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Percentage of banks in SEPA offering SEPA Credit Transfer services

The European Payments Council (EPC) launched the SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) Scheme in January 2008. As of April 2012, 4,559 payment service providers (PSPs) in 32 countries offer SCT services. Today, the PSPs delivering SCT services represent more than 95 percent of payment volumes in Europe. The EPC SCT Participant Register, which lists scheme participants, is publicly available http://epc.cbnet.info/content/adherence_database. 

Percentage of SCT transactions compared to the total volume of credit transfers generated by customers

According to the SCT indicators compiled by the European Central Bank (ECB), the share of SCT transactions as a percentage of the total volume of credit transfers generated by bank customers, amounts to 24.8 percent as of February 2012. The ECB SCT Indicators can be viewed at http://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/sepa/about/indicators/html/index.en.html.

A figure of 100 percent would indicate that only Single European Payments Area (SEPA) services are used and have fully replaced non-SEPA instruments. The SCT Indicators are based on aggregated data provided by clearing and settlement infrastructures in the euro area processing SEPA transactions. This data avoids double counting by excluding, for example, SEPA transactions sent via links between infrastructures. The data also excludes 'on-us' transactions (SCTs between accounts at the same bank) as well as transactions cleared between banks bilaterally or via correspondent banking. The ECB SCT Indicators also show SCT market uptake by country.

Percentage of banks in SEPA offering SEPA Direct Debit services

The EPC launched the SEPA Core Direct Debit (SDD Core) Scheme and the SDD Business to Business Direct Debit (SDD B2B) Scheme on 2 November 2009. As of April 2012, 3,923 PSPs, representing more than 80 percent of SEPA payments volume have signed up to the SDD Core Scheme. Of those, 3,444 PSPs also adhere to SDD B2B Scheme. The separate EPC Participant Registers for the SDD Core and SDD B2B Schemes list the participants taking part in these Schemes. These registers are publicly available at http://epc.cbnet.info/content/adherence_database.

All branches of banks in the euro area must be reachable for cross-border direct debits; e.g. the SDD Core Scheme, since 1 November 2010 as mandated by Regulation (EC) No 924/2009 (Article 8).

Percentage of SDD transactions compared to the total volume generated by customers

According to the SDD indicators compiled by the ECB, as of February 2012 the share of SDD Core transactions, as a percentage of the total volume of direct debits generated by bank customers, amounts to 0.4 percent. The ECB SDD Indicators can be viewed at http://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/sepa/about/indicators/html/index.en.html.

The figures are based on aggregated data from several clearing and settlement infrastructures / systems located in the euro area. As such, SDD transactions which are cleared bilaterally or processed within the same institution are excluded from this indicator.

SEPA for cards: tracking EMV roll-out

As reported in previous issues of the EPC Newsletter, good progress is being made in the realisation of a SEPA for cards. The EPC's SEPA Cards Framework (SCF) outlines high level principles and rules that when implemented by the card industry, will deliver a consistent user experience to both cardholders and merchants when making or accepting euro payments or cash withdrawals. The SCF recognises the EMV standard for SEPA-wide acceptance of card payments. EMV is an industry standard to implement chip and personal identification number (PIN) security for card transactions to combat fraud. An important indicator on the progress in this area is the number of cards, points of sales (POS) and automated teller machines (ATMs) in the market that use chip and PIN for the authorisation of a card payment. More specifically, the percentage of EMV-compliant cards, POS and ATMs in SEPA is monitored.

Migration to chip and PIN in SEPA is essentially complete. At the end of 2011 (estimates), 87.2 percent of cards, 94.2 percent of POS and 96.7 percent of ATMs in SEPA were EMV-compliant. The progress of EMV roll-out, based on these EPC findings and other relevant data on the subject, are reflected by the ECB SEPA Card Indicators at http://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/sepa/about/indicators/html/index.en.html.

Corporate SEPA readiness

The information included here reflects findings previously reported in the January 2012 edition of the EPC Newsletter (no updated data was published since then).

The gtnews Payments Survey 2011, asked its corporate readers to rank SEPA instruments among regularly used methods to make and receive payments. Just over a third of respondents said they regularly made payments via SCT, while 14 percent used SDD. The results are almost identical for corporates receiving payments via SEPA instruments. Almost 20 percent of corporate respondents already invested in SEPA compliance and more than 40 percent said that investment plans were already in the making, whether that is within a three-month timeline or just 'at some point'. The 2011 Payments Survey results also show that some corporates are still hesitant to invest in SEPA services. When asked if their organisation planned to make that investment in the future, 20 percent of those corporates operating in western Europe stated they had no plans. These findings however, reflect a step forward in terms of SEPA uptake compared to the Payments Survey 2010, when almost 50 percent of corporates said that they were not planning a SEPA investment.

The ECB and the European Commission have also conducted surveys in the European corporate sector about practices in making and receiving payments, invoicing and migration to SEPA. The report titled 'European Business Test Panel (EBTP) SEPA Survey 2011. How do you pay? How would you like to pay?' (see 'related links' below), summarises the results of and draws conclusions from the fourth survey of this kind, which was conducted in early 2011. The report indicates that "SEPA migration in the corporate sector is proceeding well". 22 percent of respondents indicated that they use SCT for more than half of their company's outgoing payments. Over 24 percent of participants responded that national credit transfers are not used any more. In comparison with this, direct debit payments are less in use. 70 percent of all respondents indicated they do not or only infrequently pay via national direct debits. 42 percent of responding companies however, have already made payments using SDD; and 37 percent have already received payments via this new instrument."

Public sector SEPA readiness

The information included here reflects findings previously reported in the January 2012 edition of the EPC Newsletter (no updated data was published since then).

In November 2011, the European Commission Services published the fifth survey on public administrations' preparedness and migration to SEPA (see 'related links' below). This survey finds that public administrations' (PA) migration to SCT has accelerated since the last survey, with the overall SCT migration rate increasing from 14.5 percent in October 2010 to 24.9 percent in June 2011. The report also states:

• PA in many European Union (EU) Members States in the euro area seem to be taking over the lead for the SEPA migration at national level, namely in Finland (90.9 percent), Belgium (77.4 percent), Slovenia (65 percent), Austria (60 percent), Germany (37.6 percent), France (21.1 percent) and Spain (16.5 percent) and are expected to make further progress or fully complete migration to SCT in the coming months.
• Nevertheless, a number of euro area EU Member States are still lagging behind and their migration to SCT is progressing at an extremely slow pace, with the SCT rate often not exceeding one percent of total credit transfers volume, namely in Greece (0.01 percent), Estonia (0.10 percent), Ireland (0.2 percent), Slovakia (0.5 percent), Cyprus (0.8 percent), Netherlands (1.2 percent) and Italy (2.3 percent).
• PA migration to SDD stays close to 0 percent, with only a few using SDD (in particular in Belgium and Germany). It is however, important to stress that direct debits are generally not used by PA, or to a very limited extent.

EU Regulation sets deadline for migration to SEPA

On 30 March 2012, the 'Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 establishing technical and business requirements for credit transfers and direct debits in euro and amending Regulation (EC) No 924/2009' (the SEPA Regulation; see 'related links' below) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The SEPA Regulation defines 1 February 2014 as the deadline in the euro area for compliance with the core provisions of this Regulation. Effectively, this means that as of this date, existing national euro credit transfer and direct debit schemes will be replaced by SCT and SDD.

For information supporting market particpants to achieve SEPA compliance by the deadline set in the SEPA Regulation, please refer to the sources below.

Etienne Goosse is the EPC Secretary General.

Related links:

Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 establishing technical and business requirements for credit transfers and direct debits in euro and amending Regulation (EC) No 924/2009

EPC Blog Series: Get Ready for SEPA by February 2014. Early Movers on the Customer Side Share Lessons Learnt

EPC Website: SEPA for Customers

EPC Website: SEPA Migration - Reports, Case Studies and Indicators

EPC Blog: SEPA Gaining Ground with Corporates

European Central Bank and European Commission Report: European Business Test Panel SEPA Survey 2011. How do you pay? How would you like to pay?

European Commission Services 5th Survey on Public Administrations Preparedness and Migration to SEPA (November 2011) 

Related articles in this issue:

Step Up to the Challenge: SWIFT White Paper Sets out Steps to Build a SEPA Migration Plan. A strategy to achieve SEPA compliance by 1 February 2014

Villeroy & Boch: 'The Long Term Benefits of SEPA Exceed the Short Term Efforts to Get There.' The group completed migration to SEPA Credit Transfer in 2008 and migration to SEPA Direct Debit in 2011

The Time to Act is Now: Impact of the SEPA Regulation on Payment Service Users. The SEPA Regulation includes provisions relevant for both the demand and supply sides of the payments market

Early Movers Confirm: ISO 20022 Message Standards Generate Tangible Benefits. A guide for payment service users on the impact of provisions in the SEPA Regulation regarding the use of the ISO 20022 message standards

SEPA Direct Debit for Billers: Exception Handling. EPC Newsletter series provides support for billers preparing migration to the SDD Schemes

Related articles in previous issues:

EPC Newsletter: Articles Published in the Section 'SEPA Market Uptake'

EPC Newsletter: Case Studies Highlighting Successful SEPA Migration Projects of Bank Customers

EPC Newsletter: Articles Published in the Section 'Focus: SEPA Migration'