From compliance to business benefit

The objective of SEPA, as stated by the European Commission, is to “facilitate the exchange of cross-border flows” and "reduce the processing costs of European operators, largely processing (and invoicing) today as 'international' operations”. SEPA covers credit transfers, card infrastructures and direct debits, and its introduction will have a pervasive effect on the Euro zone payments market.

The introduction of SEPA is likely to both influence and have an impact upon all the players in the payments market. The cost changes in payments brought about by SEPA will thus have a significant impact on the banks as well as the processors. The stage is therefore set for major systemic changes in the infrastructure of European banking.

This paper is not intended to educate about the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). That has already been done by other industry commentators as the initiative is now becoming better documented and the timescales have been published. Rather, its purpose is to take the current thinking and show the impact that SEPA will have on the European financial services industry both in the short and longer term.

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