SEPA Testing Programme registration opens

All financial institutions, banks, and Clearing and Settlement Mechanisms can register for the SEPA testing programme as of 3 May

Migration to SEPA is an unprecedented implementation and testing challenge. It is vital for all parties concerned to perform comprehensive testing that simulates payments under SEPA conditions. Major financial institutions, through the SEPA Testing Advisory Group (STAG), have designed the programme that will be operated by SWIFT. Open to all Institutions involved in SEPA, they can start testing as of 1 July and will benefit from a 50% discount if they register before that date.

SWIFT is actively supporting its members and customers to get ready for the live date of 1 January 2008 with this testing programme, working in close cooperation with the EPC, and CSMs such as the EBA and EACHA, Thanks to the SEPA testing programme, financial institutions will test compliance of payments with the SEPA standards, and cross-border end-to-end interoperability through a shared, single and robust platform.

Geoffroy de Schrevel, Head, Payments Markets, Banking Industry Division, SWIFT, comments, "Testing on a shared infrastructure substantially reduces the cost for all banks, testing on a single platform reduces the risk of divergent implementations of SEPA, and testing with a robust programme will ensure operational issues are minimised when the first SEPA payments are exchanged in January 2008. This is an initiative launched and architected by banks."

The SWIFT SEPA testing programme - What's in it for you?

The programme translates the SEPA testing framework as well as the SEPA acceptance criteria and testing scenarios into a common and practical SEPA operational testing programme. In its first phase, it will cover the SEPA core mandated subset in the bank-to-bank space, enforceable as of 1 January 2008. The testing programme includes:

• SWIFTStandards Smart Test Messages
• Simulation Test and Qualification Service (STaQS)
• SWIFTNet Messaging Services in a pilot environment
• SWIFT Reference Data Directories in pilot version for the IBAN/BIC and the SEPA Routing Directory

Benefits

• Reduced effort and cost at institution and industry levels
• Single and integrated testing approach designed by the banking community
• Consistent, robust and interoperable SEPA implementation
• Proven experience in supporting industry-wide migrations

Act now and register via swift.com

You can register for the SEPA Testing Programme by clicking here , or by accessing the SWIFT e-ordering on swift.com>Ordering & Support > Ordering > Existing customers. For any further information related to the SEPA testing programme, contact the SWIFT Programme Management Office (PMO) at sepa_testing_programme_pmo.generic@swift.com.

SWIFT supports SEPA

SEPA Team at SWIFT headed by Geoffroy de Schrevel - From left to right: Béatrice Goethals, Corinne Béranger, Marie-Christine Diaz, Alain Bernard, Joëlle Lockman, Ludivine de Nijs, Marc Pomes, Vincent Questiaux.

Several SEPA information sessions have been held in most SEPA countries or will be held in the coming weeks. Your regional SWIFT office can give you the date of the session in your country. These sessions are generating a great deal of interest (20 countries and more than 1000 participants so far). Several hundred banks intend to register for the SEPA testing programme by the end of 2007.

Joëlle Lockman, SWIFT SEPA Commercial Manager says, "We are going to provide the financial community with a comprehensive testing programme and concrete and reliable tools. Customers can count on us to support their migration to SEPA. A dedicated SEPA team is working with you to make it successful."