Brussels, 14/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - Bank transfers and standing orders carried out within the eurozone must, as of February 2014, respond to the standards of the Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA). For the member states which have not adopted the single currency, the deadline is set for the end of October 2016. In its adoption of the report by Sari Essayah (EPP, Finland), the European Parliament on Tuesday 14 February definitively enshrined the inter-institutional political agreement on the proposed regulation on the technical requirements for payments and standing orders (see EUROPE 10521). “SEPA will make the payments sector more effective and will increase competition. It creates favourable conditions for the Europe-wide implementation of innovations. There will be no need for companies or individuals to have several bank accounts within the single payments area. The payments to and from a single bank account in any member state will always be treated as a domestic payment”, said Essayah in a press release.
On Monday evening, at a debate at the European Parliament, Commissioner for the Internal Market Michel Barnier said that the future rules would make “cross-border payments as easy as domestic payments” and will bring “more reliability and security to European businesses and citizens”. He nonetheless regretted the fact that the principle of two different migration dates for payments and standing orders had been abandoned. Initially, the European Commission had proposed a distinction of this kind and the Council had adopted it (see EUROPE 10228 and 10402). “This would have helped (…) to speed up the migration process and rewarded the member states, service-providers and businesses that were the furthest ahead”, said Barnier. By the end of 2012, the Commission will tackle two questions: the governance of the SEPA space and consumers' right to unconditional reimbursement for transfers.
During negotiations with the Council, the EP managed to ensure that consumers will be able to give their bank instructions to set a financial limit on standing orders. They will also be able to establish positive and negative creditor lists. (MB/transl.fl)