SEPA Mobile Payments – An Introduction 5

When it comes to payments, there is a tremendous amount of buzz around mobile money payments. Its fair to say that various countries in Africa are leading the way when it comes to mobile money payments, and other regions are looking at the success and wondering if the model can be replicated. The EPC has released ...

EPC Launches 3 Month Consultation On the Evolution of SEPA 1

With less than 3 months to go until the 1st August SEPA deadline, today the EPC launched a 3 month consultation period on possible changes to the SEPA Credit Transfer and SEPA Direct Debit rulebooks. This post examines the details of the announced consultation period, and offers some personal thoughts around the need of this ...

SEPA Holidays 2015 / 2016 – YOU Need to Know These Dates! 6

Normally when you hear about public holidays in other countries you don’t pay too much attention, why should you? In the ‘old days’ of national clearing systems your euro currency payments and direct debit collections were processed according to your national work days and you knew exactly when there was a national public holiday. With ...

MT940 Format Overview 21

It is fair to say that most SEPA implementations are focusing on SEPA compliance, and rightly so! This focus will ensure that corporate payments and direct debit collections can continue to happen uninterrupted after the SEPA deadline. The spotlight for now is very much on the corporate to bank space. Less attention is being given ...

Italy – Migrating RID to SEPA Direct Debit 1

I thought I had this whole SEPA malarkey figured out. For payments we implement the SEPA XML PAIN.001 format, and for direct debit collections the SEPA PAIN.008 format. Of course, we all recognise the additional complexities of a SEPA Direct Debit implementation. Namely, the need for a SEPA Creditor Identifier, understanding the difference between SEPA ...

Belgium – Migrating DOM80 to SEPA Direct Debit CORE

Ok, I know this post is a bit late. Especially since the SEPA go live in Belgium was on 1st April, 2014. If you’re working on a SEPA implementation in multiple countries, be aware of the various SEPA Deadlines By Country. But the information maybe relevant for some corporates who may have put off their SEPA ...

Understand ISO 20022 XML In Less Than 2 Minutes 7

ISO 20022 XML sounds pretty techie, eh? Well, it is techie. But its not as complicated as you think. Unless you’re a systems developer, chances are you don’t need to know the nuts and bolts of ISO 20022 XML. You need an understanding of what it is, and know where to go for more information. ...

What Is A Payment Factory? 8

The post “SEPA Compliance, Tick. What Next?” highlights the current status of your SEPA project and provides an overview of what might be considered next. The SEPA conversation has shifted from compliance to one of process improvement. After all, you have done so much to standardise your euro-based payments and direct debit collections, it would ...

ECB SEPA Statistics – February 2014 2

Earlier this year, we saw that the ECB stats showing SEPA migrations gathering momentum. The ECB SEPA statistics showed improved levels of SEPA compliance, but of course corporates and SME’s were far from ready. Recognising this shortfall, the European Commission proposed a 6 month transition period which was formally adopted by the Council of the ...

SEPA Compliance, Tick. What Next..? 7

Many corporates are either making good progress towards SEPA compliance, or are almost complete. The SEPA conversation has somewhat shifted from SEPA compliance to process improvement. Sure there will be a period of teething while the new SEPA process settles down, but your corporate Euro zone payments and collections landscape should look fairly similar now. ...