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SEPA was started as an initiative of the European banking industry, which established the European Payments Council (EPC) in 2002 as its coordination and decision-making body in issues related to payments. The EPC consists of European banks and banking associations, including the three European credit sector associations and the Euro Banking Association. With the transposition of the Payment Services Directive (PSD), membership has been extended to other payment service providers. The main purpose of the EPC is to support and promote the creation and development of SEPA. In order to do so, the EPC has drawn up rulebooks for the SEPA credit transfer and the SEPA direct debit schemes and frameworks for cards and infrastructures.
The European clearing and settlement industry provides the infrastructure needed for processing payment transactions and thus, it plays a key role in the success of SEPA. In order to ensure that they can process SEPA payments and that anyone in the area can be reached, the clearing and settlement infrastructures must comply with the rules defined by the EPC (namely the PE-ACH/CSM Framework). The European Automated Clearing House Association (EACHA), consisting of 22 European ACHs, developed a technical interoperability framework for infrastructures. The Eurosystem specified criteria for the SEPA-compliance of the clearing and settlement industry.
The EPC created the Cards Stakeholders Group (CSG) which brings together representatives of all relevant sectors including schemes, processors, vendors and retailers as well as banks. The aim is to achieve consensus on the standards needed to realise the vision of a SEPA for cards and to agree on timelines for their application. The CSG supports the EPC in the maintenance and enhancement of the SEPA Cards Standardisation Volume – Book of Requirements.
Different users have varying needs with regard to using SEPA. The users of payment products and services are often categorised as consumers, retailers, other small and medium-sized enterprises, large companies and public administrations. An increasing number of user groups contribute to the SEPA project via associations at the European level, for instance:
In many countries, the users are also involved in SEPA fora at national levels (About – Countries).
For user group-specific aspects of SEPA, see Impact.
The Eurosystem offers its firm support to the SEPA project, as it will contribute to the smooth operation of payment systems in euro. This is one of the tasks of the Eurosystem. It specifies and monitors the SEPA objectives in its SEPA progress reports.
The European Commission, in particular the DG Internal Market and Services and the DG Competition, strongly supports the development of SEPA, as it is an important step towards the creation of the Single Market. The European Commission – together with the European Parliament and the Council — has provided the necessary legal basis for SEPA. It monitors the migration progress to SEPA on an annual basis. The European Commission conducts surveys among public administrations about their preparedness and migration to SEPA. It provides an EU forum for national SEPA Coordination Committees.
SEPA business models need to be compatible with national and EU competition law. The European Commission intends to provide further clarity for long-term business models for SEPA direct debit schemes in line with EU competition law.
The ministries of finance support SEPA via the ECOFIN Council. Public administrations create high volumes of daily payment transactions. Therefore, their migration to SEPA contributes to reaching critical mass.
