Latest Sepa News: Finextra Research

EC launches antitrust investigation into EPC and e-payments market

The EC has opened an antitrust investigation into whether the European Payments Council (EPC) is blocking new, non-bank, players from entering the online payments market.

26 September 2011

News/Sepa

Banks sceptical about meeting 2014 Sepa compliance deadline

Bankers and corporates do not expect to meet a 2014 deadline for Sepa compliance, according to a straw poll of delegates conducted during a panel discussion of the controversial payment initiative at the annual congress of banking co-operative Swift.

19 September 2011

News/Sepa

EBA Clearing calls for bank pilots for pan-European e-banking payment scheme

EBA Clearing has issued a call for pilot banks to participate in a iive trial of its MyBank online payment scheme in May 2012.

19 September 2011

News/Sepa

VocaLink ditches Sepa services

UK payments processor VocaLink is abandoning its single euro payments area (Sepa) services, blaming "comparatively low" volumes for the project's instruments.

22 August 2011

News/Sepa

Banks protest as EU committee waves through Sepa rules

The European Parliament is set to approve Sepa migration end-date rules which also lay out technical requirements for new payments instruments and prohibit banks from charging interchange fees for direct debit transfers.

14 July 2011

News/Sepa

EPC looks to cut cash costs through ATM standardisation

The European Payments Council (EPC) wants the continent's 400,000 ATMs to all use the same size cash cassettes, claiming standardisation will bring massive cost savings.

14 July 2011

News/Sepa

EU courts open hearing into MasterCard fees

MasterCard's long-running legal challenge against the European Commission's 2007 decision on the company's cross-border consumer interchange fees has been aired at the EU General Law Cout in Luxembourg, with the card scheme declaring that "the future direction of European payments is stake".

11 July 2011

News/Sepa

Swift launches corporate Iban validation kit

Financial information network Swift is marketing a directory and software tool designed to help corporates validate and set-up Iban account codes for customer and supplier payments in time for the Sepa deadline.

08 July 2011

News/Sepa

EBAday 2011: the Sepa journey nears its end

An upbeat EBAday conference in Madrid this week saw hundreds of payments professionals from banks across Europe finally prepare to put the Sepa saga to bed and look forward to new opportunities and challenges.

16 June 2011

News/Sepa

EBA Clearing makes online shopping play with pan-European e-payments initiative

EBA Clearing has outlined plans to launch a pan-European electronic payments service for online shopping, enabling buyers and sellers to complete transactions through their e-banking portals.

15 June 2011

News/Sepa

EU banks ready to break Visa/MasterCard duopoly

A group of 24 European banks planning to establish a rival card network to Visa and MasterCard have called on the European Commission to provide clarification over the level of multilateral interchange fees for the Single Euro Payments Area.

15 June 2011

News/Sepa

European payments industry prepares for record-breaking EBAday 2011

The Euro banking Association and Finextra are preparing for a record turn-out at EBAday 2011, Europe's pre-eminent annual payments event, with a sold-out exhibition floor and conference agenda featuring more than 50 of Europe's leading banks, market operators and industry utilities.

10 June 2011

News/Sepa

ECB calls for chip-only cards

To cut fraud, cards issued in the single euro payments area (Sepa) should only use chips, not mag-stripes, says the European Central Bank (ECB).

13 May 2011

News/Sepa

EPC sets out Sepa mobile payments guidelines

Banking representative body the European Payments Council (EPC) has released a set of guidelines for mobile contactless transactions in the Single Euro Payments Area (Sepa).

05 May 2011

News/Sepa

European Central Bank warns of Sepa failure in the absence of binding legislation

The European Central Bank has called on Brussels to impose concrete end-dates for the imposition of new payments instruments under the Single Euro Payments Area (Sepa) project.

08 April 2011

News/Sepa

EPC warns Brussels to keep its nose out of payments business

The European Payments Council has warned the European Commission not to abuse its executive powers and take on a standards-setting role in the push to create a Single Euro Payments Area (Sepa), arguing that banks must retain their primacy in the development of payment systems.

14 March 2011

News/Sepa

French banks call for Sepa DD interchange mechanism

The French Banking Federation has hit out at recently proposed EC Sepa migration regulations - arguing that they handicap implementation and undermine the interbank system - and called for an interchange mechanism for the direct debit instrument.

20 January 2011

News/Sepa

EC sets Sepa migration deadlines

The European Commission has finally set out its proposals for EU-wide end-dates for the migration of national credit transfers and direct debits to Single Euro Payments Area (Sepa) instruments.

16 December 2010

News/Sepa

ECB's Tumpel-Gugerell sets out Sepa resolutions

The European Central Bank's Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell has set out a list of New Year Resolutions for the EU payments industry, including the imposition of a Sepa migration end-date and the creation of a third card payment scheme to compete with Visa and MasterCard.

29 November 2010

News/Sepa

EC migration plans would 'derail the entire Sepa project' - EPC

The EC will "effectively derail the entire Sepa project" if upcoming regulatory intervention on migration end dates does not include deadlines for phasing out national schemes, says the European Payments Council.

01 November 2010