Britannia Radio

European Payments Council Launches SEPA Direct Debit Schemes

Tue Oct 13, 2009

BRUSSELS--(Business Wire)--

The European Payments Council (EPC), the coordination and decision-making body
of the European banking industry in relation to payments, launches the SEPA Core
Direct Debit Scheme and the SEPA Business to Business Direct Debit Scheme on 2
November 2009. Banks throughout the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) are now
gradually starting to deliver SEPA Direct Debit services to their customers. All
branches of banks in the euro area must be reachable for SEPA Core Direct Debit
by 1 November 2010 as mandated by the EU Regulation on cross-border payments in
the Community. The EPC confirms a successful kick-off: to-date 2607 banks
representing about 70 per cent of SEPA payment volumes have signed up to the new
schemes and are ready to roll-out SEPA Direct Debit services from 2 November
2009 onwards. Of those, 2366 banks are offering both SDD Core and SDD B2B
services.

SEPA Direct Debit services enable customers - for the first time ever - to make
and receive both domestic and cross-border euro direct debit payments throughout
the 32 SEPA countries, i.e. the 27 EU Member States, Iceland, Liechtenstein,
Norway, Switzerland and Monaco. The direct debit is a major payment instrument
widely used in many euro area countries.

EPC Chair Gerard Hartsink comments: "Following the introduction of euro notes
and coins in 2002 the political drivers of the SEPA process - the Economic and
Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN), the European Commission, the European
Parliament and the European Central Bank - called on the payments industry to
bolster the common currency by developing a set of harmonised schemes and
frameworks for electronic euro payments. The SEPA Credit Transfer Scheme, the
SEPA Direct Debit Schemes and the SEPA Cards Framework developed by the EPC in
close dialogue with the customer community strengthen the monetary union. The
SEPA schemes also support cross-border trade within the internal market."

SEPA offers significant benefits for bank customers. The implementation of
innovative and competitive SEPA payment services based on global ISO standards
translates into efficiency gains for businesses and public administrations,
while consumers can rely on a single set of euro payment instruments covering 32
countries: one bank account, one bank card, one SEPA Credit Transfer, one SEPA
Direct Debit.

The impact of SEPA, however, transcends monetary policy and payments services.
The European Commission expects the legal and technical SEPA harmonisation
exercise to facilitate the dematerialisation of business processes by replacing
paper-based procedures with standardised electronic solutions such as
e-invoicing.

The introduction of the SEPA Direct Debit Schemes requires a uniform EU-wide
legal framework for payments; the launch date of the SDD schemes therefore
aligns with the 1 November 2009 deadline for EU Member States to transpose the
Payment Services Directive (PSD) into national law.

EPC Chair Gerard Hartsink concludes: "Moving forward, the focus must be on
accelerating migration to the new euro payment instruments. Today, more than
4500 banks offer SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) services. Eighteen months after the
launch of the SCT, 4.4 per cent of all euro credit transfers in the EU are
actually based on the SCT scheme. The current rate of SEPA market uptake is in
line with expectations considering the average timelines required for the
roll-out of other major EU integration initiatives."

"The political drivers of the SEPA project now have to incentivise market
transition. Firstly, the European Commission, the European Central Bank and EU
governments should implement a SEPA communication campaign comparable to that
afforded for the euro introduction. Secondly, public administrations -
accountable for up to 20 per cent of electronic payments made in society - must
speed up implementation. Moving public sector payments to SEPA will create
critical mass and trigger implementation by other market participants."

The EPC recognises the value of setting a deadline for migration to SEPA
services. An end date for phasing out legacy euro payment instruments creates
awareness, ensures planning security for all market participants and confirms
the commitment to making SEPA a reality. Mandating an EU-wide end date would
require EU regulation.

About the European Payments Council

The European Payments Council (EPC) is the decision-making and coordination body
of the European banking industry in relation to payments. The EPC defines common
positions for core payments services, provides strategic guidance for
standardization, formulates best practices and supports and monitors
implementation of decisions taken. The EPC consists of 74 members comprising
banks and banking communities. More than 300 professionals from 32 countries are
directly engaged in the work programme of the EPC, representing all sizes and
sectors of the banking industry within Europe.

The EPC develops the payment schemes and frameworks necessary to realise the
Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). SEPA is an EU integration initiative in the
area of payments designed to achieve the completion of the EU internal market
and monetary union. SEPA is the area where citizens, companies and other
economic participants can make and receive payments in euro, within Europe,
whether within or across national boundaries under the same basic conditions,
rights and obligations, regardless of their location. SEPA is currently defined
as consisting of the EU 27 member states plus Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein,
Switzerland and Monaco.

For further information on the EPC please contact
secretariat@europeanpaymentscouncil.eu or visit www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu.

This press release is available in the following euro area languages:

Full text: French and German

Summary text: Italian and Spanish

To view these, and further information on the SEPA Direct Debit Schemes, SEPA
and the European Payments Council, please visit the online media kit, available
here on the EPC website (Home page / `Latest News` section)

The EPC Newsletter. Your Key to SEPA. Get your free Subscription here.

Media Contact at the EPC
Meral Ruesing at the EPC Secretariat
Phone +32 2 733 35 33
meral.ruesing@europeanpaymentscouncil.eu



Copyright Business Wire 2009