Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA)

Overview

SEPA European Commission (EC) and European Payments Council (EPC) initiative to reduce the costs of cross-border electronic Euro payments (to domestic transaction levels).
Legally-binding deadline of 1 February 2014 for migration from domestic to SEPA payments.
SEPA will not affect the way UK companies trade in Sterling, but will enable them to make cheaper and, in time, faster payments in Euros.
The cheapest SEPA Credit Transfers from UK-based banks are from the likes of Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks - as the Republic of Ireland currency is the Euro.

A SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) is a non-urgent, cross-border Euro payment made between any two SEPA countries within three days, including Euro payments within the UK.
A SEPA Direct Debit (SDD) will enable Direct Debit originators to collect Euro payments from any SEPA country, including their own domestic DDs, using a single Direct Debit service.
Most UK banks are now part of the SEPA scheme, but they refer to transactions as 'Euro Transfers' or 'non-urgent cross-border payments' and so on.

Bank Identification Codes (BICs) and International Bank Account Numbers (IBANs) are mandatory for Euro cross-border payments - banks can reject corporate payments without them - meaning bank account validation is needed early on in the funds transfer process.

As an Associate member of the UK Payments Council, a SWIFT Solution Partner and a member of the Bacs Affiliates Interest Group, Albany Software is well placed to drive SEPA forwards.
We work closely on issues relating to SEPA with VocaLink, VISA, MasterCard, Equens, EACHA, all the major UK Banks and some of the major European banks.
Our strategic alliance with WUBS enables us to deliver GlobalPay, a secure and reliable cross-border payments solution that handles all major trading currencies.