From 2014 February XNUMX, making payments electronically within Europe will be even easier. This is the objective of SEPA (Single euro payments area, i.e common euro payments area), a project aimed at conceiving Europe as a domestic area where citizens and businesses can receive and make payments in euros, using a single bank account and a single credit card, regardless of their location in Europe.
SEPA comprises the 27 member countries of the European Union plus Switzerland, Iceland, the Principality of Monaco and Liechtenstein. Consequently, payments in euros within this area will have to be considered as European domestic payments. “There will no longer be any difference between domestic and cross-border payments. A consumer can open an account in any country and make payments in all countries,” says Paola Giucca, director of the Bank of Italy's Market and Payment System Supervision Service (Smp).
Sepa will involve over 500 million inhabitants and 9 amortized payment service providers. For these, from February, the deadline for the migration to Sepa credit transfers and direct debits (such as Rid) and the ban on requesting the company identification code (Bic) for national payments will start.
According to the Bank of Italy, the completion of this process requires an "extraordinary effort". However, there will be many benefits including a reduction in costs and the overcoming of fragmentation at the national level.
