SEPA The Single Euro Payments Area January 2008

SEPA Single Euro Payments Area or Single European Payments Area *) A single market for payment transactions encompassing 31 countries A joint project of European banks, national central banks, the European Central Bank and the European Commission *) EU countries : The Netherlands, Belgium, Bulgaria, Spain, Ireland, the UK, Italy, Austria, Greece, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Poland, France, Romania, Sweden, Germany, Slovakia, Slovenia, Finland, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Estonia. Other EEA countries: Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway as well as Switzerland

THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD The services of the Single Euro Payments Area will be launched gradually Banks will decide for themselves how to offer the services of the Single Euro Payments Area to their customers Banks will try to ensure the maintenance of the present level of service during the transitional period

THE SCOPE OF SEPA Banks operating in Finland will offer their customers SEPA services in stages starting at the beginning of 2008: SEPA bank transfer SEPA payment card And later SEPA direct debit

BANK TRANSFER SEPA bank transfer will be available from 28 January 2008 A uniform way of making bank transfers in the SEPA area The standard of interbank payment transactions will be UNIFI (ISO 20022)*) XML; also recommended between banks and companies The compulsory data needed to make a payment transaction will be the IBAN international bank account number **) and the BIC code ***) of the bank of the payment recipient The principles and guidelines will be defined by the joint rules of European banks *) **) IBAN = International Bank Account Number ***) BIC = Bank Identifier Code (= SWIFT Code)

PAYMENT CARD The goal is that SEPA-compatible payment cards can be used to make payments in the same way throughout the entire SEPA area The card is equipped with an EMV chip*). Card payments are accepted against PIN code, not signature In practice, the SEPA compatible cards in Finland are Visa, MasterCard and Visa Electron *) EMV = Eurocard MasterCard Visa, a payment standard developed by MasterCardin and Visa

DIRECT DEBITING SEPA direct debit will be launched in late 2008 SEPA direct debiting is different from the present Finnish direct debiting In Finland, the belief is that automatic payment of e-invoicing will eventually replace direct debiting

THE EFFECTS OF SEPA The biggest impact concerns intermediation of interbank transactions – a big investment There will be changes in national banking and payment practices Additional services that supplement basic services can be implemented separately by each bank At a general level, the differentiation of the level of service is possible separately for each country and each bank

CONSEQUENCES FOR BUSINESSES SEPA will enable large companies in particular to increase efficiency and achieve cost savings as a result of the rationalisation of payment transactions: it will be possible to handle payment transactions in the entire SEPA area through one bank account using the same standards and systems The XML standard, IBAN and BIC used in payment transactions require changes in the financial administration systems and payment transaction systems of companies, in e.g. accounts payable and receivable SEPA cards require service companies and commerce to use payment terminals and payment terminal software that accept EMV cards and agreements on the intermediation of payment transactions

CONSEQUENCES FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED COMPANIES It will be possible to handle payment transactions in the entire SEPA area through one bank account using the same standards and systems Impact on financial administration of companies: Adoption of IBAN and BIC SEPA cards require service companies and commerce to use payment terminals and payment terminal software that accept EMV cards and agreements on the intermediation of payment transactions

CONSEQUENCES FOR CONSUMERS The most visible consequence for consumers is the introduction of chip-equipped SEPA payment cards Payment using a card will change: instead of the signing of a receipt a payment is accepted by typing in an identification code The introduction of IBAN in domestic payments will be visible to consumers as: learning a new format account number and notification of remitters In future, a consumer can pay bills in all countries in the SEPA area the same way as domestically A consumer can use his or her card to pay for purchases in every country in the SEPA area the same way as domestically