Now that the mandatory migration to the ’s Credit Transfer and Direct Debit schemes has been achieved in Europe, the continues its contribution to further develop the project in areas where payment harmonisation is still lacking, while also undertaking other multi-stakeholder initiatives.
The Single Euro Payments Area ( ) is an integration initiative pursued by the institutions: the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of the representing governments, and the European Central Bank (ECB). The introduction of physical euro banknotes and coins in 2002 was just the beginning of the harmonisation of payments in Europe. To achieve a true single European market, harmonisation of electronic euro transactions was also required.
When the institutions first launched the process, they expected the banking industry to contribute the resources required to develop European instruments for electronic euro payments. The European banking sector therefore created the in 2002. Since then, in close dialogue with the stakeholder community, the has developed, among other things, the Credit Transfer, the Instant Credit Transfer, the Direct Debit ( ) Core and the Business-to-Business payment schemes.
These schemes – which the regularly updates and enhances – help to realise the political vision of .
The is not part of the institutional framework. The has, therefore, no role in the adoption of any laws or other regulatory initiatives establishing compliance requirements, and is not responsible for the overall management of the process.
All payment service providers offering their customers euro credit transfers and direct debits had to migrate to (that is to say, to propose solutions based on the ’s payment schemes, enabling a pan-European reach of euro credit transfers and direct debits) by August 2014 (euro area) or October 2016 (non-euro area). The migration to , as mandated in the Regulation, is therefore over.
It does not mean that payments are now completely harmonised in , and some areas (such as card, mobile and Person-to-Person payments) still require a standardisation effort to make it possible to pay anywhere in with the same ease and convenience as in one’s home country
The is actively involved in these areas and also contributes to other multi-stakeholder initiatives such as the European Cards Stakeholders Group and the Euro Retail Payments Board created by the ECB to bring together the demand and supply sides of payments.