German Banking Industry Committee

The German Banking Industry Committee[1] (German Die Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft / DK) is an industry association of the German banking industry. Its decisions are held normative for the national banking sector – either directly by interbank treaties or indirectly by preparing a corresponding ministerial or Bundesbank decision. The association has been known as the Central Credit Committee[2] (German Zentraler Kreditausschuss / ZKA) until August 2011 when it adopted a new name (after almost 80 years).[3]

Structure

The Central Credit Committee was founded in 1932 as a common interest group of the five federal interest groups that represent the financial sector in Germany. The five founding associations are

By indirection of these associations the Central Credit Committee represents 2300 financial institutions (2005). The Committee itself is no institution - it is neither registered nor does it have a postal address. Instead the formal location of the Committee is bound the committee presidency that changes annually rotating among the private banks, savings banks and cooperative banks association.

The Central Credit Committee resolves "common statements" (decided unanimously) representing the view of the German banking industry on a topic. The statements are published thereby influencing decisions of other institutions like the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Germany), the Bundesbank or decision-making bodies of the European Union. Publication and press releases are the main task of the presiding association.

Additionally the Central Credit Committee supervises joint committees of the German banking industry like the Central Competition Committee (Zentrale Wettbewerbsausschuss) or the Working Group on automatic teller machines.

Standards in Electronic Banking

The Central Credit Committee has created the standards in electronic banking which are resolved by proposing agreements ("Abkommen") that are joined by the banking institutions. Banking institutions that are members of one of the associations in the ZKA are naturally bound to join these.

European Economic Area

The creation of the single market of the European Union (1993) and the introduction of the Eurozone (1999/2002) has made for a shift to make decisions on a European scale. As a consequence the European Committee for Banking Standards (ECBS) was founded in December 1992 and the European Payments Council (EPC) was created in summer 2002. These drive the development of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) and the ZKA is supervising the EPC working groups by creating their own ZKA working groups mirroring the structure of the EPC.

References

  1. ↑ The German "Die Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft " is literally The German Services Sector / The German Banking Industry (the German word "-wirtschaft" is an abstract so the definite article "Die" / The needs to be part of the official title). As for English publications the hybrid term "German Banking Industry Committee" is used, even with its own abbreviation GBIC, see for example the 2012 update of the "Interface Specifications for the ZKA Chip Card" (PDF). Die Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft. 2012-02-20. Retrieved 2012-12-23.
  2. ↑ "Central Credit Committee" is the official English name used in publications of the ZKA
  3. ↑ http://www.die-deutsche-kreditwirtschaft.de/dk/die-deutsche-kreditwirtschaft.html

External links

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