ECB says February SEPA deadline can be met
The European Central Bank has released statistics that it says show that migration to the Single Euro Payments Area “gathered pace strongly” in December and urged market participants not to relax in their migration efforts.
Earlier this month the European Commission announced a six-month extension past the 1 February deadline by which time all payments in eurozone countries are supposed to be SEPA-compliant.
According to the latest figures provided by national central banks, 74% of credit transfers in the euro area were already SEPA-compliant at the end of December (from 64% in November). For direct debits, the figure stands at 41%, “a very steep increase” from the 26% registered in November.
According to the ECB, the December figures “show that if the current pace of migration continues, the vast majority of stakeholders will complete their migration by 1 February 2014”.
“The ECB urges all market participants to continue their current migration pace and to complete the transition of all credit transfer and direct debit transactions to the SEPA standards by 1 February 2014,” it said in a statement.
