À quoi correspond SEPA ?
SEPA est l’acronyme mis pour Single Euro Payments Area ou espace unique de paiements en euros. Ce projet trouve son origine dans l’idée d’un espace unique de paiements où citoyens, entreprises et autres acteurs économiques pourront effectuer et recevoir des paiements en euros, au sein de l’Europe, à l’intérieur ou à l’extérieur de leurs frontières nationales, aux mêmes conditions et en ayant les mêmes droits et obligations, quel que soit l’endroit où ils se trouvent. Il ne doit par conséquent plus exister de différence entre paiements nationaux et paiements transfrontaliers intra-européens : tous les paiements en euros seront, par essence, des paiements intérieurs. Au plan géographique, SEPA ne se limite pas aux frontières de la zone euro, mais inclut également l’ensemble de l’Espace économique européen (27 États membres de l’UE, Islande, Liechtenstein, Norvège) et la Suisse.
Les principales parties prenantes
Au niveau européen, la mise en œuvre du chantier SEPA repose sur trois piliers. Avec la Directive sur les Services de Paiements, la Commission européenne a défini le cadre juridique pour la mise en œuvre de SEPA. Les États membres ont transposé cette directive en droit national le 1er novembre 2009.
La Banque centrale européenne (BCE) est chargée de suivre la mise en place et la conception de SEPA. Elle assure la promotion active de l’harmonisation des paiements en Europe. Pour finir, le Conseil européen des paiements fixe les politiques, normes et règles applicables aux entreprises.
Au niveau national, les gouvernements, banques centrales et associations bancaires s’occupent de la conception et de la mise à exécution, ainsi que de la mise en œuvre et de la migration vers SEPA.
(Source: EPC)
Au Luxembourg, l’ABBL agit en tant que National Adherence Support Organisation (NASO) ou organisme d’accompagnement autour de l’adhésion nationale. En tant que NASO, l’ABBL soutient les banques luxembourgeoises dans leur démarche de migration vers des systèmes de paiement qui soient compatibles avec le SEPA. L’ABBL a également mis en place le Luxembourg Interbank SEPA Agreement (LUISA). Les membres de la communauté bancaire luxembourgeoise ont signé ce contrat qui énonce formellement l’engagement des banques et établissements participants à soutenir activement et mettre en place des services SEPA. L’ABBL représente aussi officiellement la communauté bancaire luxembourgeoise auprès du European Payments Council (EPC).
Instruments de paiement SEPA
Le SEPA concerne trois principaux instruments de paiement :
- Virement SEPA
- Domiciliation SEPA
- Carte de paiement SEPA
Ces nouveaux instruments de paiement SEPA remplaceront les instruments de paiements nationaux actuels au terme d’une période de transition au cours de laquelle les nouveaux instruments SEPA cohabiteront avec les instruments actuels.
Le dispositif de virement SEPA fixe les normes communes qui s’appliquent aux transferts interbancaires. Il précise le format de message utilisé entre banques (messages SWIFT au format XML), les codes standard permettant d’identifier le bénéficiaire et la banque (codes IBAN et BIC) ainsi que l’ensemble des informations qu’un message peut contenir. En fait, les clients luxembourgeois utilisent déjà les codes IBAN et BIC depuis 2002. Le 28 janvier 2008, le virement européen SEPA a été le premier instrument SEPA à entrer en service.
La Domiciliation SEPA prévoit l’utilisation des mêmes formats de message et des mêmes normes d’encodage que ceux utilisés pour les transferts interbancaires. Point très important, le débiteur remet désormais son mandat directement au créancier afin de débiter son compte (et non plus à la banque du débiteur comme c’était le cas jusqu’à présent au Luxembourg).
En ce qui concerne les cartes de paiement de type SEPA, leur fonctionnement sera très similaire à celui des systèmes de paiement par cartes de débit existant à l’heure actuelle au niveau national, à cette exception près qu’elles pourront être utilisées pour réaliser des paiements dans l’ensemble de l’espace SEPA aux mêmes conditions que dans le pays d’origine du détenteur de la carte.
Normes & Standards
SEPA est un projet européen qui utilise un certain nombre de normes et standards techniques et technologiques basés principalement sur les normes ISO.
Les transferts interbancaires réalisés dans le cadre des opérations de virements ou de domiciliations, se font aux travers de messages au format XML, basés sur le standard ISO20022 et plus particulièrement sur la norme UNIFI (UNIversal Financial Industry).
La norme UNIFI vise à standardiser de bout en bout le cycle de vie des paiements et du "clearing and settlement" pour les marchés financiers. Ces standards couvrent les flux de messages relatifs à l’initiation du paiement, au rejet, au retour et au remboursement.
Ces standards sont d’application dans le domaine interbancaire.
Dans le cadre de SEPA, l’EPC recommande aux banques de promouvoir ces mêmes standards dans le domaine "Corporate to Bank (C2B)".
Domaine interbancaire :
Structure XML ISO20022 des messages et flux lors d’un « Credit Transfert » ou d’un « Direct Debit » - B2B
Domaine C2B :
La norme ci-dessous n’est pas obligatoire dans le domaine C2B et est laissée à la libre appréciation de chaque communauté bancaire.
Structure XML ISO20022 et flux des messages d’initiation d’un « Credit Transfert » ou d’un « Direct Debit » - C2B
L’autre domaine de standardisation concerne la structure des numéros de compte au format IBAN.
Le Luxembourg a adopté l’IBAN depuis 2002, contrairement à de nombreux autres pays pour lesquels cette adoption est une des pierres d’achoppement de la migration SEPA.
IBAN :
- Norme ISO13616 de définition du format IBAN
- Définition du format des numéros de compte IBAN, au Luxembourg
Le domaine des cartes de paiement a adopté la norme EMV comme standard minimum. Les spécifications y relatives sont disponibles ici.
SEPA Credit Transfer Scheme
4458 banks have now adhered to the SCT Scheme which went live on 28 January 2008.
The SEPA Credit Transfer Scheme enables payment service providers to offer a core and basic credit transfer service throughout SEPA, whether for single or bulk payments. The scheme's standards facilitate payment initiation, processing and reconciliation based on straight-through-processing (STP). The scope is limited to payments in euro within SEPA countries. The credit institutions executing the credit transfer must be scheme participants; that is, both must have formally adhered to the SEPA Credit Transfer Scheme. There is no cap on the amount of a payment carried out under the scheme.
The SEPA Credit Transfer Scheme Rulebook and the accompanying Implementation Guidelines are the definitive sources of information regarding the rules and obligations of the Scheme. In addition, a document entitled "Shortcut to the SEPA Credit Transfer Scheme" is available which provides basic information on the characteristics and benefits of the SCT Scheme (see below)
SEPA Direct Debit Scheme
2831 Banks have now adhered to the SDD Core Scheme which went live on 2 November 2009
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2831 Banks have now adhered to the SDD Core Scheme which went live on 2 November 2009
The SEPA Direct Debit Schemes create, for the first time, a payment instrument that can be used for both national and cross-border euro direct debits throughout the SEPA area.
In November 2009, the EPC successfully launched the SEPA Core Direct Debit Scheme and the SEPA Business to Business Direct Debit Scheme. As of this date, banks throughout SEPA are gradually starting to deliver SEPA Direct Debit services to their customers. All branches of banks in the euro area must be reachable for SEPA Core Direct Debit by 1 November 2010 as mandated by the EU Regulation on cross-border payments in the Community. On the launch date, 2607 banks representing about 70 per cent of SEPA payment volumes signed up to the new schemes; of those, 2366 banks offered both SDD Core and SDD B2B services.
The SDD Core Scheme in a Nutshell
The SEPA Core Direct Debit Scheme - like any other direct debit scheme - is based on the following concept: "I request money from someone else, with their pre-approval, and credit it to myself".
The SEPA Core Direct Debit Scheme applies to transactions in euro. The debtor and creditor must each hold an account with a credit institution located within SEPA. The payment service providers executing the direct debit transaction must be scheme participants; that is, both must have formally adhered to the SEPA Direct Debit Scheme. The Scheme may be used for single (one-off) or recurrent direct debit collections; the amounts are not limited.
The SEPA Business to Business Direct Debit Scheme
The SEPA Business to Business Direct Debit Scheme (B2B) serves as the basis for the development of specific direct debit products and services that allow business customers in the role of debtors (payers) to make payments by direct debit as part of their business transactions.
The most important differences between the SEPA Core Direct Debit Scheme and the SEPA Business to Business Direct Debit Scheme are:
• In the B2B Scheme the debtor is not entitled to obtain a refund of an authorised transaction.
• The B2B Scheme requires debtor banks to ensure that the collection is authorised by checking the collection against mandate information; debtor banks and debtors are required to agree on the verification to be performed for each direct debit.
• A debtor bank cannot offer the B2B Scheme to a debtor who is a "consumer" under the law of the country where that debtor bank is providing the payment services.
• Responding to the specific needs of the business community, the B2B Scheme offers a significantly shorter timeline for presenting direct debits and reduces the return period.
SEPA Cash
The introduction of euro bank notes and coins in January 2002 was a successful operation and one step towards increased European financial integration. Consumers continue to have a great affection for cash because it is real, instantaneous and apparantly free.
However, cash payments are costly for society: In 2008, the total cost of distributing, managing, handling, processing and recycling cash and of accepting cash payments was €84 billion; equivalent to 0.60% of Europe's GDP or €130 per person.*
Various players in the payments market are therefore pondering means to incentivise increased use of electronic payment instruments, while reducing the costs of wholesale cash distribution.
Single Euro Cash Area (SECA)
The current landscape for the distribution of cash is characterised by multiple national infrastructures each organised at a national level and based on different business models. This lack of harmonisation, common approach and best practice increases the cost of cash processing and creates many inefficiencies across the euro zone. For retail cash, banks, merchants, public authorities and transport organisations are all finding it difficult to handle any additional volume of cash.
Given this background, the EPC believes that actions by all stakeholders within the euro area could contribute to reduce the high cost of processing and handling cash. To this end, it has been agreed to create the Single Euro Cash Area (SECA).
The plans for the SECA have been developed in close consultation with the Eurosystem Banknote Committee, banks and other key players. The objective of SECA is to create, with the Eurosytem, a level playing field whereby the basic cash functions performed by each of the National Central Banks (NCBs) in the euro area are interchangeable, e.g. there is a common level of service and common processes are followed by all euro area NCBs.
SECA will support one major goal of the SEPA initiative: encouraging consumers and merchants to migrate from cash to payment cards and other electronic payment instruments.
Improving Cash Processing
In addition, the EPC developed recommendations with a view to creating a common euro-wide infrastructure for wholesale cash based on the following principles:
• The development of common security requirements for euro note transportation, including standards for bank note neutralisation systems.
• The identification of best practice standards for coin and banknote packaging including bundle types (content, single or multiple denomination countries, packaging and procedures for returning counterfeits and stained banknotes).
These standards should also include harmonisation of processes across national markets and banknote standard packages compatible with cash degradation systems.
SEPA Cards
The aim of creating a SEPA for Cards is to enable European customers (card-holders and merchants) to use general purpose cards to make and receive payments and withdraw cash in euro throughout the SEPA area with the same ease and convenience as they do in their home country.
European consumers should benefit from a wider acceptance of their cards within SEPA and more choice of card products than before.
European merchants should benefit from a more competitive acquiring market, and be able to choose which card schemes to accept and from which acquirer (i.e. a bank that services card-accepting merchants).
Documents de référence
SEPA Migration Consultation (Juillet 2010) - Comments
Working Paper on SEPA Migration End-Date (Juin 2010)
Présentations sur les derniers développements de SEPA (Mai 2010)
SEPA Migration End Date Discussion Paper (Mars 2010)
Rapport d'avancement 2009 (Décembre 2009)
Banques luxembourgeoises ayant adhérées au SEPA Credit Transfert
Situation au 09/07/2010
- ABN AMRO (Luxembourg) SA
- BANCA POPOLARE DELL'EMILIA ROMAGNA (EUROPE) INTERNATIONAL S.A.
- BANCO ITAU EUROPA LUXEMBOURG S.A.
- BANK OF CHINA LIMITED, Luxembourg Branch
- BANQUE BCP, S.A.
- Banque Carnegie Luxembourg S.A.
- BANQUE DE LUXEMBOURG S.A.
- BANQUE DELEN LUXEMBOURG
- BANQUE ET CAISSE D'EPARGNE DE L'ETAT LUXEMBOURG
- BANQUE LBLUX S.A.
- BANQUE PRIVEE EDMOND DE ROTHSCHILD EUROPE
- Banque Raiffeisen S.C.
- BGL BNP Paribas
- BNP PARIBAS LUXEMBOURG SA
- BSI LUXEMBOURG S.A.
- CACEIS Bank Luxembourg
- COMMERZBANK INTERNATIONAL S.A.
- Compagnie de Banque PrivÈe SA
- CREDEM INTERNATIONAL (LUX) S.A.
- CREDIT AGRICOLE LUXEMBOURG
- CREDIT SUISSE (LUXEMBOURG) S.A., PRIVATE BANKING
- DANSKE BANK INTERNATIONAL S.A.
- DEUTSCHE BANK LUXEMBOURG S.A.
- Deutsche Postbank International S.A.
- DEXIA BANQUE INTERNATIONALE A LUXEMBOURG S.A.
- DEXIA LDG BANQUE S.A.
- DZ BANK INTERNATIONAL S.A.
- EAST-WEST UNITED BANK S.A.
- EFG PRIVATE BANK (LUXEMBOURG) S.A.
- ENTREPRISE DES POSTES ET TELECOMMUNICATIONS
- HAUCK UND AUFHAEUSER BANQUIERS LUXEMBOURG S.A.
- HSBC PRIVATE BANK (LUXEMBOURG) S.A.
- HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt (International) S.A.,
- HSH NORDBANK PRIVATE BANKING S.A.
- HSH NORDBANK SECURITIES S.A.
- ING Luxembourg S.A.
- KREDIETBANK S.A. LUXEMBOURGEOISE
- Nikko Bank (Luxembourg) S.A.
- NORD EUROPE PRIVATE BANK
- Norddeutsche Landesbank Luxembourg S.A.
- Pictet et Cie (Europe) S.A.
- RBC DEXIA INVESTOR SERVICES BANK S.A.
- RBS Global Banking (Luxembourg) SA
- SAL. OPPENHEIM JR. & CIE. S.C.A.
- SKANDINAVISKA ENSKILDA BANKEN S.A.
- SociÈtÈ EuropÈenne de Banque S.A.
- SOCIETE GENERALE BANK AND TRUST S.A.
- SVENSKA HANDELSBANKEN S.A.
- SWEDBANK S.A.
- UBI Banca International S.A.
- UBS LUXEMBOURG S.A.
- UNICREDIT INTERNATIONAL BANK (LUXEMBOURG) S.A.
- Van Lanschot Bankiers (Luxembourg) S.A.
Banques luxembourgeoises ayant adhérées au Core SEPA Direct Debit
Situation au 09/07/2010
- BGL BNP Paribas
- DEKABANK DEUTSCHE GIROZENTRALE LUXEMBOURG S.A.
- DEXIA BANQUE INTERNATIONALE A LUXEMBOURG S.A.
- ING Luxembourg S.A.
- RBS Global Banking (Luxembourg) SA
- SociÈtÈ EuropÈenne de Banque S.A.
- UBI Banca International S.A.
Banques luxembourgeoises ayant adhérées au B2B SEPA Direct Debit
Situation au 09/07/2010
- DEKABANK DEUTSCHE GIROZENTRALE LUXEMBOURG S.A.
- ING Luxembourg S.A.
- UBI Banca International S.A.
Articles
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17/08/2010
The ABBL and Ineum Consulting have updated their Guide for Payment Services Providers, "The Transposition of the PSD - Payment Services Directive in Luxembourg". Version 1.3 of the Guide takes into account the recent modification of the European Commission's transposition plans. -
17/08/2010
“The Luxembourg SEPA Implementation and Migration plan“ details the Luxembourg banking community’s migration plan towards SEPA. -
03/08/2010
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19/07/2010
This edition focuses on the Commission services’ Working Paper “SEPA Migration End-Date” published in June 2010. The paper outlines a forthcoming proposal for a Regulation or Directive establishing end dates for compliance of euro payment schemes with “essential requirements”. Contrary to its misleading title, this paper reflects political pretence rather than a concept for regulatory action that would ensure migration to SEPA as requested by the European Parliament, the ECOFIN and the European Central Bank. EU legislation based on the Commission services’ current considerations would derail the entire SEPA project and obliterate the benefits for bank customers associated with SEPA. -
16/07/2010
On 13 July 2010, the Payment Services Directive went live in Greece. The Greek law for the implementation of PSD was finally voted and published in the Greek Government Gazette on 13.7.2010 (issue A no 113/13.7.2010). -
10/06/2010
On 7 June 2010 the recently created SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) Council met for the first time, taking a major step forward in strengthening the governance of the SEPA project at European level. The meeting brought together top-level representatives from both the demand and supply sides of the European payments market, under the co-chairmanship of the European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB), the two institutions that have led the creation of this new body. The main issues discussed were the need and conditions to establish (a) migration end-date(s) for SEPA and the future of a SEPA for payment cards. -
26/05/2010
SEPA will become a reality when a critical mass of transactions has migrated from national legacy payment systems to the new SEPA payment instruments. This goal can only be achieved if major players in the payments environment such as public administrations become dedicated SEPA customers. To facilitate SEPA implementation by public entities the EPC released the publication "SEPA for the Public Sector". This publication is now available in all EU languages courtesy of the European Central Bank in cooperation with EU national central banks. -
11/03/2010
The European Payments Council (EPC) is currently looking for a (m/f) Secretary General. The position is based in Brussels. -
03/02/2010
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02/12/2009
L’entrée en vigueur au Luxembourg de la nouvelle directive européenne relative aux services de paiement, la «Payments Services Directive», CETREL lance une nouvelle prestation SEPA pour le marché luxembourgeois et européen en collaboration avec SIX Group et la SECB Swiss Euro Clearing Bank. Cette offre s’adresse aux établissements financiers au Luxembourg et dans les 31 autres pays de l’espace unique de paiement en euros (SEPA) qui souhaitent permettre à leur clientèle d’effectuer des domiciliations en euros normalisées dans toute l’Europe.


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