EUC: changes are necessary for SEPA to succeed

According to a paper published by the Payment Systems End User Committee (EUC), the SEPA initiative which allows citizens, companies and other economic participants to make and receive payments in euro, within Europe, whether between or within national boundaries under the same basic conditions, rights and obligations does not have high chances for success, as it risks not being sufficiently taken up by the market and facing failure in meeting its objective.

In this respect, the Committee, an alliance of eight organisations, among which the European Association of Corporate Treasurers and the trade representation body EuroCommerce, calls for improvements of the SEPA instruments in order to cater to the needs of a significant number of users. The addition of optional services to the so-called CMF+ scheme, improvements in the governance of SEPA, as well as the question of SEPA deadlines which should be agreed beforehand with all stakeholders are some of the measures that will lead to a change of direction and a proper level of guidance which are urgently required.

The Committee regards the SDD system as set down in the EPC Rulebooks as insufficient to meet the users needs and proposes an optional system which involves more security checks at the creditor and the debtor bank levels (CMF+). Furthermore, the structure of the of the SEPA governance must be modified in order to allow end users to get involved to the same degree as payment system providers and regulators.

As far as the end dates for the migration from national systems to SEPA are concerned, decision on setting them should be taken when all the other issues have been resolved, while setting arbitrary deadlines would lead to the failure of SEPA, the Committee concludes.