EC consults on Sepa migration deadline

The EC says setting clear deadlines for the migration of legacy credit transfers and direct debits to Sepa would provide a signal that the process is irreversible and act as a "strong incentive" for both industry and users to speed up progress.

Charlie McCreevy, internal market and services commissioner, EC, says: "Significant progress has been made on the road to Sepa since 2002, but migration remains slow. We should therefore assess whether some deadlines should be defined for the migration to the new Sepa credit transfers and direct debits."

The commission has given interested parties until 3 August to provide opinions whether and how deadlines should be set.

In March ECB executive board member Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell called for a definitive date for migration from national systems, claiming that to run two schemes in parallel is inefficient.

At the time, over a year after its launch, the Sepa credit transfer scheme still only accounted for less than two per cent of total CT volume in the euro area.

Meanwhile, a November 2009 launch date has been set for the implementation of Sepa Direct debits, following a strong push by the ECB and the European Commission. However, French banks have pushed back the date for implementation by a year.