Almost half of payment instruments to miss SEPA deadline

42 per cent of payments will not meet SEPA 2010 compliance deadline

Some 42 per cent of payment instruments will not be Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) compliant by the January 2010 deadline, according to the second World Payments Report.

The report carried out by Capgemini, ABN Amro and the European Financial Management and Marketing Association, focused on SEPA, revenue losses, current compliance, cards and cash evolution in Europe.

Countries surveyed were the UK, France, Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Germany. Sweden, Poland and Austria - not members of the Euro - were included because of the impact that SEPA will have on them

Although a large proportion of SEPA products are likely to be compliant during the period starting in January 2008, Bertrand Lavayssiére, managing director of global financial services for Capgemini says full compliancy requires a migration plan to which can solve national differences.

The report also found SEPA may reduce payment revenues by €18 – €29bn (48 – 62 per cent).

According to the study banks could boost transaction volumes at a higher growth rates than current ones and therefore increase revenues by €8bn (18 per cent) which will not outweigh revenue losses.

There are significant differences in non-cash usage between countries. Volumes are rising strongly in Spain, Netherlands and Sweden, and less in others. Yet not at the expense of cash volumes, which are still increasing in Europe.