25 April 2013

EPC: There is only Plan A: Get ready for SEPA by 1 February 2014 in the euro area!

Javier Santamaría, Chairman of the European Payments Council (EPC), points out that good progress has been achieved by the corporate sector preparing for the transition. The focus should now be on joining forces to assist, in particular, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and local public administrations in the euro area that must meet the 1 February 2014 deadline. This requires coordinated efforts by national public authorities, and trade associations representing businesses and banks.

Wiebe Ruttenberg of the European Central Bank summarises the main findings of the first SEPA migration report, published by the Eurosystem in March 2013. The Eurosystem strongly advocates that all payment service providers have their customer servicing channels ready for SEPA transactions by the end of the second quarter of 2013 and that all other stakeholders, including ‘big billers’, public administrations and SMEs, migrate at the earliest stage possible, preferably by the third quarter of 2013 at the latest. This approach avoids risks which otherwise could impact the wider supply chain and would put the SEPA migration at risk. For more information, refer to his article ‘SEPA Migration – Don’t Count on a Plan B’.

Following up on the previous EPC Poll, entitled: ‘Vote on future EPC Newsletter topics! Which EU regulatory action impacting euro payments is most important to you?’ EPC analyses the impact of the proposal for a Regulation on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market. Respondents to the poll also indicated strong interest in the pending European Commission’s review of both the SEPA governance structure and the Payment Services Directive. It has been suggested that the European Commission will publish related proposals before the summer of 2013.

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