SEPA: The Future is Integration Management

It’s not quite so fashionable to talk about SEPA these days. After all – aren’t we all wishing the rules and solutions were are all defined and implemented? But there’s still a fundamental challenge that banks (and corporate treasuries) face: integration among both legacy formats and legacy systems. Payments hubs are still often discussed as a solution, but the stark reality is that even after several years of industry discussion, few banks have implemented a payments hub to address SEPA.

Integration Frameworks
Don’t get me wrong, I still believe in the value of a hub. The centralization of processing to ‘break down the silos’ is still a major issue as banks strive for efficiency and cost savings. However, the effort involved to implement a hub strategy is considerable and can make these projects very daunting (especially if no application is replaced). One approach that is gaining more traction is the payments framework as a means of managing the flow of SEPA transactions between new and legacy components. This enables banks to start on a technology renewal path in a phased approach, with or without a hub. A big-bang replacement of payment processing is no longer required as flows can be migrated in phases by reconfiguring the integrated workflows as new systems and payment schemes become available.