The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) became a reality yesterday, HSBC said, announcing the introduction of a number of propositions which will make life much easier for both personal and business customers. SEPA, it said, aims to make cross-border electronic payments in euro within the 27 countries of the European Union, the European Economic Area (Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland) and Switzerland – as quick, easy and efficient as domestic payments.

The implementation of SEPA will allow businesses and consumers to reap the benefits of a common currency and integrated payments system that have been established within the boundaries of the European Union. For the past year HSBC has been working hard to ensure its systems and tariffs are compliant with the requirements of the new payments area and which will result in cheaper and more efficient banking.

Besides cutting down on the sometimes lengthy transaction time of international payments, from the European norm of four days to next day value, SEPA also brings about dramatic reductions in costs on international incoming and outgoing payments. This is especially true if customers use HSBC’s electronic banking, the bank said.

A new transparent and competitive tariff of charges was launched yesterday, with a major highlight being that all Euro Inward payments to HSBC Malta with a value of e10,000 or under will be completely free of any charges from HSBC here. HSBC has also substantially reduced its Outward SEPA payment charges for those using electronic banking.

In order to make a SEPA payment, customers must provide the International Bank Account Number (IBAN) and the Bank Identifier Code (BIC) and within their payment instruction. Customers can get their numbers from their own bank.

A variety of reductions and incentives are also available for retailers and merchants using debit and credit cards on HSBC’s electronic point of sale (EPOS) terminals. Cards issued by other banks within the SEPA zone which are used on an HSBC EPOS terminal will attract a charge based on HSBC’s new standard, transparent tariff after taking into account any interchange fees payable to that other bank. The tariff starts at a lower level than the previous standard rate quoted in the media.

HSBC’s new tariff is based upon volumes so there is a real opportunity for retailers and merchants to further reduce their costs by accepting more cards across HSBC’s new, state-of-the- art EPOS machines rather than cheques or cash which have their own costs and considerations. All HSBC’s EPOS machines have been recently certified by Visa and MasterCard to accept CHIP and PIN cards.