SEPA: Europe stalls in rush to Sepa

As the cut-off date looms for Sepa compliance, there is growing acceptance that the deadline may be more flexible than at first appeared, writes Ian Campbell.

Tough market conditions and lack of political will suggest that many countries will not be fully Sepa complaint by the February 1 deadline when the existing Electronic Money Transfer System (EMTS) is due to be retired and replaced with Sepa. Proposed legal penalties are already in place in some countries for non-Sepa compliance - including Ireland - but there is growing speculation that each nation's central banking body will announce plans to allow ...