designs and specifies the required components, systems and organizational concepts. SRC advises on their implementation, carries out extensive acceptance tests and regularly audits the compliant use in live operation. SRC advises institutes, associations, manufacturers and interest groups with regard to trends and standardization. In addition, we are actively engaged in technology transfer in order to make our knowledge usable in other areas of application, such as healthcare or ID systems.