PROFESSIONAL ADVANTAGE NEWS
SEPA (Single European Payments Area)
In accordance with the SEPA (Single European Payments Area) initiative, pan-European payment instruments for credit transfers, were made available from January 2008, in addition to national ones.
In response to this Professional Advantage will release its first SEPA compliant format in January. This format is for Belgium Credit Transfers and, as per the guidelines issued by the Belgium financial sector federation FEBELFIN, enables payments via European credit transfers and generic credit transfers that are outside of Europe or do not qualify as SEPA compliant.
The format produces an XML message in the ISO20022 standard; this is the standard prescribed by the European Payments Council and will be implemented across Europe.
As soon as national implementation guides become available Professional Advantage will be adding SEPA formats to its bank format portfolio. The Netherlands format will be the next to be released and will be available in February.