ECB warns of risks of ‘big bang’ migration to SEPA and repeats rules on non-compliance
by Kylene Casanova
The ECB General Assessment in their ‘Second SEPA Migration Report’ is that: “New information available to the Eurosystem since the publication of the first SEPA migration report confirms that many stakeholders have decided to migrate only in the last quarter of 2013, or even later. This approach gives rise to operational risks and limits the possibilities of tackling any setbacks or unexpected developments during the changeover.”
They go on to stress that, “Together with the PSPs, PSUs are also responsible for being prepared for SEPA migration. Payment orders that do not comply with the legal requirements laid down in the SEPA migration end-date regulation will not be allowed to be processed by PSPs after 1 February 2014.”
"I have said this before and will repeat it: everybody has to be ready on 1 February 2014 or risk disruptions in their individual handling of payment orders," says Benoît Coeuré, member of the Executive Board of the ECB, pointing out that this is also the position of the European Union Council and the European Commission. "Since our first migration report, we have been emphasising the fact that both payments providers and users are responsible for being sufficiently prepared. And our message to them is still the same: don't leave it to the last minute." (No-one told them about all the ‘promises’ to extend the operation of the legacy systems beyond 1s February 2014.)
Data compiled by the ECB indicates that planned migration to the Sepa credit transfer scheme is progressing well. A few countries in the euro area have already completed the process, while many others are progressing at a swift pace.
However, as for the Sepa direct debit (SDD) scheme, most stakeholders will only be migrating in the last few months before the deadline. While the overall preparedness of payment service providers "seems satisfactory", says the ECB, many of their customers, particularly small and medium enterprises, still face significant challenges in terms of being sufficiently prepared in time for the changeover.
Omikron’s SEPA Test Centre
Given the panic and dire warnings, the need for cost-effective and efficient testing services is becoming critical. Omikron is just about to go live with a ‘SEPA Test Centre’ for banks and corporates to help overcome the problems of the migration of ERP systems to the new SEPA-XML formats. It is necessary to first check that the files comply with the required local specifications.
The SEPA Test Centre allows corporates to check their internal processes under real-time conditions before migrating their live operations to SEPA. The corporates communicate with the SEPA Test Centre using their existing Electronic Banking solution (e. g. MultiCash®) using the same channels as for their real banks. Within the Test Centre, the submitted payment orders are used to generate balance and transaction information and rejected payments (R-transactions) in CAMT format, and the resulting files are delivered to the corporate – again using the standard e-banking channel. This allows the complete end-to-end process for SEPA payments to be simulated, and checks to be made at each stage.
If the SEPA files are incorrect, the corporate receives a detailed error report which can serve as the basis for adapting the systems generating the files. This eliminates the need for complex analysis and troubleshooting on the corporate side. If required, Omikron experts can support the corporate in adapting their internal systems. Using Omikron’s in-depth expertise on formats, the SEPA Test Centre provides corporates with the possibility to check incoming and outgoing XML files for compliance with the multiple local and bank-specific format variants in the SEPA area.
Simulation of Customer-Bank Interaction using Omikron’s SEPA Test Centre
Source & Copyright©2013 - Omikron
The fudges and compromises that have been made already (and those that have yet to be made public) plus the rigorous testing centres will get us through the 1st February 2014 deadline. Not the threatening statements from the ECB.
24/10/13
Source: finextra, ecb report and Omikorn’s datasheet.
Like this item? Get our Weekly Update newsletter. Subscribe today