European Union: The Crown Dependencies Join The Single European Payments Area

The European Payments Council (EPC) has announced that the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey has become part of the geographical scope of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) schemes from 1 May 2016.

WHAT IS SEPA?

The European Union (EU) established SEPA with the intention of developing EU-wide payment services with open, common payment standards, rules and practices and integrated payment processing. The aim is to provide citizens and businesses with secure, competitively priced, user-friendly and reliable payment services in euros, applying within and across national boundaries.  

Rulebooks set out rules and technical standards for the execution of SEPA payment transactions, so that there should be a common understanding on how to move funds from account A to account B within SEPA.

IMPLEMENTATION

To become part of SEPA, banks will need to individually apply to the EPC and complete their own formalities. For the purposes of the legislation:

• a "SEPA participant" is a body corporate that is recognised by the EPC as satisfying the eligibility criteria in the SEPA Credit Transfer Scheme Rulebook and adheres to the Rulebook;
• a "SEPA applicant" is not a SEPA participant but has made an application to the EPC to become a SEPA participant; and
• a "SEPA payment transaction" is a payment transaction using the SEPA Credit Transfer Scheme or the SEPA Direct Debit Scheme.

The Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey each introduced secondary legislation in the second half of 2015 to provide for the implementation of SEPA. The relevant legislation in each jurisdiction applies provisions of the EU regulations establishing SEPA to apply technical and business requirements for credit transfers and direct debits in euro to the Crown Dependencies. These provisions will only have effect in respect of any payment transaction using the SEPA Credit Transfer Scheme or the SEPA Direct Debit Scheme.

In the Isle of Man the relevant legislation is the European Union (Credit Transfers and Direct Debits in Euro) Order 2015, in Jersey it is the EU Legislation (Payment Services – SEPA) (Jersey) Regulations 2015 and in Guernsey the Single Euro Payments Area (Guernsey) Ordinance, 2016.

GOOD NEWS FOR CUSTOMERS

Banks in the Crown Dependencies now have the opportunity to join the SEPA Credit Transfer and Direct Debit Schemes so it is to be hoped that customers soon enjoy consistent standards when making payments across Europe.