SEPA

The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), the unitary electronic payment transactions programme, was launched in 2008. The SEPA Zone comprises 27 Member States of the European Union and the EEC Member States (Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway) as well as Switzerland.

The SEPA advantages for your company

• It enables all national and cross-border payment transactions to be carried out via your Investkredit account. Advantages: simplified Cash Management and reduction of costs
• SEPA payments have a guaranteed processing times and will arrive at the recipient even sooner in the future. Advantage: improved cash flow and liquidity planning
• The new SEPA XML format (ISO UNIFI (ISO 20022)), which is used for Internet banking transactions and also covers payment transaction status reports, is already ready for use. There is no obligation to do so, however.
• The new SEPA Direct Debit Procedure may be used in the entire SEPA Zone in the future. Advantage: fresh opportunities in foreign markets

SEPA Services

• SEPA Credit Transfer
  This payment transaction product with no specified transaction limit has been available since 28 Jan 2008. SEPA Credit Transfer is a fully automated payment transaction instrument with no specified transaction limit for national and cross-border Euro transfers which exhibits a transfer period of no more than 3 days (as of 2012 only 1 day within the EU), independent of which particular SEPA Member State the recipient's account is located in.
• SEPA Direct Debit Procedure
  As of 1 November 2009, a standardised SEPA direct debit procedure is prospected to be available to all Euro-currency states. In the long term it will replace existing direct debit procedures. A prerequisite to this end is the transferral and implementation of the EU Payment Service Directive into national law by 1 November 2009. 
• SEPA Payment Order
  A consequence of the introduction of SEPA is that since 1 July 2008 the SEPA Payment Order can be used to carry out non-electronic payment orders.  The SEPA Payment Order will successively replace the existing payment transaction forms (payment form, deposit slip, credit transfer, EU Standard Credit Transfer). 
• SEPA Card Framework
  Payment cards shall become compatible with all terminals and equipped with chips and pins by 2010 at the latest.

Start making the necessary preparations for SEPA today. We will gladly consult you.