SCT/SDD End-Date: Promotion in France

• The French National SEPA Committee launches a series of public meetings on the 1er February 2014 deadline in each of the country’s 22 regions. Some will be co-hosted with the local antenna of the Association of French Corporate Treasurers (AFTE). They aim at updating SMEs on the mandated migration to SCT and SDD, as detailed by EU “End-date” Regulation of last 14 March.

• Inquiries have indeed shown that SEPA awareness and therefore adoption is lower when the company is smaller. SEPA conversion is not slowed down by technical hurdles.

• In the same press release, the National Committee has expressed its wish to delay SEPA compliance of French-specific products until the 1st February 2016 optional deadline. This would cater for direct debit-derived TIP (one-off, paper-based) and télérèglement (recurring, file transfer-based).

Source: FBF press release

• A 2011 created CFONB working group is known to draft the SEPA compliance of TIP and télérèglement (the latter being mostly used by the French tax authorities). It should be based on SDD. The Banque de France has power to delay compliance until 2016.

• In parallel, at the European level, the EPC has submitted Rulebooks’ adaptations required by the end-date Regulation (optional BIC, mainly). The yearly consultation on Rulebooks’ evolution is indeed under way until 13 August. When analysed and validated by EPC’s Plenary next September, they will form the N+1 version of the 3 Rulebooks. In an unprecedented way, they will come into force on 1st February 2014, to coincide with the implementation of the SEPA end-date Regulation (instead of the usual November release).It must be reminded that next November 2012 the previous modifications, adopted last September 2011, will enter into force.

• The National SEPA Committee co-ordinates the implementation of SEPA instruments in France. It puts together representatives of companies, financial institutions, administrations, merchants and consumers, as well as members of the Parliament and local officials, and journalists. In the end of April, the French conversion rate to SCT, as measured by the ECB, was 26%, just a little below the euro-zone average (27.3%).