How can you boost your payment performance using the French Cartes Bancaires (CB) scheme ?

If you sell in France, part of your payment performance depends on the Cartes Bancaires (CB) scheme. It is France’s leading payment scheme, processing over 14 billion transactions annually and supporting 77 million active cards.

For international merchants, understanding this scheme — and integrating it into your strategy — is a concrete way to optimise performance and payment strategy. This guide explains how to make the most of the CB scheme and why Payplug, a French PSP with deep expertise in this scheme, can significantly improve your results on the French market.

The CB scheme : a genuine performance driver

To understand the full power of the CB scheme, you first need to know how it works and why it plays such a central role in the French economy.

A French payment network at the heart of the economy

The CB scheme is administered and developed by the Groupement des Cartes Bancaires (GIE CB). Created in 1984, GIE CB is a non-profit organisation that brings together France’s major banks: Groupe BPCE (Banque Populaire – Caisse d’Épargne), BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Crédit Agricole, Crédit Mutuel CIC, Banque Postale, HSBC France, and more.

For over forty years, this body has played a central role in shaping payment methods in France. Its mission is clear: ensure the proper functioning, security, and interoperability of the card payment system.

GIE CB sets the rules of the CB scheme, defines its security standards, and oversees the technical infrastructure that processes millions of transactions every day.

Increase your acceptance rate with Safe’R by CB

The CB scheme offers a technology designed to optimise payment authentication while keeping the customer journey smooth and conversion-friendly.

Fewer frictions, more conversions

Under PSD3 (the updated version of PSD2), Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) is required to secure online payments. But while SCA strengthens security, the additional step can introduce friction at checkout — and friction drives down conversion rates.

To address this, the Cartes Bancaires scheme developed Safe’R by CB, a programme that intelligently applies exemptions to SCA for CB transactions below €250.

Tangible results for your business

With Safe’R, merchants can reach up to 95% frictionless authentication requests accepted for low-value CB transactions (source: CB 2025). The benefits are substantial: more frictionless payments, a higher acceptance rate, and ultimately more revenue. The impact on your commercial performance is significant.

How to benefit from Safe’R

To enable Safe’R, merchants must first join the programme:

1. Meet the eligibility requirements, including a controlled fraud rate:
   < 0.11% for transactions between €0–100
   < 0.05% for transactions between €100–250
2. Submit a request to your acquiring bank.

Once approved, Safe’R automatically applies to all your CB payments — regardless of your acquirer or technical acceptance provider.

As a partner of Groupe BPCE and the CB scheme, Payplug supports merchants in implementing Safe’R by CB and continuously optimising their payment journeys.

Reduce payment failures with Updat’R

Secure your revenue and strengthen customer loyalty through ongoing payments

One-click payments and subscription models are often disrupted by card expiries or replacements. When this happens, payments are declined, services are interrupted, instalments fail, and ultimately, you lose revenue.

To address this, the Cartes Bancaires scheme created Updat’R, a service that automatically updates the details of CB cards stored on your website whenever a card expires or is replaced.

The concrete benefits of Updat’R

• Uninterrupted recurring payments without any action required from the customer.
• Continuous subscription and instalment plans.
• Fewer abandoned baskets for one-click purchases.
• Lower collection costs linked to failed payments.

How to subscribe to Updat’R

As with Safe’R, you can subscribe to Updat’R through your acquiring bank.

Once enrolled, simply ask your Technical Acceptance Provider (PAT) to activate the service.

Reduce disputes and administrative costs with CB

Disputes and chargebacks can quickly undermine profitability, especially at scale. Here, the CB scheme stands out thanks to its unique dispute-management model.

A dispute policy found nowhere else in Europe

CB only handles fraud-related disputes. Commercial disputes (e.g., item not received, non-compliance, etc.) do not incur fees for merchants.

The result:

• Fewer chargebacks.
• Lower dispute-handling costs and time spent on claims.
• Tighter control over operating expenses.

Thanks to this local approach, procedures are faster, less costly, and fully adapted to the French market. CB allows merchants to focus on what matters most: their core business — not dispute management.

Choose a PSP with deep expertise in the CB scheme to optimise your performance

Your performance on the CB scheme doesn’t only depend on subscribing to CB services. It also relies on a solid understanding of the French banking ecosystem and strong relationships with its key stakeholders. This is where Payplug's unique position within the French banking landscape delivers measurable impact.

Payplug: your French expert for CB performance

Payplug is directly connected to the CB card scheme and has an in-depth understanding of CB payment flows. This enables us to meet merchants’ expectations on the French market by optimising their acceptance performance, whatever their size or challenges.

We provide this local performance directly through our API. But we also offer it to merchants using a multi-PSP strategy with an orchestrator. In this setup, we help merchants define routing rules that allow them to benefit from enhanced payment performance in France through Payplug.

A unique proximity to the French banking ecosystem

Our position within Groupe BPCE gives us a decisive advantage. As an ACPR-regulated payment institution and a subsidiary of one of France’s leading banking groups, we maintain privileged relationships with card issuers. This position gives us insight into issuer-specific requirements, particularly across different MCCs (merchant categories).

A technology fully aligned with CB standards

Performance on the CB scheme doesn’t happen by chance — it requires a technical infrastructure designed specifically for this unique ecosystem.

Payplug has built its payment technology in line with the recommendations of FrenchSys, the organisation that defines the technical standards for CB transactions in France. This compliance enables us to optimise every stage of the CB payment flow and meet all of the acceptance requirements defined by the scheme.

Personalised strategic guidance

Beyond the technology itself, Payplug’s strength as a payment service provider lies in its hands-on, human support — essential for transforming payments into a powerful driver of growth.

Our specialised teams are experts in the French and European payments landscape. They support every merchant in optimising their strategy, starting with an in-depth analysis of their payment data to identify improvement opportunities specific to their business.

Based on this analysis, we deliver tailored recommendations* such as refining authentication rules, adjusting retry strategies after a failed payment, or designing custom user journeys for specific customer segments or product categories.

This unique mix of technical expertise, market knowledge, and personalised guidance makes Payplug the ideal partner for unlocking the full potential of the CB scheme.

In summary

The Cartes Bancaires (CB) scheme is far more than a payment method — it is a strategic pillar of merchants’ economic performance.

Coupled with Payplug’s expertise, the CB scheme becomes a powerful lever to maximise your revenue on the French market.

*depending on subscribed services