Currence Information

Currence facilitates a competitive market and transparency while preserving the quality and security of the payment system in the Netherlands. The Currence mission The Currence mission is to facilitate a competitive market and to create transparency in the uniform payment system in the Netherlands while preserving and continuing to develop the quality, security and efficiency of the uniform payment products. Currence does that by creating a clearly defined level playing field in which all parties wishing to use the Currence payment products, PIN, Chipknip, Acceptgiro, Incasso/Machtigen and iDEAL, are able to operate. Currence does this by making a substantial contribution to the maintenance and development of a high-quality, efficient and secure payment system in the Netherlands. With clear rules and regulations relating to product use and the product environment plus transparent supervision of compliance with the rules, Currence creates the same conditions for all players. Currence was set up on 1 January 2005 on the initiative of eight Dutch banks (ABN AMRO, Rabobank, ING, Fortis, SNS Bank, Friesland Bank, Van Lanschot Bankiers and BNG). About the name Currence is not an existing word but it does have associations with English ‘current’ and ‘currency’. There is immediately a suggestion that it has something to do with money. But there are other connotations, too, such as ‘being up-to-date’ and ‘flow’. And those are the qualities we want to communicate: we stand for a modern, straightforward and efficient payment system. In Dutch, the word also suggests competition (Dutch: ‘concurrentie’). That, too, is not accidental, because facilitating greater competition is an important goal of our organisation.