How SEPA helps to modernize the payments world.

Though SEPA is an unique to European Union. It made a big change in entire payments landscape in the world.  I have been working in SEPA since 2010. Started working in SEPA CT Reachable. And then

• SEPA Direct Debit Reachable 
• SEPA Direct Debit Initiation 
• SEPA Credit Transfer Initiation

Now Its being implemented in SEPA in instant payments too.

When SEPA got started, it didn't include a vision for real-time payments and the potential for a third European payments scheme. Since its growing and I have been seeing that its making big impact in payment.  Just thought of writing on this SEPA evolution.

The intention for SEPA was slightly less ambitious: Convert fragmented payment markets into a single domestic scheme to improve cross-border payment efficiency. What SEPA planners did not foresee was that this effort would become the largest payment-integration project of modern times.

SEPA began in 2008 and became operational in all eurozones in 2014, but it did not eliminate local payment schemes. Nevertheless, it became the method for all cross-border payments and reduced the cost of moving money around the region, to an estimated 3% of the total GDP, according to the European Union.Article 5 Big bets in retail payments

It didn't take much longer for SEPA to enter into, and even bypass, the faster payments initiatives unfolding across the globe.

The SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme came about as a real-time money transfer system. SEPA regulators quickly touted it in 2017 as the largest faster payments system in the world.

SEPA Instant Credit Transfer is built around the ISO 20022 standard, a coding message for cross-border payments that allows the movement of data that includes relevant information about the purpose of a payment for banks to share.

SEPA was breaking ground for other faster payments initiatives and planners, especially the one unfolding through the Federal Reserve in the U.S.

"The instant payment scheme is adhered to by more than half of the EU banks, and real-time payments will become the norm," said Ron van Wezel, senior analyst for retail banking and payments at Aite Group.

"Payments is considered the 'lubricating oil' for EU's single market," he said. "And regulators — the European Commission and Parliament — have strongly focused on creating a payment law that opens competition, stimulates innovation and protects consumer interests."

SEPA has plenty of moving parts, as global and European stakeholders on the payments landscape keep tabs on how all of the directives intersect and affect one another.

"SEPA isn't just one thing, but a continuing set of actions to deliver the political vision that is SEPA," said Gareth Lodge, a London-based industry analyst with Celent.

In that regard, SEPA is somewhat joined at the hip with the initial Payment Service Directive and PSD2, which opened the payments innovation landscape to more third-party providers.

"The core ACH payments, SEPA Credit Transfer and Direct Debit Core have been operational for years and are, with few exceptions, the main payment types in all eurozone countries," Lodge said. "Pricing for cross-border payments have been brought in line with their equivalent domestic transactions."