The final countdown to the SEPA deadline, 1st August 2014, has started… With just 10 working days remaining, we have learnt a little more from the ECB about the status of the SEPA implementations across the SEPA zone. I recommend reading the SEPA Status – ECB SEPA Statistics – May 2014 post for some specific details. As you’ll see little has changed since May 2014 and I imagine that the country by country trends are much the same. Here is what you need to know…..
ECB SEPA Statistics – SEPA Status – June 2014:
In June 2014:
- 97.59% of all credit transfers in the SEPA zone were SEPA compliant Credit Transfers – that’s up from 96.86% in May 2014
- 95.06% of all direct debits in the SEPA zone were SEPA compliant Direct Debits – that’s up from 88.16% in May 2014
Collectively, we’re getting there. But if you’re in the 3% not compliant with SEPA credit transfers and 5% for SEPA direct debits – you need to read on……
Source: ECB – SEPA Quantitative Indicators
Which Countries Are Going Live?
For full details, check out the post SEPA Deadline by Country – A Must Read. That post was true at the time of writing. In short, the following countries will go live with SEPA payments and direct debits unless otherwise stated from 1st August 2014:
- Austria
- Cyprus
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Luxembourg – direct debits only for legacy mandates only
- The Netherlands
- Portugal
The following countries have officially gone live with SEPA – but we all know, not all of the transactions are SEPA compliant:
- Belgium – 1st April, 2014
- Estonia – 1st February, 2014
- Finland – 1st February, 2014
- Ireland – 31st March, 2014
- Italy – 1st February, 2014
- I know what you’re thinking! Officially Italy went live with SEPA in February 2014, and we all know that didn’t happen. In fact, the SEPA Status May 2014 post shows that Italy is one of the ‘lagging’ countries. Anyway, the Payment Services Providers are able to accept legacy formats till 1st August 2014. Personally I would rather the authorities just state 1st August deadline, rather than create confusion
- Luxembourg – 1st February, 2014 for payments, and any new direct debit mandates
- Slovakia – 1st February, 2014
- Slovenia – 1st February, 2014
- Spain:
- Payments – 18th March, 2014
- Direct Debits – 10th June, 2014
Source: ECB Countries
If you don’t think you will be SEPA compliant by 1st August….
Read my post SEPA Go Live – 4 Things You Need To Do TODAY!
In short, you need to:
- Talk to your bank
- Convert your legacy bank details to BIC/IBAN
- Apply for your SEPA Creditor Identifier
- Read the 4 Things You Need To Do TODAY! for the last item
Good luck, and don’t forget very soon you will be on holiday… Now there’s a thought 🙂