We all want to pay as little as possible when making payments to other countries – we want to keep everything at ‘fair value’ to ensure that we, and indeed our clients, don’t suffer to the detriment of excessive charging. So, with the introduction of the Single Euro Payment Area this all began to look possible – transact globally, pay locally.

SEPA represents the European Union payments integration initiative, a vision which was set out by EU governments back in March 2000. SEPA aims to make Europe a more dynamic and competitive place to do business by focusing on the standardisation of Euro payments. Currently consisting of the 27 EU Member States plus Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Monaco, SEPA gives bank customers the ability to make low cost electronic Euro payments between these countries as if they were made and paid locally.

“The purpose of migrating from a multitude of national euro payment schemes to a single set of harmonised SEPA schemes can be compared to implementing standardised ‘railroad tracks’ for the exchange of payments across the European Union.”?

Gerard Hartsink, Chairman of the EPC, February 2012

In 2010 the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey approached the European Payments Council to become members of SEPA, thus giving residents the ability to access its payment mechanisms and achieve the same lower cost payments as the islands’ European neighbours, in place of the costly Telegraphic Transfer or International Priority Payment alternatives.

However, despite the efforts of regulators and other affected parties in the Isle of Man and the other Crown Dependencies the European Payments Council and European Commission have yet to agree which body will be responsible for entry criteria, or indeed to even confirm what the entry criteria will be for ‘Third Countries’ looking to become members of the Single Euro Payment Area. Until such decisions have been made, it is unclear exactly how long it will be before the Isle of Man, and our neighbours in the other Crown Dependencies, will even be able to make an application for membership.

Due to the lack of membership of SEPA the majority of Isle of Man based banking institutions are unable to provide the lower cost payments that our European counterparts enjoy. Although they are not able to offer SEPA this does not mean that there is no way for businesses, and indeed individuals, on the Island to achieve cheaper Euro payments. Being outside of Europe is often seen as a contentious subject, but as a truly independent, international organisation, Capital Treasury Services is able to provide flexible, cost effective online solutions to streamline payment processes for our clients around the world. With our payment solution not only can we facilitate standard payment and receivable transactions via BACS, CHAPS, Faster Payments and SWIFT, but we also give our clients access to SEPA payments, via our clearing accounts within the Single Euro Payments Area.

Bridge, our online payment system, allows us to provide low cost domestic transactions across the 32 member countries of the Single Euro Payment Area as well as in some other foreign jurisdictions. By building on the success of our Capital Liquidity Account and Foreign Exchange services Bridge provides clients the ability to immediately and directly manage their cash online, making payments and tracking receivables on one easy to use Internet based interface.

Our flexibility and ability to innovate has meant that we can embrace SEPA now, without having to wait for Isle of Man SEPA membership. We realise that it won’t be long before all electronic payments throughout Europe, and the world, will be as easy and cost-effective as domestic payments are today, but why wait when there are low cost international payment mechanisms which you can benefit from today.