The European Commission released numbers on SEPA migration for the end of 2013 and shows a large increase in Compliance .
The Single European Payments Area (SEPA) standard had an original deadline of February 1st 2014. However due to a lack of migration to the new standard from EU merchants, the deadline was pushed back to August 1st 2014, allowing more time for smaller firms to become compliant. Before making the decision, the European Commission most likely did not yet have the final figures on migrating merchants for the end of 2013.
The figures for December 2013 show an impressive 74% of credit transactions in the Euro Zone being SEPA compliant, an increase from 64% in November. Debit transactions also rose significantly with 41% debit charges being SEPA complaint as opposed to 26% in November.
According to a press release from The European Commission, “The December figures show that, if the current pace of migration continues, the vast majority of stakeholders will complete their migration by the 1st February 2014.”
To assist migration, companies like Volante Technologies have developed SEPA Accelerators to assist those not yet compliant with The European Commission’s new standard.