Equens to Support Dutch Business Community in SEPA Migration
European payment processor Equens is to offer a number of services to the Dutch business community, in response to growing demand among businesses for support with the migration to SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) and the fast-approaching date for completion of 1 February 2014.
The latest
SEPA Monitor
survey results of the Dutch Central Bank show that many businesses have yet to choose how they will make the mandatory changes.
The new service
Zakelijk Betalen en Ontvangen
[Business Payments & Receipt] consists of three separate solutions that businesses can purchase either individually or as a package. The first of these services,
Transactie Aanlevering
[Transaction Delivery], enables businesses to send transactions to one or more banks via Equens.
Rekening- en Verwerkingsinformatie
[Account & Processing Information], the second of the services, complies with SEPA standards, and is on a par with the trusted VerwInfo report.
Equens said that the advantage of this is that businesses do not need to make any changes to their systems, and can continue using the same VerwInfo report they have become accustomed to for their internal processing and payments. This limits costs and simplifies migration. Now that the market-wide SEPA migration is nearing, demand for this service seems to be increasing. The third and final service is Formaat Conversie [Format Conversion]. With the introduction of this service, the current ClieOp format for transfers and debits will be converted to the new SEPA format, ‘pain’.
The launch dates for the three services will be announced shortly, and will coincide as closely as possible with the Netherlands’ National SEPA migration plan.
The launch comes as a report issued by the European Central Bank (ECB) suggested that many companies are waiting until the last minute to implement their migration to SEPA.
According to the
SEPA Migration Report
, most large corporates have already completed the planning phase and understand what SEPA means for them in practical terms. However, many organisations have postponed internal deadlines and some are waiting until the end of the year to implement. The ECB noted that waiting too long will expose corporates to “undue operational risks” that could ultimately cause “unexpected business impediments.”