مقدمة عن المدفوعات الموحدة في جميع أنحاء أوروبا

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Introduction to unified payments across Europe
Almost 20 years have passed since the wish to become members of the European Union was at the very top of national priorities for many formerly independent European countries, which had until then had their own national currency.
 
The formation of the European Union was a natural progression from what had emerged during the 1970s as the European Economic Community (EEC), taking European countries from completely independent status, bound only by a common economic market, to a fully-fledged union of nations which would eventually have a centralized parliament and one issuer of a common currency - the European Central Bank.
 
Since the Euro, now recognized globally as one of the major sovereign currencies, was introduced in January 1999, it has become a de facto currency for global business and a common unit for many European citizens, and worrying about transferring from one unit to another with the associated costs just for going shopping a few kilometres away just because it happens to be across a national border, is a thing of the past.
 
Making Payments Easier and Quicker
As the European Union grew due to many nations rallying to join it during the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Euro currency became the most convenient and easy way to operate for many businesses and individuals across a union of nations, removing the borders and barriers to doing business, as well as reducing costs.
 
Electronic transfers, however, still took a number of days and were still considered international transfers, just as they are today.
 
In 2008, the European Central Bank introduced SEPA, which is an acronym for 'Single Euro Payments Area'.
 
Initially, it was only able to facilitate credit transfers, however, it was expanded to include direct debits in 2009 and fully implemented by 2014 in the euro area. In 2016 it was set in place in non-euro area SEPA countries.
 
The idea behind the introduction of SEPA was to make transferring money from one account to another via electronic payments much easier and quicker than the cross-border systems involving corresponding banks, which had been in place before and had been set up and developed over the years to accommodate different currencies issued by different central banks.
 
How does SEPA work?
Before the SEPA system was implemented, it would take between 3 and 7 days for a bank transfer that had been conducted between a person or business which sends money from one country and a recipient in another.
 
The idea of SEPA was to reduce the time and cost involved in making international bank transfers and direct debit payments within the European Union, including to and from some European Union member states which have not adopted the Euro currency.
 
As of January 2023, SEPA has 36 member states. Those are:
 
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Cyprus
Croatia
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Republic of Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovenia
Slovakia
Spain
Sweden
Norway
Liechtenstein
Iceland
Switzerland
Monaco
United Kingdom
This list contains six countries (Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland, Switzerland, Monaco and the United Kingdom) which are not European Union member states. Still, due to their geographical location within the European continent, the significance of their economies and trade relationships with European Union member states are included in the SEPA zone.
 
SEPA payments
Any person or business which holds a bank account in any of the nations in which SEPA operates can make a SEPA transfer via either online banking or via visiting a branch and conducting it over the counter.
 
Conducting a SEPA transfer via online banking is rather similar to conducting any form of international transfer. An account holder simply logs into their online banking account as they would for any other bank transfer, sets up the transfer, including the recipient's details and amount to transfer, and then add the recipient's IBAN (a series of letters and numbers unique to a bank account made up of a code including the bank account number), confirm the information and complete the transfer.
 
The main difference between conducting a SEPA transfer and a traditional cross-border money transfer via the established SWIFT messaging system is that when sending money via a SEPA transfer, the sender only needs to enter the recipient's IBAN number, whereas when sending via the traditional SWIFT system, the sender needs to enter the SWIFT code for the bank branch, as well as the recipient's IBAN number.
 
It really is that simple.
 
How long do SEPA payments take?
SEPA payments are very quick, as speeding up transfer times is their intended purpose.
 
Unlike traditional SWIFT transfers, which take up to 5 business days to complete, the processing time of a SEPA payment is 24 hours as long as the sender conducts the transfer before the 'cut-off' time set by the sender's bank, which is usually during the mid-afternoon.
 
If it is sent after the cut-off time, a SEPA payment takes between 36 and 48 hours, depending on bank cut-off times, business days, and holidays.
 
Effectively, the recipient will receive their funds in their bank account on the same day if the funds are sent via a SEPA payment in the morning, and often the next day (if the next day is a business day) if the funds are sent after the sender's bank cut-off time.
 
Within the SEPA system, there is also the possibility to conduct a 'SEPA Instant Transfer" for which a sender can pay a higher fee, and the recipient receives the money within 10 seconds as long as the recipient is within one
of the 36 SEPA countries.
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