The European Payments Council (EPC) aims towards greater transparency for the Single euro payments area (Sepa) with kick-off meetings for technical players and end-users of payments schemes. The EPC scheme end-user forum (SEUF) and the EPC scheme technical forum (ESTF) met for the first time in September 2015, the EPC announced yesterday.

The meetings were part of the EPC's new governance, which seeks to enhance the involvement of scheme end-users (corporates, merchants and consumers, etc) and technical players (clearing and settlement infrastructures, payments software providers, etc).

According to the EPC, the evolution of Sepa relies on close dialogue between the two groups.

The two new groups replace the EPC clearing and settlement forum and the EPC customer stakeholder forum. The newly established forums have a broader scope and will be entitled to provide recommendations for the Sepa rulebooks that govern the Sepa schemes. Minutes of the meetings will be published on the EPC's webpages dedicated to SEUF and ESTF. Those interested in becoming members of either of the groups should consult the website.