Switzerland's Progress on SEPA
In April, the European authorities added the final legislative touches to the Europe-wide implementation of the single euro payments area (SEPA) by passing the Payment Services Directive (PSD). This makes the vision of SEPA more attainable and preparation for SEPA is running at full speed in Switzerland.
The regulatory policy decision was made this year to accept Switzerland into the circle of SEPA member countries. For the Swiss financial centre, it was already evident at that time that participation by the Swiss banking community was both commercially desirable and economically sensible. The latest findings have shown that the required legal foundations for it are in place as well.
Starting on 1 January 2008, credit transfers and, presumably, direct debits will be possible in accordance with the standardized SEPA processes obligatory for all participants (EU/EEA countries and Switzerland). In other words, the participating Swiss financial institutions will also have to respect the level playing field in the eurozone for their euro payment processing. Beyond that, they are tied to the relevant European Payments Council (EPC) rulebooks: the SEPA Credit Transfer Scheme Rulebook and the SEPA Direct Debit Scheme Rulebook.
Each financial institution is required to sign an adherence agreement, thus committing to the EPC that it will follow the SEPA regulations unconditionally. Furthermore, the EPC requires a legal opinion of each participant that confirms that the institution can indeed meet the requirements of the SEPA schemes.
At the request of the Swiss financial centre, Swiss Interbank Clearing will support the financial institutions in these administrative questions and facilitate the registration process. Registration is presumed to start in September 2007.
Swiss Interbank Clearing, as the euroSIC system operator, and the SECB Swiss Euro Clearing Bank, as the manager, will offer the Swiss financial institutions SEPA-compatible payment services from a single source. In doing so, the primary focus is to make it as easy as possible for Swiss banking customers to receive and send SEPA payments and for the financial institutions to be able to process these transactions as simply and cost effectively as possible.
In this case, a step-by-step process is necessary. Starting on 1 January 2008, euroSIC participant banks are able to receive and send SEPA transfers, regardless of the type of link, be it via remoteGATE or other interfaces.
As of May 2008, euroSIC participants will be able to exchange XML messages according to the SEPA transfer protocol, again independent of which interfaces to euroSIC they are using.
In a third step, Swiss Interbank Clearing and SECB will make it possible for euroSIC participants to process SEPA compatible debits within the framework of the Swiss direct debit procedures LSV+ and BDD sometime in 2009.
The Payments Committee Switzerland (PaCoS) is the leading entity in Switzerland for issues related to SEPA integration. In addition to facilitating the national dialogue among the participating parties, it also co-ordinates the communication activities related to the introduction of SEPA standards.
At the Swiss Banking Operations Forum on 25 April 2007, attendees had the opportunity to obtain first-hand information about the topic ‘SEPA and Switzerland’. On 21 May, there was an information event where more than 100 interested payment traffic experts from all over Switzerland were able to delve into the subject. Future events of this type are scheduled on 13 June in Geneva and on 25 June in Lugano. The software providers have their own meetings, where will mostly focus on the technical challenges.
Over the next few months, detailed information about Swiss financial centre measures in reference to the SEPA participation will be added to the Swiss Interbank Clearing website and delivered via circular letters. During its next meeting in June, the Board of Directors of the Swiss Bankers Association will also address SEPA and develop recommendations for its member institutions.