Customer Access Mechanism (CAM)

DE

Preliminary remarks: customer groups at the Deutsche Bundesbank

Overview of services offered by the Deutsche Bundesbank in the area of cashless payments.
Range of Services

With regard to account management and the processing of cashless payments, the Deutsche Bundesbank makes a basic distinction between "deposit-taking credit institutions" (credit institutions within the meaning of Article 4 (1) number 1 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013) and "other account holders". The latter category includes the following customer groups:

  • Public administrations and entities with a private legal form performing the activities of public administrations or processing payments on their behalf.
  • Charitable organisations
  • Payment service providers within the meaning of section 1 (1) numbers 2 to 5 of the Payment Services Oversight Act (Zahlungsdiensteaufsichtsgesetz or ZAG), credit institutions with partial banking licence as well as financial service institutions within the meaning of section 1 (1a) of the German Banking Act (Kreditwesengesetz).

The four components: CAM-Individual, CAM-SEPA, CAM-Instant and CAM-IMPay

Credit transfer and collection orders initiated by other account holders (with and without a bank sort code) are processed by the Bundesbank using its Customer Access Mechanism (CAM). The CAM procedure is made up of four components, CAM-Individual, CAM-SEPA, CAM-Instant and CAM-IMPay.

  • CAM-Individual can be used for the submission of the following types of credit transfer:
  • Same-day euro credit transfers for execution in Germany, EU/EEA member states and third countries.
  • Foreign payment transfers (in foreign currency) for execution in EU/EEA member states and third countries provided the currency is listed in the "Notice on foreign exchange operations".

The CAM-SEPA component is available to other account holders without a bank sort code for effecting domestic and cross-border

  • SEPA credit transfers
  • SEPA direct debits (CORE and B2B)

Other account holders without a bank sort code can submit and receive SEPA instant credit transfers via CAM-Instant.

In addition, the Bundesbank's CAM-IMPay procedure accepts the following types of credit transfer from public administrations and entities operating in private legal form

  • Euro-denominated credit transfers for execution in EU/EEA member states as well as in third countries

provided the payment arises from a public mandate (eg statutory pension and accident insurance payments, indemnification payments).