Europe is getting ready for a new reality in payment systems: SEPA - Single Euro Payments Area. SEPA is a strategic and political goal of the European Union and is regarded as a major step towards the effective creation of a single market and further economic and monetary integration. Three SEPA payment instruments have been standardized: credit transfers, debit and credit cards, and direct debits.
Since the 1st January 2008 with cards and since the
28th January 2008 with credit transfers, citizens, companies
and other SEPA economic agents are able to make and receive
transfers in euros in identical conditions, regardless of their location.
Currently existing differences between national and cross-border payments
will be eliminated.
For companies, SEPA offers a number of significant advantages, since it will make it easier for them to manage their treasury. It will be possible, for example, to make all credit transfers in euros through a single bank account, using the same format for all credits and debits, thus saving time and resources.
Millennium bcp is part of the small group of European banks that are participating in this new reality - coordinated by the European Payments Council -, and will be SEPA compliant starting on launch day. |
