The European Central Bank has admitted that the migration to SEPA credit transfer and SEPA direct debit won’t be completed as originally scheduled and has asked the European Commission (EC) to slightly slip back the deadline.
Says the central bank: “Taking into consideration the payment industry’s need for sufficiently long lead times, the ECB suggests setting concrete dates, which could preferably be at the end of January 2013 for credit transfers and the end of January 2014 for direct debits.”
The ECB remains supportive of the European Commission’s push for binding regulation, warning that a failure to act could wreck the entire project: “A Union act of general application, binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States, is…considered essential for successful migration to Sepa, as the project would otherwise face a serious risk of failure.”
The central bank and the regulators have decided to be more involved in the migration process by proposing binding regulations in member countries regarding the migration. Last month, the EC publically criticized the banking industry for failing to make enough progress in the process.
Read more about the original story at Finextra here: http://www.finextra.com/News/Fullstory.aspx?newsitemid=22449
