From 1 August 2014, more than two billion payments flow across the euro area in new SEPA formats. And in a Press Release Michael Barmier, the EC’s Vice President Michel Barnier, commented: “Completing the migration of payments to SEPA today is a real success.” However, the EU regulatory action intended to bring about ‘SEPA 2.0’, the second stage of the migration process, is now in the pipeline. The following deadlines mandated with the SEPA regulation also apply:

By 1 February 2016:

• Transitional arrangements in EU Member States: the SEPA regulation has introduced several possible exemptions regarding the use of the International Bank Account Number (IBAN), the Business Identifier Code (BIC) and the ISO 20022 XML message standards by the February 2014 deadline. EU member states have discretion as to whether they will use any or all of the options to derogate from the 1 February 2014 deadline (until 1 February 2016) with regard to the use of the IBAN, the BIC and the ISO 20022 XML message standards by payment service users.
• Niche products which have been granted an exemption: the SEPA regulation in particular, stipulates that some types of credit transfer and direct debit transactions with a cumulative market share of less than 10% in an EU member state could comply with the provisions set out in this legislative act.

By 31 October 2016: 

• Non-euro countries will have to comply with the SEPA Regulation.

EPC advice to corporates: don’t stop at compliance, focus on building on the efficiencies from SCT and SDD

Writing in gtnews, Javier Santamaría, a member of the European Payments Council, wrote, “Early adopters who fully reaped the advantages offered with the SEPA payment schemes and technical standards emphasise that compliance is just the first step, organisations can then focus on generating the efficiencies.” He went on to list three examples of how the implementation of SEPA standards creates a platform for further efficiencies:

• Deutsche Post Pension Service consolidation of four payment systems into one, and how they plan to automate further their banking processes
• the use of ISO 20022 message standards drives forward standardisation, automation and dematerialisation
• having one process to handle SDDs companywide is particularly beneficial when companies are expanding brand into new markets. 

New SEPA rulebooks in November 2014

Ominously, Santamaría concluded, “The SEPA payment schemes, as set out in the SCT and SDD Rulebooks, continue to evolve based on a transparent change management process which provides any interested party with the opportunity to participate. …….. The next generation rulebooks (SCT Rulebook version 8.0, SDD Core Rulebook version 8.0 and SDD B2B Rulebook version 6.0) and associated implementation guidelines will be published in November 2014. These rulebook versions will then take effect in November 2015.”

He then gave an ‘Overview of Regulatory Action now in the Pipeline Impacting the European Payments Market Going Forward’, see, for corporate treasurers to ‘stay engaged’ in the conversation’.