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‘SEPA Goes Live’ was the title of the official launch of the Single European Payments Area which took place on 28January 2008 at the Charlemagne Building in Brussels. The following contribution to the debate was made by Olivier Brissaud.
‘SEPA Goes Live’ was the title of the official launch of the Single European Payments Area which took place on 28January 2008 at the Charlemagne Building in Brussels. Delegates were welcomed by Jörgen Holmquist, Director General Internal Market and Services for the European Commission. They were then addressed by Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell, Member of the Executive Board, European Central Bank, Charlie McCreevy, Commissioner, European Commission, and Gerald Hartsink, Chair, European Payments Council, after which a number of distinguished speakers took part in a panel discussion. The following contribution to the debate was made by Olivier Brissaud.
“Corporates and particularly large ones have been organising themselves for a long time to reduce the costs deriving from the inefficiencies of the European payments systems. This may explain why they are not feeling the urgency and why most corporates prefer to wait for value propositions from the banks. Interestingly, so far only a very small minority of banks have spoken to their corporate customers to explain to them how they can benefit from using the new SEPA instruments. Moreover, the migration plans which exist in the various European countries are mostly opaque to non banking stakeholders, and we are afraid there is a genuine risk of diverging implementation of SEPA throughout Europe. Migration plans should be monitored very closely to make sure that this does not happen. A firm migration deadline would definitely help stakeholders to plan the required changes in their organisations, and should be accompanied by the appropriate communication policy. But we think that some more clarity ought to be created in the Direct Debit area before setting a formal deadline.
However, looking at the more positive side there is some good news. We do see some really significant benefits for corporates from SEPA’s role of enabler for future full straight through processing across the financial value chain, from the purchase order down to payments reconciliation. To achieve this, we urgently need a common definition of an electronic invoice, compatible certified digital signature systems, and interoperable reconciliation tools. Last year, the European Associations of Corporate Treasurers launched a cooperative initiative in this direction called CAST, Corporate Action on Standards. CAST has informed corporates on ongoing activities in the standards area, expressed their views in a number of occasions and venues, not last the EC Informal task force on e-invoicing. CAST will wrap up its works and present the results of its analysis at the latest by the end of March. To summarize I would say that SEPA is extremely important to corporates because it makes a future straight-through-processing of the financial value chain possible. But good objectives and good implementation do not always go hand in hand. Corporates want to have a say in its implementation.”
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Last Updated ( Friday, 28 August 2009 )
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