Australia-based software company Distra Universal Switch now powers PayFair, a SEPA compliant payment card for European customers.

The initiative follows the recent announcement that Belgian supermarkets, beginning with Colruyt, have started to accept payments via the PayFair card. Based on its Mission Critical Application Server (MCAS), the Distra Switch uses a payments engine to deliver processing and has selected technologies from IT company Unisys and GFG Group, a provider of electronic payment and card management software solutions, to deliver the PayFair platform. Distra has also announced plans to support the card network as it expands into other supermarkets in Belgium and into Germany in 2010.

PayFair is a European card scheme developed by an independent group of experts from the financial, IT and retailing sectors whose aim is to enable banks to offer consumers and merchants a SEPA compliant European payment method, supporting contactless as well as mobile payments and low value payments.