SEPA - Single Euro Payments Area

European banks, the European Central Bank and the European Commission aim at creating an integrated payments area, known as the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). European Payments Council (EPC) is operating as a co-ordinator for the whole project.

The objective is to develop payment services that will be on a par with national payment services for the SEPA as a whole. Given major national differences in payment services, the establishment of a harmonised level of service throughout the area is a challenging undertaking. The goal, however, is to create a uniform basic service level for payments between banks. In addition to these basic services, banks will have the possibility of offering their customers various value-added services.