02 December 2004

ECB: Third progress report on Single Euro Payments Area

In its third progress report on the single euro payment area the ECB assesses recent developments in the efforts to transform the still largely fragmented national retail payment systems into a single euro payment area.

The formation of the European Payments Council (EPC) by the banks in June 2002, aimed to achieve the Single European Payment Area (SEPA) by 2010. This would include the development of a complete set of pan-European instruments, to be available by end-2007. In this regard, the Eurosystem recommends that these instruments be made available as an option for national payments to individuals and enterprises as early as 2008, without having to change the national infrastructure at that stage. In this way, the SEPA for the citizen would already be achieved. A full migration for banks and their customers to pan-European solutions would be achieved by end-2010.

It is clearly the EPC’s responsibility to specify the SEPA objectives and the national banking communities’ responsibility to define and implement the national migration plan. The Eurosystem strongly supports the EPC’s goal to develop and implement pan-European payment instruments, starting with credit transfers, direct debits and debit cards.

In addition, the Eurosystem invites the national banking communities in the euro area to present convincing arrangements for the implementation of EPC decisions at the domestic level no later than six months after their adoption at EPC level, and to present to the EPC, during 2005, a national migration plan for the gradual transition to the SEPA by end-2010.

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