Banks get serious as corporates engage

SEPA triggers significant changes in payments infrastructure across Europe

This is the crunch year for the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). "We're shifting from the design phase to the implementation phase," says Charles Bryant, secretary general of the European Payments Council (EPC), which has been driving the process on behalf of the banks. "We have to stop debating and focus on delivery."

Still, the debate goes on both at the political level and with corporate clients and their advocates in the banking community. Meanwhile, major re-engineering of the payment system plumbing is moving forward.

"It has been a huge achievement to get consensus across thousands of banks with very different business perspectives and practices," says Bryant at the EPC. Such consensus was important to achieve, he argues, before engaging with the corporates and other users, with their diverse interests.

The full article (first published in Dialogue)
is now available.