Corporates Still Lagging as SEPA Migration Deadline Approaches
European corporates continue to underestimate the work involved in complying with new single euro payments area (SEPA) regulations, which become mandatory on 1 February 2014. With the deadline fast approaching, an interactive webinar and survey jointly presented by cloud-based software supplier AccessPay, SWIFT and sharedservicelink.com suggests that most European firms face a lot of hard work to complete their migration on time.
According to AccessPay, major findings of its interactive survey include:
The online poll was conducted on 30 January and the 200 participants included chief financial officers (CFOs), finance directors (FDs), analysts and finance managers in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Finland and Sweden. AccessPay said that the companies represented ranged from mid-sized businesses to Fotunre 500 companies; “all of which have some sort of operations in the EU and will be affected by SEPA.”
Ali Moiyed, chief executive officer (CEO) at AccessPay, commented: “SEPA offers many benefits for corporates – not simply through payment harmonisation, but by facilitating lower transaction costs, simplified banking and the chance to cost-effectively target new territories; but reaping those benefits depends on a robust and timely SEPA migration plan.”