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The move towards a Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) is at the top of the agenda for banking technologists and strategists.
And with key compliance deadlines now looming there are significant opportunities for organizations that are prepared for this huge transition.
SEPA – the European financial infrastructure initiative that involves the creation of a system in which all electronic payments are considered domestic – will eliminate the difference between local and cross-border euro payments including credit transfers, direct debits and card payments.
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In the coming years SEPA will drive a large scale rationalisation and consolidation of payment processing with many banks in Europe. |
It will impact on how banks operate, with some deciding to outsource many tasks to a payments processing partner or a bureau to boost efficiency, but retaining a payments middle office layer on top. Institutions that take this approach could harness the cost efficiencies and expertise that a truly great pan-European outsource partner can deliver.
Others may choose to insource payment processing to create a strategic opportunity to grow their business. Here, their investment in compliance should provide the fl exibility to develop and offer value-added services to the banks that choose to use them to handle their payments processing.
Tieto believes that by outsourcing their interbank processing, banks can shift their investment focus from the back offi ce to the parts of their business that directly affect quality of service and customer experience.
Clearing and Settlement Mechanisms (CSMs) will also evolve with a range of fi rms competing to offer CSM services for SEPA payments. This marks a massive change for banks, which will be able to choose between CSMs to process domestic payments and will no longer be obliged to use their national Automated Clearing House (ACH).
Tieto helps you exploit SEPA
Tieto has enabled more than 100 Nordic banks to meet SEPA deadlines through the implementation of our Tieto Payment Suite. The system supports the two-way processing of SEPA credit transfers and enables the automatic receipt and processing of instructions from customer-to-bank (PAIN) and from bank-to-bank (PACS) exchanged under EBA/PSP regulations. The latest extensions of the solution support SEPA DD debtor bank and creditor bank processing that are fully compliant with the latest standards.
Tieto has the SEPA market fully covered with solutions for customers of all sizes including the enterprise version of the Tieto Payment Suite and Payment Suite eXpress.
And Tieto’s Payment Manager – a module of the Tieto Payment Suite – helps banks address their existing payments limitations by delivering new sources of revenue without the high price tag of re-engineering their payments back office. This component-based product comprises technology to support Straight Through Processing and financial and performance-related metrics to support the payments business, and also supports customer set-up and self-administration plus real-time access to payment events and track-and-trace options.
