Last updated: October 20, 2026
Futurex’s Excrypt HSMs and VirtuCrypt cloud payment HSM service are approved for girocard key management, in the data center or in the cloud.
San Antonio, Texas, October 15, 2026 - Futurex, a global leader in hardware security modules (HSMs) and enterprise key management, today announced that the German Banking Industry Committee (GBIC), Die Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft, has confirmed that Futurex's Excrypt HSMs and European data centers and key management environment behind its VirtuCrypt cloud HSM service comply with its current security requirements for the girocard payment scheme.
Run by the German banking industry, girocard is Germany's national debit card scheme and one of the most widely used payment methods in the country. Organizations that operate cryptographic and key management infrastructure for girocard must meet GBIC's security requirements, which are among the most demanding in European payments. GBIC confirmed compliance after independent security evaluations and a review by its working group.
For banks, processors, and service providers that run their own infrastructure, Excrypt HSMs provide GBIC-approved hardware for deployment in their data centers and support their GBIC environment registrations. Customers can run girocard key management on-premises, in VirtuCrypt, or across both.
Futurex’s VirtuCrypt platform provides cloud payment HSMs as a service, with native connectivity to application workloads on AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and other cloud platforms. The service runs from 16 data centers across every major region worldwide, and its European data centers were included in the GBIC assessment. Banks, processors, and payment service providers can deploy payment HSM capacity close to their applications and within their regulatory jurisdiction, without buying, racking, or maintaining hardware
"For years, payment security meant a rack of hardware in every market you wanted to serve. That model doesn't fit how payments are built today," said Mukul Gupta, Senior Director of Security Standards and Assurance at Futurex.
"GBIC's approval shows that Futurex HSMs meet some of the strictest standards in European payments, whether customers run them in their own data centers or through the VirtuCrypt cloud. Futurex HSMs works with all major payment applications, so customers can adopt them without changing code or taking on new development. Scheme-grade key management goes wherever their applications run."
Yazara, a Global Payments company, uses Futurex cloud HSMs to secure Genius Mobile Pay, its SoftPOS platform that turns NFC-enabled phones into payment terminals.
"Germany is one of Europe's most important card markets, and girocard sets a high bar for security. Genius Mobile Pay runs on cloud key management that meets the GBIC requirements, giving us a foundation we can build on with confidence," said Ahmet Öztürk, Director of Applications System Development at Yazara, a Global Payments company.
"Futurex's cloud HSMs let us enter new markets quickly, without building new infrastructure. Any NFC-enabled phone becomes a payment terminal, with bank-grade security behind every tap. That's what we're bringing to merchants in Germany and around the world."
GBIC compliance adds to Futurex’s existing certifications and attestations, including PCI PIN, PCI P2PE, and PCI DSS, as well as a wide range of regional payment certifications. Excrypt HSMs and VirtuCrypt are available now to girocard issuers, acquirers, processors, and SoftPOS providers.
About Futurex
For over 40 years, Futurex has been an award-winning leader and innovator in the encryption market, delivering uncompromising enterprise-grade data security solutions. Over 15,000 organizations worldwide trust Futurex to provide groundbreaking PQC-ready hardware security modules, key management, PKI and CA, data protection, and cloud HSM solutions.
Futurex is headquartered outside of San Antonio, Texas, with regional offices worldwide and over a dozen data centers across five continents. Futurex delivers unmatched support for its clients' mission-critical data encryption and key management requirements.
See how Futurex supports payment and key management operations: https://www.futurex.com/solutions/payment-hsm/