Citi’s Global Transaction Services (GTS) business has adopted the banking industry’s new single euro payments area (SEPA) Direct Debit (SDD) scheme and claims to be the first bank to send a direct debit transaction via the SEPA scheme.
Citi customers will now be able to access the first pan-European euro direct debit scheme in all eligible markets where Citi has a presence. Citi will be reachable as a debtor bank for both Core and business-to-business (B2B) schemes in all of its 22 countries within the SEPA area. SDD collections will be offered to creditor customers in nine markets initially, with a plan to roll out the capability to all the 22 markets by mid-2010.
Karin Flinspach, head of receivables for Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA), Citi, said: “As an industry leader and participant, we feel that it is vital that we support this scheme and truly believe in the value of SDD. We will continue to work closely with our customers to help them to achieve the many advantages possible as a result of this new scheme. Citi is committed to playing an active role in delivering the SDD proposition. It also seeks to influence future market developments by having ongoing enrolling conversations with our clients and providing their views and feedback to the industry relevant forums and commissions where Citi is a full member and actively leading discussions.”