Payroll payments in the new SEPA Credit Transfer XML formats have to work from 1 February 2014. The rest is detail.

Various approaches to making payroll payments are being adopted. One of the most popular is to send all SCT payments file to one central point and give one payment file to a single bank. (The national regulations to make the payments locally are being avoided/ignored?) Most are retaining their payroll processors. (See details of Citi's payroll service.)

Other SEPA developments
Other developments include:

• many training courses, including ING's online training
• SEPA conference from Eurofinance in Frankfurt on 18 March which includes:
• update from the European Payments Council
• real-life solutions to the challenges of payments and collections
• all the leading SEPA suppliers under one roof
• new conversion services, including the SEPA Accelerator from RBS
• payment systems are announcing that they are ready for SEPA, e.g. Online payment system operator iDEAL Netherlands market after all of the Dutch banks that offer iDEAL recently completed the migration process, making the entire system SEPA-compliant
• the growing evidence that corporates are using SEPA as an opportunity to change their banking partners, particularly in the weaker economies in the eurozone.