Instant payments, defined as solutions available 24/7/365 and resulting in the immediate or close to immediate interbank clearing of the transaction and crediting of the payee’s account, are the next frontier of development in the payments industry. The ERPB is concerned that the emergence of new solutions might end up creating a fragmented market in Europe for instant payments, similar to what existed in regular payments in the past.
Yves Mersch, member of the ECB’s Executive Board and chair of the ERPB, has claimed that instant payments solutions should deter the non-communicative, closed systems-based mentality and, instead, take advantage of the harmonisation and integration already achieved with the SEPA project.
The members of the ERPB agreed on the update of the work plan of the ERPB, including setting up two work streams on person-to-person mobile payments in EUR and card and mobile-based contactless proximity payments in EUR and their respective mandates. Ecommerce Europe will participate in both working groups as it did in the ones on SCT-SDD post migration issues and on pan-European electronic mandates for SDD of which Ecommerce Europe was the co-chair.
On the basis of a report prepared by the working group on pan-European electronic mandates, the ERPB members agreed on the main recommendations, which relate to the issuance, acceptance and maintenance of electronic mandates for SEPA direct debits at the pan-European level. The choice of which electronic mandate solution to use should be free and creditors should handle electronic mandates in such a way that debtors have the freedom to use non-domestic payment accounts.
More important, electronic mandate solutions providers are urged to be open to interoperability requests by other solution providers and, if feasible, make use of the technical description provided in Annex VII of the SEPA Direct Debit scheme rulebooks.
On the basis of a report of the working group on SCT-SDD post migration issues the ERPB members agreed on the main recommendations, such as to increase the awareness among payers and payees that payers have the freedom to use non-domestic payment accounts, irrespective of the location of the payee and increase the availability of up-to-date information on valid bank identifiers used in international bank account numbers (IBANs) and corresponding bank identifier codes (BICs).
This will facilitate the use of the IBAN as the unique identifier also for cross-border transaction. The ERPB also endorsed a set of more technical recommendations related to migration and the functioning of the SCT and SDD schemes and outlined ways forward on these.
The ERPB was created in 2013 to replace the SEPA Council. Its aim is to foster the development of an integrated, innovative and competitive market for retail payments in EUR in the European Union. The ERPB is composed of seven representatives from the demand side (e.g. consumers, retailers and corporations) and seven from the supply side (banks and payment and e-money institutions). They are joined by five representatives from the euro area national central banks and one representative from the non-euro area EU national central banks (all on a rotating basis). The European Commission participates as an observer.
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