Bank of Valletta announced that it has acquired the capability to act as a creditor bank for the processing of SEPA Direct Debit transactions.

Michael Galea, BOV’s chief officer operations, said: “This is a significant development that continues to shape a modern and efficient payments landscape in Malta. The importance of this new announcement lies in the fact that BOV is today not only reachable for SEPA Direct Debit transactions initiated throughout the SEPA area but is also capable of processing bulk SEPA Direct Debit payments, on behalf of its corporate customers, collecting payments from their clients in any one of the 32 European countries making up the SEPA area, irrespective of which bank they use.”

SEPA Direct Debits are an efficient and effective payments instrument that can help businesses by increasing their cash flow and efficiency while concurrently providing additional protection to consumers who choose to pay via direct debit. The significance of the SEPA Direct Debit instrument is that thanks to the advantages of the Single European Payment Area, it is now possible to process direct debits transactions on a cross border basis.

“SEPA has effectively extended direct debits across borders by standardising these transactions and the rules under which they are processed. The SEPA Direct Debit scheme also allows businesses to automate ‘exception handling’, such as returned, rejected or refunded collections. At Bank of Valletta, we are delighted to launch this new service, thus positioning ourselves as a financial institution that can provide bespoke support to corporate customers who would like to start using SEPA Direct Debits as their preferred payments instrument,” explained Mr Galea.

“A key advantage of SEPA Direct Debits is that businesses engaged in cross border transactions will no longer need to keep accounts in different countries, but will be able to have just one bank processing its SEPA Direct Debits mandates, thus improving cash flow while simplifying reconciliation and account management. We believe that this service will be of particular interest to companies in Malta that collect regular payments, companies with clients residing overseas and international companies that collect regular payments, including payments on a cross border basis, ” concluded Mr Galea.

All companies within SEPA will have to use the new standardised format for direct debits by 1 February 2014.

The SEPA Direct Debit service complements the comprehensive suite of business-oriented payment solutions offered by the bank. These services include SEPA Credit Transfers, Foreign Currency payments, eCommerce and mobile payments services.

Further information on SEPA Direct Debits can be obtained by calling Customer Service Centre on 2131 2020 .