After lamenting the lowest common denominator approach taken by Sepa and the loss of functionality of its credit transfer and direct debit instruments compared to existing domestic instruments, corporates are taking the matters in their own hands.

Keen to avoid a “mini Sepa”, the French Association of Corporate Treasurers (AFTE) announced in its latest newsletter it had created a pan-European working group on the subject within the European Associations of Corporate Treasurers (EACT), which represents 4,600 companies in 17 countries.

The working group’s purpose is to study and propose “either a new product, or changes to the SCT or SDD, like an Additional Optional Service, in order to cover the needs that are necessary to all and not supported by current versions” of Sepa instruments.

The group includes representatives of all parties involved: corporates, public services, banks and consumers. The idea is to analyse all national instruments to be discontinued and see whether they have common characteristics to avoid the development of strictly national AOS.

According to AFTE, several countries, including Spain, Belgium and Italy, have already expressed interest.

Filed under: Corporate Banking, Payments, regulation