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21 December 2010

Association of German Banks: Private banks call for a sense of proportion when fixing end dates for migration to SEPA


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Unternehmen und Verbraucher nutzen die neuen Verfahren noch wenig. „Nicht einmal zehn Prozent der Überweisungen im Euroraum werden derzeit als SEPA-Überweisung ausgeführt“, erklärte Hans-Joachim Massenberg, stellvertretender Hauptgeschäftsführer des Bankenverbandes in Berlin.


The European Commission proposed to set an EU-wide deadline of twelve months for migration of existing national credit transfers to the newly created SEPA instrument. For direct debits, a two-year deadline is to apply. Banks have already made the required preparations for the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) and have been offering SEPA credit transfers since January 2008 and SEPA direct debits since November 2009.

Businesses and consumers are making little use of the new SEPA instruments, however. "Not even ten per cent of credit transfers in the Euro Area are made as SEPA credit transfers at the moment," said Hans-Joachim Massenberger, Deputy General Manager of the Association of German Banks, in Berlin. "In Germany, at less than one percent, the figure is in fact much lower." If the political objective of SEPA was now actually to be achieved, regulatory action was only logical. This should, however, build on the schemes already introduced and not make them more complicated. The SEPA direct debit scheme, for example, was modelled so far on the tried and tested and widely used German direct debit scheme and therefore did not need modifying according to Mr Massenberg.

"Migration to the SEPA instruments must be made with a sense of proportion," he added. The deadlines proposed by the Commission were too ambitious and should be extended to three to five years. This would give businesses and consumers time to get used to the new instruments. Mr Massenberg said that the private banks would be helping customers handle the switchover.





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