Financial messaging network Swift says six automated clearing houses (ACHs) have signed up to participate in its programme to test compliance of payments with Sepa standards across the eurozone.
Pan-European processor Equens, Dias in Greece, IberPay in Spain, Italy's Seceti, Portugal's SIBS and STET in France have all signed up to participate in the Swift compliance testing.
Swift says the participation of ACHs in the testing programme is designed to confirm the infrastructure in place is compliant with Sepa standards and to foster a smooth migration for their bank customers.
ACH participation will encourage strict compliance with Sepa core mandatory standards as defined by the EPC and foster interoperability across Europe by avoiding the emergence of variances to the Sepa ISO 20022 standard, says Swift. It will also contribute to faster migration to Sepa and will help spread investment costs and effort amongst stakeholders by avoiding development of bespoke testing tools.
Michael Steinbach, chairman of the board of directors, Equens, says: "By participating in this testing programme, Equens, together with other important market infrastructures, has the means to demonstrate its full compliance with the new Sepa formats and its capability to serve its clients across borders with the efficiency, transparency and reach they will expect."
Swift's Sepa testing programme will go live on 2 July 2007. Swift says more than 130 financial institutions have registered to participate so far.