Incentives needed to push SEPA implementation

BRUSSELS - The required amount of Single European Payment Area (SEPA) payment systems is unlikely to be in place by the end of 2011, unless regulators provide incentives to mobilise European public administrations and corporations to adopt them, says the third annual World Payments Report 2007(2) , published by Capgemini, ABN Amro and the European Financial Management & Marketing Association (EFMA).

The SEPA initiative - which comes into force for credit transfers from January 1, 2008, with critical mass being attained by 2010 - aims to harmonise national payment systems to provide an efficient and simple means for making cross-border credit transfers, direct debits, and credit and debit card payments in euros from any country in the EU.

The report, which considers world payments trends with a particular emphasis on SEPA, says that if the public sector contributed 29% of the required volumes