SEPA's Impact On You
SEPA will impact on virtually all forms of payment services. It will impact payment operations, payment infrastructures, payment systems, rights and obligations in relation to payments. This section attempts to describe the impacts on the various stakeholders.
The EU Commission originally foresaw a massive financial benefit to the business sector, in the range of €50bn-€100bn. It foresaw much of this benefit as coming in the form of a transfer from the bottom line of the banking industry to the bottom line of bank customers, and mostly to the business sector and the public sector. However, more recently, many commentators challenge the basis of calculation of this benefit, and suggest much lower benefits. This benefit may consist of:
- General reduction of bank charges as competition between banks intensifies. Banks across Europe will compete for the larger customers in the domestic market.
- Economies within companies who sell into multiple markets - they will more easily be able to source the financial services for such operations from a single financial services provider, and they will be better able to negotiate fees in that context
- Economies within the financial departments of businesses as standardized processes, file formats, etc. facilitate economies of scale