General Information

Since the establishment of the European Economic Community in 1958, the movement towards a more integrated European financial market has been marked by several events, the most visible of which were undoubtedly the launch of the euro in 1999, and the cash changeover in the first euro area countries in 2002. Less visible, but also of great importance, was the establishment of the central banks' large-value payment system, known as TARGET, on 1 January 1999. TARGET provides the backbone of the financial system in euro, and is the implementation tool for the Eurosystem's single monetary policy.

The SEPA project represents the next major step towards closer European financial integration, and is a further step towards realising the full potential of the single market in Europe. In 2002, the banking industry took up this challenging project by creating the European Payments Council (EPC). The EPC is the decision making and coordination body of the European banking industry in relation to payments. The purpose of the EPC is to support and promote the creation of SEPA. The EPC defines common positions for core payment services within a competitive market place, provides strategic guidance for standardisation, formulates best practices and supports and monitors implementation of decisions taken. This is done in such a way that banks can maintain self-regulation and meet regulators' and stakeholders' expectations as efficiently as possible. The EPC involved not only the stakeholders in the euro area, but also those in other countries of the European Union (EU); Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. Communities outside the euro area will thus have the opportunity to participate in euro payment systems, and will be able to adopt SEPA standards and practices, thereby contributing to the establishment of a single market for payment services.

As a result of euro adoption, customers can pay with euro cash anywhere in the euro area. The time has come to proceed to the next step of allowing consumers to make cashless payments throughout the euro area from a single account under the same basic conditions, regardless of their location. SEPA, coupled with the Payment Services Directive, will remove technical, legal and commercial barriers and will make cashless payments in euro as easy, efficient and safe as they are today within one country. All retail payments in euro will thereby become domestic. SEPA, therefore, represents a single, harmonised, open and interoperable European domestic payments market achieved through industry self-regulation. The European Central Bank's brochure "The Single Euro Payments Area: An Integrated Retail Payments Market", presents an overview of the SEPA project.

SEPA went live on 28 January 2008, with the launch of the first SEPA payment product for credit transfers. This marked the first step in a market-led migration process from existing national electronic payment products to new SEPA instruments.


Iz-Zona Unika ta' Pagamenti f'Euro: Suq Integrat ghal Pagamenti ta' Valur Zghir

ECB SEPA website/Il-website tal-BCE dwar is-SEPA

Link to European's Commission site on SEPA

Link to CBM Press Release on the Launch of SEPA

Link to ECB Press Release on the Launch of SEPA

Link ghall-Stqarrija ghall-Istampa tal-BCE dwar l-introduzzjoni tas-SEPA

Speech by Ms Gertrude Tumpell-Gugarell on the Launch of SEPA


The Maltese SEPA National Implementation Plan

With the adoption of the Euro as from 1 January 2008, the Maltese banking community acknowledges the importance to migrate to SEPA. The SEPA National Implementation Plan presents an overview of the Maltese National Community Organisational Structure and its commitment towards SEPA. The Malta Bankers' Association (MBA), which represents the local banking community is responsible for coordinating, monitoring the progress of, and the migration of SEPA at the national level.

The SEPA programme is all about harmonising millions of consumer 'retail' payments. This major harmonisation programme is supported by Europe's banks and will deliver new benefits to consumers and businesses who make euro payments. As a result, there will be a number of changes to frequently used payment instruments in order to provide SEPA-wide standardised instruments.

As from 28 January 2008, the Maltese banking community can process incoming SEPA Credit Transfers and is committed to offer payment services users access to SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) to be used within the SEPA area. Following the transposition of the Payments Services Directive into national law as from November 2009 in the euro-area, SEPA Direct Debits (SDD) will be supported and will open up the possibility of using a direct debit instrument in the SEPA area and Malta. It is essential that the SDD Scheme is underpinned with an effective level of legal harmonisation in force in all countries where it is implemented. The Central Bank of Malta is currently working on a Consultative Paper on the National Implementation of the Payment Services Directive.

National SEPA Credit Transfers (CT) Indicator

The national SEPA CT indicator has been calculated on the number of euro credit transfer transactions that have the potential to become SEPA CTs:

National Conference to launch SEPA in Malta, held on Friday, 26th October 2007:
Making the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) a Reality in Malta.

A National Conference was launched on the SEPA project in Malta. This was organised by the Central Bank of Malta, the Malta Bankers' Association, and the Financial Services Economic Group of the Malta Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise. The conference was attended by the business community, operators in the financial services industry, accountants, the public sector and the payments industry.

Conference Programme (566kb)

SEPA Payment Schemes: Approach to Implementation and Scheme Management - Mr Stewart MacKinnon (235kb)

The Directive of the European Parliament and Council in the Internal Market - Mr Norbert Bielefeld (819kb)

The SEPA Implementation for Malta - Mr Jesmond Gatt (322kb)

Card Offering within SEPA - Mr John Pollacco (818kb)

Credit Transfers Offering within SEPA - Mr James Dunbar Cousin (808kb)

The Business Community perspective - Mr Mario Spiteri (23kb)

Making the Single Euro Payments Area a reality in Malta - Mr David Pullicino (15kb)