The question whether a possible deadline should cover only standards and schemes, the necessity for an end-date for each of the two migration schemes or one for both and whether they should be set at a national or a European level are among the priorities the consultation report has put forward. Interested parties included banks, payment systems providers, as well as corporate, SMEs, consumer organisations.
According to respondents feedback, a deadline for the full migration to SEPA should be fixed at EU level, but “with some flexibility allowed at national level to set earlier end-dates in order to take into account the specificities and degree of readiness of each market”. Furthermore, an end-date should be set separately for SEPA credit transfer and SEPA direct debit, because the schemes were not launched at the same time and do not share the same maturity levels, according to a press release. Respondents have also stressed the fact that such a migration should not entail only payment transactions between banks, but also the retail side of the market and payment transactions between customers and banks.
The Commission will ask for Member States opinion before taking further action.
Editors notes: The confusion about the timeframes for an end-date of legacy payment systems also added to the lack of interest and urgency regarding implementation of the SEPA framework on the side of banks and corporates alike. Only setting a fixed end-date can provide the impetus needed to force the financial services industry into motion”, according to Jonathan Williams, director of strategic development, Experian Payments.
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