More about SEPA

SEPA – Single Euro Payments Area

Single	single legal framework single commercial framework single technical standards
Euro	relates to the payments in euro
Payments	credit transfer card payment direct debit
Area	EU Member States, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, Monaco and EU overseas territories

The European payments market features - today and tomorrow

today
with diverse national experiences:

different payment instruments and experience and diverse standards, lack of harmonised legislation on consumer rights' protection;
various solutions for payment processing;
absence of interoperability of national systems;
complexity and risks of cross-border payments.

tomorrow
with a harmonised SEPA:

single payment instruments and single standards, harmonised legislation on consumer rights' protection;
an improved interoperability of systems;
harmonisation and consolidation of payment processes;
a reduced complexity and increased efficiency of payments.

The development of the SEPA project is linked to the history of the European Economic and Monetary Union and the development of the European internal market

1992	The Maastricht Treaty is signed, stating the terms and conditions for introduction of the single European currency.
1999	11 countries of the European Union (Austria, Belgium, Finaland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain) commence non-cash settlements in euro. Greece joined the euro zone in 2001, Slovenia – in 2007, Cyprus and Malta in 2008 and Slovakia in 2009.
2000	The European Council in Lisbon agrees on the EU agenda till 2010, defining the aim to create an innovation and knowledge based European market.
2001	The European Parliament and the European Council adopt the Regulation (EC) No 2560/2001 on cross-border payments in euro that eliminates the difference of price between cross-border and national payments.
2002	The cash settlement in euro is introduced. European banks establish the European Payments Council. The year 2002 is deemed to be the year of launching the SEPA project.
2003	The European Central Bank and the European Commission publish progress reports on a regular basis to enhance the development of the single market also within the field of customer non-cash payments.
2008	The SEPA credit transfer scheme and the SEPA cards framework are introduced.
2009	The Directive No 2007/64/EC of the European Parliament and the European Council on payment services in the internal market amending Directives 97/7/EC, 2002/65/EC, 2005/60/EC and 2006/48/EC and repealing Directive 97/5/EC text with EEA relevance will be transposed into the national legislation. The SEPA direct debit schemes are introduced on 2 November 2009.
2010	It is planned to start using the SEPA payment instruments widely for cross-border as well as domestic payments.

Last updated: 16.12.2009. 18:40