Single Euro Payments Area
- 00:07:20
- European Commission
Single Euro Payments Area
The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) is an initiative of the European banking industry that will make all electronic payments across the euro area – e.g. by credit card, debit card, bank transfer or direct debit – as easy as domestic payments within one country are now. The proposed Payment Services Directive is intended to provide the necessary legal framework for SEPA, as well as for better payments in all EU countries. On a practical level, SEPA means that it will be possible to make fast and secure transfers between bank accounts anywhere in the euro area, while doing shopping abroad, it will be possible to use a bank debit card to make a payment in euro, just like at home. To illustrate this, the European Commission's audiovisual service is preparing an infoclip which will contain the following footage: - German Erasmus student opening a bank account in Maastricht, The Netherlands; - Erasmus student in his home in Maastricht carrying out a bank transfer from his German bank account; - student withdrawing money from an automatic bank machine; - ACE Digital House financial director settling cross-border invoices and settling bills for credit cards which have been used in several European countries; - consumer using a credit card to purchase goods on-line and then carrying out a cross border bank transfer; - consumer using a Belgian debit card to purchase goods, Aachen, Germany.
European Commission | January 21, 2008
