European Payments Council (EPC) launches SEPA Direct Debit scheme
The European Payments Council (EPC), the coordination and decision-making body of the European banking industry in relation to payments, launched the SEPA Core Direct Debit Scheme and the SEPA Business to Business Direct Debit Scheme on 2 November 2009. Banks throughout the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) are now gradually starting to deliver SEPA Direct Debit services to their customers. All branches of banks in the euro area must be reachable for SEPA Core Direct Debit by 1 November 2010 as mandated by the EU Regulation on cross-border payments in the Community. The EPC confirms a successful kick-off: to-date 2607 banks representing about 70% of SEPA payment volumes have signed up to the new schemes and are ready to roll-out SEPA Direct Debit services from November 2009 onwards. Of those, 2366 banks are offering both SDD Core and SDD B2B services.
SEPA is bringing markets closer together and increasing cross-border opportunities for corporate organisations and banks alike. SEPA Direct Debits in particular will enable direct debit originators to collect pan-European direct debits from any of the SEPA countries using a single direct debit service instead of the country-specific services that currently exist. For banks and corporates the SEPA initiative will provide opportunities to improve end-to-end straight through processing, reduce processing and transaction costs and expand markets. Those planning to make use of the initiative will benefit from greater efficiency in terms of consolidating their systems and rationalising the number of bank accounts they hold as well as having a common standard for direct debit transactions in Euro countries. Those corporates which need to make payments to and receive payments from the European Economic Area will benefit from this more standardised approach to payment transactions.
