|
|
The qualitative SEPA indicators take into account the specificities of the respective country with regard to migration progress by ‘big billers’, public administrations, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and payment service providers (PSPs). Non-euro area European Union (EU) countries participate in this exercise on a voluntary basis only. The qualitative SEPA indicators are updated quarterly by the national central banks. The assessment is based on a ‘traffic light system’.
In February 2012, the European legislator adopted the ‘Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 establishing technical and business requirements for credit transfers and direct debits in euro’ (the SEPA Regulation), which defines 1 February 2014 as the deadline in the euro area for compliance with the core provisions of this Regulation. Effectively, this means that as of this date, existing national euro credit transfer and direct debit schemes will be replaced by SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) and SEPA Direct Debit (SDD).
The most recent qualitative indicators, which reflect the assessment by national central banks as of the second quarter of 2013, provide the following outlook with regard to SEPA readiness of stakeholders in the 17 euro area countries by 1 February, 2014:
With its SEPA-conclusions of May 2013, the Council of the EU representing EU Member States called upon “all Member States to significantly intensify communication measures primarily at national level to eliminate existing public awareness gaps". These communication measures, states the Council of the EU, should especially target “SMEs, small public administrations and local authorities". The Council of the EU underlines that the provisions of the SEPA Regulation “have to be fully respected by all market participants in euro area Member States”, and emphasises that “competent authorities should cooperate intensively, on a national and international level, to ensure effective and harmonised compliance with the Regulation".