The European Commission announced on January 9^th that it has extended the lead-in period for the introduction of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) for a further six months to ensure minimal disruption for consumers and businesses.

As of now, migration rates for credit transfers and direct debits are not high enough to ensure a smooth transition to SEPA despite the important work already carried out by all involved. Therefore, the Commission is proposing an additional transition period of 6 months for those payment services users who are yet to migrate. In practice this means the deadline for migration remains 1st February but payments that differ from a SEPA format could continue to be accepted until 1st August 2014. The transition period will not be extended after August.

Please contact us at sales@synergynet.ie  if you need to produce SEPA compliant files.