CEN/XFS or XFS (extensions for financial services) provides a client-server architecture for financial applications on the Microsoft Windows platform, especially peripheral devices such as EFTPOS terminals and ATMs which are unique to the financial industry. It is an international standard promoted by the European Committee for Standardization (known by the acronym CEN, hence CEN/XFS). The standard is based on the WOSA Extensions for Financial Services or WOSA/XFS developed by Microsoft. With the move to a more standardized software base, financial institutions have been increasingly interested in the ability to pick and choose the application programs that drive their equipment. XFS provides a common API for accessing and manipulating various financial services devices regardless of the manufacturer. History Chronology: 1991 - Microsoft forms "Banking Solutions Vendor Council" 1995 - WOSA/XFS 1.11 released 1997 - WOSA/XFS 2.0 released - additional support for 24 hours-a-day unattended operation 1998 - adopted by European Committee for Standardization as an international standard. 2000 - XFS 3.0 released by CEN 2008 - XFS 3.10 released by CEN 2011 - XFS 3.20 released by CEN 2015 - XFS 3.30 released by CEN 2020 - XFS 3.40 released by CEN WOSA/XFS changed name to simply XFS when the standard was adopted by the international CEN/ISSS standards body. However, it is most commonly called CEN/XFS by the industry participants. XFS middleware While the perceived benefit of XFS is similar to Java's "write once, run anywhere" mantra, often different hardware vendors have different interpretations of the XFS standard. The result of these differences in interpretation means that applications typically use a middleware to even out the differences between various platforms implementation of XFS. Notable XFS middleware platforms include: F1 Solutions - F1 TPS (multi-vendor ATM & POS solution) Nexus Software LLC - Nexus Evolution Nautilus Hyosung - Nextware Hitachi-Omron Terminal Solutions ATOM Diebold Agilis Power NCR - NCR XFS KAL - KAL Kalignite Auriga - The Banking E-volution- WWS Omnichannel Platform Cashware - XFS service providers Phoenix Interactive VISTAatm Acquired by Diedold Wincor Nixdorf ProBase (ProBase C as WOSA/XFS platform - ProBase J as J/XFS platform) SBS Software KIXXtension Dynasty Technology Group - (JSI) Jam Service Interface HST Systems & Technologies - HAL Interface FreeXFS- open source XFS platform GRG banking eCAT (multi-vendor ATM terminal solution) TIS xfs.js implementation(open source for node.js community) TEB Orion XFS test tools XFS test tools allow testing of XFS applications and middleware on simulated hardware.