SEPA: Single Euro Payments Area

What is SEPA? The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) is the area in which citizens, companies and other economic agents may make and receive payments in Europe, within and outside national borders, under the same conditions and with the same rights and obligations, regardless of the place where they are located. What benefits does SEPA provide? SEPA allows payments to be made in euros between any account located in the application zone, being able to do so as simply as with a national payment at present, which facilitates access to new markets. Clients may have a sole account, a sole card and payment instruments with identical features to settle payment in any of the 33 SEPA countries. What countries are covered by the SEPA project? The geographic scope of SEPA includes the 28 member states of the European Union (EU), as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Monaco. The SEPA payment instruments are: Transfers. Includes: specific payments, mass, payroll and pension payments. Direct debits (bank domiciliations). Includes: periodic or specific payments. Are used either for national payments or for cross-border payments with any countries in the geographic area. Cards are another SEPA payment instrument. Valid cards in a SEPA country may be used to pay and withdraw cash in the whole SEPA area as easily as now done in their own countries. What is the deadline to have performed the migration to SEPA payment instruments? Regulation EU 260/2012 sets 1st February 2014 as the deadline. From that moment on, national payment instruments (both transfers as well as debits), shall be fully replaced by the new SEPA schemes. However, there are other relevant dates specifically for the Spanish market, that may be consulted in the “Plan of Action” by the Spanish banking community. More information at http://www.sepaesp.es/