A conference of stakeholders in the single European payments area project - known as Sepa - has taken place in Frankfurt, with the technology community demanding more transparency about how the project will work.
Finextra reports that the IT community still feels it has not had the opportunity to gain advanced insight into how Sepa will work, meaning that IT providers are struggling to build systems to match the banks’ aspirations ahead of the January 1, 2008, deadline for the implementation of Sepa’s first phase.
In particular, the report claims that conference delegates from the likes of Accenture, SAP and IBM are unhappy that key documents outlining plans for the Sepa architecture have not been made available to them.
I believe that information should be available far earlier than it is now, as the vendors can contribute so much, Finextra quotes Rein Geerdes, director of business development at Unisys, as saying.
Meanwhile, Finextra’s reports from the conference also showcase the views of JP Morgan Chase, which is pressing for a more integrated cross-industry body to be created to push Sepa forward, based on the existing European Payments Council.
JP Morgan Chase has also conducted research suggesting that in the future, consumers will demand an entirely online payment environment, and the firm believes that many younger consumers do not understand why payments systems need to be as complex as they are at present, the report adds.