Single Euro Payments Area
In January this year the European Union officially launched a major
initiative to create the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).
SEPA aims to create a new single "domestic" market for euro payments
across the 31 country SEPA region (namely, the EU 27 Member States, plus
Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland), which eliminates
distinctions between cross-border and national transactions.
As a consequence, the face of the European payments industry is rapidly
changing, as competition increases and new innovative products come on
stream, helping consumers and merchants to make and receive payments
more efficiently, conveniently and securely.
In many respects, this represents the next logical step in the European
Union’s journey towards creating a fully integrated single market for
goods and services, by supporting its common currency (the euro) with
the creation of a single market for payment services.
The benefits for both consumers and merchants will be significant.
Consumers will be able to send and receive euro payments anywhere within
the SEPA region and will be able to manage their finances from a single
domestic euro account in their home country. This means, for example,
that they will be able to pay for services obtained in other countries,
such as paying for utility bills or maintenance on a property abroad,
without the inconvenience of opening a separate overseas account.
Merchants will also benefit as they will be able to accept cards issued
anywhere in the SEPA region. In addition, they will be able to operate
one single point-of-sale terminal capable of accepting all SEPA cards
and will be charged the same standard transaction fee for both domestic
and cross-border euro card transactions within the SEPA region.
Further details about SEPA can be found by visiting
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/payments/sepa/index_en.htm.
American Express and SEPA
American Express is fully committed to playing its part in helping to
ensure SEPA becomes a reality so that our Cardmembers and merchants can
benefit from a new single “domestic” market for payment services
throughout the SEPA region.
In fact, we have long operated our business in a manner consistent with
SEPA’s core principles, as our network is already fully integrated
across the SEPA region; we make no distinction between national and
cross-border payments; and there are no technical, legal, or commercial
barriers to card acceptance and card usage among the national markets on
the American Express network.
Underlining our commitment to SEPA, we have also pledged to meet several
additional objectives, including:
- Continuing to ensure
our cards are usable and interoperable across borders;
- Supporting the
development of common pan-European technical standards, for example,
point-of-sale interoperability and security;
- Issuing proprietary
EMV chip cards throughout Europe and continuing to enable EMV chip
card transactions across our network;
- Helping to establish a
European anti-fraud database designed to improve protection for
consumers and merchants;
- Continuing to ensure our standard merchant transaction pricing does
not distinguish between domestic and cross-border payments.
These represent just some
of the commitments contained in our "SEPA Declaration," which outlines
our framework and principles for supporting SEPA.
The creation of SEPA promises to bring huge benefits to consumers and
merchants alike.
Together with other key stakeholders, American Express will continue to
play a constructive role in helping to support the successful
implementation of SEPA.
