The European Central Bank (ECB) has outlined risks that would emerge due to last-minute changeover and slow adoption to the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).
In its second report on SEPA migration, the ECB along with the euro area national central banks has found that several crucial stakeholders have decided to migrate only in the last quarter of 2013, or even later.
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The European law for euro area countries has fixed 1 February 2014 as the deadline to migrate to the SEPA credit transfer (SCT) and SEPA direct debit (SDD) schemes.
Potential risks that could be involved are related to operations and capability to handle issues or unforeseen developments emerging during the changeover period.
Additionally, the users will not have sufficient time left to adapt to the payment service providers’ new standards as well as to test their own systems.
ECB Executive Board member Benoît Curé said, "I have said this before and will repeat it: everybody has to be ready on 1 February 2014 or risk disruptions in their individual handling of payment orders.
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By GlobalData"Since our first migration report, we have been emphasising the fact that both payments providers and users are responsible for being sufficiently prepared. And our message to them is still the same: don’t leave it to the last minute."
Curé added, "A successful migration will require considerable effort, so it is important to further strengthen communication and cooperation among key stakeholders and competent authorities at the national level."
Meanwhile, the qualitative and quantitative indicators show that migration to the SEPA credit transfer (SCT) scheme seems to be progressing well.
