24 June 2008

Banks face five year wait to recover lost revenue from Sepa

Almost half of European banks expect it to take over five years to replace payments-related revenue lost following the introduction of SEPA, while 13% say they will never be able to recover the lost revenue, according to a poll by Fundtech.

Almost half of European banks expect it to take over five years to replace payments-related revenue lost following the introduction of the European Union's single euro payments area (Sepa), while 13% say they will never be able to recover the lost revenue, according to a poll by e-payments outfit Fundtech.

 

Fundtech says an anonymous survey of 57 European banking executives conducted earlier this year found that 63% feel the impact of Sepa will be "considerable" on their firm's profits, with 44% predicting it will take longer than five years to replace the lost revenue resulting from the Sepa pricing mandates.

 

However, the Fundtech study found that the majority of banks - 78% - have already purchased or built a system for Sepa credit transfers, while 83% have bought or built a system for Sepa direct debits.

 

The survey also found that the majority of participants - 61% - view electronic invoice presentment and payments (EIPP) as an opportunity to both generate revenue and save costs.

 

Over the third (38%) of participants said between a quarter and half of their customers will adopt the EIPP service over the next three years, while 15 percent believe that over 505% of customers will adopt the technology.

 

Commenting no the findings, George Ravich, chief marketing officer, Fundtech, says: "The participants forecast revenue challenges with Sepa that may never be reconciled, but they also see short-term opportunity with the growth of EIPP."

 

Fundtech Press release

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