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SEPA is a major project that needs clear and transparent governance arrangements involving all stakeholders (payment service providers, end-users and public authorities).
At the national level, most communities have set up this kind of forum in order to deal with the special features of each country (About: Countries).
At the European level, the following governance arrangements are of relevance for SEPA:
These SEPA-wide arrangements focus mainly on the dialogue between and with payment service providers. The involvement of end-users at the European level has thus far remained rather limited to the more technical dialogue between end-user groups and the EPC. The set-up of the SEPA Council aims to establish an adequate governance arrangement that involves all stakeholders at the European level. The European Central Bank and the European Commission will co-chair the SEPA Council.
The European Commission has provided the necessary legal basis for SEPA. It monitors the migration progress to SEPA on an annual basis. It provides an EU forum for national SEPA Coordination Committees.
The European Payments Council (EPC) was established in June 2002 and adopted its current governance structure in mid-2004. “Its purpose is to support and promote the creation of a Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA); a single harmonised, open and interoperable European ‘domestic’ payments market achieved through industry self-regulation.”
The EPC “defines common positions for core payment services within a competitive market place, provides strategic guidance for standardisation, formulates best practices and supports and monitors implementation of decisions taken. This is done in such a way that the payments industry can maintain self-regulation and meet regulators' and stakeholders' expectations as efficiently as possible.” The main decision making body of the EPC is its Plenary.
The EPC consists of European banks and banking associations, including the three European credit sector associations and the Euro Banking Association. Moreover, with the transposition of the Payment Services Directive, see Legal basis, membership has been extended to other payment service providers.
All SEPA countries are represented. The Eurosystem takes part in the meetings of the EPC and most of its working groups as an observer.
The COGEPS meetings serve as a discussion forum to exchange views between the banking industry and the Eurosystem on issues of common concern. The focus of the discussions is on strategic issues. The COGEPS was set up in June 2001. It addresses issues and developments in the field of payment systems and services which are relevant for the euro area banking industry and for the Eurosystem. This includes developments related to large-value as well as retail payment systems and services.
SEPA high-level meetings have been organised regularly by the ECB since 2005 as a means to foster the informal exchange of ideas and views on SEPA between high-level representatives of the financial industry and board members of Eurosystem central banks.
Owing to the informal character of the meetings, there are no meeting minutes.
In several reports, the Eurosystem has considered improvements to the overall governance of SEPA and also considered setting up a stakeholders’ forum (”SEPA Council”) in which both the demand and the supply side would participate.
In September 2009 the European Commission announced its intention to set up a new SEPA governance structure at the EU level in order to improve the governance of the whole SEPA project and to ensure the timely realisation of SEPA. This objective was fully supported by the Conclusions of the ECOFIN Council of 2 December 2009.
“[…] STRESSES the need for further improving the governance of the SEPA project and ENCOURAGES the Commission and the ECB, in close cooperation with all actors concerned by the SEPA project, especially users with high payment volumes such as public authorities, corporates and other large entities, to establish, as soon as possible and before mid-2010, a SEPA governance and monitoring structure at EU level bringing together the supply and demand sides on an equal footing under a neutral Chair.”
The creation of the SEPA Council was agreed upon by the European Commission and the Governing Council of the European Central Bank in March 2010, and is a joint initiative.
Both institutions co-chair this stakeholders’ forum, which aims to promote the realisation of an integrated euro retail payments market by ensuring the proper involvement of all parties and by fostering consensus on the next steps towards the realisation of SEPA. The first meeting took place on 7 June 2010.
SEPA Council: description and functioning
