11 December 17
Sixty-eight percent of the participants to our poll think the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme will reach a critical mass by 2020
We recently organised on our website a poll open to all, in which we asked the following question: ‘When do you think the critical mass of SEPA Instant Credit Transfer transactions will be reached across Europe?’ The results show the confidence of European payment professionals that this new scheme...
06 December 17
The European Commission's final RTS: some issues remain unclear
The European Commission published the long awaited final Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) on strong customer authentication (SCA) and common and secure open standards of communication, on 27 November 2017. These RTS, initially drafted by the European Banking Authority (EBA), are instrumental in the...
05 December 17
A summary of the November ERPB meeting
The Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB – a high-level body chaired by the European Central Bank and gathering the supply and demand sides of European retail payments) held its latest meeting on 29 November. Several of the hottest payment topics of the moment were discussed at this meeting. The EPC...
28 November 17
A very early adopter of the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme tells us about the Spanish experience
The SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) scheme has been operational for just a few days, yet the nearly 600 payment service providers (PSPs) who now offer SCT Inst-based services have been working hard for the last year to make these services a reality. With 86 PSPs on board, Spain is one of the...
21 November 17
Instant credit transfers are now a reality in eight European countries
The SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) scheme created by the European Payments Council is operational. As of today, nearly 600 payment service providers (PSPs) from eight European countries are offering instant payment solutions based on SCT Inst. Transferring money in less than ten seconds The...
SEPA Instant Credit Transfer Scheme Interbank Implementation Guidelines 2017 version 1.2
SEPA Credit Transfer Scheme Interbank Implementation Guidelines 2017 version 1.1
06 November 17
EPC calls for independent candidates for its Compliance and Adherence Committee and its Appeals Committee
The European Payments Council’s Compliance and Adherence Committee (CAC – the body responsible for the compliance functions of scheme management) and the Appeals Committee (the body responsible for handling appeals brought in respect of decisions taken by the CAC) will be renewed in 2018. For each...
02 November 17
All about TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS): a new actor in the European payments landscape as from November 2018
The settlement of SEPA transactions (one of the behind-the-scenes processes that enables the transfer of funds from one payment service provider (PSP) to another) is a key factor for the success of SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) transactions. With only a few weeks before the SCT Inst scheme...
26 October 17
Participate in the EPC public consultation on mobile contactless card payments
The EPC launches today a three-month public consultation on the Mobile Contactless SEPA Card Payments Implementation Interoperability Guidelines (MCP IIGs). These guidelines aim to be a reference for all stakeholders working on mobile contactless payments in Europe (based on card payments). In our...
19 October 17
Instant payments: What SEPA can learn from the UK Faster Payments experience
Among the several European countries which have already developed a national instant payments scheme, the UK is one of the most advanced, with over 125 million instant transactions each month (based on the credit transfer instrument). While the EPC’s SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) scheme will...
18 October 17
Publication of updated 2017 rulebooks for all SEPA payment schemes, with no operational impact
Today the EPC publishes updated rulebook versions for all its SEPA payment schemes: the SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT), SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst), SEPA Direct Debit Core (SDD Core) and SEPA Direct Debit Business-to-Business (SDD B2B) schemes. All updated 2017 rulebooks enter into force on...
16 October 17
Nearly 600 payment service providers from eight countries will be ready for the launch of SCT Inst in November
With just a few weeks to go before the first SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) transactions can be processed, all payment service providers (PSPs) who will be ready on 21 November are now officially registered as scheme participants. There are nearly 600 PSPs (585 exactly), from eight...
10 October 17
Our compilation of interesting reports about payments published this last quarter
We have gathered a selection of recent and free reports on payments and which might interest professionals working in the industry. Fintech, instant payments, the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2), open banking, cybersecurity… Find out more about the latest researches on these hot topics. The...
SEPA Instant Credit Transfer options
03 October 17
The Danish payment landscape: When instant becomes the new normal
With more than a month to go before the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) scheme is live, we were eager to hear the lessons learnt by one of Europe’s frontrunners in instant payments, Denmark. We interviewed Kristian Ring from Finance Denmark, and he explained the reasons for card payments’ (including...
21 September 17
Greece’s progress towards a ‘less cash’ society
While the average number of card transactions per capita and per year in the European Union (EU) is 90, it is only 50 in Greece, which places the country among the Member States most attached to cash. However, due to both government demands to reduce cash use in the country, and to the growing appetite...
12 September 17
Update on UK Open Banking
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and should not be attributed to the European Payments Council. In July the Open Banking Implementation Entity released specifications for the ‘Read/Write’ payment initiation and account information Application Programming Interfaces...
11 September 17
The names of the first payment service providers ready for SCT Inst are revealed
The EPC published the list of the first payment service providers (PSPs) that have announced their readiness for the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) scheme on 21 November. 134 PSPs from four countries (Austria, Estonia, Latvia and Spain) have already adhered to this new scheme, which will...
03 August 17
Blockchain: Applications in payments
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and should not be attributed to the European Payments Council. In recent years, blockchain technology has significantly gained popularity because it has the potential to process financial transactions in ‘real time’ without compromising...
26 July 17
Results of our first poll on the best use-cases of the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme: consumer-to-business payment situations win the majority of votes!
We recently ran on our website a poll on the forthcoming SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) scheme. We asked the following question: “In your opinion, for which situation would the SCT Inst scheme be the most useful?”. The results are clear: nearly half of the voters (48 percent) think...
17 July 17
The Mobile Proxy Forum issues a Request for Information for pan-European P2P mobile payments
The Mobile Proxy Forum (MPF), a cross-industry working group of which the mission is to enable pan-European, interoperable person-to-person (P2P) mobile payments, launches a Request for Information (RFI) for a Standardised Proxy Lookup (SPL) service today. Creating pan-European P2P payments Day-to-day...
11 July 17
An update on the implementation of the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme
In less than five months, the EPC’s SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) scheme will be operational. The implementation of this new and optional scheme – the exact starting date of which is 21 November 2017 – is a hot topic within the European payment community. It is also a challenging one, as the...
04 July 17
Creating an integrated European market for Payment Initiation Services
The revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) was adopted with payment innovation and safety to the fore. One of its purposes is to regulate at the European Union (EU) level practices and players currently unregulated in the EU. Among other things, PSD2 regulates the role of Payment Initiation Services...
29 June 17
Around the web – A compilation of some interesting reports about payments
Do you find it difficult to keep up to date on everything that is being published online about payments? We have gathered some of the most interesting (and free) reports published during the second quarter of the year. The views expressed in the below reports are solely those of the authors and should...
22 June 17
The Spanish payment landscape: innovation gains on tradition
Even if cash is still king in Spain, representing an estimated 80 percent of the total number of retail transactions, innovative methods of payment are advancing in the country. Spain is a frontrunner for instant and Person-to-Person (P2P) mobile payments. Another electronic instrument, SEPA Direct Debit...
08 June 17
18 months on – Impact of the Interchange Fee Regulation on the European Union cards market
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and should not be attributed to the European Payments Council. It is now almost 18 months since the introduction of the Interchange Fee Regulation (IFR). IFR covered a good deal more than the interchange fee caps and included substantial...