Payments stakeholders from six European countries are to participate in a six-month trial of EBA Clearing's MyBank system for collecting Sepa-compliant Direct Debits.
Five financial institutions, 11 major European service providers as well as two corporates from six European countries (Belgium, Finland, France, Great Britain, Italy and the Netherlands) have signed up for the MyBank E-Mandate Pilot, which will be kicked off in October 2013.
The aim of the trial is to test "the reliability, security and usability" of the platform when processing the new Sepa payment instruments.
Giovanni Vattani, head of payment systems at Italian utility Enel Market Division, says: "The simplicity and safety of the MyBank E-Mandate solution will assist us in moving from paper mandates to e-mandates and streamlining key processes around SDD mandate handling. It will also support us in reducing cost in the management of SDD mandates."
MyBank enables customers to pay for goods and services at online merchants from within their bank's Web and mobile channels. The service currently count 51 participants from France, Italy and Luxembourg. EBA Clearing says that financial institutions from other countries are making plans to join MyBank during 2014 after the Sepa migration.
The pilot will run until February 2014. It is foreseen that MyBank users will be able to create, modify and cancel e-mandates for Sepa Core Direct Debits from the beginning of next year.
John Broxis, director at EBA Clearing, says: "E-merchants, public institutions and other billers are impatiently awaiting a pan-European e-mandate solution that allows them to collect Sepa Direct Debits and MyBank is the first solution to respond to that call."