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The effects of SEPA have been very visible at infrastructure level, i.e. among the entities that offer interbank funds transfer systems. Most retail payment infrastructures that were processing credit transfers in euro have been processing SEPA credit transfers since their launch in January 2008. Several infrastructures have taken the step from being purely domestic operators to becoming pan-European service providers. The Eurosystem expects there to be further consolidation and for the number of infrastructures to diminish.
With SEPA, the management of the schemes will be separated from the processing infrastructure. This will enable infrastructure providers to offer their services to all payment service providers in SEPA. For instance, card processors will be able to serve different card schemes and acquirers throughout SEPA. This will increase business opportunities and competition for infrastructure providers.
SEPA will create a common set of technical standards for clearing and settling payments. This will enable interoperability and interlinking between different providers. As an example, the European Automated Clearing House Association, consisting of European automated clearing houses, has developed a technical interoperability framework for infrastructures.
