Equens, a pan-European full-service payment processor and VocaLink, a provider of payments services to banks, have signed a letter of intent to include SEPA Direct Debit (SDD) payment processing, in addition to the SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) service that is being currently offered.
Reportedly, the interoperability agreement helps to create a competitive payments market as banks will be able to choose which processor they want to use for SDDs, as well as SCTs. Equens has said that this agreement is based on Interoperability Framework version 4.1 of the European Automated Clearing House Association (EACHA) and provides details on all the interoperability provisions for SEPA Direct Debit (SDD) messages for both core and Business-to-Business (B2B).
Michel Stuijt, general manager marketing & sales at Equens, said: “This interoperability will enable customers of both Equens and VocaLink to fully benefit from SEPA by providing a fast and low-risk way of achieving reach within the Eurozone for SDD. Currently we already have bilateral links for SCT with DIAS (Greece), Iberpay (Spain), ICBPI/Banca d’Italia (Italy), OeNB (Austria) and VocaLink (UK) and we strive to further expand the number of SCT and SDD links in the near future.”
Martin Wilson, chief commercial officer at VocaLink, said: “The interoperability agreement will enable our customers to expand their payments network in Europe. Through this partnership, we are able to ensure compliance at a reduced cost whilst offering functionally rich services such as payments capture, validation, mandate management and exceptions management to make SEPA a real success.”