CapGemini, RBS amd EFNA’s 2012 World Payments Report disclosed that over 4,500 European banks – representing collectively 95% of the volume of payments in Europe – are ready for SEPA credit transfers. Nonetheless, only 27% of payments were being done using SEPA instruments by March 2012. The numbers are even lower for SEPA direct debits, which have only account for 0,4% of payments, despite over 4,000 payments service providers accepting them.
The report argues that the main reasons for this delayed adoption are: the lack of deadline for the adoption in the early years of the initiative, confusion regarding the interpretation of the regulations, slow adoption by banks, and companies’ concerns regarding their client’s own reachability through SEPA direct debits and lack of help from their own banks. It seems that for companies, SEPA is too big of an undertaking and requires a lot of planning and technical expertise to fully understand the regulation.
In order to see widespread adoption the European Commission and banks will need to convince companies that there really is an advantage to adopting SEPA and create a cohesive and understandable roadmap for them to follow.
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