SEPA – the Single Euro Payments Area

The single European currency and a single set of payment instruments comprise the Single Euro Payments Area.

SEPA project represents the next step towards the single European market in which any customer throughout Europe will be able to make non-cash payments in an equally quick, safe and easy way as currently domestic payments.

Latvia, similar to the other SEPA countries, has launched the SEPA project.

The European Payments Council, the European Central Bank and the European Commission are jointly promoting their activities to give a possibility for all consumers, companies and other economic actors to make and receive non-cash payments in euro, whether between or within national boundaries under the same basic conditions, rights and obligations, regardless of their location in Europe.

In 2002, the European Payments Council was created for that purpose. The European Payments Council developed uniform euro payment instruments – the SEPA credit transfer, the SEPA card payment and the SEPA direct debit. At the beginning of 2008, European banks launched the SEPA credit transfer scheme and SEPA card payments. The launch of the SEPA direct debit scheme took place on 2 November 2009.

On 14 December 2009, the Money and Payment Systems Working Group of the Republic of Latvia Euro Project Steering Committee approved Latvia's National SEPA Plan, Version 1.0 (available in Latvian,  634 KB). The Plan   describes the roles of all stakeholders – public authorities, corporates, small and medium enterprises and payment processing and payment technologies' providers  in the SEPA project and their tasks, and provides a timeline for putting SEPA payments on the Latvian payments market and presents more comprehensive information about SEPA payments, SEPA infrastructures, SEPA legal framework and standards as well as SEPA communication plan.

more ››