Sibos 2009 - Wednesday

So it's official: Andrew Long from HSBC stated today in one of the "Big Debates" that customers need SEPA to be relevant to them to create demand and then migration.

He suggested that SEPA was driven only by politicians and that we as an industry should find out what the market wants and then tailor the rules to fit.

This sounds like good product management in any company, financial services or otherwise. So how has the customer's voice failed to be heard in the last six years? I believe that this is an issue of industry colloboration versus competition and that we have over the last few years put in place the industry bodies to ask the users of payments what they really want.

In the UK, two forums involving users have been set up with the goal of learning what customers really think: Bacs Affiliates and the Payments Council. These groups provide an opportunity for customers to outline their problems and requests for solutions directly to industry, without the interpretation of their banks.

So what advice did Andrew have for the industry? Firstly, he gave a warning about the law of unintended consequences, with one piece of regulation stimulating industry practice which is not in the best interests of its users. He then said that the way to mitigate the issue is to start a dialogue with regulators early so that they understand issues before legislating. Perhaps his warning for regulators might be "regulate in haste; repent at leisure"

Tomorrow an expert panel will tackle the PSD and SEPA - it will be interesting to see whether they agree.