Now that the industry has (almost) completed Sepa – there is still plenty of work to be done. Investment has been made by both institutions and corporates to get up to speed and in-line with the new regulation – so what is next?
The official deadline has passed and we now look towards August 1 2014 as a revised deadline date - with three months to go, it’s a crucial period for corporates and institutions who are yet to comply with the regulation.
At the second EBADay Business Forum, we visited Brussels to discuss these issues. We were joined by the corporate treasurer of Greif, the multibillion dollar manufacturer of industrial packaging systems to get his valuable insights on the industry and his
relationship with banks.
A recurring theme of the discussion was how to make best use of the post-Sepa environment. Sepa isn’t all about compliance – it has operational advantages for the treasurer too. As Sepa aims to harmonise payments – can treasurers now centralise and standardise
their accounts payable/receivable processing?
Sepa also offers a cost-saving opportunity for treasurers – corporates can reduce payment fees and benefit from the standardised fees of cross-border payments.
Furthermore there was the discussion of investment in new hardware and maintenance of legacy hardware – how should institutions be managing those budgets? The 80/20 rule was used as an example. If 80% of an IT spend budget is focused on maintenance – and
20% on innovation – what would the industry look like if those figures were reversed?
Get an insight into all of these questions and their answers by watching our video piece of the second EBADay Business Forum from Brussels.