mr president sepa is a commendable initiative that will undoubtedly be of great benefit in improving the efficiency of cross-border payments and turning the fragmented national markets for euro payments into a single domestic one by enabling customers to make cashless euro payments to anyone located anywhere in the area using a single bank account and a single set of payment instruments
another major benefit will result from the reduction of the overall costs to the european economy of moving capital around the region which is estimated today at two to three per cent of the total gross domestic product
we must remember that the end goal of sepa was to create a truly domestic payments environment all around europe and it is understandable that achieving such an ambitious goal is by no means easy especially when considering the unfortunate necessity of finding compromises between the often conflicting interests of the pan-european banking community
the economic crisis has only hindered the process of implementing sepa standards this is a costly process and the banks have understandably had other more urgent priorities in recent times
an analysis of the current situation should be carried out and i think a realistic timetable set as soon as possible
it is now essential that a legally binding deadline for migration to the use of sepa instruments be established as my colleague mr karas has just said
it is unacceptable that to date there is no concrete schedule in place
the notion that domestic standards should be allowed to run in parallel with sepa is inefficient and counterproductive
i therefore call on you commissioner and the commission to bring certainty to this already fragile sector and ensure that a legally binding end date for migration to sepa instruments is finally set
