What does SEPA mean for you - as a company?
SEPA will change payments in Europe considerably and offer a number of advantages for companies. However, the conversion to SEPA will require certain technological and organisational changes.
Advantages
The standardisation of the payments market is to result in increased competition, price transparency, cost reduction and efficiency in payments. Mass payments by companies can be standardised further, allowing for incremental cost and time savings.
Today, numerous country-specific formats and clearing systems continue to tie down human resources across Europe. SEPA will harmonise tools, formats and rules for national and international payments. Fixed execution deadlines for payments made and received will enable a more effective liquidity planning and save costs. Moreover, standardised return processes and referencing are planned for the first time with a view to simplifying debit accounting. The option of handling payments through a single platform will also increase the process efficiency.
What can you do now?
Implications of the technological change
In the long term, SEPA means clear cost and time advantages for your business. In order to benefit from this advantage, your internal processes and data processing systems will require certain changes. These will include adjustments to your finance, receivables and cash management systems as well as a conversion to electronic account statements conforming to the new SEPA XML format.
Implications of the organisational changes
You can enter IBAN and BIC as future references in your master data. In addition, an examination of the account structure with regard to the future reduction of the correspondence bank relationships is recommended.
We will be glad to answer your questions in this respect. Do not hesitate to contact us!