OREANDA-NEWS. May 27, 2014. At a meeting of the Estonian Payment Environment Forum in Eesti Pank, the conclusion drawn by the central bank, the Estonian Banking Association, the Ministry of Finance and market participants was that the changeover to the Single Euro Payments Area, SEPA, had been successful. However, forum members will continue working to increase the speed of interbank payments.

On 1 February the banks changed smoothly over to the pan-European retail payment system STEP2, which was a technically complicated project for both banks and companies alike. The new retail payments system made international payments faster, but payments within Estonia slower. Data from the Consumer Protection Board do not show any complaints from the public arising from the changeover, but businesspeople say that it has affected business as money moves from one bank to another more slowly, meaning companies have had to change their payment habits.

“The speed of interbank settlement changed for Estonian bank clients after the banks changed over to the new pan-European retail system in February this year. This system certainly has the technical capacity to improve the speed of settlements and for this reason the working group of the Estonian Banking Association that is starting to look at this issue is important, if interbank payments in Estonia are to become faster”, said Deputy Governor of Eesti Pank Madis Muller. He added that Eesti Pank still offers the option of making payments in real-time through the TARGET2-Eesti express payment system.

The working group led by the Estonian Banking Association will start to set a joint Estonian position on the operation of interbank payments taking account of the wishes of consumers, and will present these positions to STEP2 as well. All the commercial banks operating in Estonia are in the working group, as is Eesti Pank as a future member of STEP2.

Estonia was one of the most successful countries in the euro area at managing the changeover to SEPA, as the interbank payment system was changed all in one go and without serious interruption, and payments were made without any major problems. Most people are now using the new account numbers and more than half of companies are using the new format for sending payments. The transition period for SEPA will run until 1 February 2015, and during this time banks will replace the old format numbers on payment orders by private clients with the international IBAN format, and will help companies to convert their payment files to the new format. After the transition period, it will only be possible to make payments that meet the SEPA requirements. More information about this can be found directly from the banks.