SEPA overview

Understanding the impact of SEPA

The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) initiative was introduced by the European Commission with the aim of integrating various national euro credit transfer and direct debit schemes into a single set of euro payment schemes. It impacts 32 countries in Europe, including non-euro countries.

SEPA is designed to remove barriers to cross-border trading, enabling companies to conduct business more effectively within and among countries covered by SEPA. Its simplification of payment processes will also create opportunities for them to significantly improve their cash and collections management.

The new SEPA schemes bring significant changes to payments processing. Most notably corporations, rather than banks, will now be responsible for the management of direct debits and the creditor-driven-mandate-flow (CMF).

February 1, 2014 is the SEPA compliance deadline set for all eurozone countries (17 in total). These countries must begin using the new schemes for SEPA Credit Transfers (SCT) and SEPA Direct Debits (SDD) on that date. For non-euro countries, the compliance deadline is October 31, 2016.

The time to act is now.

Failure to comply will prevent you from receiving payments and impose the risk of fines. CGI’s SEPA experts can help. We offer a broad range of SEPA services to both corporations and banks designed not only to meet your regulatory obligations but to turn SEPA compliance into competitive advantage.

For more information, visit our SEPA resources page.