Niche Products 3

Alright, so you’ve collated information about all (well, probably most!) of the payments and collection processes in Europe, or  rather within the impacted euro-currency countries and you’re thinking uh oh (being polite)! Its probably true for most corporates, the list is as long as your arm, across many countries / systems, and time is against you. If like me, your looking for some ‘quick wins’ to help reduce your overall number of processes to make SEPA compliant, your next check is to see if any processes are exempt from the SEPA Regulation.

SEPA Niche Products:

In short, the European Commission has given member countries until 1st Feburary 2013 to seek exemption, from some or all, SEPA requirements. Calm down…! This exemption will be applicable where:

• Market share for the particular payment instrument/product is below a market share threshold (<10% market share according to ECB stats)
• There is a specific legal or historical reason for the ‘legacy’ product to remain
• They instrument fulfills a very specific local function or is tailored for specific user groups

Items that meet the above statistical criteria and where member states have remembered to register the exemption request before the indicated deadline will be waived / classed as niche products.

Keep in mind, where a product is classed as niche/waived – that remains true until 1 February, 2016. After 1st February, 2016 these waived/niche products will also need to become SEPA compliant. Lets not worry about that for now, eh?

So, where can we see the list of exempt / SEPA niche products?

Good question! I have not been able to find an official (i.e. ECB – European Central Bank/EPC – European Payments Council) and definitive list anywhere. I understand that an official EU Commission publication / press release will be made in the coming weeks, but until then we have to make do with various sources, including national SEPA websites, in country national bank site, payment publications and our usual website search engines!

Watch this space for the offical publication…..

Which schemes have been waivered / classed as niche?

Please don’t quote me on the Niche / Waived list at the end of this post. We do need the offical communication from the EU, but from what i have gleaned across various sources this is the list so far. This list is incomplete, and maybe incorrect.

Niche indicates that the format / pay instrument will be supported until February 2016

In scope means the format / pay instrument will be migrated to SEPA processing as of 1st February, 2014

Out of scope means the pay instrument will be supported indefinitely.

There you have it. As soon as i hear / see the official word on this, i will share it. But for now, i hope this helps.