Richard Raeburn, the EACT Chairman, appeared on Reuters Insider TV on Wednesday 28th July to discuss EU Derivatives Regulation. Richard comments on, amongst other related topics, the progress of the regulation proposals during the past 12 months, the relationship between corporates using derivatives and systemic risk, and why the EU's proposals for the application of thresholds could be considered a misguided concept in regards to tackling that systemic risk.

You can view a video of the 5 minute appearance by clicking here.

At its inaugural meeting on 7th June, the Members of the SEPA Council stressed their strong support for the establishment of end-date(s) for migration to SEPA Credit Transfers and SEPA Direct Debits by means of legislation at EU level and welcome the intention of the European Commission to come forward with a legislative proposal in close cooperation with the European Central Bank.

The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) should aim at providing European citizens and businesses with low cost, user-friendly, and reliable payment services.

The EACT have been finalizing the negotiations with the European Payments Council on the population of the 140 characters for remittance advice. Please click here to download the PDF 'Remittance Information for Reconciliation in SEPA' and click here to download the 'Annex' PDF that accompanies the 'Remittance Information for Reconciliation in SEPA' document.

On SEPA Direct Debits the EPC has finally committed to add an option in the existing Rulebooks to enable a mandate check before the first transaction goes through. How precisely this will work will be known in the weeks to come and we will keep you posted. The Associations represented in the End Users Committee of Payments Systems (apart from the BEUC, the European consumer’s organization) are now ready to kick start the process of discussing with the European Commission, the European Central bank and the EPC about the phasing out of the legacy systems.