The Single Euro Payments Area (Sepa) is due to go live Jan. 28, but a detached observer looking at implementation issues could be forgiven for thinking that it is years away. While time-to-market is important, unrealistic deadlines don't benefit anyone, and Sepa seems to have been thrust upon the industry before it is ready.
Sepa is the industry's response to the European Commission's Payments Services Directive (PSD), which will be implemented by November 2009, resulting in a single payment system for cross-border, non-cash payments across the European economic arena. When Sepa migration is completed, by year-end 2010, there will be a new category of non-bank payments--and a legal framework for a single, European Union-wide market for payments.
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