The European Commission and the European Central Bank have launched the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), a plan to facilitate and harmonise European financial transfers.
SEPA covers the 27 EU member states plus Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Switzerland.
The system will enable people to make payments throughout the euro area as quickly, safely and easily as they make national payments, the commission says. Under SEPA, all euro payments are considered domestic.
Speaking in Dublin at the Irish launch, Central Bank Governor John Hurley said the system would do for credit transfers, direct debits and card payments what the euro had done for cash. The direct debit scheme will not be available until November 2009, however.
