SEPA Overview

The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) covers 31 countries across Europe. Banks within this region are changing the way they work to realise a shared vision of a euro currency area in which all payments are treated the same: where current differences between national and cross-border payments disappear. Consumers and businesses are now able to make payments, using a single bank account, in euros to anywhere within the SEPA as quickly, safely and inexpensively as a domestic payment.

SEPA services became available in January 2008 and by the end of 2010 most euro payment traffic, both national and cross-border, will flow through pan-European schemes. To make this vision reality, banks in the participating countries are having to adopt common payment instruments, standards and procedures. Infrastructures need to be compatible and their new processes must work within accepted timeframes.

VocaLink offers banks a single point of access to all the countries in the SEPA at low cost and with minimum change. The VocaLink SEPA solution simplifies the problem of achieving reach across the euro-zone, creates revenue opportunities to offset the necessary cost of change. Our value added services give banks a roadmap to revenue that will help banks differentiate themselves in the newly competitive landscape.