We are already a third of the way through the SEPA year and its time to review where the industry is with this project? The feedback I have had from a number of corporates across the EU is that SEPA has still to make any significant impact on them. Many
banks also appear reluctant to give SEPA the major thumbs up so far. So what's going wrong?
It appears that SEPA is suffering from its initial design faults as detailed in the whitepaper "SEPA against the tide"
and as predicted by many experts in the market. Of course the criteria to measure success are always difficult to gauge and no doubt there are people and organisations out there that will trumpet that SEPA is a raving success.
There has been no publication of accurate industry figures demonstrating the SEPA effects after implementation as against before, so we can only go by descriptions gained from people in the market.
It looks like that we may have to wait until this year is over before any real assessment can be made but I would be eager to hear from anyone that believes that SEPA has been an operational success or that it has attracted much in the way of new pricing
for customers or improved services.
When Direct Debits enter the SEPA world next year we can start to draw clearer conclusions of the overall success of this European finance industry project but to date the chances look slim for this project to have achieved anything more than a modest nod
followed by a knowing wink!
Do please join in this BLOG and state your experience to date, so as we may all get a clearer picture of the industries current SEPA position.