The end date for the application of the Payment Service Directive (PSD) just expired on November 2nd. The transposition of PSD into country legislation was presented as the last hurdle before the full deployment of SEPA Direct Debit (SDD).
The European Payments Council (EPC) keeps on confirming a successful kick-off, where to-date 2,607 banks, representing about 70 per cent of SEPA payment volumes, have signed up to the new schemes of the SDD services.
There are no evident signs of significant uptake by banks, least by corporates.
What we perceive from banks, in reality, is an investment strategy focused on applying new direct debit schemes at local level, with a country-by-country piecemeal approach.
This is why I think we should refer to an ‘sDD’ implementation.
A small ‘s’, because in reality the spirit of SEPA is being betrayed, and a big ‘DD’, because each bank is looking at its own backyard and developing ad-hoc DD schemes.
Bottom line for banks
Get involved with corporate representative bodies (e.g., EACT- European Association of Corporate Treasurers) to guide your investment strategy and select key countries.
Bottom line for corporates
Get your banks explain in practical terms how they intend to deploy their SDD (i.e., ‘Big S’) services.
Question to the reader
Is this an area that requires further investigation?
Read Celent's existing research reports.
