SEPA news

May 9, 2007 - Eight months before the operational launch of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), further important milestones have been met. In March, the SEPA testing framework was released by the European Payments Council (EPC), and on April 24th the Directive on Payments Services (PSD) was approved by the EU Parliament.

The SEPA testing framework defines the testing and implementation principles and provides test scenarios for SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) and SEPA Direct Debit (SDD) payment instruments. The document is publicly available on the EPC website.

The PSD provides the legal foundation for SEPA and for electronic payment transactions in the EU in general. For SEPA, the approval of the PSD is especially important because it forms the legal framework for the SEPA Direct Debit (SDD). Originally, the introduction of the SDD was scheduled for 2008, in parallel with the SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT). But due to the delay in the approval the PSD cannot be introduced before end of 2009, because - after formal adoption - it has to be transformed into national law by all EU Member States by November 1st, 2009.

CoCoNet is currently integrating the SEPA formats into its products considering the specialities deriving from bank-specific strategies and the current discussions in the national standard committees. SEPA-compliant versions of CoCoNet products will be available from mid 2007.