The completion of the certification process comes ahead of the general test phase implementation. The European Banking Association (EBA) expects to carry out tests together with various banks to ensure that payment transfers within the Eurozone can successfully transfer to the Ssingle European Payments Area (Sepa) at the start of 2008.
Our early Sepa certification by the EBA is evidence of our leading position in payment transfers, said Stefan Jentzsch, CEO of Dresdner Kleinwort. We intend to make active use of various opportunities that present themselves over the next few years in order to further increase our market share in payment services.
Dresdner Kleinwort has been put in charge of the Sepa project on behalf of Dresdner Bank. Dresdner Kleinwort sees the harmonization of payment services as a great opportunity for its clients and is providing significant support for the Sepa process, for example by acting as a pilot bank for the EBA.
The Sepa standard will become mandatory within the Eurozone as of January 28, 2008, which means that, from 2012, the period within which transfers within the Sepa zone will have to be carried out will be reduced from three days to one day. However, after the EU Payments Services Directive has been implemented, the Sepa direct debit payment will not be available in all European countries before the end of 2009.