Equipping treasury professionals to deal with SEPA migration

With the recent news that the Council of the European Union is demanding that SEPA migration efforts are doubled, the question remains, do payments professionals fully understand the steps to becoming SEPA compliant before the 2014 end date?

Many complex logistics need to be addressed by corporates looking to capitalise on the cost savings SEPA is designed to create. For example, BBANs need to be converted to IBANs, mandates need to be revisited and ISO 20022 message formats need to be met, to name just a few.

In some regards, slow uptake is understandable because February 2014 seems a long way off – but it really isn’t. There is quite a lot of work to do to implement new practices and policies into a work flow, test these fully, and the roll them out into production.

So why should SEPA migration be moved to the top of treasury professionals’ “to do” lists? 

From SEPA migration, many benefits will flow. The standardisation of settlement windows will make operations more streamlined. Corporates making payments to multiple countries within Europe will no longer need to concern themselves with different rules and time frames for their transactions. And common standards can mean the construction of a single platform for payments, resulting in major savings.

“The benefits of SEPA compliancy will enable the industry to save more than 100 billion Euros in the next six years through the harmonisation of payment services. With the February 2014 deadline fast approaching, banks and corporates need to commit now to understanding the new payments reality and what it takes to successfully meet the challenges of SEPA compliance. BankersAccuity works closely with banks and corporates to prepare for SEPA, converting vendor databases to become SEPA ready, ” says Robert McKay, BankersAccuity’s Managing Director.

BankersAccuity is a sponsor of EBAday 2013 which will be held in Berlin next week and SEPA migration will be on the agenda.